IMT Nagpur- Tangy Oranges and More

 Launching my autobiography at Crossword, Nagpur. Editor, Hitavada, and Smita Dabholkar, my colleague, are in the pic. Below, my favourite road trip-to Lonar crater lake, formed by a meteorite.

Nagpur oranges are my favourite since childhood. I landed in IMT Nagpur as the director in 2009 and barring brief interludes at Ghaziabad, stayed till 2013. These years were wonderful, both in terms of bonding with students, and with faculty. As an example, we had karaoke parties with faculty colleagues-an innovation that has caught on. We also had retreats at Pench, Bhedaghat etc. for our annual planning meetings. Alumni meets were also regularly held across India..pics from two of them below-

 Bangalore (above) and Hyderabad (below).

 We (Prof Gadgil and I) also created a golf green, which you can see behind the cricketer here (above).

Visitors-Convocation chief guest Mukesh Ambani being shown around. Mr. Kamal Nath is also in the pic.

 My mom and daughter at the campus. (below)

The Vanishing Bookstores

When visiting Pune recently, I found that the Landmark, which originally started out as a bookstore plus in Chennai a few years ago and then got taken over by the Tatas, had closed its branch at SGS Mall, which was accessible easily to me from where I live.

This is not the only bookstore I know that has closed, though. There are many more. Manney's also in the same area as above, shut down earlier. A few Crosswords that I knew of have also closed-one on Bangalore's Residency Road, for instance.

As a person who likes to browse before he buys, I am concerned. That civilisation is in danger, if we only order online and don't want to spend the time browsing in actual physical stores. There seems to be something wrong here. Airport bookstalls were almost a given, until I found two years ago that Delhi's budget departure lounge did not have a book store any more. This is such an obvious place to sell books, so I don't know what went wrong. The greed of the airport in increasing lease rentals, sounds like a plausible explanation.

Anyway, as I was saying, I am concerned. And I hope that there are a few good stores left to sell books during my lifetime.

Someplace Else

Landed up at a pub in Park Hotel Kolkata called Someplace Else. A little noisy, but enthusiastic band tying out their act was a highlight. The hotel has three or four different bars, apparently, with Trinca's and Tantra being the other two. Saw a bit of the unwashed match between Pak and India too.

Met Siddharth Agarwal, a Kirloskar alum from Kolkata from a decade ago, and took a little tour of some places with him. Kookie Jar, a pastry shop on Rowden Street being one stop. A South Indian joint called Jyoti Vihar near the American consulate was the other.

The weather was decent, with rains making intermittent appearances, but not heavily. Also explored a Crossword near the Forum Mall (yes, like Bangalore, there is a Forum here too). Bought some Bill Bryson books along with a biography of Leela Naidu. First time I will read about an actress whom I have never seen on screen except a song here and there. Appears to have been a beautiful woman.

My Second Book Launch at Pune

It's the second coming, so to speak. My autobiography, which is an online publication (only printed on demand) through pothi.com, a website that helps you to self-publish, will see its second retail launch. On November 9th, at Pune, at the Crossword on Senapati Bapat Road. This is a slightly revamped version with better formatting (the earlier one was done by me, and this one by professionals), some new content (like lifts from this blog), and a new cover design. The title remains 'My Experiments with Half-truths'.

For anyone in Pune, 6.30 pm at Crossword, you are welcome to drop by. You don't have to buy the book!

Book Launch at Crossword Nagpur

Yours truly in the middle, flanked by Smita Dabholkar, a colleague at IMT, and Mr. Phanshikar, editor of Hitavada, the widest circulated daily in Nagpur, who was the Chief Guest. The book we are holding (my autobiography titled My Experiments with Half-truths) was the reason for this. It was published sometime ago through pothi.com, an online Print-on-Demand publishing site. I had never thought about a retail launch, because it involved too much effort.

But thanks to Smita, who is a bundle of energy, this event happened yesterday at Crossword Nagpur. Well-attended (by an unknown author's standards), and well-compered by Smita, this gave me my hour of glory. Vijay Phanshikar (of the 3 'kars' fame- ha, ha) was very kind and very insightful in his comments on the book, which he seems to have enjoyed. It gave me new perspectives literally, adding four moons (char chaand) to the proceedings.

The audience ranged from 8 to about 60 in age, and patiently listened to my readings, including some Mallu jokes. All in all, a fun and enjoyable evening. Thanks to the audience. And Crossword, who did a wonderful job of organising it, including a mike that worked!

Rowdy Rathore- Not a Review

What you have here is a picture of Rowdy Rathore (me) circa 1984, at a Delhi location- undisclosed, of course, because of security concerns. I am really amazed at the titles the cinema producers/directors come up with these days. Nothing against macho sounding names- after all, action movies have a wider appeal than love stories, just like wars have a wider appeal than peace initiatives, as history has proved. A so-called peace-loving nation like the U.S. is perpetually at war with someone just to prove the point.

But at least the titles can be a bit imaginative, like Sholay or at least Dabangg. Why a Rowdy in the title? Is the idea to put off family audiences (assuming they ARE put off by such things). On another note, Hema Malini disapproves of mainline heroines doing item numbers, if her views have been correctly reported. I would agree with her whole-heartedly. Helen was the ultimate item girl, and she was a specialist. The mainline heroines try too hard, and it shows, besides throwing professional dancers out of work. 

On a more positive note, Nagpur Crossword is doing a promotion of my book titled (no, not 'Rowdy Me', sorry to disappoint you) 'My Experiments with Half-truths', which is an autobiography that I wrote sometime ago. Coming Saturday, 7 pm. So I will get to taste celebrity status for a little while. Will let you know how it feels after the event. Shah Rukh, watch out, here I come!