#StartANewLife

I have been born and brought up in Mumbai - in a suburb called Ghatkopar. I did my schooling and also attended college in Ghatkopar. During vacations, my parents took my brother and me around India, but the rest of my time was all spent in Ghatkopar. I was so comfortable and used to this place, that I chose a college in Ghatkopar so that I wouldn't have to travel anywhere outside. By the number of times I have used Ghatkopar in this para, you can understand how attached I was to my place of birth :-D

After college, I wanted to do MBA. Even there, except for the IIMs (the best B-schools in India), I was only looking at B-schools in Mumbai. I was so sheltered and protected that I did not want to explore outside. And then came the blow - my mom wanted me to get married. Suddenly the shelter was smothering me and I had to get out! So I applied to B-schools all across the country and got into one of the best ones in Gurgaon. I was so happy when I got the letter telling me I had been selected. My parents were so proud and my mom gave up on those marriage plans :-)

But once the news had sunk in, I was scared. It started penetrating my mind that I would be living alone for the next 2 years. No parents, no friends, no familiar surroundings.

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My parents came to leave me in Gurgaon and help me settle down in the hostel. All the way to Gurgaon and while shopping for the essentials with my parents, I kept asking myself - Did I make a mistake? Would I be able to live alone? I was already getting homesick. Things became worse once the classes started at the B-school. The professors were strict, I had a number of assignments from the first day, had pop quizzes and interviews for placements in the middle of the night from the second day itself. My apprehensions increased. I was barely getting to see my parents who were leaving in a day or so and had barely slept 3-4 hours in 2 days!!! My parents returned to Mumbai on the third day and I just got depressed. This was worse than I had expected; I didn't think I would survive.

But as they say, the day is darkest before dawn. In the evening on the third day, the whole batch was called together for a group photo and we were drenched in water thrown from above by the senior batch. And then it struck me - the last 3 days had been a scam... it was only ragging by the senior batch! I was so relieved. 

After what I just described, the actual 2 years of MBA were of course much easier. :-) It was the start of a new life - a very exciting new life! The first 3 days had paved the way for the next 2 years - nothing that came afterwards was tough. Of course, that does not mean it was a cakewalk. But my relief once the ragging was over helped me get over my homesickness and throw myself whole and soul into B-school life. Its a very different life - you are on your own with 150 other students who are strangers. You learn to take care of yourself, make new friends, juggle studies and fun - there are no parents to discipline you, you discipline yourself. If you do not, you suffer the consequences.

I learnt so many things in my 2 years in Gurgaon:

• I learnt to manage time - work hard but at the same time have loads of fun. Study hard so as to maintain my grades (especially since I wanted to get into Finance), but party just as hard, sometimes at the cost of sleep. But who needs sleep when you are having fun right? ;-) 
• I learnt to make friends - I am quite a shy person. But when you are thrown among strangers, you learn how to develop your own support system through a network of friends. I learnt to overcome my shyness and left the B-school with lifelong friends.
• I got to discover my own strengths - I was always hard working, but now I understood that I could achieve anything that I set my mind to.

I actually grew up. My mom commented on this once I came back to Mumbai after finishing my MBA. She saw that I had become independent, was more confident, that I could make my own decisions; and I was actually more happy :-) My B-school experienced changed me - in so many ways; in all good ways.

And it made me realize, change is good. I was scared to leave my sheltered life, but I ended up having the best experiences of my life. So always look up, just like it says in the below video of housing.com, because everything happens for the best :-)