I first went around Europe with friends in 1987. Kind of DDLJ tour, by train, though Kajol was absent. There were 4 SRKs instead. We started at Frankfurt, and went around to Amsterdam, Belgium, parts of Germany, France, South of France, Pisa, Rome, Venice and passed through Luzerne and visited William Tell's hometown. The proof of travel..
Today is the festival of Holi in India. So, naturally, I had to think about the word holistic. I don't remember when I heard the word first, maybe in the 80s while doing my M.B.A. Some other words from the same period were Value Engineering, M.R.P. (later turned into E.R.P.), Positioning, and lots more.
Returning to holistic, that's a view of anything, a more rounded, broad view. So if one were to look at the Corona pandemic, a holistic view would include all stakeholders, including government (worldwide) which learnt (hopefully) that welfare of its people, including healthcare and hygiene, comes before economics, no matter what the Pink papers have to say. Hospitals and healthcare industry, which learnt that R and D has a major role to play, and many frontiers remain unconquered.
The common man in many countries learnt how responsive his government (elected, in democracies) was to his pain. We all learnt to live digitally, order food online, educate our kids online, and work from home. Pollution on roads and in factories declined, weather improved as a result, and some positive effects on health were felt in urban areas.
We also lived with no major congregations for any reason, proving it can be done. Also without international travel- discretionary- and it did not affect us as much as we imagined. Of course, the tourism industry took a hit, and the hospitality sector. And airlines-but most of the airlines always have a yoyoing life, economically, even without a pandemic.
The biggest negative was not being able to meet classmates, colleagues (those we like and dislike!), teachers, and relatives and friends, whenever we wanted to. A big loss! Hopefully we will get back!
This was supposed to have been last year, but happened online this year. GHTC conference, organised by NEHU, a university in Shillong. Missed out on visiting Shillong, but an interesting mix of papers I heard as a Session Chair. Some glimpses.
We joined IIM Lucknow as marketing faculty in 2001. I left in 2003 for Kozhikode, and a few years later, he migrated to IIM Bangalore. He now retires after many years of teaching there. I have re-entered Bangalore recently for a new stint at NMIMS. So we met up for a tete-a-tete with our wives, as we are now family friends. Some pics.
The wife's birthday celebration at our new abode, Bangalore, and a quieter celebration of mine at Indore during the middle of the pandemic earlier. A Pictorial...
There is this bubbly student from IIM Indore, who had a brilliant idea, of connecting alums of different IIMs in Bangalore, for fun and networking. She also runs a Youtube channel called IIM Community. I am not boasting, but I shot a video for the channel on Personal Branding too. If you want to watch, here's the link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdBOh4JntM4
But this is about a meet she organised at 2 days' notice. I went, and had fun meeting some new young friends, and discussing life, hobbies, IIM campuses, faculty, and more. Glimpses.
The group.. Pritam, varun, ..Anjani Kumar and the rest. (above)
The last three months at NMIMS Bangalore has been a flurry of activity, and meetings, mostly virtual, with students who are members of various activity clubs and committees. Some virtual events too, with industry participants. For a change, we did a small event to felicitate the Rank-holders and Medal winners of the 2020 graduating batch. Though a bit late, at least it was in person, and it was great to see some students in person. Earlier, there was a meet over dinner with senior Placecom members.
Glimpses of various events and meets here, with my new young friends..
Should we do more of something, or less of it? That's more or less a perpetual dilemma, ain't it? Some people say Less is More, not sure what that means.
Right from putting sugar in your tea..should I put more, or less? There is a problem with answering this question, because each has its consequence. More sugar means a temporary high, but a subsequent low. I understand brain function needs sugar- in some form.
But look at time spent studying, say. Should I study more, and if yes, how much more? Should I sleep for 6 hours, seven, eight, ten? Or walk three kms., four, or six?
Play Golf 3 days a week, or all 7?
Practice an art-say, music, for how many hours?
You can see there are no clear answers. That makes things confusing, and we abandon good sense at times. For example, to do something useless when we could be doing useful stuff. Like shopping, to help the economy. But we don't. We simply forward stupid things on social media...how useless can you get?
Or read fiction-where's it going to get you, knowing who was the murderer? So what?
Recently visited Indian Coffee House and was reminded of times we used to go there in student days, because it was what we could afford. Still looks pretty similar, though it has moved one street away, from M.G. Road to Church Street. Ideal to while away some time chatting, without yuppies on their laptops (if you want those, go to Starbucks and spend more too). Or simply having your coffee and drinking it too. Simple eats are also available, like a Dosa or Bread Omelette, or a cutlet. Not too crowded, for the same reason, that yuppies have found a new haunt, and kids these days are rich.
Vintage stuff, like many haunts such as Higginbotham's on M.G. Road. Gangaram's used to be another one. I bought most of my Wodehouse books there. But my new favourites are Blossoms and Bookworm. I actually found 5 Rex Stouts there-incredible. Also read a Le Carre story after hearing of his passing away recently.
They say the world is a constant tug of war between Good and Evil, or Good and Bad. All epics or legends have these two sides, so do most movies. But the idea of setting up a BAD bank gave me some ideas.
Why not have a Bad Governance model, and study it as a contrast to Good Governance models? It will be interesting, to see who is classified where.
We can also have a Bad Boy award, like a Good Boy award, in schools. So we recognise both, and know where we (and they) stand.
Not just boys, we do this for Girls too. Not all girls are good (though most are).
A Bad Actor Award- an Oscar or Filmfare for really bad acting? Ram Gopal Verma would win for Bad Direction every year, at least in India.
Bad Cricketer Award, maybe? Bad Author?
Bad Politician award may get controversial, and there might be too many contenders, so we'll forget that.
Bad Teacher Award, along with Best Teacher?
Ok, will let you think of some more, I am running out of Bad ideas.
Teaching one-off classes is actually nice, because you get to cruise in and out of a course, with no baggage. Students get a change of pace (and face) and are usually welcoming. So it was that I did a session in each of the sections of B.B.A. in a course, Marketing Analytics by name.
Some pics- the first day, I was serious, and so am unsmiling, but by the second class, I had relaxed, even while taking a selfie. (I also got feedback that I was too serious, after posting the first pic on fb). The third pic is just another random selfie taken at the Koramangala campus during a photoshoot for promotion that I was doing for our Exec. MBA Program.
Starting with December 2023, on 30th I attended a wedding - and met Natasha Kothari, who runs Studio Ungap. Dhruv, her fiance, was the groo...
