Right to Protest

 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.

Play in Marathi- Mahapur

 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.

Main Vapas Aunga- Film Review

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.

Film Review- Baby Do-Die-Do

 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.

Meet My Friends

 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, 

Quirks of Indian Pronunciation

 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?

Lovely Music Show

 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.

Audience Questions

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.

Kirloskar Institute Days

 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! 

Music Group Hyderabad Meet

 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.

Watching Telangana TG20

 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- Our Heritage

 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.

Musical Tribute To Waheeda Rehman

 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.

All 3 featured singers. Sandeep, Swarada and Deepika.

A Good Musical Show Again

 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.

Momin and Pradnya, above in a duet.

Star Students

 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... a Fantasy

 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.

Makeover From Cute Professionals

 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!

Predictable is Boring?

 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.