Touching Lives- Mine

 From the nuns in primary school, and classmates in school, teachers in high school, professors and classmates during college and IIM Bangalore, and at Clemson University where I went or a Ph.D., it's a long list. But it does not stop there.

Many friends made in later years- or re-friended due to common interests- also touched my life. Golfer friends Vikram Venkateswaran, Dhanapal, Vijayakumar, and Venugopal Reddy are some.

But apart from colleagues who became friends- Bhagyalakshmi is one, Shweta Kushal and Jayasimha, B.K. Mohanty, Tanmeet, Preeti are some - there's also another category that I am privileged to have. My ex-students. 

Alumni of various B schools I have been in have touched my life in many ways. Some, I have been in touch with for a decade or more now. They bring a new perspective to everything we discuss when we meet. Gowri, Anshita Chetty, Ishita, Vanshika, Prachi, Pratishtha, Swati Jain, Sheetal Garg, Nidhi Kanungo, Nishka Kumar, Abha Kulkarni, Nikita Ray, Vrinda Khanna, Bharath Shenoy, Sirisha Adi, Pallavi Bajpai and Shafique Gajdhar (both my twins as per FB!), Anusha Soni, Anushka Mishra, Meghna Sinha, Meghana Khadilkar, Pavan Tarawade, Akshat Surana, Pradyumna Mohanty, Aishwarya Omprakash, Aishwarya Iyer, Anchal, Shuchi Bhatnagar, Pooja Shukla (we haven't even met), Laura Shah, Swati Sinha, Sampark Sachdeva, Vaishali Bathla, Divyaa Sharma, Dheeraj Mohan, Vidya TC, Smita Mohan, Sanjana Rao, Harshad Lunavat, Garima Shah, Abhinav Kamal, Tanaya Kar Chaturvedi, Tosha Dubey, Bhuvneet Raheja, Sharanya, are some who fall in this category. 

Annie and Samrendra Singh, the Soni family, Leslie, Ron and Carmon Green, were good friends during our stay in the US. Kiran Ken Jolly and Neena too, apart from relatives- Jayashree and Sheelu among them.

Research Shows- 2

My research findings from life, continued.

Teaching is an art, and not everyone is an artist.

If there is an artist-teacher, he or she can captivate a learner. I have had the fortune to get some artist teachers in school (Hindi, English), MBA (Organizational Behaviour, Marketing) and Ph.D.  College, not many. I also tried to introduce artistic ways of teaching humdrum stuff like Marketing Research and not-so-humdrum stuff like Digital Marketing and Advertising.

Learners also respond to non-academic ways of connecting, if done right. Without biasing the evaluation that needs to be done professionally. 

Ties can go beyond the college/school years, between students, and also between teachers and students. Some of these bonds can be as strong as those between friends of the same age. I have been very lucky in this department, with alums of various institutions who are great friends now.

Legends of Teaching

 I am referring to teaching legends here. There have been quite a few in my student career. Also a few I have seen among colleagues at XIM, IMT, KIAMS, and the IIMs. Usually they have a great connect with students, are empathetic but also tough in grading them.

SK Roy was one phenomenal O.B. teacher. Made a great combination with Gopal Valecha, who was very different, but complemented Prof. Roy very well. I learnt about human behaviour from these two in their courses, and later from observation and applying what they had taught.

JD Singh was simply the best intro to marketing (or Makting, as he called it!) that one could wish for. His gestures, pauses, questions (Is that the only cause?, being his favourite).

Thiru was in a class of his own, and another great teacher with no Ph.D. after his name. Just goes to prove that teaching is an art that can be developed by anyone- non-doctors included. His handling of cases, and interspersing Indian lingo- Hindi, Tamil, etc. was creative! 

Back in school, it was English Literature that was my favourite. (Now, it would probably be history or Geography). And Anjaneya Sastry did create great interest in the Romantic Poets (the birth of the romantic in me!) and Shakespeare. Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I rest my case. It takes great teachers to create interest in a subject.

Quality of the Learning Experience

 There needs to be a lot more flexibility in teaching-learning methods across higher ed. and perhaps other levels too. We need to give teachers the autonomy to innovate and experiment. Of course, subject to the recruitment of teachers being conscious of quality.

Right now, at school level, the battle seems to have been won by coaching classes. Entrance exams galore make that possible, in a way. Medical, Law, Engineering are the prime culprits. But more entrance exams are coming up each year or two.

Anyway, back to the classroom. Exploration, and exercises/projects are some under-utilised methods in my view. I am not talking of teaching coding for computers, but social sciences such as management, where dealing with people is the major skill that has to be a part of the learning goals. Too much emphasis on the 'knowing' part and not enough on the 'doing' or 'being' parts may make Jack a dull boy (and Jill a dull girl)..diversity in the class is a also a desirable goal, to help peer learning thrive.

If entrepreneurship can also be a small part of the curriculum, the job-hunting mentality among many grads may give way to a more exciting and satisfying journey for many. Of course, selecting students with a risk-taking ability may need a re-look at admission processes. Maybe we can talk about this another time.

Imitations

 Some people have a knack for doing great imitations, or mimicry. Some of these that I remember.

Anil Lahoti, a friend, did a great imitation of extras dancing in Hindi films. Usually, in the sixties or seventies, this involved wiggling various parts of their body while being overshadowed by the heroine, vamp, or sometimes the hero. This was hilarious, and to use a now outdated term, ROFL.

We all tried at one time or another, imitating the villain Ajit, and his dialogues. His favourites Raabert, Mona and Tony, and sometimes Maikal (who took the saikal) figured prominently in these. His boasts like Saara shahar mujhe Loin ke naam se jaanta hai, was the most popular, and his torture orders- Ise Liquid Oxygen mein daal do, Liquid ise jeene nahi dega, aur Oxygen ise marne nahi dega - were actually legendary.

We had fun imitating some dear professors, among whom JD Singh, a much-loved marketing prof., was one. A famous question he used to ask us in a case discussion, " Is that the only kaas (cause)?" became the stuff of legend, as was his other dialogue, about the customer 'handling the product, and fondling the product.' 

Another colleague later used to threaten (not seriously) anyone who gave a wrong answer, 'Tereko donda leke marunga'  in typical Odiya accent.

Nostalgia Trip to IIMB

 The occasion was a visit by Harish Arora and Ila. He was a classmate at IIMB, circa 1982, and she is his wife. We met at the office of Gopal Mahapatra who was also a classmate and is now a prof. at IIMB. Some pics- among the highlights, we visited a new hostel- R Block, and the new chai/coffee shop that has replaced Uncle's, the old one. Also saw a pic from our Convocation on the wall. 

JD Singh who taught us Marketing 1, at some other location. Other pics are from IIMB.

This first one below is from 1982 or 83. Others from 2022.

Gopal Mahapatra, Harish and Ila 

Speeches- A Non-serious Look

 Speeches have many uses. As we faculty know very well, they are used most often to put unsuspecting or disinterested students to sleep. The others have to make heroic efforts to stay awake, and do.

Politicians tell us what they intend doing through election speeches. If they suffer from short-term memory loss shortly after elections, they need our sympathy, and treatment for it. At our expense.

Visiting dignitaries make speeches that sound good, are reported on by the press and P.R. agencies that provide them to the press.. where would we (and they) be, if no one visited anyone? We pay these countries (and their Press) back in kind, when we visit their countries. 

In a war-economic or military- both sides give speeches. One of the most impressive is actually by Charlie Chaplin talking gibberish while playing The Great Dictator- Hitler, who else?

If you are still interested, I can give a speech.. wait, why are you running away?

Pontification

We all (and not just the Pontiff) like to pontificate. We love to hold forth on subjects that we may or may not know much about. "Money makes the world goes around" is a blatantly wrong statement. Pontification does.

Count the number of pontiffs (defined as those who pontificate) around you. Start at the top and work your way down, until you get to the bottom of things. Random guys are fond of giving lectures or expert advice on just about anything, from curing baldness to making (not making out) in India.

Some species rather fond of this are the politicians/ministers, judges (look at irrelevant parts of judgements), lawyers (same with arguments), and the ones we encounter the most in life (no, I didn't say spouses)- the teachers.

Teachers in India like to think they are experts on everything under the sun. You could ask a teacher about how to climb Everest, and without batting an eyelid, he/she will hold forth for an hour or two. Change the question to something about paleontology, and he will do the same, even if he teaches computer programming in real life.

The best I have reserved for the last. The Amazing Cricket Fan. He invariably has the combined wisdom of Sunil Gavaskar, Harsha Bhogle, Ravi Shastri, Srikkanth, Sidhu (Khataaak!), Salim Durrani (he was known for hitting sixers at will before Gayle came along). He can't stop talking, period, when you open the subject of why India didn't make it to the finals of XYZ tournament. In his mind, He is a Champion -in mine, he is a champion, but among pontiffs. The full Ponty, if you will.

If you can't quantify, pontify!

People Most Loved

Many celebrities are getting into the news for wrong reasons these days. But there were many people, both celebrities and non-celebs, whom I have known (some from a distance, as they were celebrities) who were loved by almost everyone they touched. Let me try and list a few.

Ameen Sayani- a legendary radio jockey before the term became popular. He hosted the Binaca Geet Mala for over two decades in his inimitable style which mesmerised millions. I have only heard good things spoken about him. Wednesday evenings became sacrosanct and even movie producers and music directors must have been eager to find out how they did on his music countdown. The sartaj geet ka bigul when a song was retired (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqF54PrLTSg), and the signature tune of the show itself, added to the mystique.

Gundappa Vishwanath. He was an unlikely hero in the Indian crickt team, unassuming and not in the limelight as much as the others-Gavaskar, Wadekar, Farokh Engineer, or others. But he was a cute little guy with a silken smooth cut stroke. And a very nice guy.

Kajol. Moving on to a younger person, she was in her acting heyday, a very loveable character, with honest views on just about anything. I am yet to find anyone who did not love her. And if I did, I wouldn't want to meet them again :)

JD Singh. He was the prof who taught us Marketing I at IIM Bangalore way back in 1982. He was joie de vivre (hopefully I got the spelling right) personified. Good at what he did. Always jolly, and the jokes were of high calibre. He is remembered by everyone who took his class, and lovingly. Some of us have kept meeting him over these thirty years, and he is still the same person.

There were a lot more, but for the time being, I will stop here.

Favourite Phrases of Teachers

We forget the courses, but still remember catch-phrases used by the teachers who taught us, as far back as high school. Why, I don't really know, you know- incidentally, 'you know' is also one.

We had a Hindi teacher in school who always began a discussion of some verses from poems with "Bahut sundar kaha hai kavi ne" (the poet has beautifully described....)

Another English teacher was famous for his unique way of presenting Keats' Ode to a Nightingale with the "littul birdae" and the important passages from Julius Caesar, not to mention the poem Ulysses which exhorted us to 'drink life to the lees'.

The Chemistry teacher in school was very strict and what we mostly remembered was his threats-       "I'll cut your tail, I say" being a constant one.

The Maths teacher was generally recognised by her pronunciation of 'which' as 'huch' ( luckily not hooch), and that was a great distraction when the theorems went over our heads. Incidentally, a mathematical romance of many dimensions called "Flatland" is highly recommended for readers who are into that sort of thing. Amazon has it, I think.

A Marketing prof. in IIMB was famous for a dramatic pause following a serious discussion of something, and then the inevitable question, " Is that the only kaas (cause)?"

Another OM (we called this POM for a very good reason that I shall explain another time) prof. had this habit of mumbling, and rocking the chair he held on to, standing behind it and holding on most of the time.

Memorable stuff all.