Personal Branding- Take 2

 Yeah, a slightly different take. You don't have to yell from the rooftop (or anywhere else)- to be a great personal brand. You may be a great cook, for instance. Or an unusual cricket umpire - I met one of only 3 women umpires in India- and so on.

Or you may have an uncanny knack of solving Math problems- most of these types are introverts, in my opinion. A strict teacher you may remember, or a loving one- can both be remembered for long. Or one that gives you very different kinds of exams. I have had all kinds, so I remember a few of both kinds.

A problem-solver, a problem-creator are both remembered. We are not talking likeable brands here, unlike product brands. If the brand is strong (either way), you are likely to remember it, or him/her in this case.

There's a reason Birbal is remembered, or Tenali Raman. May I ask if you have heard of them in stories from your childhood?

The News

 This is based on a survey of around 5 English news channels- three international, and two national.

Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Nigeria are the major countries in the world. Myanmar comes fourth, when there are protests. Kidnappings or protests that turn violent pushes your country up a notch. Palestine and Israel replace Myanmar, when they have fireworks.

The only news is bad news, with very rare exceptions. Fear-mongering is a part, about Mucor..whatever, the Third Wave, and impending doom, in general. Businesses closing down are news, but not those that are booming in the pandemic.

Travel shows and cookery shows are most popular, but they are not on news channels.

Political violence or killings are very important news, because they never happened before in the history of mankind.

Who took oath as what is news. What they did after that is not. Every word spoken by a small time politician is more important than what an artist, a scientist or a common man speaks, if you go by time allocations. 

Good Versus Evil

 They say the world is a constant tug of war between Good and Evil, or Good and Bad. All epics or legends have these two sides, so do most movies. But the idea of setting up a BAD bank gave me some ideas.

Why not have a Bad Governance model, and study it as a contrast to Good Governance models? It will be interesting, to see who is classified where.

We can also have a Bad Boy award, like a Good Boy award, in schools. So we recognise both, and know where we (and they) stand.

Not just boys, we do this for Girls too. Not all girls are good (though most are).

A Bad Actor Award- an Oscar or Filmfare for really bad acting? Ram Gopal Verma would win for Bad Direction every year, at least in India.

Bad Cricketer Award, maybe? Bad Author?

Bad Politician award may get controversial, and there might be too many contenders, so we'll forget that.

Bad Teacher Award, along with Best Teacher?

Ok, will let you think of some more, I am running out of Bad ideas.

Year 2020- A Wrap

 It started off innocuously enough. In fact I travelled in each of the three month before the thunderbolt hit us. Met a few alumni of IMT Nagpur, in Delhi and Mumbai, and went to a get-together of a music group in March first week, and got to Pune for a weekend, just after finishing my Marketing Research class. Did not realise that I would be stuck there for almost six months.. the lockdown began on 24th March.

There were good and bad things about the year. I met my Mom several times after the lockdown ended, at her place. Other relatives who live close to her too. Celebrated her 91st birthday on August 10, with a Zoom call, where she heard her favourite songs from old films too. But later in November, we lost her to complications from old age. We were happy that she was happy almost till the end, and that many of us were around. 

One of her pics from 2020. Pune.

Taught some Ph.D. courses on Zoom. Got back to IIM Indore campus, and started packing for my new destination- NMIMS (Narsee Monjee) at Bangalore. But also got a chance to train some enthusiastic students (Prachi, Akansh, Anusha and Shantanu) in playing Golf, and made friends with them as a result. So I now have a pal each from Bho-pal, Delhi, Ghaziabad, at least. I also got some lovely parting gifts from them.

Got to Bangalore without a mishap, and Agarwal Packers did their part of the job. Joining an institution where students are not on campus is a new experience, but I have met most faculty and staff in person, and that's a start. 

A couple of nieces, and a couple of ex-students became mothers for the first time, and that was a big plus. Some got married, and others got new jobs and moved.

It was not as horrible as it seemed, at the end. But still, hoping for a better and brighter 2021 for all, like many of you. Some goals for the coming year are to get re-acquainted with Bengaluru hudugas and hudugis (boys and girls), and new (to me) students/alumni of NMIMS. We might do a virtual Convocation/Graduation soon-that'll be a first too.

And yes, I made my first video- on Personal Branding-thanks to a former student, Shailaja Gupta Kapoor, who also kindly lauded me for my courage!

Trending- Bad Behaviour

Why is it that bad behaviour is so rampant? The video of a passenger being manhandled (still not sure why, as reports are incomplete as usual)  by airline staff in Delhi are disturbing. Usually such treatment is reserved for potential hijackers inside an aircraft (or drunk brawlers in a pub). Or is it an attempt to catch up with global benchmarks? -United staff physically dragged a passenger out of an overbooked flight recently.

Is excessive competition to be blamed? Or policies of the employer as implemented by some line managers that create stress? Or just individuals acting out of line on their own? Luckily, we still don't have gunmen shooting and killing at random, but if we had lax gun laws like the U.S., I am sure we would cross their benchmarks in this arena too.

Do humans need to be taught to respect fellow human beings? Is this what they call Kaliyug? No idea at all, but something is seriously wrong somewhere. On a bigger scale, War being threatened by a superpower over trivial things is the new normal, it looks like.

Bad Acting Awards

The way we praise/reward good acting, so we should bad acting. So here goes-

My nominations for Hamming Birds-Male.

1. Dino Morea- Dinosaurial skills in acting. In fact, Tyranno would have acted better.

2. Deb Mukherjee- Not sure what he was doing in films.

3. Bhushan (or was it Kishen?) Kumar- Gulshan jee was his brother, or something. Forgettable.

4. The guy who the wonderful song Chalte chalte mere yeh geet was shot on..whatwashisname.

5. Dabboo Kapoor- the wonderful RD Burman tunes did nothing for his acting. People laughed when he tried enacting a cancer patient's role in Harjaee. and laughed again when he discoed in the same film...to Tujhsa haseen dekha na kaheen, tu hogi meherbaan kabhi na kabhi..

6. Sunil Shetty. Comparable with the all time greats, such as Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, and a few others.

7. John Abraham- his abs were better than his talent- abs-olutely!