Excruciating Start
Good evening toastmaster of the evening and fellow
toastmasters. Today I am going to elaborate the commotions and feelings during
my first term in my M.B.A course which started on October 2022.
I started my M.B.A journey like a person onboarded a ship to
the promise land. We must take a minimum of 36 credits and maximum of 40
credits to graduate. Each course will have a credit of 1 to 1.5 credits based
upon the duration and complexity. Each term is 3 months. If it is 1 credit, we
will have 4 classes in 3 months. if it is 1.5 credits then we will have 6
classes in 3 months. So, I must complete 25 to 28 courses to get all the
credits. All the classes are conducted every two weeks.
A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, my M.B.A
journey of 40 credits started with the 4 subjects of 6 credits in the first
term. They are
Essentials of Marketing and Strategy
Human Resource Management
Critical Thinking
Business Analytics
Two classes were online, and two classes were conducted at
the campus in the first term.
At the start, I was very eager to attend and learn but as
the classes progresses, my eagerness started to fade away and it seems my ship
headed for the hell instead of promise land.
Since I am going to the student life nearly after 18 years, I
am totally out of sorts for the student life. After 2 weeks into the term, my
hair in the head started withered like the leaves during the fall season. I
started imagining myself without hair post completing my M.B.A.
Critical thinking course is all about how efficiently we can
solve the problem with how many effective solutions. It will be like 5 why
analysis to find the root cause of the problem and address it.
While doing the Critical Thinking course assignments, my
mind behaved critically ill, and I started behaved like a mad dog with my
family. My family also understood the stress which I am in and started sympathizing
with me. I have become the 3rd student in my home after my son and
daughter. Instead of critically thinking on the assignments, I started thinking
critically about the next 2 years of my course that how I am going to fare the
upcoming terms. Getting 40 credits seems to be like reaching the top of the
mount Everest.
Though Business Analytics was interesting on hearing the
stories in the case studies, I was tormented by the assignments in that course.
Each assignment completion & submission has become a herculean task. I
started working on late nights to complete the assignment and in the sideways
saw my hairs in the head withering away. On passing of every day my head had
become more shinier in the mirror. My wife cautioned me that I will loss all my
hair in the head prior completing the M.B.A.
HRM (Human Resource Management) though it is more theoretical,
I can study with somewhat ease when compared to Critical Thinking and Business
Analytics. We studied the case studies of various HR process of huge companies
and how it got evolved through kaizen.
Essentials of Marketing & Strategy is also more
theoretical. It dealt with the various principles of Marketing & Strategy. More
than the course, I enjoyed the dinner after the class with the fellow students
and lecturers at the nearby restaurant called Spice Hub.
The dishes in that restaurant are still flowing in my mind
regularly. The light brown fresh tandoori chicken with crispy baked salted
potatoes placed around it with the tickling sound of the hot iron plate
directly from the tandoori oven, blue berry lassie in the pot shaped bottle, the
fragrance of the hot masala chai, the deep-fried squid with mayonnaise, the
green evenly diced avocado-shrimp salad. I can say on and on. All the dishes
are mouthwatering.
Even though the first term of 3 months seems to be a small mound
in my 2 years journey, but I felt it like a mountain hill. Each week has become
a great ordeal to me. My once sparkled eyes started possessing black rings
around it.
I held on to my nerves to sail through the turbulent phase
in my M.B.A journey. At-last I saw the light at the end of the tunnel after 3
months. I was able to complete all the 4 courses with good grades. Yes, I felt
a sense of accomplishment which carried me for the next term though my head had
become more shinier in the mirror. I had totally a different commotions and
feelings in those 3 months which I faced huge challenge and started fighting
with myself to improvise myself to tune to the student mode which enabled me to
face the upcoming terms in the M.B.A course.
