Where We Met- Part 3

 This is about classmates, starting from school. For many years, we never met. Only a couple, like Ram Kumar Seshu, I met in Hyderabad or Bangalore. Rajiv Krishnan too, just a couple of years ago.

Then, suddenly, we had a major gathering, with about 17 classmates showing up last year at Hyderabad. Before that, a smaller one had happened with 7-8 people (men, it was  Boys' school)-Kamlesh hosted it, on a visit from the U.S.

Above- With TAS Vijayaraghavan, IIMB classmate, at XLRI. His wife is also in the pic. Met him after many years, in 2024.

College (Osmania engineering), I remember a large gathering at Begumpet around 12-14 years ago. After that, off and on, I met Venugopal Reddy in Delhi, along with a few visitors, Nagarjuna in Harihar and elsewhere- Indore, recently. And we went on a Bheemeswari outing courtesy G Sreenivas, near Bangalore. We also met at Makrand Deshpande's invitation at a wedding in Pune. KSM I met when he was at Euroflex too, and wrote a case on the company's international marketing effort as well.

Bangalore IIM classmates I have met in large and small groups, or individually, more regularly. Prabhakar introduced me to Single Malts, and I am grateful. Killer and Smoke Smoke Ramesh in Bangalore, Hassled Ramesh in the U.S., Banny and Ravi in the US, Venky, Cheenu, Anu, Chitra, Sekhar in Mumbai, Sandhya in Nagpur, Shanks, Bishop and Paddy in Chennai, Sajeev in Lucknow and Chennai recently, Rajan of India at Indore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Dash multiple times in Kolkata, Goa, Indore and Delhi, Vijjy at XLRI after years, Uday and Suma at Calicut and Mumbai, Sardie and Sujit in Goa, Harish in Delhi, Bangalore, are some warm and fuzzy memories. Snail in Delhi and Indore too. Dunhill in Lucknow.

Alumni from School in Parbhani

 This was my wife's school, in Pune. Their batchmates and spouses had a meet in Parbhani, in Maharashtra. My first visit to the town.

It was a great experience, with one NRI couple and many from Pune, Mumbai or nearby places like Aurangabad or Amravati participating.

There was a lot of reminiscing, leg-pulling, nostalgia and of course, singing and dancing. I was happy to meet a couple of professors, some agriculturists, and a few businesspeople and home-makers too. We had a few gender discourses and some party games organised by the Coconut Lagoon, a resort where we stayed. 

There was also a taste of Sindhi and Gujarati food, along with local specialities. Dal pakwan is one I remember. Also a Hurda party and green chick peas- harbara. Bullock cart and horse rides were available for interested people.

The weather was perfect, not too cold or warm. The conversations too.

Classmates as Guest Faculty

 A rich source of guest faculty is my class from IIM Bangalore. Therefore, we at Prestige University have started tapping into this. We have had B.B. Dash, Ph.D. from IIT Delhi in addition to the MBA, recently. The latest was Shankara Rajan, also nicknamed Rajan of India, as a guest faculty in H.R. He was head of H.R. Transformation at Reliance Industries in his last corporate foray.

Pics from his visit-

Even more recently, in March/April 2024, we had Dr. Sunil Gupta, an IIT Delhi Ph.D. once again (after IIMB). We co-taught a course called Business Research Methods.

Meetings of the Heart

 How do we meet people? Frequently, at college, school, workplaces, but increasingly, online too. Or we are introduced by someone. In my case, I have met people through my books also, because someone who has read them, will come up and say so.. 

After the initial meeting, though, it's up to both sides to decide if you want to continue to meet, just as in a dating situation. Therefore, the third or fourth meeting may decide if the silsila is likely to continue. I have been fortunate to have many friends acquired through all the above means, that have been wanting to meet up, and have, in many cases. Many are alumni of various B schools I have been at, Many are classmates, too. 

Shatakshi is one I have caught up with frequently, as she knew me from IIM I, but not directly, as I did not teach her. I have met her and Varun, her husband, several times now. We had a recent meeting just two days ago. Nishka Kumar I have met twice in the last 3 years. Abha Kulkarni is another ex-student I never taught, but have met a few times.. Sheetal Garg too (we share an interest in Hindi music). Tosha Dubey, Sirisha Adi, Khyati Jha, Anuj Mathew, Harshad Lunavat, Shruti Sharma, Aditya Naag, Nikita Kumar, Kanika Mhendiratta, Anshita Chetty, Gowri and Sreeram, Rupam Verma, Ishita and Anurag, Anusha M. and Aashish, Surbhi Mehta, Supriya Jain, Animesh Jain, Anant Ajmera, Divya Singh, Shraddha Nigdikar, Meghna Sinha, Meghana Joshi, Varun Somaiya, Garima Shah, Pragya Singh, Manjari, Ishan, Ankita, Keyur are some IMTians I have met on and off. Also Smita in Dubai, and Swapna and Vidya TC in Singapore a few years ago, all from KIAMS. Rajeev (and his wife Sangeeta) I got re-acquainted with recently. Shailaja Gupta has formed a regular group of IIM alums who meet up, and she also gently coerced me into doing a video on Personal Branding- I enjoyed it!

More recently, Pratima Gaikwad took me out in Hyderabad for a biryani- long live Pratima! And Anusha Soni took me out for some exotic stuff in my backyard, Pune- Prabhat Road. She will also live long! :) Anushka Mishra and Savitha are regulars in Bangalore, both from KIAMS. Also Jogeswari and Padmapriya in Hyderabad and Delhi. Nidhi Kanungo of course, visited me at Indore since she's an Indori. Met Bharath Shenoy, and Nagendra Shenoy from IFIM, once or twice at Bangalore also. And Chaithu too. Pooja Varun from PES, who is an agri-entrepreneur, a unique thing in itself. Played Golf with Vikram of IMTG recently at ASC Bangalore!

Also have been meeting a few of NMIMS Bangalore alums since I got here. Hope to meet a few more!

Met many of my ex-colleagues from PES, IFIM, VJIM, KIAMS, IMTN, IMTG, IIM I, IIML, and XIM over the years. Dhanapal and Vijayakumar I met recently at Coimbatore, and we also went Golfing earlier to hill stations in Tamilnadu. And classmates based here too, from the 1982-84 batch of IIMB. A couple of meetups with engineering classmates happened at Hyderabad, and a few schoolmates too, since last October! Played Golf with Venu from O.U. over the years, at Delhi and recently Hyderabad. Muthu from my company MBA, and I have played at KGA and ASC. 

Feels great to be in touch, and to be touched by so many nice people!

Rare Meets

 Meeting people used to be a lot easier, pre-pandemic. Nevertheless, some rare meetups are still held, and one with a few pals from IIMB was one such. Fun with Sid, Shubha, Prabhakar, Parvati. 

Zoom on Zoom-An Award to a Distinguished Alum

 Good things do happen to nice people. Kusum, better known as Zoom, was a livewire we had who fought for Women's Rights- to be allowed to move in to the Bilekahalli campus on Bannerghatta road. way back in 1982, along with us- the boys. She won, and they moved, to our delight. She made her presence felt, in every way, and was one of the most liked-girl or guy- in the batch. She recently won the Distinguished Alum award from IIMB, not a surprise at all. She is a professor of marketing at Tuck, Dartmouth for the past many years. Some pics from the event held online due to Corona pandemic.. 

Some other winners, first.. many have gone into social causes with entrepreneurship or support of various kinds..heartening to know.

Revathy Ashok, among other things, runs a political incubator with a 9-month flagship program to train people for public service.Sameer Nair, below, runs Gram OOrja, to provide electricity to rural areas which never had it-while keeping it commercially viable!

Laxmana Rao has done wonders for manufacturing in India, with advanced toolrooms, building robots, and IML (in-mould labeling) for FMCG, pharma industries, among other innovations, with many manufacturing plants.

Ramesh 'Hassled' Srinivasan is also a classmate, and a past winner of the award. Gopal Mahapatra is currently with IIMB as  professor of practice, and is a classmate too- he got his FPM from Bangalore, was with us in the first two years. He also worked with me at Indore more recently.

Here is Kusum, remembering her profs., and friends, and the anda bhurji she was famous for making in our mess.

She was awarded a bit late due to Cornoa-strike last year. 

DD Saxena is a pioneer-entrepreneur in Australia, and from an earlier decade at IIMB, when they operated from the city. He also battled cancer and won, and runs multiple ventures. He recounted his days at Hindustan Lever, Thapar and a gherkin export venture he set up, which has grown in scale.

Looking Back at 2019

I know it's not December 31st, but I am looking back at the action-packed eight and a half months that have passed by. I started in January by reading a new author- Kazuo Ishiguro. Never Let Me Go was the book-poignant, about human-like creatures grown for a purpose, and how they turn even more human-like. Unexpectedly, the delayed fourth edition of my Marketing Research text came out, and I was able to release it at our own conference. Lots of students from IIM Indore a couple of years ago contributed the case studies, so it was a proud moment. There was a Delhi conference at IMT too, and I managed to meet Padmapriya and her hubby, after long!

Started a new photography competition on fb in addition to usual awards and quizzes..discovering good photographers is a byproduct.

As usual, I met a lot of past students, some who visited Indore (like Anam and Harshad), and many more outside Indore on my travels to Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Ahmedabad (that was for a book release by a friend at MICA). Pune too, where I met Neha Adiga. Also gatecrashed (no, I was invited) into an alum meet of IMT Nagpur in Mumbai.

Met Sharmistha Singh, Shweta Agarwal and Sunil Kataria of KIAMS after about 16 years- and Anushka Mishra for the first time (we'd met on fb first). Also met Bharat of IFIM and Shatakshi of IIMI in Bangalore. In May, I went to Reva University for a talk on Smart Cities and ran into Shinu Abhi, a former colleague. Met SP Kumar and Manoharan, also past colleagues at PES. In Mumbai, visited Bhagyalakshmi and family. Met Shraddha Nigdikar too.

My friends from MBA too. I met Dash in Kolkata, and a big gang at Venky's boy's wedding. Stayed at the Presidency Golf Club too, a first. Also went for a conference at Goa, but missed out on meeting Prashant who lives there as he was busy. Harish and Snail at Delhi and Hyderabad I did meet.

IIT Guwahati was a revelation. It looks like a European town, with lakes on campus. Had gone to Belgaum's Gogte Institute on invitation, and had a fabulous drive through the Chorla Ghat, with the rains and clouds for company. Saw a few good films too, and read a few more books-among them old favourites by A.A. Fair and Rex Stout.

Also visited Bali for a conference, and went rafting on a river. Not bad for eight months!

Blasts From the Past

Been meeting friends and students from the past who are now friends. Gives you a great feeling to see what they are up to, in the case of students, and in the case of friends, to see how they have aged (ripened). A bit of both happened, recently.

 PESIT alums Siddhant and Aishwarya (above) I met after quite a few years, and their little cute daughter for the first time.

Prabhakar and I checked out the Single Malt collection, with Mona Lisa smiling down at us-we were like the Columbuses of Single Malt discoveries a few years ago, and have now achieved the status of We Have Seen it All- almost!

Also had a chance to meet IFIM alum Bharath Shenoy again after a while, and found he's a globe-trotting researcher. And attended the Ganesh Chaturthi with Muthu and Vasanti at their place too. He like me, is a member of the Two Daughters' Club. Seems to be enjoying his time off from Marketing Research these days. When will my turn come? (Mera number kab aayega, in Hindi).

A recent trend I have noticed is that I first meet people on facebook, and then in person. So it was with Shatakshi and Varun, a couple from IIM Indore who I had never met except on fb. Meeting them at home though, it seemed like we had known each other for a long time- a homely feeling.

Band Baaja Baaraat

Sometimes I go to weddings- my classmate from (Osmania) engineering college provided me with an opportunity in Pune, when his daughter got married the other day. Nice occasion to catch up with friends and their families. Mini-reunion of sorts.

My occasional golfing partner Venugopal Reddy is on the extreme right. We played at the Delhi Golf Club a few times while he was there. He was with Indian Railways for a long time. The bride's father in orange headgear, is an Engineer with Engineers India. Another friend, Krishnamurthy, is with Powergrid Corporation. All successful and about to retire, while my work life is extended on account of retirement age being 65 for faculty..how I envy them!

Portraits of Batchmates-17

Some informal pics were also a part of our days at Bannerghatta, and the camaraderie was great! Hassled, Shanks, Vish, Ramu Jesu, Deepak/Todo and Sujit are seen in this one. And below, the last instalment of intros to my batch of MBA.

Han Jian/Baniya

He holds the dubious distinction of knocking the axe on his own foot (Apne Pairon Pe Kulhadi in Hindi)- extending the Indian Eco. end-term to two hours from the previous one-hour and then cribbing about it. Attained fame as the Baniya who sold banyans (remember the red and yellow ones - dirty, dirty... the blue ones he kept for himself). "The only one to have extracted a treat from Gopal Pai" - Old Bhau Saying.

You Know/TMR

He convinced us that we were all very religious folks. It's just a question of how broad a definition you give to religion. If you start with the premise that all people are religious, the rest of the logic can be worked out very simply.

Bhima

His Tamil was painful - to non-Tamil ears. However, beneath the Tamil exterior, he hid hazaar hospitality, warmth, hard work and a general inclination to excel. His gesticulations reminded one of a puppet with strings detached. An enthusiastic placement rep., he discharged his duties (?) with rare aplomb.

Portraits of Batchmates-16

Meet my batchmates-I am in the pic above if you can recognise me, that is..with Narayan Das, Kulkarni and Nanda Kumar Jr. And below, you have..

 Jockey

Big brother in shorts, popularly known as Jockey, our companero is always on the look-out for fun. With a gibberish knowledge of tongues, exhibits his proficiency by engaging Kempaiah in long monologues. An extrovert, he had a marked ability to wriggle out of tight spots. One of the fastest guys on the Rubik's Cube, also a talented Bridge player.

Favourite pastimes: Singing 'Udibaba', Coining Hindi verses in energy sector classes.

Idli

The day scholar who operated from the hostel. Named the mess grub as the Slim Joint of Bangalore. She was convinced by Monto that OG (the placement officer) was a KGB agent. Reviving from that, she zapped Dash with this query - "Why is your name Dash? Why not Comma, or Semi-colon?"

Here is an enquiring mind of the highest order.