End terms came and went. The accounting, eco, operations, stats juggernauts had us all flattened. We were literally begging for a breath of fresh air, an opportunity to get outside campus, to feel that we were still alive after the mauling meted out to us in the first two months. So, the term break was a welcome breather for us all. The only silver lining after the dismal performances in the exams for people like me, was a chance to get back home, forget all this and spend some time with our families. We Needed to recharge our batteries, because going by the prevalent norm, term 1 makes us stretch our limits and term 2 throws us over those!

Coming from a completely different background, the first month had proved to be very difficult for people like me. most of the times was Spent in deciphering what language the classes were being taken in, and what exactly was the purpose of all those excel sheets that were being thrown at us like nine pins. we sometimes felt like those bowling target bottles, where each professor came and hurled nice big balls at us. Profs had a good aim, we were all scattered down on the ground.

The next month, when at last we had started making some sense of the material, was spent in deciphering how to keep pace with the speed knowledge was being disbursed. Shoaib Akhtar would perhaps have felt shy given the pace of finance classes. One innocent soul made the grave error of asking the question how were we supposed to even digest this in such a short time.

“Eleven batches before you have done it. So, either you follow suit, or die.” Curt came the reply. Only problem, out here you are not even allowed to die. Once your hearts stops, you receive 840 Volts electric jolts, till it starts pumping adrenaline again. You get up, and run.

The next challenge was to increase functionality with reduced sleep. That was the only area my past experience came in handy. Having given forty-eight hour shifts at a stretch, twice a week, I could go without sleep for a decent amount of time. However, the neuronal disposition does not then remain conducive to understanding economics graphs.

So, it is pretty evident most of the time was spent in procrastination, and trying to figure out how to handle this all. It was only after the exam, that I had my eureka moment.

The problem had been we were trying to measure everything in respect to parameters that we had known before Pgpx happened. And it was then we realized the true meaning of the “X” in PGPX. It all depends on how you look at X. We needed to unlearn our old parameters, and assign new limits and values to X. PGPX teaches you to elevate your levels, rediscover yourself, and only then you can do things you wouldn’t have thought possible. We needed to transcend, traverse and transform.

And with term one done, I guess we were one-fifth of our way there.

Archya, is a doctor-turned-healthcare administrator, who thinks he has a passion for writing, and hence uses his limited idle time to pen down his thoughts. No publishing house has yet made him any offers, so he has to now debate his opportunity costs.

Archya is presently pursuing a MBA (PGPX) from IIM, Ahmedabad.