A Birthday Celebration or Two

 The wife's birthday celebration at our new abode, Bangalore, and a quieter celebration of mine at Indore during the middle of the pandemic earlier. A Pictorial...

This was an extended celebration with some Tequila..

Physical Meets Again

 There is this bubbly student from IIM Indore, who had a brilliant idea, of connecting alums of different IIMs in Bangalore, for fun and networking. She also runs a Youtube channel called IIM Community. I am not boasting, but I shot a video for the channel on Personal Branding too. If you want to watch, here's the link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdBOh4JntM4

But this is about a meet she organised at 2 days' notice. I went, and had fun meeting some new young friends, and discussing life, hobbies, IIM campuses, faculty, and more. Glimpses.

Shailaja, the organiser (left), and Niharika.

Ashish, right.

The group.. Pritam, varun, ..Anjani Kumar and the rest. (above)

Virtual and Real Meets

 The last three months at NMIMS Bangalore has been a flurry of activity, and meetings, mostly virtual, with students who are members of various activity clubs and committees. Some virtual events too, with industry participants. For a change, we did a small event to felicitate the Rank-holders and Medal winners of the 2020 graduating batch. Though a bit late, at least it was in person, and it was great to see some students in person. Earlier, there was a meet over dinner with senior Placecom members.

Glimpses of various events and meets here, with my new young friends..

PR Committee, and Placecom -above and below.

Placecom member, and Jt. Director, Placement.

More events ...

Host and student, Manuja Seth, at the Graduation Ceremony 2020 Batch.

Events- above and below (TEDx)

My office, Bannerghatta Campus-below. Koramangala campus, above, where we offer executive programs and B.Com.

More, or Less?

 Should we do more of something, or less of it? That's more or less a perpetual dilemma, ain't it? Some people say Less is More, not sure what that means. 

Right from putting sugar in your tea..should I put more, or less? There is a problem with answering this question, because each has its consequence. More sugar means a temporary high, but a subsequent low. I understand brain function needs sugar- in some form. 

But look at time spent studying, say. Should I study more, and if yes, how much more? Should I sleep for 6 hours, seven, eight, ten? Or walk three kms., four, or six?

Play Golf 3 days a week, or all 7?

Practice an art-say, music, for how many hours?

You can see there are no clear answers. That makes things confusing, and we abandon good sense at times. For example, to do something useless when we could be doing useful stuff. Like shopping, to help the economy. But we don't. We simply forward stupid things on social media...how useless can you get?

Or read fiction-where's it going to get you, knowing who was the murderer? So what?

Coffee House and More

 Recently visited Indian Coffee House and was reminded of times we used to go there in student days, because it was what we could afford. Still looks pretty similar, though it has moved one street away, from M.G. Road to Church Street. Ideal to while away some time chatting, without yuppies on their laptops (if you want those, go to Starbucks and spend more too). Or simply having your coffee and drinking it too. Simple eats are also available, like a Dosa or Bread Omelette, or a cutlet. Not too crowded, for the same reason, that yuppies have found a new haunt, and kids these days are rich.

Vintage stuff, like many haunts such as Higginbotham's on M.G. Road. Gangaram's used to be another one. I bought most of my Wodehouse books there. But my new favourites are Blossoms and Bookworm. I actually found 5 Rex Stouts there-incredible. Also read a Le Carre story after hearing of his passing away recently.

Good Versus Evil

 They say the world is a constant tug of war between Good and Evil, or Good and Bad. All epics or legends have these two sides, so do most movies. But the idea of setting up a BAD bank gave me some ideas.

Why not have a Bad Governance model, and study it as a contrast to Good Governance models? It will be interesting, to see who is classified where.

We can also have a Bad Boy award, like a Good Boy award, in schools. So we recognise both, and know where we (and they) stand.

Not just boys, we do this for Girls too. Not all girls are good (though most are).

A Bad Actor Award- an Oscar or Filmfare for really bad acting? Ram Gopal Verma would win for Bad Direction every year, at least in India.

Bad Cricketer Award, maybe? Bad Author?

Bad Politician award may get controversial, and there might be too many contenders, so we'll forget that.

Bad Teacher Award, along with Best Teacher?

Ok, will let you think of some more, I am running out of Bad ideas.

Teaching One-off Classes

 Teaching one-off classes is actually nice, because you get to cruise in and out of a course, with no baggage. Students get a change of pace (and face) and are usually welcoming. So it was that I did a session in each of the sections of B.B.A. in a course, Marketing Analytics by name.

Some pics- the first day, I was serious, and so am unsmiling, but by the second class, I had relaxed, even while taking a selfie. (I also got feedback that I was too serious, after posting the first pic on fb). The third pic is just another random selfie taken at the Koramangala campus during a photoshoot for promotion that I was doing for our Exec. MBA Program.