2024 - A Recap

 Starting with December 2023, on 30th I attended a wedding - and met Natasha Kothari, who runs Studio Ungap. Dhruv, her fiance, was the groom's brother. Anyway, we met again at her office, and I also wrote a case and invited her for a guest lecture on Entrepreneurship to Prestige University. Went off well, with a video recording too.

Natasha at Indore, with students Bhavna and Silky, below.

It was also a year of weddings- attending them. Sanjana's (she was a student from IIM Indore), another one in Coimbatore where I ran into students from IIM Indore among guests, and so on..

Meetups with long lost friends- Jaya Dulani, Pushpinder Singh, Venkata Rama Subramaniam, and not lost but found Nikita Ray, Ananya Nandi Dey, Shalini Sinha, Abha Anagha Kulkarni, Sheetal Garg also happened in Delhi and Mumbai, and Pune. Prachi Jain also met up before migrating from IMT G to IIT Roorkee. 

Jaya Dulani, market researcher, and below, Shalini, a photographer and Abha, HR in a law firm

The Halves too. 

My ex-student-friends from IMT, Ananya and Nikita.

Golfing also happened, with students, and guests, and Prestige employees.

Ayushi learns .. so does Veronica, my friend from Argentina.

Pretty golfers from Prestige. Vedika Palod, below.

Silky and Sakshi, above.

Adithya Padala from school (now in California), and Annie Singh and Ajay from Greenwood, caught up after long, in Pune and Delhi. So did Madhu and hubby, my wife's colleague from Bangalore.

Adithya, above. Madhu and Mr. Mathur in Gurgaon.

Annie Singh and Ajay, from USA.

Also, went to XLRI for a doctoral consortium (met Vijjy, prof. and classmate, and a couple of lovely young Ph.D. scholars), and on a holiday to Goa (and enjoyed dry days with hoarded whisky), and in MP, to Orchha and Khajuraho via Jhansi.

Gifts I Liked

 The best gifts are visits in person, of course. That I got from old friend Shweta Kushal, on my birthday eve! We had a blast, and visited Dopamine for some yummy food too. 

The other great gifts, apart from wishes in hundreds, were pics of me with the wisher.. Sheetal Garg had one of ours at Prithvi Theatre, from a couple of years ago, and Meghana Khadilkar, likewise. Ananya Nandi De posted one of ours from a Delhi meeting too.

A surprise was a wish from Manuja Seth of NMIMS Bangalore. She had emceed our online convocation.

Enjoyed hearing from friends in Harihar too, on the occasion. And of course, my bookworm and ghost writer friends were at the forefront.

Two more visitors who made it special, were Ishita Modi, ex-IMT and Harish Chaudhry of IIT Delhi, a former classmate from MBA days. Ishita gifted me a Golf ball inscribed with her company name!

We also had a cake cutting at Prestige University, thanks to Divya and faculty colleagues.

Lots of relatives on Whatsapp too. Had a video call with my daughters too, which was nice.

Independence Day 2024

 We at Prestige University had some fun times while celebrating the 78th birthday of India as we know it.

The students planned and executed the program quite well. A variety of events included shayari, a song appropriate for the occasion- Kar chale, hum fida jaanon tan saathiyon.. , and a dance, a skit and some poetry reading.

Pics from the event and after!

Our lovely hosts for the show.

A debate, on the reality of the Demographic Dividend.

The Mad Hatter Anet, in my office post the event. The hat was the prize they all got for the show. She was the rep.

India at the Paris Olympics

 Ogle ogles

The mind boggles

The tower of Eiffel

Stands tall

Amid the the shower of medals

Aman, Sreejesh, Bhaker

The Vinesh case was a shocker

Hoping for a Gold were a billion

Stopped short by another Javelin

Wrestling demons real and surreal

Our boys and girls were quite wonderful

XLRI Doctoral Colloquium 2024

 Pics from a well-organised event. 

With TAS Vijayaraghavan, my classmate and XLRI prof., and Dr. Prashant, host.

My talk on Building Academic Careers-above- and Soumya, a part of the hosting team, below

With Dr. Patro, the Dean, above and below.

Groups in sessions, and after..

Meeting with Doctors of Management

 Those are the doctors I like to meet. Have met Payal Kapoor and a couple of others at MDI recently too. But these were a fresh crop from IIM Indore, and we have been meeting regularly over the last year or more. Prachi and Akansh also made it to a karaoke party at home earlier. The biggest meet was at Pind Balluchi, before some of them were formally 'doctored.' Now, having worn that graduation cap, two of them were in a euphoric state, and though we missed a couple of regulars, one was represented by her parents-Pratishtha. Neeti had just spoken on the phone, and was going off to Amritsar- maybe our (IIM's) fifth contribution. So I told her her future boss was a cool guy, and she replied, " But not as cool as you." That was like a breath of fresh air! Anyway, I don't want to sound too narcissistic-we decided it was somebody else's domain. However, I have to prove we had fun, so here's social proof-

These two, and sweets are inseparable. Vartika and Prachi demonstrate how sweet they can be!

Sweetness multiplied! Akansh joins in.

And Pratishtha's parents too.. 

The one-year-old honeymooners, above. 

Old pals, one a doc and one wannabe, below.

Prachi tries her hand at photography, not trusting Bhanwarilal.

And the gang minus one-he was behind the camera.

January Diary 2024

 The first month of 2024 is about half done. So what have I accomplished in these two weeks?

Well, met a few new people, at an event in Amravati, as well as personally, made some new acquaintances. Had a karaoke night too, apart from a few that were technically last year, but less than a month ago. Went around Mumbai like a tourist too, after quite some time.

Also, interviewed a few good faculty candidates for our University, Prestige. We are building our strength, by reaching out to people we can collaborate with too.

Visiting faculty from industry who were at Indore included friends from IIM days, and some who were new. M.S. Rajan, for one, who came to talk about HR Value chain and Process. That's him, below -

With one of the classes he taught..

We also had an impromptu New Year party with students, and a Golf session to round it off- lunch at Charpai, a dhaba on Ujjain road. Pics from both- Aditi Jain and Vedika Palod are the smilers in the first.

The group at Charpai- with the Dean.

Silky (above) and Vedika (below) try out putting

Jahanvi above tries a tee shot.

Best Friends

 These are awards that have nothing to do with your DPs or Cover Pics. Just to recognise you for being good friends on social media, or in life, or both. Of course, in instalments, because the numbers are just too many to tag in one or two posts.

Roughly, in the order of our meetings, reverse chronological (logical?) order- Nishka Rathi, Bhagyalakshmi and Venkatesh, Shraddha Nigdikar, Harsh Halve, Abha Kulkarni, Ananya Nandi De, Jayasimha, Amitabh Kodwani,  Payal Kapoor, Mohita Maggon, Nidhi Kanungo, Sudeshna Srivastava, Bibhuti Dash, Ishita Modi, Savitha NK, Shatakshi Tripathi, Sheetal Garg, Prachi Jain, Akansh Khandelwal, Shafique Gajdhar, Vandana Kumar, Kanika Mhendiratta, Divya Singh, Meghana Khadilkar, Harshad Lunavat, Tanmeet Kaur Sahiwal, Neeti Ingole, Pratishtha Batra, Abhishek Mishra, Rajhans Mishra, Pratima Gaikwad,... 

to be continued.  

What do I do Next Year?

 A good question to ask of oneself. Of course, a part of the list remains unchanged.

Eat, drink and be merry.. that starts this year, right now. Before Christmas, even.

Be aware of one's self-development, such as it is.

Do some good, to my organisation, my students, my colleagues, friends, family.

Think about improving my surroundings in some way..linked to the above.

Have fun, enjoy with people I already know, and those who are new acquaintances.

Take photos, including selfies.. make my selfie-teacher proud.

Continue to write the blog, make puns, coin quizzes, give prizes.. no escape for you guys, in short!