Encounters

These are not the cop vs. criminal types, real or staged. But those between you and the blasts from your past. In my case, these are either classmates, colleagues, family members or students from "the good old days". All fun encounters, without any guns in sight!

Some that I recall include a breakfast with Padmapriya (ex-student) and (then) newly minted hubby at Delhi. I rarely have met people for breakfast, because usually, one of us is not fully awake at that time. But this one, all three of us were, and it was great meeting her after long and him for the first time.

Manjari is another ex-student that I met when at Nirma Institute for a conference. She had a cute daughter too, and it was nice catching up and chatting about various things including doing a Ph.D. -which she is doing. Three or four guys (like Vishal from IMT, Umesh from PES) have visited me at Indore. I ran into Animesh Jain unexpectedly on a trip to Bhopal. Shraddha and Divya Singh at Mumbai, and also Garima Shah were recent meets, planned. Divya also came in for a guest lecture at the Mumbai campus of ours.

It was nice to meet Savitha and Achint at Bangalore last year-both are from batch 1 of Kirloskar (1998-2000). Before she complains, I'll also mention two meetings with Anupriya in Bangalore. And a dinner, home-cooked, with Pallavi and her (then) newly minted hubby! My wife also was there for this one. A trip to Vrinda's house in Delhi also happened and I am glad it did. Nikita and her friend Ritika we met over dinner at Hyderabad. Jogeswari (ex-Kirloskar) I met several times at her Golftripz office and even wrote a case about the company.

Shafique and Basharat are from different institutes, but happened to know each other and we all met at a CCD on Brigade Road last year. Jimmy Jain recognised me at an airport, and we met again at another airport. He was at IIM Kozhikode as a student.

Many moons ago, I met Pushpak and Aditi from Kirloskar at Kolkata. More recently, Sapna Patni and Bhuvneet Raheja (our alums) at Indore. And Dheeraj (at Chennai) and Swapna and Vidya at Singapore.

Walking around at Bangalore a few years ago, Sowmyashree called out to us. In a beer bar, a guy walked over to Jayasimha and me. Both were from PES, where we'd taught. And very recently, when I was at Pagdandi, Pune with Pragya, an IMT student, Arvind Joshi came around, and told me he was at PES in my days.

Of course, I have planned meetings with ex-colleagues Dhanapal, Anant Ram, Vijayakumar, Gadgil and Halve all the time. And IIMB classmates in Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, or Delhi.

Harihar- Workplace with a Difference

My longest stint in one workplace (7 years) has been at Kirloskar Institute or KIAMS, Harihar. A unique place in many ways. For one, it had an 18-hole Golf Course in the campus. Never again have I had THAT kind of feeling! But even more charming were the people-students, staff and atmosphere. It was close to being an ideal and idyllic workplace.

 Some of us at the Harihar campus-above and below.

 A get-together at my place with Batch 1. I have met Achint and Nidhi from the pic above and Savitha from the pic below in the last year!

 Some of our non-teaching staff and Prof. Dhanapal, on a trip to Hubli. Below, Profs. Sandeep Kayastha and Vijayakumar, and families-mine too, at Ooty-Doddabetta.

Great times, marked by a lot of parties at homes-Pavan and Jamuna were great hosts, at Kondajji, a lake-hill-dam site nearby, Rajanahalli, on the river Tungabhadra, and longer trips to Jog Falls, Hampi and Belur-Halebid. And yearly vacations to Goa, Ooty etc.. I wrote a case many years later about Golftripz, courtesy Jogeswari, a batch 2 student. Many students have remained in touch (met Smita in Dubai, and Swapna and Vidya in Singapore), so many years later. Here's a pic with Nidhi (and her dad) at IIM Indore last year!

Two Films and a Lecture

Saw two movies this past week. Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji by Madhur Bhandarkar and Yeh Saali Zindagi by Sudhir Mishra. Both are very good, in different ways. The first is a nicely flowing film with a surprise ending, about three guys and their love stories. Ajay Devgan has acted really well, and his love interest brings a freshness and vivacity to her role. Emraan Hashmi is competent, but funnyman Vaidya who debuted in Three Idiots is the one who makes a greater impact as the innocent poet-ardent lover.

The other, Yeh Saaali Zindagi, is a black comedy about a bunch of gangsters and two love stories connected with two of them. The scene-stealer is actually Saurabh Shukla, a third gangster. Very intricate plot, a tight script which brings the complexities to a very interesting climax, and good acting by Irrfan Khan, Chitrangada Singh, Aditi Rao (her debut) and Arunoday Singh, and most others makes this a treat to watch. It has shades of Johnny Gaddar in terms of pace and type of plot, but this is probably a tougher story to tell.

Also had a couple of directors of a company, golftripz, coming in for a guest lecture yesterday at IMT. Jogeswari, a former student at Kirloskar, and her co-director, Madhav Misra, were the two guests. They explained the genesis of the company in 2009 April, and what their plans are to take Indian golfers on golf tours outside the country. A very interesting concept, it elicited a lot of questions from students. We rounded it off with an interview recorded for a possible case study, and a round of golf at our institute's greens on the campus.