What a journey!!!

Hi guys,

Finally we get to start an HR blog of our own!! I remember, we, as in, Saji, mama and yours truly, had this conversation about the same some time late in 1st year, but like many other initiatives, this one too had died a quiet death, or so I thought, until Saji revived it, so all credit to him, and hope we can keep this one alive.

I was thinking what to write about in this inaugural post, and came upon the idea of reliving the last 5 terms in XLRI, my memory and your patience permitting.

As we start the last and the most frax term here, and are on the threshold of passing out from one of the most prestigious B-schools in India, I can't help recollecting the fleeting events that have come to characterise my life, once the 4 letters X,L,R and I entered my life. Dating back to the day, 31st of March ,2005 I think, when I was having my IIM-B final interview, and I came to know of the XLRI final call. I don't know if it made me complacent, for I subsequently screwed up my interview, but looking back, I have no regrets, as 18 action and fun-filled months, lots of sleepy classes, last minute assignments and submissions, the pendulum swinging from hectic and crazy work to total joblessness, numerous wet nites (though I don't drink, but I guess drinks weren't the only things wet!!), singing, dancing and drama performances, super-effecient team meetings, bike rides and adventures, batting and bowling in all shades and loads and loads of friends later, I really couldn't have thought of a better way of completing my master's degree!!

A lot is said about XL culture, but I can safely say now that such a unique phenomenon can only be experienced, not described. In which other post-graduate class would you have 25-year old guys throwing chalks and paper balls at each other, passing chits in class, playing secret Santa, or hacking each other's yahoo accounts? Or having crushes, for that matter!! ::))

Of course, in the middle of all this, we do find time to study the night before the exams, submit the assignments, take part in and win competitions in other B-schools, as well as frax in a creative and effective way!!

I guess we weren't all gassing after all, when we had told in an uncannily similar fashion, in our XAT interviews, that we like to inter-aaaa-ct, and that we love being with people. That, after all, is most of what we have done over the last 18 months, in different fora, in formal and informal settings, for different ends but through essentially familiar means, and has probably set the tone for the famous XL-bonding that transgresses boundaries of year, sector, geography, gender or for that matter, differing dispositions on a matter so deceptively simple as fraxing!!

So, here's wishing a bright future to this blog and to all of us, signing off in the true XL spirit!!

Keep inter-aaa-cting!!!