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.. 

Not Just Presentations -Pedagogy

 Learning Methods are many, and a professor can invent or modify some existing ones too. Assignments that include a presentation are a good tool to build communication skills, but other objectives can be served by using other methods. A few I have used-

Blogging

Role Plays based on short cases

Just role plays to learn about Qualitative Research Techniques such as Focus Groups or Depth Interviews. Each of these requires a different skill-set. 

Questionnaire-building or modification to suit changing times. Can be a group exercise done in class.

Bidding to simulate auctions of different kinds, in Negotiations, or in Digital (Paid) Marketing 

Shooting a small video/reel to advertise a product/service

Captioning a post with attractive copy.

In addition, you can use exams as a learning tool by being creative in designing questions that test thinking ability or application orientation.

Sustainable Blogging

 How do you sustain a blog beyond a couple of years? Many ways, just like films have survived, telling pretty much 5 stories over the decades, be it Holly- or Bolly- or Tollywood. Some suggestions, having done it for over 14 years now..

1. Add pics to the events you describe.. and describe the events as they happen, before you forget.

2. Have an opinion, and express it. About anything and everything. Opinions make things interesting, within limits of course..

3. Review books, films, art, games.. extension of the above.

4. Meet people, create memories, and write about these, pics included

5. Summarise your quarters-learn from finance- balance sheets, for one.

6. Look for triggers on your friends' posts, or other bloggers' blogs..

7. Take a break, and come back with fresh thoughts.

Digital marketing- In class Exercises

While teaching Digital Marketing at IIM Indore, for both executives and regular MBA students, I tried many new things. I was also teaching the course for the first time, so I had kept it to 10 sessions, half the usual.

I like to experiment with assignments rather than just use cases- so I tried an assignment on blogging about Digital Marketing topics, a Bidding game that simulated Keyword-based bidding that happens in real life for each platform, and writing of emails addressed to a specific target segment or Persona (to me, sometimes) as some exercises, besides a website design exercise  only the broad structure) in my digital marketing course. Live exercises and projects are good for learning, in my experience. Particularly when accompanied by presentations with Q and A. I can literally "see" the learning in many cases.

When blogs were given as an exercise, the students were also required to promote the blog on their social media pages. A free blogging platform was to be used, such as Blogger or Wordpress. Quite a few interesting presentations resulted, including viewership statistics at the end of 5-6 weeks.

Youtube ads also were simulated through making a small video to advertise a given product or service, as a classroom exercise or assignment.

Of course, we discussed a couple of cases too, but the hands-on exercises were far more useful as learning tools. 

Making New Connections

 Of course, for a teacher, an obvious place to make connections is his/her students. And colleagues. The gang of ex-student friends keeps expanding, in my case, as I have more years under my belt (sometimes, it shows). 

But generally speaking, a sport can get you friends, or hobbies can. If you are online, or a blogger, you get invited into communities. I have made quite a few friends from a music group I joined a few years ago. If you write books, you have many readers, some of whom pop up unexpectedly. Ditto, if you write columns etc. Makes you feel like a celebrity at times! I have actually given autographs on my books- not as many as I would like to, though.😀

Travel is another way you get to meet people. I have met friends who are friends of friends, or spouses of friends. Sometimes had long conversations with them too. I also have parents of students who are friends online, though I haven't met all of them. Similarly, daughters/sons of friends too. All of these connections are enriching. I have met New Zealanders, Bangladeshis and Vietnamese in conference travel, and Cambodians, Japanese, and Koreans too, among others-Thais and Britishers, Indonesians for example.

Some friends are also global (USA, France, China, Sri Lanka, Austria, Australia...) and we have connected on fb regularly, and I have a window into their world. I know exactly what they think of Biden., Trump, or Trudeau, for example, and what their kids are up to (if they have kids). 

Amazing!

Highlights of 2010-2020

 Highlights of the Last 10 Years

2009-2010- Started blogging. Read the book Zorba The Greek. Revival of Osmania engineering batch meets. Joined IMT Nagpur, made new friends among faculty, staff and students. (Hundreds are still in touch, from there on till today, including those who went on strike 😊 )

2011- Met a few engineering classmates at Delhi’s Air Force Golf Club, IMT alumni meets in multiple cities, for the first time. Mr. Sunil Mittal at first convocation done independently at Nagpur (was with Ghaziabad before this). One helicopter landed at IMT grounds.

2012- Blog crossed 25,000 views, met Mr. Mukesh Ambani (IMT Nagpur convocation), Two choppers landed at IMT. Discovered an elixir-Amrut Single Malt, made in namma Bengaluru! Alumni meets, Goa Case conference continued.

2013- Formed a couple of Mutual Admiration Societies..and they kept growing, lots of them with students of mine. Crossed 50,000 views of my blog, met Mr. Azim Premji (convo again), family vacation to Thailand, including a boat ride in the Chao Phraya. Faculty outing at Marble Rocks, Bhedaghat. But the highlight was meeting my marketing prof. from IIMB, JD Singh, with friends at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Delhi.

2014- Joining IIM Indore and making new friends (actually joined in Dec. 2013), Started teaching a new course-Digital Marketing, Discovered Mandu- my favourite destination for a Day visit, blog crossed 200,000 views. Saw Daawat-e-ishq, set in Lucknow and Hyderabad, among great biryanis. 30-year alumni meet at IIMB.

2015- Trip to Jaisalmer and Chittaurgarh by road, a trip to Beppu with skinny-dipping in hot spring baths or Onsen. Started Golf on Indore IIM’s cricket ground, Kishore Kumar Nite in Mumbai with Sudesh Bhosle doing KK.

2016 -Bid farewell to Saumyaa, my Acad. Assistant, one of the best (we are in touch still), played Golf at Wellington and Ooty (getting my second Hole-in-one too), Went to Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh finally!

2017- Hridaynath Mangeshkar live in concert at Pune.

2018- Visited Kishore Kumar’s Khandwa Memorial, with ex-roomie Anil Lahoti. Also Kancheepuram and its amazing temples with Vijayakumar and my brother who was visiting. Wedding in the Nargundkar family at Hyderabad-bringing many of the rare species together. Met Krishna Nukala, a Malt Maniac from India (the only one from India) thanks to Hari, and tasted 15 different Single Malt whiskeys in a day! Red-letter day!! Went to Hanoi, Vietnam – Ha Long Bay cruise and Temple of Literature dedicated to Confucius in Hanoi were highlights. Discovered there was a street named Hang Bong in Hanoi!

2019-early 2020 before COVID struck: Alumni meetings at Bangalore (Anshita and gang, Savitha, Anushka), Delhi (Sunil and Sharmistha), Ahmedabad (Ishan, Keyur, Manjari, Punyashlok), Mumbai (THE gang- Abha, Tosha, Siri, Anuj and another bigger IMTN party (with Abhinav Kamal, Garima, Dwipa, Divya Pragati the camera-girl) and then Sheetal and Abha again at the Koyla overlooking the Taj), Delhi (Bhuvneet Raheja, Surbhi Mehta Chadha, Kanika Mhendiratta, Pranksters Shruti/Aditya/ Nikita), Pune (Divya Singh, Neha Adiga), Wedding at Prabhakar’s house (his daughter’s). Met a childhood friend Kiran Kenjale who visited from L.A. Some alums visited Indore, like Anam, Harshad Sachani, Arshia, Ritu, Sapna Patni and Ruminder. Visited Pulicat Lake near Chennai with Vijayakumar-boat ride to the sea!

The blog views stand at 700, 000 plus now.

Productivity and Managing Your Time

Some things can't be rushed. A baby has to be nurtured/incubated for around nine months in the womb. But most other things can take different amounts of time. One way to do it is to practice until you are good at something, so it takes less time. The other major thing one can try is to avoid (big) time-wasters- I mean, pick a few, if you cannot avaoid all of them, but pick those which take relatively less time.

This post is actually triggered by a question from Writabrita Ray, my recent student. She asked me how I manage to pack in so many things in my day. One way might be to sleep four hours a day (like Mr. Modi?), but I can't do that. I need my quota. But the waking hours can be distributed according to what you like to do plus what you have to.

Travel is sometimes optional, but I like to travel because it is always a new experience. I do look for opportunities to meet people during travel (again, that is optional). I have met several ex-students, colleagues and friends/relatives in my travels- in the U.S, too, and in Indian cities, and in Singapore (there's nothing like a real meeting!). It also gives me a chance to take pictures, and pick up books- I am a book store addict! For some of my own books (like Marketing Research), I have made students work-I use their cases, with credit to them. That saves me time, and gets the work done. So share the work load- in legit ways- and be more productive.

Writing, I have been doing since I was an editor of a wall magazine during my MBA, and I started off with reports on campus events ( I still have the originals, ink on paper) and reviewing films. We also wrote small pieces about our classmates for the Year Book. Blogging came naturally, and book-writing, not so naturally, as it is hard work. Hearing someone say they read it, is priceless though.

Ok, so the point is, I guess, you do more of what you like, some of what you have to, and avoid time-wasters. I control my TV time (almost nil these days), phone time (likewise), and find that I have plenty of time left to do what I really like doing! Karaoke partying is one of those. I also find social media, with its 2-way communication, more energising than TV-watching. It's also a great source of ideas, like the one for this post-and fun!

Mangalore and Nitte

Visited Mangalore after a very long time. The occasion was a conference on Learning and Teaching at Nitte's Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management. A bonus was meeting Lionel, an old friend from my IIMK days. An IIMB senior, Sankaran, happens to be the director of the Nitte Institute which hosted the conference. Mangalore is a quaint town, and reminded me of Calicut with its narrow bylanes and steep ups and downs everywhere. I presented a paper on Blogging as a learning tool in my classes on Digital Marketing.

Ambition

I was impressed by the play Julius Caesar which I studied in school-mainly, I was impressed by his ambition.

So I decided to be ambitious, like Big Bro Julius.

And got into studying like crazy, and maxed all my subjects in school. Almost topped my class in the board exams too.

After going into college, this translated into trying to watch all the (Hindi) films in town..and almost did that in the five years I was there. In my MBA days, looking at all the other smart and ambitious people that surrounded me, I decided to go slow, and concentrated on reading non-text books- Like PG Wodehouse and others.

During my stint in the U.S., my ambition changed to travelling to all the States that united to form the USA...well, I travelled to around 40 of the fifty states. Threw in a few European countries too, on a Eurail Pass.

Coming back to India, I concentrated on writing, mostly, and managed to write a couple of-horror of horrors- text books! That some people actually read them is a tribute to their patience. Blogging followed, naturally, thanks to being egged on by my BIL. That some people actually read them never ceases to amaze me.

Looking at every Tom, Dick and Harry writing his autobiography, I grew ambitious, and wrote My Experiments with Half-truths. Somewhere in between all this, I played Golf (starting at Harihar, continuing at Nagpur), and also created a small Golf course at IMT Nagpur.

Now, my ambition is scaled down, to meeting nice people, looking at Nice DPs (and awarding the good ones), and some good food and drink (like Vietnamese coffee), books, occasional travel, films, music (retro), watching my students do well in life..

Also visited the famous Saraafa in Indore, among other things..had been a long-time ambition.

Teaching New Courses

Teaching new courses for the first time is an experience. You don't want to do it too often, but you want to try it once in a while.

I mostly taught Marketing Research since I started teaching in Indian Business Schools-and still do. But at times I have taught Business Communication (YES!), Advertising, B to B Marketing, and a Seminar on Thought Leadership. At Indore, I started teaching two or three new courses- Digital Marketing (for several different programs), and for the Ph. D. program, Retailing and Tourism Marketing.

I learnt a lot from these, and that learning continues each time I teach the course. I like to experiment with assignments rather than just use cases- so I have tried Blogging, a Bidding game, and writing of emails as some exercises, besides a website design exercise in my digital marketing course. Live exercises and projects are good for learning, in my experience. Particularly when accompanied by presentations with Q and A. I can literally "see" the learning in many cases.

Airport Blogging

Blogging from the airport maybe for the second time. It is a nice experience if you have a comfortable seat and a table- obviously, not in the waiting area. But a lounge, yes. Lounging around with a laptop and time on your hands? Ideal.

No bandhs, no rain, and nothing to delay the arrival into the airport. Mumbai has never been pleasanter. Sunday evening too, so the lounge is also pleasantly uncrowded. Rare are such happenings, like a Blood Moon or a sighting of Halley's Comet (next expected in 2061, so I shall have a view from the other side).

Digital Marketing-the course- is on at Mumbai, and (hopefully) a training program on it will run in September at IIM Indore. Blogging is part of the curriculum in the course, so at least here, I practice what I preach-every available chance.

Finding Fanny and Myself

The 'finding myself' is one reason for blogging (and reading blogs). And having just crossed 150,000 views of this blog, I am sure there are a few more trying to find themselves. One positive thing about blogs according to me is that they are mostly honest, at least more so than your projected image on a few other social media (as in 'permanently cool' on fb, or 'eminently employable' on LinkedIn).

Anyway, I happened to 'Find Fanny' in our auditorium at the IIM Indore campus last evening. Also went out to see Omkareshwar nearby during the day, taking in Pataalpani waterfall on the way back, with some new colleagues. Pics will follow when official photographers (we management profs have a way with things, you see) send me those.

The movie was a fitting finale to a productive day, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pankaj Kapur is one of our finest actors- I rediscovered this after watching Jaane Bi Do Yaaro again recently, as also Matru Ki Bijli ka Mandola- and here he is in great form. So are Dimple Kapadia, Deepika and Naseeruddin Shah. This is a quirky movie so unless you are somewhat warped, you will not like it. Don't expect syrupy love, larger than life heroics, or Bollywood dance medleys with 250 dancers with violently gyrating body parts.

Some episodes are laugh-out-loud, and some are more subtle. But great fun. Homi Adjania can make films, Saala!

Bucket List 2012- Part One

Every year now, after entering 'wan' prastha (the modern equivalent of the ancient Indian word) when one tends to become wan, and gets an attack of the blues, it's good to make a bucket list to keep your hopes alive.

What can the bucket contain? Basic stuff like the Thums Up ad once summarised beautifully- Food, friends and Thums Up. I am not a fan of the fizzy, however, so I might substitute non-fizzy things for THAT.

Spending quality time with friends comes out tops, along with family. Reading good books comes second. I read some good ones, but after the move from Nagpur, the average number of books read has come down somewhat.

Third, maybe watching some good films- TV shows generally don't qualify for the adjective, so they are left out. And, visit some nice places where the travel time is no more than 3-4 hours if I am flying, and overnight if I am on a train/bus.

Fourth, writing- I find blogging extremely therapeutic and fun, so will indulge. You, dear readers are at the receiving end, and can always put "stop reading this idiotic blog" on YOUR bucket list.

Fifth, doing anything useful in life. Not sure what that might be. I like to believe that one can do useful things, but what they are has so far eluded me. Maybe I'll modify that to 'think about doing useful things in life.' I will think of the remaining five later, as I have done my 200 words for the day, and am running out of ideas!

Maybe avoiding branded products will come sixth, but let me think a little more about that.

Blogging in a Cab

Blogging in a cab is a unique experience. So is drinking wine from Chile. Thanks to a French guest we were entertaining, had the wine yesterday. Today, I am in Bangalore for a PhD student's defense, and tried blogging on the cab. It works, apparently. Whether its quality improves, is yet to be tested and proved. Hope to have some good dosas and kaapi while I am here, as a Dilliwala  visiting Electronic City-literally, as the PhD presentation is at IFIM in electronic city.

Bangalore is at 23 degrees, and heavenly after a rainless Delhi. The flight (Indigo) was only half-full  (Even though Kingfisher has pretty much closed shop), and therefore pleasant. More on the stay later.