Circumnavigating the U.S.- Part 2

This was our road trip no. 2 of its kind in the U.S. This involved touching places such as New York and Ohio (where a cousin each resided), and then Chicago, Detroit, across to South Dakota and Wyoming. Of course, Mount Rushmore was the major attraction in South Dakota. And the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The joy of actually watching The OLD FAITHFUL, a geyser that shoots water and steam at regular intervals, and soaking in the wild scenic beauty of the place, was worth the very long drive, which we did with my parents who were visiting from India.


We rounded it off with a visit to Los Angeles and Las Vegas before heading back to South Carolina where we started. Great memories, and a reason why I never really visited the US after I got back- I felt I had seen it all.
 Yellowstone Park (above) and Red Canyon, Arizona, below.

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IMT Nagpur- Tangy Oranges and More

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Launching my autobiography at Crossword, Nagpur. Editor, Hitavada, and Smita Dabholkar, my colleague, are in the pic. Below, my favourite road trip-to Lonar crater lake, formed by a meteorite.
Nagpur oranges are my favourite since childhood. I landed in IMT Nagpur as the director in 2009 and barring brief interludes at Ghaziabad, stayed till 2013. These years were wonderful, both in terms of bonding with students, and with faculty. As an example, we had karaoke parties with faculty colleagues-an innovation that has caught on. We also had retreats at Pench, Bhedaghat etc. for our annual planning meetings. Alumni meets were also regularly held across India..pics from two of them below-
 Bangalore (above) and Hyderabad (below).

 We (Prof Gadgil and I) also created a golf green, which you can see behind the cricketer here (above).
Visitors-Convocation chief guest Mukesh Ambani being shown around. Mr. Kamal Nath is also in the pic.
 My mom and daughter at the campus. (below)
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Airport Art

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Airports generally have a lot of advertising- for tourism, or cosmetics, or for their own duty-free shops if international. But depicting your culture through airport art is an art..and Mumbai airport Terminal 2 seems to have done a lot of it right. The murals on its walls are good at showing Indian motifs - sample these.






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Resolute Resolutions

Why do resolutions have to be year-end ones?

Here are 5 mid-year ones, approx. half-way through this year.

1. I will be relaxed about everything. Does not mean in a hammock-it's all in the mind.

2. I will appreciate people a bit more..I find it challenging, so I guess this needs to be worked on.

3. I will try something new each time I teach..generally do, but need to be steadfast.

4. Try new research methods..qualitative in addition to the usual.

5. Write better blog posts..see, I am already trying the last one out. :)

..and continue the good things like the Best DP awards, in case you are apprehensive..
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Descriptive Names

Some names that are descriptive, or serve a larger purpose-

Yelliah- he yells.

Delilah- works in a Deli.

Malliah- works at the mall.

Telliah- works at a bank.

Gorbachev- Does the Gorba (Gujjus beware- there's also a che in his name).

Bharat- gives Mr. Manoj Kumar a complex.

Mark- he is always one up on you.

David Lean- programmed not to put on weight.

Javagal Srinath- his bowling got your jaw if you weren't careful.

Sivagami- India's answer to Origami.

Rasputin-sounds like a competitor to Frooti.




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In Praise of the Malayali

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I am not a fan of boiled rice, but I used to like the seafood whenever I ate it during my stay at Calicut- Paragon was one restaurant we frequented. Fish Moily in particular was one dish that I liked a lot.

People from the state of Kerala have been pioneers in the art of working abroad, and though many have focused on the Gulf/Middle East, there are some in all parts of the world. And invested their earnings back home, making Kerala prosperous. Those that lived outside also were cosmopolitan in outlook.

I have had lots of students of Malayali origin at Kirloskar Institute, and they were generally very good students. A couple are in these pics.


Some names that I remember are Dheeraj, Vidya TC, Sandhya Sajeev, Pooja Daniel, Smita Mohan, Sujit, Mamta,...of course, I have had Malayali students at other institutes too, but not as many in number. And, Uday Damodaran has been a friend since IIMB days, and a colleague at two  B Schools.

I once met P.T. Usha, the athlete, at IIMK (her hometo…
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My Favourite Students

This is not a recounting of all my favourite students over the years, because there are about a million of those, but a select sample. Many of these I remember because we are in touch on fb or otherwise. From many different institutes, because I have seen a few of those too...XIMB, Vignana Jyothi, PESIT, KIAMS, IIML, IIMK, IIMI, IFIM, IMT Nagpur and Ghaziabad..

Yamini, Aishwarya and Anjali Iyer, Shreyashi, Shruti, Harshad Lunavat, Abhinav Kamal, Pradyumna Mohanty, Bhagyashree aka Bugzy, Parul Kashyap, Hitansh, Vivek Anant, Dushyant, Sreeram, Anupriya, Anuja, Shivashankar, Murtaza, Aashish Chaudhary, Sheetal Garg, Anumeha Saxena, Anukeha Jain, Shafique, Nikita Kumar, Meghna Sinha, Adarsh, Jasleen, Pallavi, Vidisha, ....IMTians all, with a creative spark..actually many more, but this sample might be representative.

Deepa, Sudhir, Roopali, Giri, Sanchit, from Vignana Jyoti, Hyderabad.

Smita, Aditi, Nidhi (she's from Indore), Vidya, Swapna, Padmapriya (National Award winning actress…
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Vaada - Promise- Use in Hindi Music

One of the oft-used Hindi film song words is Vaada. Examples of good songs using this word abound.

Jo vaada kiya woh nibhaana padega is one of the oldest I remember. From the movie Taj Mahal, it continues with 'roke zamaana chahe roke khudai tumko aana padega'. A lovely melody.

Vaada karle saajna tere bina main na rahoon ..is another.

Vaada tera vaada was the refrain from a famous Rajesh Khanna song in the movie Dushman, about reforming people who have committed a crime without malice.

Kya hua tera vaada, was a national award winning song by Mohammad Rafi in the movie Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.

A very soft, romantic song tuned by Basu- Manohari (RD Burman's assistants earlier) in Sabse Bada Rupiah was Vaada karo jaanam, na chhodoge yeh daaman..check it out here if you haven't heard it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoD-uSN28F4

Next time, we will look at other words, and recount some other gems..yeah, vaada raha!
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