Less than two month to go now, and these kind of countdowns are the ones that suck the most. I know exactly how poor old Damocles felt now.

It's not as if a million people are waiting out there with bated breath, praying and hoping against hope that I come up with an update on the blog, but I'm an economist, and I'm trained to think about sustainability. Well, they try to train me. It's not their fault that I fail to learn.

What I'm trying to get at is the fact that in two months time, I shall be punching numbers about obscure credit card transactions in Bangalore, far and away from the magical mystical land that is GIPE. And then how do I continue a blog that is titled lifeatgokhale?

So there were two alternatives facing me. One, shut down the blog altogether. Make no new posts, and leave it out to dry. Maybe 15 years down the line we could visit the digital ruins of the beautiful fortres that was GIPE. You get the (fairly melodramatic) picture.

Another alternative was to get a junior to continue the good work. All those who raise an eyebrow upon reading the adjective in the last sentence may kindly hit the "Back" button on their browsers, thank you very much.

But that would entail thinking of a junior who leads the kind of life that I have at Gokhale (on the edge, cirrhosis-of-the-liver-types-perenially-drunk, "attendance? what's that?" kind of philosophy, "work?! gasp! What on EARTH is that?" kind of belief system. You know what I mean?), and then convincing him/her to be reasonably regular with the postings. Therefore impossible. If they fulfilled the first criterion, they couldn't fulfill the second. And the people who'd have passed the second criterion have no bleeding clue about the first, so you know, basically, not happening.

So what to do? How shall this proud legacy of nothingness carry itself forward? Picture me deep in thought, pondering about the deeper and true meaning of life. Now picture me with a lit light bulb over my head, and a little conversation balloon by my right that says "Aha! ...Bingo!"

You see, lifeatgokhale isn't so much about lifeatGOKHALE as it is about LIFEatgokhale.

There are those of us who've made Gokhale (our Gokhale) the wonderful madness that it is, and we, dear lunatics, shall carry that proud insane legacy with us. And so the posts shall continue, because what I talk about and describe out here isn't dictated by the geographical confines of the Insti and the Hostel. It's something that lives with all of us, and therefore continue it shall.

Don't you feel a surge of pity for Genpact? I certainly do.