Round Table Bond

Publishing on this forum my own article published in Table talk a magazine by Round table India.
Round Table India is organization which i am member of (i won the best sceretary award last year). its a organization of people aged between 18 and 40. Idea is fellowship and mission is to educate 1 million children (an issue close to heart). More about it later.

Round table Bond

“My name is Bond, James Bond” says Scotsman Sean Connery on screen and everybody is thrilled. I am an avid James Bond movie fan and I am sure many of us are… This Bond intro which sounds so macho and is immortalized adds to ever growing charisma to his character. On same lines, I feel the Round table bond that I have entered into a year back has added charisma to my life. Let me tell you about my own encounter with this charismatic Round Table Bond with the difference from any other friendship bond.

But before I do that, I have a theory which analyses of how we end up with our friends. In life we share friendship bond with people with common interest and goals. It starts with neighborhood and school mates which in some cases turn out to life long bonding. The common need here is to spend non school or school time to play or enjoy depending on either neighbor or school friendship bonds respectively. In school cases there is also a peer pressure to study, excel, and compete which adds a serious dimension to the bondage. It is the chance/destiny etc that bonds the group together and its up to individual choice to make most out of the bond… Luck plays a major role and there is always an expectancy of symbiosis that nurtures the bondage.

As one grows it’s the college, hostels take over the friendship bondage. Here it’s a vocational/professional choice which defines the group and provides a serious avenue to relax or compete depending on the group. For me hostel life was the best part of life, secluded in a god forbid place at Kharagpur, we had only hostel wing mates to get along and away from urbane entertainment. It was all about channeling those into lifelong bonds. But also there was professional or egotistic competition underlying be it to get a US scholarship, or a dream job or IIM admission.

Next stage comes in as, office/business peers. In whatever profession or business you are, you need business peers or colleagues to share your professional notes. Here the family comes into picture. You cannot choose your colleagues (your company does it for you). In business partnerships are like marriages, carefully selected by you based upon your dynamics. There is a common tag of profession, money, stakes involved.

There are other ‘catchment’ areas of friends (IPL phrase), like sports and social clubs, interest groups which also have common interest bonds but these kinds of bonds are enjoyed by few privileged ones.

Significant avenues also arise when your kids grow, their friends and their parents etc when your kids repeat your cycle.

Having analyzed all other friendship bonds let me narrate my own encounter with this “Bond”.

Now here I was with all the baggage of friends accumulated over above cycle when someone (who falls into one of the categories above), introduced me to the table bond.

I first thought it to be a group, held together by business networking agenda having a social face, coupled with an ambition to be ‘identified’ in social circuits. Here after a journey of a year and having seen the experience around, I feel the bonding here has some independent and differentiating features than all above bonds mentioned above.

The most important thread here is there is no underlying prominent thread of professional interests. Though there might have been cases of using mutual professional expertise or network for some unrelated cause, but idea here is to have fun primarily. It allows an opportunity to let down your guards, be at peace and just hang around as we used to do in hostels (but without any commonality of exams, interviews).

There is a cause involved which is very appealing. The cause of children is so universal and appealing that hardened cynics can also not run away from it. That provides a fee good factor at the end of it. Though the extent of work done, initiatives differ across the tabling fraternity, the reason gives a kind of feel good that is needed at the end of your professional life. Also the fact that our table 105 has one of the biggest projects ever undertaken in table fraternity adds to that quotient. One of another reason I got introduced to tabling was my visit to a rural school which needed funds. Though I cannot say that I have fulfilled that dream but I am optimistic that one day I will. As Famous quote of KBC says: World lives on hope…

Then the most important aspect of table bond which differentiates this bond from all the bonds mentioned here is the HRD angle. It allows you to learn from all your group members with their facets of public, individual, professional capabilities. Though one can argue that business groups, industry associations also can render similar perspectives but they lack diversity of nature that Round table bond can offer. The perspective from other tablers, boards adds to the learning curve. Education is continuous, and round table offered me that while I always intended to have fun.

And finally what has added to my life is a team of people who feel like calling me or when I feel calling them whenever there is something significant happening in my or their lives; good or bad. Be it as trivial as a world cup /IPL final or be it as serious as when someone is hospitalized. If you are at some good place you feel like telling someone that ‘I wish you were here’. If you are down you feel like joining the group and hang around to cheer you up. Beauty is that when nothing happens or after a small but extended hiatus in meetings, you feel like calling and asking what’s happening.

Comparing to other bonds, the selection of friend has combination of luck, choice and acceptability to group which is the most important aspect.