Conversations and Leadership

To keep major events (like Formula 1) out of your agenda is a remarkable achievement. I can lay claim to doing something on those lines this weekend. Akin to Nero's fiddling while Rome burned, I met some friends over lunch and conversation at a nice little restaurant called Kettledrum right next to a bookshop called Spell & Bound (close to Formula 1 time, I think-though I am not sure). Bought a book by Julian Barnes (Nothing to Be Frightened Of is its title), whom I haven't read before, but who seems interesting. Came back to watch an interview with Shankar Aiyar, author of Accidental India on Just Books. His interesting thesis is that India is good at missing opportunities- that is our USP, so to speak. And that we only work hard when in a crisis situation.

Earlier, yesterday, spent some time listening to presentations on academic excellence in engineering and management schools, made by a lot of illustrious people from various institutions. College of Engineering, Pune, had an interesting one. So did VIT, Vellore. But also found a lot of institutions struggling with a lot of fundamental issues- mainly relating to student and faculty quality and motivation.

An interesting weekend, even without the Formula One.