Reality Ever After

Part 54. The Price of Privilege

Nandini was busy solving a question paper to prepare for her exams while Manik was busy planning and strategizing his next move. Hence, he was busy understanding all his options out there, which were so many. For starters, there was a bouquet of exams one gave to get into business schools. If you want to go abroad, you take the GMAT or the GRE. But if you wanted to do an MBA in India, you could take GMAT, CAT, SNAP, XAT, etc etc etc. Some places required work experience before the MBA but most places accepted freshers. With so many different options, he had no idea what he should be doing. And the funniest part was that you technically didn't need a degree to become a businessman. A lot of successful businessmen he knew didn't have an MBA. So why the hell was he putting so much pressure on himself to do an MBA in the first place? He threw his laptop angrily on the bed indicating that he was frustrated. Nandini saw his annoyed expression on his face and realised that he was confused and needed some help clearing his head.

Nandini - Kya hua?
(What happened?)

Manik - All this is happening because of you! Who asked you to observe my 'business skills'! Now I have to spend so much time figuring out what I need to do next. Log sahi kehte hai,  'Ignorance is bliss'. At least I wouldn't have to go through this torture.

Nandini - You haven't even started studying yet. Torture toh chalu bhi nahi hua hai ab tak. (The torture hasn't even started yet)

Manik - This is not helping Nandini!

Nandini - Okay. Wait. Let me help you. Let me finish this last question. Tab tak tum shower le lo. (Why don't you take a shower until then)

Manik - God Nandini. Don't start with your shower nonsense right now. I'm very pissed. Jhagda ho jayega. (We'll end up fighting)

Nandini - Okay. Relax. Give me 10 minutes.

Manik - But there's no point. I've been researching for so many days now. We'll just keep going in circles. There's no solution to this.

Nandini - I asked you to wait!

Manik - Fine.

Manik picked up his guitar frustrated with everything. The only thing that could calm him now was his guitar so he just decided to play something. Fortunately, Nandini was used to listening to him play while she studied and hence, it never really disturbed her or broke her concentration. When she finally finished her paper after 10 mins. She came to Manik and sat in front of him.

Manik - What?

Nandini - What what? Tell me what's troubling you.

Manik - Forget it. I told you there's no point. They have made this whole MBA thing so unnecessarily complicated. I mean why the hell are there so many MBA schools in the world. Why do all of them have different exams? Why the fuck don't they have the same rules? Some want work experience. Some don't. Some want GMAT, some want CAT and so on. Some need essays and an interview, some need only an interview. I mean why the fuck have they over complicated the whole thing? Besides, I don't even know if I want to do an MBA! Because it's not really needed. If I really want to start a business, I could just do it tomorrow. Why the hell do I need to go to any of these B-Schools to go through this torture?

Nandini - Okay. Slow down first. You have too much unnecessary information and you're just going in circles.

Manik - Happy realisation Nandini. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Nandini - Why don't you talk to someone who's in this process? I'm sure they also thought about all of this.

Manik - That's what I thought too. So I looked up for blogs of people who have done this before. And guess what, all the online blogs and the alumni from all business schools only give the same options but nobody really says what was the best way to go about it. Some said it was wise just to get done with the MBA right after graduation so the studying bit was out of the way and they could then focus on working. But some said that it was vital to get some work experience before coming to a business school as it always helps to understand business concepts better. Some say just get the GMAT out of the way. Trust me, there's no end to it.