The most enjoyable course I took during my MBA at Wharton was taught not by a professor, but by a librarian.
In the final semester of the MBA, no more under any pressure, I took a course outside the business school with the University of Pennsylvania’s music department. The course was “The History of Western Classical Music.”
The lecturer had not completed his Ph.D. due to some personal problems, and hence was working in the library. And yet, his knowledge and passion were beyond amazing.
Every class would start by playing a composition, which we would then discuss and dissect, covering 2000 years of music history.
That is when I first understood why Ivy League universities are so fanatic about humanities, something we in India have always ignored, if not looked down upon.
I then regretted not having taken more courses outside of the business school. Sometimes, obsessively caught up in our goals, we forget that there is a world out there, outside the scope of our narrow vision.
That is how we miss the beauty in life.
– Rajan
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