MBA for a receptionist!

So here comes another Sunday. It’s been a while I rested on a weekend and not go for some partying or shopping. But I have to say as much as I love partying, travelling or shopping, this time I really liked a quiet and alone Sunday. As the first thing on my checklist was to get a good amount of sleep for my sleep deprived body, so I woke up in the afternoon when finally my back started aching. And then as always I had missed my breakfast and lunch at the hostel mess is an option that I never consider. So I decided to take a walk and treat myself to some paranthas. That is how I ended up settling for the nearest market to our hostel which is Kailash. I went there, got my cell phone recharged, another thing I can strike off the checklist and ordered some paranthas. At that point only one thing crossed my mind if only I could have mom’s handmade paranthas. I got my order and started eating. Just as I was engrossed in them, some advertisement struck my eyes. It was one of those kinds where you take out a printout and you go around the town pasting them on the walls. It read

Required-Receptionist

Salary- 6000-8000

UG/Graduates/MBA

I was stunned. It really shook me. I was so taken aback that I forgot I was having food. How can an MBA even think of doing the job of a receptionist, leave alone the salary. You go to a B-school, pay around half a million Rupees at least and then go through the entire rigor to be an MBA. They teach you operations, marketing, finance, HR, strategy and what not. How a person after learning so much, can even think of being hired as a receptionist? I started thinking, my mind now totally diverted from the fact that I had no food for the last 15 something hours and now a plateful of paranthas lied in front of me and only me. I thought, how can that person who gave that advertisement, think of hiring an MBA for the specific job. Well It didn’t require too much of thinking. It takes no Sherlock Holmes to figure out that we are living and studying in a fractured system. A system which has stuck to the old notion of just getting admission in a college and then go through the motions and one thinks he will end up having a job. This has what led to the dilution of what MBBS, MBA or other educations really meant. Many of us study because we think we don’t have enough education to match how much we want to earn. And we forget the fact that it not the education but the capabilities that matter. We forget that in the real world nobody gives a damn what degree you have, they see what you can do. What results you can deliver. I think the person who gave the advertisement, is aware of the same fact. He knows he might hire an MBA for the job of a receptionist but then that’s all he or she might be capable of. Here I am not questioning our education system, what I am questioning is our mindset, how we approach our life at college. Are we one of those who just go through the motions and are desperately waiting for two years to end, so that they can finally earn something, or are we part of the other breed who approach everyday as to learn something new and make a change in them. Are we the same what we were a year ago or there is a fundamental change in how we think, how we act. These all are questions I think all of us who have this huge burden on their shoulders to be dubbed as nation’s future should ask oneself. What am I here for?

AND I THINK REALITY IS UNDERRATED.

What do we live for?

Last few days, something has happened but it has been hard for me to put it in words. I have been unable to figure out what that has been and more precisely why? I have been running here and there for years, reading lots of stuff, questioning it, discussing it with people looking for answers. But it never occurred to me what was the question. But suddenly today it happened. I started thinking about what was the question. But still what really was the question is irking me. And then it struck me, WHAT DO I LIVE FOR? You might think what am I talking about? This is a fundamentally simple question. And that is what really is, a fundamentally simple question and one with a very hard to be answer.

I started thinking. I decided to look around, looking for people close to me and what might they be living for. Is it the family? Or that dream? , Or the money? How could be the answer, to such a simple question be so tough to be answer. I have read numerous books, numerous blogs, many newspapers, magazines etc. But all that looks like going for a toss, when I try to answer this question. I close my eyes and I feel this dark hollow black area where feel I am struck, looking for the way out. I see myself standing and wherever I look it all looks the same and I get no idea which way to go. Am I living for money or to be with the people I love or a dream which is so vague that it makes modern art look meaningful? What is it?

We all come to this world with a blank mind and we all get to know this world and ourselves gradually, taking each step with the help of our parents, friends and others who influence us over a period of time. I don’t know why but somehow after the time this question struck me, I have been unable to find answer to any dilemma that came my way. And this thing is so bothering that it is making me feel as if I am asphyxiating. Well most of us look for answer in the people who have influenced us over a period of time. Our parents, achievers, our friends or might be a big brother. And there is where my confusion even becomes more acute. I really don’t understand where to look for answers. I look at those in Egypt fighting for a cause and many losing their lives for it. Do we live to fulfil a cause? Then I look at people who study day and night to be something, but what something? I know this post is full of questions and I really don’t know what to write more. But if someone is reading this do try to answer this question. “WHAT DO WE LIVE FOR?”