So, the wheel of time has turned a full circle, and I find myself getting ready for another stint at school. This time, it’s a B-school, and hopefully will be the last of so many already.
It has been more than a year since I started this blog after deciding to quit Ph.D. This is what I wrote in the first post
Instead of drifting along, I have chosen to get out of this sad existence for good. With the hope and a firm belief that things will be better sooner rather than later (they just have to
), I sign off. Be safe, be good.
Looking back, I am glad that I had the courage to take that decision, when everyone around was casting doubts, and trying to put a sense of loss in my mind about the “opportunities” I had chosen to let go. No doubt the opportunities were great, but then, those could never have made me feel the happiness I got after coming back to India, realizing that sometimes we should just listen to our hearts; that sometimes, conventional wisdom can be safely put aside, for, its origins lie in the minds of equally clueless and insecure individuals as us; that sometimes, we should plainly accept the hollowness of the lives we are leading, and try to do something about it.
As I had hoped, things have shaped up quite well in these months. Had a great time in New York after leaving my adviser (I know exactly how a caged bird feels when it is set free 
), went to Himalayas for a two week trip to fulfill the long-cherished wish, found the love of my life, had my first job in a company I liked, and now going to Ahmedabad to learn management get polished up.
I hope you too have kept your promise, and have been safe and good.
Before I sign off, Here’s a lovely poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling, which has always given great strength to me, and in a way is the gist of what Lord Krishna said in Gita. I would very strongly recommend that you read it slowly, and once you are done, read it once more.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And what is more, you’ll be a Man, my son!–Rudyard Kipling
p.s. It is quite possible that after the MBA, the wheel of time turns another full circle and I find myself doing a job I don’t like , even then, I’ll have the satisfaction of trying and exploring better options, instead of just complaining about life.
Taste the thunder baby!
This is Leonadis, the king of Sparta. No, he is not making a war-cry. This is what happens when one wears leather-undies.
