Group Dynamics and others...

Am I really past my prime? Was it a bad decision to wait for two years before giving a serious shot to CAT? Could I have got a better deal had I not wasted my time in GRE preparations in college final year and concentrated more on CAT instead?

All these questions come to mind when I see people who are fresh out of college being apprehensive of studying with the people having work experience. In fact, even some of the seniors at IIMK feel that the people with work experience are actually their seniors and not juniors. I personally don't want to be a part of such group dynamics and the sooner the attitude changes, the better. Traditionally, in the Indian education system, it has been a norm rather than an exception for people to carry on their studies without any breaks and any kind of break in studies is actually looked down upon. The kind of culture that a US University has, for example, is very clearly not evident in Indian schools as far as the 'gaps' are concerned.

The question that is burning my grey matter right now is whether it will really matter if a person has 2-3+ years of work experience, when he/she tries to blend in the group. Are birds of the same feather going to flock together? I hope not...
I have just started interacting with a lot of my would-be batch mates at IIMK and it has been quite an experience so far. They are a bunch of interesting people, no doubt. The posts on the e-groups along with the chats on the messenger have already started building a relationship that I hope, is going to be long and lasting one. This batch at K (I am sure all others before us would have said the same) sure looks like an interesting batch as of this moment.

There is this guy, Nilanajan who keeps on posting all the junk stuff in the group, and then there's Neeta from Raipur, interested in stuff like Bungee Jumping and Paragliding. IF we have Malini from Hyderabad who is so very quiet, we also have Abhijit who has been working on Bio-Technology at TCS (rare, that?), and Ravi, who has been giving me the shoulder to cry on (as I have not received my call letter so far). So many Bengalis, too with Sandipan, Debojyoti making the names...you can also find Arpita in Ahmedabad, trying to get a study leave from IOCL and Surabhi in Bangalore, waiting to rock IIMK. Yogendra from Wipro, Chennai is confused between IIMs I and K (lucky chap...more than one calls and converts, too) and on the other side, Prashant Joshi (no relative of the great MMJ) is planning on a whirlwind tour of India before packing up his bags and coming to Kozhikode. Man, what a gang!!!