Back to school

"I know nothing except the fact of my own ignorance", goes the wise saying.

"He who says he knows everything knows nothing", goes another.

The right quotes to think about when you reenter an educational institution.

Eight years after i last went to one, here i am, at the Carnegie Mellon University , thanks to the Fulbright fellowship program.

Suddenly, life changes.

I am a student again !

Its an unusually liberating feeling, far removed from the grind of corporate life. The mindspace occupied by Sales, market share and contribution numbers begins to get slowly edged out by things that belong to another planet: Robots participating in the robots-only-film festival in New York, fuel cells the size of a human hair with the potential to replace batteries , technology that could help doctors use imaging techniques to monitor vaccines in cancer patients, the Nobel prize winning work of schizophernic alumnus John Nash on the game theory describing the now-called Nash equilibrium , tennis and squash games with energetic young students on campus, the tenets of Improv theater which mandate one to say "YES, and..." as the default response to any situation.....the list is actually much longer than that.

Added to it are lessons in the business of life, things that i had been taking for granted, or had just gone out of my life. Sample this- cutting vegetables, cooking basic foodstuff, washing (doing) the dishes, washing clothes , buying a detergent, ironing them by putting them under a mattress hoping an overnight tenure out there would straighten them up, travelling on a bus, riding a bicycle.

The best part is, as is usually always the case, about people. Meeting up with so many talented and dedicated individuals, who personify committment to a cause. The cause could range from research on percentage of CEOs who have been taller than 6 feet, the shine and polish on the forks and knives at the dining hall, the precision and diligence to make sure that every single paper in the portfolio is punched at the right place, the intensity of training that makes you want to try and be a Navy seal despite failures in previous attempts, the range just covers the works. It is the committment which i see in so many people around me, and a passion to be the best at whatever one does, that is both humbling and inspiring.

And when i think, such people are not just here on this campus. Not just here in the surroundings. Not just at the workplace. Not just in my circle of friends and aquintances. All we need to do is look, not just from the eyes, but also from the heart. Such individuals are everywhere. And everywhere, they make the world around them shine through their passion and committment.

And almost invariably, they do it with a smile ! Being around such people transmits positivity, transmits an unknown energy. And to expereince that, one need not be on one of the most high profile campus on the planet. One could just be anywhere.

TS Elliot resonates.

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

I smile.

And my first blog in months is on its way.