Transition

There is always a time in everybody's life where they have to take a decision and many a times we find it difficult to decide on which way to go!! This time usually starts when one comes out of high school. His immediate dilemma will be what next?? Generally those are the days when he is not so mature to take a decision. Many a times he will take the same decision what his friends will take. He will opt for science not because he likes it, but only because his friends are taking science. This tendency is observed more among girls (Atleast according to my observation. So please don't google out any expert research on that topic and post it here!!! :P) . Two years henceforth, after you finish your intermediate, the dilemma is bigger. And this is the time when more people come and influence your decision making. Many a times, we tend to listen to our parents or our well wishers and decide upon their suggestions blindly. At that age, certainly the maturity levels are better. Those are the two years, where one gets acclimatised to the college culture. Ragging (though very less), bunking of classes, the first crush, the so called studies, labs etc etc to top the list. These are just the trailers of things to come. Also most of the people start their hostel life from this juncture itself. Often it s observed that there are not many colleges offering quality intermediate education too. It may even be that the competition levels have so increased that, people have to move out of smaller towns and villages to bigger towns and cities only to make sure that they dont lose out to others only because they hail from a village background. After two years of intermediate, the time is to go for graduation.

When things come to professional colleges, very few have the quality that they generally boast of. So this compels one to stay away from home and study. Initially at times, he will feel homesick. Depending on his abilities to strike a cord with others, this time period varies from few weeks to few months also. The company you get when you are staying alone, away from the watchful eyes of parents, decides a lot of how your life will be moulded. This is generally the time, when a person can move in the right direction as well as in the wrong!! Equal probabilities for both. Generally, this is the time when people first smoke, or have their first tryst with drinks and depending on the company you get, it can even go upto the levels of drugs also. As some wise person has said, "The mind is like a chariot driven by a pack of horses. If all horses try galloping in different directions, there will be chaos all around. " So its all about controlling the mind. Anything is okay as long as it is under control.

Life during graduation is that time, when you cross your teenage. You generally tend to think that you have matured enough You lose interest in studies. You desperately want to finish your study and start working. Infact the percentage of people who go for higher education immediately after graduation is probably very less(Well this too is my observation. You can definitely google this out and tell me the right information!! :)) This urge generally comes out of the willingness to become independent. The mentality is generally that "Once I start earning, nobody can interfere with my life". But many a case, thats not all. You have lots of responsibilities at that juncture in life. Your dad or mom, may retire and you may have to take care of the education of your siblings. Your parents may have taken a loan to support your education and its your moral responsibility to clear it off. Some times you may lose your parent/s in that juncture that the entire responsibility of your family may come on your shoulders. Its these situations, when you start having a tryst with what is called outside world!!

Having taken the decision to go for working(as happens in most of the cases), then starts the real movie. Something for which the script nobody knows. And in India especially, you never know whats happening with you, unless and until it really happens to you. Once you start working, you have to be double careful. But being a professional, life teaches you a lot of things. Many a times, you may not agree with your colleagues or your boss or whoever. You may end up fighting big time with them at times. In college life, you had one simple solution. Just avoid the person you dont like. But here, its not all that simple. You have to live with them. Just a small misunderstanding on one issue, has to be forgotten when you start taking some other topic. There you may need exactly the same person's help with whom you have fought just a few minutes before!! So life teaches you that and it does so very beautifully. Only thing is you need to balance between your professional life, your personal life and your social life.. Any interferences of any sort in these will lead you into direct trouble.

One great difference between student life and professional life is the fact that, as a student, you can keep on avoiding things or postponing them. Which is not at all possible in professional life. If Nitin fails to do something today, or postpones something, the same Nitin has to get it done, with more headaches tomorrow!!

Another important thing about being a professional is the fact that you need to take the right decision at times. Your instincts are very very important. When it comes to giving ideas, everyone will give tens of them, but when it comes for an answer, everyone will smartly escape. I was just reading it somewhere. Once two colleagues were walking in a forest when suddenly they come across a hungry tiger. The tiger is ready to pounce on them when one of them starts wearing his Nike shoes. The other one asks him, whether he thinks he can beat the tigers' speed. Pat the first one replies:"I don't need to run faster than the tiger. I only need to run faster than you!" Welcome to professional life. Hard to digest, but thats the truth. End of the day, everyone will be bothered about saving their own ass. One good book that gives a decent way to understand the ground realities and to cope up with it is 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. He has captured and put the hard realities in a fairly decent manner. Maybe it should be taken as a reference by anyone who is just entering the corporate lifestyle!!