What they used to drill into us-
Eat healthy, home-made food.
Be frugal.
Recycle, don't waste- cloth bags instead of plastic, just an example.
Be nice to people.
And tell stories, keep it interesting!
That last one is the advice most Digital/Branding experts now dish out.
Learning from grandma is the best learning!
This Bud's For You was the tagline of Budweiser.. now that I am wiser, I see some sense in that, though I never liked the beer, after being bred on the King of Good Times, or Kingfisher. The Mexican ones were more up my street..but I am digressing. This is about bud-dies..making buddies.
Two new, and two old buddies- made through a Play directed by Shweta Kushal at IIM Indore first. And then, through an impromptu invite for a pizza. Prachi Jain, Pratishtha Batra, Neeti Ingole (she turned out to be an alum of IIMK too) and Aakansh with me at a year end meetup.
So I have these major kinds-
School buddies
College buddies
MBA class buddies
Ex-student buddies
Office buddies
Single Malt Buddies
Golf Buddies
Niece/nephew buddies
Chaddi buddies from home
Facebook buddies too, who I may not even have met.. though I try.
To close the year 2022, I had an interesting experience yesterday-the 29th. I was interviewed, about Prestige University's offerings, as their Vice Chancellor, by the radio station Red FM. At their studio. This will be aired on Sunday Jan. 1st.
The radio station staff was very warm, and it was fun interacting with all of them. The host Shreya, and me...
This year threw many surprises. Which is not surprising. Had it not, that would have surprised me. I found a new job and moved (so what's new, you might ask, and I would understand). So new colleagues, along with a few who are a short distance away (the other end of town, where I lived between 2013 and 2020).
This time, towards what could be the last innings of my full time career, there are enough challenges to keep me occupied, along with my team here. Adding both faculty and students at a furious pace is never easy. Even one of these can be challenging. But both? Yes, it will take some doing. We are a new university in Indore, and the city is coming into reckoning, apart from its no.1 rank in Cleanliness.
It is at the cusp of professionalisation, somewhat like Bangalore before Infosys. And we saw what happened there. I actually was a student in 1982-84 at Bangalore's hallowed IIMB. There are many initiatives like the Super-corridor for I.T. firms (TCS, Infosys are already here) and educational institutions - both of which can be a potent force for change in a few years.
The Metro is taking shape, pretty fast. Might change the pace a bit, when it starts. The airport is probably the best connected in M.P., similar to Nagpur as far as Central India goes. All these are possible indicators of something happening. Let's hope we can contribute to this becoming a happening place!
I just discovered a driving range for Golf at Indore- visited with my colleague and budding Golfer Sohni Roy. They have a nice setup to practice drives, and clubs are a part of the deal. It's also conducive for group activity, like bowling. Five people can use a bay for an hour for a fixed price that varies on weekdays and weekends. 210 balls are available to hit during this time. There's also a restaurant attached.
Some pics..
Thanks to my former colleague Shweta Kushal from IIM Indore, I witnessed another stage production, that of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan. This was part of a course on Management Learnings from Theatre that she offers to the 5-year program _IPM-students. Brilliantly produced by the students, and performed. Oscar Wilde was the baadshah of one-liners, and this play has plenty of those.. great fun to revisit.
Some glimpses-
The Gavaskars and Chandrashekhars and Kapil Devs mattered, once upon a time. But now, it seems like long ago. Looking back (and front, and sideways), they did not really do a lot for me. Maybe the writers and singers did more. I cannot deny the role that Hindi film music and particular singers or composers played in shaping my life-life consists of everything you do, not just work. Same with some authors that I admired.
Admiration is one thing, but the impact they have, in general, on your life is quite low. On the other hand, a friend, or a teacher or a mentor (a non-celebrity mentor, I might add), may end up impacting your life a lot more. One reason, obviously, is you see them more often. Second, they may genuinely wish you well.
This is not a rant about any particular celeb- sports star, or film star, but a general observation. Make what you will of it. I am more impressed by the boy or girl next door than all the big names put together. To use names from films as an illustration, an Amol Palekar, rather than a Bachchan.
Some People Who Did Unexpected Things-
Well, students
first. Jogeswari took me through her company,
Golftripz, to my first international Golf tournament. No, I didn't win, but it
was a fantastic experience.
Padmapriya Janakiraman became a
full-fledged heroine. Still is, for me.. she continues to act, actually.
Abhinav Kamal started a digital agency,
when most people couldn't spell the D - I wrote a case on that company, and
made the most of it. He now directs films..
Surbhi Mehta Chadha and her hubby brought
me a bottle of wine in our first meeting in Delhi.. she found out from Vrinda Khanna that I liked red!
Siri Adi picked me up and showed me a Golf
course near where she lived, and then we had some coffee brewed by her Dad!
Shraddha Nigdikar cooked for me. So did Pallavi Bajpai, so cool.
Kedar Muley persisted until I met him and a
band of IMTans at Thane ..
Pratima Gaikwad treated me to a biryani in
my backyard- Hyderabad!
Not entirely
unexpected, but Venugopal Reddy (engg. classmate) took me
out to Golf in Delhi and Hyderabad!
Smita Dabholkar Singh organised two
well-attended book launches of my autobiography at Nagpur and Pune, and Jaya Jha gave us a surprise by attending at
Pune- her company published it for me.
Neha Adiga and Anusha Soni dropped in at our place in
Pune.
Kiran Kenjale did a lot of things, way back
in USA, including showing us Disneyland, and NBC studios..
Shatakshi T. sent me a goodies pack, just
like that..
Aditi Gupta and Gary S played Golf with us at IMT.
Rajni Verma got me a moustache for my Dev
Anand impersonation at a music group meet we had in Bangalore.
End of First
Episode... to be continued.
On a recent work trip to Gwalior, we drove back from there. It was a pleasant drive, and we also got some work done at a lunch stop on the way, in Shivpuri district. Some shots of Gwalior, and of that stop. With me were colleagues Sohni Roy and Chandrashekhar.
The building is a work of art. The architect, Sanjay Puri, has conceived a unique -looking structure, and won awards for the design. Coming to the final stages now, here's a view from the top-it reminded me of how we climbed to the top of the Water Tank at IIM Bangalore when we moved in as students, and similar views greeted us.
I like the idea of literally rolling in wealth, like Richie Rich did.. he had a room full of dollars. Also, having a butler- his was called Cadbury.
The concept of a magic potion used by Asterix, brewed by Druid Getafix- that's s great idea.
A mouse like Mickey, and a talking duck like Donald.. great imagination, Walt Disney!
Nero Wolfe, a gourmet AND a detective.
Hercule Poirot with his egg-shaped head, and little grey cells. Mon ami, Mon cher, whatever, ..pardon my French.. Oo la la!
Phantom's skull cave, with a waterfall covering its entrance, is a masterstroke, according to me. Mandrake's hypnotism too.
James Bond- I never read the books, but he rose from the books to become the colourful character everyone wanted to Bond with...
Of course, Sherlock Holmes, with his deductions based on observation. Market researchers could learn a few things from him.
All the Enid Blyton characters who were as different as chalk and cheese. Fatty, in particular. And Goon.
Thomson and Thompson.. and Captain Haddock..
It's not about just being a disruptor. Thought leaders have to qualify on multiple counts to be thought leaders.
They should be different, of course, but ahead of their times. Visionary is some sense, and breaking the mould.
They may or may not have a lot of followers, but their thought could gain acceptance later, as has happened in radical theories about the shape of the earth, or the Earth going around the Sun in Astronomy, or many others.
Nobody accepts anything new without kicking and screaming. So a lot of antipathy can sometimes be a precursor to acceptance, though not always.
You can have thought leaders in Feminism, LGBT rights, or simpler things, like new ways of teaching, discovery or looking at cures for hitherto incurable diseases. Any field of human endeavour, really. We wouldn't be high-fliers without the Wright brothers, right?
P.R. is Public Relations. And one of the finest practitioners of this individually was, in my view, Mr. Narayana Murthy. I.T. industry as a whole benefited from it, and Infosys also, of which he was a founder with a few partners.
He would tirelessly go and speak at various forums, on various subjects, and I have heard him twice myself. At PES Bangalore, and later at IIM Indore. He spoke about the industry, of course, but also about the quality of education in India, etc. Having an opinion and expressing it are two different things. He was a rare combination of these two. He did this for more than two decades, probably three.
Combined with his company's story of how it brought I.T. to Bangalore, in the days when it was not easy to do I.T. from India. His story about importing a computer (for his company) through the red tape that was Indian bureaucracy also became a talking point for a long time.
The company also did a few things right, including increasing transparency in accounting- their Annual Report was a THING- and listing on an American stock exchange. But his use of personal P.R. techniques added a lot of value, in my opinion.
This blog of mine has had 772255 views till date, across some 2550 blog posts. Even I am impressed, in this day and age, that there are some regular readers, who have subscribed to the feed, and I assume, read some of the posts. The stats reported say many views are from USA, but that might be because of location of the servers, as somebody pointed out earlier.
Also surprising because I am mostly a writer of text, though I understand that visual content is consumed more widely and easily. I have only stuck to photographs of people or things that I have clicked, or someone who was with me has clicked, when I use these. Very rarely, shots of celebs or book covers. This year, I posted 175 times, till date. Not bad, approximately averaging one post every two days.
Anyway, I am grateful for the fact that you are one of those who have read the blog, or some of it, from time to time. Some bloggers have a huge fan following, and I am amazed. I would probably only want a few comments now and then. Not much else to ask for.
You could say, it's a great feeling. Say that again. Even if you have met online for years. I have been meeting many people recently who I mostly met online before. Past students, or colleagues. Met a few recently at IIM Kozhikode and IIM Raipur, where I had been on a scouting trip to recruit faculty tow ork with us at Prestige University. Also met some who gave me an endorsement for my Marketing Research book- even non-marketing faculty. Anyway, we hope to meet again, somewhere.. a while ago, in Bangalore, I met Divya Sisodiya and Meenu Mynam, and in Mumbai, met Swati Jain, after a decade or more, and it was fabulous catching up.
Like many other things, driving is vastly over-rated, in my view.
First off, you have several factors that you have no control over, when you drive. Other drivers, who seem to be nitwits to use a mild phrase, mostly.
Second, you have to contend with traffic. And signals. My God, that RED circle stays with you for eternity.
The zigzagging morons. Less said the better.
Highways which earlier were a paradise, now have a serpent. The toll booths. Not sure for whom that bell tolled, but these toll for you.
Best of all, those who come straight at you, driving on the wrong side. And then give you a mouthful when you so much as stare at them...
Well, that is why I drive no longer. Unless my life depends on it.
Driverless cars? I am all for them. Let the machines fight it out. May the best robot win. And why stop at cars? Let's have driverless scooters and motorbikes too..the more the merrier! What say?
I visited Gwalior Fort for the first time, among other things. Thanks to some work at the Prestige Institute there. Gwalior is a historic city, and a nice place to spend some time in. By road, also crossed Shivpuri, the hometown of Manuja Seth, a former student I met at NMIMS Bangalore. Also met one of my fb friends, Indira Sharma, who is a faculty member in the HR/OB area at Prestige. She and us (my colleagues Dr. Chandrashekhar and Dr. Sohni Roy) went around the city in some spare time we had. The Director, Dr. Nishant Joshi, took good care of us too.
Pics from the outings.
