I turned 26 last Saturday. It's nice when the birthday happens to be on a Saturday but I couldn't reap the obvious benefits of it since some work came up and I had to get up early the next morning. As it happens every year, I got a lot of attention and I enjoyed every bit of it. A couple of new friends I've made this year were very sweet and after a lot of brainstorming, came up with some nice gifts for me.
This year has been very different from the last few years. For about first half of the year, I was unemployed and spent my time doing random things like teaching kids at a school, writing for a startup, travelling, spending hours together reading at the Central Library and at Koshy's or Indian Coffee House. And then in July, I entered into a completely new world. I joined a B school, thinking of systematically learning what I had been casually reading. More importantly, I thought it was going to be exciting to be among the folks with similar interests, creating an environment conducive for such learning.
However, I was in for a surprise. Conversations that I heard the most were on the lines of "He's so hot", "She's sexy", "I've heard he's rich", "Have you started watching season 5 of game of thrones?", " I was so high last night". This annoying list is endless. As someone who joined a B school expecting peer to peer learning on economics, on the global economic scenarios along with basics of everything that a business leader should know, what I was introduced to, to mention a few, were David Guetta, pubs in Bangalore I had never been to because they play loud music and I prefer having comfortable conversations, gym and body builders that I had always stayed away from and folks who just need a reason to start dancing with an invisible placard that says "Please look at me". Looking at the kind of relationships, friendships, interests and attitude, I've lost count of the number of times I've felt like an old guy. In fact with a lot of fresh college graduates around, folks who are 3-4 years younger to me, I've struggled to have a normal conversation, may be because most of my friends that I had made earlier are either much older than me or are too matured for their age. After much struggle, I've come to terms with the fact that we all have our priorities although we are doing the same course.
It isn't all that bad though. I have a fantastic professor who has not only been a great mentor but is very inspirational. I also met a few guys, my roommate being one of them, who seemed to be interested in the kind of learning that I was looking for. We started conducting peer to peer learning sessions and were delighted to see a very positive response. I've also made a few good friends for life . A rich curriculum and an experienced set of professors has been another positive aspect, although I wish there was more focus on research work and case studies by cutting short the number of hours spent on classroom teaching.
After I started doing my MBA, my mentor for bird-watching is disappointed that I don't recognise a lot of birds that I used to, my mom is upset that I don't call her often, my friends and relatives complain that they don't see me ever, I've been reading lesser number of books, I've missed out on some plays that I wanted to watch, I've booked jungle guest houses and have cancelled them multiple times and except for a trip to Goa, Pondicherry and a couple of trips to Mysore, I haven't travelled. Also, I've almost stopped writing. Only time will tell if this was all worth it.
How can I end this ritual of annual writing without mentioning the books that I read this year! Here we go -
1. And then One Day - Naseeruddin Shah (Special mention : This is the book that made me watch some brilliant movies like Nishaant, Manthan, Ankur, Bhoomika and other Shyam Benegal classics that had an outstanding set of actors)
2. Restart - Mihir S Sharma
3. Gandhi before India - Ramachandra Guha
4. Nehru - A contemperory's estimate - Walter Crocker
5. Makers of Modern India - Ramachandra Guha
6. Wealth and Power - Orville Schell and John Delury
7. Ambedkar's World - Eleanor Zelliot
8. Karvalo - Poornachandra Tejaswi
9. Mahapalayana - Poornachandra Tejaswi
10. The Fault lines - Raghuram Rajan (incomplete)
11. The world of fatwas - Arun Shourie (incomplete)
Looking forward for the new year!
This year has been very different from the last few years. For about first half of the year, I was unemployed and spent my time doing random things like teaching kids at a school, writing for a startup, travelling, spending hours together reading at the Central Library and at Koshy's or Indian Coffee House. And then in July, I entered into a completely new world. I joined a B school, thinking of systematically learning what I had been casually reading. More importantly, I thought it was going to be exciting to be among the folks with similar interests, creating an environment conducive for such learning.
However, I was in for a surprise. Conversations that I heard the most were on the lines of "He's so hot", "She's sexy", "I've heard he's rich", "Have you started watching season 5 of game of thrones?", " I was so high last night". This annoying list is endless. As someone who joined a B school expecting peer to peer learning on economics, on the global economic scenarios along with basics of everything that a business leader should know, what I was introduced to, to mention a few, were David Guetta, pubs in Bangalore I had never been to because they play loud music and I prefer having comfortable conversations, gym and body builders that I had always stayed away from and folks who just need a reason to start dancing with an invisible placard that says "Please look at me". Looking at the kind of relationships, friendships, interests and attitude, I've lost count of the number of times I've felt like an old guy. In fact with a lot of fresh college graduates around, folks who are 3-4 years younger to me, I've struggled to have a normal conversation, may be because most of my friends that I had made earlier are either much older than me or are too matured for their age. After much struggle, I've come to terms with the fact that we all have our priorities although we are doing the same course.
It isn't all that bad though. I have a fantastic professor who has not only been a great mentor but is very inspirational. I also met a few guys, my roommate being one of them, who seemed to be interested in the kind of learning that I was looking for. We started conducting peer to peer learning sessions and were delighted to see a very positive response. I've also made a few good friends for life . A rich curriculum and an experienced set of professors has been another positive aspect, although I wish there was more focus on research work and case studies by cutting short the number of hours spent on classroom teaching.
After I started doing my MBA, my mentor for bird-watching is disappointed that I don't recognise a lot of birds that I used to, my mom is upset that I don't call her often, my friends and relatives complain that they don't see me ever, I've been reading lesser number of books, I've missed out on some plays that I wanted to watch, I've booked jungle guest houses and have cancelled them multiple times and except for a trip to Goa, Pondicherry and a couple of trips to Mysore, I haven't travelled. Also, I've almost stopped writing. Only time will tell if this was all worth it.
How can I end this ritual of annual writing without mentioning the books that I read this year! Here we go -
1. And then One Day - Naseeruddin Shah (Special mention : This is the book that made me watch some brilliant movies like Nishaant, Manthan, Ankur, Bhoomika and other Shyam Benegal classics that had an outstanding set of actors)
2. Restart - Mihir S Sharma
3. Gandhi before India - Ramachandra Guha
4. Nehru - A contemperory's estimate - Walter Crocker
5. Makers of Modern India - Ramachandra Guha
6. Wealth and Power - Orville Schell and John Delury
7. Ambedkar's World - Eleanor Zelliot
8. Karvalo - Poornachandra Tejaswi
9. Mahapalayana - Poornachandra Tejaswi
10. The Fault lines - Raghuram Rajan (incomplete)
11. The world of fatwas - Arun Shourie (incomplete)
Looking forward for the new year!
