The Settlement exercise

In one of the most trivial and pointless exercises, some half a dozen of MBA grads from IIM Kozhikode's Class of 2006 came to the conclusion that a whopping 58% of the batch is now married and an equally staggering 8% has had one or more kids. The exercise was carried out in the serene environment provided by Ravi's lovely home and occasion was one of the big ones for Ravi and Deepti, the lovely couple's second wedding anniversary.

Yesterday being a holiday on account of Eid, I had spent the entire day lazing around and watching movies and flopping on the bed and watching some more movies and flopping some more on the bed. As I was about to see the long, weary day to an uneventful end, I received a call from Ravi to come to his house ASAP. Not given any reasons for this call and given such a short notice, I would have imagined something ominous but for the tone of Ravi's voice.

As I reached Ravi's place, I could hear the cheerful sounds from his flat and Priya (in Mumbai to resign from her job, as she put it) waving from the balcony. Already having sensed some kind of gathering of batch mates, the only surprise was the occasion. All the usual suspects were there and then some. The evening started out like all others, a little awkwardly at first with people asking each other about their jobs and work and similar stuff. Soon enough, the mood grew into a more relaxed one as the drinks came out and amidst the cheery toasts, the junta started getting nostalgic and got into talking about the campus. The same old jokes and the same old events got discussed yet again but like every other time, did not fail to bring smiles to each one of our faces.

It was in the middle of this nostalgic session that the discussion veered towards marriage and kids (some of the gathering being a little more than active on the matrimonial landscape definitely helped). Name after name was exclaimed upon as it was either proclaimed as having already tied the nuptial knot or gone a step further. Within hardly any time, all this led to the batch list coming out of Rohit's laptop and all of us going literally name by name. Some of the names had already started sounding unfamiliar and that is a shame really, considering that it has only been two and a half years since we passed out of campus.

For all the names that we collectively had a clue on, we updated their status as Married, Married with kids, or Engaged. People who did not fall in any of these categories were listed as Looking :-). While some people (especially Rohit who will probably mail the analysis to the batch, just for fun) were careful about putting people in categories where they did not have any clue on the actual turn of events, some others (including me) believed in the old adage of "Guilty till proven otherwise".

I am sure that the end result of the exercise set many people thinking, some thinking on why it hasn't happened with them yet, some thanking/blaming their stars for being blessed/cursed, while there were others who took the high point and thought dispassionately about it all. Whatever be the case, the "Settlement Exercise" had everyone enthralled till it was time for dinner and subsequent cake cutting and celebrations.

Cheers to Ravi and Deepti (not sure if I have spelt it right, two e's or an i?)!
Guys, wish you a very happy anniversary once again!