An Age to Die?

 What's an appropriate age to die?

Maybe there's one for each one. A healthy human could live to be 100, or 90 plus. Some have, like my Mom and an aunt who just turned 90 this April.

But what is important (at least to me) is being healthy and as much as possible, independent to do your daily functions without help. Once you get dependent, I would feel helpless, and perhaps useless too. 

Any disease that steals your independence is a problem for you and everybody else around you. So it's debatable whether you would want to live when you are completely bed-ridden. There have been movies like Whose Life Is It Anyway, which treated this issue poignantly. I think the Hindi film Guzaarish also tackled this subject, about choosing to die if you think living is not worthwhile for these reasons.

I also remember reading a book where the author recommends 70 as the age to wind up one's journey here. He has his reasons. 

This post is merely speculating about the issue. I assure you I have no intention to die anytime soon. But it's worthwhile thinking about such a critical issue.

Bonds- A Reflection

 I have been able to bond with people quite easily. It could be students, colleagues from faculty or staff, and friends, classmates, and cousins/relatives. A new category has been added a few years ago- a music group on Facebook that I became a member of, and instantly made over a 100 like-minded friends who bonded over music.

I am not age-ist, and I am glad most of friends aren't. Or else, why would a twenty-something or a forty-something want to spend time with a Sixty-something like me? I have rarely been turned down when I proposed a meeting with alumni of different B schools that I taught in, in various cities- in India or abroad.

So I have met Smita Mohan in Dubai, Vidya and Swapna in Singapore, and countless alums of Kirloskar Institute, IMT Nagpur, or IIM Indore, IFIM, Vignana Jyoti Institute, or colleagues from IMT Ghaziabad, IMT Nagpur and elsewhere.. some names are Anshita Chetty, Rupam Verma, Aashish and Anusha Mamidanna, Gowri Kishore, Sreeram, Meghna Sinha, Sanjana Yarram, Swati Jain, Nishka Rathi, Sudeshna Ray Srivastava, Ranjana Rudra, Roopali Saxena, Deepthi Balagiri, Pratima Gaikwad, Savitha, Nikita Kumar/Ray, Shruti Sharma, Aditya Naag, Shafique Gajdhar, Abha Anagha Kulkarni, Tosha Dubey, Siri Adi, Anuj Mathew, Anushka Mishra, Bharath Shenoy, Vishakha Sugandh, Anusha Soni, Garima Shah, Pushpinder Singh, Harshad Lunavat, Phalguni Banerjee, Ananya Nani De, Divya Singh, Swatika Selvam, Jogeswari, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Amit Gope, Mohan Gopalratnam (both from XIM Bhubaneswar back in 1993).

And colleagues from IMT Nagpur like Tk Chatterjee, Smita Dabholkar, Veena Pailwar, Saleena Khan, and others, IIMK staff members from my day who are still there, Keyur Purani and SSS Kumar and Neeraj Dwivedi who were faculty colleagues there, Jayasimha and Shweta Kushal from IIM Indore, and Ph.D. students from IIM Indore like Prachi Jain, Akansh Khandelwal, Pratishtha Batra, Vartika Varyani, Neeti Ingole and Geeti Mishra.

I have also met Vrinda Khanna and Surbhi Mehta Chaddha, Pallavi Bajpai, Abhinav Kamal, Aditi Gupta (who played Golf at IMT Nagpur). Probably a few more that I am missing right now.

Discovering New Singers

 I keep going to music shows by the dozen, in Pune as most are free, and available in plenty. I have discovered a few decent singers earlier, and one more-Dashrath Chavan- got added to that list this week. He sings Kishore Kumar numbers really well, with the bells and whistles. Om Shanti Om from Karz and Pag Ghungroo from Namak Halal were two he sang almost to perfection. Part of a program called Woh Bhi Kya Daur Tha-

Here he is-above.

With Meera Shinde, above.

Below- Lalita Jagdale, another good singer.

Jailer 2- Rajnikanth Film Review

 Saw this action and comedy-packed film yesterday (Oct 20th) in Pune. It continues the story of retired Jailer Tiger Muthuvel Pandian in and around Coimbatore and Kerala. Ends in Goa. The outdoor locations are nice, and the story, though predictable, has some good twists. The cast is competent, though dominated by Rajini's screen presence, as expected. His fans (me included) find something magical about him- he lights up the screen.

Enjoyable on the whole, though the songs and dances are a bit over-the-top. 4.5 on 5 from me. The special effects are good, in particular. Special appearances by Shivaraj kumar, Mohanlal, Hrithik Roshan and Jackie Shroff add to the charm.

Is India Ungovernable?

 Looking at the chaos on the roads, traffic violations that go unchecked, spitting and the lack of civic sense, late running of trains (I just had two bad experiences on different sectors), and corruption at large, I wonder.

Do we need the Angry Young Man again to fix things? Kamalahasan starred in a movie in which he goes around shooting corrupt people. In reality, they only get transferred, at best.

Elections come and go. But few governments pay attention to civic facilities like Metro and Roads. Progress is very slow, if at all there is some. Unemployment -real and disguised- is rising. So is inflation.

Where do we go from here? All Indians migrating is not a solution, because those routes are closing. And we are too many anyway.

How does one make a government accountable for fixing local, regional or national priorities? And working for the people?

I have no idea, but I believe that solutions exist, and we need to find them. 

Trip to IIM Kashipur

 My wife and I visited a friend at IIM Kashipur. Neeraj Dwivedi was my colleague at IIM Kozhikode, in the 2003-05 period, and we were together at IIM Lucknow too. He and Shradha are family friends. We had a great time meeting with them and staying on campus. It's a lovely 200 acre campus with plenty of greenery, and buildings inspired by IIM Ahmedabad. There's also a small lake. I got a chance to speak to some Doctoral students, and also taught Golf to a few students and staff. 

We also managed a small getaway to a resort nearby, Camp Hornbill, dedicated to bird history. 

Itika (above) has played before.. others were first timers. 

The CAO is a Golfer, ex-Army.

Nana Patekar No More

 One of those actors who remains etched in your mind after a movie is over. Whether doing fun parts in Welcome, or serious ones in Natsamrat (Marathi), we will remember him for his expressions, dialogue delivery and magic on screen. Thoda sa Roomani Ho Jayen was a unique film, with a different role. So was Khamoshi. Lots of talent, some fiery stuff in Tirangaa with Raaj Kumar and his own movie Prahaar.

He played every role with aplomb. Even did a dance number Kabhi 100 one kabahi 100 two.. with Bindu.

Hats off!