Decades worth of blog !

I know Ive not been blogging. Blame it on a full calendar day after day - oh that is just an excuse ;). So i thought - hmm - y not blog for the whole decade ?

What a decade it has been ! I know I speak like I were to speak of the man's time in this earth. But for now, its just my life upon this earth that I'm partial to !
A decade is a long time. For me four things stand out which has defined my life today and has had a lasting impression on my (then) young mind ;)

1. Passing out of NIT and joining Larsen and Toubro and within there going on to live a life of recluse in an East African island off Tanzania. What a splendid opportunity to grow, lead and work across cultures. Apart from learning to love races, places, animals and nature in all forms and fashion

2. Joining IIM A Class of 2006 - with stars in eyes and a dream that the youth in me had laid seige to, to be in the best business school in India (Some would argue in Asia Pac). Looking back if I had joined IIM B or IIM C Id still have probably had pretty much a similar life thenceforth. However, IIM A made me humbler, helped me interact with great folks (Friends and gurus) and probably made me a better, more confident and suprisingly less arrogant human being. As against my fears, I came out putting life in a bit of a perspective answering couple of key questions - how important is money, how important is being in India, how important is it to give back to the nation.

3. Joining The Firm - McKinsey was everyones dream. A dream I did not dream. I honestly thought I stood no chance. I wanted to have my time with sports which I would not sacrifice. I wanted to have my time with bed and sleep which I would not sacrifice. From whatever I had been fed of IIM A and McKinsey it was that McKinsey prefers to hire only from Top of Class and to be top of class in IIM A one has to sacrifice all interests and sleep. As I realised both these are not entirely true !
The Firm remains a place close to my heart. I made great friends, learnt a lot, made some moolah along the way and answered one additional important question - how important is family and spending time with them ?

4. The wedding - Keeping aside all romance and kinship and sense of family (which are probably more important) I got a great friend in Sandhya. We keep pulling each others legs, mostly meet during weekends only , works our ass off through the week and crib to each other about how our marriage is always at half life. (If we are married for 50 years, that would essentially mean only <25 !!). We love common things, which we knew as friends before dating - sharing a lasting passion for nature, nature conservation, trekking, mountains, forests and a liking for small pleasures of life (Travelling in double decker buses, eating roadside food, having chai watching monsoons from our balcony, listening to birds sing, smelling first rains, train travel etc etc). It has been one fun ride.

Fifth, if I were to pen down, would be my ever growing love for wild life and a growing need to do by bit to protect the planet especially the forests. Downside has been my extravagant spending on photography equipments for wildlife shooting (One of the very few luxuries that I afford apart from premium clothing!!)