ISB or the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad is a unique place, known for a high quality PGP. I had a discussion with their representative, Varshita, about collaborating with their Digital learning team for offering a few courses to our students. Pics from my visit.
Cousins from two Nargundkar brothers' families gathered for a party after a while. Some of us, including Nargundkar-Pai family and Nargundkar-Paruvus. Pratap, Pramila, Lakshmi, Virendra, Rajendra (me), Hari, Anjali, Madhuri, Shobha, Satish.
Some of us cousins met up in a place called Barometer. Some have been in Pune, and some more have just moved. My brother and sister were visiting, from USA and Hyderabad, respectively. Enough excuses to party..
We have a few architects in the family. I was recently at the home of one. Some nice things I noticed..
I am part of a music group devoted to Hindi songs, film and non-film. We have a weekly host who runs a theme, around which members have to post songs. I had a theme related to lyricists with place names-Indori, Jaipuri, Bhopali, Sultanpuri etc. This was my report at the end of that week.
Theme Owner Report for
Bhopal se Jaipur.
Behno aur
bhaiyo,
Is hafte
phir JCB jaag utha. An Uttar Bharat discovery tour! Pilibhiti, Kashmiri, three
Jaipuris and a couple of Lakhnavis were unexpected. Ek Hyderabadi bhi nikla,
dhoondhne ke baad. With a tadka from Panipatis and Dewasis and so on.. Gorakhpuri
and Kanpuri were somewhat expected. And some were really far out, unknown to me
at least. Shows how committed to digging our members are- even more than
Bangalore (or Chennai) road-diggers! Came up with gold. Heartening for me were
also the plethora of black and white era songs, most of which were both lyrical
AND tuneful. Naturally! MSMTans ko Soorma (Bhopali) ghoshit kar diya jaaye,
after this sterling performance. Binaca geet mala style bigul bhi bajaaya jaaye,
is Khushi ko zahir karte hue..
I started
out imagining that 5-6 mainstream poets/lyricists would dominate. How wrong I
was, and happy to be! Good to have Indira back, and Ratnamadhavi, adding 4
moons to the theme. Students ki last minute entry ki aadat ab tak barkaraar
hai, ye Ishita ne saabit kar diya. 😊
Admins. ko
salaam, aur sabhi doston ko Ram ram, meri agli theme tak. I am hoping to meet
at least one MSMT member this weekend, magar let it remain a secret till it
happens.. 😊
Rajendra
Jan 29-Feb.
3, 2023
You may think, like the East and the West, they (wars and humour) wouldn't meet (sorry, Kipling). But in my book (or blog) they do. Just one example, below-
Conversations between warlords Putin and Zelensky
Zelensky (he was a comedian earlier)- This is not funny. You are stepping on my toes, and disturbing the furniture in my house.
Putin- Go find some dole-outs from your new friends.
Zelensky- I am joining NATO
Putin- Natu, Natu, I mean, naughty, naughty (under his breath - 'these damn Oscars! They get on my nerves. I prefer Awara hoon')
Zelensky- I will put you out to dry, Putin!
Putin- That dialogue is czarring- I mean, jarring- to a modern Czar.
Zelensky- You ARE crude, like that oil you keep peddling as a carrot to all the world! And full of gas, like...
Putin- Shut up, or you will face the brand new missiles which I had to test on someone.
Zelensky- Ha, I will then test all the anti-missile missiles that Germany, France, USA wanted tested..
Meanwhile, Xi smiles slyly, as he Ok's a new virus test in the rebranded lab at Wuhan...
These are usually because of some position you hold. That they may want to benefit from. So if you happen to lose that 'position' as a potential benefactor, the friends go away in the blink of an eye.
Could happen anywhere, in any profession, because brown-nosing is an eternal pastime, and has been.
On the other hand, it's a joy to have friends who don't give a damn about who you are in terms of your position, job held or anything else other than the real you. I am grateful for many such friends, from among colleagues, or classmates, or past students from classes taught years ago.
Sometimes, just random meetings from social media connects have developed into friendships that are hard to define.
Of course, professional friends who are, well, professional, are fine too.
This is purely for fun, so the risk is all yours. If you wish to reinvent yourself, make sure
You are capable of invention.
You are capable of it a second time.
Look for inspiration in the guy who invented the light bulb. Also, the wheel.
Go to the place where the Wright Brothers flew their first plane- Kitty Hawk. I have been there. That alone is not sufficient, as you can see! But might help.
Read books about creative thinking, Six Hats et. al.
Stare at the sea, horizon, anything that is far away. It always helps.
Stop reading this, and start doing something. Might ultimately lead you to reinvention of something. Maybe even yourself.
No, I haven't turned into a dating guru overnight. But thought I would point out a few differences.
1. You are trying to impress a date, and not really trying to impress a spouse..most of the time. Reason is you think you have achieved your goal-if you got married to that person.
2. Money problems don't exist while you are dating. You scramble, and find the money, or you have enough to spare for the project. Marriage, you never know. Depends on whether one or both of you are spendthrifts, or thrifty. Jokes about each other's spending habits are par for the course, as are a few others.
3. A meeting of bodies is no guarantee of a meeting of minds. Divergence in thinking is not obvious at first glance, and only comes to the fore over the long term- 2 years or more. Considering a marriage can be a 30-40 year affair, that is a long time to consider.
4. Short term versus long term is always going to be different. Children also add to the change of equation, or priorities. Raising them require different skills from keeping each other happy, and it can be stressful, because cuddling a kid for a few minutes is different from raising a full human being over 20 years.
5. My advice for the married-if anyone wants it- is, take it easy. You are not trying to prove anything. Just go with the flow, and be nice to each other if you can. The rest will take care of itself.
I wrote one for myself a couple of years ago. This is Take 2-
He liked to pronounce 'karaoke' the Japanese way. Not the weird American way. Liked the desi Antakshari too.
Was a lover of good food and drink- both in moderation. And an OK cook too.
He loved his students (OK, most of them!) more than the subjects he taught. Didn't care what he taught, as long as the students-and he- enjoyed it as much as possible. Liked setting exam questions that were different. Probably because he had had to answer so many that were not.
Enjoyed teaching Golf even more than marketing, and many unsuspecting students and colleagues of his ended up learning it! Wherever there was a green patch of land available, and that included IMT Nagpur, NMIMS Bangalore and IIM Indore.
He also wrote an autobiography, and a lot of blogs besides. Created a couple of new characters, a British Lord fashioned out of Bertie Wooster, and a talking female mosquito -Anopheles.
Got to meet a few relatives after a while. In Mumbai and in Pune. Pics-
We had a shoot (on 12th May 2023) for a show Prestige University is doing with CNBC at Mumbai. Lots of corporate guests were also present, to talk about their domains of expertise and how industry collaboration can help our students. Some pics-
Camping- living in a small tent when you could be comfortable in your own home. Teaches you sacrifice!
Mountaineering- Risking life when you could be comfortable in your surroundings.. teaches you empathy.
Doing engineering when you could have taken Arts/Humanities. Learning how to take torture (in case you are captured by enemy soldiers), what with all the entrance exams..
Doing MBA.. Working harder than you have to.. a lesson in itself. Also, how to do group assignments when half the group is missing.
Becoming a professor.. discovering how people are not interested in your lessons, and that's a lesson. You were the same when you were a student, so it's a deja vu of a different kind!
During my summer internship, in 1983, I first went to Assam, all the way to Tinsukia near Dibrugarh. And stayed there for 3-4 days to survey some plywood manufacturers for my employer, Widia. This was an amazing experience. My first foray into the North East. It was green. Lots of wooden homes were built on stilts to stay safe from flood water, I am guessing. Very welcoming people, and simple food available at the roadside eateries.. dal, rice and a vegetable, accompanied by a green chili.
I went by shared transport of any kind that I could find, and visited some places with exotic names like Margherita and Doom Dooma, as part of my job.
Later, I visited IIT Guwahati once, and loved the campus. Not the humidity, though. Also went and saw the Bramhaputra river at a spot nearby. In between, we did go for some admission work at Guwahati.
My first flight ever was from the first trip too- Dibrugarh to Kolkata.
Some things we undervalue (my list- you can beat me up if you don't agree)
1. A smile..humour, in general.
2. Children, by imposing our ideas on them
3. A cup of coffee or tea from the neighbourhood cafe/darshini/vendor
4. Beautiful people (not skin) from our immediate connects- friends, cousins, colleagues, other non-celebrities
To complete the piece, we overvalue
1. Speeches, most of which are insincere.
2. Adults
3. Fancy stuff, branded goods of whatever category..
4. Cricketers, film stars, celebs of whatever field.
I will stop here for now, for fear of being badly beaten up!
One gets a lot of mementoes as a part of events. Two such which had originality of thought, and nice execution..
From NIFT Gandhinagar, made by a professional. It's their campus facade, done with innovative materials..
A trip to Gwalior to celebrate the 25 year milestone of Prestige Institute of Management there, and also a strategy session for the group. Met a few people from an earlier trip to Jalgaon also. Nicely hosted.. pics..
This is a four-monthly review of 2023- the first four months. There was action, reunions, plans made and some fructified.
Prestige University -my new workplace- saw construction gathering pace, towards start of a new batch of MBA and Integrated Programs. Our new registrar joined, and another couple of team members too, in the non-teaching side. We also had an outing to Jalgaon, where we strategised for the Prestige group-includes the older institutions, and industry - soya bean related. The resort at Jain Agro was a great place, with a Gandhi exhibit, and lots of Mango plantations.
Went to IIM Kozhikode as a Chief Guest of the Calicut Management Association annual convention. It was a great trip, and I got to meet many new people from different fields. And visit the beautiful campus too, where I taught earlier from 2003-2005.
Also was invited for a keynote speech at NIFT Gandhinagar, and met a few of their students doing Masters too. Made friends with a couple (Mehak, Dhanali, Sneha), who are as bright as any I have encountered anywhere else. Met Manjari Mundanad, my old friend and Ph.D. student at Nirma, now a prof. at Adani. Know her from IMT Nagpur days.
More recently, made a trip to Bangalore for Good Friday, and met Shatakshi, Savitha and Muthu. Had some Burmese food thanks to Savitha, for the first time.. it was awesome. Also met Meghana Khadilkar in Pune for the first ever time.. yet to meet her daughters and hubby. Soon, maybe.
Shafique Gajdhar (ex-IMT N) visited and met up. Also met a few Ph.D. students from IIM Indore, now friends of mine, a couple of times. None of the new ones were from Marketing area, funnily! Also saw a play starring a couple of them in February- called Knives Out!
Starting with December 2023, on 30th I attended a wedding - and met Natasha Kothari, who runs Studio Ungap. Dhruv, her fiance, was the groo...
