Abhinava and Term-2 madness

My 10 month old son’s name is Abhinav Krishna and I call him Abhinava. My wife and son live with me on campus. As term-1 ended and term-2 commenced, I got a sense that things are really ‘picking up’. Several activities started happening at the same time and everything seemed important or worth being plugged into. Pretty soon, it dawned onto me – this is madness!!! I mean, it’s humanly impossible to get involved in even 10% of the various activities that seem to be happening all around me and it’s nearly impossible to ignore most of them! The emails keep flowing incessantly; I found myself sieving thru them to find what’s relevant to read and respond. All the clubs have been formed and thankfully their mailing lists are helping filter most emails out. I am getting better and better at managing my inbox which in my opinion is one of the main causes of this madness! Someone mentioned the phrase ‘drinking thru a fire hose’ to describe the ISB feeling. I’ll say that it’s more like ‘drinking thru a fire hose and then some!’ Because of peer pressure and other reasons, even though there is a fire hose that you are drinking through, you voluntarily open other new taps as well! It’s madness as I said!

How is everyone able to cope up with this? I don’t know. I presume a lot of us are drawing strength from our support system which probably was instrumental in our getting into ISB to begin with, be it your mom, dad, or other family members or friends. Plus, most of us are probably built to handle this stress or built to learn to handle it. I must say that if we deserve to pat on our backs for getting into ISB, then we need a double pat on our backs for surviving it with sanity and learning! For my part, I have to say that Abhinava plays a central role in my ISB life. Enjoying the father-son relationship is in itself so de-stressing and energizing (you guys should try it if you haven’t). But also when I see him play, cry and do what he does throughout the day, it is amazing to see the simplicity of his life vis-à-vis mine. I mean, have you guys ever pondered how a 10-month old spends his day? It’s brilliantly simple. In fact, it’s almost divine. Think about it: no pressure, no stress, no anxiety, no worry, no peer pressure, no deadlines, no expectations, no jealousy, no internal or external conflicts, no fear, no regrets, no animosity. Just erase all this things from your ISB life, what is left!?? The one common thing between him and I is that we are both learning new things – he is learning to stand, or to say ‘nanna’, while I am learning about Conjoint analysis or Montecarlo simulations. Ah, so someone said it right – learning never stops!

(dated: July 4th, ’09)

Tags: Life @ ISB