Pics of Ladakh Trip

The pics of my May 2011 Ladakh trip with family to Ladakh are shared on this site.

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=cdfe96e61f156df7&sid=0AbNmLhi1bMWjio


Do take a look if you are interested.

Rivers

I grew up around the Godavari river. Happened to visit the various tributaries of the Ganga during a trip to Badrinath a few years ago. This May, we saw the Indus and Zanskar rivers (the sangam in the pics here) during the Leh-Ladakh trip. It's a great feeling to see some of these cradles of human civilization, and ponder the role they played in shaping human destiny. Otherwise, Man might as well have been on the Moon!

A Lovely Feeling

We had expected about 150-160 alumni at the Delhi meet held at the Le Meridien, Janpath. We had 210 instead! And a few corporates, because it was a recruiter meet too. In other words, a great big celebration of relationships with alumni and corporates. Very encouraging. Warm feelings all around, conversations that went on into the night (or was it early morning?) and promises to continue on the mail and at the Nagpur meet called Melange in October.

We are now gearing up for the Mumbai get-together on June 3rd, and we expect it to be another blockbuster in the land of Bollywood. That will be followed by another at Bangalore on 11th. We are also pondering a value-add for alumni at the Nagpur Centre meet where we will have round-tables on Marketing, Finance and Entrepreneurship to cull some learnings from the varied experiences of alumni and faculty.

A business school has to do much more than just teach the students during the 2 years of the MBA program if it has to make a mark. Students, faculty, alumni, and promoters need to have a common understanding of what the brand stands for and work hard at realising its potential.

Some snaps from the weekly market at Mangalwari, Nagpur alongside.

Alumni Meet at Delhi

Coming up tomorrow is the second alumni meet at Delhi. IMT Nagpur's alumni base at Delhi is large, and we expect at least 150 to attend this. Last year, we had around 120 people and had a blast. Connecting with the alumni and their varied experiences at work, and plans for the future, is an absorbing experience for all faculty.

We have an ongoing training program for NTPC at the campus. Another piece of good news is that AIMA has ranked us as a Super League B School, in the top 20 of Indian B schools. This is yet another feather in the cap of all IMTians, who have worked at it. The survey is published in Indian Management, May 2011 issue.

Admissions are also on, and June last week will see us all welcoming a new batch of students. Some pre-monsoon activity seems to be happening in Nagpur too, so we may get away with a summer that's gentler than usual for Nagpur! Some campus flora are presented above.

I (Almost) Become a Buddhist

Being in a majority Buddhist land for the first time -at least in India- I can feel the difference. Peace is the overwhelming theme in Leh and Ladakh. Population is a confounding factor, I admit. But the difference between a temple and a monastery (both sacred places) is too much to ignore. Again, the dominating word would be "peaceful". No cacophony, or crowds. Or pandas who insist on extortion under various guises. You can meditate, or just have a quick look, or sit there for hours. Only a small entry ticket of 20-30 rupees for tourists/visitors. Don't know whether these things are taught or inherent in the locals, but everyone is polite to a fault. Maybe it is the mountain air!

What is civilization, or culture? Is it being in a perpetual state of chaos? Or is it being at peace with yourself and those around you? I wonder. There have been a few mails circulating about Japan and the reactions to the Tsunami damage in Fukushima. Japan happens to be a Buddhist nation, and though it is far from flawless as a society, it does have a resilience (modern equivalent of stoicism?) to withstand a lot of adversity.

Just staring at a snow-covered peak gives you a feeling that life (as we have been living it) is meaningless, and that there is more to it (or less to it?) than we think. If a short trip can do this, I am not surprised at the sages over the years who made the region their home.

Leh Ladakh 2

The monasteries near Leh are worth a look, though some are badly kept. Thiksay is the best I liked, on a hill close by. But the serenity is amazing. No more words.

Leh Ladakh 1

A picture is worth a thousand words. So here are my first four thousand words. Will follow up with a few more thousand. The room with a view took on an entirely new meaning for me, during this trip. The view from our hotel lawns and the room was simply out of the world.

Daily Routine of a Yogi

What would the typical day in the life of a yogi be like? Imagine..

5.00 am: Biological alarm gives a wakeup call.

5.45 am: Ready to go.

6.00 am: Meditate for world peace.

7.00 am: Eat sattvik breakfast

8.00 am: Meet early morning visitors

11.00 am: Eat light lunch of fruits and buttermilk

12 noon: Take a yogic power nap

1 pm: Shoot for the Yoga Channel with studio audience.

2 pm: Shoot commercial for Ashram's ayurvedic products

3 pm: Watch competing channels and competing programs as part of Awareness Program:

4 pm: Discourse for the rush of evening devotees/admirers/students/riff-raff

7 pm: Devotional meditation with musician(s) playing alongside

8 pm: Fund-raising phone calls to billionaires

9 pm: Retire for the evening after setting the bio alarm clock for 5 am next morning after dinner (optional).

Excellent In-flight Read

Returning from Kolkata yesterday, read a Rex Stout book after a long time. Gifted by a niece (the author is hard to find in bookstores), the title is "In the Best Families". A racy read, with my favorite detective, Nero Wolfe, outdoing himself in this one. He actually disappears, lock, stock and barrel, because of a challenge from a New York Don, while solving a case for a wealthy lady client. She gets bumped off, and the husband is the prime suspect.

A lot of action, most of it unexpected, keeps the pace brisk, and I managed to finish the book in two sittings- which is pretty rare these days.

Had a great alumni meet of IMT Nagpur alumni at Kolkata. The weather was unbelievable, with light showers. Also met an old alum of my own batch at IIMB, which was an unexpected bonus. Kolkata remains the same, though it seems to be heading for political upheaval, if the papers are to be believed.

Your Erroneous Zones

This is the title of a book by Wayne Dyer, one of the self-improvement books which are gaining popularity, but a well-written one. I particularly liked the author's take on manners and etiquette which is meaningless. He says, your worth as a human being does not get lost just because you don't follow some silly rules of etiquette and behave any way you want to, so long as you are humane and considerate and sincere.

Also, he points out the major problems of indoctrination by parents, and society on kids, and teenagers. One of these is an overemphasis on "intelligence". He says it is good if you are intelligent, but it's more important to be happy, even if you are not intelligent. Overemphasis on grades or marks kills your creativity and spontaneity. Society decides who is good or bad according to such criteria, and stifles a lot of people.

He encourages you to be your own judge, and as long as you are not harming anyone, choose your own path. In some ways, this resonates with what Jiddu Krishnamurthy keeps saying, that you shouldn't believe what anyone says, unless you have experienced something yourself. Does not apply to obvious things like walking into a fire, of course, but more meaningful stuff in life.

Don't Be Meen

Meen in Malayalam means fish, to the best of my 'no-ledge'. So, I am not being mean, just having fun. Had a Malayalee been our Prime Minister, what are the reforms that we could expect?

1. National dress would be the mundu (ignoramuses call this a lungi).

2. National animal, bird, and amphibian would be Fish.

3. All financial transactions would have to be in Dirhams,or Dinars (Ekta Kapoor can have a fetish for K, so why not all Indian currency for a D?). After all, most of our currency is handled/manufactured by the D company, right?

4. National dish would be Gopi Manchurian (the p is to be pronounced as b).

5. Mohanlal and Mamootty would replace Rajnikant in all the jokes.

6. Kutty would be the national term of endearment for all children.

7. Tirupati would be moved to Calicut.

8. Waving a red flag would be declared a National Pastime, to be indulged in at will, and encouraged at work.

9. All Bollywood movie producers would have to watch 50 Malayalam films in order to improve their product quality.

10. All bus drivers would take driving lessons from Kerala drivers, thereby obviating a need to build rockets, saving several billion rupees.

Obama and Osama

Spot the differences between Obama and Osama. I got six. How about you?

1. One is alive, the other is dead.

2. We all know where one of them was born. The other is still trying to prove it.

3. The number of wives they had.

4. One is hairy, the other turned out a Dirty Harry.

5. Pakistan knew what one of them was doing.

6. One believes in safe landings with Air Force One, while the other believes in crash landings on high buildings.

The Heart of Kalinga

The average Oriya is a very emotional guy. To delve into his heart, we asked Mr. Kalinga (not a cousin of Malinga, but a typical Oriya Joe)a set of probing questions.

Interviewer: What makes you tick, Mr. Kalinga?

Kalinga: My state, my village, and Jagannath. Mostly, Jagannath.

I: What are your views about Posco, the Korean steel company?

K: Steel is good for man. But factories are bad for tribes. Factory should be in a city.

I: Why do Oriyas love to eat pan?

K: It is proved that pan is good for health, and digestion.

I: Why are so many Oriyas living in Delhi?

K: It is a silent revolution. We want to change the system in the country, by writing the IAS exam.

I: People are of the view that progress of a civilization needs technology and industry. What do you think?

K: As long as rice and fish are available in the world, technology will not change anything.

I: What is your definition of luxury?

K: An afternoon nap, or a Mercedes. Or, best of all, an afternoon nap in a Mercedes.

Chalo Dilli

I have never heard of the Director, Shashant Shah. I have seen a lot of films starring Lara Dutta, and a couple starring Vinay Pathak. I particularly liked his Dasvidaniya and Bheja Fry. But this film is really cute, and almost blemishless. It does not have the drama of a Jab We Met (also a good movie), but it has the innocence of a Dilli-Mumbai love-hate affair (affair not in the usual sense of the word).

From the moment Lara Dutta first appears as a typical hyper executive, to the last moment where she accepts Vinay Pathak for what he IS, rather than her concept of what he SHOULD BE, it is a beautiful act of the opposites interacting to produce sparks, but very gentle.

Even without Yana Gupta's item number, it would be one of my favorites of 2011.