Life

I earned my MBA-equivalent diploma from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC) today, marking an end to a journey that began over seven years ago with the first time I took a diagnostic test for the Common Entrance Test (CAT), marking also a new milestone in life.

So what has happened in the last two years while at IIMC? A lot of things – self discovery, world discovery and everything in between. There has been growth, in bursts and fits, and a mild flavour of regrets that accompany every this-is-the-most-awesomest-thing-ever in life. And at this turning-point, if it may be called so, I’m torn between having the world wide open, with the capacity and competency to do whatever, attain great heights and just be out there, doing whatever comes to mind – I can do it all, with a clean slate and a great launch pad; and between the changes and transitions that are only natural, of friends, relationships and what-ifs, because life is moving on, and it is doing that for everyone without exception – of course, expecting others to be an anchor while one ebbs and flows with the tide is neither realistic nor desirable.

There are pangs – I wouldn’t go calling them guilt – but pangs for things that should or could have been different. People I should have known better, or known earlier, or even just simply known – people with definite relationship potential, interesting people and people with whom you’d want to spend time with. Or pangs for being indifferent, for not saying things when they mattered, for dilly-dallying while people took stock of their lives and moved on – not necessarily away, but not to the fullest potential of the relationship either. This is the loss that I grieve the most.

Maybe it will help to speak out even now – but the contexts have changed, and one, it simply wouldn’t be the same, and two, things could turn for the worse. Again, there’s nothing so serious, really, as this last sentence would make appear, but the gist is there.

So what’s the lesson to be learnt – live life to the fullest, every moment. And I have had the privilege of knowing people who have made this their life mantra and live it effortlessly, whether consciously or otherwise, in my two years at IIMC. They will forever remain an inspiration.