I am back in chennai after graduation and the last few days at ISB. Its over with the course at ISB. It still hasnt sunk in that I will not be going back to my room in SV3, and there will no more be classes to attend. It still feels like a small break I have taken to come back home and its only a matter of time before I go back to the campus. Well, to be frank, it feels very funny to be back home doing nothing. Life feels suddenly blank. Recounting the last few days will probably help me come to terms with reality.

Graduation was a magnificent day. For me especially, for I did not go through a convocation ceremony when I completed my engineering. The academic regalia heightened the feeling that I was going through something very significant in my life. Looking at Rajat Gupta and Anil Ambani lead us in procession to the stage, actually walking in that gown to the stage, receiving the certificate, shaking hands and flipping the tassle across to the left, it felt surreal, oddly dream like. Anil spoke about his conversations with Dhirubhai, the practicality of the MBA education and the need to realize that this is where the learning really starts. Rajat emphasized that. So true, for I wonder how life is going to span out at work with all these frameworks in mind. There is so much that I think I have learnt but I wonder how I am going to relate all that to what is going to happen day to day. I look forward to life now, one of the reasons being, I want to see how much what this one year has taught me is actually going to change the way I work, handle people and my self.

The graduation ceremony in itself brought into focus how much this one year has meant not only to many of us at ISB but to ISB itself. In all the melee of the one year, from admissions to placements, it was so easy to have lost out on the bigger picture. At the end of the day, beyond the job that we will be going to, beyond that money we are going to make, beyond the career growth we are going to see, as "alumni", ISB has a lot of stake in the way we are going to carry ourselves. From the smallest help we can do to ISB, to being a role model that will build the ISB brand name, brick by brick, each one of us now have a greater part to play in building this dream. Ethics, discipline and hard work from each and every one of us means a lot to a lot more people that ever before.

ISB was full with the family and friends of many of us. For my parents, as it was for every parent on that day, it was a proud moment. For the professors who had flown down to see us graduate, for the staff of ISB who had put up with us for the whole of 11 months, for every worker at Sarovar, who had made our life so much more comfortable without being noticed, this event was significant for their own reasons. It was wonderful and moving to see all of them standing along the stage, applauding us and happy for us. Many of us will be leaving them, possibly to never see them again. We had just spent 11 months with them. But still, there seemed this bonding they had developed that made them feel that way.

The last few days after graduation were very unnerving. How do you feel when until yesterday, you spent the whole of 11 months, every little moment of your life in a campus teeming with 220 of your own friends and suddenly you see them leaving, one after the other. Every time you walked out, you had someone leaving. It did not hit me initially for I never realized that I would never see them again. Only when I went to the dining hall for lunch and dinner did it start showing up. And when it was time for me to leave, my room mates were still there, to say good bye. Saurabh, especially, for he and I had spent the whole of the year together, sharing every moment of triumph and stress. I possibly cant see this campus without the same old guys. It will never be the same. Makes you realize that more than anything else, its the people who make the campus what it is.

Back home, its been funny. Suddenly absolutely nothing to do. My dear old modem, which loyally served me for so many years died on the day I returned. So, I am disconnected as well. I am killing time reading some books I always wanted to, with prince of persia on my brother's new PS2, watching TV, sleeping and eating but it feels very funny. Its the same city I spent 25 years in. I have only come back after 2 years but suddenly all my friends are gone. Some married, some abroad and others in other cities. Suddenly I find myself alone, disconnected and feeling lazy and funny. Life has changed suddenly. The pace of change... striking.

I will back in ISB in another 2 weeks for orientation. Its the same campus but now there will be 280 new faces... its going to be a different campus. I wonder how it will be to mix thoughts of my 11 months with the same place now being occupied by a new set of excited souls. Life will move on...