5 brothers

So it was my birthday yesterday and while it was a day pretty much like any other, the events of the evening of the 8th of September are something I will cherish for a long time. The last time we were together was about 4 years ago before two of us disappeared off to university. We'd play basketball every evening - street rules (basically - rules didnt count) and then we'd sit and nurse our bruises after the game spinning yarns about how that shot we'd almost made would have won our team the game if it hadn't been for.... (several excuses were offered up at this point).

Over the last 4 years, among other things, two of us got jobs and moved out, one dropped out of college, one continued working with his father, while the 5th began his MBA. Some of us fell in love and out of it as well. And then it happened. The one thing that threatens and stretches the friendship of any group of guys... one of us found their Yoko Ono. We had a falling out which saw two of our longest and closest friends stop talking to each other. We stopped our regular games of basketball and stopped going to the movies as buddies. The weekend marathon sessions with playstations and nintendos stopped too. It wasn't the 5 of us anymore - just fragments of the original group.

And then on this one day, everything just seemed to magically come together. We were all finally back in the same city at the same time. And since I was in town for just 3 days, I wanted to meet up with the rest of the guys before I'd be gone again - my birthday was the perfect excuse. We went out for dinner together - rather reluctantly at first (Yoko was still in the picture) but as the night wore on things began to get comfortable again. We reverted to our old selves - the loud belly aching laughs following incomprehensible jokes, the long drawn stories about how we almost made that basket from that game that one evening, the innumerable discussions on the latest games coming out for the X-box or the Playstation... yea, I'll remember that night.

It was fun while it lasted. We dont know when it will happen again and thats probably why we didnt hold back. For this one night - things were perfect, even if only for just a few hours. No complicated egos to handle, no need to be politically correct, no worries about coming home early because the next day was a school day.. it was just 5 guys who loved each others company like brothers do... Brij, Joe, Jason and Raoul.. i'll miss you guys... see ya sometime soon!

P.s: Best of luck for the pick-up game on Sunday - thats if any of you guys have the balls to wake up at 6 a.m on a weekend!!! :)

7 moments...

The greatest show on earth was exactly that - the greatest show on earth. Even Brodie Boland (PAI 2005-06) couldn't help but remark that this was by far the best IC over the last 5 years. Keeping that in mind, I'm not going to talk about how great the conference was - somethings you have to be there for to imagine.

Instead, I'm going to talk about my favourite moments from the conference. They're as different as they were impactful to me. In no particular order:

1. China's opening plenary roll call - with 12 people up on stage, this was the largest delegation that the international network had ever seen at an IC. I'm so proud that I was a part of it. We're only going to go stronger from here.
2. AIESEC 2010 - each and every session. AIESEC 2010 is rousing, inspiring, ambitious and visionary all at once and I'm proud to have played my part in shaping it!
3. AIESEC University - without a doubt, the most useful and productive part of the conference. Sessions that I liked in particular - International MCs and Structured Learning processes. The former because of the intense psychological self assessment I went through during those 1.5 hours with Dey (from AI). The latter because (apart from the serious stuff) VPs People Development world-wide are now being re-branded as VPs Pokey Development. Please consult with Manish Bhartiya (manishb(at)ai.aiesec.org) for more details.
4. Developing Leader's Day - A DLD that was actually about Developing Leaders!! Congratulations to the Cad Schweppes and ABN Amro teams for putting together such an awesome agenda!
5. Kene's speech on the evolution of AIESEC and the Change process - hugely entertaining and immensely informative. I think I now know why everyone who knows this person is just in complete awe of the man!
6. UBS Award's night - the perfect setting for a great evening. The sponsor's speeches could have been shorter, but then again - they're paying good money for this stuff - so what the heck.

I leave my most amazing moment from IC for last. There was this one point during the conference when Brodie was up making a speech. I looked around me and found myself sitting bang in the center of the plenary. 536 people all around me, from 93 countries and territories all around the world. Each one of these people was tied together by one common thread. The reason many of us give up years and years of our lives - AIESEC. Each of us with different ambitions for the future but a unified vision for our organization. I'll never forget being right in the middle of it all for those brief minutes. It is a moment that will never come back again and I'm glad I was conscious of it while it lasted.

I also will fondly remember some fo the people I met at IC with whom I had some great conversations:
1. Thomas (Ned) and Chris (AI) - talking about China and India and everything that had anything to do with these countries
2. Paul Batchelor (ISG) - Also about China and India!
3. Dey (AI) - about personal ambitions and goals
4. Mairi (Est) - about leadership and teams
5. Lucy (UK) - about nothing in particular and everything in general - singing, chatting, laughing and sharing for 5 hours on the way back from Agra - Delhi. I usually sleep on long bus rides - but this one was way too much fun! ;)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some people and moments here and if you know me well, you'd know that I have horrible memory so as we Indians say: "Please Excuse!!" Until the next one...