Of Happiness ...

I’m not a special person, I don’t speak 71 languages, I can’t play the guitar with my feet, I can’t quote abstract business terminology and get away with it, nor can bring myself to truthfully answer the question, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ But then, that’s not what is required to get into a business school.

To be a part of an entity that has, for all practical purposes, always been, is truly wonderful. People come up to me and tell me that XLRI was the best thing that’s happened to me. That part I wholly agree with. But why, most people won’t know and will never be able to understand. Tradition cannot be talked about; in fact it would be demeaning to tradition to explain it in mere words, it is to be experienced. And at XL, we believe in doing things right, and by God we mean it. To spend two years in the company of friends, surprise quizzes, a non-existent sleep cycle, the bottle, the parties and such, is a feeling that cannot be explained.

I’ve never been at such a loss for words before.

When I came to XLRI for the first time on the 13th of June, ’08, it still hadn’t hit me that I was going to be a part of India’s most respected business schools. As a thumb rule, most of what people tell you will be wrong. People are so clouded by their opinions and prejudices that they for the most part fail to look beyond. I came here with a constant fear gnawing at my stomach that I had to do assignments all day, and turn into a report-writing machine. I do agree that the workload is gruelling, but that isn’t all to life at XL. Life at XL is about doing things that you wouldn’t normally do, it’s about being what you are rather than being what others want you to be; it’s about adventure and fun more than term papers and presentations. And by fun I don’t mean the hello-hello-ha-ha types, it’s about fun that is completely unbridled, utterly awesome and mind-numbingly amazing.

As someone said, ‘But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?’