I am a brand new entrant for the tournament for MBA aspirants called CAT, one of the most sophisticated exams of India. I am a B.Tech graduate from a decent enough college.

Right from start of my academic life till 12th, I only revered superficial dreams. I got the idea of being the ‘Napster’ after watching ‘The Italian Job’, and thus took Information Technology as my stream. (Thank god I hadn’t seen Armageddon then, otherwise I would have tried for Astronomy). Little did I knew about the harsh realities of ‘Vacuous Dreams’, the beautiful facade concealing pungent consequences. The result was I lost my interest and was quick to discard Engineering as ‘not my cup of tea’ without realizing the fact that it takes two minutes to make a tea, and it costs a mammoth 4 years to give bid adieu to Engineering.

In my second year of Engineering I was quite sure that I couldn’t let A.C. chambers, which are epitome of metro-utopia, obscuring my view of the real world. Free advisers (oh yes, they are ubiquitous) advised me to go for M.B.A. but not before giving me another Vacuous Dream, IIMs. I was fed up from these spoon-fed dreams; first IITs, and then IIMs.

Why this rat-race? Why so much obsession with packages, international placements, and luxurious lifestyles? Why journey of an M.B.A. aspirants starts with data of average placement and ends with the same? Why there is no room for ‘what-do-you-want-to-do-with-your-life’?

Paradoxically, my four years of Engineering was an epiphany. I realized that I would never be happy chasing after money.

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I would see people begging on railway stations; children, who were devoid of even rudimentary education, working as servants, and I did what other do most often; feeling sorry. We held politicians responsible for abject poverty, for poor standards of education, for squalid health standards. Why this hypocrisy? According to me, these politicians stand vindicated as they have their own vacuous dreams which is no different from ours.

I am not the only one articulating my feelings about ‘Change’. India doesn’t need it in the first place. Instead, the need is for ‘Start’. If we, the fortunate citizens of India, contribute even a little of our efforts, we could change the fortunes of the unfortunates ones.

I can’t claim to see myself doing anything radically different from conventional norms of a M.B.A. aspirant but I always had a clandestine dream of contributing something in my country’s progress. I don’t want to work for any multinational company, but for those kids I always felt sorry for. This is my dream, and this is the reason why I want to pursue Rural Management.

P.S. I am quite sure that I won’t have to parrot the perfect reason to give answer of ‘Why MBA’?