Students' Day

 I just learnt that today is World Students' Day. It is important to note that Teachers' Day is in September, and a different day! Anyway, irony apart, it's nice to celebrate students, if you are a teacher. 

My first students were Undergrads in Business at Clemson University. The thing I most remember about them- around 25x3 students each semester was that they were courteous, ignorant about computer usage- I was teaching them that- and usually nice to me though I was a Ph.D. student from India. There was a giggling duo of girls, in one of my classes. And Melinda, one student walking past a vintage car parked on campus, modeled for me when I asked her.. I was clicking the car, and she posed alongside.

My last full time teaching assignment was at IIM Indore. I taught a variety of courses there to PG and Ph.D. students, and also Executive MBA students. There were also a few MDPs for specific companies, such as Trent of the Tata Group (Retail) or Hindustan Petroleum.

In between were students at Lander College, USA, Xavier Institute, Bhubaneswar, Vignana Jyoti Hyderabad, Kirloskar Institute Harihar, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, IFIM, PESIT (occasional teaching), IMT (very little teaching, but met lots of students, and continue to do so). 

At Prestige university I really did not teach much, except a few classes of Marketing Research along with Sunil Gupta.

And at JIS University, even less, just one or two guest sessions in our Management programs.

Mostly these were wonderful experiences, and I keep following Facebook and Linkedin updates on what many of them are up to, globally. Makes me quite happy. Also meet a few occasionally, on my travels.

Wonders of My World

 I don't buy the fact that there are just 7 Wonders of the World, and that too, just monuments. My list would include people I am grateful to- just for being in my life. And that's going to run into hundreds, obviously. I have had a long life...

1. Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins. We were a large family, with my mother having several sisters and a brother, and my father with two brothers and some cousins. So we had a ball, meeting in vacations or get-togethers, weddings and so on. At Nagpur a few years ago, we celebrated the 75th birthday of our seniormost maternal cousin. A great event.

2. Teachers- starting from the nuns in class 1, to high school teachers at Hyderabad, or profs. at IIM Bangalore in India, and at Clemson University, USA, they played an important role in shaping me.

3. Colleagues at work in companies, or academic institutes. They have been a source of joy, and learning. Including my non-teaching staff, teaching assistants and almost everyone who worked in various offices- even accounts!

4. Classmates in school, college (we have a group called Hum Nahi Sudhrenge), IIM Bangalore buddies, and a couple of Ph.D. seniors and mates at Clemson-Ron Green being one, Masoud Abessi another

5. Students and ex-students..mostly the second, as I have graduated to admin. roles these last two-three years again. I am amazed at having so many wonderful people just a facebook post or WhatsApp message away. We also meet when we can. You guys are amazing!

6. Food and Drink.. with people you like. You can never have enough.. just like Lays says in its ad.. so much to explore. Just having Moong bhajiya in today's rain, or a Biryani at Hyderabad (with Pratima, my biryani friend), or sipping a cocktail- Ravi and I made a few in Calicut when I lived there. Had a coffee with Prabhakar at UB city recently, and shared many stories.

7. Fun and Games- Karaoke, Golf or Antakshari ..music in any form, actually.

Ok, managed to classify them into 7, after all.. am I forgetting something?

I Wonder...

Sometimes, I wonder if..


1. I had not cleared that interview for IIM Bangalore admission into the MBA program,..

2. I had not got a scholarship to go do a Ph.D. at Clemson, USA...

3. I had not returned to India after a couple of years' teaching,..

4. I had not worked in Marketing Research and Advertising,...

5. I had not written that book..or those books..

6. If I had not started blogging,..

7. If I had not got a single friend request on fb,..

My life would have been poorer, for sure. I am happy it turned out the way it did.

Best Presentations

What were your best presentations, according to you?

I can remember two or three from my student days-

1. During my MBA days, we made a presentation for Prof. SK Roy's OB course. It was the review of a book called The Tyranny of Testing-a book about why IQ type multiple Choice Tests may not be the best way to test many good things. We worked hard (it was a group presentation), and I remember we did get a lot of applause.

2. The second was a solo by me, for another course, Effective Communication during MBA at IIM Bangalore. I chose Romantic Poets as my theme, and with the aid of Keats, Shelley, Byron and so forth, made a very interesting presentation, I was told by some of the audience.

3. A third that I remember was during a Project Management assignment in a Ph.D. course at Clemson. We decided to present CPM and PERT through a project that James Bond had-On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We watched the film's video and made a PERT chart out of it.

Presentations can be an interesting learning tool, that you may remember long after the lectures have been forgotten.