Me, Myself and MBA [The 3 Ms of an uneventful life]

Help me O lord! The Flood is taking me in, water making its way through my interiors. It seems the end of universe, with no mythological boats in sight. Perhaps it passed my island while I was asleep. Holy shit! Yes I was sleeping. How can I be so stupid to imagine such things? Rolling in bed, I try to dream of better things, but just then the alarm sounds. Emerging from the flood, I have another twenty minutes to class and the real test begins. The million dollar question, whether to waste these twenty minutes in useless chores like bathing or make the most of it by having another short say 12 ….(no I guess 14 would be Just In Time) minute nap. They say the heart is wiser than the brain (or is it the other way round), sense prevails and I doze off for another very short nap.


This dream of being engulfed by floods is not new. It has been there ever since I set foot in this campus. Incessant rains have made matters worse. Sitting on top of a hill with nothing but foolishly swinging coconut trees in sight, and Indra pouring tankers full of water in Brahma’s own country, this feeling is bound to set in. Indra must have entered into some secret pact with Shiva to capsize Brahma’s own country.


When you follow Just in Time you have to follow it strictly, no time wasting on Breakfasts. I drag myself to class, skipping the breakfast. After a few minutes the switch is turned off and everything seems to be in oblivion. I was dozing off, while some faint music (probably the voice of the professor) was going on in the background. Suddenly, the words what is the ultimate aim of an organization echoed through my ears. I considered the opportunity cost of interrupting my sleep to the ultimate business mantra being disclosed in the class. Finally my managerial conscience, these days I have come to develop two consciences, and believe me it’s not difficult to do so, took control. I would disclose its secret later, perhaps this could motivate you to navigate through the book which I doubt you would otherwise do. I forgot, I was talking about the opportunities in store and giving in to my managerial conscience. I listened intently to the professor who had put forth this question. As expected more than a few known hands shot up in air. These days I can recognize some of my classmates from the complexion of their hand, the manner in which it shoots up in air for answering. Profit making beamed one of the students and there was a sigh from some corners of the class (I am trying to learn this art of recognizing people by their sighs, but haven’t mastered it yet) for most of them thought they had lost the opportunity to cash in on some Class Participation marks.


But the professor’s nod in the negative, once again encouraged the students and this time not wasting time in shooting up hands, an uproar rose in the class. One often talks of great timing in cricket, but the art of timing your reply to be heard amidst the din is the one I most envy. Be it a class discussion or a group discussion this technique can make or break your day. Thus one student perfectly timed his reply and as they say adding another perspective to the discussion, he opined of Human Welfare being the ultimate aim of any company. He was inspired by Marshall, Amartya Sen and the likes or was it the trickle down effect of the previous day class on Social Transformation in India, I cannot say with conviction, but most of us thought he had struck the global cord. The teacher’s frown on this reply didn’t encourage many for we thought we had exhausted all possibilities. Sporting a victorious smile on, he declared authoritatively “Money making is the ultimate aim of any firm”. This led to a faint murmur from some people for they felt they had missed the correct answer by a whisker. The discussion continued with everyone chipping in with their ideas (those who had them) and without wasting any more time I switched off my managerial conscience, returning to my slumber.

When I decided to write this piece I was so stuffed with the 3 M’s and 6 C’s (someone has come up with even 7 M’s )and the nth what nots of marketing that I was not at all surprised by the title which came to my mind, the 3 M’s of my book. One of my friends asked as to what all interesting things were going on during my stay here and I stretched my mind (whatever is left of it) to its extremes (both positive and negative if some mathematicians have doubts regarding it), and the only reply I could come up with was that the subjects were very interesting. And indeed when you can understand only a bushel out of chaff, the unfathomed becomes interesting.

These are turbulent times for a guy like me, just out of an undergrad college and trying to explore the business arena (once again in books). Many of my classmates have worked for sometime and are really enjoying the break there. Whenever I am cribbing about the lack of freedom and the excessive workload, they are quick to point out that matters are much worse in the working environment. This often leaves me wondering about my prospective life. I have developed such a fancy about project leaders (through conversations with my working friends and not to mention the numerous forwards that are full of atrocities committed by PL’s and PM’s) that I cannot imagine a project leader without a whip in his hand slashing the butts of innocent subordinates. (To be continued…..) I wish so ;-)