Lovebirds Special - Photo Contest

 Since it's Valentine's Day 2023 in a couple of days, I ran a Lovebirds Pic Contest on my facebook page. This was the outcome and announcement of results-

Now I know that love can be expressed in many ways. And so we are left with no choice but to give Awards to different categories of Lovebirds. So here are the winners in different categories-

Jyothi Gurumurthy- Modern lovebirds

Ethnic lovebirds- Meghana Khadilkar, Arun Vasudevan

De(adly) looking lovebirds- Ananya Nandi De

Chashma wale/Spectacular Lovebirds- Nidhi Sharma Chanana

Kaala chashma wale lovebirds- Poonam Bhatia

Waadiyon mein khoye lovebirds- Rimjhim Verma

And the Overall winner and category-

Suave lovebirds- Saurabh Sharma

All the Prize winners are eligible for a free stay at my place, 2 days and one night, any time till the next Valentine’s Day. I said you would win BIG! Try me!

Mahindra War Room

This is an innovative contest designed by Mahindra group, held every year. I happened to attend as an invitee this year at a Mumbai hotel. A lot of work had gone into designing the 'set', and CNBC might be telecasting it sometime, as they were the media partners.

Mahindra group identified sectors in which it operates, like tractors, and sectors in which it wants to enter, like dairy, and gave these themes as cases for student teams to analyse and make recommendations on. As Anand Mahindra said in his opening session, he gets to pick the best brains in the country for his group- for free!

It was an entertaining and illuminating set of presentations by students from various B schools. Finally FMS Delhi won and SP Jain were the runners up, from among seven teams. But many other presentations were equally good.

A sidelight for me was that I met a former student of IIM Kozhikode who now works for the Mahindra group. I also met a friend and former colleague who now heads a new IIM, and the new director of IIM Shillong.

Professor of The Year- A Non-review

Well, the movie is yet to be made, so I can't really review it- not even view it, actually. So maybe I'll just put out a possible plot.

There is a contest for professors at a Business School. The profs don't look like profs, but more like teenagers. Just like students in films never look like students. So they can sing, dance, climb trees or do whatever the script asks of them.

The contest involves devising the best exam in a subject, giving the best lecture in a class, and drumming up the best home-work assignment.

There are three hot contenders for the grand prize. Two guys and a lady- profs all. Here's what happens.

1. The lectures are all uniformly boring, and put everyone to sleep. So it's not a differentiator among the contestants.

2. The exam. The Ethics prof asks his students to analyse where Rajat Gupta went wrong, ..in getting caught, and how he could have prevented it. The marketing prof asks his students to create an ad for Kingfisher airlines soliciting passengers. Use of calendar girls is allowed, as they have just been chosen after a rigorous process. The International Business prof asks her students to analyse three differences between Starbucks and Cafe Coffee Day, not counting the logo and brand name. The winner? You vote through an SMS, dear reader.

3. The assignment. The students have to go to a disco, and measure the physical exertion versus satisfaction derived from doing a samba, a salsa and a hip-hop routine. And write an essay- this from the marketing prof. The Ethics prof asks his students to write a review of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and its possible impact on creating awareness about ethical issues. The International business prof asks her students to go on a tour to Indonesia and find out if they can survive a Richter scale -4 earthquake-live project.

Once again, you vote through SMS, and we will conclude who is the winner, next time. Jo jeeta, wahi sikandar.

Word Play

The Washington Post's Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from 
the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and 
supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners (some censored for this blog): Enjoy!

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding a stupid person that stops bright 
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign 
of breaking down in the near future.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject 
financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person 
who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really 
bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a 
serious bummer.

10 Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming 
only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when 
they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've 
accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your 
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the 
fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the lot:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an a-ole.