The MT Batch ’09 - A Back Bencher’s Perspective

Despite the NOT SO GOOD perception about the back benchers in teaching community, one important advantage, in addition to the obvious ones ;), is that they get the bird eye view of the ecosystem called class. Being an experienced chap of same back bench, I take the opportunity to present the MT Batch of 2009…but ZARA HATKE…

Before we begin, a disclaimer: Though names have not been taken but any resemblance to characteristics & symptoms are purely deliberate.
Classifying the batch in 4 breeds/species, let’s get into the thick of matter:

· Breed called Pre Probed Officially (PPO)
· Breed called Doubtful Young Blood (DYB)
· Breed called Name Plates Available (NPA)
· Breed called The Unpredictibles

First kind of species, PPO, arguably the most informed customers (FYI…not consumers) of the organization hanging helplessly in the PPT sessions, struggling to give attention in the already known KYC. This kind of species can be identified easily playing somewhere a game called WHAT THEY DID LAST SUMMER…one such bugger lives in my flat with an “8x10 tasveer”

Second one, for all official purposes let us call them DYBs (Doubtful Young Bloods), have never been doubted about being young. Not for the surprise of many, they derive their name because from their brain, through the belly…till the very bottom, they are full of doubts. Dare you touch them & they will jump of their seats with impressively baked, obvious question woven in an ultimate complex MBA jargon dipped in Cherry Blossomed accent, consummately added toppings of serious inquisitive gestures.
Predominantly suffocated by the marketers, they surpass all visible, invisible entry barriers to undifferentiatedly* targeting the Still Confused silver jubilee MTs who started their career few decades back in the organization, surviving the cross functional syndrome unbelievably finds themselves glued to the Most Trusted Brand. Anyways, it’s not the subject under discussion here…
The above specie, DYB, forms the most dangerous of the lot as they many a times end up as a Disruptive Innovation especially for those in the Self Introspective Solo Calm Zone (read as “sleep”) who supposedly have burned their midnight oil in movies or LDLD (Long distance long duration) calls.

Third one, I think it’s them for whom we all have been honored with name plates. They follow the beautiful positioning of…BAS, NAAM HI KAAFI HAI. When you SELECT ALL, they pop up like FEW HIDDEN FILES. Their presence is majorly felt in the morning when people shuffle their positions in the quest to reach the best possible geopolitical location or to have a DESIRED neighbor. OR when tired of same bunch of monkeys, presenter try to read names on this UNTAPPED MARKET…
Our NPAs are very interesting & the one defying the famous financial abbreviation known to the world. Silent as they look, carries killing smile used as weapon to avoid any evidence proving that they aren’t in NOW ;) Probe them, talk to them…PAKAOFY them (as I do) to realize that they are the latent assets, well above the materialistic discussions of DYBs.

Forth one, The Unpredictibles*…The Uncategorized…in short…The Left Overs. At times, they create iconic ROTFL interventions, at other time their existence are proven by the lost name plates. Oscillating between extremes, they act as the fluids to this ecosystem, taking any form as required.

The only difference in bird eye view & back bencher’s perspective is that where a bird eye view is from a distance, my bench…though at back, is in same frame ;)

*grammer & spelling mistakes are attempt to make the post little short of perfection ;)

Oceans’10…another way of life !!

Before the movie, lets see the casting:
Jaspreet: The BHABHI searcher !!
Ankit: The nocturnal researcher !!
Abhishek: Asli Punjabi & the jumping jack !!
Akshay: Aate samay bhot saare kele lete ana !!
Kartik: Mere liye 2 McVeggie with EXTRA cheese & coke lana !!
Karan: Main chala Mumbai, nxt 4 days class nahi hai !!
Anshuman: The Chatter-box & blogger !!
Arunesh: Maa da ladla, bahen da ladla !!
Anuroop: The lughing Buddha !!
Shashank: hi hi hi…naruto naruto, sayona sayona, aori aori !!

Oceans’10 is what we call it, name given not only to the group of 10 freaks but to the FEELING we are experiencing, the AIR we are breathing, the SUPPORT we are enjoying… a LIFE in its truest sense, lived for a year & a half.

Messed up in dire need of accommodation at the very first day of our SIBM journey, we 10 were forced to live in one flat, unaware of the fact that we will become so fond of each other probably for the rest of the same journey. I don’t know if its unfortunate or fortunate but it’s the most diversified group of the batch. Look at the composition (Market Research people please pay attention):
3 Mktg, 2 HR, 3 Fin, 2 Ops
6 Veg & 4 Non Veg
2 Debtors, 2 Creditors & 6 Self Sufficient
3 Committed, 3 Strugglers & 4 HOPELESS
10 Speakers, no LISTENER

But irrespective of our disparity, 1 thing where we unanimously zero down is - FOOD ….99% of our parties with 99.9% of confidence level have either ended up in Domino’s or Pizza Hut or Cumsum. Despite having photographs virtually at each move, you can’t find a pic where we are EATING…its either before STARTER or after DESSERT…& one more thing boss, never judge our eating capacities through our physique. Even, Ankit alone is capable to give you FINANCIAL SWEAT when he comes to it…

PJs are something that flow through Oceans’ veins. In this domain probably bar is raised so high that a NORMAL PERSON will take ABNORMALLY long time to follow up with our super quick reflexes. Being together day in day out for so long time that now we know how the other will react, what he will say or think on anything…thus most of our advanced PJ have gone beyond the level of utterance…saala, bolna bhi nahi padta ab to, bas hasna shuru :)

When SIMC happened at Lavale, few of Oceans’10 started thinking about other members & started a selfless drive to provide “BHABHI KA ASHIRWAD” for welfare of group, definitely a CSR activity…JP took the lead, daily he would bless us with 2-3 new faces as our BHABHIs, then nxt day divorce & 2-3 new faces…most of times he would tend to lose the track of them & will select them again. Saala, most pitiful condition is of our so called BHABHI, bechari ko pata bhi nahi ki idhar uska kya kya ho gaya :) Sometimes conflict of interest among other members primarily with AB became prime agenda for many of our dinner discussions.

Anyways, this is something like buckets of water from Ocean, few things are not complete unless experienced. Thousands of incidents, millions of PJs, billions of giggles & zillions of laughter…all beyond my capability of expression are left untold.

I learnt it THE HARD WAY !!

Tongue, the boneless part of body, very flexible, is capable of slipping anytime (oh ho!! Abe apne gande sapno ke ghode roko)…every word coming out has value.

In my endeavor to get the breathing entertainment in my exceptionally free final semester of MBA, I stooped down to old hindi movies (which I missed coz I wanted to). Zinda…recommended by kartik.

The movie was about havoc a NOT NECESSARY extra sentence can bring in life, then the revenge from the other side carried over the years, creating catastrophe in the lives of both parties.

Though the movie was exaggerated left, right & center but the crux is true for lives of each one of us. Remember, DIL CHAHTA HAI as one more example. Few days back, similar NOT NECEASSARY extra sentences has brought my group on the verge of irreversible damage, hopefully it was saved somehow. Again, recently I rambled something I shouldn’t have, hurting someone not only at that point of time but damaging all the friendly memories in retrospection (I hope that SOMEONE is generous enough not to think that much).

Question is not the enormity of the damage done, question is WHY? In our clique (word introduced to me by kartik again, which I probably I use more than him), we often talk mindlessly, most of the times to make fun & more than those most of times…not thinking about the very meaning of it. We never mean them literally, or probably we just want to say something when everyone is (“its my chance” types), to get noticed or to gain the clique’s (m sorry kartik if its used absurdly) acceptance.

The beauty lies in the ignorance of the response of human mind, As BEAUTY LIES IN THE EYES OF BEHOLDER, SENSE OF THE STATEMENT LIES IN THE MIND OF LISTENER… people aware of the etymology & semantics tend to use it to think out of the box (which mostly complicates life)…

Despite being the student of marketing in 4^th best B-School of the country (ok, now stop laughing…) where COMMUNICATION, the 2^nd most used word after CUSTOMER***…I firmly believe that friends are the only people in front of whom you can speak before thinking, At least I do…& so paid for it !!

 

LEARNING: Use your tongue in controlled manner, but don’t worry…there will be TIME when u don’t need to  ;) 

***conclusion based on my memories of great speeches of our proffs in the classes I ATTENDED, so don’t use it in your research papers ;)

 

Socha na tha !!

Jaane kya hua, maano kaynat badli

Uski hansi main basi wo shararat badli

Ankhon ka nasha jo madhosh karde

Wo nasha na rahega, ye socha na tha!!

 

Ye hawa badli, ye bahar badli

Barish ki boondo ki rafter badli

Khush the hum in lamho main jeeke

Par tum badal jaoge ye socha na tha!!

 

Bade log thak gaye ye kahte kahte

Samay hai badalta, insaan bhi hain badalte

Par dil na maana, kaha main sab rok dunga

Us honi ko rok na payenge, ye socha na tha!!

 

Hona kya hai, samjhayenge is dil ko

Kahenge nahi rahta sab ek jaisa

Palak bhi na jhapka paye, dil ko samjha bhi na paye

Sab itni jaldi hoga, khuda janta hai, ye socha na tha!!

 

It never remains same !!

Life doesn’t always remain equally green

It’s never an extension of what you have seen

Along the way, few unexpected twists & turns

Add extra smiles, giggles, cuts & burns!!

 

Daily news predicts the climatic change

Political whirlpool & cultural exchange

Change is the biggest constant I heard

Unfortunately couldn’t realize it, till the end!!

 

I wanted to live the way it was going

Expecting so much without even knowing

That things won’t always go the way I frame

Can’t say what but surely something has changed!!

 

Though I am an ardent advocate of change

But every change has an acceptable range

Beyond which it’s out of control

Piercing deep beneath heart & soul!!

My take-away from life at 23 !!

In the past few years, As I experienced different aspects of my small life, met different people, lived in unexpectedly, many a times unacceptable environments, numerous incidents which unconsciously influenced my social & attitudinal DNA helped me realize my take away/learning from life. In short, let's see...

• Rule One…No rules
  

If u want something u never had, u need to do what u have never done. For this, u need to get away with the rules based on past life or happenings which are not going to be repeated since u want something that never was. I am not against basic social or academic framework which gives nutrition to free thoughts but I am against the unwanted religious, political & especially moral regulation of life. Don’t allow your life to be propelled by other’s examples, set your own.

• Love yourself
  

Against the general perception, loving yourself doesn’t means being selfish & if it then let it be. It means respecting your decisions, experiencing your presence in every breath & enjoying being yourself. Believe me, nothing wrong in it.

• It’s not always grey, sometimes it’s black & white    
  

Sometimes u can’t content yourself with something out of full, in those sometimes it’s one or none, yes or no. Everywhere u won’t find “the middle way” or “most optimized solution” as they say in management.

• Listen to all but ultimately zero on what your heart say
  

It’s really important to listen to others on anything coz an individual by inheritance is unable to look at every aspect & hence such listening will allow you to weigh different options available. But while making a decision don’t allow any foreign thought to influence coz in the end its you who has to face whatever comes as consequence & u should be at least satisfied that you chose the result

• Whatever you dream, chase it to your last breath
  

There can be nothing worse than realizing that u were just short of your aim & if u had done “A Bit” extra, u could be the winner. Live your dream & never let your conscious realize that it’s beyond your reach. Again, let me clear myself, I am not saying that by doing this you would be successful every time but you would be satisfied with your efforts for sure

• You can’t satisfy all, set your priorities
  

Unfortunate truth of life, if your decision is a consequence of your efforts to satisfy all…my apologies, actually no one is satisfied completely. Everyone will crib about that iota more that could be done in their view & this is your ultimate defeat. Prioritize your target beneficiaries. Whenever this term is flash in your mind, u think of your parents whose real happiness is in your happiness…so think again

• Execution is more important
  

You dream on your soft matrices in the warmth of your blanket but to bring it to reality, u need to burn the mid night oil. The bigger u dream, the more oil u need

 

To fir aur kya hai !!

Wo bike ki kanch se chhup chhup ke dekhna
Wo ankhen milte hi halka sa muskurana
Wo chashme ke bheeter se ankhon ko padna
Ye chahat nahi hai to fir aur kya hai?

Wo teekhi nigahen, kuch janne ki kashish
Itne dino se na mil pane ki khalish
Kuch samay main sab dekhne ki gujarish
Shikayat nahi hai to fir aur kya hai?

Wo bhari sa basta, wo nanhi si ladki
Sahara pati meri ummeed ki khidki
Wo aage aage chalke, sath main bulana
Adayen nahi hai to fir aur kya hai?

Wo bheegi si julfe, wo bheeni si barish
Wo kampte hoth, wo alsati ankhen
Hothon ko seeke, ankhon se bolna
Sazish nahi hai to fir aur kya hai?