Convocation got over a few days ago. I got my degree. I am an MBA now. I wonder what that means. One thing it does mean is that I am going to be paid some more than I used to before I had this degree, which supposedly means I am much more intelligent now then I was ever before. Which sounds like a highly arguable assumption to make given the total lack of physical (or intellectual ?) evidence to support it. But hey !! Stop right there. Don't even start to think of comparing my IQ levels with those of chickens or even worse Ms R Sawant coz even the idea of it is extremely underwhelming and totally depressing. Like Air and God, there are somethings not to be seen but are believed to exist. So for my sake and for the sake of shareholders of my recruiter, believe my intelligence to exist.
Jokes apart, Two years of MBA have been totally worthwhile for reasons going much beyond a mere payraise (which is why people take to MBA but never admit though ;)). I gained friends for a lifetime, people whose absence in daily life I will surely miss. While keeping my text books in the refrigerator ensured, I only know full forms of NSE & BSE but not much beyond it. Classroom any way is the last place to learn in an MBA program. Going out and participating for some events especially to Bhubaneswar taught me things that no text books or faculty can teach. Things not to do with Porter, BCG, deferred tax or below- the-line but to do with integrity, healthy competition and other basic values of life.
Being married and doing MBA gave me a hands-on something technically called work-life (or work-wife?) balance. Though during MBA I tilted the balance towards my life and wife, I do now know that one needs to constantly prioritize between job & home. You see it's just about weighing the pros and cons. While in a fix, all you have to do really is to make a choice for a lesser punishment. It may be between a miserable multi-tab multi-colored excel sheet and a more-expensive-than-you-can-afford necklace, or between main-mummy-ke-ghar-jaa-rahi-hoon and Be-there-tomorrow-and-day-after told to you by your boss on Friday.
I think I now understand a few tenets that modern world corporate live with. For work purposes, you & your colleagues are a team but when it comes to bonus you are contestants of a zero sum game; To work is pain and to get work done is more pain etc. Post MBA I also feel I understand more things then I used to about people. I still can't fully understand myself though. Really.
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