Life's Troughs And Crests

I actually intended to post this early last month, but somehow just could not find the time to do so. One thing that I realized through October and November is that life is a great leveller. It makes you experience great lows! Like the one I had in October, when nothing was going my way. At the same time you also are riding the crest, like I was in November.

There is nothing that did not go my way in November. It all started off with my preparations for CAT and mockCATs. I was starting to get more and more confident and was consistently improving my score. I had fought with my dad and convinced him that I have to do an MBA at any cost. I had argued that after more than 5 years of experience, this is the correct time that I should take the MBA plunge. I was mentally prepared to leave my job (a decent paying job at that) if required to pursue my MBA aspirations. My mom was a great support, and my belief was vindicated when I got an interview call from S.P.Jain for the 1 year MBA program. And this, without even appearing for an entrance test. I was ecstatic.

On a parallel front, I was coaxed into looking for a house by everybody at home. Their primary concern being - constantly increasing property prices. If I loose this opportunity to book a house, then I would never get the currently prevailing property rates later-on. This was being drilled into my head by my family, especially my Mom. To be honest what they were saying was right. If you see the last 2-3-4 years, property prices have doubled. Consider the current appartment where I stay in Mumbai. When we bought it, it costed us approx 18 lacs. As on today, the cost of the appartment is 33.6 lacs. While all this was going on in my mind, a third front starting to get active.

The US front was the third front. My boss mentioned to me that I would have to go to the US for about 6-8 months for a project. My client would be coming to visit our office. They would be conducting a 2 week training. And after the training I would have to go to the US. I would be going to Florida. Wow! I was very excited at this whole opportunity. Forging new ties, interacting with new people and ofcourse the "lure" of US and Florida. All this was getting to me.

Now I was at a complete crossroads. I could choose only one path. I could not kill two birds with one stone. I could not bake my cake and eat it too. The choices I had were......

1. Do MBA forget about everything else.
2. Forget MBA and do everything else.

At this point, I think I should mention a poem written by Robert Frost. It goes like this.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
.
.
.
(last stanza)
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Unfortunately, I have not taken the path less traversed. I have not taken the hard way out. I have taken the easy way out. I have decided not to do MBA right now. So I went ahead booked a house and am right now in the US. Whether this is the right decision, I dont know, only time will tell. Also, I cant totally say that I dont have any regrets. Somewhere deep down, I know and my conscience knows that there is a hint of regret, because I might have just lost out on the best possible chance of doing an MBA.

But, Life moves on...