PUZZLE OF PERPLEXITY: A MUST READ FOR ALL SCHOOL & COLLEGE STUDENTS

Every member of the human race has a puzzle to solve in his life. One of the puzzles he has to put together is that of perplexity! We do face confusion in all aspects of life. Right from the time when a new day kicks off till the time we want to languidly lay down on our cozy bed and enter the carefree world of reveries.

Majority of the modern day Homo Sapiens are perplexed beings due to the wide variety of options available to them! In the days of our ancestors they had to mandatorily stick to a certain set of things and never had to look left or right. But the multifariousness of the times we live in leads to our minds musing harder and harder! Everything seems to be better than everything else.

The most important head scratching session that the youth of today faces is when it comes to choosing their future path of action! Some will do what their parents want them to do without ever giving it a thought whether it is actually their cup of tea or no. Others will fall prey to herd mentality and choose a career path that is the most well recognized and the most lucrative without even getting into the nitty gritty of it! So, these are easier ways of keeping Lord Confusion at bay. Just be under somebody’s influence and take things as they come.

But a person who really wants to solve the puzzle of perplexity will think and be in a brown study till the time they reach a satisfactory conclusion! They will listen to one and all and contemplate for days, weeks and even months but reach a destination that their heart leads them to.

SO ALL OF YOU OUT THERE WHO ARE ‘CONFUSED SOULS’

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

YOU HAVE A BRAIN AND YOU ARE AT LEAST THINKING…

Now, here begins my journey of confusion as I was preparing for my MBA Entrances and landed up getting an Admission Offer from a reputed Institute. In India, the MBA Admission is a rigorous process and after going through all the drill of the Aptitude Test, Psychometric Test, Creative Writing Ability Test, Group Exercise and Personal Interview, I was shortlisted at one of the nation’s finest Institutes for Strategic Marketing and Communications. Out of a total of 7700 Applicants only 180 were shortlisted. I was among the lucky few but you may have guessed it right, I was confused whether to take up the Admission or wait for another year, give all the exams again and then probably aim for an even better Institute.

My Confused State of Mind snatched away all the joy I should have experienced on being offered Admission to an MBA Institute. In the one week I spent on coming to a final conclusion and being decisive, I went through a lot of Yes and No in my head. I met so many people, “UNCLES” to be specific, and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart as had it not been for those tiny conversations with all these Uncles from different backgrounds, I wouldn’t have ever come to a satisfactory conclusion that would have given me peace of mind. I am not going to be naming any Institute or any person in this blog post as in my quest to be humorous I do not want to end up hurting anybody’s sentiments.

In about 7 days of the week, I had 7 different opinions from 7 different UNCLES. Here’s to what they had to say:

UNCLE A – Beta, why waste a year? A year is a lot of time and time is precious. And XYZ has a big name in the market. Just go for it!

UNCLE B – Do not compromise on the Institute of your choice in the quest of saving a year. You will make up for that year lost when you get placed in a company from a better Institute.

UNCLE C – Why do you think you cannot do it next year? You need to slog it out girl. Moreover, XYZ Institute is not in Bombay. You’ll have to go away from your family for two long years. Will you be able to survive?

UNCLE D – Ohh, XYZ has really good companies with great pay packages coming on Campus. And moreover, since it is a residential programme you will have a holistic experience. You need to learn to be out of your comfort zone and away from the family. Come out of your cocoon and face the world.

UNCLE E – What do you really want to do in life? As far as I have known you, I do not think you need an MBA. You’re ready to spread your wings and fly.

UNCLE F – The Course that XYZ offers is very niche and will restrict your horizons at a later stage. Moreover, it’s the best in the field of Marketing Communications but you know Investment Banking pays much more than that. Don’t take a hasty decision. Give finance a thought as well.

UNCLE G – This is a confirmed offer so please grab it, and that too from a Top Tier Institute like XYZ.  You never know even after waiting for a year whether you will be able to get into a better Institute or no. But if you are aiming even higher then what I would suggest is take up the Admission at XYZ but still give the entrance exams and then in the next year if you get into a better Institute take it up there. You will then do a 3 years MBA over a 2 years MBA but there is a lot of value addition.

I was extremely happy to have received an honest opinion from all the UNCLEs whom I had approached and then I could decide for myself what to cherry pick from each conversation. Amidst all these words of wisdom, were a few more uncalled for wise sayings. Other people giving me their expert advice even when I did not ask for one. It instantly reminded me of that dialogue from Jab We Met on Dubsmash:

Kareena: Aap jo yeh sab bol rahe hai, uske paise charge karte hai ki yeh muft ka gyan hai?

Station Master: Nahi yeh to muft hai!

Kareena: Good! Kyun ki Chillar nahi hai mere paas!

So, after that Roller Coaster Week, I got a perspective into what I should be focussing at when it comes to taking a call. Thinking about what I want to do in life, where I see myself five or ten years from now and what will make me that independent woman I have always aspired to be deserved much more importance rather than emphasising on petty issues like the Rank of the Institute, Pay Packages offered to it’s students, Companies coming in for recruitment, which famous alumni has that Institute got and whether I will be able to stay away from my family or no. I had a few days of introspection followed by a SWOT Analysis purely on the basis of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life that actually made my life worth living! Even if I was paid a million Dollars but I did not enjoy my job, is that the kind of life anyone would like to lead? It’s tantamount to dying of boredom every single day! 

 The Institute, Companies, Pay Packages shouldn’t act as carrots luring me towards them but my drive to do something that I love and make a mark in that field is what should be a motivating factor. And then I arrived at my answer…

So, who took the final call? Neither my parents, nor my friends and nor the great UNCLEs in my life. It was ME! I solved this tiny puzzle of perplexity at this juncture in my life. So, tomorrow whoever I am, wherever I go, whatever I do, I have nobody to blame but MYSELF.