The Dream of Association

Though we talk all the time about dreams of time and money and security, the dream which has pulled me all the while has been the dream of association, the dream to belong to the club and then have a club of my own. 

The first dream was to be able to call Deepak/Shalini friends. They had such an aura around them, such a pull in them. Deepak is a man of standards in life - standards in living and in thinking as well. And the first dream was to get approval from him. In him I could immediately see a father figure. 

The first time I went to the PASE meeting at Rajan’s house, there was magic in the air and a dream was born - the dream to have a group of friends like that PASE with whom I could hang out. And then, when I went to the first major function - the Britt school, the awesome stage presence and the recognition is something which became an instant dream. What else in the world can transform a measly software engineer into a celebrity.

Shaju’s open and his team of leaders became an instant benchmark of the kind of team I wanted to create. Till this time there was no knowledge of how it will happen, but the dream kept getting stronger and stronger.

And that’s why the first open meeting on arriving in Bangalore was a big jolt - from a carpeted, padded, suit and tie full room of people to a dilapidated school auditorium with people as varied as a marketplace can boast of. The first FED was a huge jolt which almost threw me offtrack. Thankfully Deepak transformed the disappointment into an urge to create what I wanted to be a part of.

The first PASE meeting in Bangalore with the local leadership was a welcome change in the environment but I was always visualizing something better. 

And this dream is what led to our own PASE with our kind of people. And we started changing the open meeting environment and then the seminar environment and we will slowly but surely change the major function environment as well. Our Eagle clubs started setting new benchmarks of standards and this time’s 9% leadership just showed how it has become an integral part of us. We hardly prepared ourselves or our team for it, but it just shaped up meticulously well, like an army of soldiers setting camp. 

The next dream is to do our own function in the Chennai stadium and to do our own annual silvers and up, like The Gala Seven Springs. And then to do our own Platinum club and Emerald club and Diamond Club.