Why IMT Nagpur Was Magical

 Can't put my finger on one thing, but I think the place had a vibe that was special. It included the people, and the way they interacted with each other. The students, the faculty, the staff, and also some of the inanimate objects. That may sound strange, but tangible inanimates do play a role in our lives. The grass, the trees, and the rocks. The design of some rooms, colour of the walls (Red Bricks in this case). 

Most of all, the people. Kirloskar Institute in Harihar (where I worked a few years before IMT) had this vibe too. In addition to a very tangible Golf course, but that's another matter.

The students had a mix of IQ and EQ that put them in a unique category, with a high total score. Other Qs too, perhaps. After all, we are multidimensional. So I would say that people brought their uniqueness to it,  being from different corners of the country. The faculty were actually global- many had studied or worked abroad.

Diversity makes a campus more vibrant, and we saw it in all IIMs I was at- to study or to work- 4 in all. We had it in good measure. I am still able to meet alums in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad if I visit these places- so many years after I stopped working at IMT. Many faculty have stayed for 15 years or more! Another sign of a good place!

The autonomy we enjoyed in running the place was also a contributing factor. Which meant student and faculty needs could be met without looking over our shoulder. 

Spending Time in Nagpur

This is a special place, as many pleasant years were spent here, and a majority of my student/alumni friends (thanks to facebook, naturally) happen to be from IMT Nagpur where I worked. Some of my faculty friends are the major reason I was spending the weekend this time around, but I was able to drop in on a wedding of a former student, Abha, too.

IMT was an exciting place to be, and we had a whole empty canvas which we filled with colour, to the best of our abilities. Some good initiatives that we were a part of- alumni meets in 5 cities, a Goa case conference, regular guest lectures from industry, and some training programs for regular clients like GSI and Asian Paints. A couple of new ventures by students also blossomed on the campus, one of the loveliest I have been a part of- IIMK and IIMI are also pretty campuses. And KIAMS, on the banks of the river Tungabhadra.

What particularly impressed me was the EQ of students at Nagpur, in addition to their IQ. I think the combination works better than only high IQ, beause technical skills can also be hired, but interpersonal skills have to be your own. Many have also turned out to be authors, or have followed other creative pursuits like photography or film-making (professionally), or turned entrepreneurs. A few I can readily recall are Abhinav, Pavan, Sreeram, Bhagyashree, Shraddha, Divya and Supriya Jain. Harshad, Vivek Anant and Pradyumna were also very good photographers while at Nagpur.

Is More IQ Necessarily Better?

I think we prefer uni-dimensional brilliance out here, to the exclusion of other qualities.

For instance, we want kids to score 99.99 percent in all subjects. It is not Ok to be good in one or two or three of them, and below average in all others.

What good is a person who has a very high intelligence (measured academically in the usual way), but has not learnt to co-exist peacefully with others, or to follow the law, or his conscience, or respect humans (and other forms of life)?

Do we want a cynical, mind-numbingly intelligent being? Wouldn't you rather be/have a guy/gal with just enough intelligence of the kind we adore, but an Emotional Quotient that is reasonably high or higher?

There are other forms of intelligence that don't even get measured. Aptitude for art, sport and so on, that someone may have, gets side-lined in the world of uni-dimensional worship that we are all so used to. Could be one reason why the arts in general are seeing a decline. With respect to one art form that I am familiar with, Hindi films, I can vouch for a decline in many areas-writing, lyrics and music. Humour in written form-books, and mainstream films-both Indian and foreign-also has declined in quality.

Hope we take time out and see if we can set our priorities right.

India, Tests and the World

There was a news item about Indian students doing badly in some test of Maths and Science in a world competition recently. We are not doing so well in the Tests of cricket right now too.

We often crib about India lagging behind on economic indicators. Could be true to an extent, we can do better on some of them. But those of us that have lived abroad for a length of time, say 4-5 years, probably realise that it is nice to live in India. In many advanced countries, loneliness and boredom is a bigger issue than anything else. Public transport like a bus or an auto is not easy to get, or is exorbitant.

On an average, people in a western, advanced nation are indebted and/or addicted to buying stuff they don't need, more than Indians. This is not statistical, but based on observation and experience. Happiness in general is not correlated to GDP, as an excellent book by some author whose name I have forgotten, told the readers. Bhutan even has a Gross Happiness Index that measures how its citizens feel.

So what could make us happy? That old ad of Thums up just about sums it up. Food, friends and Thums Up. You could actually skip the Thums Up, and maybe substitute it with a drink of your choice that you can afford- water too. Maybe I would add books and films, and in deference to today's world, an internet connection. And you don't need to be a zillionaire to have access to all these.