B-school old-age home?

I am writing on my blog after god knows how long (didn’t even feel like checking the date of my last post).
And well, I confess, my post today is totally inspired after reading this article that reminded me of something that I have been fearing for so long.( Link to the “INSPIRING” story: http://siddheshagashe.blogspot.com/2011/05/tragedy-of-being-25-in-indian-bschool.html)
Talking about my Life in a B-school? Huh? What? I barely could study and get through my engineering what am I gonna be doing in a B-school? And to top it off, I even hate reading the documents in my projects at the office, even the ones that are barely 3 pages long. What happens when i have t pull the all nighters like what the seniors have told us? Why the hell did I even bother to chase a CAT 3 scary times? Probably cause the technical line is not for me. And studying abroad is another story altogether. Hell I don’t even know what specialization I will be opting for when I go into the 2nd year of the college.
Did I get too comfy in my job? No, not really, cause I’m sure I worked hard to balance a decent performance at work and a not too bad performance with the felines (read CAT,XAT etc). but then, it’s a whole new and different world out there. 2AM being assignment submission deadlines, books, reading , journals reading, and on top of that, you gotta seriously think about your future. OH Man, im pretty much wetting my pants thinking of the life, in the b-school.
Destiny has a weird thing going on for me, and I guess for the matter pretty much every other person. Last season I had worked very hard. Used to get up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning, study for a few hours, occasionally go to the gym or for a round of jogging before I left for work where a a decent project awaited me at the office. With confidence filled attitude, I was pretty sure to at least get an IIM-K if nothing else, I didn’t even bother to apply to “PETTY” colleges like LBS or any of the Symbiosis and guess what? A dismal 93 %ile in CAT last year and a borderline 97%ile in XAT, I realized that the only call I have is from XIM-B. With a weird sense of depression and confusion, I went on my onsite trip to the USA keeping track of the waitlist movement everyday at XIM-B, and finally at the time of closure of the admission at XIM-B, I was at waitlist 3. I can truly say that Pagalguy made me Pagal. Then I told myself, “Dude, these stupid B-schools don’t deserve you”, and I mentally prepared to write GMAT, go abroad, and maybe look at a financially secure future probably in USA/Australia/Singapore or what not, but not India. I guess that was my anger speaking. I came back to India and talked to many people and finally thought of writing CAT for the 3rd and last time in my life. I was prepared to give it one last shot before I gear up for the main thing lying in front of me. The idea was to prove to myself that India B-schools are more like factories churning out robots. With competition oozing from every sweat drop, there is no scope of breathing; we would become robots in flesh.
So I joined a crash course at TIME, and started preparing giving a half heartedly effort ( compared to my previous season of hard work). I got percentiles in the range of 40 to 98 in the mock tests. So I told myself, “There is no shame in applying to decent places like LBS, Symbiosis, NIRMA this year. All I need to do is forget my arrogance that I was possessed by last year, and I will surely join some B-school this year. “ And the cycle of preparing started all over again. So I filled roughly 25-30 application forms to colleges that I had totally ignored last year, spend roughly a total of Rs 90,000 on my TIME classes, and B-school applications and another 25,000 on travel expenses to interviews to colleges that don’t bother to setup interview centers in other cities. All this because I was pretty sure that I would not get above 92% ile in any entrance exam that I write for any B-school.
As I mentioned, destiny has a funny thing going on for me. I surprisingly got decent percentiles in all my exams. Well I say decent cause I was not expecting as much in any of the exams, and with my percentiles, the only calls I didn’t get were from the older IIMs. So I was pretty happy for a few weeks, getting calls, going for interviews to almost all the colleges that I had applied. To top it off, I was among those who had 2.5+ years of work experience, so if any B-school had some marks for that, I would at least ace that section.
And then the results started pouring out. Each time, my breathing slowed down as I tried to open pages for results, I logged on each website, and each time I realized that I have a either cleared the interviews or have a waitlist close to clearing(except for MDI where I don’t know if the WL will get cleared).
I had resigned from my job since I had secured admission in B-schools such as XLRI(HRM), NITIE, and am waitlisted at MDI. I think all these are decent B-schools and hope that there will be a few more people who would be roughly as old as me. I will turn 25 this year, and by the time I am out of a b-school, I will be almost 27. My fellow blogger who inspired me to write this blog today is right on most counts. I consider myself Uncle even without someone giving me that nickname. regarding girls in B-schools, I could not gather courage or find someone interesting enough in the last 24 years of my life, “Ab kya teer maar loonga?”( what could I achieve in the next 2 years with grueling pressures to keep us busy?). Regarding the politics, I hope to at least learn a bit of it. Could not do it in my company, could not do it in during the under-graduation, and I really am praying that I finally get placed in a city with affordable cost of living or with a fat salary to support me in pocket burning cities like Mumbai. Shit, I already feel the heat from the burnt wallet.
I have not spent my 34 Months of working in IT, but in a very niche field of medical equipments engineering, so I can proudly say, “I AM DIFFERENT”. I am even willing to come back to the same company in a better role, in a capacity having more and better responsibilities, and yes, definitely with a better salary. I am hopefully parting on decent terms (well, with at least with most people).
The bottom line is, i dont know if i will fit in. In the crowd of the freshers and those who have lesser work ex than me.
Is there a chance for a better salary jump and a leap in the role within a company? God I really hope so. Otherwise the obsession with B-school with sleepless nights, with tensions comparable only to hostage negotiations and fear like that in a combat situation, all my work would have been for nothing.
So, with an extremely pessimist attitude, will walk into a B-school and prepare for the worst. Maybe if things turn out better, I can take solace in that fact that life may not really be as screwed as I feared. And if things turn out bad, I can tell myself, dude, life is screwed for everyone. Try to relax.

PS: apologies to anyone specially from Tier 2 B-schools. I am genuinely sorry if I offended your college.