10 years on...

I could be a tad rusty here, but I believe it's been just over 10 years now (not to the day, though) since I'd first stepped into B-school. To say that most of us who undertook that journey together are today under 'somewhat altered circumstances' will probably be a huge understatement . Some of us will be fatter, balder, but most will be wiser, I hope. Some of you may be reading this against a backdrop of baby chatter, or office hubbub, or general ambient noise as life passes by. For some, it has been a journey worth making; some are still waiting to find out. But I'd like to think that the journey has been worth it for most if not all of us.

When we stepped in that day, I thought that the world was my oyster. Of course, I didn't know any good recipes for oyster, but the idea appealed to me nonetheless. Today, things probably taste a little blander. Moreover the dollar sign is a little blurred sometimes, often shaping itself into words like family, duty, friendship and home.

Funnily enough, I realised the other day that - knowing now what I know of what it took to go through those 2 years - I might just decline if the opportunity presented itself again. Those 2 years in a room with no walls (figuratively speaking), changed a lot in me. But at the end of the gruelling lectures, the undending tests, the late nights, the placements, the tension, the petty squabbles... the only thing that mattered was that I was among friends. For those 2 short years, we were like a family. At least so I'd like to believe.

Those of you who know me well, know that I love movies. Thankfully, it's a habit I've never quite been able to kick. There was one particular one, which ended with a quote that I always carry with me. The context is somewhat different, and those of you who recognise the movie will - I hope - excuse the little liberty that I've taken with its 're-branding' as it were. I thought it might make an appropriate ending for this note.

It runs something like this - "...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." - Abraham Lincoln, in his first inaugural address.

Peace out. And back to the real world. Where the dollar sign is sharper.