Book Review- Journeys Beyond and Within

 One of the learnings (hers) that comes through is getting over the idea of the White Man/Westerner being superior to others. In India with our fairness fetish, this is more pronounced. But that is just skin deep, is what you learn when you go inter-cultural over long periods. Like she did in Chile in a volunteering stint, teaching English to local kids (My wife taught local immigrants English in a small US town a long time ago- they were adults though).

Simple joys like drinking in public - near the Eiffel Tower, or the Seine- are captured well, along with the more elaborate journeys into the unknown, inaccessible or less travelled parts of the world. The Indian parent syndrome also gets panned, particularly the gender discrimination- the same things done by a Son are praised, and by the Daughter, criticized.

I found the insights into growing up in our (patriarchal) culture very accurate. Of course, every culture has its issues- the U.S. had loneliness, teen pregnancies and drugs as some of theirs. Maybe Trump too, now!

The style of writing is honest and not showy, and it helps to keep you going, wanting to know more. Well done, Priyanka Gupta.

Why should you read the book? Hope you got the answer to that above. I can't tell all- you have to read it to experience it fully. You can get it from Amazon.  https://www.amazon.in/Journeys-Beyond-Within-Life-Changing-Adventures/dp/B0DTT1Y2HB

Actresses Live on Stage

 Spruha Joshi, Shweta Pendse, Amruta Subhash, Purnima Talwalkar, Supriya Pathare, and Rohini Hattangadi and Suhita Thatte.. what's common to these names? 

They are all actresses on the Marathi stage, some of whom are actresses in other media too.

Marathi theatre has a lot of talent, and some of them have been extremely successful.

I was lucky to have watched some of them in action over the last few years, during my Pune stay or visits.

38 Krushna Villa, Sankarshan via Spruha, Asen mi, nasen mi, and Purush are some recently staged ones. Mother's Day, is another that I saw a few years ago, motivated by my cousin Suhita Thatte being a part of the cast. 

Long live theatre, in all languages. 

Sankarshan via Spruha - A Conversation

 It's a show with a difference. Two people- Sankarshan Karhade and Spruha Joshi- converse with the audience, with minimal musical accompaniment. Had just watched a play starring Spruha earlier, called Purush.

Spruha Joshi

They recite poetry, sing songs and talk about various stages in life, childhood, youth, old age. Poems and songs are on a variety of subjects, from How to Eat Well, or the way a guy writes exams when a girl's hair on his desk distracts him, and a lot of things in between.

A participative session with two 60 plus old men was also a part of this show.

Generally, good fun, and well-performed. It was nearly a full house too, in its 130th performance!

Chat Masala - My Youtube Channel

 So far, we have published 3 episodes. If you want to watch them, the links are

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNwMxUqIW9M for the Happiness episode

https://youtu.be/x4drlX8nQh8  the second is about my favourite heroes from films

https://youtu.be/1Ey5BlUQI7k the first, is about why I like Hindi films.

Actors and Roles

 Some actors made some roles/characters they played famous. Just like some professors- Kotler, Parasuraman, CK Prahalad- made the universities they worked in famous.

Good to recall a few-

Sean Connery, Roger Moore- James Bond

Peter Sellers- The Pink Panther's Inspector Clouseau.

Charlie Chaplin- Hitler, in The Great Dictator. A tramp, common man in many films. 

Amol Palekar- Man next door, in Rajnigandha, Chitchor and Chhoti si Baat

Amjad Khan- Gabbar Singh in Sholay

Rekha- Loveable rebel in Khoobsurat.

Rajesh Khanna- a positive thinking cancer patient in Anand

Rishi Kapoor- a young romantic, often paired with Neetu Singh

Sanjeev Kumar- Khilona, a 'mad' person

Amitabh Bachchan- Angry Young Man

Mithun Chakraborty- Disco Dancer

Dev Anand- the romantic, in many films

Helen- Club dancer, in multiple films

Julie Delpy- Before Sunrise, first of a trilogy - of two people meeting in a train, spending a night talking..

Netflix, Good and Bad

 Good

Monk- mainly, for its main actor.

Graveyard, in Turkish. A decent crime detection drama. Acting and emotions are well done.

Anna, the Detective. Russian series, with a beautiful main character. 19th Century, with period atmosphere, costumes. Still watching it..

Bad/ So so

Many American series seem forced, and stereotyped. Forget their names.

Saw the trending one, Adolescence. Only liked episode 3 with the psychoanalyst. Rest was either predictable or a drag.. particularly the last one. Fast forwarded some parts.

Rants on Social Media

 There are 4 major types of rants.. keeping it simple.

Personal rants- about being wronged, sidelined, not promoted, or similar

Rants Against a System- What is wrong with it, and why people (except the ranter) are ignoring it.

Rants against Specific People- Bosses are usually the target, but it could be a celebrity cricketer, selectors etc., or friends who ditched you.

Rants for no particular reason.. to let off some steam, perhaps..

 All these are interesting, some more than others.

Benefits of Blogging

 You never know what it might lead to. Many years ago, I reviewed a book I had read, and also sent the link to the author, from her mail ID on the book cover. That led to a friendship with her and her husband, who also wrote a book on a different subject. I met them a couple of times, and she guest lectured at IMT Nagpur and Ghaziabad where I was. That was Devapriya Roy, author of many books, starting with The Vague Woman's Handbook, that I had reviewed.

Yesterday, I got a pleasant surprise from another author, Priyanka Gupta, who wrote.. I am "a Computer Science graduate from IIT Delhi turned itinerant writer, and my 1st book, a travel memoir, Journeys Beyond and Within... has just been released." 

She also offered to send me a copy, so I can review it on my blog, which she is a reader of.. a pleasant double surprise. So, as I said, you never know.. 

Student Literature From Student Days at IIMB

 

Of Sirs, With Love

This piece was written to commemorate a guest lecture in a visiting faculty’s class. The visiting faculty was Prof. Kalyan Das. The style is based on a popular column in a mag called Blitz, then edited by Russi Karanjia.

The SLAVE who’s a clinical psychologist gave a gueshtu lecture yesterday on ‘Managing Change’, instead of the SLAVE who is WELFARE. . Samajh gaye na?

A large part of his opening was punctuated by shrieks and creaks of a tortured door- opened by the late Lateefs (and Lateefas) at regular intervals. The speaker paused at the twentieth interruption while saying “For instance, how do you sell home computers?”  (CRE…AK)

Looking at the door with trepidation, he continued, “We’ll see how….when the door is closed.”

He exhibited brilliant wit while narrating this one about how children relate to SCHEMAS- the images of things they see.

A child which sees a dog for the first time might say to its father, “Daddy, dog!” and point to it.

The pleased father, feeling proud of his child, may respond, “Shabhash beti. You are all set for the IIM already.”

Such was the KINSHIP effect that Jockey (a classmate) asked 3-minute-each questions full of words and containing some sentences. What JUNTA now wonders is- Who is next in the line of the illustrious SLAVE dynasty? K.C. SLAVE (the sweet shop) or our own SLAVE-H (Dash, another classmate) who is a LINE ?

-In collaboration with Rajan of India aka ROI.

Time for a New Adventure

 I last lived in the East in 1991-92, with mixed results. Had some dreams, and some went unanswered. But that was my initiation into Indian academia, which was quite different from the American academia then.

Since then, many experiences across India have shaped my worldview. Lucknow, Kozhikode (Calicut), Indore, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Harihar, Bangalore were some places I lived in, and Delhi, briefly. Met so many nice people along the way-staff, students and colleagues. Yes, bosses too, including directors and promoters. Some had lots of traffic, and some had little!

Now it's time for a new adventure. With new challenges, perhaps. I am going in as one of two Pro Vice Chancellors to JIS University Kolkata, soon. Part of a larger group of organisations and institutes. Looking forward to it!

Play Review- 38 Krushna Villa

 This is a very good Marathi play with two good actors, one of whom is also the writer. Shweta Pendse. Girish Oak is the other.

It starts with a premise that he is the accused in a fairly serious intellectual theft, and tries to wriggle out of the accusation by all possible means.. including laughing off the allegation.

The play suddenly takes an unexpected twist around the halfway point, and ends up being a completely different, engaging story. Can't let out spoilers, but it's well worth a watch, particularly if you are in the creative business like poetry, books, paintings, music. You might appreciate it just a bit more.

Well-directed, just about 2 hours in two acts.

De-branding

 Just try this exercise. On your resume.

Remove all references to brand names- institutions, colleges, companies, products and so on. See how it looks without the famous horses we usually piggy-back on. I will have to remove references to 4 IIMs, a foreign university or two, and all country names where I went for conferences- yes, remove those too.

What remains could be the essence of what you did, or what you are. A human who interacted with and learnt from other humans- teachers, parents, colleagues- and maybe taught a few things to other humans, if you were a teacher, like me. One whose experiences were shaped by conversations that exchanged thoughts with a variety of people - including children, adolescents and old people over shared meals, or coffee, or music, or nothing.

We are what we forget to be most of the time- ourselves. Not the guy who went to IIT or MIT. Or the girl who starred in a film called so and so. Just normal- affectionate, cranky, friendly, sarcastic.. whatever.

I call it de-branding. Not exactly a marketing principle. Maybe one of self-discovery.

Surprises

 Surprises come in various forms. Unexpected faces turning up at places is one of them. I recently met Anurag Jain, a former associate from IIM Indore, in this way. At Lexicon Institute of Management, Pune.

I was there to do a few guest sessions, and suddenly discovered that Anurag Jain works there and is teaching B to B marketing. We had worked together when his boss, Prof. Jayasimha, and I offered a Seminar on Tourism Marketing at IIM Indore. this course became popular and is still running at Indore.

Incidentally, meeting students and working with them was good fun. I met a student, Srishti, from Hyderabad, and another from Indore. 

Some students from Lexicon, Pune.

In-class activity makes people think a bit- that's my learning from this exercise.

Morons I Have Met- 2

 There seems to be a high correlation between Morons and Bosses. There was this guy who left a note at my colleague's desk that he should not be leaving office to play Golf at 4.30. We played on most days after work!

The effect was the opposite of what he intended! We made sure that we played every day!

Another one, pretty early in my career, gave discourses at faculty meeting. Once, when I asked for leave, he quoted service rules and denied the leave! I asked for a copy of those rules, and after making a pretense of searching in his desk drawer, he couldn't find them- never did! 

Holi - Colourful Thoughts

 We do see life through a coloured lens. All the colours are present in our life, and make their presence felt through everything we experience- not just on the day of Holi. Here's to a life full of colours you like. Some representative pics-

Snorkeling, and below, guzzling

Sunrise at Chikhaldara..

Chilli above, and fire, below. Maya and Khayal, look on.

Real banjaran, above, and Ojaswee jewelry, below

The Khandala ghat, above, and Raneh Falls, below

Sanjana's wedding, above, and Jorhat with Rani Khound, below

Dipi and Anu, her son's wedding-above

Veronica and Prashant Bharadwaj, at Prestige, Indore, below

DDLJ moment, Kashmir and Royal sofa, Gulmarg

Pretty students, Prestige, and some colleagues at Gwalior Prestige, below.

Bird, Ramoji studios and flowers, Pune

My bff Savitha, Bangalore, and Meghana, Pune

Fashion students, NIFT and below, Sohni Roy, at an IIM Indore visit

Morons I Have Met

 Someone said I should write a book about them, and maybe I will, some day. But here's a preview on a couple.

I once had a one-hour meeting with a superior based in another city, about why our Diesel Generator expenses (on fuel) were high compared to his! We tried explaining (my admin was with me) that we were located in a rural area outside the municipal limits and therefore power cuts were rampant in the area. But after an hour or so, he wasn't convinced. He wanted to look at Power Cut announcements for our city, by the local Electricity board to verify our claims! 

But this may not be the worst of all the M's I have seen on the planet.. just wait for more. 

Women's Day- Women in the Family

 I have so many women in the family that I may have lost count. Cousins, sister, daughters, wife and spouses of cousins, nieces.. you get the picture. Here are some of them, remembered again for Women's Day..

The Big B - Bureaucracy

 The world over, bureaucracy rules, though politicians come and go. Over in Britain, we have had TV series that lampooned their bureaucrats and politicians. Most countries have their own versions of it.

Occasionally, they do some good. Mostly, they hinder any chance of benefiting a common citizen. Our license raj before 1991, in India, was infamous. You needed permission to manufacture anything, from a safety pin, to a rocket. That kept Indian entrepreneurs in check- and uncompetitive for decades.

Now, we have a friendlier version, but it's still way too complicated. Go to any govt. department, and you will see. Hopefully, you won't have to, but that's a pipe dream for some.

It's usually self-perpetuating. The recent Income Tax change may help some tax payers escape the big circus that they go through to pay (or not) their taxes. Hopefully.

The Greatest Show on Earth- Review of the Play

 A brilliant satire on many subjects- advertising, TV channels, politics, and a lot more.. Vikram Kapadia and team excels at the concept, and execution.

Saw it yesterday in Pune. Enjoyed every moment. Good choreography, acting by all the actors, and sets, sound and lighting. A must-watch, if you get a chance.