The moment which I’m going to write down here is something which I don’t think anyone of us face very often in our life.

It was 8^th July 09, 2009. We had this BOA townhall (aka Bofa Party) in Chancery pavilion, Residency Road. We will have this every half year. But this time it became very special for me.

The function was going on as usual with speech from leadership, programs, company achievements show case etc. then it was the turn for giving away awards. First it was the turn of those who completed 5 years in Accenture. Next they announced that they will give the award under intellectual people category to those who have done JAIIB and CAIIB certification. My ears became extra attentive and heart started beating a bit more than normal conditions. I have literally felt that every part in my body started playing the role of Ears to help me hear even the whisper of that anchor on stage. First they called up my senior’s name who was not present on that day. “we would like to call upon the stage Mr. Vishwas Shenoy” the music started playing in the background, claps started from the audience, a few of who knew me, started searching for me in the Auditorium. My heart started beating so hardly that each beat created sort of heaviness inside me. I could feel the blood flowing throughout my body from head to Toe. My legs had become so light that I was virtually flying when I was walking towards the stage. I had to struggle a lot to keep the composure and maintain dignity. In next 15 sec I was near the stage. The 3 steps that I had to climb to reach the stage, sort of created confusion as to how do I start. Should I place right leg first or left? The intention was to land on the stage with right foot, bit superstitiousJ. I really don’t remember what I did finally. May be the unconscious mind inside me told its controlling organs that the need of the hour is to make sure that i reach the stage properly, and not to bother with which leg i land there. Finally I was there at the All-happening-spot of the evening. Those blissfull moments of receiving the award (500 Rs gift voucher of landmark) is something which I could never forget in my life. I stayed there on stage for another 5 secs to take the photograph and then walked down. My teammates started cheering at me and I was really clueless as how to react for it. At that moment I just wanted to find some place to sit down, and relax my heart which was beating at un-recognizable pace. It took nearly 10 mins for me to come back to normalcy and feel that I’m still here in the auditorium. Those few secs of walking towards the podium to receive award and stay there to take photo with Bharath Doraiswamy ( Sr. Exec) was more blissful than the award itself.