A tribute to the Alma mater

Echoes of my mind: I still remember….all of us huddled up in the forum…coming from every nook and cranny of this rock….each with his or her own unique set of culture, ideas, opinions and diverse experiences….coming to this magical place of 'Cranfield'….a school which stands right in the middle of…. nowhere, well, so does Hogwarts! It seems like yesterday and now its all gone…faded into the ether...just as the snap of a finger would change the world around us….take away all that we cherished yet leave behind something much more valuable...our rich experience…our shared diversity….our common goals...those memorable moments...the list goes on, the bonds go further.

It began with our orienteers inducting us to this boot camp course in October... a few of us being pre-inducted with the Pre-MBA hurricane session. The immortal lyrics and music which reminds me of those 'early days of hatching' is ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow-Patrol.... and the words were "If I lay here ...If I just lay here ...Would you lie with me and just forget the world"...that is what our orienteers left us with...their parting thoughts. And yes, each one of us started this seemingly never-ending journey with big dreams and high hopes... we forgot all about the rest of the world and built up our haven here in Cranfield.

Yes this journey has come to an end... a tiring yet most rewarding journey of my lifetime. And what has it made us......enhanced our self-confidence....made us more aware of all that's happening in the world of business....and above all given us the ability to walk the talk and get the audience's buy-in even though you might be the least knowledgeable in that area....let alone the two-by two's , the models and the jargons. The year passed by.......we had come with our tinnie winnie differences... had our rough patches...bad politics... team fights....ups and downs....But u know what...that was not what Cranfield was about....it was doing much more than you had ever imagined before....it was going beyond the impossible….. believing in what you do. In the end....it has formed this intangible strong bond with our alma mater 'Cranfield' and we are all so proud to be part of this rich lineage.

The “year of everything”: from WACs to late night parties at socials...be it Tough Guy, the marathon...or the Canterburry tales.... the Capstone conference to put the icing on the cake....it was bountiful in its offerings; all up to the individual in how much they could take in...what else they could offer to the world…. in the same 24 hours-a-day existence which held fewer achievements prior the MBA.... it was running against time and being the winner every time. If you have read 'Snapshots from Hell' by Peter Robinson ....you might be as scared as the author who, being a poet in the world of statisticians, investment bankers et al, wondered whether we have spent our £26K down the drain or not....for he said "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here."




But perhaps at the end of the course, looking back and ruminating on those happy days, you would say as he did "If you forget everything else you learn here, remember this. All business is modelled on the structure of the doughnut shop. There are two real jobs in the doughnut shop--the guys who make the doughnuts and the guys who sell the doughnuts. Everything else is overhead!"

What has this magical place done to us friends? It has made us realise once again the uniqueness of our own small capabilities. This risk-free environment has dared us to do all that had been undoable…and perhaps never even imagined in our craziest dreams. It is one of those milestones in life where we would stop every time as each one of us gets lost in our own busy world. May be we will not even take few months to forget all our theories, two-by-twos and models …but what we will always carry with us ..is this indomitable fire that Cranfield has rekindled once again in each one of us….which is sure to make us go far ….far ….and leave our significant impression in the different facets of the business world…carry with us the ‘Cranfield’ name to every corner of the world and make this family of ours…of the bright and the talented…larger and larger for years to come.