The Year 2021 in Photographs

 Well, that's one way to look at 2021.

IMTian Anshita organised this one above..

From the earlier IMT get-together at Orchid.

NMIMS Bangalore alumni.. at Salvatore's and Salt.

A student performs a dance for Independence Day, 2021, from home.

Anushka and I at 13th Floor.

Below, Chasha sent this pic of his family from NZ. He was my classmate at IIMB.

Some fun and games online, with first year MBA students (above)

Culinary art- mine (above) and not mine (below)

Summer delight!

Deepak and Neelima at an FDP-inhouse, NMIMS Bangalore.

Batchmate Zoom (Kusum) gets an award- she's a marketing prof.

Two beautiful ladies- Alums of PES and KIAMS.

NMIMS party (above) and Avinash and Medha (below)

Shailaja and IIMs alumni above, and Graduation Day honours at NM, below.

Birthday, wife's. Below, the Placement Team of 2020 at Deja Vu.

Musical minds, at Lalbagh (above)- an online event of HR Club, below.

Bangalore Club, above, and meeting Rajiv Krishnan from school, after 40 years

Events, above and below. Manuja compered for the Virtual convocation.

Nagendra shenoy saw through my mask (above), and a party for Christmas with Sangeeta.

Golf at NMIMS with students, and partying with Varun and Shatakshi of IIMI.

Grandmama's Cafe with Nishka and with Li and Lee and Lonavala.

Another li, Chaithu Gunapali, above, and Student of the Year 2021, getting her award -Manasa Bharathi

Dhanapal and I, and his son and DIL.

V for Vijayakumar.

One Mistake, and....

 ..everyone else pays the price. How often do you see this happen? Typically, it happens in bureaucracy, but in corporates and other organisations also, and more frequently than we think. The origins of most restrictive rules lie in this mentality. To punish a vast majority that may be innocent, for the fault of a small minority.

With the bureaucracy which is a faceless entity, it is easier to understand why it happens. Because they can, and it takes a lot of effort to only target wrong-doers. But in other types of organisations, why does it happen so often? Could be the lack of will to confront the wrong-doer. Also to give an illusion of control, maybe.

But the effect it has on the law-abiding right-doers (for lack of a better word) is that it kills their enthusiasm for good. Look around you, and you will find several examples around.

Leaders, in particular, need to be wary and avoid this trap. If you wish to keep the good guys motivated.

Friends, Romans, Bangaloreans...

 Met so many new people (old friends included) in the last one year, it was amazing. From Chaithu, an old IFIM student who sought me out and met over lunch, to my regular pal Savitha of KIAMS fame, my classmates from IIMB- Himanshu Agarwal, Gopal Mahapatra, SS Ramesh, Prabhakar, some half a dozen from the IMT Nagpur gang -Anshita, Ishita, Anusha and Gowri with hubbies and Rupam without, Anushka the bookie, Nishka-another booklover and ghostwriter-at Mumbai on the way to an offsite, old friend from Hyderabad, Vandana. Met some colleagues from NMIMS for the first time at Mumbai, and Lonavala- so far, it was all Zoom meets.

Many students of NMIMS Bangalore, I met for the first time, and trained a few in playing Golf. Divya and Sreelekha helped conduct the virtual Convocation, like Manuja had done earlier. We had gone out for dinner with last year's placement team, where I met lots of dynamic members. This year too, our placements have been good, thanks to Ekalavya and his student team, plus Shekar and Lily. 

Ran into Nagendra Shenoy and Dipayan Dasgupta at different places in Bangalore, met Shailaja Gupta Kapoor and a bunch of Indore, Kozhikode and Bangalore alums at an exclusive get-together. Shatakshi and Varun also came back from hiding, and we met up, pronto. 

Also, in a quick trip to Hyderabad after ages, I met, after 40 years, some schoolmates, and discovered one is a Golfer, full-time. Played Golf at Hyderabad Golf Association's Club, which wraps itself around the Golconda Fort. Thanks to Venugopal Reddy, a classmate and friend. 

Also met Jayasimha during his visit here, and caught up with Manasa, an old colleague. Also S.P. Kumar, who worked with me at PESIT, and Nagaraj Shenoy, likewise. And Muthu and Vasanti, pals from a couple of decades- decadent? At Coimbatore, caught up with old colleagues Vijayakumar and Dhanapal, and his newly acquired samdhis and daughter-in-law who is a rifle-shooter and trainer

2021 has been bountiful, in terms of catching up. Oh  yes, I also met Jogi of Golftripz, at Hyderabad. We go back a long way, to 1999-2001, when she topped her class at KIAMS. 

Review of 83- The Film

 Kapil's Devils, as the team came to be known, was not given even an outside chance of reaching anywhere in the Prudential Cup of Cricket. The world cup was considered a West Indian monopoly. Their fearsome pace attack subjugated all other teams then, and made the batsmen's job easy, though they had good batsmen in Richards, Lloyd, Greenidge, Dujon, etc. 

Mostly, it was self-belief after the first two games were won, exemplary leadership by Kapil, and great teamwork with all the members chipping in when it mattered, that got India this cup. It was so unexpected that an English journalist had to literally eat his words!

The film is superb, and recaptures the legendary march to victory over the West Indies, England and Zimbabwe - probably the most important to enable India to get to the semi-final. Ranveer and Pankaj Tripathi are the pick of the cast, but others are very good, and most looked like their counterparts. A good touch to get Mohinder to play Lala Amarnath, his father. Endearing moments with almost all the players captured so well. Man Singh's Hyderabadi was a great top-up to a great movie. Just watch it!

Movies in a Theatre

 Our generation is not a self-service generation, in general. We had people serving us, in most industries. Now, the customer has to do most of the work. Online services included. Only after you do the work, including assorted passwords and OTPs, does their machinery start to move.

So, going to the theatre versus Netflix type movie-watching. You only had to go to a theatre and part with money after which you enjoyed your three hours. Barring the five hundred rupee popcorn combo (I am not kidding!), you can still enjoy it in a theatre, but after booking tickets yourself, online. And carrying the damn phone to show them that you did your job! They pat you on the back (not literally) and let you in. 

Luckily, the guys who fill the petrol in your car or scooter are still doing it, unlike in the U.S., where you had to do it, even in the eighties. 

Where will this self-service pandemic end, I wonder. I fear, not at all. So get ready to give your OTP to all and sundry! You are lucky if they don't ask you to fly your own plane, I suppose.

Year-end Rambling

 Not that you cannot do it at other times, but year-end is a good time to ramble about what has been, could have been, and should be (in the year to come). For me, most of this year 2021, actually all of it, has been a homecoming of sorts. I came back to Bangalore after many years, having left it in 2009 November for IMT Nagpur. Came back as the head of the NMIMS campus on Bannerghatta Road, just a few kilometres from my alma mater IIM Bangalore. Of course, the pandemic of Corona was something to contend with.

So began my strangest journey yet- an institute with no students at the campus. Of course, I had a lot of faculty and staff colleagues, and we got to spend quite a lot of time together. As usual, it was nice making new friends and acquaintances, and meeting old ones from Bangalore- old students in particular, while we waited for our own to get back. 2022, most will be back, and I already have met a few in class and outside it, at small events we conducted for Rank holders etc.. Hoping life will be even more interesting once all of them are back.

Used this time to meet some of our alumni one on one, and having long conversations. Alumni have plenty at stake in their alma mater, and will come up with interesting ideas, as I discovered in all my interactions, and not just here. 

Also found where one can teach Golf, right in our own backyard, Hoping this will give NMIMS Bangalore an edge over competition, as we can train any interested student in the basics of Golf right here- I think I am a qualified trainer, having done this in IIM Indore and IMT Nagpur- we actually had built two greens there. 

All in all, an interesting year, with lots more to come in 2022.

Golf Training at NMIMS Bangalore

 Some glimpses of the first year MBA team trying out their Golf at our campus, in Bangalore. I am a trainer, and many faculty and staff have started their lessons. And now students who are back are joining in too- 

Prof. Narayani, Chairperson MBA, is in the last pic. Nikhil, Rithik, Avnii, Rakshita etc. in earlier ones..