Rohtak and More

On the way to IIM Rohtak, stopped in Delhi for two interesting meetings this weekend. One was to meet a couple of friends and batchmates who go back 30 years. This was catching up on old times (again, coz we have been meeting regularly, but it's fun anyway).

Another catch-up happened with a former student-turned friend, Padmapriya (I have a lot of these, having spent many years teaching and non-teaching or administering), who is now married and settled in Delhi. Both wife and husband will most likely work with an NGO that is into poverty alleviation. Both did a course in the US on Public admin (master's). Why we don't have such courses is a question worth thinking about. We do need good public admin skills in governing a vast country like India, and we need a lot of research backing our policies.

At IIM Rohtak, an old friend and colleague is currently the Director. I am here to teach a doctoral course on Marketing Models. Interesting, new to me and with a lot of potential for learning. Might also offer it at Indore sometime.

My first visit to the MD University campus, the temporary home of IIM R, and I am impressed by the planned layout and its cleanly maintained surroundings. It is cold as hell, though, but I am prepared with enough things made of wool, so it's fine. The rooms have a heater too. Met a few faculty visiting from IIT Delhi, GIM, and IIFT, here to teach various courses.

Slogans and Catch-phrases

In India, there used to be some catch-phrases that we would see regularly from the sixties onwards - I can't help it, I was born in the sixties.

'Garibi hatao' was one such, plastered all over the media. What happened to that we don't know, but the trend these days seems to be Amiri hatao, or 'inclusion'.

Our college in Hyderabad used to have student bodies which would scribble their slogans on walls. "Down with zionist forces" used to be one of them. I didn't understand then who they were, and what they had to do with us. Still don't, in fact.

'Brain drain' was another favourite of the intelligentsia, who seem to coin new phrases when they have nothing better to do. Whatever little brains we billion people had, were apparently being drained through immigration to the West. But what prevented the half-a billion or more who stayed back from using their brains is what never could penetrate my (thick) skull. Now, we seem to have an abundance of brains, but no drains, if the rainwater stagnating on every street is an indicator.

'Communal harmony' used to be another harmoniously touted phrase, which evaporated into thin air after the anti-Sikh riots, the Gujarat riots, the Muzaffarnagar riots, Mumbai riots, ...you get the picture.

Luxuries-Then and Now

Our top ten luxuries (mostly unattained) while growing up (1970s) were-

1. Eating out in a restaurant
2. Flying
3. Owning a phone
4. Owning a car- or any personal transport
5. Traveling first class in a train
6. Owning a camera
7. Owning a 2-in-1 cassette player and radio
8. Going to a foreign country
9. Going to stay in a 5 star hotel
10. Having friends in different countries

Today, I don't really know what could qualify. A BMW, Rolls Royce? An Armani suit? I was reading about a guy who experimented with living on 32 rupees (about 60 cents) a day because that is our definition of poverty. At that earning level, three meals a day might constitute luxury.