A Month in Kolkata

 I have now lived here for over a month. I commute around 40 minutes each way to work, and it's not too bad. North Kolkata, where the campus is located, is semi-rural, and not as crowded as the rest of the city.

With my Exec. Assistant Shrabani, in my office

Below, view from my window 

Below- visit to the Agriculture dept. along with the Pro-Chancellor, VC and the other Pro-VC

 

The JIS University campus has multiple programs, in two or three different locations. The Management programs are in the heart of New Town area, a relatively new residential and commercial area. Salt Lake is not far from there, as also Eco Park, a huge park I am yet to visit. It has a Golf course within, so a good reason to go there!

The Agriculture dept. is near Kalyani, about an hour's drive, because 50 acres of land is needed for crop development and practical training of students.

Engineering, Education, Law, Pharmacy, Earth Sciences and a couple of other departments are located where I sit, and Hotel Management in another nearby location. 

The group also has other colleges, and is in the process of setting up a Veterinary Science college, the first by a private entity in the State.

Getting familiar with the workings of various departments and programs, and the students of some of the programs. It is a big group, with over 40,000 students in all, spread across the university and other institutions. Pretty competitive in terms of fees as well.

Hoping to improve admission processes, and interaction with industry. Maybe play some Golf as well, if possible.

A New Adventure Begins

 Joined JIS University on April 29th as Pro-Vice Chancellor. It's a private university with campuses in Kolkata and nearby. Spans a range of departments from Pharmacy, Science, Law, Management, Engineering to Agriculture and others.

My office is in Agarpara, on the outskirts of North Kolkata. There are possibilities of increasing reach, awareness, and perhaps upgrading the student and faculty experience, alumni support and so on. Probably similar to some experiences of mine elsewhere in a wide variety of institutions, or business schools. Other priorities will be set after discussions with colleagues at the top level and faculty, students, alumni.

Looking forward to also catching up with friends in the East, and visitors of different kinds- official guest lecturers to personal friends. I have a possible Golf-playing opportunity too, to be explored. Will keep readers posted. It's early days yet..

Learnings From Activities and Careers

 Camping- living in a small tent when you could be comfortable in your own home. Teaches you sacrifice!

Mountaineering- Risking life when you could be comfortable in your surroundings.. teaches you empathy.

Doing engineering when you could have taken Arts/Humanities. Learning how to take torture (in case you are captured by enemy soldiers), what with all the entrance exams.. 

Doing MBA.. Working harder than you have to.. a lesson in itself. Also, how to do group assignments when half the group is missing. 

Becoming a professor.. discovering how people are not interested in your lessons, and that's a lesson. You were the same when you were a student, so it's a deja vu of a different kind!

Talking to School Children at Nanded

Had a unique opportunity to talk to school kids at a Nanded school. It was scary too, because I was new to this experience. The talk was on careers, since the small-town Indians are generally a bit less aware of career options, and their parents may be less aggressive in hunting for options other than the mainstream- CA, Medical or Engineering. Though I am a mainstream engineer/MBA, my kids are not, so I gave examples of careers that are non-mainstream.

These are the kids-all of them, with some teachers.Biggest audience for my talk in recent times!

Nanded is famous for a Gurudwara too, and here are some pics of this amazing place of worship.

Band Baaja Baaraat

Sometimes I go to weddings- my classmate from (Osmania) engineering college provided me with an opportunity in Pune, when his daughter got married the other day. Nice occasion to catch up with friends and their families. Mini-reunion of sorts.

My occasional golfing partner Venugopal Reddy is on the extreme right. We played at the Delhi Golf Club a few times while he was there. He was with Indian Railways for a long time. The bride's father in orange headgear, is an Engineer with Engineers India. Another friend, Krishnamurthy, is with Powergrid Corporation. All successful and about to retire, while my work life is extended on account of retirement age being 65 for faculty..how I envy them!

The Expected and the Unexpected

Life is a balance between the two. We wake up wanting some things (like we breathing) to be the same, and expecting some surprises to liven the proceedings (just breathing can't make you breathless with excitement?).

So it was. Some planned events, and some unplanned comprised this visit to my favourite place (actually I now have many, wherever I can meet old friends and new), Hyderabad. Though it was a very short visit, managed to meet a few of my engineer friends (classmates from O.U., or Osmaniacs) and visited the Hyderabad Boat Club for the first time. They have a lake-facing restaurant at Tank Bund-couldn't see any boats though.

Also ran into Bhawana Sahay, ex-student, with whom I was only in touch on fb so far..feels great to meet someone in person, and put a face to the DP (she has been an award winner at my DP Awards).

Also met some old friends from Singareni Collieries -the coal miner- who were visiting Hyderabad on vacation from Bangalore. To more such coincidences! Of course, a primary reason for the visit was my niece's birthday. She is turning into a cricketer too..good for Women's cricket.

Also saw some spectacular ad-carpet-bombs from Lalitha Jewellers all over the place. You couldn't miss the hoardings. Unique message too. More on that later.

Pics From Reunion at Bheemeswari

These are pics representative of the good times we had on a recent trip with engineering classmates and spouses. The outing was to Bheemeswari, a resort run by Jungle Lodges, Karnataka govt., around 100 kms. off Bangalore on Kanakapura Road.

The Cauvery river flows close to you, and there are  a lot of activities too, including a boat ride in a coracle. The first pic is of a railway saloon which a friend had invited us to, while he was travelling in Bangalore. Nagarjuna and me are on the right in the saloon pic. Others are C. Srinivasa Murthy (now in the US), G. Sreenivas who organised this one, and on the left, Venu (also a Golfer) and Suri (just retired from the Navy). K. Srinivasa Murthy (entrepreneur, now retired), and Ramesh were there too.

All in all, a good time was had by all. That's the idea of reunions, isn't it?

Institution Building Workshop at IIT Delhi

I was speaking at the workshop attended by promoters and directors of engineering, architecture and management colleges when I realised how fortunate we are at IMT to have an ecosystem that promotes excellence, academic freedom and all the values that academicians and students cherish. Many colleges and institutes are still struggling with basics like goal definition or goal-setting, and then implementing ideas that will take them towards it.

Fundamental questions are about quantity and quality of admissions, and many have no control over it due to being forced by an overpowering regulatory system in their respective states. If you cannot choose your students, how do you ensure the output quality for industry or other sectors who will employ them?

Unless the basics of a brand are in place, how will you attract the best faculty to teach bright minds and engage in research, publications, case writing and other intellectual activities which distinguish an academic institute?

The classic struggle between the long term view versus short term view in institution building still dogs the people who have set up many institutions. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? That was an interesting debate, given an oversupply and near-perfect competitive market for engineering and management courses in particular.

Some other presentations were on the Planning Commmission's view on Higher Ed. which included comparisons with China, presented by a member of the commission, and some views on Faculty Retention and Development, Learning Processes, and other issues that keep academic debates alive. Building and sustaining an educational brand is as interesting a brand-building subject as any other kind of brand. It involves managing reality and perceptions of all stakeholders including alumni, students, promoters, industry and other sections of society. A live laboratory, if you will.

Delhi Roundabout

In Delhi for some work, I got a chance to meet some engineering batchmates who live here and some who dropped in from Hyderabad for a mini-reunion of alumni. The setting was the Air Force Golf club. Very nice ambience; they have a private party room.

Many of my friends are into infrastructure development companies, electrical energy or otherwise. Nation-building is their everyday business. Nice to see things moving on many fronts, from airports to solar energy.

The Delhi winter and fog has just begun, with its attendant flight and train disruptions. Maybe it's a reminder that man can't control everything, even though he thinks he does. Having lived here a long time ago for about a year, I am familiar with some parts, but the metro has added a new dimension to the city. Traffic is still bad at peak times in the major corridors though.

Making Life Interesting

How to make life interesting is a challenge. One can focus on oneself, or you can look outwards. Both have possibilities. You can learn new things, do new things, delve into philosophy or the meaning of life whatever interests you. You can learn to sing, or play an instrument. Or more easy, read. Or travel. Blogging might be an option too, though it is a little harder for some.

I visited a factory set up by an engineering classmate today, and refreshed a few engineering fundas that I had forgotten long ago. This is an engineering niche product sold across the world by only 3-4 companies, his company being one of the elite crowd. We got to discussing competition, and surprisingly, he said there was little of it. In this day and age, I thought it was amazing that there are businesses without much competition. Wouldn't we all love to be in one such? But then, look around and you will find that in each industry, there are some companies that customers love, and others are also-rans. Worth thinking about the reasons. Not all of them are realising their potential. Same with us? Maybe. Maybe interesting to think about it in our own context. That should make life interesting for a while.