Life comes full circle!

"No horse gets anywhere till he`s harnessed. No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara ever turned anything into light or power until it was tunnelled. No life ever grows until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined." - Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 - 1969)

Today was the last day of our MBA course. Like many other scurrying MBAs, I submitted my final pieces of work by 4 p.m. only to realise that life has come a full circle. Suddenly, I could feel a vacuum building inside of me. The feeling is yet to sink in for most of us, but I know it will start reflecting soon. The best way to face the inevitable feeling, at this stage was to avoid or ignore it.
That`s what most of us were doing later during the day and it was time to be at CMDC hall for the MBA farewell - Day 2. Around 7 p.m., the dinner has been served and the stage set. John Glen - our MBA Director - took over the stage. It was a momentous occasion for everyone, especially those who won the prizes. Well done, Mark Holmes (UK), Bibhas Roy (India), Andrew Cox (UK) and Charlie Sincock (UK). The team of the year prize went to the MBA Football squad - though it was a surprise for some, the logic of selection went much beyond the numbers of wins in matches or achievements. It was more about the camaraderie and sportsmanship rather than the ratio of wins / losses. Kudos to the selection committee for looking beyond the obvious and in the process teaching us some more lessons even on the last day of the MBA course.

Of course, as Cranfield MBAs we have learnt to surprise everyone and today was no different. It was another cycle of life coming a full circle when the days of Orientation week were relived by a host of performances by many of us. On popular demand, the MC kicked the evening off by inviting Tom and the drummers. In case some of you remember reading my musings from September / October last year, Tom had led a team of Red streamers (me included) on a similar performance.

What followed was a rejuvenated show of skills of the MBA`s - be it mimickers of David Myddelton facing the Swedish group ABBA, or a gorgeous, all-women troupe of tap-dancers, or international women dancing with Indian men for a Bollywood number, the (almost) Full Monty, or the MBA Band, and many more performances. Each one of the performances was so engaging - all of us actually forgot that this was a "farewell to MBA" event.

Well, life has come full circle. This day last year, I had started off from India to step into an unchartered world and prepare myself for a life changing experience. And today, I write my last piece for the Cranfield MBA diary. I guess the feeling of "it is over!" has still not sunk in and as I pack my bags to move on into the next innings of my life, I struggle to identify how have I changed. No doubt I have changed and so has every one of the rest of the 125. Most of these changes will remain subtle and will surface over the coming years in our lives. Cranfield has helped us grow into focused, dedicated and disciplined human beings.

On behalf of Cranfield MBA Class of 2005 batch, I wish all of you well. Hope some of you have already taken the decision to be here as part of the next batch. And those who haven`t! Don`t miss this opportunity.

The world is a stage!

And we all are performers and our lives are the script. We all play our part to the fullest. However, this evening, we performed our mega play by staging William Shakespeare`s "A Midsummer Night`s Dream"………

After a full dress rehearsal the previous evening on the cricket pitch near dusk, we are all charged up and raring to go. And today was the mega day, especially for some like me, who had never ever participated or performed on stage like this. The full cast and crew were in their places by 6 p.m. and the changing room was bustling with excitement, anxiety, revelry and a whole lot of banter. When many guys dress up as girls, the twisted conversations leave little room for the imagination. As each actress / actor got ready, out s/he went in the safe hands of the make up artists. The stage was set with the "sight screens" from cricket grounds being used to hide the case away.

Once Prof. David Myddelton completed his valedictory speech, the lights faded away and music started playing. It was time. The audience was provided with handouts on the cast and the story of the play before hand.

An hour and fifteen minutes later, the standing ovation was terrific. Whether it was Titania (Becky) and Oberon (Jean-Pierre), Hermia (Tom) and Lysander (Amol) or Puck (Neale) and Nick Bottom (Ian) - each of us received a thunderous applause from the audience strength of over a 100. Of course, there were loads of funny moments during the play - Neale`s son calling for him when he saw his daddy on stage, or Tom dressed as Hermia losing his (sorry "her") wig.

As the Director of School - Michael Osbaldeston - wrote in his invite to everyone, this is the first time any MBA batch has done such an act, literally. Tomorrow is the last day of our MBA in terms of any courses. As we continue to stage some more performances in the "Farewell to MBA", we all hope that the future Cranfield MBA batches will continue to create unprecedented records and keep reinforcing the stamp of the quality of managers that Cranfield produces.