Elections are back, in a few states. My former state of residence, Karnataka, very soon, and my current state of residence, Madhya Pradesh, a few months later. So I thought I would coin a few slogans for anyone who might use them. I would claim royalty, please remember..
Sev your pals, from Indore and Bhopal. Vote XYZ.
Ee saala IPL cup hamara hai. Vote for ABC
You got free swimming pools earlier. Now we promise you diving boards.. in Bangalore.
The Metro will be built, including the Bannerghatta Road stretch, the new MG road station, the airport connection..we just don't know when..
We will develop M.P. and make it the Export hub, the I.T. hub, the Food Processing Hub, and the eating-out hub.. no spokes will be allowed!
Belgaon will become Belshahar, one of the most developed cities. If you vote ABCD.
Dharwad will compete with Harvard.
Jargon has a way of perpetuating itself, and going viral. One year ago, many of us wouldn't have heard of ChatGPT, only GST. Now, everyone uses it in conversation as if it's been around for 20 years. It's besides the point whether anyone has actually used it.
Earlier, life was simple. People were only experts in a few things. Now, all of a sudden, you see experts (mostly self-certified), giving us gyan about everything under the Sun, Moon and the Milky Way. They sprout faster than sprouted lentils, and are, like the almighty, everywhere. God may not be happy with the comparison, but...
If you want to become an expert, all you need is a social media account. You can spout eloquent on any topic under the sky (Sun, Moon included), and you will have a few people acknowledging you as the Master (of the subject, or the Universe as the case may be).
Then you just bask in all that attention, and come back with renewed vigour, putting the Yohanis to shade. Dhinchak Pooja did that for a while, too, but the experts remain. They cannot be erased so easily from the ether.
Met this amazing lady yesterday at a function at Prestige campus. She spoke in Hindi for about 45 minutes. Forthright, no-nonsense stuff about how she came to Indore for a project in 1985, and just stayed on. From Chandigarh, which she used to think was a great city.
Solar cookers were what she and her Irish husband Jimmy propagated, and built a training centre for Adivasi (tribal) women where they learnt how to operate these and much more! They went into their own villages and started new enterprises -including making sev (an Indori fetish) and selling it, to increase incomes.
Lots of stories, and wisdom. Including on time management. She says the smartphone is for me, I use it when I want to. She does not shop, period. She grows almost everything she needs around her house. She has been our ambassador to the U.N. several times, and does not pull her punches when it comes to the government, or anything else!
It was great to see a woman of substance! Her energy-she is 75- would put all teenagers to shame, not to speak of us oldies!
Habits are formed unconsciously, many a time. We learn, of course, from multiple sources, starting with our parents in formative years. Moving on to friends, classmates, teachers and anyone else we may get inspired by.
We tend to pick up habits or learnings from all these. If you tend to spend a lot of time with a few people in your immediate circle that you like, they may influence you a lot. Or role models whom you look up to.
But my theory about this goes a bit further. You may end up learning from people you dislike too. For instance, a corrupt bureaucrat may inspire you to be the opposite. Or, if you find an incapable administrator, or leader, you may start thinking about performing that kind of a role, just to prove that you can do it better.
Any examples come to mind, of either kind? I have a few, and have written about them elsewhere.
I have noticed that social skills are not uniformly distributed across genders, even if you keep some things constant. There seems to be a gender disparity, that is statistically significant. The women in general, have much better social skills, than the (poor) men. I am not sure if the men are aware and are happy about this (if they are aware, that is). But in my view, we should not be too thrilled (again, assuming my findings are right).
Why do I say so? I have now interacted with thousands of students in and out of class. During the teaching term, if any students came up and asked for any more inputs or expressed a fear of stats (what little was in my Marketing Research courses), it was mostly the women students. Also for extra-curriculars, clubs, committees, it was the women members who took the lead to approach me to participate, write, contribute, etc.. no idea why.
Even more pronounced is the banter on social media. Though a couple of men students/alumni are good at it, including comments (one in particular, from KIAMS), in general, the women alums known to me from various B schools are generally more involved, more frequent in engaging in a chat, or in asking for advice about a course, or responding positively to any request to meet up in their city. I have therefore ended up meeting a lot of alums of the fairer sex in all these years. This includes a couple outside India such as Smita in Dubai and Swapna and Vidya in Singapore. These have been very enriching meetups too, I must add, for me.
With ex-colleagues, it is more balanced, with some of the men outdoing the women in catching up- maybe for a drink or a game of Golf. So far.
Not sure about readers of the blog yet, unless there's some more research to back it up.
I am generally in favour of brevity, with conversations. On the phone, particularly. Of course, there are exceptions. With friends, and over some beverages. I recently had a long phone conversation with a schoolmate who lives in USA near Sonoma, the wine country. North of San Francisco. He has done a lot of wonderful things since leaving school. He got a Computer Science degree in South Carolina, at USC. I had been to Clemson, SC around that time too.
He then did various things, like inventing a sound amplifier with myriad applications, including in the military. He also sold millions of these, I guess, along the way. He has experience of being funded for his venture, and also running it without the funders.
He was present when TiE was founded, he said. TiE is The Indus Entrepreneurs, a body meant to encourage entrepreneurship. We also discussed his coming over to talk about entrepreneurship to our students at Prestige University! His wife, a lawyer, has helped him in his own enterprise. He has a daughter who is in college, and doing well. His dad was in the Indian Air Force, and is in his 90s now, living with him.
It's been a while since I participated in the game of songs we call Antakshari. Usually played with Hindi film songs, because most people would know a few, and can participate. Quite a successful attempt, as it went on for a hour or so, and we did not run out of songs, though it took some effort to remember them on the spot. You are supposed to do this from memory, not by Googling them. Pictorial evidence-
If humans are still around, and schools still teach history, our text books might read
- The American President attacked Vietnam, and lost. Withdrew.
- Bush attacked Saddam Hussain and captured Iraq.
- The Russian President captured Afghanistan, occupied it for a decade, and left. Ditto, America.
- China took over Hong Kong.
- Putin attacked Ukraine, wanting to replicate the Hundred Year War.
- Military ruled over many Asian countries, Myanmar, Pakistan, and so on. Dictators ruled over a few others, and killed a few thousands in Cambodia, and China, earlier.
- Great progress in chemical weapons research brought about a pandemic, man-made that lasted 2-3 years, making life hell for common people around the world.
I had another innings in Bangalore from 2020 end till October 2022. This was as Director at NMIMS Bangalore campus. Eventful 2 years, which started with online classes due to COVID still being around. Slowly, we started offline classes, and I was able to meet many students in person. We had a lot of good times, a couple of Convocations, etc. and a few Golf sessions too- in our backyard.
Goals are personal, or institutional- at the workplace. Some of these are at odds. For example, working hard, without adequate rest at your job may be good for the Employer -assuming you are a productive worker-but may take a toll on your health/personal life, if you are not careful. Spending time with kids, spouse, parents or others takes a hit, unless you have friends at workplaces.
Also, a much-needed change of scenery may not take place. It's refreshing to actually meet new people, on a regular basis. That includes re-meeting old friends whom you may not have met. But it could be new people, or experiences that help the mind (and therefore, body) to cope with constant work pressures.
There are countries and economies that stress a work-life balance, and are usually rated as being among the 'happiest' in the world. Even if you dispute those rankings, there's something to be said for a Work/Life balance. If you don't believe me. read two excellent books by Ricardo Semler- Maverick, and The Seven Day Weekend. He might convince you.
We went for an offsite with colleagues from the Prestige group. Destination was a 6 hour ride by bus to Jain Hills, Jalgaon, where the pioneers of drip irrrigation and other agriprocessing methods are located. Very fruitful -literally. They process fruits, and spices too. Pics from the outing and plant visits..
This requires a blog post, because we met on Facebook a few years ago, both were at IMT Nagpur (she as student, me as prof.) and yet we had never met. Finally, it happened, on a short visit to Pune. Therefore, we had a wonderful long chat, and Prarthana was there too, as she lives in Pune and works there. Some pics from our outing. Truly a landmark meeting, and just the beginning of many more .. have to meet her two daughters and husband too..
She's an Oak from her earlier life, before marriage, and so was my grandpa, so we could be related too!
Could be a lot of reasons. But most of all, these-
They are real. Not fake (beyond the minimal amount needed to survive, I mean).
They can either talk or listen. Both are desirable traits, at different times, with the same people sometimes.
They want to keep in touch, and do.
They are not shy about sharing good or bad news-related to the first quality.
They have extra-curricular interests of some kind.
They are opinionated, in a good way. I am not really into politics or celebrities, but anything else interests me, listening to what people may have to say.. about education, health, poverty, learning techniques or experiments, technology in language I can understand, and entrepreneurial ventures that they have tried.
A world-view of some kind, about the world we live in, is always welcome.
