Completion of a Decade: 10 Years and this is where we are!

It was the second half of 2003 and most of us were worried of what lies ahead. Within a few months, our two year Post Graduation Programme would come to an end and each one of us was keen to get placed. With a batch size of 88 students, everyone had their share of fear, doubts, nervousness and all the other feelings that one gets before an important exam! There were questions on which companies would come on campus and which would not. There were meetings that took place with the Placement Committee where tempers ran high, with each one expressing his or her insecurity disguised in the form of a loud tone or argumentative statement. 

Today, as I write this, I smile at all of that as a decade has passed since we graduated. 

I smile at the fear that we had within us. There were questions that popped in each of our heads like:

• ‘Will I get a job?’
• ‘Will I be able to earn decently?’
• ‘I love brands. Will I be able to manage brands ever?’
• ‘Advertising is my love. Will companies allow me to show my creative or strategic side?’

All these questions and many more have been answered and have lost relevance. With the completion of a decade, when I look around, I see my batch mates and my people from my senior batch who have done phenomenally well across companies, countries, sectors, industries and brands. I see people with wonderful careers.

There are some who took the plunge and went the entrepreneurial route, few others who have been with their first company till date, there are some who still felt that they wanted to study more and went ahead and did another course/another programme, a few decided to get married and stay at home, a few decided to become writers. Some even managed to get very senior roles in the organisations that they are working for. 

So depending on who is looking at them with what lens, their level of success may differ as measurement of success is always relative and a point of perspective. How you see someone and how I see someone may be completely different and each one’s point of view is true in their own eyes. 

According to me, all of us have done quite well and all the trepidation that existed back then was useless. I remember going back to MICA a couple of years back as a Guest Speaker in the Alumni meet and I was asked to share my journey with the students. I said “Irrespective of whatever I may share about my journey, the reality is that all of you will find or create your own paths and ten years down the line, when you do look back, you will be proud of the distance that you have travelled. At that point of time, whatever I am saying today will seem like a distant memory in the past as no one else except you yourself will be able to decide where you reach and how you feel about that journey!”

Personally, it feels great to have completed a decade of corporate life. I know that I have a long way to go ahead, the destination is still far away but I am enjoying the ride, enjoying the wind as I traverse this journey with no idea of what lies ahead. 

I also feel happy, inspired and delighted to see some of my friends doing work which I know that I can’t even imagine doing and it feels wonderful to see each of them continuing on their beautiful journey where they cross different milestones at different phases at their own pace. 

I would conclude by saying:

Completion of a Decade: 10 Years and this is where we are!

Travel Light - Happy Journey

This is an article that I had written for my B-school (MICA) magazine ‘Black Coffee’ in the year 2002 and I just came across it once again and felt that it is relevant even today and so thought of putting it up on my blog. Though it has a Deepak Chopra kind of feel to it, I still felt like sharing it with all of you.

So, here it is…..

Most of us would like to travel light, but very few of us are able to minimise our baggage. So many times, we literally sit atop overstuffed suitcases in order to snap them shut, but we are not ready to admit that we don’t really need all of those things.

Being overweight is often a problem. But we continue undeterred; consuming and accumulating fat despite our health problems. We are loath to part with the extra kilos that we lug around.

Here, I am not only talking about the visible flab but also the real flab – the weight we lug in and around our minds, the weight that drags us down.

Trimming the flab in the mind is a very daunting task that most of us don’t even attempt to do. But if we can muster the courage and make even an inept beginning – the rewards are bound to be tremendous. It may seem strange to talk about weight in the context of the human mind, but any unhappy person would know how heavy the mind can become.

Picture the mind as a room with many windows through which thoughts constantly fly in and out. The room is full of light and air. But in the middle of the room, a shape is growing. Call it the ‘I-ME-MINE’ syndrome or simple the EGO. This shape traps thoughts like flypaper traps flies. It feeds on those thoughts and grows bigger and uglier, and gradually blocks the entry of fresh air. The room becomes dark, stuffy and claustrophobic. The atmosphere also becomes heavy and stifling.

It is our own mind that bothers us but yet we keep on trying to blame the world for our affliction. We also continue to look to for world for joys, not realising that the joys are devoured by our ego.

William Blake has put it very beautifully: he who binds to himself a joy/does the winged life destroy/ but he who kisses the joy as it flies/lives in eternity’s sunrise.

Despite its size, the ego is very clever. Compel it to shed weight in one area and it puts back in the other. Ego reduction is actually a Herculean task! A good sense of humour can do a great deal to contain the ego. The ability to laugh at oneself is one of God’s greatest gifts; it can defend us from the vicissitudes of life. Most of us laugh at others, but we become very justificatory and protective when it comes to our own faults and problems.

Those who can smile through both rain and sunshine realise that the two are inseparable. Such is also the human condition, but beneath it are depths of serenity that can be reached. It is these depths that sustain us and give our lives meaning.

Another way to reduce the ego is to concentrate on the work at hand, instead of being obsessed with oneself and one’s expectations as a doer. Concentration on any activity without the interference of the ego yields unexpected pleasures. It also makes you more creative. It is the dirty tricks department of the ego that causes the major stress.

The battle for ego reduction has to be fought every day. If you can hang in there and not give up, then you will emerge as the winner. The ego will begin to shrink; fresh air will blow through the room (the mind) again. Sunshine will stream in. You will start feeling lighter and freer. The world will start looking brighter and a better place to live in.

It is a long road ahead, so the lighter you travel, the more pleasurable it will be. Hope you all are able to manage a room that is well-lit, airy and with lot of sunshine.