How to name it - Part 1

Phase 1 (here is my real life drama getting unfolded)

Now is the journey on to the so called " college experiences". I have had the privilege of being the last student to get admitted on the last day at the last hour. How many lasts!. Guess this was a lasting experience. The first day (for me) in my college was at 8 am not knowing how to get to that college, what are the formalities, etc.. some how finished them. The first hour went off well. We had a break from 10 15 to 10 45.. There began my “being interviewed” process. Girls in the class (59 of them) looked at me in uniformity… I knew several questions would have been in their mind. All of them looked at me as if I am an “experienced” UFO (EUFO) with a human skeletal shape has entered room number 38(that’s where the 1st year classes happen). There was an equal amount of inquisitiveness in the minds of most of them in knowing who this EUFO is? I managed to answer them in a soft way and gave a convincing reply to them. But still the gap between them and me was there and it was a huge one. It was obvious. The age difference is just 14 to 15 years across all of them. I managed the day 1 at college successfully. When I returned home, I just felt so damn depressed and was regretting if I had made a wrong move. Leaving a highly paid job and studying is not an easy joke. Of course, motivation came through different sources in the form of my sister and other family members, close friends circle in the capacity of Directors and Senior Managers. I decided let me wait for few more days. If it does not work, I can go back to my employer itself.

Few days passed by. Gitanjali was the first person to whom I spoke with and she was kind enough to lend her notes to me. It was a noble thought to help. Thanks to her. Weeks passed by. I was totally clueless as to which group / band should I join? As this was happening, I was no way nearing the acceptance line which is essential to survive. The fear got set in me. If this condition prevails, I will literally be thrown out psychologically. Still I was living in a hope that things would change if I came down to kids’ level. I decided to remove my working and experienced hat and wore a student hat and approached members in the class. This time the scenario was different. I got admission in to the student wing. Somehow the first semester passed by. Towards the end of first semester, I found 2 little girls with whom I got acclimatised well. They are Lalitha and Sowmyaa. They were kind enough in accommodating me in to their row without any row ;). I will mention about each separately. Towards the end of semester 1, the so called examinations were conducted. Fear set me in again. I studied very hard. This is a kind of a new experience for me to study 5 units and write tests where in there is a mandate called I need to pass. I really slogged a lot to score that decent figure.

Wow.. I forgot to tell one thing here. By the end of the first semester, I was dethroned successfully from being a human shaped UFO to a decent acceptable human being called fellow student. Towards the beginning of second semester, my friends’ band wagon expanded. I got in to a host of good friends. They are just too sweet. Everyone will have adjectives also highlighted.

Lesson learnt: It takes some good amount of time, mindset to gel in to the relatively very young at heart and age group ;)… So move your coins accordingly. The game is yours.

Phase 2:

Second and Third semesters (till date) were a comparatively easy sailing. One thing that was a convincing factor to me was I did not miss my classes physically. Being mentally present was still a question. I passed the second semester successfully and stepped in to the third semester with extreme amount of confusions setting in. I was denied of my choice of specialization. This came as a big blow. It was a kind of force majeure situation. I had to take one of the specializations that my mind never craved for. After all the confusions, I decided to take a compromising stand of accepting whatever comes to me either by choice or by force. That’s how Marketing and Human Resources landed in to me.

I am right now in the fag end of my third semester where in I enjoyed a lot and there were many emotions exhibited during this stage. DoOs (Difference of Opinions), fights, compromises, again fights, compromises, were just happening without any blow to friendship (I felt) as such. As I am drawing a curtain to the study world at Chennai, its time for me to bow and thank all of them who have just sailed along with me forbearing all the tortures I have been rattling them in the form of real hazzles, witty jokes, emotional outbursts (after all am an accepted human being right!) etc.

How to name it - Premiere

Am back after a brief hiatus ;-)
A premiere:

I have been bestowed with wonderful friends and well wishers who have just been showering me with help, positive thoughts, motivation, so on and so forth. I take this opportunity to thank every one of them on my xth birthday. It has been a wonderful roller coaster experience with lots of fun, fight and learning during the 3 semesters.

It all began on a fine night when I was just wondering where to head way in the career ladder after 11 years of continuous work experience. The search for betterment began that night coupled with apprehensions at every stage. There were handful of options on my hand such as continuing the current job, hop for a new job, be on my own and continue with my brief entrepreneurial stint and take it further, go for the domestic assignments and a period to corporate ladder, signing up for higher studies– meaning both in the US and India so on and so forth. While this was dominating and eating my brain, I gave a thought to studying(!) on a little note. The scary thing at the back of me was people saying.." you.. studying.. at this age.". with a self note that "College a naana? "(sounding like a Santoor advertisement). Yes. Believe it or not.. This question was haunting me so much.

There was this little courageous (yet in a timid voice ) me who kept telling “just go for it” without any big killer instinct. The just go for it was literally an attempt to see if the coin will turn to my favour. As a result, I applied through Anna university and successfully got an admission. No preparation for the entrance exams. It has been a long time since I sat for an exam. So this was a kind of a new experience. As a result, I scored little above average in TANCET and got into this city college. The journey has just begun.

In the meanwhile, all my final formalities of resigning the permanent job were just happening with heavy element of convincing skills taking a stride. My previous employers are just gems. They were really kind enough in NOT allowing me to resign (lol) but at the same time encouraged me in my next big step. So I came out of my employer with a win-win situation (I guess I managed succession planning pretty decently). When I said I am going to study, I had mixed reactions. Some said its a very good move. Some said it’s an awful (not awesome) move. Some chuckled. I had to convince whole loads of people. The reason being they are the industry people.

Lesson learnt: If you are taking a studying path after a long work experience, do not act fast. Take time to choose and don’t regret from then on. Have self conviction.