WHY THE HELL AM DOING AN MBA ? PART 6
The true story of a poet who never gave up … and perhaps that was his problem …..
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S
I can only thank the readers for their past interest in my articles and this series which is going to end now. I am overwhelmed by the kind words that they had to say to me about my tragic story . To tell you the truth I never intended it to be a such a series . Infact I had wanted to be a two part series . But then after giving it much thought , I started enjoying it myself and hence the extended version. I wont thank Priyanka , Prantika , and Tuhina because that would only devalue the efforts they have put in for my blog . The journey ends here but it may start someday again . till then happy reading.
PART 6
Dear Readers , I am the events co-ordinator of my batch and the following narrative pertains to our first B-School event , INSIGHT ’09. It is a corporate discussion where the panelists discuss over some of the present issues concerning the business world . The panelists include corporate bigwigs and media personalities.
Date – 16th September 2009.
Time – 11.30 am
Venue - IISWBM Auditorium.
The Finance panel was on stage. Only we knew the mountains of trouble we had to find to get these corporates on stage .But somehow something felt wrong . I could not understand but I felt my concentration breaking all the time . It was then that my cell blurted to life for a second . It was a message from Ruchi Jain ( second year events team) . It ran, “ its looking really bad . Don’t let the events team to keep come in and go out . The door is making a very prominent sound .”
And then I realized what was the problem . Even after the discussion had started , students kept entering and the door creaked . That was disturbing the panelists as well . I understood . It was time for me to go . The events co-ordinator is never destined to see an event . As I was closing the auditorium door behind me I saw a senior coming towards the door . “ Sorry , you cannot go ,” I said . I hated myself for doing that but that’s what I did . Now I stood infront of the auditorium door. PRANAY TIWARI… events coordinator…. PRANAY TIWARI … now the peon .
We needed two cars to pick up the panel members for the Systems panel discussion that was to start from 2.30 pm. I went to ask the AEO ( AEO is responsible for the logistic arrangements in our Bschool. )if the cars had come . In response he only shouted , “Is this some joke ? Are you an idiot ? The cars have been there since 9.00 . What sort of arrangements are you doing ?”
It was the time . The time . Some other day I wouldn’t have cared whether this man played golf with the President of India . I don’t take shit form anybody . But I needed this man for the two days . So I kept quiet , just saying a feeble , “ Thank you Sir “.
After the finance discussion ended ,the rush started for the Systems discussion arrangements , change of name tags , notepads , water …everything .
The Systems panel gathered on the first floor for some refreshments before entering the Auditorium . I remember I found myself carrying tea for one of the panel members . A thought came to me , a funny thought . All my professors at RADIO PHYSICS AND ELECTRONICS believed I had a great future in research . Infact I remember how PKB ( he taught me solid state physics ), one of the best professors in India laughed when I told him I would do an MBA . I wondered what would he say if he saw me carrying tea . ……
The systems discussion shouted at 2.45 pm …. We were 15 minutes behind schedule .
After the first day ended my team gathered in room number 303 to plan the course of action for the next day . We were doomed in the marketing discussion . As of now only one person had given his confirmation . Hironmoy Sen of Dabur , was not responding to our calls and I feared the worst . We were talking with a few more corporate from Airtel and Exide and we hoped that they would respond ( although it was at such a short notice ). I prayed for some miracle as I slept .
DAY 2….
The HR discussion turned out to be huge success . From the applause that I could hear coming from the auditorium I knew that this was the best discussion we have had . The problem started an hour before the HR discussion was to end . We needed two cars to pick up the marketing panelists . Our Institute has two cars , an Indigo and a Scorpio , but unfortunately the Scorpio driver had not turned up . I rushed to the AEO and asked him to book two cars ( One car as a contingency ) . He could only get one , and that too , a white Maruti Omni . I and Nooruzaman ( of the first year events team) were incharge of pick and drop. Noor was busy instructing the students the route they would be taking to pick up the panel members . I was busy making the OMNI look a little more respectable than it did . More trouble was in store however , another of the marketing panelists wanted a pick up . And we needed a car to drop the Hr panelists . Two more cars needed , and no clue where to get them from .Fortunately , one of our friends , Aatreyi had her car with a driver , near the Institute . I asked her if she could help us out . She talked with her driver and he agreed . I will never forget that gesture of hers ….ever . We however needed another car . A taxi was the only option .
As Noor and me were walking toward CR avenue to find a taxi , both of us were disappointed . A taxi just does not look right , for a corporate .
Suddenly Noor said , “Pranay sun , ….Koner Sir se baat karte hain . Woh koi solution denge ? “
Koner Sir is our HR professor , and was the moderator of our HR discussion . I said , “Sahi bola bhai , lekin sun , kisi ko bataaya nahi jaaega . Pehle Sir se baat karte hain.”
He nodded . What happened next will be etched in my memory for a long time . From CR Avenue to our college , both Noor and me ran like crazy . Both were smiling like kids as if we didn’t care about this world. As we were rushing for the first floor , we ignored whatever anybody was saying . I knocked at the doors of Room 116 . It was where Proff. Koner was having lunch with the panel members.
I told him we needed another car .
“Can any of you drive ? And do you have driving license ? You could take my car then .”
I shook my head , “No”.
“O.k let me see .” he said and went inside . Five minutes later , he came back to us .
“Boys don’t worry , the problem has been solved . One of the panel members has a sedan , he will drop the other one.”
Phew! Both Noor and me smiled at each other . One day of INSIGHT had made a manager out of us. Now we wanted more problems . Bring it on , we told .
This is what TUHINA AGARWAL of the second year events team has to say about INSIGHT.
“The work on INSIGHT 09 started on with the fresh batch of events team. The making of the potential list, the sponsors, the insight logo…… loads of work and very little time. I guess no matter how much time you have, it always seems less, specially for the 1st event you are organizing. It was a testing ground for the 1st yr team. The run-up to the event was in the same lines as every year. We had the team slogging their asses off. However, this team was different than all the teams till date, they made sure that the senior team also slogged with them (right Pranay?? :P). The follow-up to insight was mingled with freshers and teacher’s day (Pranay has already taken us through that). However, organizing Insight this year was really difficult (something really not helped by the huge egos people were carrying around). However, thankfully, the day of the event loomed into sight. And Insight saw 3 people running through the whole college getting the work done, Pranay (who seemed to have lost half his weight) and Dipro (who was in varying degrees of tension) and yes , Noor ( who had his fastings and was still working with Pranay like a man possessed). A lot of confusion, general chaos and total indiscipline was the order of the event. Minor problems cropped up at every stage. But, at the end of the day, the event turned out to be a success. So, three cheers to the 1st yr events team. J”
After the marketing discussion ended , I felt relieved . INSIGHT’09 finally over and PRANAY TIWARI …. alive ,not kicking mind you …. but alive nevertheless . I remember two things very clearly that day . Everybody made it a point to hug me ( atleast the boys did ,the girls were content shaking hands),congratulating me for INSIGHT . The second thing was , I felt pain, physical pain . My right leg was paining like crazy ( the pain still persists by the way) . For the last two weeks I had not had the time to think about the pain . But today I was finding it unbearable . I told Noor I was going to buy a marketing book . From tomorrow our Puja vacations were to start and I wanted to study something..anything. Noor gave me money and asked me to buy the book for him too .
Priyanka and Prantika would be returning to their homes in Patna and Jamshedpur respectively . I accompanied them to the auto stand , waved them good bye . As I was returning back to the college to return Noor his book , I felt lonely , really lonely . I don’t know why , but I felt like I had no more friends left . I wanted to rush back home . Mother had loads of work from school ( Ma is a teacher ). I usually help her with the school chores but since the last week I just could not get the time . I wanted to go home , quickly . She had been really worried about my failing health and my fever . Ma had never wanted me to be the events co-ordinator , knowing very well how worried I get about my work . I had been taking antibiotics without her knowledge . I wanted to tell her everything .
I returned to Room 116 where the junior and senior events team was present . Gung ho . Dipro , events incharge of INSIGHT came to me and said , “Pranay , we are going for a post INSIGHT party . Please stay back .” I hate parties , I wanted to tell him . I hate most of the people sitting here , I wanted to tell him . I made an excuse and left . On my way back , I saw both Tuhina and Ruchi ( second year events team) beaming . They were really happy for me . Ruchi said ,” Pranay , aaj toh main tujhe ek hug dungi .” Since I was sweating like a pig I just shook hands with her thanking both for being there whenever I needed them ( Alas I could not say that for everybody ). I returned home a 9.00 pm that night . ……
EPILOGUE……
You know , I do believe that I would have ,made a decent research scientist , but I also know I would never have been happy there . An MBA is not just a degree , it’s a way of life . These two months have taught a lot 
about myself . It has made me realize that I am important to a lot of people and viceversa . It has also taught me about my shortcomings…. That I get too critical about a few things , that I am hyper and tend to go over the top most of the time , that I am short tempered and much more . I don’t promise anything but yes I am trying to change .
Bigger challenges lie ahead though . Summer internships , specializations , more events , studies and a mammoth exam schedule in April .
So what have I gained in these two months ?Umm…let me see , I have a right leg that pains like crazy , I have been warned by my professors that I am missing too many classes , I just cannot even think of catching up my friends when it comes to studies , I have had fights with a lot of people , ego clashes with my events team members , I know that the people that I talk to are the most discussed topic in my class , and that THE PRS is slanged and bitched about by a lot of people , as far as I can count I have been linked with three girls in just these two months , that I seldom get time to talk to anybody from my class these days , infact most of the days I am so busy in college that I can only talk with my friends on Gtalk…. I can tell you about all this for weeks and yet it won’t end . But yes , if given a choice I would never change this life for anything in the world because somewhere down the line I know I was destined to do this . That it was all planned . And as they say , sometimes you just have to leave it to GOD ,…. Kabhi kabhi uspe chodna padta hai…..
I am PRANAY TIWARI and yes…. This is my story .
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Thanks for reading and one last time , put your comments here ।
The pictures
From top to bottom and from left left to right
1) Me and NOOR ….
2) Tanushree , Esha , Priyanka , me , Prantika and Natasha
3) The marketing panel … we did manage to get hold of 5 people in the end
4) Me and Somyasubho (on the second day)
5) Me , Ruchi , Tuhina , and Noor …. THE REJECTEDS…
Next in line….
He never thought he would fall for a girl like her….. but then …..you never think in love .
This season ….
A presidency physics boy will have his life turned upside down ….
And that too because of attending a class he never intended to….
From the Baker laboratories to the political science class ….
A Physics boy will try to understand what it takes to get an equation correct in love….
THIS SEASON …. TUTORIALS OF LOVE WILL BE NEEDED FOR A GEEK ….
THIS SEASON PREPARE YOURSELF FOR…………….
Why I fell for you ??????
A story by Pranay Tiwari
Coming soon on bloggers….
My blog …my life…..
