ReUnion = RechargeUnion ? - It is imporant to recharge yourself...

My dear social friends, brothers and sisters ... 

Vanakkam, Namaste. 

This blog is about my experience at the recent reunion that we had.... Special thanks to my friends!

Tesla and all devices without recharge, or with no charge - it is called as ??. Recharge is important for human too :)

Group of folks having titles varying from architects, strategists, delivery heads, C and mid-level executives, consultants etc, working for various Fortune-500 companies, having a habit of meeting every year. For what purpose? It was neither about strategy and market position nor about investment and financials.  Then, why do they meet?

I decided to take few days off amidst my busy schedule and decided to join those folks this year, not to find out why, what etc… Just to hang around with those folks, as they are all my engineering batch mates...  This time, my friends organized get-together in Florida. They meet every year in USA, but for me this is the first time. I am going to meet many of my batch mates after two decades, since I am in USA this year.

On-boarded for a flight trip from San Francisco to Florida via Dallas, but this time with zero goals and expectations.  I had taken many flights, but this time was different… Flight from SFO to Dallas was at runway, half-way through with good speed, about to take off, but take off was cancelled due to a technical challenge. Flight was back at gate, but they did not deplane us, the captain and crew tried to explain the reasoning and waiting for the technicians to fix few things.  Huh… waiting for a technician to fix the flight??...lol… where is my technician?? 

 

 Three of my friends were in the flight as we were traveling together, and we were sure that we will miss the connecting flight. As you could imagine the situation, tensed moments, many folks were trying to reschedule their flights, few did walk out from the plane, worrying about connectivity etc. I was like this in few situations, and I was just remembering those moments. But, this time, I was simply sitting, absorbing the environment, listening to busy people, tensed conversations, talking to the call center folks.. Huh???. i.e. how I would have behaved in this situation in the past. But there are always chilled people in the same flight around you with smiles.

 

I asked my friends; we were totally chilled and waiting inside the cabin for the flight to take off. Yes, we landed in Dallas, missed the connecting flight, decided to meet one of our other batch mates and he was so kind of enough to accommodate us at last moment…  …  We had a very nice late-night dinner at Dallas, toured the city a bit in his jeep, talking about Dallas growth, talking like we are going to fix the world in next few days… My friend working for a top-class ride company already re-arranged the plans to reach Florida.  What I learnt was: take every moment as easy, meet many people wherever possible, and every uncertainty as opportunity.  In our corporate life, we stress ourselves on uncertainties.  Job is a Job.

 

 

Next day, we reached Florida, one day later than expected but to the shock, our batch mates picked us up from airport. Same folks, where I met two decades ago in college, same humanity, same voice, and same slang, though we look terribly different. …. It completely recharged me, after meeting them, hearing their voice, erasing the flight delays and struggles to reach Florida. Friends are important in life; Friends are our energy sometimes.

We spent few days in Florida. It was well organized and well-planned gathering. Florida is an awesome tourist place; beaches are so clean and respected by people and privacy. Totally relaxed, rejuvenating, reinventing myself. In a day, one time we all cooked together and other time we all went out, argued about common topics, learnt a lot about many things in two days.

 There were discussions about humanity, what changed and did not, life standards, life diseases etc. To my part, I also talked a lot about agriculture, spirituality and simplicity.  My batch mates were surprised to see my spiritual and agricultural transformation as well.  It was very long late nights, but everyone got their booster for next few months, reset their stresses and pains.

Yes, reunions are recharge unions, if we go with correct set of like-minded folks to the correct place with good planning. It kills the ego and grounds you. I wish everyone having good plans to recharge themselves during year end and be prepared for 2024.

 

In summary, reunions do recharge you by taking out egos and stress. Take it as a treatment for yourself. This is an investment for yourself. It recharges you like any other events.  Wrapping up 2023 and gearing up for 2024. 

 

Wishing you all happy holidays and happy new year 2024!

Take care!