Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai

 What's it about the titles of films? There was a producer-director who insisted on starting his titles with an A. No, he did not direct Awara, but many other films later- Aap ki Kasam was one I think, Aasha another, and several others.

Rakesh Roshan liked K better, so he made Koyla, Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Krrish, and so on.

Then there was another K fan who was also a Dharmendra fan, and made Khel Khiladi Ka, and so on. I think his name was Arjun Hingorani. Rekha sang Maine Ais to nahi kaha tha, to Dharmendra's Rafta Rafta where they are hanging on a JCB a few hundred metres from earth.

Not sure if there were any fans of B, C, D or E. But B.R. Chopra seemed to like one word titles- Hamraaz and Gumraah being examples. Both also had Ravi as their music director, and great songs by Mahendra Kapoor. Neele gagan ke tale and Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayen hum are my favourites. He also made Dhund, and Ittefaq, and Kanoon, I think.

Naseeruddin Shah Again!

 To my great fortune, I saw him back to back this month, in two plays at Ranga Shankara. This one, Dear Liar, had him playing George Bernard Shaw (not Shah, as the first exchange of dialogue pointed out).

It's almost an out-of-the-world experience to watch someone like him perform, and I will not try to describe it. This play is based on an exchange of letters between him and his long-standing lover (extra-marital) of 44 years. Ratna Pathak Shah complemented him beautifully in the other role.

A lot of references to Pygmalion, Shaw's most famous play, and how she auditioned for the part, and made it a big success. Lovely repartee, humour, and use of the language. Enjoyed it thoroughly, and will check one more thing off my bucket list- though I had forgotten to put it there! Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro!

Indian Traffic Rules

 This is from a citizens' charter, and to be taken with a bit of salt.

1. I am the sole user of this road/the road belongs to me. To hell with everybody else.

 2. I must always act as if the sky will fall, if I don't cut across at least 3 vehicles every minute or two.

3. Kuchh toofani karte hain. (inspired by an ad for a cold drink)

4. India is overpopulated anyway...

5. Wrong side driving is good for my health, and keeps me and others alert.

6. Cops are busy checking documents, so... 

7. I am paying taxes, so I own the road (related to 1)

Karnatic

 A restaurant with a difference. A wide variety of Southern food, and global drinks. So we landed up there again, and with a Bambaiya friend, Bhagyalakshmi Venkatesh. She loved it, and we renewed our affection. Not very far from us, too, saving us a few hours in commuting- not everything about Bangalore is perfect!

Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas

 Pals from various places. An attempt at a comprehensive classification of my pals, geographically.

Australia- Pooja Daniel, Sanjeev Undri

Dubai- Smita Mohan

China- Yapin

Sri Lanka- Samudrika

USA- Nidhi Kanungo, Annie, Samren, Leslie, Ron and family, Dr. Soni, and Athena, Kamalesh Nayudu, Avadhanulu, Seshu, Nandakumar (Junior), Jockey, Zoom, 

New Zealand- Chasha and Ruab, Gurvinder Singh

Canada- Vaseem, Tanya Shrivastava, Radhax, 

Finland- Anusha, Bhawana Moondra

UK- Senior (Nandakumar), Shuchi Bhatnagar

Hyderabad- Jogi, Venu, Nagarjuna, Nagu, Ramesh, Basudev and lots more, Pratima of Satara fame. HPS classmates galore, including Dattu, Krishna, Praveen (part-time resident).. Aditi Gupta ( lived in South Carolina too)

Lithuania- Natalija

Delhi- Shruti, Aditya, Nikita, Shweta, Sunil Kataria, Harish Chaudhry, Himanshu, Harish Arora, Pradeep Acharya, Kanika Mhendiratta, Padmapriya

Jaipur- Achint, Garima Shah

Bhubaneswar- Ramana, Banikanta Mishra, 

Lucknow- Bhuvneet, Anam, BK Mohanty

Mumbai- Bhagyalakshmi, Sheetal Garg, Abha, Meghana Joshi, Meghna Sinha, Pallavi Sharma

(Originally from) M.P. -Tosha Dubey, Anusha Soni, Pooja Shukla, Manuja Seth, lots in IIM Indore

Bangalore- Bharath, Nagendra, Shailaja Gupta, Anushka Mishra, Savitha, lots of IIMB classmates- Prabhakar, Himanshu, Ramesh, Lingu, Sid-Shubha,.. SP Kumar, Manasa, Sowmyashree, Rajiv Krishnan, Ram Seshu, Muthu

Chennai- Vijayakumar, Lady Daga (Bhawana)

 

Naming a Child

 This is the biggest decision facing parents to be. I will outline the problem.

The name has to have a bit of both parents' names. Otherwise, you wouldn't know that they were equal contributors in this production. So a complicated set of combos appears on the menu, with many possible permutations and combinations.

It cannot be just any name, can it? Has to be special. He or she could be a game-changer, so you have to be a name-finder!

It can't also be too complicated for a foreign tongue to pronounce, coz he/she might just land up being a Venezuelan (Ok, Canadian is more likely) citizen. And woe betide, if they mangle the name, it might leave scars on the not-so-young impressionable mind!

Therefore, you see, it's a nimble act like those tight-rope walkers who are almost extinct now. They live on as parents to be, before they have named a child they will bring into this universe.

USPs of My Friends

 I had started this series sometime ago.. here are a few more with USPs that I noticed.

First, I will start with Students. 

At NMIMS, Muskaan- Agarwal, I guess. Nice smile. And good with the camera too. Divya Anand, for her fashion sense (an NIFT grad, after all), Ekalavya, the placement chief, for his dedication, like his namesake. Trishla Gupta, for her LinkedIn presence which is unique. The Gandhis, Kinjal and Tanya, for their names. Some BBA kids too, for winning an Entrepreneurship Award - led by Muskaan Behl.

Alumni, other B schools- Shatakshi.. non-confused, though she calls her Digital marketing firm Confused Genius. Meghna Sinha, paints a wide canvas. Prachi Jain, a one-time golfer who is a friend forever- a good actor too-I saw her live! Anusha Soni, a pal from Bhopal, Shuchi Bhatnagar too, and Pooja Shukla. Animesh Jain too. And Pallavi Sharma. Being Bhopali is a USP, because they are nice people, without exception. Anuja Anand, a poet and writer.

Tanaya Kar Chaturvedi- lively as hell! Harish Chaudhary- directions dene mein ustad- no wonder he directed us in a play at IIMB. Shweta Kushal- a kushal director and drinks partner! Bhagyalakshmi- an expert and a co-author in Branding books. Siddhanta Patnaik (no more), his interest in sports and life.

Abha Kulkarni.. it's not only the hairstyle, but style too. Sheetal Garg- one of the friendliest souls ever on my friend-list. Anshita and Tosha Dubey- great organisers of my get-togethers. That's a skill I like! Shruti and Aditya, gracious hosts. Vrinda Khanna, likewise. Savitha, loyal friend and first re-connect at Bangalore. Ishita Modi, for chai pe charcha- no, I am getting confused. Her wit! Pooja Varun, her farmer connect. Bharath Shenoy, coffee pe charcha, market research. Divya Sharmaa, TV star. Murli Mohan K, dancer of Kathak. Meghna Sinha, one of the first partners in a Mutual Admiration Society.

Vidisha, Rewa...place names. 

For nice pics with me, Siri Adi, Anuj Mathew, Meenu Mynam (her pic below), Aishwarya Iyer, Bharath Shenoy, Sapna Patni, Anam Nuhi, Harshad Sachani, Vaishali Bathla, Shruti, Aditya, Nikita, Vandana Kumar (one from the 90s too, at Tank Bund in Hyderabad), Sreelekha, entire placement team, at NMIMS. The P.R. team from last year also. Lokesh and Muskaan of Knowesis. Gowri and Shafique (IMT), recently. Rajiv Krishnan, from my school days.

Meenu Mynam, me and Harsh Halve at an alum meet of IMT Nagpur.

Below- the P.R. team of NMIMS Bangalore that includes Divya, and her seniors too. 

Nishka Rathi, for her love of books, and a unique profession- ghostwriting! Digital entrepreneurs, Abhinav Kamal (also a film-maker), Divya Singh, and Shatakshi. Anushka Mishra, for being a bookworm and seeking me out to be a friend offline. I am glad for it. Jogeswari, for starring in my Video case on Golftripz. Madhav Misra too.

Profs. - Narayani, Shahida from different institutes, for boundless energy, and never-say-die attitude.

T.K. Chatterjee, for his abilities at selling anything (I am sold), and passion for singing- I initiated him into karaoke! Gadgil, for his accent-American, of course. S.P. Kumar, for his enthu at 75+. Prabhakar (not a prof.), for his piano-playing  and wit. Rajan of India, aka ROI- coining names for profs. Thomas, likewise for various people and organisations around us. B.K. Mohanty, for fuzzy logic research. Smita Dabholkar, for her enthusiasm and energy. 

Garima Shah and Aditi Gupta for being women golfers (Anusha and Prachi too, later) at IMT, before I heard of Aditi Ashok, the Olympian.

Non-teaching. At KIAMS- Pavan, a party animal from Coorg. Rajesh Dixit from KIAMS, a nice guy. Vinod Jadhav, helpful always. 

Architecture

 It can impress. The first Ayn Rand book I read had an architect hero. But it is still rare that you find buildings in your life which are brilliant in conception and execution. I was fortunate to live in one such campus- the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and recently got hold of a few more pics from our times (1980s), out of a couple of Yearbooks of seniors/juniors. Here are some of those pics.. with masala added in the form of quotes.

The Yearbook of the 1986 batch (above), and a hostel in Jayanagar that our seniors lived in (below)

Golf at ASC Bangalore

 From a recent outing with Vikram Venkateswaran, at the ASC Bangalore. 

TV 5 Monde

 My current favourite chanel - err, channel- on television is TV 5 Monde, Asie. I have been now a watcher for about 2 years. I discovered it during the pandemic, thanks to my wife who used to watch a serial each Friday. I got hooked too.

each evening, they have a serial or a film, usually French, with English subtitles. The reason I like it is because the movies explore themes that are typically not touched on by either Bollywood or Hollywood. Teen issues, children's issues, immigrant problems, are all woven into the storylines. 

The detective type serials are also more down-to-earth, without the swashbuckling style of some American serials. More understated, Hercule Poirot type, if you know what I mean. Plan to keep watching these, usually 3-4 evenings a week.

Ambiguity- An Essay About It

 I am not sure how to put this. But I will try and not be too ambiguous. The thing is, I am ambiguous about a lot of things, and I am not unhappy or sorry about being so. In fact, I am quite comfortable with it.

You get what I am saying? No? Ok, let me try and explain. Whether to go out or stay at home? I am not sure. I am happy with both. 

Should I eat a South Indian Dosa, or a Bhatura with Chhole? I am actually fine with both. Chinese or Thai? Both are fine with me.

You may call this indecision, or the inability to make a decision. Let me clarify in no uncertain terms- if forced to make one, I will make a decision, one way or another. But till then, I am ambiguous about it.

I never appeared on KBC and remained a non-crorepati, because I wouldn't know which of the 4 options to choose. Amitabh Bacchhan would be forced to terminate that game, and I wouldn't want that.

Should I read, or sleep? I am OK with either.

The one thing I am unambiguous about, is which type of music I want to listen to-Hindi or English. It's always Hindi for me, except if it's Buffalo Soldier, or other Reggae music.

Review of Einstein- a play

 Naseeruddin Shah as Einstein. That was an irresistible proposition, and I succumbed. I had watched a lot of his films. Two that particularly stand out in my memory are Finding Fanny and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. I think he had comic talent that remained underexploited. 

Anyway, back to the play about Einstein. Essentially, it's a one-man act. He is old, and reminiscing about various things. It's about science too, but also about war and its futility, and scientists and inventors who sell their soul and do things that are detrimental to humanity, along with politicians and other war-mongers.

The play also touches on his marriages, mostly unsuccessful due to his immersion in his work, his ability to take Newtonian Physics many steps ahead and understand time, space and the nature of the universe. Some of the stuff was known, like that joke about relativity- A minute on a hot stove seems like an hour, but an hour talking to a pretty girl seems like a minute. 

But what acting! Set design was fantastic, with a bust of Newton to which he speaks occasionally, and a projector showing pics from history, related to what he is saying at any point in time- I thought that was innovative. And a blackboard with mathematical equations all over it. The lighting too, particularly towards the closing scene where stars are simulated, and in highlighting his face and arms when that emphasis was needed. 

I was also reminded of the excellent staging of some plays at IIM Indore by a colleague, Shweta Kushal,  with amateur actors-students. Prachi Jain, Shreya Surana, Sanjana, are you listening? 

Ethnicity and Good Governance

 There is a lot of speculation about the ethnic Indian who is likely to follow in Boris Johnson's steps. In my own opinion, that hardly matters. What matters is how well he or she will govern the U.K.

We have had many Chief Ministers, usually local stock, who have governed various states. The one who made a visible difference in Andhra Pradesh where I grew up, was Chandrababu Naidu. He may have lost his appeal today, but he was the first to introduce Powerpoint presentations-in government! He is also said to have made one to the ISB founders to get them to set up shop in Hyderabad.

He is single-handedly responsible for getting the IT giants into A.P. - not just Indian giants, but all the global ones. That is not a  mean achievement, given Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others were probably contenders at the time.

Good roads that are not an eyesore can be a very visible symbol of good governance. Gadkari reportedly got 50 flyovers constructed in Mumbai in a few years of ONE term, whereas we struggle to build one in that time elsewhere!

Sreedharan was allowed by powers that be to do good, and so was Verghese Kurien given a free hand. Maybe that is a secret sauce- a free hand given to capable people! 

Imitations

 Some people have a knack for doing great imitations, or mimicry. Some of these that I remember.

Anil Lahoti, a friend, did a great imitation of extras dancing in Hindi films. Usually, in the sixties or seventies, this involved wiggling various parts of their body while being overshadowed by the heroine, vamp, or sometimes the hero. This was hilarious, and to use a now outdated term, ROFL.

We all tried at one time or another, imitating the villain Ajit, and his dialogues. His favourites Raabert, Mona and Tony, and sometimes Maikal (who took the saikal) figured prominently in these. His boasts like Saara shahar mujhe Loin ke naam se jaanta hai, was the most popular, and his torture orders- Ise Liquid Oxygen mein daal do, Liquid ise jeene nahi dega, aur Oxygen ise marne nahi dega - were actually legendary.

We had fun imitating some dear professors, among whom JD Singh, a much-loved marketing prof., was one. A famous question he used to ask us in a case discussion, " Is that the only kaas (cause)?" became the stuff of legend, as was his other dialogue, about the customer 'handling the product, and fondling the product.' 

Another colleague later used to threaten (not seriously) anyone who gave a wrong answer, 'Tereko donda leke marunga'  in typical Odiya accent.

Coincidences and Connections

 I was watching a video in which Anupam Kher was interviewing Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, the title of this show being Kuchh Bhi Ho Sakta Hai (Anything Can Happen). He also questioned them about happenings in their life. They came from different backgrounds, religions and became great friends during their stint at the National School of Drama and later acted in many films, sometimes together and sometimes not. (I am going to watch a play starring Shah this week- theatre remains his passion.)

I started thinking about coincidences and connections (in case you noticed, I sometimes do) as a result. For example, a friend from Hyderabad, Alok, got me an admission into the Clemson Ph.D. program, which took me into academia. My first IIM job interview (Lucknow) had my teacher, Prof. JD Singh, on the interview panel. I met one of my former students, Padmapriya, at night, while standing outside my cousin's place in Mumbai, and have remained in touch since. Another former student, Jogeswari, started a Golf touring company, and I went on their first organised tour to Thailand.

Sheetal Garg and I met by chance at an alumni event at IMT Nagpur, and have been meeting regularly since-we are also members of a music community. The music group itself, I joined (and met some great people in) due to Mohan Gopalratnam, another former student from XIMB. Nikita Kumar happened to be working in Hyderabad and Pune when we met in both places. Animesh Jain in Bhopal also I met coincidentally when I went for a guest lecture. Abhinav Kamal happened to make a film, Pradyumna, Bhagyashree and Harshad Lunavat happened to be good photographers at IMT, and I noticed. Soumyashree, a student who I met accidentally made my blog popular by posting a link on hers. 

I ran into Rohit at a mall in Bhubaneswar, and lots of people at airports-Jimmy Jain of IIMK, and Siddharth from KIAMS, for instance. Anne, from the Agriculture Dept. at Clemson, who I met through a roommate, became good friends and we visited her at her French home and she came to India too. 

I was fortunate to meet Ravi Gadgil, who had played Golf, while I was at IMT, and we set up a two-hole Golf course on the campus. I also run into former colleagues regularly, when invited for faculty selection, or guest lectures. Some former students also come and meet me at times. All these coincidences and connections are highly rewarding, and fun. I played Golf with someone I met years ago, recently- we happen to be in Bangalore now. An entrepreneur saw a post on LinkedIn and connected with me about her startup. I also met Pooja Varun, a former PES student, and Nagendra Shenoy in similar coincidences.

Zindagi, ittefaq hai..as the line from a song says (Life is a set of coincidences)

Nostalgia Trip to IIMB

 The occasion was a visit by Harish Arora and Ila. He was a classmate at IIMB, circa 1982, and she is his wife. We met at the office of Gopal Mahapatra who was also a classmate and is now a prof. at IIMB. Some pics- among the highlights, we visited a new hostel- R Block, and the new chai/coffee shop that has replaced Uncle's, the old one. Also saw a pic from our Convocation on the wall. 

JD Singh who taught us Marketing 1, at some other location. Other pics are from IIMB.

This first one below is from 1982 or 83. Others from 2022.

Gopal Mahapatra, Harish and Ila 

Speeches- A Non-serious Look

 Speeches have many uses. As we faculty know very well, they are used most often to put unsuspecting or disinterested students to sleep. The others have to make heroic efforts to stay awake, and do.

Politicians tell us what they intend doing through election speeches. If they suffer from short-term memory loss shortly after elections, they need our sympathy, and treatment for it. At our expense.

Visiting dignitaries make speeches that sound good, are reported on by the press and P.R. agencies that provide them to the press.. where would we (and they) be, if no one visited anyone? We pay these countries (and their Press) back in kind, when we visit their countries. 

In a war-economic or military- both sides give speeches. One of the most impressive is actually by Charlie Chaplin talking gibberish while playing The Great Dictator- Hitler, who else?

If you are still interested, I can give a speech.. wait, why are you running away?

Weddings Fat and Slim

 We actually had three weddings to attend this past fortnight, and so it was quite hectic. Feasts ranging from South Indian, to Hyderabadi, to exotic international eats. Some glimpses, of all the action, as recorded for posterity.

What's a wedding without song and dance?

E.T., or Eaty? Lots to eat, no doubt..