All our PGPMAX reunions leave many of us in a happy stupor … just the way an amazingly delicious meal that you haven’t over-eaten does. This one was no different. Two days of the Thanksgiving weekend spent amongst friends, going back and forth between behaving as kids in school and being responsible leaders that we are, interacting without pretences and being vulnerable and importantly learning life lessons through it all.
This year during the reunion we had Mr. Nirmal Jain, the Founder Chairman of India Infoline as the guest speaker and what a session it was ! The struggles he went through, the opportunities that didn’t look big enough at first and his candid sharing of his emotional roller coaster as the fortunes of his company went through peaks and troughs were hugely inspirational. With many of us becoming entrepreneurs, am sure his session would be remembered often as these ventures also go through the growth curve.
After lunch we had a short session with Sanjay, our friend and ISB’s Alumni engagement leader. Sanjay has a special connection to the first few batches of PGPMAX and ours is the third batch so we have had our share of troubling him. I have a special connection with Sanjay because he and Deepak did my interview for the PGPMAX course and I am thankful to both of them that they cleared my candidature. After hearing about the new things in store for us, the Alumni, we also shared some suggestions and ideas with Sanjay.
The highlight of every reunion is our reflection session – its our form of self appraisal and thats where we learn valuable life lessons from each other. This year was no different. Akash had summarised the life lessons learnt and I am posting them here –
- Health comes before wealth or that next promotion.
- Learn the art of not giving a F*&k! 😂 (there is actually a book by the same title, written by Mark Manson)
- You are not always required to give a solution when presented with a problem
- Give up illusion of control and then don’t stress over what cannot be controlled
- Last and surely not the least, take out time to do what you love. You have one life, live it and everything else will follow.
Now, you can read several books or attend several seminars or spend hours listening to podcasts and glean these lessons or just spend 90 minutes with your friends and pick them up with examples. Yes, I am making this statement for all our friends who could not attend the reunion for some reason and am hoping to see all of them at Hyderabad next year. If anyone thought you got me off your back, think again … its a short reprieve. 🙂
Personally the re-union continued for me the next day as well. Siva and I managed to fight as always and it felt good. Challa Garu just opened another scoring sheet with me and added a few minus points by not landing up as promised. His portion of the breakfast has been put into deep freeze :). Venky escaped breakfast but came for lunch and he is forgiven completely because he commented that we should have sneaked out of the hotel to have food at my place – thanks Venky ! I am still seeing Prasad’s super large shoes every time I start wearing my shoes and Kapil, we are so glad that you enjoyed the food… the lunch in your place is still fresh in our minds. Arun – you will not get the TV remote ever again. I am switching the TV off especially when there is cricket or any sport going on and hiding the remote when you visit again. I will also complain to Vidya.
Still savouring the many moments from our reunion … and just looking forward to the next one.
Dear Bindu & Krish, Everything is fine. But one thing seems to me very conspicuous. How come i see very few ladies in that august gathering? (may be i am biased with the GES here!!!)
Kokka we have just six ladies in a batch of 60. Four of us attended and that’s why you see fewer women. Why are you up at 3.20 am ?? It’s the middle of the night :):)