This is one question that I have asked myself a million times after coming here. I have never been the quintessential blogger, never having shared my feelings in this unique medium. If I felt hurt or happy, I always was open about it with friends or foes. So it does feel wierd to unwind on this kind of medium. Maybe it feels better doing so, only time will tell.
As the title may already suggest, I hope to share my life in XL thus far. When you come to XLRI from a 'non-IIT-BITS-NIT' brand, you tend to come with big hopes and bigger dreams. After it was a dream for me to get a call from XL. It is my dream now to pass out of it in 1.5 years...but about all of it in a while. Coming back, when i received a call from XLRI, I was ecstatic and more so, as my frnds huddled around me and the next month or two was spent in spending all I earned in treats and getting all high, receiving praises from friends and family. To tell the truth, I went overboard sometimes and thought I was above all else. Blame it on my ego or something else, but I was feeling great and that I could take on anything. Gimme your best and I can smoke it away!!!!
And then, XLRI started........
My first week was very wierd. I came from a college where everyone knew me and it was a bit wierd being in a campus life where I knew no one and noone knew me. And the worst part, everyone spoke hindi (something I was warned about), and I sucked at it (coming from bangalore, that was sad!!). However I did manage to make a few friends and manage to sail through into the first week. But I am going too fast, let me talk something about XL. When I first stepped into XL, it was awesome; had come here for my interviews and it was an indeed great experience and fruitful one (it did get me into XL,didnt it :) :) ). I just loved the campus and its people. Everyone was friendly and though some did get overtly 'funny', it always ended on a funnier side.
I still remember the first time I stepped into my class. I still had my thoughts on owning the world and that I could take on anyone. This arrogance did had its positives, whatever tension i had was washed away and with was replaced new rigour and never-say-die attitude. I started attending the sessions and realised that it wasnt too different from my college life. Except here, the most wanted person in the campus wasnt the assistant of the exam head but a (godly) person called 'Bishuda' (who sat thru the night to help us cope up with the 'stress',as we call it in OB). The subjects were maybe different, but nothing else changed. I always naively thought MBA would be different. We would take up cases and analyse it,letting the brain juices flow out with new ideas and thoughts, propose solutions and implement them on a virtual world. What confronted me was something drastically different. It was just like the environment of an engineering college, compressed from 4 years to 4 months. Not that I dont like this system, I strongly believe that XL is one of the best colleges. Especially seeing the students here. Noone is relatively weaker in anything. If someone can beat the crap out in Maths, the other can do so in Marketing. You could close your eyes and choose your partners and you would get the 'good' ones. however the fraxers (Free Riders Association of XLRI - people who dont do any work and rest on other's laurels) were many.
In XL, I could see the competiton and see it play different games. People were so competitive that sometimes, I used to wake up and think, have I missed something? Besides the 'stress' and the schedule got me and it was quite some time before I could really get used to the system. sometimes I really get thinking if all this is worth it. We all desire to be somewhere high and somewhere where we are recognised. But does this desire for recognition make us lose our identity. I know I am still going to get back the same mundane tasks, back to the same old 'competiton'; but somewhere deep within,I always get a feeling I am losing the real 'me'.
Anyway, continuing, the profs here are so good that I was awestruck just by how much they knew. If the profs were bad, we used to regret the moment we lost them, though we wanted to lose them all the while. My class was awesome, mixture of fun and studies; proportionate mix of girls and boys; and the right blend of work ex and freshness. We hit it off so well that we were the first few set to go out on a bonding lunch. Some did bond very very close; but the best part was some of us who hit it off really well. By the time we were into the middle of Term I, we pretty much knew how each one was (of course, aided by the fantastic adventure trip and village tour).
Through all this, the classes continued and life slowly became non existent. The mails to friend became shorter and less frequent, calls to homes turned to weekly from daily, trips to the football grounds were cut short to once/twice a month from once every day. And I, who thought I could go on to achieve everything saw the reality!!! the problem is , we all have been toppers in our college and what do you get when you put a bunch of toppers together? some guy/girl losing out and feeling a new sense of feeling, that is kinda similar to knocking you cold and knocking you off again. Well get back on my feet, I did, and slowly learned the tricks of the trade.
Again sometime I get the feeling, what am i learning from this system; are we allowed to be flexible, do they really give us the chance to 'think-out -of-the-box' and then I come back to my sense and go about 'trying to beat the system'.
Through all this I, of course, had my share of friends and people who didnt like me. for all my friends though(they'll know it), I would really like to thank them; for all others, either change your opinion or you will be forced to :) :) :) .....
Life is a long time, you have no place to hate or fear; you only have time to have fun and cheer.
Well, this has been a long post but kinda fun....ending my first blog after XL,would surely be back.
Oh by the way, thanks for readin this people.
