Could be inching towards the 30th in the last few weeks. But they are addictive. This one- on 29th July 2026- was dedicated to Mohammad Rafi, one of the great singers to have given us some immortal melodies. I liked his upbeat numbers with Shammi Kapoor the best. They had a rumbunctious quality unlike his other songs, which were good too.
Prasad Kulkarni, Monali Dubey, Sagar Atre and Mamata Borgaonkar did a good job. Others were Ok.
Ek pardesi mera dil le gaya by Prasad Kulkarni and Mamata.
I am getting tired of seeing words like grateful, honoured and a few more used anywhere and everywhere.
Honoured to present a paper? Honoured to be invited as a speaker? Why, were you unqualified?
Was it not a professional decision to invite you because you have something to contribute?
Being grateful generally is a good thing. But irritating when it is not a fit. You don't have to be grateful to everyone for everything.
Grateful to be promoted? Why, you didn't deserve it? You don't have to be grateful, just be happy you got what you deserved and worked for.
A fawning mentality does not help the cause of Meritocracy. Watch what you are saying. And what it implies.
Watch it if you are an adult. The movie is A rated. It's a funny take on marriages, and relationships.
Two couples are all that the star cast has- kind of like Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? That one I saw a few years ago, and was good too.
This one is more light-hearted, and pokes fun at how marriages get into the Fight Mode, with each blaming the other, while refusing to change for the better.
The younger couple is more Woke, and liberal, and give the older one a lesson or two, through clever dialogue and situations. Penelope Cruz is a bonus.
Watch it if you like the subject.. I liked it.
I had floated the idea of rating cities by a few things that matter to a common citizen. Here is my first attempt, at rating Pune, where I live.
Commuting. Buses.. reasonable, but not as well-maintained as Bangalore. Some areas over-served, some under. 6 on 10
Metro- inadequate network. Last mile connectivity not well thought out. Cost is reasonable though. 6 on 10.
Cleanliness- roads are not cleaned adequately, particularly garbage clearance is sloppy.. 5 on 10..
Autorickshaws- very good, both metered and Uber are available at most places. 8 on 10.
Weather- better than most places, except Bangalore- 8 on 10.
Food/drink options- plenty, and growing. Seafood, North/South Indian joints are plenty, so are pizza places. Craft beer is homegrown too, like Effingut, Pune-based. We also have TOIT, and Doolally's at Corinthian Club.
Internet- good speed, options. Or else my blog and fb participation would go for a toss.
Overall, quality of life is decent. Pollution is a problem, with too much construction.. road quality needs to improve.
It was an endearing show of Bollywood songs across decades. The orchestra was superb, and so were the kids who performed. A novel idea, to present a kids' performance instead of one by grownups, and well-handled. Some songs rendered were done professionally. Two that stood out for me were Husn ke lakhon rang from Johnny Mera Naam and Ek chatur naar from Padosan. Happened at Yeshwantrao Hall in Kothrud yesterday.
Vedanshi Modha was a great compere and her dad was on the keyboard, as well as the organiser. Some good guys on the guitar, tabla and drums. Makrand Patankar and Radhika Atre were in the audience, both good singers themselves..
A rocking performance!
One way to keep governments in check is through Rating their performance on various counts that matter to you and me..
I propose a Rating on a 1 to 10 scale on the following-
1. Commute- ease, cost and availability of options
2. If there is a metro, ease of getting there and last mile connectivity
3. Cleanliness- availability of dust bins and garbage clearance on roads
4. Enforcing traffic rules - stopping errant drivers of all kinds, crazy parking and so on..
5. Ease of business at any govt. office we encounter.. RTO Passport, or any other
These will do for a start. Periodically do this through public posting based on actual experience, through independent agencies and individually through social media instead of stupid Whatsapp forwards.
What is accountability? There is none in an autocracy, unless the King feels it is needed.
Bu there is shame, or should be, in any system of governance.
When there is no shame, we end up with the Emperor's New Clothes kind of situation.
The damage done by Yes-men (gender-neutral) is enormous, in any system.
The bureaucracy by its nature has no spine. But others are expected to have it.
It took 25 days to show up the rulers for what they are..
Hope they reform themselves, so that we don't regress any more than we have already..
Democracy has some inbuilt assumptions.
One of them is a right to peaceful protest. The prime example of non-violent protest would be Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
It really does not matter how serious the ruling party thinks the issue being raised is. If a number of people think it needs to be raised, it is serious for them. The rest of the citizens can decide for themselves and either support, oppose or be neutral to them.
But if you take away that right, it can have serious consequences, as history has often shown.
It is in the interest of the government in a democracy to heed such protests, and do something about them before they go out of hand. It's just a part of the democratic structure.
That means Great Flood. It's a story about a guy and a girl who are friends from school, for many years. He thinks it's a love story, until she decides to get married to someone else. That leads to his going to pieces, and living in delusion with several attacks of disoriented behaviour.
There are references to the 1942 Quit India movement (and its hangover, many years later), the role of various people and parties in it, and also to Sane Guruji and his books. But fundamentally, it's a love story gone wrong, and the guy's current state of mind.
Very well acted, directed. First staged in 1975. Written by Satish Alekar, Mohan Gokhale was the original director and actor. Now, a different set, but very competent.
I like Naseeruddin Shah. In film and theatre. He does not let you down, in this engaging look at love blooming between a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl in what will be Pakistan, before 1947.
Partition and what precedes it changes the equation for the young lovers. He promises not to leave her side, and to come back for her, if he is forced to separate.
How things pan out is what the movie is about. Diljit Dosanjh, and the young couple- Sharvari and Vedang (I think) play their roles to perfection. The direction is good, though I feel about 10 minutes could have been cut to reduce the length of the film.
Overall, worth a watch.
This is a Huma Qureshi film, out and out. She does a good job as a twin sister, who grows up to be a contract killer. Yes, that's not the suspense, but there are enough twists to keep you twisted till the end.
It's tough to make a thrilling suspense film with a female protagonist. The usual temptations like unwanted songs are kept at bay, and the direction is crisp and focused. The 2 hour length is just right.
The actors-all of them-are good. The plot keeps you interested from the first minute.
We used to call Karmarkar Do-die-do as a joke when we were kids. That is used in the title. Great film in its genre.
Out of a million, these are some-
Sheetal Garg
Abha Kulkarni+Tosha Dubey
Pratima Gaikwad
Ananya Nandi De
Swati Jain
Ishita Modi+Anurag
Manjari Mundanad
Harshad Lunavat
Harshad Sachani
Phalguni Bannerjee
Nishka Rathi
Sayantani Saha+Ananya Ghosh
Jogeswari
Natalija Lepkova
Anushka Mishra
Savitha
Nidhi Kanungo
Divya Singh
Laura Shah
Samudrika Rasanjalee
Yapin Qiao (studied in Hyderabad)
Anusha Soni
Shraddha Nigdikar
Anushka halve
Rimjhim Verma
Leslie Price
Anupriya Pandit
Padmapriya Janakiraman
Anshika Abhishek Chetty
Bharath Shenoy
Prachi Jain and gang.
Pradyumna Mohanty
Abhinav Kamal
Garima Shah
Surbhi Mehta Chadha
Rupam Verma
Gowri and Sreeram
Shrabani, Karan and Sunita
Manoharan, SP Kumar
Pooja NM
Tanya Kar Srivastava
Lubna Nafees
Jayanti Ranjan
Pooja Daniel
Vidya TC+Swapna Gurijala
Akansh Khandelwal
Nikita Ray
Music group- Geeta, Dipti, Mohan, Rajni Verma, Milind, Anjalee, Namratha, Lakshmi, Indira, Rajan, Anoop, Naveen, Omprakash, Virender, Ravindra Marghade, Rina Das, Vijji Ganesh, Arpita, Nagendra, Jyothi, Venkates, Venkatrama Subramaniam, Mamta Bansal, Poonam Bhatia,
IIMB- Prabhakar, Dash, Ramesh (Smoke), Hassled, Manglik, Venkatakrishnan, Shankara Rajan, Bishop, Sardie, Uday Damodaran
Anant Ram
TK Chatterjee
Arun Bhattacharyya
Veronica Thavonat
Jitendra Sharma, Maheswaran
Dhanapal, Vijayakumar, Gadgil, Yashad Gaur
Amit Kumar Gope
Mir Ali Husain
Smita Dabholkar Singh
Osmania- Venugopal Reddy, Phani, Nagarjuna, Suri,
HPS- Adithya Padala, Kartik, Vinu, Ram Seshu, Nadir Sadruddin, Jameel,
Where is prounouncing Pen stretched to become a pain?
Where in India would someone say Bholuputus (real story) and what does it mean?
Where is Mr. Vishwas and Mr. Biswas one and the same?
Where does one hear the 'd' in Bridge pronounced?
Where might Boss and Bus be pronounced the same way?
Where might people say Mani when then they mean money?
Player instead of pleasure?
Probably my 10th in the last 8 weeks-on July 15th, 2026. But another good one. Dr. Ajit Sant, Onkar Deshpande and Vilas Shinde did well on the male side, with Charuta Apte and Vidula Rao bringing up the female end. Particularly good were the Kishore Kumar numbers sung by each of them.. Chhoti si ye duniya, and Khwab ho tum ya, plus Haal kaisa hai janab ka, in paricular.
I am talking academic events. Most of these claim they have time for a Q and A, with Q being audience questions. The problem is that speakers don't finish in the time allotted, so the questions remain un-questioned, so to speak.
To be fair, not all questions that do get asked are great. Most are boringly predictable, and answered with lack of imagination. Anyway, it satisfies the questioner's thirst for knowledge, and the answerer's chance to be all-knowing.. or appear to be.
If there's a panel discussion, you can be sure that most will end up being a series of talks. The setup for the Powerpoints eats up a lot of time, and yes, the Questions are given 5-7 minutes, depending on how far lunch is.
The Question is, what is the best way to get good questions. Maybe the speaker can build his own questions and answer them too.
The pic shows us with the Founders/ Board Members. Mr. Rahul and Sanjay are in the top row, along with colleagues Niranjan Swain and Vijayakumar, and Sudhir and Pannerselvam, and KS Bhat.
I am with Mr. Vikram Kirloskar, Atul and Vijay Kirloskar (then Chairman of Kirloskar Group), and Capt. Murukesan, admin. head.
I had my best time working there, with great students (we selected them through CAT and interviews across India), good colleagues-staff and faculty. And of course, an 18-hole Golf course built next door by Mysore Kirloskar Ltd., which we could play on.
We designed the MBA/PGDM program from scratch, and also created ads on Video/Print for admissions. Before the PGDM, we were into training, and did 40 MDPs in a year on an average. Faculty were invited from IIMA and IIMB as well. We had a great library aimed at practitioners, and Harvard cases.
There was also a Cricket ground, Lawn Tennis and Squash court. Small batch sizes meant it was like extended family, and we knew the students closely. Like Achint, who used to miss breakfast regularly, from Batch 1. One student was nicknamed Kotler! One became an actress in Malayalam films post a corporate stint-Padmapriya. Jogeswari started a Golf tours company with a couple of others- Golftripz. I went on their first tour to Thailand for some wonderful Golf.
Savitha, Nikhil Damle, Shrishail, Smita Mohan, Nishka Kumar/Rathi, Nidhi Kanungo, Vidya TC, Swapna Gurijala, Sudeshna Ray/Srivastava, and a lot of other students are doing extremely well in their chosen fields. Vikas Sethia has launched Mio Pods at airports. Many are in touch, twenty years after they finished MBA. Including staff, like Rajesh Dixit, Veena, Mahboob, Raghavendra, Karibasappa, Rajshekhar, Yuvaraj and Pavan. Sreekumar I met at a Golf course in Bangalore!
Met a few members of a music group, Mile Sur Mera Tumhara in Hyderabad, and spent time getting to know each other better. Namratha Muralidhar, Lakshmi Rajagopal and Sita Verghese (introduced by Kinnera Murthy to the group), me and my wife-an honorary member-made the party. We met in Begumpet.
The IPL style league in Telangana is on, and our team- mentored by my Brother-in-law, Hari, has reached the Finals after a few league matches and a Playoff. Many teams are named after districts. Khammam Aces, the one he is mentoring, happens to be the district of my birthplace, Kothagudem.
Anyway, Jio carried the matches live, and we also had a chance to discuss the games as we were on a short visit to Hyderabad where the games are being played. Some youngsters were really impressive, like Mickil Jaiswal in batting and Sahendra Mallu and Ved Reddy in the bowling. Saw Ved bowl a lovely googly to bowl one opposition player against Hyderabad.
Some pics-
Films that we have produced in India since the 1930s are a part of our heritage. And songs (both music and lyrics) are a great part of it.
I just realised this when watching a few musical programs over the last month or two in Pune, post my retirement. I have watched a lot of artists perform, of varying quality on stage. But they are all preserving that great legacy, I feel.
Some great music was due to the Burman duo, SD and RD Burman, my favourites among music directors. There were many more, like Ravi, Roshan and son Rajesh Roshan, Kalyanji Anandji, Chitragupt, and later, Jatin-Lalit and AR Rahman.
Also the lyricists Anand Bakshi, Neeraj, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Hasrat Jaipuri, Shailendra and so on.
Kishore Kumar among male singers and Asha Bhosle among the ladies were my favourites, though a lot more contributed over the years.
A legacy that will live on, for many years.
Saw a great show that was dedicated to Waheeda Rehman, last evening (July 4, 2026) at Modern College Audi, with Mona Dethe, and her Mom Parveen. Great singers (Deepika, Swarada Godbole and Sandeep Ubale), in voices that resembled the originals. Guru Dutt and Dev Anand films featured prominently, and also Khamoshi with Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna.
Highlights were Rangeela Re, Hai apna dil to awara and Kaanton pe kheench ke ye anchal, for me. Her husband's film Shagun also featured. Rekhi was called Kamaljeet in that film.
Emcee was Shalaka Gole.
Vivek Pande was a new singer, and Gafar Momin and Prdhya Gaurkar were two we had heard before. Based on Mohd. Rafi and Mohd. Aziz songs, this was a pretty good performance, with My name is Lakhan and a couple of O.P. Nayyar numbers being the highlights. At S.M. Joshi Hall, a nice auditorium in Navi Peth.
I have had many, in different spaces. Vikas Sethia (Mio Pods at airports), Nikhil Damle (NLP training) are entrepreneurs in different spaces, both from Kirloskar Institute (KIAMS).
Sudeshna Srivastava from KIAMS is launching Bhumija soon, to sell North East and East-based stuff online, after a long stint at PWC.
Divya Singh from IMT Nagpur is a Digital Marketer and has launched a sportswear brand, and so is Shatakshi Tripathi of IIM Indore.. Abhinav Kamal is a film maker, also ex-IMT.
Aditi Atre runs Rajasthani Rangrez, selling local handicrafts from Rajasthan.
Freelancers like Nishka Rathi, ghostwriter, and Sheetal Garg, trainer.
Divyaa Sharma is a TV anchor, and has acted too. Padmapriya is an accomplished actor. Both from Kirloskar.
Many more, but maybe later..
Corporate players are many. Bhuvneet Raheja in Google, Savitha as H.R. in many corporates, Abha Anagha Kulkarni as H.R. in a Law Firm, Shrishail Deshnur, Joyanta Dutta, Praveen Kotta, ..
If AI could hire people, train them, and do all the paperwork, we wouldn't need H.R.
If AI could manage creatives, media, and brand strategy, we wouldn't need Brand Managers.
If AI could handle distribution and other operations, we would not need other Sales Managers.
If AI could manufacture for us, we wouldn't need Production managers/workers.
If AI could do accounting and budgets, we wouldn't need Finance Managers
If AI could invest for people or organisations, we wouldn't need investment advisers.
And if AI could play Golf, we wouldn't need CEOs.
My niece's kids are in town from the U.S., so it was time for a makeover plus massage session for me and my daughter- it was great fun!
Mostly, it is. Could be one reason why life in India is exciting.. all kinds of things happen unexpectedly, lowering the BQ- Boredom Quotient. Maids don't show up, rain falls when it shouldn't, delivery guys of all kinds show up all the time, and you have random conversations with people every day if you go out.
In the U.S., it was sometimes boring. We went to the mall, just to get some excitement in to the day, and see new faces, apart from on TV.
Do something unexpected. Yesterday, we had a couple of grand nieces do some make-up for me and my daughter, and it was great fun. Totally unexpected, and the little ones enjoyed themselves thoroughly using us as guinea pigs. I remember letting another (grand) niece in Bangalore draw something on my palm, and it was another fun moment for us both!
Depends on what you want to do. Buy a kachori, a sabudana wada, or a new toffee flavour just for the heck of it. Fly a kite. Take a bus ride, a metro ride or go watch a show in town. Or a movie-minus the expensive popcorn. Have tea in a new restaurant.. or a biryani.
Point is... yeah, you got it. Do something unexpected, whimsical each day. Seize the day.
Relatively unknown ones I have been to-
Rajanahalli and Kondajji, near Harihar, Karnataka, where I lived from 1995 till 2001.
Lonar meteorite created Crater lake. Buldana district, Maharashtra.
Raneh falls, near Khajuraho in M.P. Had never even heard of them before.
Kinnersani, because we lived in Kothagudem nearby and used to go picnicking with our club. A riverside resort.
Jorhat, the Memorial for the Ahom King- forget the name, but it's impressive.
Chikmagalur..it's beautiful, and under-rated. The lake there too.. Hirekerur, I think.
Brittany region in France. We went to a Fort on the Sea Coast, Mt. St. Michael, which is magnificient.
Any corner of Greece, it's historic.
Small parks in South Carolina.
Kuldhara, ghost town near Jaisalmer.
Bhimtal, lesser know cousin of Nainital.
I am told (by my wife) that the right way to celebrate an anniversary is to have dinner outside. So we did- I am an obedient husband. Vanam is a new South Indian place, somewhat premium- somewhat like Carnatic in Bangalore, minus drinks. Off Prabhat Road. Pretty decent starters (like Chettinad chicken and mashed Parotha), and then Donne biryani, Appams and stew. We along with daughters Pooja and Prarthana) had a good time.
Just saw a 2490th performance of a Marathi one man act. Assal Manase, Irsaal Namune. By a chap called Prabhakar Nilegaonkar. It takes a lot to do this. He acts as mutiple people, both male and female. Talented. Reminded me of Babban Khan in Hyderabad, who used to do this.. though he had a couple of characters mostly as props..
Not sure if I am a citizen anymore. I had a passport, but someone in the Ministry of External Affairs just said it doesn't prove I am a citizen.
Well, maybe the fact that we are a part of the Universe is enough. It makes us a universal or global citizen. If only Trump, Starmer (or whoever is the next PM there), and other world leaders understood this.
I do have an Aadhar card, but I am without any support (Aadhar) when it comes to proving my credentials.
I have kids and they were born here in India. Are they citizens? Not sure anymore, the way things are going.
Anyway, when I know more, I will let you know. Till then, let's imagine a floating citizenship for ourselves.
To honour the memory of Pu La Deshpande, famous humourist, there was a program at the Film Archives, Pune. A film about him was screened, and many speakers in a panel spoke about his achievements. Good way to keep the memory alive-
The 2 day program concluded with an award named after Pu La being given to Shama Bhate (above), a Kathak dancer from Pune who has done a lot for the art form. There was also a Films Division documentary about Pu La, mostly in the first person, narrated by him. It has his trademark wit.. for example, he says his father worked in a paper maker's firm, and did not realise his son would waste reams of paper trying to write something on them.. also, when he had gone to donate blood, while the syringe was in his vein, the blood bank owner asked him for a donation, which he was scared to refuse.. obviously!
Made friends in the U.S., Ron and Carmon Green, Leslie and Bob, the Sonis, and Athena and her family, Annie and Samrendra Singh and their sons, and a few more. Wilma Reeves and a Filipino faculty, Ceferina Hess, for example.
We also had a group of Indian friends, Alok, Anil, Suresh and my brother Satish hung out together. Alok's wife Pam too. We went to Charleston, Gatlinburg, L.A. and Las Vegas, plus a few National parks like Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest and so on. Visited Kiran Kenjale and Neena in L.A. and Prakash and Meena, in Detroit.
Made a few friends in our long stay in India at multiple places- Bani and BK Mohanty in Bhubaneswar, Bhagyalakshmi and Shweta Kushal at IIM Indore, Smita Dabholkar and Gadgil at IMT Nagpur, Vijayakumar and family, Dhanapal and family and Yashad Gaur, in Harihar, Anjula Gurtoo in Lucknow, and Shraddha and Neeraj in IIMK. Also Ravi and Dipi in Calicut. We also have musical friends from a group on FB.
We have a wide social circle that includes her schoolmates and students from when she taught (Vaseem), and mine from IIMB, Osmania and all the places I taught in, like IIM Indore (Sanjana Rao, Anusha Soni, Pratima Gaekwad) and IMT, (Ishita Modi, Garima Shah). Keeps us occupied. Plus all the Plays and concerts that we are able to attend in Pune regularly. Life is a party, when you have the right company, right?
A classy concert featuring RD Burman-composed songs in Pune yesterday (23rd June, 2026)
Selection of songs, singing and camaraderie among singers was a notch above the usual. Pancham magic working, maybe.. here are a couple of glimpses.
Moutusi Das and Satish Ingle were the highlights, and sang Dun Maro Dum and the medley from Hum Kisise Kam Nahi very well. Mehbooba, mehbooba also. Meri jaan maine kahaa was also done nicely. Aparna sang Piya tu ab to aaja with zest. Lots of great RD songs were featured.. a treat!
Kranti Shah was a great Emcee too, her second I have seen.
That was the theme of a nice program, Yaadon ki Baraat, that I saw yesterday (June 22, 2026) at a Pune auditorium. This was the group's 50th such program, and a guest singer was Preeti Pethkar. She sang Pyar kiya to darna kya .. very well. A fusion experiment with whistling was good too, and a flute artist who played the song on Flute. Some other singers were good too,. Bipin and Saavni among them- Bipin sounded like Kishore Kumar- a rarity (White-haired guy, and lady in Yellow in the pic). Music directors ranged from C. Ramchandra to Annu Malik and Jatin-Lalit.
Could be inching towards the 30th in the last few weeks. But they are addictive. This one- on 29th July 2026- was dedicated to Mohammad Ra...
