Never mess with the Mafia

Last Friday, in my memory would be a day where I really woke up to understand the 'real' expectations of being in ones final year. The setting- international management mid term, which in most people's minds is done by a dreaded soul. Her record cannot be equalled by another any given day; very sure about that one. The first day in class she uses it to make the students realise her expectations by saying "If you're not in level 4 just go and drop my subject because you cannot survive."

Throughout the semester I've been hearing things like:

"I'm the mafia, don't mess with me...."

"If you got low marks for your quiz don't expect it to get any easier. You rise up to my standards, and I'm not coming down at all."

"Do you people understand at all what I'm saying!!!"

"Don't forget this a level 4 elective course.....deal with it."

She is a woman who is beyond remarkable, as I would say. She uses scare tactics in the most unusual way I've ever seem before. Apart from hearing all the above, there is another major plus point in her class- she makes you think. I mean sure its not like we don't think in other classes, but this is more critical and analytical. Questions she throws at you are like rockets being fired from a multi-barrel rocket launcher. They hit you so fast one after the other that words get choked inside your mouth. But I must say, I love the challenge. There is nothing like being up against such odds and in the end overcoming them.

The mid term hardly asked us to recall any of the theory we had learnt. Instead, the entire paper focused more on how we had understood the course; every single essay question was like it. She tested our comprehension about world culture; that itself will send a person reeling into another dimension. Essay questions required through analyses of various global business phenomena, but the best was yet to come. She wanted us to give our interpretations about the scenario.......and yes like always, give a viable solutions. There were business extracts from Egypt, Darfur, Japan and a hell of a lot more. We would have covered half the world in a matter of 2 hours- the time allocated for the paper. The after effects of the paper were not so welcome; answers would not be the same, and it all meant how convincing your argument would be.

I tired to laugh off the depressed state by watching 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and 'How I met your mother', but that was short lived. So what do you do?? I turned to some rock music and cranked up the volume. Aerosmith, Creed, Guns n Roses helped a great deal, and not to mention doing a head-bang. Yep.......it smoothed things out for sure.