The Transition

‘The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind’

- Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

It’s been 6 months. 6 months since I left IIM K. 6 months since the day reality struck that life still continues to be race- a race much tougher, much uglier than all races that I have been a part of till date. 6 months since I started my 1^st job. 6 months since my last post. 6 long, tiring, working months! And probably, 6 months since I left my childhood behind. 6 months since we all left our childhood behind.

These same 6 months, a year ago! When we thought that the only hurdles ahead of us were grades, B-school competitions and placements. When losing a competition was a failure that left us pondering for days. When we ran to a 9:15 class; often half asleep, more often without a bath and always with a cup of coffee. When nobody cared to find out how much we were being paid when we bagged a job offer. When we were never scoffed at for being from premier B-schools. When we never imagined spending an entire day all alone, with the phone and laptop being our only company. How we have grown!    

From Companionship to Solitude:

As I entered Kozhikode airport each time we had a term break, all I could see was a sea of IIM K sweatshirts, IIM K t-shirts and even more familiar faces as we moved towards the security check. As I ponder now, it no less resembled a bus-stand, with students queuing up, ensuring that friends got seats next to each other in the aircraft, whiling away time eating at the airport, and finally running around when the boarding was announced.  

When I travel today, or rather when we have our ‘business trips’, there are no companions, the seat adjacent remains empty or there is just another business traveller, there is no hustle and bustle to ensure that the luggage has not exceeded the specified limit because we do not have a bag full of snacks and ‘ghar ka khana’, for our friends and nobody takes turns to ensure that the auto has arrived, because a taxi awaits us outside.

From students to employees, from weekend trips to business trips, how we have grown!

From Celebrations to Formal wishes:

At the stroke of midnight hour, when it is your birthday, you are drenched with filthy water, beaten up, and covered with cake, toothpaste, conditioner and every other thing that your friends could get a hand at. And it’s not just you, even your best friends are not left out; because after all, best friends eat together, stay together and celebrate together.

A group of new people who always wonder why you studied as much, in a new location where you have nobody else for company, you spend your birthday working; with a few formal wishes, a formal ‘Happy Birthday’ email and a formal celebration with your colleagues.

From friends to colleagues, from late night treats to phone call wishes, how we have grown!

From Campus to Corporate:

The month of June meant the arrival of a new batch, those ‘interactions’, welcoming juniors and having the pride of being a senior!

When you 1^st enter the office, you are left all alone, the remaining employees wondering who you are, frequent glances from people around, occasional discussions about how much you are being paid and even more observations about your behavior- you are being judged at for what you speak, how you speak and whom you speak to.

From being carefree to conscious, from preparing our CVs the night before the deadline to regularly checking and updating our profiles on LinkedIn, how we have grown!

It seems just yesterday when we were still kids; when we sat there, at Arjuna Path looking at the stars till we nearly dozed off, when we needed no permission to barge into our neighbour’s room at any time, when we could laugh and play till dawn, when CCD had no reference to any tax saving plan, when comparisons were made not of the CTC but of the mess refund (followed by the usual, ‘How come your refund is more than mine?’), when case studies, competitions, and night-outs kept us awake till a time when we now are forced to wake up, when we divided 10 slides of a ppt among 4 members, when we listened to songs, cracked jokes and did everything else other than working on the ppt, when we could meet each other every day and not spend months only hearing their voices on the phone.   

As I write these lines, I wonder, ‘When did I grow up?’ Was it since I started to keep a constant track of time because a meeting was scheduled? Was it when I started thinking how to be crisp, polite, yet firm when I wanted to get things done? Was it when the content of the emails changed from: ‘PFA slide 1-4’ to ‘PFA last week’s target Vs achievement’? Was it since those days when I kept no track of the amount we owed each other to those when I understood that FM taught back in term 2 inherently meant managing your salary? Was it when I started paying my own utility bills? Was it when I grew up from being excited on receiving a mess refund to simply glancing at the salary message and continuing with my work? Was it when I preferred eating at home rather than eating alone in a hotel? Was it when I started understanding the power of hierarchy in an organization to simply ignoring it while studying OB?

When did I grow up? When did we grow up? When did our discussions change from laughter and jokes to mature discussions on our jobs and career prospects? When did we start fretting about our future? Oh, when did we leave our childhood behind!

4^th April, 2015: The day we bowed down on the stage to the Director as we accepted our degree, the day the curtains fell with a thunderous applause from our parents, professors and friends, the day we bid farewell; sad, excited, a bit scared, anxious and confident of what lies ahead of us!

This was the day, the day when we left campus, the day when we left our childhood behind!