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The Group Presentation

When artists’ see a stage, an unbridled passion to perform seeps through their body and without a second thought they run to grab the spotlight! Presentation for MBA students is somewhat like that, it’s an art. And our classroom is our theatre!

When I mentioned this thought to someone dear to me, they gave me a wider perspective about it. The whole activity is in fact like a theatre. You are right up there on centre stage, soaking in all the spotlight. All eyes on you. But in MBA, both the spotlight that blinds you and your critic are the same - your professor, with a gaze that pierces through your soul! Sometimes you freeze because of it, but, that validation from the professor is everything! And that’s what you and your group worked so hard for, right? Or wait, did they?

Have you ever felt like reaching inside your body and pulling your heart out? Have you ever had this urge to crush it with your bare hands? Have you felt that wallowing pain that made you scream louder than that annoying kid you meet on a local transport?

If not, you’re that person in a presentation group who just existed, and did nothing!

But if you ever felt that scorching pain, you have been an integral part of a ‘group’ presentation which you worked on, ALONE!

We all grew up watching the immortal TV series called Friends. Well, we watched it after turning 15 or so, and in a month’s time, but let’s pretend we grew up watching it. So we all had a certain image of how our group of friends would be - our GANG! A well-knit, rock-solid foundation based on trust. A bond so strong that you’d feel the world is jealous of your togetherness. You wouldn’t do anything without each other until death did you apart. (Or so you thought!)

In life, there comes a time when everything you believe in goes through a test. Your friendships are no exception. In your B-school, this test of time will rip apart your GANG in pieces. And this test is nothing but the Group Presentation!

You’ll be all excited when you get the opportunity to work with your own Gang for the presentation. More time to spend with them. More fun. Well, nope! All this, it is a scam. These Group Presentations are schemes created by God for his own entertainment. The drama it causes is way better than a YRF or a Dharma movie.

You’ll have your protagonist named Rahul. Rahul is a jack of all trades. Brilliant, plays sports and good with the ladies, but he miraculously falls ill when the deadline approaches. With every Rahul comes an Anjali, who’ll act like she does everything in the presentation. She’ll just pretend to be stressed out and keep pressing the panic button. This is the girl who inspired Kanan & Biswa to start Pretentious Movie Reviews... she’s so good at pretending. Then we have Tina! Well, she’s just there. She just has to show up and deliver the baby. Nobody expects anything from her.

“Kaun hai yeh jisne ne Poo ke ppt ko dobara mud ke nahi dekha?” You would think Poo is the best because she made a presentation all by herself, but no, her work will make you gouge your eyes out. You literally can’t take another look at her work. Rohan then walks in to clean the mess that is happening in the group. He will calm people down on WhatsApp groups. Add back the ones who left the group after a heated argument. Rohan is the glue that keeps the group together in these times. But, even he won’t work on that presentation. So who will work on the ppt? Enters, Raj Aryan.

Ek Ladka tha deewana sa

Ek ppt banane ke liye night maarta tha

Chori chori chupke chupke slideshare se woh download kar deta tha

Kuch kehna tha shayad usko sabse

Professor se woh darta tha

Jab bhi milta tha group meeting mein sabse yehi pucha karta tha,

‘ye part kiska hai? Ye part kiska hai?’

Parampara, Pratishtha, Anushasan. He fights for these three pillars of his Gang. Saving them from the humiliation in front of the whole class. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. (HP is life!) Life isn’t easy when you have to face your best friends & call them out for something. But that’s what MBA life is about, to manage people with compassion. And your B-school teaches you exactly that, letting you learn by managing your own friends.

At the end, when this turmoil passes. You realise one important thing. Your life is not really a YRF film, but it is directed by Sooraj Barjatya. Because through thick and thin, and through Group Presentations, your friends and you’ll know, whatever happens, Hum Saath Saath Hai!

Pari - The Digital Lobster

“Hang in there, it’s gonna happen!”

“How do you know?”

“Because she’s your Lobster!”

Well, Phoebe knew what she was talking, even when Chandler made fun of her theory and Ross was in disbelief. It took them ten years alright, but Ross and Rachel definitely were each other’s lobsters!

If Friends would have happened in this age of social media, they all would certainly have a few lobsters waiting around in their tanks for them to get there somehow. The magnanimity of the internet is at such scale that it is possible for a person you have never met before, and probably will never meet to share a friendship that feels deeper than the one’s you have with people physically closer to you.

A small but a beautiful city in the eastern part of the World named Grace Town unfolded one such story! It happens to be one of the cleanest cities in the World even though it inhabits many industries. Engineering is at the heart of this wonderful city. But what makes it beautiful isn’t the innovation and the passion for work, Grace Town is adorable because of the people who live there. Sweet, caring, grateful - they are the nicest people you will meet. But what stands out is their empathy towards a fellow human being. Though it is a city, you’d get a feeling of an old village looking at its row houses, and the narrow roads. Even the people fondly call it “our village” when they speak about it.

In one such row house, lives a girl with a dream to conquer the world. If there is one possible explanation of why the city was named Grace Town, it could be her! She is almost like an Angel. Her parents quite rightly had named her Pari. Have you ever felt positive by just looking at someone? She is that. The twinkle in her eyes, and the lovely smile - it is like getting an adrenaline shot full of positivity when she passes by. Simple, yet so classy. And on her days, when she feels like getting all dolled up, her grace defines the whole town!

Pari, who’s going through a quarter-life crisis perhaps, is not like your ordinary damsel in distress. She had already spread her wings wide and done something so noble by the time she turned 25, that even an Angel would fall short of her magic. Pari became a doctor, and now she is studying further to become a specialist. How does she do it? You’ll never know. But it takes a lot of grit, integrity and patience to spend almost the quarter of your life just studying, only to spend the rest of your life dedicated to serve humanity! Only Angels could do that.

Remember how stupid and curious everyone is in their teenage years? Pari was never that. She was a smart bright kid. While the rest of the world was trying to figure out how Twitter worked, she was writing verses in 140 characters casting a spell on the world. If the smile on her face was beautiful, her writing would mesmerise everyone reading it. Twitter was never about the looks. Twitter is for people who can write and understand a few more words than the ones on Facebook. And through her thoughts, Pari amassed a good amount of followers, and a few of them became her good friends. 

The concept of pen-pals ceased to exist once the internet was discovered. Emails took over letters and the instantaneous world kept moving at a pace which didn’t allow you to register your own life. But the wheel kept moving, and soon social media was discovered. Pen-pals were gone but now we had millions and millions of strangers eager to talk to us, just at our fingertips. Apps like twitter connected like-minded people from different parts of the world - and Pari had also met one such connection, not far away from her land.

It’s been almost seven years, Pari knew a lot of things about Rohan but she still failed to figure out if she’ll have to look up while talking to him when she was in her heels. Yes, they haven’t met in seven years. No, wait, they have never met in life, ever! But, they were there for each other when life took twists and turns, in love and in sadness, through thick and thin. They stuck with each other, at times when they needed someone the most. They knew, if they ever felt lonely in a group of people, they had someone to make them feel better with a virtual hug. 

Rohan was one of the guys who was attracted to Pari because of her thoughtfulness and her practical yet philosophical approach to life. She was one of a kind he thought. After days of retweeting, replying and subtweeting each other, Rohan gathered the strength to slide into her DM. He sent a nervous “hi” to begin a friendship that is still pure and based on sharing. Pari was kind enough to reply to him there and then began a journey- the first of its kind in the digital age!

Soon they were greeting each other on WhatsApp. Texting was now replaced with some casual flirting. “Nice DP!” Pari had once texted Rohan. To which he responded, “it could have been better if you were in it with me!” She blushed. She would have struggled to hide the red on her cheeks if he was there in person. But it was for his own good, Rohan would have struggled to say another word looking at her glow.

They still don’t have a picture together, but they have pictured a world full of health and happiness together. The countless number of nights they have fallen asleep talking to each other made up for the distance they had between them. After all, why does anyone need a partner, a soulmate? It’s not because you can’t take care of yourself. But a soulmate is someone who would make you love yourself in a way you never thought was possible. Pari made Rohan understand how uniquely gifted he is whenever he felt low. While Rohan made her realise what her existence means to the world. They were just normal human beings, but they felt important while talking to each other.

Did they love each other? Love didn’t seem like a viable option. They were soulmates. A different kind. The Internet brought them to life, and the internet made it possible for a man to have someone to fall back to when the world disappeared on him. While for Pari, she was meant for great things, always. But her true greatness lies in what she is as a person. You’ll meet a lot of people in life, but you have to be extremely lucky to meet someone like her. Maybe she is really an Angel, Rohan would never know.

If the internet allowed to gawk at couples like people do in real life, they would wonder if something was going on between Pari and Rohan. Because they really are soulmates. Not sure if Rohan will ever find one in real life, but Pari was definitely his lobster in the virtual world.

THE ALLEY OF DESIRE

The skies were twinkling with a few stars, the moon appeared bright and huge, it probably was a Super Moon that night but Raj wouldn’t know as he had lost track of days since a while. Raj stopped suddenly near a filthy dumpster as he saw someone lurking around the dark corner of the alley. For a large man he was, Raj feared confrontations - he couldn’t throw a punch to save his own life. So the mere thought of having to face a possible mugger froze him in his tracks. Raj has always been like this, probably because of the vile memory from his childhood. He was beaten by a couple of bullies when he was 10 in a similar alley who sought his toy car. That day left a scar on his mind and a fear for life.

Raj was 23 now and not even a mugger would dare confront a muscular guy like him, but his past still makes him anxious. On seeing the man, like a kid, Raj panicked and hid behind a cage door which stood near the wall. The figure he saw in the dark started walking towards him. As the petite looking man approached closer, multiple thoughts ran through Raj’s head. Raj thought of arming himself with a metal appliance on the ground near him, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly for crying out loud, what would he do with a weapon?

That man halted near Raj. He had a mask on his face. Turning his back towards Raj he said, ”just pretend I’m not talking to you, do not say a word! I had to trick the policemen guarding the bylane next to this one to reach here.” Raj got more anxious with every word that man spoke, his mind was about to explode with the thoughts of what was going to happen. That man kept a small packet aboard the cage on a barrel and walked away in the darkness. At that very moment, Raj’s phone rung, startling him as if he was committing a crime. He turned it off, grabbed the package and ran in the same direction he came from.

It was the 50th day of Lockdown, Raj had just got someone to smuggle a packet of cheese which he had desired from day 1.

YACHT

What Sachin Tendulkar is to cricket, Parties are to student life! And when you’re an MBA student, there’s a lot more to these parties than just a pizza from Dominos. You have seen your entire life between liquor and business law if you’re from a B-school. This life, it’s not within the confinement of your campus, it’s just outside it, someplace nearby. A place where you are almost certain to find a familiar face. Because you’re not the only one from your B-school that has discovered this cheap, happening hole where you can immerse your sorrows, drink your issues and dance to a happy place. Yes, I’m talking about that desi bar which is shady but not shady enough, so you and your mates can party there! Quite honestly, people can afford the BSEs and the Agent Jacks while studying at a B-school. But, there are so many tragedies in life and so many occasions to celebrate, you would rather trade your stocks at a local bar. I don’t know, how, and I don’t remember who did... but we had discovered our America in one of the bylanes of Bandra, a tiny place called Yacht!

What do you do when you are suffering from episodes of a quarter-life crisis? Simple, you grab your buddies, set sail to Yacht, and call for a quarter. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. But for us inexperienced sailors, when the waters started to look unfamiliar and thrashed our ships a little too hard, the only logical thing to do was to sink deep in a bottle full of Pride than to dwell in an ocean of uncertainty.

Appearances can be deceptive. From afar, the entire aura around Yacht gives it a shady feeling. A small door on the corner of a street. It gives you a feeling of the Leaky Cauldron, the pub in Harry Potter that leads you to Diagon Alley. But much like the Leaky Cauldron, even this little place in Bandra has the ability to lead you into a magical world. Once you enter, it appears like a maze. The place is larger than you assume it to be. Multiple doors, multiple arrangements. And like Harry discovered the world of magic as he stepped inside Diagon Alley, you’ll start unravelling little magical pieces of life with your friends in tow. I know I did.

Would you like to read more about our adventures? Maybe you will. Stay tuned!