(The following message was written for the Golden Jubilee Reunion of my IAS batch, which entered the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in July 1976. Unable to attend the reunion, I shared these reflections with my batchmates. While prompted by a very personal occasion, the thoughts themselves seem to me relevant to anyone who has reached life’s later years.)
The Golden Jubilee Reunion of our batch begins in a few hours at CSOI, Delhi, while some of us celebrate it in Bengaluru. Though not all of us can be together today, we are united by memories that have travelled with us for half a century.
Fifty years is a remarkable milestone. On that July morning in 1976, we arrived with little more than youth, idealism, and an abiding faith that the future lay before us. None of us could have imagined the journeys that awaited us, the responsibilities we would shoulder, the friendships we would forge, or the lives we would go on to live.
Time has indeed been generous to us.
We have known the privilege of public service, the trust of institutions, the affection of colleagues and friends, and the love of our families. We have experienced success and disappointment, certainty and doubt, triumph and loss. Together, they have shaped us into who we are.
As I reflect on this day, I find myself wondering: what truly remains after fifty years?
Not the offices we held, for they belonged to their time. Not the authority we exercised, for that too passed on, as it should. Even our achievements, however fulfilling, gradually become part of history.
What remains, perhaps, is the quieter legacy that only the passing years can bestow: the grace to accept life’s changing seasons with serenity; the compassion to recognise that every person carries burdens invisible to others; the gratitude to acknowledge how much life has given us, often more than we ever imagined; and the generosity of spirit to rejoice in another’s happiness, forgive old misunderstandings, and cherish friendships that have endured the passage of time.
Every stage of life offers its own rewards. Youth gives us dreams. Midlife gives us purpose. Perhaps the quiet privilege of these years is that they allow us to discover a deeper contentment—not in what we accomplished, but in who we have become.
Perhaps the finest achievement of these fifty years is not what we accomplished in service, but what the years themselves accomplished within us.
As we renew old friendships and relive cherished memories today, may the years ahead bring each one of us good health, serenity, and the enduring joy that comes from lives well lived and friendships well cherished.
Happy Golden Jubilee, dear friends. It has been one of life’s greatest privileges to have shared this extraordinary journey with you.
With warm affection,
Uday Kumar Varma
scribo ad LX 