From Calicut to Calcutta

 I know it's Kolkata now, but the title needs to match.

I was in Calicut in 2003-2005. We had just moved into the new campus. My interview was held in the old one at NIT Calicut. 

I wrote a book, Services Marketing, and taught that course as well as Marketing Research. We also did a couple of FDPs, on Case Writing and Research Methods. Also organised a conference with Tapan Panda, where we got NASMEI as a partner. Remember publishing a book of conference papers. Met Anita Basalingappa of MICA for the first time. Still in touch with profs. SSS Kumar and Keyoor Purani.

The campus was lovely, but there was no housing, so stayed in Malaparamba. Gave us access to the town, which was a couple of kilometres away. My brother and his son visited from the U.S., as did Jogeswari from Hyderabad, ex-student of KIAMS. Krishna Kumar from IIML took over from Kalro as the director during that time. We did an MDP at Kodaikanal too, for BHEL, I think.

Kolkata happened in 2025. Joined JIS University as one of two Pro Vice Chancellors. A relatively unknown brand, outside West Bengal/Kolkata. I have tried to encourage branding efforts, and now that we are a part of CUET as well, awareness for the brand will grow. A small management department in New Town, but larger depts. like Pharma, Computer Science, Education etc. in Agarpara on the outskirts, and Agriculture even farther at Kalyani.. they need a larger space.

Some great food, and some new friends too... including Ananya Ghosh, a Ph.D. scholar at Xavier University here. And Suhasini Barman, who is known to Manglik, a classmate of mine.. 

Faculty Colleagues

 Recent ones include ones I recruited, at Prestige University. Juhee, Riyaz, Bharat, Jyoti Dua and Asmita Mahapatra.

And some lady golfers from NMIMS Bangalore- Tanmeet, Alisha Thomas, Prerona Baruah, Preeti Ravikiran. Briefly, Diti Goswami too. 

Shahida and Manasa from PESIT Mgt. dept. were very dynamic. Manoharan and S.P. Kumar are still in touch.

Kirloskar Institute- Harihar had Dhanapal and Vijayakumar. We still play Golf together. (Note- lost Dhanapal in May 2025)

B.K. Mohanty and Banikanta Mishra at XIMB. 

IIM K, SSS Kumar, Neeraj Dwivedi and Keyoor Purani. Jeyavelu too.

IIM Indore, Shweta Kushal and Jayasimha. And marketing colleague Abhishek, IT colleague Rajhans. 

Thomas from VJIM. Dayakara Rao too.

Visiting faculty Nitin Sinha, Veronica Thavonat, Snehal Singh and Sayantan at Prestige.

Pics From Four IIMs

 I worked at three, and was a student at one. Here's a short tour of those four IIMs. I have visited Ranchi, Raipur, Trichy and Rohtak too, some before they had a campus. Udaipur is on my list for a visit.

Kozhikode, in my view the prettiest IIM campus.

Indore's not too bad, either..

These two are from Bangalore- looking out from g-10, my room, below, and a game of Frisbee Footer against the famous tank from 3 Idiots (shot here many years after we idiots left)

More from Indore, above.

Lucknow during a hailstorm, 2001 and Bangalore, recently on a visit.