Roomies and Colleagues

 Sometime in life, you have roommates, or roomies. I had some in my school dormitory, in my engineering college hostel, both in Hyderabad. Later, had some in the U.S., until I got married. IIMB had single rooms, but great diversity in terms of classmates.

These are great learning opportunities. You live with completely different kinds of people, and learn to get along with them. My engineering roomies were Telugu speakers, and it improved my Telugu. In school we had to speak English. 

The U.S. roommates or flatmates were all from Hyderabad, so it was not a big challenge. Also, we had a French friend, an Iranian one, a Turkish one and a Nigerian one among classmates in our courses, apart from Americans. 

A Korean and a Venezuelan colleague followed at Lander, my workplace. And of course, an American, Leslie, who became good friends with my wife. 

In India, multicultural colleagues followed (I worked across the country), including Odiyas, Bongs, South Indians from all states, and Marathi and North Indians from all over. Enjoyed the diversity and good times, with festivals of all kinds being celebrated. 

Strait Talk About Hormuz

 Not many cooks knew where and what the Strait of Hormuz was, before March 2026. Now, thanks to Trump bhau, we all do.. not sure how it will impact the Assembly elections in Keralam, TN, West Bengal states in India. We shall find out on May 4th

Not sure if Putin closed any straits around the globe anytime. So Trump out-trumped him in this sphere- or crooked (not straight) line on the globe. 

How the world comes out of this imbroglio and when, we don't know yet. But if the objective was to divert attention from unpleasant domestic scandals and poor ratings, this is not to be straitjacketed as an ordinary strategy. It is a masterstroke in international diplomacy, after Venezuelan strike, forgotten in a week, because half the world does not know where Venezuela is, but more importantly, their kitchen fires were not affected. So we still don't know where it is..

Ninetieth Birthday of Manik Gokhale

One of my mom's  two surviving sisters turned ninety last week. There was a big celebration of course, attended by extended family and friends. I was lucky to be there too. Some of the people in pics- 

The musical sisters and one of their kids, Saloni.

Khayal, one of the youngest present.

Swarali with Prathana, Shubha, Prathamesh

Miskil, Swarali

Gauri, my other aunt, her daughter Jyotsna

Chhaya, Mrunal, Gireesh, Maria 

Kalpak, Shraddha, Neha

Us.

And cousins and nieces

Apte khandaan with the birthday girl.. many generations in a pic. 
 

Names and Dictators

Putin

Xi

Hitler

Trump

Mao

Lenin

Stalin

What are the common things among them? They will throw you 'in' more often than not, for criticising them.

Autonomous B Schools, or University Departments?

 Which is better?

In India, it appears, the autonomous B school outshines the department of management in a university. Especially if it is fully residential. This is unlike the US, where autonomy is inbuilt into university departments. The large bureaucracy in an Indian university nullifies some advantages that it may have in terms of scale and diversity.

Another unique thing is that the top Indian B schools are run by the central government. Unlike the Harvards of the U.S. This could be because the first independent Indian government identified Higher Education as a strategic growth lever, and went into action mode. Set up IIMs and IITs. The focus on one discipline helped them carve out a niche, unlike state universities, which also had fund constraints-still do. Industry participation initially was insignificant, and the government fully subsidised these institutions. My fees at IIM Bangalore for the PGDM in 1982-84 were around 3-4000 rupees per annum.  Seems to have paid off for the government.

Less bureaucracy, strict faculty selection and student selection and swiftly changing curriculum and pedagogy with freedom and incentives to faculty have made IIMs a force to reckon with- I worked at 3 of them, I should know.

Attachment to a Job

 Read a post by someone on LinkedIn on how Indians in India are emotionally attached to their job, partly because we don't have other interests outside work. Largely true. Oracle's 12,000 layoffs brought this out yesterday, with some employees lamenting their layoff.

What is a job? It's a contract, that can be terminated as per conditions stated in it. That's it. The group you work with is not exactly family, though friendships or relationships can develop during your work life. But the corporate (or family owned) entity has limited uses for any employee-CEO included. One must bear that in mind.

The best way to deal with the downside is to be prepared for a job change at short notice. Update your skills, your CV and network. Don't be under an illusion that your job is forever. Stash some savings to help during a transition. Don't overcommit on expensive stuff, especially long term, unless you have an assurance that you can meet the EMIs. 

Whatsapp Wars

 Even more dangerous than Ukraine-Russia and Iran- US/Israel, these are the wars you see everyday, and feel tempted to participate in- The Whatsapp wars.. on a device near you!

These can rage on forever, until you exit the group, or they throw you out, in case you are the incendiary chap! Totally macho, like real wars- mostly men participate in these too.

The topic is not very relevant, but in India, since 2014 at least, it's about how X has done so much for the nation, in the face of anti-national elements who want to stop him, or the reverse. It takes two hands to clap.

Mostly, the fake news propaganda memes are used as weapons of construction- of the scenario one is pushing. The resilience of the soldiers is more than the Ukrainians and Iranians put together. These wars don't have an expiry date.

Everyone seems to have 'inside' info on various things, more than the Dhurandhar director ever did.

And so, they go on.. a good pastime after retirement, maybe.