Brunel and Dundee University Students

 We held a unique program conducted by Common Purpose, with students from Dundee (Scotland), Brunel (London) and our own students recently (September 6-9, 2022). These students were given a challenge to improve inclusion in education in Bangalore. They had 3 days to interact with NGOs, visit and talk to them, and make a brief presentation on how they would do it better or differently. Lots of enthusiasm, and new ideas came up. I was at the presentation, and also at the photo sessions, obviously. Here are a few pics. Good to see our students also do well.. 

Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas

 Pals from various places. An attempt at a comprehensive classification of my pals, geographically.

Australia- Pooja Daniel, Sanjeev Undri

Dubai- Smita Mohan

China- Yapin

Sri Lanka- Samudrika

USA- Nidhi Kanungo, Annie, Samren, Leslie, Ron and family, Dr. Soni, and Athena, Kamalesh Nayudu, Avadhanulu, Seshu, Nandakumar (Junior), Jockey, Zoom, 

New Zealand- Chasha and Ruab, Gurvinder Singh

Canada- Vaseem, Tanya Shrivastava, Radhax, 

Finland- Anusha, Bhawana Moondra

UK- Senior (Nandakumar), Shuchi Bhatnagar

Hyderabad- Jogi, Venu, Nagarjuna, Nagu, Ramesh, Basudev and lots more, Pratima of Satara fame. HPS classmates galore, including Dattu, Krishna, Praveen (part-time resident).. Aditi Gupta ( lived in South Carolina too)

Lithuania- Natalija

Delhi- Shruti, Aditya, Nikita, Shweta, Sunil Kataria, Harish Chaudhry, Himanshu, Harish Arora, Pradeep Acharya, Kanika Mhendiratta, Padmapriya

Jaipur- Achint, Garima Shah

Bhubaneswar- Ramana, Banikanta Mishra, 

Lucknow- Bhuvneet, Anam, BK Mohanty

Mumbai- Bhagyalakshmi, Sheetal Garg, Abha, Meghana Joshi, Meghna Sinha, Pallavi Sharma

(Originally from) M.P. -Tosha Dubey, Anusha Soni, Pooja Shukla, Manuja Seth, lots in IIM Indore

Bangalore- Bharath, Nagendra, Shailaja Gupta, Anushka Mishra, Savitha, lots of IIMB classmates- Prabhakar, Himanshu, Ramesh, Lingu, Sid-Shubha,.. SP Kumar, Manasa, Sowmyashree, Rajiv Krishnan, Ram Seshu, Muthu

Chennai- Vijayakumar, Lady Daga (Bhawana)

 

Amazing Birthday No. 61

 What do I like the best about a birthday? Attention, affection, love from all who might remember me, of course. I got plenty of that, online and through phone calls. An added bonus was something that Prarthana (my daughter) cooked at home-- a new recipe too- here's a pic. Of course, the celebrations will continue, though the day is over.... for, you keep growing every day!

Two years ago, I was in Bangalore around my birthday, and managed to sneak in a game of Golf at an Army Golf Club-thanks to a friend. Also, there was a wedding to attend, just before, so I met a lot of friends from MBA days. 

Hopefully, the days of meeting friends are coming back after a two-year hiatus due to the Corona virus. We just had a small IMTans get-together a few days ago. Another happy news this year was that my younger daughter went to the U.K. for a Master's in her choice of subject (Cultural Heritage Management), and managed to reach safely through the pandemic. 

I have begun training sessions, one-on-one, to teach people Golf in my campus at NMIMS, on a make-shift course. We do have a nice putting lawn, though. 

Halfway Mark at Covid Lockdown and the Future After

I think it was a bold and necessary step to lock down India -a vast country- for a period of three weeks. U.S.A. has not been able to bring itself to do that, nor the U.K. until recently.

The next step/s will also be critical. To isolate areas or cities with a large population (or even a significant small population) of likely spreaders, and current hot spots. If this is done well, and it may mean a spurt in detected cases- a good thing in the short run during lockdown- we may be able to prevent a larger disaster. The hot spots may need a further bunch of restrictions over a longer period, in my own view.

Either home delivery of groceries and medicines, or keeping small stores open with distancing being practiced will of course be required, and can be geared up once areas are identified that need it for longer periods. Migrant labour camps will also need to gear up and provide food and/or a kitchen and groceries.

Domestic flights except for the hotspots can be started at first, and then all domestic flights, in phases. International flights should be restricted to those who have a family emergency and can prove it..otherwise they can wait for a couple of months. Big congregations including malls, theatres will in my view, have to remain shut for a few more weeks. If not, gains made will be frittered away.

Sensible planning (and behaviour) may still carry the day. Let us hope so!

Visa Madness

This is related to the stamp required to travel from one country to another, and not to the credit card or debit card by that name.

Britain has set the cat among the pigeons by hiking the asking rate for visas to some 2.7 lakh rupees, taking care to call it a 'deposit' that is refundable. I have a few views that I wish to express on this visa diplomacy that threatens to rival all other kinds of diplomacy that preceded it.

My first doubt is, who in his right mind would want to visit the U.K. with or without the 2.7 lakh deposit and fingerprinting and all the other accompanying nonsense? I have survived close to 53 years without having gone there, and I am quite certain I can live out a few more without having to fork out a fortune to do the needless. So can all the others, of any age.

In case they have not heard it yet, the Sun has set on the British Empire, a few decades ago. The only export that people still want from them is produced in Scotland, and it's known as Scotch. All the rest, including the awful weather, they can have to themselves.

This is going to help tourists think of all the better places they have been missing out on-such as Australia, New Zealand, Greece, China, Turkey, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, ....you get the point. The food is better in most of these places too.

London Met

London Metropolitan is not a metro train, but a college. It now stands derecognised. Earlier, it was Tri-valley, which is not a valley, but a college. And it was shut down. Not in a third world country, but in the UK and the US, in the last one year. There was also a curious case of some UK college (TASMAC?) operating in India being shut down from the UK. And a couple of them in Singapore facing the axe (not the deodarant with a provocative ad).

Moral of the story? Education can be a scam anywhere around the world. We don't have a monopoly on them. We must learn to live with them in some way. And compete.. and devise strategies to develop newer education scams that won't be shut down in a jiffy. Otherwise, how can we prove to the first world that we have indeed, arrived?