Soliloquy of a Schooler - Part II !

Scholars for long have been emphasizing for a strict demarcation line between one’s personal and professional lives. Let’s stop here and think about it again. Forget about the demarcation line, are there two lives in the first place. To a schooler, it’s a screen image or mirror image of one another. There are days when he is not laden with unending work and can think of resting his back on a mattress which has otherwise been a host to the text books, case studies and other study material, when he tries to take a break from his professional live - Is this what we call a personal life? But then, what next. He is still thinking about the early morning class next day and the assignments due in the coming week. Or the time when he is grabbing a morsel with a fellow schooler is his personal life, or when he is bathing!

Then learned people have also talked about friends. To a schooler, who is a friend? Some one who is little less indifferent to live and can make him smile or listen to his so called personal life and lend him a shoulder to rest on. Or someone who says, Mate! It’s already 5 o’clock in the morning. You go to sleep. I will finish the rest of the assignment and will submit it. Or someone who says, I know what it takes to be you right now. Life looks so blank without mates of every species. Thankfully, I have always been blessed with the best of the bests. But then! What the heck, Mr. Boeing? Why the hell you have to use this but so often? Oh yes, lets move on.

They say as Stone rolls down the mountain, it accumulates lot of matter with itself and makes them roll too. This happens with almost everyone. At times, you are what the situation is or what the situation wants you to be or what one does not want to be. The flip side of having a mate is the fear of loosing him or her. Some call it possessiveness, some call it madness, and some what not. I would simply call it, cost of being happy and the fear of being lonely again.

Coming back to the life of this chap. someone who always believed that, well does it matter at the end as to what he believed? Well it should. If it does not then the belief was not faithful to itself. This chap never intended to hurt anyone, especially his mates and pals around the corner. But then he never bowed down too. Why bow when you don feel like doing so? Why don be original? It pays. May be right now, he does not have the data or facts to back it up but then he is sure of having one soon. As they say, well chuck what they say. As he says, the day they taught how to loose a match, I bunked my school !

Contd..

Soliloquy of a Schooler !

It was not long ago that two brothers were on board 8004 Yeswantpur Howrah Express from Bangalore to Howrah JN. It was only after they had finished their share of education in Bangalore and were sailing through. Not to mention the sorrow of leaving a city to which both were so closely attached to. The younger of two had just finished his 12^th and was looking forward to study further in Kolkata. And the elder one was not more than a pack of looser with him finishing his B Com and remaining on the wait list of Goa Institute of Management for his MBA.

The massive train mauled by a diesel engine pulled out of Vishakapatnam Jn on south eastern railway and the brothers stayed put on their seats (Side Lower and Side Upper) munching the tamarind rice which they picked up at Vishakapatnam. And it was then that some one named Ms. Fernandes, Jenifer Fernandes called up and said what the elder chap was dying to hear for weeks. Saurav, you have been confirmed a seat at Goa Institute of Management. And the session starts in 4 days. Phew! Shall I jump from the train in excitement or pull the chain. The moment it seemed that the coach AS-2 was his home and the fellow passengers were his family members. The moment was so unexpressive that both the brothers hugged each other tightly and were laughing and crying. Wonder if Steam Engines were still in place, they could have managed to run the steam on the tears. And then what followed were series of calls to all nook and corner of country.

The turnaround time at home was 11 hours. Reached home, unpacked baggage, threw things around and started packing again. And suddenly grandpa’s health started deteriorating. Doctors flying from all corners and in seconds the house were full of family and friends. The chap gets the momentary shock. Leaves his packing and there he goes to his grandpa. What the heck? The happiness sunk deep and was lost. It was one of worst moments of his life seeing his grandpa gasping his last breaths. Now what? Cancel the tickets or move on! There are times in life when one feels, its all over. Lost everything. This moment was beyond that. But then the grandpa continued breathing till the flight took off. What the hell? How could this chap board the flight? Such a inhuman and selfish act. But then, I am sure today he is up there and is happy about the same. Hey daddu, love you. I mean it.

Was surely the worst flight of his life. Landed in Goa amidst strong headwinds with water pouring in. Wonder if God was angry. But as they say, time is a great healer. The course started and soon the chap was lost. Lost in a crazy world where time zones are not respected and the food consists of intense pressure and mounting work. Face it or fade in!

Life was lost in assignments, presentations, projects and it seemed that a B school requires the day to be a 30 hour one in place of 24 hours. So what ! Do not sleep for 8 hours. Have not you learnt crashing ? Keep crashing until you reach optimum ! But then one got to remember that too much crashing may give birth to a critical path. So what ! Life is critical as well. If you have it in you, then crash the critical path. If life does not follow logic, why shall we?

Contd...