2023 Year end Musings- 1

 There could be more, so I am calling these Part 1 of the year-end musings, 2023.

An eventful year, personally and professionally. A cold January after long, in Indore (I was spoilt by the Bangalore weather earlier), but warmed up nicely with a trip to Ahmedabad, for an event at NIFT, Gandhinagar, where naturally, I met a few fashionable young women and men, in a class too. Mehak and Dhanali being just two- I think they are also readers of this blog since!

The beautiful students at NIFT (above), and Manjari -my IMT student with another NIFT student, below

And reconnected with Manjari Mundanad, and met her family, cutie pie daughter included. Manjari now teaches at Adani Institute. 

Summer, we spent a bit of it promoting our MBA programs, at CNBC studios and elsewhere. Spent a few days at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune. 

Met Ananya Nandi De an IMTian with British Telecom now, at her place in NCR. For the first time, though we are connected online. Met and made friends with some IIM Indore doctors-to-be at a couple of outings- a fun bunch to be. Also saw a play , Knives Out, staged by Shweta Kushal, a friend and prof. along with Sohni Roy, a colleague from Prestige. 

Akansh and Prachi visit Prestige University

After the Knives Out play.. with Prachi and Sohni Roy above, and old friend Sanjana (ex-student, IIMI), and Shweta Kushal, prof. who directed the play)

With Sohni, my colleague from P.U., and below, Ananya Nandi De and Rak De in their de-n.

Met Abha in Delhi's Nehru Place.

and Meghana Khadilkar at Pune, for the first time. She's from IMT Nagpur

Some newly minted friends and some old.. all Ph.D. scholars at IIM Indore. A couple have finished their Ph.D. since! 

Upcoming Book Launch in Kolkata

 A friend, classmate and P-in-C from IIMB, who is also IPS and a Ph.D. (aise dost hain hamare), wrote a book. I am conversing with him about it. Since a pic is worth a thousand words, here are the pics worth two thousand .. 

If you like books, him, or me, and live in Kolkata, do make it on Sept 1st.

HPS Ramanthapur Reunion

 Meetup. Long awaited. Schoolmates. Some expected, others unexpected.. long chats, reminiscences, lots of leg-pulling, in English and Hyderabadi..

Lots of pics too, candid and otherwise- Tahseen was visiting from the U.S., and was a catalyst. The most distinguished looking guy in the first pic is him. Suri played a great host at his hotel, Royal Reve. Atul Bhatia from Mumbai, Ram Seshu from Bangalore, and Nadir from USA were some visitors. Our secret agent too, called Narendranath. From an undisclosed location. Dattu regaled us with Dattuisms, and other locals were Krishna K and Krishna S., Damodar, Raghu, Praveen (part local).. Ashwin from the alumni association and his friend completed the team. 

Review of Jan-April 2023

 This is a four-monthly review of 2023- the first four months. There was action, reunions, plans made and some fructified. 

Prestige University -my new workplace- saw construction gathering pace, towards start of a new batch of MBA and Integrated Programs. Our new registrar joined, and another couple of team members too, in the non-teaching side. We also had an outing to Jalgaon, where we strategised for the Prestige group-includes the older institutions, and industry - soya bean related. The resort at Jain Agro was a great place, with a Gandhi exhibit, and lots of Mango plantations.

Went to IIM Kozhikode  as a Chief Guest of the Calicut Management Association annual convention. It was a great trip, and I got to meet many new people from different fields. And visit the beautiful campus too, where I taught earlier from 2003-2005.

Also was invited for a keynote speech at NIFT Gandhinagar, and met a few of their students doing Masters too. Made friends with a couple (Mehak, Dhanali, Sneha), who are as bright as any I have encountered anywhere else. Met Manjari Mundanad, my old friend and Ph.D. student at Nirma, now a prof. at Adani. Know her from IMT Nagpur days.

More recently, made a trip to Bangalore for Good Friday, and met Shatakshi, Savitha and Muthu. Had some Burmese food thanks to Savitha, for the first time.. it was awesome. Also met Meghana Khadilkar in Pune for the first ever time.. yet to meet her daughters and hubby. Soon, maybe.

Shafique Gajdhar (ex-IMT N) visited and met up. Also met a few Ph.D. students from IIM Indore, now friends of mine, a couple of times. None of the new ones were from Marketing area, funnily! Also saw a play starring a couple of them in February- called Knives Out!