Hungover for life...

If I am to look back at the last 3 years of my work-life, that required me to teach apart from my other responsibilities; my face invariably breaks into a smile as the beautiful memories of interaction with EACH AND EVERY ONE of my young and hopeful students across India, come flooding into my mind! Well my dears ... at the outset know this for a fact that I have loved these three years of my life the most, because of each of YOU! This post is to share my thoughts on the eternal question that I have been asked several times by quite a few of you 'Priya Maam, which is your favourite batch?' So here goes... Although I joined during the last quarter of the academic year of 2011, I spent only a small amount of quality time with the students and that too only with the full time events batch, and hence it is their faces and that of the young trio Deepak, Jimmy and Nowshir, the founder Directors (Deepak reintroduced me to the company after my first outing with them in their year of inception in 2002) that come to my mind, whilst I am in reflection mode... with a reasonable amount of hand-holding and industry interaction, the batch was successfully placed and on the emotionally charged graduation day held at the IES College Auditorium, a much tearful Deepak also moved on leaving me behind with mixed emotions of what lay ahead... The Class of 2012 was my first complete year of interaction with young minds; and sharing with them my experiences and perspective on life and the event and experiential marketing industry was fantastic. It was clearly a year of learning and what a roller coaster ride it was! As the students absorbed all that they could from each of the faculty members in class and all the wonderful LIVE experiences that the industry had to offer them, I too built a bond with my students by taking lectures with them, not only in Mumbai but in Kolkata, Indore, Pune and NOIDA too... my friends list on Facebook shot up and I would have all kinds of students in-boxing me on their experiences, woes and adulation. As an event manager I had the privilege of hosting some amazing national and international events; but creating and implementing an event with a bunch of young event enthusiasts was a different ball game altogether as the passion and eye for detail was at a different level altogether. So, when the annual in-house event took off in full swing around the middle of January of 2012; I could never have imagined what the future had in store for me. There was a flurry of activity and insanity reigned with the small but enthusiastic team that was trying to tie up all the MANY loose ends of the event... My cabin was transformed into a makeshift site office and I had students thumping up and down the stairs to my office and walking in and out, squatting around in any space they could squeeze themselves into, at any time of the day/evening to discuss roadblocks, status, monies and the way forward... we were all breathing and worrying for our event. D-day finally arrived and 03-04 February 2012 saw the event concluding successfully thanks to the collective efforts of the Class of 2012, despite all the possible odds... and believe you me, that it was a true wonder as 1 day short of the event date we still had quite a few unsolved pieces in our puzzle! Soon after the event, I tripped off with a motley group of close to 50 students, most of them less than half my age i.e. 18 years and upwards, by road to Goa, the land of beaches and everlasting memories! As I tried to catch a few winks while struggling to get warm in the over chilled cabin of the bus, I was thinking to myself, 'What am I doing on this bus? I hardly know these people and I'm going to be so out of place!' But destiny it seems had other plans. I rediscovered Goa from the eyes of these youthful people -- driving around the narrow lanes, relishing the seafood, dancing and singing aloud at high volume to 'Tennu main love karda' the song that became an anthem of sorts; and strangely, I found a unique friendship in all these people. Seeing the students having a fun time was awesome and the countless rushes of emotion, the love and the affection I gained in those three days, gave me an unforgettable emotional connect! I had been to Goa over twenty five times before this, however this trip stood out as the most EPIC trip ever... With attachment comes worry and so on our return journey as I mused over the time spent, I also wondered if these students were ready to face the challenges of the world, our bus was jolted to a halt to encounter a near death accident in the middle of the night on the highway. The students rushed to the aid of the wounded and screaming passengers, fearlessly helping them evacuate from the upturned bus, providing first aid, calling the highway police, distributing their own blankets, water and food and counselling the emotionally broken until help came for them. Seeing the amount of solidarity that was shown by them towards the pain and suffering of the victims; gave me the heart-warming belief that these were event managers in the real sense; boys and girls who were hands-on in trying to do the best possible to manage the situation at hand, ready to face the danger of the unknown and wanting to do whatever it takes to get things under control and I am proud to say that they did! After we came back from Goa, the internship cycle was upon us and soon all the students were taken up as interns within the industry! Coming to office was never the same again as seeing the empty Classroom No 3, made my eyes well up for reasons unexplained and I would yearn to hear the familiar chatter and laughter or see the faces of my new found young friends that I had grown to love so much. I have always had an open door policy and hence thankfully (for me) students would call in once in a while to report the fun they were having, my heart would skip a beat each time I received a message from any of them about some angst they were going through or wanted some advice in a situation they were in. The internships finally concluded and soon came the final exams and the Placement Cycle. I would have students individually sneaking up and getting emotional about their interview experiences, wiping their tears of rejection, seeking guidance, conducting mock interviews with them, giving my feedback to each of them on their strengths and weaknesses, reviewing their CVs, talking to parents, sorting their minds of the confusion on whether they should take a job in a large company or small one, whether they should take Production or Client Servicing or Concept or in the case of advertising whether they should take media planning or copywriting or client servicing or account planning; placating fears of the upcoming graduation and life ahead; and as I handheld each of them through this emotionally trying time, I knew that I would have to soon let go. Each of these young friends of mine would have to fly the nest and that I needed to encourage them to choose their path and stock them up with the best advice and knowledge reserve as possible so that they achieve their dreams. Graduation Ceremonies are tearful as they separate a body of people that are used to being with each other over a period of time and then at the end when they take on new paths that don't meet any more, or that often, the separation creates an emotional void that at the start seems difficult to fill. And so, came the Graduation Day of Class of 2012 at the Blue Frog with much fanfare, speeches, awards, music and dance and a lot of tears and I bid adieu to all my students across India as I travelled from one city to the next, watching all of them rejoice and cry in the same breath and moving on to carve their lives ahead. Just as they would have found newer people and situations to deal with I too learnt to cope with their absence as along bounced into campus the Class of 2013 and a year later Class of 2014; both with a lot of gusto and enthusiasm and undoubtedly some amazing bodies of talent and capability. Leaving emotions at bay in both these academic years, my team across India and I worked really hard to ensure that the students got the best learning experience possible. In fact each of the last three years were a mixed bag indeed; Interaction with some amazing thought leaders like Roshan Abbas, Martin D’costa, Michael Menezes, Atul Nath, Jateen Rajput, Brian Tellis, Thanush Joseph, Sabbas Joseph, Viraf Sarkari, Venky, Ramki, Nisar Merchant, Vinod Janardhan, Tanaz Basrur, Tabassum Modi, Sameer Tobaccowala, Rahul Gomes, Nishant Parasher, Rajesh Verma, Rajeev Jain, Ankur Kalra, Arnob Mukherji, Jairaj Jathar, Mani J., Swaminathan, Rachna Khanna, Zarina Poonawala, Satish Bendre, Bhakti Ledwani, Rasika Kulkarni, Tejol Kolwalkar, Mayank Mishra, Sweekar Mathkar, Kamal Punjabi, Ninad Shah, Anjali Talreja, Jeroo, Vandana Kakar, Sukanti Ghosh, Vaneeta Sreedhar and many more; interacting with the industry at EEMA’ fun-filled annual events, creation of the newsletter, the in-house events of no drinking and driving and of course the NO TOBACCO (BTW, I have a secret wish that all of you would just stop smoking somehow … Sigh… so if you ever do, please do remember to inbox me so that I can feel happy and send you some more of my power blessings) and of course the convocation last year with my super-duper team of students from Vashi at the Canvas Lounge was awesome… what creativity, detailing and passion and what a grand ending of yet another awesome academic year! Again the emotional connect with the franchise heads in Delhi, Indore and Bhopal and their respective team members and students and all my students and team in Mumbai have given me an unforgettable HIGH that I am never going to get over.

My own children often ask me which one of them I love more and my response to each of them is always the same… ‘I love you the most and you mean the world to me.’ I seem to have taken up more than 3/4th of this post writing about the Class of 2012 and you might think that they are my natural favourites over the other batches. Well, the reason to talk so much about class of 2012 was because that year' description encapsulated all the possible experiences that I have had with the rest of the batches too (with Goa being the exception in their case) and so my response to peoples general assumption of my favourite batch being Class of 2012, is a NO … and here again is applied my treatment to my own kids. Each of you have been instrumental in making my journey special and have taught me so much during my time with you; and hence each batch in its own unique way is my favourite for reasons unexplained and too private to be shared in a blog post. And whether or not it is reciprocated, I love you all dearly and often say a silent prayer for the well-being of each of you wherever you may be. I have seen that special spark in so many of you that I get goose bumps when I think of the possible success that you will achieve in the future and that I hope I am there and have the sanity to feel your joy; but I am superstitious and an emotional fool and so I am not going to mention any names and jinx things for you… instead I am sending you my ‘power blessings’ that will follow you around like a guardian angel to ensure your success! Your life has just about started out my dear friends and you have miles to go, so make your journey sincere and never fool yourself about your weaknesses. Be consistent, despite all the obstacles that might come your way and keep on the character of a curious cat to keep adding to your knowledge and if you do so, I promise, you will soon find ways to get ahead and claim what is rightfully yours. Lastly, always be humble about whatever you achieve and guide your juniors and colleagues to grow along with you. And yet, despite all the love and respect and care I have got from each of you and all my attachment for these emotional yearly cycles, that were so much a part of me; a month ago I took a decision to move on from the work place that connected you with me… Having that behind me now, I would like to sign off by saying that your relationship with me is for a lifetime and I am a phone call or an inbox message away if and whenever any of you need me. God bless and love always … Priya