Catching Up

 There's no end to catching up with old friends, but one must persist and try to catch up. So it was that I caught up with two old friends- an ex-colleague, and a student I never taught, both from IMT Nagpur. This was in Delhi..

Abha Kulkarni, and Harsh Halve, both from IMT Nagpur at one time, student and Prof.- a colleague I worked with.

Sanjana's Wedding

 Sanjana Rao was a student I met at Indore when she was doing her 5 year IPM. She took one of my classes too. But she was also a friend who has remained in touch many years later. Sow hen she was getting married, we had to be there. My wife also knew her because of the preps. for a play The Importance of Being Earnest, where Sanjana acted, Shweta Kushal directed and we all played support roles of encouraging the actors, backstage. She acted like a pro. 

WE had a great time with her at the pre-wedding bash at her house, and at the wedding itself. Here's pictorial proof. Met her friend Nikhila from school in Pune also. She features in some pics too.

During the cremony.

The pre-wedding Haldi and Mehendi

The lovely bride..

Nikhila (below and above, her friend), and Shweta Kushal, my friend from IIM Indore

Meeting Kanika

 This was only our second meeting, but it felt like it was the 500th.. or something like it. Just got along like a house on fire (is that the right analogy?) and went on yakking for about 5 hours over a Bahama Mama (Reminded me of my Bahamas trip in 1990 or so), a Margherita and various eats. She's a coffee drinker who sold tea for Goodricke, and had a stint with Mamaearth too, and plans to venture out in the Personal care category. Planning to bring her in for a guest talk to our MBA students. She's also my Personal Photographer, appointed for life. She volunteered for the job, and was instantly appointed.

Among the stories she told me, one stood out. A new employee in the marketing department was asked to write a brief for the ad agency. She asked Kanika, 'What's a brief?" Well,.. need I say more?  

Our last meeting was at India Habitat Centre, before COVID happened. Was surprised to know that she knows a lot of the 70s -early 80s films that were my favourites, such as Golmaal, Angoor, Chupke Chupke,... and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro.

Pics - 

On the right is the Bahama Mama, of which I have the recipe on a postcard picked up in the Bahamas. The pic below is the recipe, on a postcard I had picked up in the Bahamas, long ago.

and one more she clicked with a timer! Good skills!

Meeting Old Friends

 I mean young friends, actually. I met Abha first at her wedding, in Nagpur. We formed a Mutual Admiration Society pretty quickly, and have been meeting regularly, through changes of job and cities of residence. So it was no surprise that we met again, last day of Feb. 2023. The first meeting, Tosha Dubey was with her, and the next, a large group that also included Sirisha Adi and Anuj Mathew- then, two meetings with Sheetal Garg in the threesome, at Koylaa near Taj and at Prithvi theatre, Juhu.

The latest one in Nehru Place. We found a lot to talk about, as usual. Pics- 

The Brazilian lemonade had a charred Rosemary sprig added. Basil was added to the other drink.

The lanterns were quite nice!

The place and food too- mostly Italian.

P.S. She's a student I never taught, from IMT Nagpur.. could be one reason she likes me. :)

Timeless and Ageless Friends

 Friends, many a time, are ageless, timeless, and matchless. Nothing compares catching up with them, any time and any number of times. Of course, in Bangalore, traffic keeps you away from some, at times.

On a recent trip outside Bangalore, I managed to catch up with Nishka, an old student, ghost-writer and friend. It was amazing, as always, and we ended up having a long chat about various facets of life. Managed to throw in a short trip to a bookstore also, since we are both addicts. Also found out that her Mom is from Belgaum/Dharwad, which was a big surprise.

Some pics that I will cherish, for a long time.. 

The last one's keema pao, which I had after a really long time...

Tribute to a Former Student

Sidhanta Patnaik was a student of ours at PESIT. He was a passionate guy, and it showed in everything he did. More recently, he had been the Wisden writer who covered everything in Cricket that was happening around. He also wrote a book about that neglected dimension of cricket (yes, even in cricket, there are some)- Women's Cricket, a history of it, along with a co-author.

When I met him a few months ago, he was discussing plans for more books with his friends. A casual
observer would not have suspected that he was battling cancer, and had just come out of surgery after a relapse that may have led anywhere. He was unflappable, and though he must have been tired, sportingly chatted with all of us until I left, about an hour or more after we met.

It is not every day that we have such remarkable students. He was one, and my thoughts are with his young family, that they will bear this tragedy and come out strong. I will always remember him fondly.

(Incidentally, though we criticise social media for a lot of things, I reconnected with him and his family because of it - a classmate of his had informed me on Messenger about his surgery last year.)

A Wedding Party in Nagpur

Went to her wedding and met Abha Kulkarni, a former student (of IMT), for the first time there- I was the bride's guest. Must have happened for the first time. Thanks to Facebook, though, I feel that I know her pretty well. She's been a winner of some of my awards on fb. Anyway, the feeling of meeting someone in person (and seeing the radiant smile in this case) is much more than a facebook friendship. I highly recommend meeting some fb friends regularly when you can, and multiplying your joy. I try my best to meet one per visit to any city, at least. My own alumni meets of sorts.

In this case, of course, I was accompanied by my ex-colleagues Vijayakumar and Anant Ram who had taught her at IMT and told me she was a great student. It was a coincidence that her husband Rohan is from Nagpur, and enabled me to be here for the event. Found out from chatting with her parents that they have lived in Bangalore for many years. I am a fan of Nagpuri stuff like Oranges, and I also like its clean roads in the newer parts. Of course, the speedy Metro construction is causing some traffic issues, but they won't last long, as construction is progressing at 'Gadkari speed'- defined as 20 times the average Indian speed. If he'd been in charge of the economy in the 1960s, we'd never have had to face the "Hindu rate of growth".

I was also happy it wasn't too cold- I am not a fan of sardi-Dilli ki ya aur kahin ki. Just the right medicine for ending the year- Food, Friends and Thums Up, as the old ad said. Thumb's up, totally.

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.

Some Academic Learnings

There are life learnings and other learnings. Some may be termed learnings from corporate life (the Scott Adams or Sidin Vadukut types). Others are academic learnings- those we academics learn from our life.

These can be summed up in simple equations, with some English thrown in for ease of understanding the concepts. You get it?

Student's grading of his own effort > Professor's grading of student's effort.

Likewise, the Prof's evaluation of his greatness < Student's evaluation of the same

Correlation between the grade obtained by student and feedback obtained by the prof = High

If there is a tough Prof, chances of student's effort being high = Good (Probability> 0.8)

If there is a 'soft' Prof., chances of this high effort = Low (Probability < 0.2)

If the group assignment involves lots of work, the Work done by a student= Total Work divided by the number of students in the group

Humour of a Kind

 All these are from Anguished English by Richard Lederer. There are many more where these came from-in the book.

Some Student Bloopers

• A myth is a female moth.
• Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.
• Then came the Middle Ages, when everyone was middle-aged.
• Gravity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the autumn, when the apples are falling off the trees.
• Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music.

Some quotes-

1. Monotheism is a gift from the gods.
2. It takes about ten years to get used to how old you are.
3. Always be sincere, even when you don't mean it.
4. I wish the Arabs and the Jews would settle their differences like Christian gentlemen- attributed to Arthur Balfour.

Notice on a doctor's door- Specialist in women and other diseases.

Of Godliness and 100% Attendance

This is to celebrate the golden jubilee (50,000 views) of this blog. A classic dug up from my archives. Will strike a chord with students and ex-students, I am sure.

Of Godliness and Compulsory 100% Attendance

Note: This was written during my days as a student at IIM Bangalore, where we were briefly subjected to the rule.

Thought-provoking articles are always a success. Because the reader likes to be provoked- or it could be because he likes to think that he can ‘think’- there’s no other way his ‘thoughts’ could be provoked. Anyway, proceeding with the above assumption, when the compulsions to write became unavoidable, I turned my attention to the issue of compulsory one hundred percent attendance. The more I thought about the subject, the more it provoked me. In fact, half-way through my ‘thinking’ trip, I suddenly realized the rationale behind the 100% attendance rule.

There are people who look upon the rule as an infringement of their Right to Skip Classes-as enshrined in the Students’ Constitution. But think deeply (how deep you go is left to you and your aptitude for delving) and you immediately discover the fallacy inherent in the above presumption. The rule cannot be an infringement of the said constitution, simply because it is above all such mundane matters. In fact, it is a sincere attempt by the concerned authorities to elevate ‘the cream of Indian student community’ to greater heights- to godliness, to be precise.

Because, who can be so naïve as to imagine that an ordinary average mortal can attend all classes on all working days all round the year? The common reaction is, “It’s humanly impossible.” But alas, hardly anyone takes the logic a step further and says “It’s ‘Godly’ possible.” Actually, the whole exercise is aimed at bringing Man (the species so abundant in the deep woods of Bannerghatta) closer to God. And the move to bridge the gulf between Man (the student in this case) and God has paid off. This was confirmed recently when one of the professors saw an assignment submitted by a student and exclaimed, “Oh, God!” He was closer to the truth (and the student, closer to God) than he had imagined.

Some skeptics claim that the rule breeds corrupt practices like proxy signatures for absentees by their ‘attentive’ brethren on the sheet circulated by professors in class. But this argument does not hold water. Why? Because these playful pranks are eventually brought to light thanks to a vigilant MIS (management information system). The guilty, who then repent (often in writing) and seek forgiveness are purged of their sins and are thus drawn closer to the almighty- in the process, learning one more important fact of life; that CRIME DOES NOT PAY. This learning is actually redundant for those of the ‘semi-gods’ that see Hindi films.

For the ignoramus who still attributes unholy motives to the rule without realizing the noble intentions of the appropriate authorities, a prescribed dose of some slogans like these should be administered-

‘Shortest way to Salvation-Attend Classes’

‘Optimal Path to Heaven- Attend O.R.’

‘For Eternal Bliss in the After-life- 100% Attendance,’ or a challenging one like the following-

‘Loneliness in room, or Godliness in Class? The Choice is Yours.'

These and other such slogans (similarly ingenious) are expected to market the concept effectively.

Even if the campaign does not immediately generate enough enthusiasm in habitual shirkers to get them to occupy front rows in class, no matter. Given long enough to operate it will instill a sense of responsibility among the students, which is a task well-begun, and hence half-done.

Thus unknowingly but definitely, the student community goes on in its quest for godliness. Even as the attendance rule continues to bug many, some adopt, philosophically, the policy of ‘grin and bear it’; yet others take recourse to verse and express themselves thus- ‘Ours not to reason why. Ours but to attend and SIGH.’