Coming of Age

If one thing that higher education has done for me, it's my coming of age. As a fresher, MBA has been an extended B.Tech, and I can easily draw some looks for saying these two years have been more fun than those four years. 

As an under-grad student, going to college was the first thing that I did outside of my parents' love and care cocoon. I was lucky to find great room-mates and Kasturba Bhavan's mess food was not bad. I found a hang-out in Surat city's famous Kavi Narmad library, an easy time- pass in walks around the lush green NIT campus, an addiction of American TV series and a solution to all problems-college k bahar galle ki chai. Having day-scholar friends met rides around the city and home food. Engineering didn't excite me but college fests and hostel celebrations and student council were fun. Basically I was a kid trying to live on my own.

Then, NITIE Mumbai happened. Hanging out with ladies and gentlemen, three-four years my senior, has been an experience. These species have been to office, seen the world-some of it at-least and are not students. They are professionals. I got to meet an ex-Army man, a twitter celebrity, people who had good government jobs, a lady drummer, a girl whose dream's to be a Formula One racer, professional photographers, poets: both kinds-romantic and self-deprecating, those who always wanted to live in the city of dreams, the social media slaves, some slaves of their own expectations, people in love, people married. Yes, I met adults here. 

In an environment where classroom studies were as real as a work of fiction, campus so beautiful with green and a pond, nested between two beautiful lakes, located in one of the chic-est locales in Mumbai and housing hundreds of people who left their pay packets to grab a bigger slice of pie; I grew. 

Some takeaways

• Dad was right. Listening is more important than speaking. 
• Lord maketh every one different. Observe all his creations, for each one is a mystery greater than the Universe. Plus, it's fun to stalk hot-looking peeps ;)
• Don't just be yourself, be proud to be yourself. 
• We all need a high. Some find it in booze, some in books, some in friends, others in shopping, still others in themselves. We all get high.
• Cool things are often underrated. Case in point, NITIE.
• Post-placement, B-School final semester means every one is getting married. Yes these adults I met, many of them used higher education as an excuse to postpone their marriages, but in the end, their parents emerge victorious. Or, many of them were in a relationship and now have gotten a fancy qualification and a sexier job, so they are ready to marry their sweetheart. As a younger adult, I am not in this phase.
• I make good power point presentations :D