This is a beautiful place on the outskirts of Jorhat. Well worth a visit to understand the history of Assam and its various tribes.
Not bad, and congratulations. But to put things in perspective, only around 12 countries regularly play cricket. Most cricket boards have no money these days. The rest of the world plays other games. I am not sure of the count, but Soccer (football for common Indians) might be a more popular game, by miles. Others too, I am sure.
I propose that we concentrate more on Golf. We already have a champ or two, like Aditi Ashok, who played Olympics twice, and came within a stroke of winning Bronze in her second Olympics. The men are not bad too, and make a mark from time to time. I know the joy of getting a Hole-in-one. It beats multiple world cup wins..
Or, we could promote Gilli-danda, our ethnic game, since we have the money. How about it? Every galli already has the equipment needed, and I am sure we can dominate the world, after teaching them how to. More inclusive, environment-friendly, and fun to play. I have played it when young. Marbles too.. no, I am not losing my marbles!
Nishka Rathi introduced me to a new author a couple of years ago. In a bookstore I have explored new authors too, for instance a couple of Japanese authors unknown to me, such as Kazuo Ishigara. Liked some of the new stuff too.
But I generally prefer a few known authors of fiction, such as Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, AA Fair aka Erle Stanley Gardner (he wrote under two names, for two sets of characters he created). And the Japanese Haruki Murakami, whose writing is surreal.
For humour of different kinds, my preferences are Dave Barry, PG Wodehouse, and in Marathi, the incomparable Pu. La. Deshpande. Also intergalactic humour from Douglas Adams.
In non-fiction, I like biographies, and thoughtful people like Osho and J. Krishnamurti who write about philosophy, and life's meaning.
My book collection has not stopped growing, and I am scared I may be buried under a pile of books some day.
We recently invited members of our Board of Studies and a couple of other committees to the campus for deliberations on current curricula and future directions.
We had some stalwarts from companies such as Ernst and Young, KPMG, and some academic heavyweights who came from IIT Delhi, IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore and so on.
We got a few good ideas, and intend to work on them. Our 5-month internship for MBA students was roundly applauded. Also our emphasis on industry interaction at all levels, and our innovative pedagogy.
Some pics from the event.
below, a photo op in a classroom.
Proud of getting a good education. It was cheaper, those days. Including the Ph.D. abroad, through a scholarship.
Writing an autobiography. For many, it remains a pipedream. All through life.
Friends -making them, keeping them. I have so many I have lost count. Mark Zuckerberg and multiple job changes helped. All those colleges and schools I attended too!
Accomplishments of my students. And kids.
Many relatives I was fortunate to know, due to my parents. Cousins alone, are over a dozen or two.
My leaning towards music. Karaoke singing too, after practicing at antakshari for many years.
My ability to communicate over social media. Whatsapp, I don't like too much, but it's helpful for quick one to one communication and meetings. Facebook for more leisurely musings, or posting pics. Now, memories too.
My quizzes which are simple, fun and impromptu. I get engagement, and some really great answers.
Work first.
Started a journal, PES Business Review when I was at PESIT, Banashankari, Bangalore. Manasa, Jayasimha and Shahida all played a role. We launched it with some good papers.
A Case conference at Goa when I was Director at IMT Nagpur. It was exotic, fun, and very successful. Harsh Halve was a prime mover.
Successful convocations at IMT Nagpur. The Admin. played a major role. Also the faculty in various organising committees.
Publishing my first book, on Marketing Research. KIAMS staff helped, and students by writing cases for it. Now in its fourth edition, released at IIM Indore.
Alumni meets for IMT alumni. Many were memorable. Some friends made there are forever. Sheetal, Nikita, Anchal, Shuchi, are just some of those.
Ph.D. students I worked with as a Guide, or mentor. Manoharan, Suma and Naveen Das actually were my students as a Guide. Others, I was on their committees.
New courses, like a Seminar on Thought Leadership, or Digital Marketing and Seminar on Tourism Marketing. Taught me a lot.
Just how much of personal branding is 'personal' and how much of it is intertwined with the organisation you are with?
My thoughts are - your personal attributes are a part of your personal brand. They create other peoples' impression about you. This is an image built on your expertise, or your charisma (for celebrities, particularly, but not always), or your character - as in reliable, friendly, non-judgemental, kind and so on.
Organisational/product brands are purposefully created to reinforce a certain image (positioning?) that the company wants to reinforce so that target customers buy/continue to buy their product. As in Britannia biscuits brands, or a restaurant brand like Chaayos. Their characteristics are related to that product/service and (hopefully) differentiated from others.
Sometimes, these two intersect, with a founder or long-serving CEO, whose image kind of merges with that of his organisation. In the first couple of decades of Infosys' growth, Narayana Murthy became the brand ambassador and his persona merged with that of Infosys. Virgin Atlantic's founder Richard Branson, and Vijay Mallya (King of Good Times) also come to mind.
However, with people who work for many different organisations during their lifetime and contribute in each, their personal brand may be stronger than a particular organisation's. Some IAS/IPS officers who serve in different roles leave an impression for their personal qualities such as integrity or efficiency. So do a few in social sectors, not just corporate roles. Or in journalism. Or education, for that matter.
I participated as an invitee at ISB Hyderabad's Roundtable to discuss the road ahead for Indian higher education sector. There were a few other education leaders, from private institutions/universities such as SRM, Galgotias, IMS Ghaziabad, and CRM etc. I met a few former colleagues. We had a couple of breakaway groups too.
Pics from the event.
This is about classmates, starting from school. For many years, we never met. Only a couple, like Ram Kumar Seshu, I met in Hyderabad or Bangalore. Rajiv Krishnan too, just a couple of years ago.
Then, suddenly, we had a major gathering, with about 17 classmates showing up last year at Hyderabad. Before that, a smaller one had happened with 7-8 people (men, it was Boys' school)-Kamlesh hosted it, on a visit from the U.S.
Above- With TAS Vijayaraghavan, IIMB classmate, at XLRI. His wife is also in the pic. Met him after many years, in 2024.
College (Osmania engineering), I remember a large gathering at Begumpet around 12-14 years ago. After that, off and on, I met Venugopal Reddy in Delhi, along with a few visitors, Nagarjuna in Harihar and elsewhere- Indore, recently. And we went on a Bheemeswari outing courtesy G Sreenivas, near Bangalore. We also met at Makrand Deshpande's invitation at a wedding in Pune. KSM I met when he was at Euroflex too, and wrote a case on the company's international marketing effort as well.
Bangalore IIM classmates I have met in large and small groups, or individually, more regularly. Prabhakar introduced me to Single Malts, and I am grateful. Killer and Smoke Smoke Ramesh in Bangalore, Hassled Ramesh in the U.S., Banny and Ravi in the US, Venky, Cheenu, Anu, Chitra, Sekhar in Mumbai, Sandhya in Nagpur, Shanks, Bishop and Paddy in Chennai, Sajeev in Lucknow and Chennai recently, Rajan of India at Indore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Dash multiple times in Kolkata, Goa, Indore and Delhi, Vijjy at XLRI after years, Uday and Suma at Calicut and Mumbai, Sardie and Sujit in Goa, Harish in Delhi, Bangalore, are some warm and fuzzy memories. Snail in Delhi and Indore too. Dunhill in Lucknow.
Now on to some colleagues.
KIAMS colleagues I still meet, Vijayakumar and Dhanapal in particular. Usually it's on a Golf course, because we began playing the game at Harihar on the 18-hole Kirloskar Golf course. We have played at Kodaikanal, and Munnar. Gadgil too, from IMT Nagpur.
Have met Dayakara Rao and Thomas from VJIM, though it was some time ago.
Manoharan, Manasa and a S.P. Kumar from PESIT I have met later. Stayed with Manoharan in the same complex at Bangalore recently also.
IIM Indore colleagues, I still meet sometimes when I go to the campus. Shweta Kushal, Jayasimha, Sumit Ghosh, and a few others- Ashish Sadh, Rajhans Mishra, Abhishek Mishra..
IIM Lucknow colleagues also I have met a few times, though not at Lucknow. Shailendra Singh at Ranchi and Bharat Bhasker at Raipur, when they were directors there.
Muthu, colleague from industry (M.R.) , I am in touch with and have played Golf with.
Tanmeet Kaur, Prerona Baruah and Alisha Thomas from NMIMS, at Bangalore.
Smita Dabholkar (at Bangalore and Pune too) and TKC from IMT at Nagpur. Saleena Khan too.
Maheswaran and Jitendra Sharma from IMT at Mumbai, at an alumni meet. Abhishek Singh, at Indore and Nagpur.
Jayasimha and I worked together at 4 institutes, and are still in touch, at Indore, our current place of residence. Bhagyalakshmi and I worked in two, and meet regularly in Mumbai or elsewhere.
Starting with students from IMT.
This is on the suggestion from Abha, whom I met at Nagpur, then Mumbai a couple of times, and Delhi, more recently, with Shalini Sinha. Nikita, I first met when she was Nikita Kumar, in Pune. Later, she moved to Hyderabad, and we met with her friend from Symbi, Ritika Sharma. Most recently, we caught up in Delhi. Meghna Sinha I first met in Delhi at a Starbucks, then at Yuwatcha, in BKC. Also met Meghana Joshi at The Good Wife, BKC with a couple of others. Vikas and Varun were there too. Garima Shah at Hiranandani, Mumbai, in The Yellow Chilli.
First three pics are IMT alums from various batches, in Mumbai, Bangalore and Mumbai alumni get together.
In some other meetings, Tosha and Abha were together, or Sirisha Adi and Anuj too, in Mumbai- Grandmama's Cafe was one. Sheetal Garg and I met mostly at Mumbai, and once in a large alumni meet where we sang a duet from Johnny Mera Naam! Ananya Nandi De at NOIDA, her place, and Delhi. Shraddha Nigdikar, at her place in Dadar, in Vashi and at Mulund at a friend's place.
Abhinav Kamal, the digital marketer and film maker, I met in Bangalore, and in Mumbai after IMT Nagpur. I think Shuchi Bhatnagar was at a Hyderabad alumni meet. Divya Singh, first at Mumbai, where she also guest lectured in my class on Digital Marketing, then at Pune and more recently, Gurgaon. Harshad Lunavat and Meghana Khadilkar, at Pune. Target is to meet Karishma too, there. Anupriya Pandit, at Bangalore. Surbhi Mehta Chadha at Delhi. Also her neighbour Vrinda Khanna at her place in Delhi. Pallavi in Bangalore, Shafique in Bangalore and Indore recently. Kanika Mhendiratta in Delhi, twice, Swati Jain in Mumbai on a rainy evening. Khyati Jha, in Navi Mumbai.
In Ahmedabad, a whole gang of IMT students, led by Ishan, Ankita, Keyur and separately, Manjari two or three times. Also Punyashlok Dwibedy, who was at IIMA doing his Ph.D.
Anshita Abhishek Chetty organised two get-togethers for me to meet IMTans, and we met. In Bangalore, with Sreeram and Gowri, Rupam Verma, Ishita and Anurag with their kid, and Anshita's hubby Abhishek and their twins, Anusha Mamidanna and hubby Aashish were also part of the meets. Meenu Mynam, I met in Bangalore. Kedar Muley and gang at Thane -Ravi Mittal was part of that.
KIAMS students, everywhere- Smita in Dubai, Sudeshna and Sid Agarwal in Kolkata (and Delhi airport), Vidya TC and Swapna Gurijala at Singapore- twice. Nishka and Vikram in Mumbai, Rajiv Roy Chowdhury at Bangalore (his wife turned out to be from PESIT). Aditi Sood in Kolkata, Savitha, multiple times in Bangalore. Also Nidhi Kanungo in Indore a couple of times, but also in Lucknow, where her hubby is from. Jagdish Subramony, in Chennai, long ago. Jimmy in Bangalore, Mukesh in Kodaikanal. Also Navroze Sethna in Kodai, his hometown, Anupama at Bangalore, Padmapriya at Hyderabad and Delhi, Jogeswari in Hyderabad and Thailand (with her company Golftripz), apart from Calicut and Nagpur where she gave a guest lecture and shot a video. Sunil Kataria at Delhi along with Sharmishtha Singh. Nikhil Damle I met in Mumbai long ago, and Bangalore later. Anushka Mishra, at various bookstores on Church Street and also at 13th floor, MG Road. Zargar Basharat in Bangalore. Dheeraj Mohan in Chennai.
PESIT students I have met mostly in Bangalore, like Pooja Varun, and Aishwarya Omprakash with her hubby and kid. IFIM students too- Chaithu Gunapali, Bharath Shenoy, and Nagendra Shenoy. At an airport, I met Shreya Sengupta from PESIT_IUP.
IIM Indore
Shatakshi Tripathi, Varun and Shailaja Gupta from the IIM Indore (Mumbai campus) at Bangalore. And Pratima Gaikwad of the same program, only at Hyderabad- 3 or 4 times!
Anusha Soni, IIM Indore student, and Neha Adiga, in Pune. Sapna Patni, Anam Nuhi and Harshad Sachani at Indore- him at Nagpur too! Bhuvneet Raheja, In Delhi.
Vignana Jyoti students- Giri at Bangalore with his wife, Ranjana Rudra and Deepthi Balagiri last year in Hyderabad. Sudhir many years ago at Bangalore, with his wife Poulomi.
Lots of Ph.D. students from IIM Indore, at Indore and some at Delhi recently. Akansh, Prachi, Vartika, Neeti Ingole, Geeti, Vanshika, Pratishtha are a few others.
Lots more I would like to meet, like Pooja Shukla, who is hiding in the U.S. and Aashneet Gautam, no idea where. Tanya Jakhar, in Bangalore. Ruby Shukla, Delhi. Vaishali Bathla, Delhi, I think. Bhagyashree Agarwal.
I have worked in all 5 regions of India, the longest being South and Central. Hyderabad (Vignana Jyoti Institute), Harihar (KIAMS), Bangalore (PESIT, IFIM, and NMIMS apart from a company, MBA, earlier) in the South. Also IIM Kozhikode in Kerala. Probably the longest of all.
In the West, Mumbai in the same company, MBA. Also Bhubaneswar in XIMB (East). North- Lucknow and Delhi. My first job was with an ad agency, New Horizons, in C.P. in Delhi. Appu Ghar and Modern Suitings, Alwar, were our clients, and India Today and Bombay magazines.
In Lucknow, it was the IIM. Also IMT Ghaziabad more recently.. around 10 years ago.
Centre has been a long stint, Nagpur IMT for 3 and a half years, Indore IIM for 7 and Prestige University as their first VC for around 1.5 years.
I have also visited many places in most states, including Ladakh, Kanyakumari, Shillong, Dibrugarh, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Ahmedabad, and Puri and Konarak. Also a few in M.P. like Jabalpur, Gwalior, Satna and Bhopal.
Though I liked something about each place, Harihar was the best in many ways. Small, with friendly people and with a Golf course in the campus (then). What more can you want in life? Many students of Harihar and Nagpur are in touch with me too. So there's something in the Oranges too, I guess.
NMIMS Bangalore faculty - who are also Women Golfers. Met three recently, two at an appropriate place for Golf players- Hole in the Wall.
In this case, turned out to be alums of two kinds- students and faculty- from IMT Nagpur, which I left in 2013. That hasn't mattered, coz the alums are warm and welcoming, even today. Applies to some faculty alums too.
The pic below has both- students Abha Kulkarni and Shalini Sinha, from around 15-16, and Harsh Halve, who was a faculty member and Placement Chair there. We had a great time, in spite of the high decibel levels trying to prevent us from talking! Mrs. Deepshri Halve, a personal friend, was there too. We also remembered other alums, like Kanika Mhendiratta, Nikita Ray, Ananya Nandi De and Sheetal Garg.
I participated as a speaker on a couple of panels. Overall, it was a nice attempt to bring together thought leaders from government regulators, academic leaders and industry participants. IBM and Google were two major industry partners, apart from many others.
I talked about the need to leverage alumni connects, and the need for autonomy, or freedom from excessive regulation of the unnecessary kind in our country. Higher education needs to be free to experiment and innovate with programs, curricula, pedagogy and more. The UGC chairman hinted that these would happen, with the NEP and a new outlook. He also talked about how industry and academia need to support each other.
Pics from the event. My colleagues Sudhir Pradhan, and Anju Jadon also participated.
An ad for the event, on the ET page.
This one was special in many ways. One, it saw two helicopters land on campus. The Chief Guest was Mr. Mukesh Ambani, so the students were thrilled. We all became celebs for a day.
