#25. Chrysalis!

Yesterday marked the 58th Graduation Day at the institution I call my second home — D G Vaishnav College, Chennai. A place that is not merely where I work, but an integral part of who I am. Happy zone.

Every year, new faces fill the corridors. Some arrive confident, some uncertain, some wide-eyed with wonder, and some quietly terrified — but most of them simply innocent. Like wet clay, yielding and full of possibility, waiting to be shaped into something beautiful. And then we meet: The Mentor and the Mentee.

As the journey unfolds, the roles shift — mentor becomes student, student becomes teacher — and then they shift back again. I have had the fortune of walking alongside many such young souls. Whether I did justice to that role remains subjective. But what I can say with certainty is this: I watched them closely, quietly, and with great attention. From a respectful distance, I observed each of them — and every single one needed the same thing. Just one thing.

Care.

It was a quiet wonder to witness their transformation — from the Ova, the egg, fragile and full of latent life; to the Larva, the caterpillar, restless and reaching; and now to the Pupa, the Chrysalis — still, suspended, becoming. Soon, they will emerge as the most vivid and magnificent of butterflies, ready to claim the vast sky as their own. They will fly higher than I can follow. Higher than I can even see.

And yet — the wonder of wonders — they return. They come back and find their mam standing there, still smiling. She smiles widest when she sees the innocence still alive in their eyes. And if it has faded? She simply steps into the gentle shadow, watching them land from the sky, loving them just the same — from a little further away.

Either way, you see, it is a win.

Graduation Day. All smiles. Shiny black robes. Dreams still intact behind bright eyes. People say bonds break at moments like these. I disagree. Some bonds don't break — they simply breathe differently. Tended with care and love, they endure. For this life is too brief for permanent goodbyes. We meet. We grow. We part. We meet again. Only the stage changes.

And today's stage? This one is Chrysalis.