Chickening Out

 This is a phrase commonly used in the U.S., or in short question format, people say, Are you chicken? 

Many initiatives in organisations are killed because the top management chickens out. It could be resource allocation decisions, hiring decisions or even new projects.

The team is usually demotivated by these chicken and egg problems, and more savvy competitors win the battle.

Even if you are chicken, you must cross the road. Or else, you will remain where you are. And the braver ones will go across, and away.

Decision-making skill, thus, counts for a lot, is the moral of the short story.

A Month in Kolkata

 I have now lived here for over a month. I commute around 40 minutes each way to work, and it's not too bad. North Kolkata, where the campus is located, is semi-rural, and not as crowded as the rest of the city.

With my Exec. Assistant Shrabani, in my office

Below, view from my window 

Below- visit to the Agriculture dept. along with the Pro-Chancellor, VC and the other Pro-VC

 

The JIS University campus has multiple programs, in two or three different locations. The Management programs are in the heart of New Town area, a relatively new residential and commercial area. Salt Lake is not far from there, as also Eco Park, a huge park I am yet to visit. It has a Golf course within, so a good reason to go there!

The Agriculture dept. is near Kalyani, about an hour's drive, because 50 acres of land is needed for crop development and practical training of students.

Engineering, Education, Law, Pharmacy, Earth Sciences and a couple of other departments are located where I sit, and Hotel Management in another nearby location. 

The group also has other colleges, and is in the process of setting up a Veterinary Science college, the first by a private entity in the State.

Getting familiar with the workings of various departments and programs, and the students of some of the programs. It is a big group, with over 40,000 students in all, spread across the university and other institutions. Pretty competitive in terms of fees as well.

Hoping to improve admission processes, and interaction with industry. Maybe play some Golf as well, if possible.

Rains begin in Kolkata

 Is it the monsoon? Too soon to tell. It's still the last week of May. But since hot weather began in mid-February, it's likely the rains will also come earlier than usual. It rained today, quite a lot, and the clouds seem set for a longer stay.

It's already rained heavily in Bangalore, Delhi and Pune (last 3 days). And Goa. Monsoon is officially in Kerala too, as per Met dept.

So, chances are that we are into an early monsoon. That may be good news for the rain-parched areas, if the rains get there. 

Book Review - Pathway to my Being

 This book is written in a memoir format, and is indeed a collection of snippets from the life of my friend and classmate Sankaran. It touches on his early life in school, REC Trichy, then his years in industry before he got into IIM Bangalore (where we met), and beyond. Also about his marriage and the life after.

Many interesting tidbits are strewn across chapters, and make for interesting reading. For example, Victoria's Secret had a plant near Chennai and Sankaran was working for them. It's not a secret anymore, though..

His experience in sales and advice on how to sell using different techniques may be useful to those starting out in this line.

His Golfing days and Carrom days are well captured, and inspiring. Most inspiring is the part about his encounter with Parkinson's disease a few years ago, and how he has battled it with help from his wife and daughter. 

Very readable.

Book Review of The Bookshop Woman

 Can recommending books to read be a full-time occupation? For a fee, maybe? Or even a part time one?

That and other questions are answered in this book. The lady in question works at a bookshop she likes. Then she gets into a portal for dating strangers for 30 minutes at a time, based on profiles on a site called Perfect Strangers.

As she tries it out, her experiences of meeting various strangers, and discovering herself in the process of meeting with them and recommending books to them is the crux of the story. It is interesting, and the different characters who appear in her life and the twist later on, keep you engaged. Hundreds of books are also mentioned in the story, and there is a list at the end which one can refer to, if you want to read any of them.

I found it interesting. Maybe you will too..

Sustainable Humour

 It's all about sustainability, if it's not AI talk. So, here are some tips to sustain you through the next chapter of your life-

Bread is not as sustainable as cake. Marie Antoinette was right, you should eat cake if you don't have bread.

Chocolate is for winters, as it does not melt. Try ice apple in summers. 

Jokes about bosses make your stay in the organisation less sustainable- they have informers. Wait until you have left the organisation to crack them. 

War with Pakistan is sustainable - for us. Not for them. We just have more people.

A Ph.D. makes you immune to delayed gratification in all spheres of life. Try it!

Acting is temporary. Reality is permanent. Be real. (sorry, lifted from something equally inane said by cricket commentators- Form is temporary, class is permanent?- whatever that means)

Education- A View From Both Sides

 What a student wants- 

Small classes where she/he will be recognised as an individual.

What we provide generally-

Large classes where there is no scope for such things.

Other expectations, and reality

Engagement vs. Prepared lectures

Thinking openly about possibilities versus Structured Curriculum 'to be covered'

Collaborative Group work like in real life versus individual exams

Practical or real-world fundas versus a lot of jargon that makes no immediate sense

Discussion, versus evaluative feedback

and so on.. in higher ed.. and not in school. 

To some extent, a few MBA or engineering colleges have projects, or group work or creative assignments, but not nearly enough. When will we see a change across majority of our institutions of higher ed.?

Your Best Hour

 I am not even sure there is such a thing, but maybe it's a period longer than an hour. When you were at your best. I have a few nominations for music directors and lyricists, when according to me, they did their best work. 

SD Burman- Aradhana, where almost every song is so good, you hum it even today. His second best for me is Teen Deviyaan, and next, Chalti ka Naam Gaadi.

RD Burman. Aandhi is his finest hour, for the classy duets. Of course, Amar Prem also, for the solos. And for sheer entertainment, Yaadon ki Baraat and Teesri Manzil.

Neeraj, lyricist. Dil aaj shayar hai from Gambler. It's too good. Second, Phoolon ke rang se from Prem Pujari.

Anand Bakshi. Amar Prem, any day. Chingari koi bhadke, Kuchh to log kahenge and Yeh kya hua.. second would be Kati Patang- Yeh jo mohabbat hai, Yeh shaam mastani (from where this blog gets its name), and Pyar deewana hota hai..

Sahir Ludhianvi. For me, his song from Gumrah- Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayen hum dono is worth its weight in Gold.

Obituary For a Great Friend

 He was a faculty member at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies in Harihar, when I met him, in the late 90s. He taught Organisational Behaviour or O.B. I just spoke to Jogeswari, who was taught by him, and she spoke warmly about his course.

He was a serial entrepreneur, with numerous ventures- some successful, others learning opportunities. He runs a school in Coimbatore, and they also teach Shooting- his daughter in law Sindhu is a National level shooter and trainer.

His home was like a second home for me and my family. We visited whenever we could. Of course, he was a Golfer too, and we had visited Kodaikanal along with Vijayakumar a few times. Memorable times.

He had a great sense of humour, and we also travelled to Bali together a couple of times. Went Whitewater rafting in Ubud too!

He will be missed. He passed away on May 10th after a brief illness.

Meetings That Changed My Life

 There were some people with whom a bond was created almost instantly, and stayed a long time. 

Alok Srivastava, friend from engineering college. Was responsible for my admission into Clemson, and advising me on negotiating the Ph.D. It helped.

Muthu, colleague at the marketing research company MBA. Remained friends since 1985.

Samrendra Singh, and his wife Annie. We met in 1989 in Greenwood. We met her again in Delhi in 2024. 

T.K. Chatterjee - colleague at IMT Nagpur. We bonded over karaoke, and a drink or two.

Vijayakumar and Dhanapal. Both colleagues from Kirloskar Institute. 1995 onwards..

Students of IMT- too numerous to count.. Sheetal Garg, Shreyashi, Abhinav, Nikita Kumar/Ray, Gowri, Anshita, Ishita, Ishan, Tosha, Abha Kulkarni, Sirisha Adi, Pragya Singh (met her at Pagdandi Pune), Meghna Sinha, Meghana Khadilkar, Ananya Nandi De, Shraddha Nigdikar, Divya Singh, Shafique Gajdhar, Pallavi Bajpai, Swati Jain (met recently and bonded), Kedar Muley, Harshad Lunavat, 

Kirlsokar students- Jogeswari, Padmapriya, Nidhi Kanungo, Nikhil Damle, Savitha, Anushka Mishra, Smita Mohan, Vidya TC, Swapna Gurijala, Aditi Sood, Sunil Kataria, Sharmistha Singh.

Shweta Kushal, Sanjana Rao, Anusha Soni, Akash Gupta, Prachi Jain, Akansh, Pratishtha Batra, Neeti Ingole, Shweta Jha, Vanshika at IIM Indore

My music group buddies and extended family in some cases- Geeta, Indira, Omprakash, Rajan, Sunil Kapoor, Umesh Jadhav, Poonam Bhatia, Rajni and Rimjhim Verma, 

and many more- Frane Bhattacharya, sister of my colleague at XIMB. Yuvaraj, Pavan, Rajesh, Raghavendra, Mahboob and Karibasappa at Harihar.

Ekalavya and a few students of NMIMS Bangalore. Tanmeet, Prerona Baruah, and Alisha Thomas, faculty golfers,

Talk Trillions

 You want to be noticed? Talk in trillion dollars, talk of Quantum, or talk of galaxies beyond .. far beyond.. the Milky Way.

People aren't impressed by the small numbers. Or the known. It's what's beyond the curtain, or smoke, that interests them.

Who knows, you could just find a new career, if you do this consistently.. become a guru and start a new cult? Possible. 

Good fun as long as it lasts. But then, a new guy may just come and take over, after talking more unfathomable stuff than you ever imagined. So beware of emerging competitors too!

Complacency

 When you are doing badly, you know you have to do better. So you work towards it. 

When you are doing reasonably well, it's tougher to be motivated. You might think, 

"I'm doing well. Why work harder?" 

And that's true of organisations as well. If you don't have obvious shortcomings, it's easy to fall into the complacency trap. And stop trying to be better. 

An example- IIMs think they are getting the best students. They could be, but even a low-ranked American university has more diversity in their student body. International diversity. I know, because i worked in one. Faculty diversity too. 

Just so you don't get complacent as an organisation, I suggest you revise goals every three years or so. And this applies to educational institutes as well as corporates. And see what happens.

First Impressions of Kolkata

 It is historic. Much more than any city I have visited. Looks as though every building has a story to tell, in many parts of town. And trams.. the only place that has a few trams running, still. The river ferry is also unique to a few places in India, and Kolkata is one of them. The song Chingari Koi Bhadke with a backdrop of Howrah Bridge made that immortal in the movies.

There are a lot of franchised restaurants all over the city now, including some known to me, and some unknown. Mio Amore is a cake shop with multiple outlets. . Arsalan is a famous one for Biryani, and generally, non-veg. food. There are a few others too, such as Ganguram's, Haldiram's and so on. Small shops selling sweets are all over the place, and many other eateries that sell stuff by the roadside.. quite popular, by the look of it. There's a Professor pally and a Culture Mod (crossing) on the way to my office at Agarpara campus. 

Spencer's is a store among bigger retail stores. Many branches, including one where I live now. A comprehensive store selling almost everything including daily needs. My go to place, looks like. I like to browse and buy, a 'dying' breed these days. 

As for clothes, it seems that lesser is better. Because it's quite hot, and a fan or an AC is a must most of the time. But you could get used to it. I prefer this to the extreme cold in North India. 

I am also looking forward to the Durga Puja season, which is supposed to be a highlight - this time in September last week. 

Look forward to catching up with old friends too. One I have already caught up with. A few more, I have promised to..

Importance of Pigs

 When we were kids, we had a Piggy Bank. Cute one, with small change, mostly.

Riding Piggy-back. This can happen at any age. Famous people or successful people have many wanting to ride on their fame or success. This is different from riding on horse-back. There, you have to make an effort yourself.

Pig-tails are as well known as pony tails.. almost.

Bringing home the bacon. Bacon comes from pigs.

BLT sandwich was my favourite. Stands for bacon, lettuce and tomato.

PG Wodehouse elevated this to an art form- pig-rearing. His Empress of Blandings was a rare porcine character in adult literature. Her antics fueled many a book.