Madhosh Kiye Jaa: January 2023

Differences and Similarities

I was born in 1960, and have been through six decades of life. What are the similarities and differences in each decade, or among various time periods?

Similarities

Family is still an important part of life and life support for most of us.

The middle class still believes in education as a transformational tool.

The politician has not changed much. Promises outpace real change.

Corporates rule the roost-though a different set.

Wars remain, fought for any stupid reason.

Differences

Technology has enabled Work From Home, Travel (simulated), conversations across the globe, digital photography

Families are getting smaller in size, at least urban families

Agriculture is losing out to Services in contribution to the GDP.

Careers other than engineering have gained traction.

Globally, wars are supplemented by shootings, and more suicides than before.

A Sense of Entitlement

Sometimes, we see a sense of entitlement among people.

I should get this because I am entitled to, is the message. If you are a customer, you are entitled to a defect-free product, delivered on the promised date, etc. So far, so good, because it's in the contract that companies have.

But I am talking of other situations, where there is an effort required from the person concerned. Most often, it's seen by profs. among some students who think they deserve a certain grade or some marks. If only you could be the Judge AND the Executioner!

But also among employees at certain times. An employer is not bound to give you a promotion, a raise or whatever beyond the usual norm. Sometimes, if the company is facing headwinds, not even that. And the employee of course has a recourse- he can leave. Of course, most employers do not treat an employee so badly, but still, that feeling of entitlement is misplaced. Unless you own the company, or your Mom/Dad does.

Just an observation, nothing serious.

Film Review- Pathaan

It's slick, and it has some good locations where it's shot. But it's at least 30 minutes too long- the last fifteen could easily have been eliminated without any loss to the narrative. And it seems like a hotch-potch of various action films I have seen, including a few Bond films. And the cheeky one-liners are missing. Bond heroes are suave, and well-dressed, except in bed.

Not sure what to make of the action scenes. For one, they are too long. Even Amitabh, thirty years ago finished off his job pretty quickly. What takes Shah Rukh and Salman bhai so long?

The infamous song is ok, no big deal. In general, the dialogue sucks. Dimple and Ashutosh Rana are believable. The hi-jinks action is not. Some of it, like the bikes on a frozen lake, are almost comical. John Abraham does reasonably well as a villain.

5 out of 10 would be a fair rating, in my opinion. But then, it's my opinion.

Bond Films

Bond- James Bond! Iconic title songs, and that visual of Bond in a circular camera shutter, ..iconic stuff that we grew up with.

Of course, there were fast cars with stuff, other fancy gadgets, and exotic locations- from Iceland to the Bahamas. I was overawed with all that. The villains were iconic too, and Jaws was terrifying. But Bond had a solution to every problem. He never gave up. A good lesson.

And his one-liners were to die for...

With one of my favourite Bonds- in Lonavala.

Friends Through Golf and IIM Indore

Golf has given me a lot of new friends- teaching it, I mean. One of these I taught on request, was a talented actor from IIM Indore FPM program, Prachi Jain. She also brought in Akansh, another young actor who'd also acted with her in a play directed by Shweta Kushal- The Merchant of Venice, in Feb 2020. Through her, I got to meet and make friends with a few more Ph.D. students. These will all be stars of the academic firmament soon. Some pics from a recent get-together where we got to eat some good food, accompanied by banter- both very tasty :)

Geeti, me, Prachi, Akansh, Pratishtha, Minali, Vartika, Neeti, and Puloma, above.

Getting love-dovey, below- Puloma and Minali.

The eco warriors (from Economics area) pose -above, and the whole jing-bang, below.

Next stop- a Golf Driving range.

Branding in Bollywood

I have been a movie-goer since I was around 10. But I learnt about branding only during my MBA. So this is about looking back at some of the big brands that Bollywood has had over the last five deacdes, with emphasis on the earlier times.

Directors- Vijay Anand directed some of my favourite films- Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam and Teesri Manzil. He was known for a slick script, good picturisation and music in films he made.

Manmohan Desai did potboilers very well, with a mix of all masalas- comedy, action, drama and emotion. He used Amitabh well in Amar, Akbar, Anthony.

Ramesh Sippy made Sholay on a scale only recently matched by Bahubali, RRR and others. This was in 1975, without too many computersied special effects- sound effects were used well.

K. Asif, likewise, for Mughal-e-Azam. Made on a scale that was unprecedented.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee with his unique style of comedies (Golmaal being a great example), Basu Chatterjee with his own realistic films (Rajnigandha, Chitchor), Shyam Benegal on social issues (Manthan, Ankur)

Actors

Madhubala for versatility- she dominated tragedy (Mughal-e-Azam) and comedy (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi) with aplomb. Matched by Kishore Kumar - he was serious in some of his home productions.

Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor. Each very different, and projecting a different association- Romance, Tragedy and the plight of the Common Man (done in a Chaplinesque manner).

Rajesh Khanna the romantic hero, Amitabh, the Angry Young Man. Aamir Khan, the perfectionist with a variety of roles

Singers

Shamshad Begum, with a nasal twang, Lata Mangeshkar with an amazing voice and range, Rafi who had a great voice and trained in music, Kishore Kumar who was an untrained or self-trained genius, Asha Bhosle who had the best cabaret songs requiring a come-hither quality, Manna Dey who excelled at classical and light songs (he sang many for Mehmood),

A Graduation in the Family

My second daughter Pooja just graduated from University of York, U.K.. A Master's in Cultural Heritage Mgt., after a Bachelor of Architecture earlier from India. The first works for Tata Classedge, an edtech company after her M.A. in English.

That completes the cycle of responsibility that Indian parents have towards their kids. Marriage is optional, and their business to decide on, when they feel like it. I will attend it, for sure.

Some pics-

A Joke

Just heard this joke on a recorded session by a well-known guru of our time- Osho.

A lady goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Everyone calls me shameless. Wherever I go, this happens. I am not doing anything untoward, but this happens all the time. Can you help me understand why?"

The psychiatrist replies,

"Madam, Please get off my lap and go sit on that couch first. Then we can discuss it."

Malayalam Film Oru Thekkan Thallu Case

I watched this on Netflix mainly because it stars Padmapriya, a friend and former student. She's done a great job in her role as the wife of a respected guy in a Kerala village, who gets drawn into a long fight with a rival who is jealous and wants more attention/respect from the villagers.

The husband-Biju Menon- also has acted well, though I saw him for the first time- I don't watch that many Malayalam films. So has the girl who plays Vasanthi, the link between the two rivals, and a friend of the wife.

The film is worth a watch, though it may not be a must-watch. The Lighthouse plays a prominent role in the story, making it interesting.

My Bong Friends

I keep making jokes about Mallus and Bongs all the time. But I do have friends of both these types, in spite of this. For instance, the current director of IIM Udaipur was a good friend while we worked together at another IIM, in early the 2000s. Also, Madhu Karmakar and his charming wife at the same campus- Lucknow. TK Chatterjee, Pradeep Mazumdar and Subhashankar at IMT were great colleagues. Indrajit at IIM Indore also is a good friend, and we often met over chai or lunch and chatted. Sumit Ghosh is another colleague from IIM Indore. We shared a lot of things, among them a fascination for Kishore Kumar. We even visited his Memorial and ancestral home in Khandwa together. A memorable trip.

Phalguni Banerjee is a student I recall from IMT Nagpur, and Nikita Kumar from Kolkata. From KIAMS, Siddharth Agarwala, Shruti Bihani are honorary Bongs, living in Bongland. And my friend and Ph.D. student Naveen Das is a Bong.

Shakti Ghoshal from IIM Bangalore, and Dash, domiciled in Bongland as he became an IPS officer from West Bengal cadre.

Plenty more, I would think.

Biddu

This guy was an unusual composer and producer of music in England. Born in Bangalore, migrated to England and launched many hits, including Kung Fu Fighting, and albums by Tina Charles among others.

The hit album Disco Deewane launched Nazia Hasan and Zoheb Hasan into an orbit of fame, across India and Pakistan. Around the same time, Feroz Khan used a song by Nazia tuned by him, in the fil Qurbani. That song, Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye, to baat ban jaaye, became a rage, along with Laila main laila, both filmed on Zeenat Aman.

He popularised disco as a genre, and left a lasting legacy.

Global Friends of Mine

Of course, my classmates from school and college and MBA (IIMB), plenty of them are abroad- Kamalesh, Adithya, Seshu, Jayan, Lurdumar, Srinivas, Avadhanulu, Banny, Kishore, Ramu, Vicky and so on..

Childhood friend Kiran Kenjale, and a few others in various places around the world.

Alumni - Nidhi (from Indore originally), Tanya, Anchal, Anuj, Meghana (Joshi), Tanaya Kar, Pooja Daniel, Anu Bhoopathy, Vidya TC, Swapna, Smita (named after Smita Patil by her Dad), Sanjeev Undri, and lots more, I am sure-

Relatives starting from my cousins, brother, Nieces and nephews large in number.

Also, friends I made in conferences - like Samudrika from Sri Lanka, Yapin from China, Natalija from Lithuania, Tim Lee from Korea, and so on..

Of course, there are NRI friends like Anil and Suresh who were flat-mates in USA, and

My Ghati Friends

Maharashtrians are also lovingly called ghatis (from the ghats), just like Malayalis are called Mallus, Gujaratis Gujjus and Telugus, Gulti.. I am also half-gulti, grew up in A.P. But this is about my ghati friends- so here goes.

Here is a sample-

Meghana Khadilkar, who I am yet to meet. Lives in Pune, with two adorable kids. How do I know? She's active on facebook, that's how. Should meet up sometime.

Kedar Mulay- lives in Thane/Mumbai. And keeps threatening to come to Bangalore- or kept, while I was there - to meet Ishita Modi and me :)

Pavan Tarawade- an author. No more needs to be said.

Pratima Gaekwad- recently met her through our common love of biryani, after I taught her at IIM Indore.

Kshitija Deshmukh- from Mumbai, a good artist, and former student from an executive PG batch of Indore.

Shraddha Nigdikar- an NRI ghati from Bhopal, who is also into music, cats and cooking. My selfie teacher among other things. I am still learning, Shraddha..

Kiran Kenjale, an NRI in the US. -also called Ken Jolly out there, and believes in All Play and No work- or just a little bit of it. Enjoy life, and travel is his motto. Rubbed off on me a bit- we are friends from childhood.

Manoj Bhide- He's my chaddi buddy too, we played Bridge and Badminton forever in our teens. His mom made us lunch when we camped at his place. Our brothers completed the foursome

Ravi Gadgil. He's more American than ghati, at least accent-wise. My Golf partner, and great company for drinks. Great sales experience too, so was also a Placement Chair at IMT Nagpur, and MDP chair as well.

Some Unique Learning Methods

At IIM Bangalore during my MBA (then called PGDM), I was exposed to learning methods like Take-home exams, presentations, book reviews etc. for the first time. I have preserved a few handouts from that era, and here are a couple from Prof. S.K. Roy's Organisational Behaviour course. But this is a writeup by the group of students who were aksed to do a Book Review- all of us had to review and present a book. We did one on Intelligence Testing, I remember. But these are from two other groups. These were really good learning experiences, both for the process, and content.

All About Prestige University- Red FM 93.5

https://youtu.be/b7VuBNspj5k is the link to my interview with RJ Shreya of RED FM recently recorded.

Alum Album - Part 2

Continuing this series on some wonderful meetings with alums of various institutions- the pics speak for themselves..

Ravi Mittal with the Thumb up, Kedar Mulay, at Thane..

Rohit in Bubaneswar

Below, Nidhi meets at IIM Indore.

Meghna Sinha, in Mumbai, Savitha in Bangalore.

Ishita, Gowri, Rupam, Anshita (organiser) and Anusha with a kiddo. Bangalore, Orchid, overlooking the KGA Golf course. The husbands are not in this pic. (excluded the beasts, included the beauties)