Campus Mergers - A Natural Evolution

As the rivers flowing East and West Merge in the sea and become one with it, Forgetting they were ever separate rivers, So do all creatures lose their separateness When they merge at last into pure Being.

- (Chandogya Upanishad. 10:1-2)

Right from the morning, Ramya, the alumna of INC, is restless. She is unable to concentrate on her work at the office. The news of her campus merging with another campus is disheartening her. Her dear campus, where she spent almost two years, to which all her sweet memories are associated with and where she even chose her life-partner, being closed is indigestible to her. Although she wanted to share this news immediately with her ëcampus mate-cum-husbandí, Vijnan, she could not, as he was out on an important task. She had to wait with a heavy heart till he returned. But to her surprise, he laughed it off and said "More than the news, it is your reaction to the news, more than the calamity it is your fear of the calamity, hurting you more. If you can look at such things with a positive perspective, nothing is a matter of worry."

He added further, "the fact that, just as two different tranquil streams that meet and merge flow as one to meet the sea, our kindred hearts and minds unite with the other members of the new campus to build a church of our own. It is a Confluence of Grace. After all, whatever may be the identification and wherever may be the campus, we are all members of the same INC fraternity, which is an epitome of knowledge."

The word confluence means 'flowing together'. At a deeper level, I think grace is the quality of realizing and appreciating the holiness in each other and in the world. It happens to us individually, but it happens more profoundly in a community. So today we celebrate a water communion, where water is a metaphor.

It's a metaphor because what we are when we come together is more than the sum of what we were when we were apart. We come together to form a cathedral, just as droplets of water come together to form a stream. And, in the coming together, there appears something extra. No individual drop of water is going to fill the riverbed, but together the drops of water make a force so powerful that it can sweep everything in its path. In these days of recession, if the group is wider, you can interact and share your experiences with more number of people and as a result, the opportunities to get absorbed in reputed organizations are more. This opens up new vistas to one`s life.

The global economic meltdown and its impact on our economy are forcing every one to re-look at the way they are carrying on their economic activities. Coupled with this, half a decade of INC` s operation in many locations and a reflection of its progress, led the organization to a paradigm shift in its strategic plans and resource consolidation. As a part of this, some INC campuses are being merged with some of the other INC campuses. The list comprising such campuses and their identity with the merging campuses is given in this issue for your information. While life at a specific INC campus is a passing phase, the identity and association remain strongly with INC, the Institute.

As Lord Alfred Tennyson puts it in his famous poem, The Brook, "I chatter, chatter, as I flow to join the brimming river, for men may come and men may go, but I go on forever." This phenomenon is true for INC. Students pass out, new batches of students join, campuses may be merged; but the Institute remains forever and INC and INCAS are strongly behind you, always.