New Year Party 2025

 Ok, remember to sign cheques with 2025 as the year- if you sign any. Our party heralding the year was with cousins and their kids, or some grandkids. Held at Pune, we had participation from Mumbai and Australia, and the US. 

January Diary 2024

 The first month of 2024 is about half done. So what have I accomplished in these two weeks?

Well, met a few new people, at an event in Amravati, as well as personally, made some new acquaintances. Had a karaoke night too, apart from a few that were technically last year, but less than a month ago. Went around Mumbai like a tourist too, after quite some time.

Also, interviewed a few good faculty candidates for our University, Prestige. We are building our strength, by reaching out to people we can collaborate with too.

Visiting faculty from industry who were at Indore included friends from IIM days, and some who were new. M.S. Rajan, for one, who came to talk about HR Value chain and Process. That's him, below -

With one of the classes he taught..

We also had an impromptu New Year party with students, and a Golf session to round it off- lunch at Charpai, a dhaba on Ujjain road. Pics from both- Aditi Jain and Vedika Palod are the smilers in the first.

The group at Charpai- with the Dean.

Silky (above) and Vedika (below) try out putting

Jahanvi above tries a tee shot.

Best Friends

 These are awards that have nothing to do with your DPs or Cover Pics. Just to recognise you for being good friends on social media, or in life, or both. Of course, in instalments, because the numbers are just too many to tag in one or two posts.

Roughly, in the order of our meetings, reverse chronological (logical?) order- Nishka Rathi, Bhagyalakshmi and Venkatesh, Shraddha Nigdikar, Harsh Halve, Abha Kulkarni, Ananya Nandi De, Jayasimha, Amitabh Kodwani,  Payal Kapoor, Mohita Maggon, Nidhi Kanungo, Sudeshna Srivastava, Bibhuti Dash, Ishita Modi, Savitha NK, Shatakshi Tripathi, Sheetal Garg, Prachi Jain, Akansh Khandelwal, Shafique Gajdhar, Vandana Kumar, Kanika Mhendiratta, Divya Singh, Meghana Khadilkar, Harshad Lunavat, Tanmeet Kaur Sahiwal, Neeti Ingole, Pratishtha Batra, Abhishek Mishra, Rajhans Mishra, Pratima Gaikwad,... 

to be continued.  

What do I do Next Year?

 A good question to ask of oneself. Of course, a part of the list remains unchanged.

Eat, drink and be merry.. that starts this year, right now. Before Christmas, even.

Be aware of one's self-development, such as it is.

Do some good, to my organisation, my students, my colleagues, friends, family.

Think about improving my surroundings in some way..linked to the above.

Have fun, enjoy with people I already know, and those who are new acquaintances.

Take photos, including selfies.. make my selfie-teacher proud.

Continue to write the blog, make puns, coin quizzes, give prizes.. no escape for you guys, in short! 

Resolutions For 2021

 Pandemic-induced resolutions for 2021. Not just for me...

Cut the inflated ego about your intelligence. A little, invisible virus can lay you low, or leave you scared/scarred.

Meet your family more often, even if it's on Zoom. Ditto, friends. Though not as good as a personal meeting, it's better than NO meeting.

Make new friends, acquaintances, nurture old ones.

Listen to music of your choice. Helps avoid the blues/cure them. 

Buy books, read them. Write one too, if you can.

Eat what you like, but in moderation. Too many rules about what to eat are tough, this is far simpler.

Cricket matches don't matter..Golf, let me think about.

Celebrate little things..they happen every day. Waiting for the big thing to happen could be a long wait.

Drink tea that you like (this one's for me..Coffee, likewise, if you prefer)

Once things open up, travel..search for more destinations close to nature, and easier to travel to. Goa excluded!

New Year Eve 2017-18

 There were lights..and thunder (a transformer conked).

 ..and starters..

 ..and beverages..

but best of all, family for company. Celebrated everything that was nice about 2017.

Small Joys

I do most of my planning-Ok, make that ALL my planning-using a desk calendar. It's very easy to write what you want on the dates you want, and chances of errors are almost nil. You can overwrite too, if there's a change in plans. And you can photocopy a month's plans if you want to make them portable.

The reason I am going gaga over this is the fruitless (long) search for one last year in Indore. Finally, I found one in Chennai while visiting for a conference. I was really over the moon! This time, I took precautions, and I found one in Pune. For 2018. So you don't have to gift me one.

The other thing I have never understood is why institutions (including mine) distribute calendars after Jan 1st. Aren't we supposed to plan ahead? And also, why don't they give you a desk calendar in addition to a wall calendar? Ok, you will tell me to go digital in my planning..I'm not listening, so have your way.

Being Resolute

Making resolutions is easy. Being resolute is not. So I shall only focus on being resolute. And not make resolutions- though we may be nearing New Year.

But what should I be resolute about? That's where I find myself wavering, just a bit. Should I be strict with my students? I was told by someone recently that I was too lenient. And I thought I was strict..this really needs resolving.

Should I spend more time on research? travel? writing? reading? social media? watching movies? reviewing them? watching TV? conversation? setting goals? achieving them? Some of these will resolve themselves naturally given my taste for some and distaste for others. But I must be resolute, whichever way things pan out. THAT I am very clear about.

Happy New Year to Me

I joined IIM Indore about a year ago. It has been a very interesting year living on campus after a longish break. The perks are obvious- green, pollution free environment, peaceful walks, assured power supply and water supply (not available outside, though Nagpur had almost uninterrupted supply of both), and easy commute to work and the option to go back and forth if needed. Food supply too, in my case as I live alone, and use the mess for food- decent by institutional standards.

I also get to meet all new faculty who join because they initially are guests at the mess until they set up homes. Marketing area has seen lots of additions, almost doubling our strength in the last few months. I also taught in our Dubai and Mumbai campuses, getting to meet friends in both places. I am also in charge of MDP or short-term training programs.

Funnily, I met three IMT Nagpur alumni in my first few months here, visiting for an MDP or otherwise. Training programs happen at a dizzying pace at the IIMs, and we are no exception. Teaching in some has been a different experience. And then, I also taught a course using a simulation, and am now doing one on advertising after a while. Youtube has added a new twist to this course, and finding old videos of ads is very easy. Adds a zing!

Also went around to Mandu, Maheshwar, Patalpaani and Omkareshwar nearby. Also discovered a jurassic site with petrified logs and dinosaur eggs near Mandu. Great revelation!

All in all, an interesting year or so. Read lots of books too, many of them real humdingers. To the next year and more!

Mega Temples in Chattarpur

Visited Chattarpur yesterday for a wedding reception at a place called Tivoli garden resort. My friend's son got married, and I was among the youngest in the audience. Made me feel good.

But anyway, this is more about the mega temples in the area. They are BIG! Reminded me about my earlier visit to Haridwar en route to Badrinath that we undertook a few years ago. There are massive statues of Shiva and other gods there too. There was also psychedelic lighting and disco bhajans playing continuously, with neon lighting that would shame Las Vegas (this is Haridwar, not Chattarpur I am referring to). Well, God in all his majesty.

Our alumni meets across India kick off in the new year, with January and first week of February being a busy time. But before that, I have miles to go and anxious nights to sleep off- wondering if the world is going to end. Did the Mayans know that the world is Maya (illusion)? Good night-or good day, depending on which end of the world you are reading this from.

If I were Santa Claus...

If I were Santa Claus with the power to gift things to kids of all ages, these are a few things I would gift-

1. A pin to all those powers-that-be who are puffed up with imagined glory, greatness of their selves. All it would take is a tiny prick of this pin, and they'd be normal again.

2. A tape of old songs to all new/budding/upcoming music directors, to remind them that music can be melodious too.

3. An auto-edit machine to Hindi film-makers that will cut their films to (2/3rd) their size.

4. A cut-and-paste software that doesn't work, to students , so that they put on their thinking caps. Caps will be complimentary.

5. A boomerang that will bring back all negative thoughts to the thinker with twice the force. That will usher in positive thinking, better than Dale Carnegie and all the others.

6. Automatically turn all silly TV programs into something meaningful. That might get people to do other things than TV watching, which would benefit humanity, besides keeping everybody healthy.

7. Eliminate 2012 from the calendar, and skip to 2013, so the world need not end- not sure if that's a good thing to do though!

8. Ability to produce flowers at will, so you can't forget them on important occasions. May save a few lives.

9. Auto-reminders of birthdays...no, sorry, Facebook's already done that!

10. Make playing a game/playing with children mandatory for all grown-ups, for an hour a day. This may kill the anti-depressant drug industry.

New Things

The most popular adjective in an advertisement is "new" or sometimes, "new and improved". Why? Because we are always searching for novelty in life. Amongst some of us, even the social greeting is "Hi, so what's new?"

Our quest for novelty is individual and institutional. I keep getting asked the question "Why did you join or continue working in academics?" One of the first thing that comes to mind is that you are constantly seeing young, enthusiastic and yes, "new" faces around you all the time-at least once a year.

It is that time of the year now. IMT Nagpur has a new batch entering for their 2011-13 journey through our PGDM/MBA program. The senior batch, 2010-2012, is also back 'renewed' from an experience of industry via their summer internships. There is a lot of excitement at the campus, and anticipation of the year ahead. The monsoon having arrived, both Nagpur and the campus are lush green.

There is another 'new' addition to the family as well. I mean the IMT family, not mine. IMT Hyderabad opens its doors this year to its first batch of students. July first week. It is located on a 30 acre campus at Shamshabad very close to the new airport. This will increase the Brand IMT penetration into the South, and make us truly pan-India. We also have a Dubai campus that adds an international flavour.

Year-end Oranges

People suffer from blues of various kinds. I 'suffer' from Oranges. You may well ask, "What are the oranges?" and I would reply, "the positive form of the blues" Well, OK, the colour is inspired by the fact that I happen to live in the orange city, but any other bright colour would do just as well. What I mean is that positive energy flows through me at the end of the year. Not to make new year resolutions, but to keep doing something new all the time.

For instance, write blogs. Unless I do something, I don't have anything to write about. The easiest thing to do, for me at least, is to read something. Of course, you may not agree. But I also do things like attend conferences (which peak at the end of the year, incidentally or coincidentally). Or write books, though that has slowed down the last year or two. Or watch movies, or occasionally, TV shows.

I was watching a TV show yesterday, called the Zee TV Rishtey Awards or some such. Z was the pioneer among private TV channels in India around 18 years ago, and were celebrating, with all the early stars like Navneet Nishan of Tara, and Neena Gupta and Alok Nath of many other serials. There was a nice takeoff on Dabangg, by one of the comedians on stage. Also a pretty good take on the various rishtey in one's life. The good part was that each act was about 2 minutes long- in other words, well within tolerance limits. Hindi films could do with such editing!