Initiating noble and divine preparations a good 72 hours before for my sacred examinations, I ponder at the plight of my books. I preach and practice extreme abstemiousness when it comes to books, ignoring the usual mores of student fraternity. Consequently all my books are new and pious. I entertain surreal and irresistible thoughts of maintaining the status quo. Instantaneously working out probabilities of “passing and failing” minus the preparation. I finally arrive at a logical conclusion. Even the most sanguine estimates paint a sombre picture. Passing without physical and cognitive contact with textbooks looks highly improbable.

My chimerical canvas of marks galore suddenly seems a cosmic illusion. But then isn’t management all about extracting maximum from minimum resources? So how do I solve this conundrum? This is when I remember the illustrious lines of a forgettable poet. Forgettable poets leave behind unforgettable lines like this couplet-

Illusions work impenetrable,

Weaving Webs innumerable,

Her gay pictures never fail,

Covering each other, Veil on Veil,

Charmer who will be believed,

By someone; who thirsts to be deceived.

I am certainly not the one who “thirsts to be deceived”. Hence I turn onto my eclectic group of friends to cadge their humble opinion. Quite understandably and much to my envy, I find all of them immersed in tomes. “End your cramming expedition! Haven’t you guys heard of question papers being set out of syllabus?” I beseech fervently at my cogent best. Anticipating a fusillade of voracious responses and hoping against hope, I prepare my ears for a glib consensus. “Yes, but we don’t want to subject our hapless self’s to some megrim of a question setter” they reply en masse. “Besides serendipity should ideally be the last resort in an event as capricious as management examinations” retorted the one with the dour face, voluntarily choosing to sum it up on behalf of the discerning coterie.

Piqued and exasperated at the outright lambasting of my quixotic proposition, I retaliated making a riposte “You guys are ordained to fail despite your best efforts.”

Recovering from the unpleasant interaction, I decided not to get influenced by ignorant souls. I soon found refuge in the age old adage” Greatest risk in life is to risk nothing”. In addition, isn’t leadership all about individualistic decision making – factoring in the risk involved? It was high time I put these noble thoughts into practice.

It took another 24 hours for the epiphanic realization to find its way into my frazzled mind. I suddenly realized alike many other lesser mortals, I am too much in love with materialistic pleasures in life (read marks). Alas ! Moksha remains a distant dream as of now..

Contributed by Varun Arora (Batch 2008-10, IBS Hyderabad)