It's been another year of life - I turned 25 yesterday. It feels great to acknowledge to yourself on such days that you have a place on earth and in hearts of few people as well.

I personally am slightly careless and forgetful person when it comes to my own self ;-) and there have been more than one occasion when I forgot my own birthday. But yesterday was not so, thanks to my parents, relatives and friends who kept reminding me of the occasion since past 2 weeks. And the number of phone calls I received from midnight till midnight made my day.

Payal called up from the US, and what was meant to be a 2 minute call to wish me turned out to be a 45 minute chat from Professional Life to Indian Politics. Same was the case when Hemant called up from Geneva - we discussed projects, dreams and more - I felt that I have rolled a few balls in the past 25 years. 'Twas a great feeling to get all expected calls from relatives, friends and acquaintances. To add were the many mails that kept flowing into my mailbox whole day.

There were unexpected events as well. Little ones like getting a call right at the midnight stroke from Ashita and Milind (almost simultaneously), getting a call from a totally unexpected acquaintance to the biggest surprise of all - a mass mailer for me on the Arbit Choudhury mailing list.

In fact, my deep(er) involvement in Arbit Choudhury was a secret, I was anyway planning to reveal on my blog since quite some time; but hadn't ever thought it would come out this way. Arbit Choudhury was initially just another innovative idea that we floated during the heady days of MastishK '04, two years ago. However, its unprecedented popularity made it a special feature amongst the other innovations. And finally, when we parted ways with MastishK as core team members, handing over the baton to juniors - Arbit was our only "take-home".

During MastishK, I was so busy with other aspects of the event that I had abandoned the charge of all activities related to Arbit to Hemant and Shubham. So, when we decided to spin off Arbit as a venture independent of MastishK, it was on the face a decision taken purely by both of them. This has been true for all other initiatives and decisions made with respect to Arbit till date. However, what few people know is that, I was always an implicit part of the team of 'Fathers' (as we internally call ourselves). Slowly, as I got disengaged with all operational responsibilities of MastishK, my involvement with Arbit grew to the extent that I am today as deeply involved with it as Hemant and Shubham are. And like many other ventures Arbit has become a passion.

It felt great yesterday to see my birthday being declared in the Arbit Choudhury fortnightly mailer also acknowledging my hidden role in the venture since its inception. I would probably remember this birthday of mine for this reason all my life.

To sum up 'its another year' but a crucial one - Arey! Silver Jubilee ho gai yaar !! Another thought which gets impressed is that its been quite some time on planet earth and high time to execute all that one has been planning for all this while. Just hoping that I will be able to succeed in achieving my dreams in the years to come!
And if you are still wondering where I stole that post title from - it was the subject of mail sent by a Sr. Manager to me for my birthday.