Enduring friendship...

As we move through life we meet new people - at work, in the neighbourhood, at the gym, or through friends. Some acquaintances stay exactly that, some we lose touch with; others turn into friends. And some turn into friends we just know we'll be friends with for a very, very, long time.

The best friends are usually made during student life or very early into our career, when we tend to spend a lot of time with them. As we move on in life and get busy with family and work we still make new friends, but it is more difficult to forge the kind of friendships we took for granted in the yesteryears. It can (and does) still happen, but consider yourself fortunate if it does. I guess we never really spend enough time with these new friends or go through life's challenges together with them; we don't experience the emotional highs and lows together any more, nor face the exhilaration of overcoming obstacles together. Emotional bonding most likely doesn't get a chance.

The electronic age has certainly made things easier. Cheap phone calls, email, instant messaging, and a shrinking world, all help friends stay in touch. I have old friends I have not met in over 10 years - still I feel like I know them as well as I used to, and I know that reconnecting emotionally when we do meet, even after so long, will be easy.



And now I've had this opportunity - of being a student for the first time in 14 long years, and of being a fellow student with 220 classmates, spending one full year with them - studying and working hard through many nights, and then spending some other nights partying and drinking the stress away. I have valued this a lot more because like many others I'd never thought I would have this opportunity ever again. It had been way too long since my undergraduate degree.


Of course, 220 is too large a number of people to become friends with. Indeed, I hardly know a very large proportion of them. But I have certainly made a significant number of friends, friends that I know, like, and trust. Time will tell how many of these turn out to be enduring, or with how many of them I'll still be in touch with in, say, 10 years time. An enduring friendship, after all, is a two-way street. It requires effort, patience, trust, and in today's world, the ability to transcend time and distance.

One thing is for sure, though: I am a much richer person, relationship-wise, than I was going into the MBA programme, and I consider myself lucky to have had another chance so late in life.



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A courier company with a difference

Oxford classmate and friend Dhruv Lakra has decided to fore go a high-flying post-MBA corporate career and has just set up Mirakle Couriers, a courier company with a difference. Mirakle Couriers has been set up to provide employment to the disabled - only deaf people will be hired for pick-ups, drops, and back-office operations, providing them with hard-to-get employment, and perhaps more importantly, dignity in life. Operations are initially planned for the city of Mumbai. The idea is innovative but unproven. I, however, cannot see why the deaf cannot perform these tasks as efficiently as the more 'able', or why the business model should not take off. Look closely at the company's logo below and the depiction of sign language for the letter 'I', and you'll see how effectively it conveys the message.

The idea will attract customers who wish to do their bit for society, even though it may put off those who may see this as a risky business to hand over personal or valuable documents or parcels to, at least until Mirakle Couriers establishes a reputation for efficiency. As someone who believes in the innate 'goodness' of the common man, I suspect that there are enough people in the world who fall in the former category and therefore will contribute towards making the venture a success.

I would love to see the idea take flight and extend to the creation of opportunities for people with disabilities of other kinds. I hope Dhruv and Mirakle Couriers are establishing a trend here that sees the birth of many such ventures in the future. I urge all readers to spread the word, and Mumbai residents to use the services of Mirakle Couriers.

You can follow Dhruv's journey here.

A laudable effort, Dhruv. Kudos!



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