Hyderabadi Conversation

Kya karra re tu?

Kaiku?

Aise kochhanaa nahin poochhna miyan. Kya tobhi karinge na. Chal merku bore marra, picture dekhke ainge Abids jaake.

Picturaan dekhneku time kahaan hai yaaro, yahaan din raat kaam karaare bossaan..uski to..

Gaaliyan nakko do yaaron, salary bhi deraa na uneich?

Kaheki salary? Idhar se aati, udhar chale jati, maloomich nahi hota kab aayi, kab gayi bolke.

Diwali ka bonus milta honga na tumku?

Kaunsi Diwali? Idhar apna diwala nikalne ku aaya..aur patakhe bhi nahin phodna kate abbi.

Muramba- Marathi Film Review

This is a film for the family-the major players are these four: boy, girl, and his parents.

The father is played by a well-known actor, while the boy and girl are relative newcomers. You may recognise the girl (Mithila Palkar) as the heroine of Karvaan, the Hindi film that released recently. Certainly worth a watch for its novel style of storytelling, though it has many "typical" scenes -this word is used a lot by the characters, poking fun at stereotypical filmy scenes for a given situation.

The girl and the boy are in a deep relationship that everyone assumes will lead to marriage, and they break up quite suddenly- or so it seems to the parents. How they delve into getting the girl's side of the story and try to get the romance back on track forms the story.

The elderly couple are of course, good actors with long experience, and the youngsters don't let you down. Refreshingly told, it stands up to its promise from the first scene till the end.

Oktoberfest

If there is an Oktoberfest, why not a Novemberfest? Decemberfest? You get the idea.

Every day is a celebration-or ought to be. Why celebrate only a birthday? Aren't we growing everyday? (I did not say growing up, please note).

A year is too long to wait. Find something that you can celebrate today. A good conversation (for those who like them), a nice book (for those who..), a nice look, a set of smileys on your post (everybody likes them), a walk in the rain...
you get the idea.

If you are short on entertainment, turn on your TV, ..not to the entertainment channels, but to the news debates. You will either die laughing (they are juvenile), or smash the TV..and have something to cry about, instead of crying out for entertainment.

My new mantra in life is to just do it-celebrate it, I mean. Hope you will too. All the best!

Name-changes

If I could change a few names around, what would they be? (I must admit I was inspired by the memes floating around starting with Aaj se tumhara naam hai...whatever).

Lalchand Rajput to Red Moon Rags.

Suneil Shetty to Sunny the Slayer.

Shilpa Shetty to Sculpted Slayer.

SRK to KKKiran Kumar.

Saif Ali Khan to Unsafe Ali Khan (at the box office).

Arnab Goswami to Pompous of Assissi.

Dev Anand to Loose-neck Dave.

Nirav Modi to Steal Diamond.

Donald Trump to Tughlak-e-jahan.

Kim you-know-who to Haircut I-con.

Hrithik Roshan to Jangling Bangles.

Nearing 5 Years at Indore

I have been notorious for changing workplaces faster than Hindi film heroines changed their costumes in song situations. But looks like I am trying to change. Must be the poha-jalebis, and the nice people of Indore. I am about to reach my fifth anniversary at Indore, in early December. So what are my thoughts?

The beauty of the campus is incomparable- inspired by buildings at Mandu.

The Sun rises over IIM Indore (above), and below,  Singing in progress- Sadhana Lakshmi tries out her skills- karaoke party with my Google Online Challenge champs-Kalaivani and team

 Above-Nidhi Kanungo with her dad, visits. She was my student in 2000 at Kirloskar Institute. Below, our first Digital Marketing executive program in 2017, at Indore-dinner at Mashaal.

 Gulmohar gar tumhara naam hota..

 Above-Indrajit at the Mumbai campus, and below, the PGPMX 16-18 batch at Mumbai, during the Convocation visit to Indore.

I am thrilled with the peace and quiet, for one thing, on the campus. The variety provided by the PGP/MBA, short term MDPs, and the Executive programs at Indore and Mumbai is a great plus point. We did a couple of interesting programs for Trent, Whirlpool, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.

A chance to experiment with new courses, particularly in the Doctoral program, is for me a definite attraction. Even in the MBA, I started teaching Digital Marketing for the first time in my career, and have learnt a lot from it. I had only one stint with the IPM in a seminar course, apart from some good CIS projects they did with me. But I did interact with a few good actors and actresses during the plays they acted in.

Bright students are like Oxygen, and there have been quite a few, from the first batch whom I taught Advertising to, to the batches thereon, whom I taught Marketing Research and Digital Marketing-you know who you are 😃 Some champions have also won numerous awards and recognition- not necessarily due to me, I might add! I also have been on Doctoral committees of various students in the full-time and part-time programs.

Faculty colleagues are also great fun to be with, and I have had a chance to meet most at breakfast, lunch or dinner, informally, if not at recruitment seminars. Many past students and colleagues visited me at Indore, and I met a few elsewhere during these years. Some also contributed to books that I managed to edit, publish, and I look forward to meeting many more.

Had two admin. stints as MDP chair and Dean-Faculty, that were also enriching. I ended up visiting (for conferences) a lot of nice destinations, from Beppu in Japan to Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Since I also teach Tourism Marketing, it was all useful in my teaching too.

Enjoyed visits to places nearby such as Maheshwar, Pataalpani, Omkareshwar, and Mandu (several times-my favourite). 

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam- Part 2

One post about this fantastic site is not enough. So here is the second. "Halong Bay is a beautiful natural wonder in northern Vietnam near the Chinese border. The Bay is dotted with 1,600 limestone islands and islets and covers an area of over 1,500 sqkm. This extraordinary area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. For many tourists, this place is like something right out of a movie (quite accurate, in my view). The fact is that Halong Bay features a wide range of biodiversity, while the surrealistic scenery has indeed featured in endless movies. The best way to get to Halong City is by car, minibus or bus from Hanoi which is only 170km away."- the description is from a site on the net.

Read more at: http://www.vietnam-guide.com/ha-long-bay/?cid=ch:OTH:001

 This view is from a vantage point on an island to whose top you can trek-420 steps, totally worth it.

Vietnam Ha Long Bay Part 1

This is the first post that describes a fantastic cruise in the Ha Long Bay at Vietnam a few days ago-there may be more.

 The deck and sea breeze. Below, another section of the boat, near the Captain's Wheel.

 The cruise boat from the outside (a smaller boat took us to this one) and below, the Spirit of the cruise in the cabin.

 Other boats in Paradise- what it felt like. Below, a view from the cabin.

Vietnam-First Impressions

My first visit to Vietnam. I was impressed by the cleanliness, the number of two-wheelers (Hanoi has around 6 million, slightly lesser than its population), the colours everywhere, the courtesy of the people even though (or because?) they don't speak much English, the Pho, the handicrafts, and the sheer beauty of the place and people.

 Hanoi is a city of many lakes- near Hoan Kiem lake (above) and the West Lake/Truc Bach below.

 A school was right next to our hotel, and we saw a lot of kids being dropped on two-wheelers, and exercising in the courtyard.

 Lacquer art, above and below.

 Our guide explains what the artists do (above), and some of them actually at it (below)

 This retail brand was visible everywhere (above). Below, a street shot from a bus.

 This one was from a rooftop restaurant at Adamas Hotel near Truc Bach lake, which is visible at the far end-near the crossing of Hang Bun (will write more about these hangings later) and Nguyen Truong To, Ba Dinh district of Hanoi.

Marketing Conference in Vietnam

Just came back after a very interesting marketing conference where Anjali Sharma, my FPM student and I had a paper, and so did Jayasimha, a colleague. Some pics from the event. A bonus was that it was held in Vietnam.

We (Jayasimha and I) take the stage, for a pic.

 Informal networking with global scholars is a highlight of conferences (above)- below, a presentation by two Sri Lankan participants (Samudrika Rasanjalee and her co-author) in progress.

 Lunch with a Vietnamese spread-above. Below, TQT, the conference hotel in Hanoi.

 The Conference chair speaks- he is from Florida Atlantic University, USA.
Below, some of the participants from the University of Jayawardenepura in Sri Lanka. Another interesting keynote speaker was from Nielsen, the Marketing research company.

Carnatic Concert

Our institute's Foundation Day was yesterday, Oct. 3rd. As part of it, I had a chance to witness a brilliant concert by Ms. Deepti Navratna, who blended various lyrics with the Carnatic style of singing, making it an experience to cherish. The performance was also specially designed to sync with Gandhi Jayanti, which was just  a day earlier, and included a few of Gandhiji's favourite bhajans/poems. She sang a couple of Kuvempu compositions too.




 (image picked up from a public source)

I was also pleased to find a couple of Telugu compositions, one folk and one by Thyagaraja, if I am not mistaken.  But what took the cake was a Hebrew song tuned to a raga in the tradition of South India! Hadn't really heard a Carnatic vocal performance for a long time, and this one was special.

She is also a neuroscientist, among other things. So art and science can meet, and how! 

Remembering My Father in Law

He was an Iyer who ran away..from Chennai, and joined the Navy, and then the Merchant Navy. He spoke impeccable (British) English, with only a hint of where he was originally from. He married a Maharashtrian doc, and settled down in Pune.

He was supportive of everything that we (my wife and I) tried, including some of our moves across Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad and Harihar. He was a loving grandpa to our kids, and spoilt them when he could (not that we didn't).

He also dealt with loneliness bravely, when his wife passed away early, and lived happily for many years after. He had a Man Friday to help him with errands, and cooking. He played Golf till he hurt his shoulder, and my Golf kit is mostly his original that he gifted me, and I still use it.

He would always invite us over when we were in Pune, and liked to have a drink with me, sometimes with my wife joining in (he raised his kids well, I must say). He got along with all our friends too.

I owe him a lot- my companion of 30 years, for one. Cheers to an officer and a gentleman, on his birth anniversary, October 1st.

 He is next to his daughter around my engagement, and below, at Harihar with my good friend Vijayakumar.