  Possible maximal mixing seen in the oscillations of the atmospheric neutrinos
has led to postulate of a $\mu$-$\tau$ symmetry which interchanges $\nu_\mu$
and $\nu_\tau$. We argue that such symmetry need not be special to neutrinos
but can be extended to all fermions. The assumption that all fermion mass
matrices are approximately invariant under interchange of the second and the
third generation fields is shown to be phenomenologically viable and has
interesting consequences. In the quark sector, the smallness of $V_{ub}$ and
$V_{cb}$ can be a consequences of this approximate 2-3 symmetry. The same
approximate symmetry can simultaneously lead to large atmospheric mixing angle
and can describe the leptonic mixing quite well provided the neutrino spectrum
is quasi degenerate. We present this scenario, elaborate on its consequences
and discuss its realization.
