Cases Students Wrote for My Books

 My text books on Marketing Research and Services Marketing (Published by McGraw-Hill India) derive their uniqueness from cases contributed by students, and contextual examples. Some of these contributors and contributions. These are mostly from KIAMS and IIMK. Later edition of M.R. had IIM Indore students' case studies too. Many were fictional, but realistic.

Endangered Species- Us

There is a website that tells you, given a surname, how many people with that name exist in the world. Nargundkars are, like the Parsis, an endangered species, though the reasons could be different. There were only about 260 of us when last estimates came in (from that website). So it is with great joy that one looks at the arrival of a new Nargundkar. Here's the latest one on his uncle's shoulder..he will shoulder the burden of carrying our name forward when he grows up.

 and in his mother's arms, along with a slightly older Nargundkar in his Dad's.

Above-  The bride on the right is a newly inducted Nargundkar (if she choses to use the surname), with her dapper hubby and dapperer Father-in-law (and my cousin). One more cousin of mine is in white, upping the count.
Below, a few more of the species thrown in this post for good measure.me, with my Mom, sister, brother.

Wedding in the Family

In Hyderabad, a wedding in the family meant a gathering of the Nargundkars who came from far and wide (there were only 265 of them on the planet by one count). Some pics of the party-

 The groom (right) and dad get into the groove..

 A sober pose with three cousins. :)

 The young ladies of the khandaan (family)..

 Groomed..proving himself.

 Family members from abroad..

 ..and some more.

 With  my niece Shweta..

and friend Abhay Temurnikar.

Names People Call Me

I am a man with multiple identities. I am used to being called names. From the home name (not homonym) of Raja (meaning king in India), to Raj in the U.S., hardly anyone calls me by the given name of Rajendra. In North India it changed to Rajender or Rajinder.

Being a Professor carries its own burdens, and you end up being called "Sir" (sometimes because students don't remember your name, but not always!). Variations of this are Dr. Nargundkar if they can get the last name right. In the U.S., they pronounced 'kar' as 'Car' due to cultural limitations, or habit.

It was Gunds in the MBA class at Bangalore. Sometimes Marcus Gundolius (Roman) or Gundarkar (Ghati) too. One of my friends in Bangalore later was more inventive, and just called me Nar.

I hope I have conclusively proved to you that I have multiple identities. If I haven't, go ahead and call me names.

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!

Sharing Some Soundbytes

I was subjected to a radio interview by My FM, a radio station in Nagpur as part of their Icons program. Why they chose me is a mystery that I cannot solve, but here is a link in case you want to listen to it. It's not too long. This segment is about management skills at the workplace.

http://soundcloud.com/rajendranargundkar/07-track-7