Conformists...
"I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite. Don't you see that? I'm afraid I will compete -- that's what scares me. That's why I quit the Theatre Department. Just because I'm so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else's values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn't make it right. I'm ashamed of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash."
- J D Salinger, ‘Franny and Zooey’.
These words strike a despondent note somewhere.
The buzzword going around most circles off late has been “MBA”. These three letters supposedly guarantee the manifestation of the rosy dream of a top management position, entry into high society and a minimum of 400 responses to your matrimonial ad.
In my ninth grade, someone asked me what I wanted to do in the near future. Without hesitation I replied, “An Engineering degree followed by an MBA”. At that juncture I didn’t really know or care about what either pursuit entailed. What I did know was that it would make people around me look up with a certain sense of pride and or envy. That’s all that mattered anyway.
Ravi Bhaiya did his engineering from BMS college and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. Everyone in the family spoke incessantly of his accomplishments. His resume was recited at every family dinner. His myriad marriage proposals were the talk of every Bua and Chachi during the commercial breaks of “Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi”. As every lentil eating Baniya is expected to do, Ravi gave up his $ 144,000 a year job at Citibank’s Melbourne office to return to Panipat to join the family business of manufacturing and exporting towels… bath towels, hand towels, beach towels..
I’m not really sure what purpose the above anecdote served but it just seemed appropriate.
An MBA, for me, is a necessity today not because of the promises of a push button life but because it has become a social construct. A child is first admitted into premier primary and secondary schools. The first major choice arises whilst choosing between Science, Commerce and Arts in Junior College. Arts has almost become a tabooed word, synonymous with hippies and homosexuals. “Acha, commerce liya hai Pappu ne, ache marks nahin aaye honge”, the typical response to choosing Commerce, leaving Science as the obvious choice if the child is intelligent, ambitious and civilized.
The next major decision is to choose between Medicine and Engineering. All other options are negated altogether until the entrance exam results AND if the dalal quotes a figure which can’t be covered even after pawning the last lungi in the house for a “management seat”. This choice is usually left to the teenager who would opt for either based on a role model (read Ravi Bhaiya) or a penchant for blood/diodes/cars/nurses/quantum physics/procreation…
Those, who traverse the path leading to the Hippocratic oath are ignored hereafter.
- J D Salinger, ‘Franny and Zooey’.
These words strike a despondent note somewhere.
The buzzword going around most circles off late has been “MBA”. These three letters supposedly guarantee the manifestation of the rosy dream of a top management position, entry into high society and a minimum of 400 responses to your matrimonial ad.
In my ninth grade, someone asked me what I wanted to do in the near future. Without hesitation I replied, “An Engineering degree followed by an MBA”. At that juncture I didn’t really know or care about what either pursuit entailed. What I did know was that it would make people around me look up with a certain sense of pride and or envy. That’s all that mattered anyway.
Ravi Bhaiya did his engineering from BMS college and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. Everyone in the family spoke incessantly of his accomplishments. His resume was recited at every family dinner. His myriad marriage proposals were the talk of every Bua and Chachi during the commercial breaks of “Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi”. As every lentil eating Baniya is expected to do, Ravi gave up his $ 144,000 a year job at Citibank’s Melbourne office to return to Panipat to join the family business of manufacturing and exporting towels… bath towels, hand towels, beach towels..
I’m not really sure what purpose the above anecdote served but it just seemed appropriate.
An MBA, for me, is a necessity today not because of the promises of a push button life but because it has become a social construct. A child is first admitted into premier primary and secondary schools. The first major choice arises whilst choosing between Science, Commerce and Arts in Junior College. Arts has almost become a tabooed word, synonymous with hippies and homosexuals. “Acha, commerce liya hai Pappu ne, ache marks nahin aaye honge”, the typical response to choosing Commerce, leaving Science as the obvious choice if the child is intelligent, ambitious and civilized.
The next major decision is to choose between Medicine and Engineering. All other options are negated altogether until the entrance exam results AND if the dalal quotes a figure which can’t be covered even after pawning the last lungi in the house for a “management seat”. This choice is usually left to the teenager who would opt for either based on a role model (read Ravi Bhaiya) or a penchant for blood/diodes/cars/nurses/quantum physics/procreation…
Those, who traverse the path leading to the Hippocratic oath are ignored hereafter.
The step following the magna cum laude engineering degree is more than obvious. Either study for the CAT for an admission into the IIMs or gather enough work experience, do the GMAT, and then apply to the top B-schools in the world. There also exists a profound hybrid system wherein one could do the GMAT, renounce their nationality and then apply to the IIMs as a firang.
Why do people do an MBA? Six figure US dollar salaries? Networking? B-School brand equity? Exposure?
I think Mr. Salinger would beg to differ. He, I hope, would think they do it because they are conditioned to accept everyone else’s values. Social conditioning gives birth to the worst kinds of conformists.
This is not about the MBA program at all, its about following your heart.. chasing your own dreams… building your own castles...
If everybody were a somebody, then there would be no one left to be a nobody. The world relies on nobodies. I have spent most of my life living up to other people’s expectations.. their values… their norms… forming an identity they envisaged for me. Like Franny, I think I have now mustered enough courage to be an absolute nobody…
If everybody were a somebody, then there would be no one left to be a nobody. The world relies on nobodies. I have spent most of my life living up to other people’s expectations.. their values… their norms… forming an identity they envisaged for me. Like Franny, I think I have now mustered enough courage to be an absolute nobody…
Afterthought: The world needs more physicists than risk analysts…… Sikkim needs teachers more than the US needs research analysts..
posted by dUh at 9:35 PM
2 Comments:
Err, for once i kinda agree with u. ive seen a doctor's life, a physicists life and an mba's life. pretty much same save the little salary stuff. the end result: if u do something u dont love doing ull never be happy no matter what salary - for most pple that involves creativity and a sense of achievment that its ure creation... and that cant be a bank account u knw :)
All these senseless talks about what will be my next step in life? It always made me wonder about why every 2nd person who has done an engg wants to do an MBA. In recent years there is been rush for this MBA thingies. Some says its refines ones traits, some says its builds up the character, some says it makes you tough for hard times; it gives you tomorrow’s leaders. I say bullshit! We all have leaders on the mind at the moment. With our economy looking green around the gills and a war in the offing, this is quite natural. When times are troubled we tend to look to those above us for guidance and reassurance, whether in business, in politics or in our families. Anxiety looks upwards and leaders are suppose to offer the answers to problems that we cannot fathom on our own. But I have never seen a leader esp. in today’s world who is more worried about his financial deal then his big king size pay cheque. After all everything comes down to money, If we really want to do something super then why we are running after things for instance being an MBA. Is being an MBA makes you so great that you have the problems for every solutions? That questions sometimes makes me think that what I aspires is really worth it? I think I went on a lil too much. Anyways I think by knowing ourselves answers half the question and rest comes on with time!
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