Meeting Mumbaikars

 I have a second home in Mumbai now at Bhagyalakshmi's place. And I also have a couple of relatives there. 

In general, Mumbai people are always in a hurry, because they are rushing to catch a train, if they are working. But I have discovered and met a few in Mumbai who are willing to relax too. I met Meghna Sinha, Swati Jain, Nishka Rathi, Vikram Rathi and Shraddha Nigdikar in the last 2-3 years, and Tosha Dubey and Abha Kulkarni a couple of years before that. Sirisha Adi and Khyati Jha too, in Belapur and Kharghar. Sheetal Garg too, a couple of times.

Also, Ravi Mittal and Kedar Muley.

Goes to show that there are Mumbaikars who will take time out, if they wish to. 

Meetings That Changed My Life

 There were some people with whom a bond was created almost instantly, and stayed a long time. 

Alok Srivastava, friend from engineering college. Was responsible for my admission into Clemson, and advising me on negotiating the Ph.D. It helped.

Muthu, colleague at the marketing research company MBA. Remained friends since 1985.

Samrendra Singh, and his wife Annie. We met in 1989 in Greenwood. We met her again in Delhi in 2024. 

T.K. Chatterjee - colleague at IMT Nagpur. We bonded over karaoke, and a drink or two.

Vijayakumar and Dhanapal. Both colleagues from Kirloskar Institute. 1995 onwards..

Students of IMT- too numerous to count.. Sheetal Garg, Shreyashi, Abhinav, Nikita Kumar/Ray, Gowri, Anshita, Ishita, Ishan, Tosha, Abha Kulkarni, Sirisha Adi, Pragya Singh (met her at Pagdandi Pune), Meghna Sinha, Meghana Khadilkar, Ananya Nandi De, Shraddha Nigdikar, Divya Singh, Shafique Gajdhar, Pallavi Bajpai, Swati Jain (met recently and bonded), Kedar Muley, Harshad Lunavat

 

Kirlsokar students- Jogeswari, Padmapriya, Nidhi Kanungo, Nikhil Damle, Savitha, Anushka Mishra, Smita Mohan, Vidya TC, Swapna Gurijala, Aditi Sood, Sunil Kataria, Sharmistha Singh.

Shweta Kushal, Sanjana Rao, Anusha Soni, Akash Gupta, Prachi Jain, Akansh, Pratishtha Batra, Neeti Ingole, Shweta Jha, Vanshika at IIM Indore

My music group buddies and extended family in some cases- Geeta, Indira, Omprakash, Rajan, Sunil Kapoor, Umesh Jadhav, Poonam Bhatia, Rajni and Rimjhim Verma, 

and many more- Frane Bhattacharya, sister of my colleague at XIMB. Yuvaraj, Pavan, Rajesh, Raghavendra, Mahboob and Karibasappa at Harihar.

Ekalavya and a few students of NMIMS Bangalore. Tanmeet, Prerona Baruah, and Alisha Thomas, faculty golfers-

Meeting Long-lost Relatives

 Ok, not really lost, but meeting some after long! My paternal cousins who grew up in Belgaum area (Nandgad, to be precise) along with my Dad and his brothers, and I have kept in touch. One branch of the family is global, with Hyderabad as a base. And the second, is also global, with Bangalore as a base. So we met the Bangalore branch with a couple of cousins, and their offspring and also the next gen. It was great catching up - some pics.

On the right is Veena, my nephew Pushkar's wife, now settled on the US West Coast. 

Tiyasi, my nephew Rohit's wife, left in pic above, runs an online business at oagh.in, selling sarees from different parts of India, some custom-made for them by weavers. Samples below. You can visit the website for more, if interested. Or their insta page https://www.instagram.com/oaghindia/

My cousin Prabha, on the right above, with her grandson Raghav, who is Veena's son.

My favourite grandkid is Tiya, who is Rohit and Tiyasi's daughter, above.

We last met at her 1st birthday 2 years ago, but that is not a problem in reconnecting. She tries out her painting skills on my hand!

Meeting Nidhi

 A long time ago, when I worked with Kirloskar Institute at Harihar, we launched a brand new PGDM program there. The first batch of students were 30 from all over India. Among them, I have been in touch with some regularly, and some I met too. Nidhi Kanungo, after quite some time. She happens to be from Indore, my place of residence right now. So, we met, while she was on a visit from the U.S. 

At our campus.. last time I met her Dad at IIM Indore.

This time, her Mom was with her.

Her Mom with my wife above,

and cheers! below.

The Ones That Got Away

 Maybe they are better off for it. I mean, the students who were there in institutes I was in, but who I never taught. Either because I was there at a different time or because I was in an admin. role. Not knowing how lucky they had been, they sought me out on FB and befriended me. And even met me (and often, treated me or called me home!)

Out of many such, the ones I have met in the last few years include Pallavi Bajpai and Shafique Gajdhar (BOTH are my twins, fb says), Sheetal Garg, Ishita Modi, Anurag Sikaria, Swati Jain, Anshita Abhishek Chetty, Abha Anagha Kulkarni, Anushka Mishra, Sirisha Adi, Ananya Nandi De, Anupriya P., Vrinda Khanna, Meghana Khadilkar, Harshad Lunavat, Shatakshi Tripathi, Varun, ....

Some I met at alumni meets, which we did regularly when I was at IMT Nagpur, Ghaziabad, or at NMIMS Bangalore. Some NMIMS students I met only in my office or at Placement parties (Tanya Sardana, is one I remember and Manuja Seth, Divya Anand and Sreelekha Bannerjee too) and the Golf course. Avanii, Rakshita, Muskan, Mahek are some of them.

Instagram

 I finally joined Instagram, at the urging of a couple of friends. I did not feel the need, so far, but a lot of friends have migrated from facebook. But FB will continue as the mainstay, because I have 3000 plus friends there, at least a third of whom are active.. we old-world buddies. And a few great communities I am a part of on fb too. The latest on fb is a page dedicated to fans of MAD magazine- the funniest satirical mag!

I am a late convert to tech platforms anyway. I find a real bookstore far more invigorating, and still buy books from the brick and mortar ones. So also most shopping, except where absolutely necessary. Convenience is good, up to a point. But we also need physical exercise, and social interaction with the sabziwala, or other humans, to keep us sane. 

The impact of social media has been tremendous. I look at it as a tool to meet people also, not just remain in conversations online. To a large extent, I have succeeded too. LinkedIn has also helped build new connections. So I am not complaining. Just pondering..

Meeting of Vice Chancellors

 I was invited to a novel (for me) meet, organised by India Didactics Association, a policy think tank on education at all levels. This meet was focused on Higher Ed policy. Met and heard from a lot of interesting people from across India. The recommendations from this meet will go to the government functionaries. Some pics from the meet.

Leading up to the formal meeting.

Aditya, the host, and a couple of participants, at an informal session.

We discussed 4 themes related to Higher Ed. in India and came up with recommendations.

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. 

Friend Retires

 We joined IIM Lucknow as marketing faculty in 2001. I left in 2003 for Kozhikode, and a few years later, he migrated to IIM Bangalore. He now retires after many years of teaching there. I have re-entered Bangalore recently for a new stint at NMIMS. So we met up for a tete-a-tete with our wives, as we are now family friends. Some pics.

Avinash and Medha, and us..Bagpiper nahi hai, bas..

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!

Unexpected Bonanzas

 A peacock sitting on your wall is least expected while making your morning cup of tea. But this is exactly what I saw a couple of days ago. He did not seem perturbed by my camera and posed for a pic or two before walking/flying away. Also met Saumyaa Sharma who used to be my (favourite) academic associate for 3 years. Now she works in Marketing Research up North, after similar stints at Bangalore and Mumbai.

Another bonanza from nature, was this fabulous filtered Sunrise which arrived where I was sitting, in my study. All I had to do was turn around and click.

An older pic of the same three as above, a few years ago at Mashaal.

That was a farewell for Saumyaa.

Meetups in Delhi Part 1

Well, it is rare to catch up with someone whom both Prof. Jayasimha and I have taught, and around Valentine's Day, it was all the more special. One of our talented and lovely ex-students, Bhuvneet Raheja and we met over a chilled-out evening menu. Luckily for us (me at least), the conversation and the temperature were both warm, and it was fun exchanging stories about our lives and times. Remembered Stuti and Anwesha, who along with her formed an unforgettable girl gang in my class at Indore. The themed cafe is called The Big Chill, and has movie posters from many old Hollywood films. Some glimpses, with the three of us playing major roles..

 Showing off the lovely Mehndi..above

 How the mehndi got there..

Meetups in Delhi Part 2

Dilwalon ki Dilli was a pit-stop for work. But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So we tried catching up on some (not-so) old students, and succeeded. Surbhi Mehta Chadha was a student at IMT Nagpur during 2012-14, and a winner of a few Nice DP Awards to boot, and sportingly came up to meet us this morning with hubby in tow. It was a pleasure chatting, accompanied by something to munch on, as food encourages thinking. Remembered Shruti, Aditya, Anuj and Vrinda Khanna, among others. Some pics-