2017-18 in Pics

Some pics from this year and last.

 Two spots of significance- Sigiriya, Sri Lanka (above) and the Gurudwara in Nanded.

 Above- looking out at Pondicherry, and below, cruising at Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

 Flowers on show, January, at Pune's Empress Garden. And below, celebrating my Mom's 88th, also at Pune.

Qasbah, a restaurant in Hyderabad where some of us Engineering college-mates met.

2017 Memories

 Shafique and Pallavi, my twins according to Facebook. Bangalore.

 Mom's 88th birthday. Pune, August 2017.

 Mumbai with Garima- golfer, student. Below, outing with a lovely MDP group (Digital Marketing) at Indore.

My mom completed 88 years of an accomplished life on the planet, and we celebrated that in August, around her birth date. Quite a good gathering of cousins and aunts/uncles and kids, of course. Lots of old pics were flashing on the screen, reminding us all of the golden years (hers and ours).

Meeting friends and old students was another highlight. Visited Bangalore for a conference, and went to have a home-cooked dinner at Pallavi’s new home with her husband. Also met Shafique and Zargar Basharat, two likely authors of digital marketing cases for a forthcoming book. On the same lines, caught up with Supriya Jain, another student of IMT Nagpur who is into Content Writing/Digital Marketing at Delhi. Met Garima Shah, an ex-student who played Golf with me at IMT Nagpur. That is always special! And re-discovered Divya Singh and Shraddha Nigdikar, both in Mumbai.

Had a get-together with the IIM Indore student team (Kalaivani, et. al.) that won the Google Online Marketing Challenge, with karaoke skills being tested in various languages. It was great fun. Taught a batch of PGP-MX (our weekend MBA program) in which the women (Kamayani, Lalita, and others) were clear toppers in participation- and one of these women also topped the batch later on, at their Convocation.

There was a conference visit to Sri Lanka, where a multi-cultural crowd of Tourism researchers was a highlight-they were from all over-U.K., Australia, U.S., Africa and Asia-Vietnam, Japan. This was my second trip to Lanka, and I fell in love with the Emerald Isle all over again- and especially its easy visa process.

Meeting new and old friends in Chennai brought up the end of the year, during a visit to Great Lakes Institute. Dheeraj is an alum of Kirloskar Institute, and Indira, a friend from my music group. Radha was an old Hyderabad neighbour when I worked at Vignana Jyoti (VJIM) and lived in Habsiguda. Connected with a couple of VJIM alums on Facebook, too- Ranjana and Rashmi.

An eventful year!

Last-minute Resolutions

Having resolved not to make any, I am obliged to break that one. Ok, here goes-

1. Will be nice to people- no, on second thoughts, just less nasty.

2. Will sometimes turn on my WhatsApp. Not sure WHEN, though.

3. Will sing more. Sing is king!

4. Will read a few good books. I have alreay started...discovered Starmark, a nice bookstore in Chennai, and stocked up a few.

5. Will continue giving out my Nice DP awards on fb; I have to, because there are so many guys hoping to win it- and some who have, who may win again. I may end 2018 with a lecture on How you can win!

6. Will make more efforts to meet people I know on fb-am already making some progress. Got an appointment-gotta go!

Hridaynath Mangeshkar in Concert

I was unbelievably lucky to have landed in a concert by Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar at Pune. The eighty-something young man was full of energy, and laced his singing with anecdotes of great poets in Marathi. Arati Prabhu (Khanolkar's pen-name), Suresh Bhat, Shanta Shelke and Grace (pen name used by Manik Godghate, a Nagpur-based poet) were foremost among those he mentioned, who wrote poetry which he then tried (successfuly) to put a tune to.

Kesariya Balam (Padhro mharo des) and Yara Sili Sili were Rajasthani tunes which he picked up from Udaipur while dining on the Maharaja's lawn and listening to folk singers perform. The standout songs for me were the Marathi songs Majhya saranga, raja saranga, Poortata majhya vyathechi, Kevhatari pahate, and Bhaya ithale sampat nahi,.though almost every song that he sang was worth its weight in gold. He did not sing some of his famous fishermen's songs, except one. He explained how he brought in a chorus to bring in the choir effect in one song, and in another, how he requested the HMV boss Dubey to give him a huge orchestra, rare in his recordings-we are talking gramophone records, of course.

He also narrated how Mahendra Kapoor sang a song he had composed after working hard on his Marathi. He also explained carefully the meaning of almost each song, and particularly those composed by Sant Dyaneshwar, a saint poet. That made the song sweeter when it followed.

Now, some management and leadership lessons. He declared at the beginning that farmaishes (song requests) were welcome orally; he fulfilled many, and was inspired by audience participation. He was also careful to motivate the two young ladies and two men who accompanied him in vocals or on the instruments. He gave each a playing time, but also proved his own mastery by doing some difficult songs. He also took off on the present generation for not remembering lyrics, and for going to concerts to see the songs (the performance) rather than to listen to them.

One other thing that struck me was there were no frills like most other programs, like felicitations, or speeches. Just singing, straight for 3 hours.

Truly great experience, and the audience (of which I was just one) loved it. 

Even More Memories

We happened to go to Sri Lanka for the first time in 2017.

 with family at the destination wedding of my niece Miskil.

 Vaseem and I pose.

 My foot poses.

 Can Pooja be far behind? At World's End, Horton Plains. Below, a mask in the showroom, Laksala.

 Second trip to Colombo,..for a conference. with Bhakti More and Fanni Wong.

 Also went to National University of Singapore. For a training program.

 Met my music group in Hyderabad.

 Muthu and Vasanti in KGA Bangalore. Borrowed a flowery shirt from him.

And of course, caught up with Osmaniacs in Hyderabad-my engg. classmates.

Romancing the Books- Launch at Pagdandi

 THIS WAY IS EASIER, DAD. The book is about conversations between Anjali, and her Dad. Both read out parts from the book.

 Smiling at 88. My mom with my niece Miskil.

Milind, Medha, Marla, Nikhil, and Anjali, Miskil, Anu and me.

Books have a way of enticing you-and book launches too. This was one where the subjects of the book were Hari and Anjali, two of my family. And many more in the audience, as the pics above show-Marla and Nikhil were imports from the U.S. and the rest of us from Mumbai, Indore and Hyderabad. The cute book store is in Pune. It was also special coz it was on August 10th, my mother's 88th birthday.

Shakespeare Updated 2017

Applying the timeless quotes from Shakespeare's works.

He came, he saw, he conquered- Modi in U.P.

To be, or not to be- RaGa as the face of Congress.

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.- The wal of Kejri.

Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” -- U.P. voters

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. -  Applies to a lot of people strutting around in our lives. (You can have a go at applying it.)