Memorable Meetings and Outings

 What makes a meeting or outing memorable? Could be many things, but an important thing is the warmth, among those meeting up. Or going out. Some instances I remember warmly, in pics- 

Savitha and I met in her office on MG Road. She worked with Deccan Herald at the time.

Meeting Abha and Harsh Halve, in Delhi

and Amit Gope in my Kolkata office.

Or Venkat Rama Subramaniam in Calcutta Club

Garima and Ayan at Pune, 

and Bhagyalakshmi and Venaktesh at Pune TOIT

MSMT Pune and Mumbai gang in Pune 

and Asoka and Jyoti Dua in Indore at a Prestige Univ. outing

Swati Jain at Mumbai,

or Maya and Shubha at Pune on New YEAR eve, 2025.

Milind Chalisgaonkar in Kling's Bangalore

and Dhanapal in Dec 2024 at Kodai.

Adithya, a schoolmate in PUNE

and Annie, from Greenwood, and AJ, in Delhi.

Ishita Modi in Indore

and Shweta Kushal in Indore

Prachi Jain at Delhi,

or Jaya Dulani in Delhi

Sanjana at her wedding in Hyderabad,

and Pratima Gaikwad, a Hyderabadi in Indore.

Bhavna, Silky and Dheeraj at Gurgaon

and Riyaaz, Arun and Juhee and Divya Sairam at Indore.

And, an outing at Hindola Mahal, Mandu with Radhika, Shweta and Surbhi Dayal. 

Addictions

 Mobile phones are the biggest among present addictions. Started with Orkut, maybe, went on to Facebook, and Instagram, and may go anywhere from here. The celebrities had Twitter, now X. And everyone has WhatsApp. 

There used to be the good old addictions, like tea, coffee, alcohol, and drugs. They now look like pale shadows of themselves. 

Reading or TV/film-watching may have been addictions too, now mostly replaced by Netflix-type OTT channels on whichever device is available. 

I have actually seen Chief Guests or bigwigs looking at their phones while sitting on stage in important events like Convocations, so one cannot blame it on the youngsters alone.

Movies in theatres are less appealing due to constant buzzing of phones, and people talking on them! Flights, likewise, unless the stewards are strict about it. Even if a plane is crashing, people may want to take a selfie for posterity.

Serious!

Memories That Stay

 Saw this pic again, from December 2013 when I was leaving Delhi for Indore. What's remarkable about this farewell, was that our Prof. Dr. J.D. Singh joined us at this club. Along with classmates, Himanshu Manglik, Pradip Acharya, Harish Chaudhary and Sunil Gupta. Anil Shrivastava too. Some memories stay with you! Dr. Singh taught us marketing at IIMB, but remained a friend forever.. he is in Canada now, but in touch through Linkedin!

Meeting Suhasini Barman

 Met this bubbly entrepreneur who happens to be connected through a classmate too, and a very warm, talkative personality. Though it was our first meeting (courtesy Linkedin), we got along really well. She parks herself on Park Street (that's where her office is), but moves around doing multiple things. Like meeting clients, offering guest lectures at some local colleges in Kolkata, and meeting strange people like me. Meet Suhasini Barman, who runs a company named after herself. She is also joining the Goldman Sachs-sponsored program for Women Entrepreneurs at IIMB soon. So we will be co-alums too!

Classes and Classy Students

 Some classes have class, and some students too. Sample from different places, in class and out of class -

Contingency Theory of Academic Leadership

 I know, unlike Trump, I shall not be nominated for a Nobel for this, but it's still worth trying to put my thoughts out. At least, they will not cause wars.. maybe a war of words, at most.

Academic leadership is different from its corporate version, in my view, after having been in 3-4 such situations. The top institutions in any discipline have motivated faculty who only need opportunities, and autonomy to thrive. Some incentives can help. But if you try too much to assert yourself as a leader, it has the opposite of the intended effect- they lose their motivation. They are put off, and stop excelling. They may even quit.

Of course, every institution may not be the same, so you may need to tweak this a bit based on the situation - the contingency part of the theory. But in general, the corporate version of push, push till the subordinate performs- or drops dead (I am not kidding, it happens)- will not work too well in academia. 

Which is why, I think Publish or Perish is a bad idea. Incentivise publications, or case writing, or whatever is your organisational goal, but also recognise teaching excellence. Faculty can innovate in learning methodologies instead of publishing for its own sake. That could be incentivised too. Admin. work usually goes unrecognised. For me, a placement chair or an Alumni affairs chair who does well in a B school is also valuable, just like a guy who publishes a good paper. Or teaches well consistently, and in tune with the times.

Offices- Current and Past

 My offices in pics, over the years-

Essay on Personal and Organizational Inertia

 Inertia is a concept well-known, thanks to Newton and his first Law. 

It is hard to wake up in the morning, we all know. We have to galvanise ourselves into waking up, and making that cup of tea. I have now mastered the art- of doing both. I usually wake up at 5 am, coz the Sun rises early in Kolkata, and I feel I have a duty to keep up with it.

Getting ourselves to do anything of significance- making up the bed, or writing a work email- sounds like a chore. Somewhat like washing dishes. So we generally delay, or to use a Tharoorian word, procrastinate. And this goes on, with various To Do lists in life.

We generally don't forget to marry, because of a constant push from parents, in accordance with Newton's First Law. But do you know that organizations also have inertia? Because humans make up most organizations- for now, until robots throw them out. 

They should be doing things like strategising, right-sizing, growing, implementing strategies, and many other things, to keep owners, or shareholders, happy. But they don't. They get caught up in an inertia vortex, and 'This is how we do things around here syndrome, and forget to do the few essential things for survival and growth. So some remain sleeping giants, like those mythical entities. And some slip into a coma, never to come out.

Those organizations that remain agile, beat them by a mile. Happened to K Mart in the US when Wal-Mart came along. Happened to Biyani (Future became Past?), when D Mart came along. And will happen to many others..

Debating- A Dying Art?

 I am not talking of the loud antics on television channels that pass off as debates. The well-prepared speeches for 3-5 minutes by good speakers, that we used to see or take part in. 

Some people speaking For the Motion, and some, against. One such tradition at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata I was witness to, on Sunday. It was also well-attended, and had a good controversial topic- that the Institution of Marriage has lost its Relevance.

 Lively speakers, sometimes quoting research, and sometimes taking pot-shots at each other. There were lawyers, doctors and professors. A journalist too, and a couple of audience members chipped in. But the real star of the show was Kunal Sarkar, who moderated. Himself a doctor, he added a lot of witty comments and remarks, to keep the House engaged.

A pic or two from Tolly-

A view of the stage, above, and us relaxing before the event started.

Bibhuti Dash, and Anuradha Nargundkar, with a view of the Golf course behind.

Alumni Meet of JIS University School of Management

 We had the inaugural meet of JIS School of Management yesterday. It was a lot of fun, with alumni from the BBA, MBA and the Ph.D. programs attending. It was a rainy day, so the weather was cool, and the audi at Austin Tower campus was full. We had the VC and Pro-Chancellor speaking to express their delight. The program was well-organised, with some music and dance, and lots of nostalgia in the air! One of the BBA alums flew in from Bangalore,, where she works for Google! We had Adwitiya Datta Banik, an influencer on Social Media, and Mr. Imran Zaki, who's been the Alumni Association head for St. Xavier's, encouraging all our alums to give back, and enjoy the feeling of camaraderie that meeting friends and faculty can bring. I agree.

Some pics. 

Students performing - above and below.

Below, Adwitiya Banik, who was a special guest. She's a visiting faculty and social media influencer.