One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was an era of ignorance; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

-Charles Dickens opening his "A Tale of Two Cities"

Thats exactly how I felt today waking up this morning and reading my email at 7:12 am.My company just got into a definitive agreement with our long standing competitor to be merged. We had the technology and they had scale. We had some smarts and they had lots of money. While we toiled day and night to get things done they simply took a hit on their margins to win accounts. Despite all these, I fought some battles where we beat them inspite of them offering their services for free. These were some of my most vibrant moments of 2006 where I really really felt alive. Now, we are one company (45 days from now, of course) and then there will be no competition. There is not a fella in sight who could beat the combined prowess of we joining hands together and no more shall my adrenalin rise nor do I need to have benders or sleepless nights chasing accounts for that moment of "Eureka" which seals those deals.

The last 18 months, I literally poured my blood, sweat and tears into this company. No, its not a firm. It was my baby in the sense that I have as much ownership over this entity as the founders/senior management did. I imbued it with my own DNA and my own attitude to diffuse through its blood-veins so that when I am working it is nothing but an expression of my own self in it. Now, my baby has grown up and it should be let go as any other grown up would be. Its got wings and its flying to the nest of the cuckoo which laid its egg in this beautiful crow's nest. Yet, my melody that I sang here shall be immortal...