Global food Favourites

 Pho in Vietnam

Cheeseburger, and Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich in the U.S.

A simple vegetarian meal in Sri Lanka. Also their prawns, in any form.

Greek food- Moussaka is my favourite, both veg. and non veg.

Italian- Lasagna, Spaghetti with Meat Balls

Thai- Tom Yum Soup, Thai Red Curry, Green Curry

Burmese Khao Suey

Korean- Grilled Meat, with sauces. Barbecue Nation style. Kimchi.

French- Can't pronounce the names, but Seafood is good, and Crepes of various types. A soup with seafood called Bouillabaisse (I think!).

Also, in general, Pizza, and Chinese food from India. (never been to China)

British- they have switched to Indian food now, so...

Presidents and Paupers

 There is an old joke attributed to a Tamil actor.. that going to an engineering college makes you an engineer, but going to Presidency College does not make you a President.

On the same lines,

-studying Sociology does not make you social

- nor does studying Psychology make you a psycho

- or studying Commerce does not make you commercial

-nor does studying Arts make you an artist.

One can go on.. what about Management? Think of a good one? Or will you be a dog in the manger?

Life Goals and Surnames

 Are your life goals determined by your surname? 

At least in India, these are my hypotheses-

Agarwals want to own a Sweet shop.

Bansals want to do a flip-flop, or start a Flipkart. 

Sonis want to strike Gold, in what they do.

Burmans want to either go into music or Ayurvedic medicine, like Dabur.

Patels want to own motels- in the U.S.

Singhs from Punjab want a Canadian citizenship.

Dash-es want to be dashing cops.

Jhas want to make pickles branded as Jhaji.

Bannerjees want to carry banners and protest.

Boses want to add an 's' and become bosses.

Deys want to be knighted.

South Indians usually have no surnames, so either they are goal-less, or have the same goals. In case of Andhra/Telangana, the goal is to settle in the U.S. and maybe in Kerala, to get a job in the Gulf. 

Hype and Reality

 I have lived through both- reality of change, and hype, for 65 years plus now. And I believe that I can recognise which is which, most of the time.

The internet and mobile phones synchronising communication and other technologies in a small package, were actually revolutionary, like the Wheel being invented, or 4 of them being put on a moveable frame by Ford (afford-able ones- that's a pun). 

But some of the corporate buzzwords that come and go with predictable regularity are just that- buzzwords. Nothing life-changing is going to happen, except to a few billionaires who may go bankrupt. Which is a good thing, if you see what they are doing after making those billions. 

To educate you, a smattering of buzzwords that more or less went bust or lost their pizzazz over time- Benchmarking, Globalization, Business Process Re-engineering, Agile, SaaS (not the mother-in-law, she still retains a sting), CRM, Service Quality (ha ha!), Good Governance (this is non-existent, mostly, anywhere you look), and a few more that I can't even remember.. to this you can add DevOps, AI, ML, or any others you can think of.

Relevant Re-labelling

 Investor Summit= Irrelevant Summit.

Davos Meet= Devastating Meet

Incubation Centre= Geometric Illusion

Department of Justice= Department of Jokers

Watergate= Petty Crime

ICE= Not Cool

Tariff= Weapon of Mass Destruction

Trump Presidency= Beginning of the End

Valentine's Day (New) Thoughts

 Thoughts come and go, so these are  new ones, about good old Valentine's Day.. and love.

Love makes the world go around, someone has said. True, along with lesser forms of it, like goodwill. Otherwise, we would all be dead, maybe killing each other in larger numbers than we do now. 

So what exactly should we do on Valentine's Day? Try and be loving. Start with yourself. 'Like' all the good things about yourself. Then start appreciating people who deserve to be- your friends, colleagues, family or whoever is worthy of that appreciation. Bosses too, if they are deserving. 

Sending Chocolates or Roses may not be the only way to do it. Having a chai or a Misti Doi with them (you can tell I am in Kolkata? How?) might be OK too. I do try and have a lunch or dinner or coffee, with those whom I like and appreciate, whenever I can- not just on February 14th. Any day when we can do that. 

Being Human is not a slogan, or should not be. It should be an everyday feature of our lives. Be nice, and most often, it will brighten up your life, along with some others' . 

Vintage Pics of IIMB Profs

 Some vintage pics of profs. and some of us at IIM Bangalore, 1982-84.

Shyamal Roy, Prakash Apte and batchmate Sriram aka Thalaivar

Henri Fayol (Srikant Payal) , Jagadish, Tathagata Ghosh

                                                      Vish, Usha, Dash, me, Pradeep Chittoor

Bandmaster - a recent one, with a Golden Jubilee t shirt.