Thanks IIM Bangalore

Tonight I make the confession that took a long time coming....

I THANK IIM BANGALORE, my ALMA MATER....

There are four emotions I had felt so far towards IIMB.

1. Utter Joy when I saw the letter stating that I am granted admission. I was in heaven....

2. Naked Fear during the first two or three terms.. I was so scared of my class mates, their IIT backgrounds, their extroverted and childish (this I realized later) nature...

3. Disdain and Revolt during the second year, when all I did was to inwardly down play the school, my fellow students and lived in a cocoon.... (I remember mentioning in one of the final interviews that whatever i learned is not because of IIMB, but because of my common sense... how so foolish of me...My placement reps will remember this, I bet)

4. Guilt and Regret all the years ensuing the graduation till yesterday, remembering the missed opportunity, the wasted time, the friends that I did not make, the grades that I did not try for, the portals of learning that I denied myself to touch, the profs that I did not reach out to...

However, today and now, I have a fifth and immensely liberating emotion...

5. Gratitude and Reconciliation... IIM had made me what I am today... It is one of the most important pillars of my strength... By not totally seeking shelter under its branches, I now know how much more it is capable of. By not completely illuminating myself under its lights, I now know how luminous it is.

I thank all people and all the circumstances which made me worthy of studying there for two years... My family, My school, My friends, My railway colleagues, Everybody @ Time Hyderabad, All other people who believed in me.

I THANK YOU IIM BANGALORE... I will be eternally grateful to you and proud that I was once with you.....