A New Adventure Begins

 Joined JIS University on April 29th as Pro-Vice Chancellor. It's a private university with campuses in Kolkata and nearby. Spans a range of departments from Pharmacy, Science, Law, Management, Engineering to Agriculture and others.

My office is in Agarpara, on the outskirts of North Kolkata. There are possibilities of increasing reach, awareness, and perhaps upgrading the student and faculty experience, alumni support and so on. Probably similar to some experiences of mine elsewhere in a wide variety of institutions, or business schools. Other priorities will be set after discussions with colleagues at the top level and faculty, students, alumni.

Looking forward to also catching up with friends in the East, and visitors of different kinds- official guest lecturers to personal friends. I have a possible Golf-playing opportunity too, to be explored. Will keep readers posted. It's early days yet..

Microbreweries

 Not sure which year it was, but I was visiting Bangalore from Harihar, and reconnected with Jimmy and a couple of alumni. 

We decided to go out to a pub, and TOIT was the choice. They had set up a microbrewery onsite, probably the first or second in Bangalore. I didn't know what it was at the time. Later, I went to a few more, including the Biere Club on Vittal Mallya Road with Avinash Mulky, and Ann Arbor near Garuda Mall. Last one was Big Brewsky near WIPRO, on Sarjapur Road. No, actually Church Street got a new one where I met Milind Chalisgaonkar. I think it's called Klang. Another one on Residency Road called Communiti. 

In Pune, the Corinthian Club had Doolally, which is now called The First Brew. TOIT has also come here, along with a couple more. Update- another visit to TOIT Pune, after we finished teaching at Lexicon.. 

What I Learnt From IIMs

I mean as a teacher/faculty. And what IIMs can do better..

Classes are overcrowded (MBA) - 70 plus in a section, not conducive to learning. Why can't they have smaller classes, larger faculty size? The norm in the US university I was at, was around 40 in a PG class. UG was larger.

More faculty would also help get more original research and accreditations if that is a goal. More cases too, perhaps with contributions from Professors of Practice. 

Not enough Ph.D. candidates. Each faculty could potentially have 3-4, or one new candidate each year. We would help create manpower. Make efforts to get more quality candidates by spreading the word. 

I had an academic associate (in Indore) who helped with grading. A must for every faculty, to give her/him time for value-added work.

Not enough guest faculty from industry. At IMT and some other institutions, we had a better number of industry folks within the courses, coming to guest lecture.

Projects (live in the course directed by faculty) are going down. Seminar courses are rare, except in Ph.D. classes.

Flipped classrooms are almost nil, in most IIMs I was in.. shouldn't top institutes be doing more of innovation?

 

Presentations -Destination Marketing

Some pics from my assignment given to Lexicon Institute MBA students. They had to come up with a marketing plan for a chosen destination-

Filter Coffee- Marathi Play

 This is written and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar. I am convinced that 'kar's  can do creative stuff! A good tale of a conman and his female victims, and how his scheme pans out. There are some twists in the tale, and the characters are quite interesting. The coffee does play a role!!

Good acting, all around. A driver/servant character adds a comic element throughout. This was the first show in Pune we saw. Worth a watch!

The cast and crew including Mahesh Manjrekar take a bow- 

Above- Rangoli at the entrance to welcome audience- Balgandharva Rangamandir

Female Characters in Marathi Theatre

 Saw a program that had excerpts from 4 plays on the theme of Women in Marathi Theatre, called Tee (She in Marathi). Plays written by the likes of Vijay Tendulkar, Sai Paranjpye and Ratnakar Matkari. Pic from one of them, below. Starred Suhita Thatte-

There was also a lively performance of Mulgi Jhaali Ho, a freestyle street play about why the girl child is important, intended to spread awareness in a society that favoured the Male Child, written many years ago, and performed in all corners of Maharashtra, and translated as well. The highlight was the writer, 75 or so, performing on stage!

Here's are 2 pics from their act- 

The author of Mulgi Jhaali Ho is in green, with her troupe.

An Eventful Week

 Went to Hyderabad, and met my sister and BIL Hari, and niece Anjali after a long time. Anjali has completed her 12th and is looking at colleges up North. Also caught up with tow visitors at their place. Did not stir out much, as it was hot in the day. Of course, had biryani and small onion samosas with Irani chai once. 

Also shot 3 episodes of Chat Masala with Hari, Anjali and Vandana on various topics of their interest. This is a new Youtube Channel of mine where we discuss anything under the Sun. 3 episodes have aired so far, but we have shot a few more.

Back in Pune, we again shot another guest episode with Suhita Thatte, actor and my cousin, visiting from Mumbai. She was here to perform in a Play written by Sai Paranjpye. In Marathi, at a program dedicated to Female characters in Theatre.

Also shot two more solo episodes for Chat Masala, about Friends/ Students who became entrepreneurs, and Bosses I have had over the years -in industry and academia.

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!