Recipe For Making Interesting Humans

I am proposing a recipe of another kind. How do you create an interesting human?

Take a human who is willing to become interesting- this selection is an important part of your success.

Add some good habits. Reading is essential, others can be added as per your choice. 

Add a taste for music.. of any kind. And a sport, again of his/her choice.

Expose to different people of all age groups.

Add a high level of curiosity, and a dash of speaking skills. Some listening skills too.

Some social grace for how to behave (kindly?) with others in society.

Activism is optional.

Add a generous dose of SMILES, and a sense of humour.

You are done! Serve to society at large, unless you want to keep him/her to yourself!

Project Charcoal

 It's not what you think. It's the name of a rooftop restaurant in Indore, which we accidentally discovered. Great views of some greenery around, a great ambience and good food. Includes a bakery on the ground floor too. Had a good outing- recommended! He's got some Mario Miranda cartoons framed too.

Jayasimha and Mrs. Jayasimha- Archana.

Adi, their son in other pics.

Charminar Trip

 A historic building, right in the middle of the (old) city. A landmark not to be missed. Happened to go there on a quick trip to meet my brother who was visiting from the U.S., partly on a working trip.

We also caught up on a few other sights, but this is about Charminar. 

The last one is from Taj Mahal at Abids, another iconic place that has had a makeover.

Celebrity Weddings

 Disclaimer- No celebrities were hurt during the writing of this blog.

Their wedding and ours (those of lesser mortals) are very similar.

There is one bride, and one groom.. mostly.

There is a ceremony of some kind, usually involving fire.

People attending are too dressed-up for their own good.

The women have elaborate make-up; hence, they look better than the men, on an average. 

There are shoots. I mean photographers- a couple, at least. Videographers too.

There is a long line to meet the groom and bride. They actually feel like a celebrity!

But I still prefer Punjabi weddings, for obvious reasons ...

Maintenance Schedule for Humans

 Apart from the weekly off, there's no maintenance schedule for humans. If machines can have ones, shouldn't humans?

I suggest the following- 

A foot massage every 2 weeks, and additional doses when required.

A head massage every 10 days.

A swim in the pool, every 5-6 days. 

A beach visit, every 3 months- quarterly.

A mountain visit, every 6 months, when it's not crowded- or else, it'll feel like Silk Board Junction!

A game with a kid of 4-6 years. Once in a while

A game of Golf/Badminton or whatever, every Sunday or two Sundays.

A cruise, every year.

Start with 60% of these immediately. Change dosage as required.

Foreign Jaunts

 We are all familiar with 'jaunty' government officials going to a foreign country at the drop of a hat- even while not wearing hats, but the virus is more widespread.

Celebs and corporates also go on foreign jaunts, for their own reasons. Yeah, you guessed right. The reasons mostly include showing off that they are capable of going where they please.

Companies also use foreign jaunts as rewards - for salespeople, dealers etc. who perform well. 

Lesser mortals may spend their own money and do an all-inclusive 12-day Europe trip once in a lifetime, to be able to claim some brownie points.

Parents who have kids in the U.S., go there regularly as baby-sitters for their grandkids.

Academics like me just go there to attend conferences, and contribute to the state of knowledge!

Guest Lecture by a Former Student

 Pratima Gaikwad, a former IIM Indore student who is now with MyDNA in Hyderabad, came for a guest session to our University. She spoke about marketing and branding of products and services, including those of her own company, MyDNA, that is into preventive testing based on genetic mapping. Students enjoyed the interaction and she did too.

Outdoors and Indoors, at Indore- Prestige University campus.

and in class with MBA students.. below.

IIT Roorkee

 Pronounced Roodkey in Hindi, this is an ancient town with a 177 year old engineering college turned IIT. We went there to meet some graduating doctoral students, to try and interest them in joining Prestige University. A beautiful heritage building is now being worked on to restore it. Some homegrown mangoes also were available, and we were shown around by a Prof. from IIT. A very nice colonial-style guest house was pleasant to stay in.

Heritage building and person

..people.

the host of our wanderings, Prof. Mohanty

I was an electrical engineer once..

The seminar we held for doctoral students- above and below.

Hollywood - An Objective Look

 A lot of Hollywood films are masala of a different kind. A few are good, in various genres. But overuse of technology and special effects/VFX have spoilt the kind of good films we got to saw earlier in decades gone by. This also seems to be happening in India to an extent, with tech playing a larger role than before.

When I started watching Hollywood films in the 70s and 80s, I did not understand the accent, always. But some movies made a mark with good action, comedy and so on. Slapstick was also a part of some. Laurel and Hardy were early favourites in childhood. Until we came tp appreciate Charlie Chaplin and his social commentary/satire, in Modern Times and The Great Dictator.

In humour of a different kind, fell Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. I liked both. Some action films like Guns of Navarone, Mackenna's Gold, or Where Eagles Dare were awe-inspiring. I did not dig the ovies that relied on special effects all that much. Star Wars  or Close Encounters or disaster films like The Towering Inferno, I mean. Lawrence of Arabia seemed like a meaningful film, about the history of the Arabs.

Lately, I have liked the trilogy starting with Before Midnight which was really made well. Before that, some capers like Romancing the Stone, or A Fish Called Wanda were also fun watches. 

A really good suspense film- apart from Hitchcock films- was The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, remade badly as Karz. The original was deadly!

Film Review- Hindustani 2

 I saw a movie in a theatre after a while. It was not bad, but I was left with a feeling it could have been better.

It's about a vigilante who plays cat and mouse with the CBI, and outwits the son of an officer who had earlier failed to catch him. There is obviously a lot of action -some of it unbelievable- and chases across Indian states/towns.

The gripping part of the story is actually what the protagonists (a group of youngsters) discover within their own families- a story of corruption of some kind, at the urging of the main character-the vigilante.

Somewhat predictable in the storyline after the first couple of instances, it may have helped if fewer instances had been covered in some detail rather than so many. Also, the length of the movie could have been shorter by at least 15 minutes, as I always say about a lot of Indian films.

The first in the series was better, in my view. This is not bad, if you like Kamal Haasan. I actually prefer Rajnikanth in roles where there's a lot of action. He is somehow, more believable as an avenger!

An Amazing Group of Friends

 It is rare for strangers (mostly) to be such great friends that you want to meet as often as you can. In groups large or small- as small as 2 too! One such group is of music aficionados which I joined around 10 years ago, at the urging of a former student from XIMB. I did it without too much of expectations. But what I got from it is a bunch of music-crazy friends who I learn from - about music, and life, every day. I am not joking. We have met physically twice before COVID and online a couple of times during COVID, but smaller meets keep happening when we visit each other's cities. We also add our friends who like Hindi music to the group. Some pics from our Bangalore meet in March 2020.

The crowd included some kids of members who were 25 years younger!

Like Rimjhim Verma, below.

The quizzes and events were competitive!

I sang Dil aaj shayar hai in this avatar.

We flew back to Indore in this plane!

Nagendra and Jyothi aove, and Subbu and daughter Aishwarya, below.

Proof that she sings- a shy Rajni Verma, did pretty well. Others did not need a lot of prodding!

Meeting New Students in Class

 Met the new batch of MBA students in class today, where we did an in-class exercise.

Not Just Presentations -Pedagogy

 Learning Methods are many, and a professor can invent or modify some existing ones too. Assignments that include a presentation are a good tool to build communication skills, but other objectives can be served by using other methods. A few I have used-

Blogging

Role Plays based on short cases

Just role plays to learn about Qualitative Research Techniques such as Focus Groups or Depth Interviews. Each of these requires a different skill-set. 

Questionnaire-building or modification to suit changing times. Can be a group exercise done in class.

Bidding to simulate auctions of different kinds, in Negotiations, or in Digital (Paid) Marketing 

Shooting a small video/reel to advertise a product/service

Captioning a post with attractive copy.

In addition, you can use exams as a learning tool by being creative in designing questions that test thinking ability or application orientation.

MBA Inauguration of Batch 24-26

 At Prestige University, we inaugurated Batch 24-26 of the MBA program. Incoming students and parents had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Vikram Gulia, former MD and CEO of A.P.P.L., a Tata Group company which manages its plantations. Most of these are in Assam and West Bengal. 

At the inauguration. Snehal Singh, visiting faculty- above.

Mrs. Gulia took a tour of the campus..

Some senior MBA students were also present.. above and below, with Divya, Program manager.

Above- Mr. Vikram Gulia, Chief Guest. He is the former MD and CEO of APPL, a Tata Company.

He narrated interesting stories of how he got his first job, and challenges faced as a rookie assistant manager in remote locations, brushes with wild elephants included. Many career and life lessons were a part of his welcome address to this group of students.

Some senior students also spoke of their experience. The Chancellor of P.U., Dr. Davish Jain, and Director PEF, Mr. Ketan Jain, also motivated the incoming students through their talks. Divya Sairam was the Emcee for the function, which concluded with lunch at the campus.

Meeting Long-lost Relatives

 Ok, not really lost, but meeting some after long! My paternal cousins who grew up in Belgaum area (Nandgad, to be precise) along with my Dad and his brothers, and I have kept in touch. One branch of the family is global, with Hyderabad as a base. And the second, is also global, with Bangalore as a base. So we met the Bangalore branch with a couple of cousins, and their offspring and also the next gen. It was great catching up - some pics.

On the right is Veena, my nephew Pushkar's wife, now settled on the US West Coast. 

Tiyasi, my nephew Rohit's wife, left in pic above, runs an online business at oagh.in, selling sarees from different parts of India, some custom-made for them by weavers. Samples below. You can visit the website for more, if interested. Or their insta page https://www.instagram.com/oaghindia/

My cousin Prabha, on the right above, with her grandson Raghav, who is Veena's son.

My favourite grandkid is Tiya, who is Rohit and Tiyasi's daughter, above.

We last met at her 1st birthday 2 years ago, but that is not a problem in reconnecting. She tries out her painting skills on my hand!