Meetings With Old Friends in Kolkata

 Met Navneeta, Shakti Ghosal and Indukant Gautam of IIMB 1982-84 fame, in the last year.

Met Banikanta Mishra of XIMB- a colleague from 1991-92, on his visit. Also Amit Gope, a student from the same institute, who is settled in Kolkata.

Renewed contact with Ananya Ghosh, a Ph.D. scholar with St. Xavier's University, whom I had earlier met in XLRI at a doctoral consortium. She is close to finishing her Ph.D.

Akansh Khandelwal, a former Ph.D. student at IIM Indore.

Jasbir Matharu, a former colleague, along with Abhinav Chandel, both from IMT Nagpur.

Sayantani Saha, also a former student at Nagpur who is with ICICI Lombard.

And of course, Dash who is also an IIMB classmate, retired cop now settled here.

Age and Friends of All Ages

 I am quite amazed that I have friends of all ages. I am 65 as of now (early 2026).

I am able to connect with toddlers I have met without them throwing a fit, mostly. The slightly older kids I can have some conversation with, if they want to have one- I did with a kid about books, recently. Amazing, ain't it?

Of course, twenty-somethings and thirty somethings are usually my students from a faraway time zone, but to their credit, they do talk to me still- both online and offline. Not sure why, but they do. Of course, I try to engage online through DP awards, commenting on their posts, or forwarding memories from the time when everyone was on Facebook. Now, they are divided between FB, Insta and Linkedin, as I am not on X.

Some share success stories of their lives/careers, some just comment regularly with some witty answers to silly questions I pose, etc. And best of all, some make an effort to meet up with me when I suggest it, on a visit to their city. For example, Pratima Gaikwad and I have met several times in Hyderabad now. And Abha in Mumbai and Delhi. And Sheetal too, in Pune and Mumbai.. Shafique in Indore, and Bangalore. You get the drift.

Will also meet two young people, and their spouses in Bangalore soon. 

And that is what makes life beautiful.. in 2026 too, it should.

Memorable Meetings and Outings

 What makes a meeting or outing memorable? Could be many things, but an important thing is the warmth, among those meeting up. Or going out. Some instances I remember warmly, in pics- 

Savitha and I met in her office on MG Road. She worked with Deccan Herald at the time.

Meeting Abha and Harsh Halve, in Delhi

and Amit Gope in my Kolkata office.

Or Venkat Rama Subramaniam in Calcutta Club

Garima and Ayan at Pune, 

and Bhagyalakshmi and Venaktesh at Pune TOIT

MSMT Pune and Mumbai gang in Pune 

and Asoka and Jyoti Dua in Indore at a Prestige Univ. outing

Swati Jain at Mumbai,

or Maya and Shubha at Pune on New YEAR eve, 2025.

Milind Chalisgaonkar in Kling's Bangalore

and Dhanapal in Dec 2024 at Kodai.

Adithya, a schoolmate in PUNE

and Annie, from Greenwood, and AJ, in Delhi.

Ishita Modi in Indore

and Shweta Kushal in Indore

Prachi Jain at Delhi,

or Jaya Dulani in Delhi

Sanjana at her wedding in Hyderabad,

and Pratima Gaikwad, a Hyderabadi in Indore.

Bhavna, Silky and Dheeraj at Gurgaon

and Riyaaz, Arun and Juhee and Divya Sairam at Indore.

And, an outing at Hindola Mahal, Mandu with Radhika, Shweta and Surbhi Dayal. 

Where We Met- Part 3

 This is about classmates, starting from school. For many years, we never met. Only a couple, like Ram Kumar Seshu, I met in Hyderabad or Bangalore. Rajiv Krishnan too, just a couple of years ago.

Then, suddenly, we had a major gathering, with about 17 classmates showing up last year at Hyderabad. Before that, a smaller one had happened with 7-8 people (men, it was  Boys' school)-Kamlesh hosted it, on a visit from the U.S.

Above- With TAS Vijayaraghavan, IIMB classmate, at XLRI. His wife is also in the pic. Met him after many years, in 2024.

College (Osmania engineering), I remember a large gathering at Begumpet around 12-14 years ago. After that, off and on, I met Venugopal Reddy in Delhi, along with a few visitors, Nagarjuna in Harihar and elsewhere- Indore, recently. And we went on a Bheemeswari outing courtesy G Sreenivas, near Bangalore. We also met at Makrand Deshpande's invitation at a wedding in Pune. KSM I met when he was at Euroflex too, and wrote a case on the company's international marketing effort as well.

Bangalore IIM classmates I have met in large and small groups, or individually, more regularly. Prabhakar introduced me to Single Malts, and I am grateful. Killer and Smoke Smoke Ramesh in Bangalore, Hassled Ramesh in the U.S., Banny and Ravi in the US, Venky, Cheenu, Anu, Chitra, Sekhar in Mumbai, Sandhya in Nagpur, Shanks, Bishop and Paddy in Chennai, Sajeev in Lucknow and Chennai recently, Rajan of India at Indore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Dash multiple times in Kolkata, Goa, Indore and Delhi, Vijjy at XLRI after years, Uday and Suma at Calicut and Mumbai, Sardie and Sujit in Goa, Harish in Delhi, Bangalore, are some warm and fuzzy memories. Snail in Delhi and Indore too. Dunhill in Lucknow.

Where We Met - Part 2

 Now on to some colleagues. 

KIAMS colleagues I still meet, Vijayakumar and Dhanapal in particular. Usually it's on a Golf course, because we began playing the game at Harihar on the 18-hole Kirloskar Golf course. We have played at Kodaikanal, and Munnar. Gadgil too, from IMT Nagpur.

Sohni Roy from Prestige (above) and I try out at a driving range in Indore- Bichholi Haapsi.

Have met Dayakara Rao and Thomas from VJIM, though it was some time ago.

Manoharan, Manasa and a S.P. Kumar from PESIT I have met later. Stayed with Manoharan in the same complex at Bangalore recently also.

IIM Indore colleagues, I still meet sometimes when I go to the campus. Shweta Kushal, Jayasimha, Sumit Ghosh, and a few others- Ashish Sadh, Rajhans Mishra, Abhishek Mishra..

IIM Lucknow colleagues also I have met a few times, though not at Lucknow. Shailendra Singh at Ranchi and Bharat Bhasker at Raipur, when they were directors there. 

Muthu, colleague from industry (M.R.) , I am in touch with and have played Golf with.

Tanmeet Kaur, Prerona Baruah and Alisha Thomas from NMIMS, at Bangalore.

Smita Dabholkar (at Bangalore and Pune too) and TKC from IMT at Nagpur. Saleena Khan too.

Maheswaran and Jitendra Sharma from IMT at Mumbai, at an alumni meet. Abhishek Singh, at Indore and Nagpur.

Jayasimha and I worked together at 4 institutes, and are still in touch, at Indore, our current place of residence. Bhagyalakshmi and I worked in two, and meet regularly in Mumbai or elsewhere. 

Where we Met

Starting with students from IMT. 

This is on the suggestion from Abha, whom I met at Nagpur, then Mumbai a couple of times, and Delhi, more recently, with Shalini Sinha. Nikita, I first met when she was Nikita Kumar, in Pune. Later, she moved to Hyderabad, and we met with her friend from Symbi, Ritika Sharma. Most recently, we caught up in Delhi. Meghna Sinha I first met in Delhi at a Starbucks, then at Yauwatcha, in BKC. Also met Meghana Joshi at The Good Wife, BKC with a couple of others. Vikas and Varun were there too. Garima Shah at Hiranandani, Mumbai, in The Yellow Chilli.

First three pics are IMT alums from various batches, in Mumbai, Bangalore and Mumbai alumni get together.

Abha, Sirisha and Tosha.

Ishita, Gowri, Rupam, Anshita and Anusha

Savitha of KIAMS Batch 1 

In some other meetings, Tosha and Abha were together, or Sirisha Adi and Anuj too, in Mumbai- Grandmama's Cafe was one. Sheetal Garg and I met mostly at Mumbai, and once in a large alumni meet where we sang a duet from Johnny Mera Naam! Ananya Nandi De at NOIDA, her place, and Delhi. Shraddha Nigdikar, at her place in Dadar, in Vashi and at Mulund at a friend's place. 

Abhinav Kamal, the digital marketer and film maker, I met in Bangalore, and in Mumbai after IMT Nagpur. I think Shuchi Bhatnagar was at a Hyderabad alumni meet. Divya Singh, first at Mumbai, where she also guest lectured in my class on Digital Marketing, then at Pune and more recently, Gurgaon. Harshad Lunavat and Meghana Khadilkar, at Pune. Target is to meet Karishma too, there. Anupriya Pandit, at Bangalore. Surbhi Mehta Chadha at Delhi. Also her neighbour Vrinda Khanna at her place in Delhi. Pallavi in Bangalore, Shafique in Bangalore and Indore recently. Kanika Mhendiratta in Delhi, twice, Swati Jain in Mumbai on a rainy evening. Khyati Jha, in Navi Mumbai.

In Ahmedabad, a whole gang of IMT students, led by Ishan, Ankita, Keyur and separately, Manjari two or three times. Also Punyashlok Dwibedy, who was at IIMA doing his Ph.D.

Anshita Abhishek Chetty organised two get-togethers for me to meet IMTans, and we met. In Bangalore, with Sreeram and Gowri, Rupam Verma, Ishita and Anurag with their kid, and Anshita's hubby Abhishek and their twins, Anusha Mamidanna and hubby Aashish were also part of the meets. Meenu Mynam, I met in Bangalore. Kedar Muley and gang at Thane -Ravi Mittal was part of that.

KIAMS students, everywhere- Smita in Dubai, Sudeshna and Sid Agarwal in Kolkata (and Delhi airport), Vidya TC and Swapna Gurijala at Singapore- twice. Nishka and Vikram in Mumbai, Rajiv Roy Chowdhury at Bangalore (his wife turned out to be from PESIT). Aditi Sood in Kolkata, Savitha, multiple times in Bangalore. Also Nidhi Kanungo in Indore a couple of times, but also in Lucknow, where her hubby is from. Jagdish Subramony, in Chennai, long ago. Jimmy in Bangalore, Mukesh in Kodaikanal. Also Navroze Sethna in Kodai, his hometown, Anupama at Bangalore, Padmapriya at Hyderabad and Delhi, Jogeswari in Hyderabad and Thailand (with her company Golftripz), apart from Calicut and Nagpur where she gave a guest lecture and shot a video. Sunil Kataria at Delhi along with Sharmishtha Singh. Nikhil Damle I met in Mumbai long ago, and Bangalore later. Anushka Mishra, at various bookstores on Church Street and also at 13th floor, MG Road. Zargar Basharat in Bangalore. Dheeraj Mohan in Chennai.

PESIT students I have met mostly in Bangalore, like Pooja Varun, and Aishwarya Omprakash with her hubby and kid. IFIM students too- Chaithu Gunapali, Bharath Shenoy, and Nagendra Shenoy. At an airport, I met Shreya Sengupta from PESIT_IUP. 

IIM Indore

Shatakshi Tripathi, Varun  and Shailaja Gupta from the IIM Indore (Mumbai campus) at Bangalore. And Pratima Gaikwad of the same program, only at Hyderabad- 3 or 4 times! 

Anusha Soni, IIM Indore student, and Neha Adiga, in Pune. Sapna Patni, Anam Nuhi and Harshad Sachani at Indore- him at Nagpur too! Bhuvneet Raheja, In Delhi. 

Vignana Jyoti students- Giri at Bangalore with his wife, Ranjana Rudra and Deepthi Balagiri last year in Hyderabad. Sudhir many years ago at Bangalore, with his wife Poulomi.

Lots of Ph.D.  students from IIM Indore, at Indore and some at Delhi recently. Akansh, Prachi, Vartika, Neeti Ingole, Geeti, Vanshika, Pratishtha are a few others. 

Lots more I would like to meet, like Pooja Shukla, who is hiding in the U.S. and Aashneet Gautam, no idea where. Tanya Jakhar, in Bangalore. Ruby Shukla, Delhi. Vaishali Bathla, Delhi, I think. Bhagyashree Agarwal.

Rakshabandhan

 It's around the corner, so here are some thoughts.

India has unique thoughts and traditions rooted in those. The brother-sister bond is celebrated at least in two festivals- Rakshabandhan and Diwali-the tail-end of it. 

I had a long line of cousins- maternal and paternal- so it was like a large family growing up. Growing up in Hyderabad, visits to Pune, the stronghold where multiple cousins lived, were regular, but so were Mumbai, Nagpur, Indore, and sometimes, while living in the U.S., New York and Ohio to meet them. 

More recently, back in India, one regular meeting place was at Shrivardhan on the Konkan coast, usually around New Year. We met with families when possible, and it continued for many years. COVID caused a disruption.

We had a celebration with one elder cousin turning 75 a few years ago- we are certainly not young any more. Will continue meetups as long as possible. Pune continues to be the Head Office, with many cousins settled there now.

This year's rakhi has arrived, so let me pose..

Conversational Abilities

 Some people have the ability to speak about any subject, for unlimited amounts of time. Think politicians.. no, just kidding, I am not into those. Just normal people. 

My own conversational abilities depend on the other person I am in conversation with. Usually, I like small numbers of people, not a very large group to converse with. And probably one or two others is best, Maybe three. 

I have had meetings with ex-colleagues- ones, twos most of the time. Students, usually former students- again, I have met them individually or in a small group. And had a lot to talk about, and listen to. Some of them I met for the first time outside class, and found them to be great conversationalists. Empathetic, knowledgeable and generally, agreeable personalities I would like to meet again. Anam Nuhi was one such, at Indore.

I can recall quite a few that I have had fun times talking with- more recently, Harshad, Meghana at Pune- earlier, Divya Singh at Pune and Mumbai, Nikita Kumar at Pune first, Hyderabad later, and then at Gurgaon with Shruti and Aditya, Tosha Dubey at Mumbai, Abha with her and Sirisha, Anuj too in Mumbai, and recently at Delhi, Sunil Kataria and Sharmishtha at Delhi, Surbhi Mehta and hubby at Delhi, Vrinda Khanna at her place (Delhi), Pallavi and hubby in Bangalore, and with Shafique (I had my first Sangria there), Pragya Singh (Kahwa?) at Pune, Anupriya Pandit at IIMI and at Bangalore, Dheeraj at Chennai, Meghna Sinha in Delhi and Mumbai (BKC). Meghana Joshi in BKC too. At THE GOOD WIFE, no less, with Vikas and Varun!

I have also gone book shopping with Nishka in Mumbai and Anushka in Bangalore- both KIAMS students. Sheetal Garg is the gregarious one, and musically minded too, and we have talked a lot. Ishita and Anurag, are from Indore, and Anshita too, though we (along with Rupam, Gowri and Sreeram, Ishita, Anurag too) met in Bangalore thanks to her. Meenu Mynam, I met after long at Bangalore.

Savitha (from KIAMS 1998-2000) and I are thick pals now, and so are Shatakshi and hubby. Vidya and Swapna I met in Singapore twice and had a great time.  Smita, in Dubai, and we went stargazing too!

Swati Jain, of the Curly Hair fame, and I had a great time meeting on a rainy evening in Juhu. And Anusha Soni and I met up in Pune after the Golf course at IIM Indore! She's my pal from Bhopal! Nikhil Damle (KIAMS) and I had a long chat at NMIMS Blr. And Chaithu Gunapali of IFIM, and Pooja Varun from PESIT.

And my Biryani friend Pratima deserves a special mention! We keep meeting in Hyderabad. Shailaja Gupta Kapoor actually started a group for IIM alums that's doing fabulously well, and I met them a few times in Bangalore. Through the group, met Nupur Prasmit whose wedding reception was last week in Indore! Also an Indori from KIAMS, Nidhi Kanungo, met me at IIM campus a few years ago.. she advised me to get onto Instagram, and I did..now!

More recently, met Ananya Nandi De at NOIDA too, along with her hubby and son. Had a great time! Here's to more such conversations, planned or impromptu.

Social Skills

 I have noticed that social skills are not uniformly distributed across genders, even if you keep some things constant. There seems to be a gender disparity, that is statistically significant. The women in general, have much better social skills, than the (poor) men. I am not sure if the men are aware and are happy about this (if they are aware, that is). But in my view, we should not be too thrilled (again, assuming my findings are right).

Why do I say so? I have now interacted with thousands of students in and out of class. During the teaching term, if any students came up and asked for any more inputs or expressed a fear of stats (what little was in my Marketing Research courses), it was mostly the women students. Also for extra-curriculars, clubs, committees, it was the women members who took the lead to approach me to participate, write, contribute, etc.. no idea why.

Even more pronounced is the banter on social media. Though a couple of men students/alumni are good at it, including comments (one in particular, from KIAMS), in general, the women alums known to me from various B schools are generally more involved, more frequent in engaging in a chat, or in asking for advice about a course, or responding positively to any request to meet up in their city. I have therefore ended up meeting a lot of alums of the fairer sex in all these years. This includes a couple outside India such as Smita in Dubai and Swapna and Vidya in Singapore. These have been very enriching meetups too, I must add, for me. 

With ex-colleagues, it is more balanced, with some of the men outdoing the women in catching up- maybe for a drink or a game of Golf. So far.

Not sure about readers of the blog yet, unless there's some more research to back it up. 

Alum Album - Part 2

 Continuing this series on some wonderful meetings with alums of various institutions- the pics speak for themselves..

Ravi Mittal with the Thumb up, Kedar Mulay, at Thane..

Rohit in Bubaneswar

Below, Nidhi meets at IIM Indore.

Meghna Sinha, in Mumbai, Savitha in Bangalore.

Ishita, Gowri, Rupam, Anshita (organiser) and Anusha with a kiddo. Bangalore, Orchid, overlooking the KGA Golf course. The husbands are not in this pic. (excluded the beasts, included the beauties)

Here you have both. With Jogeswari in Hyderabad - above.

Kanika Mhendiratta in India Habitat Centre, Delhi.- below

Bhuvneet in Delhi shows her lovely Mehendi at my request.

Below, Surbhi Mehta Chadha at Cha Bar, C.P.

Akash Gupta nad I have a poha outside IIM Indore,  in Rau.

The entrepreneurial ones from NMIMS Blr. BBA, above

Garima above, and me, fed by Sanjeev Kapoor. Mumbai

Meenu Mynam (girl with the notebook, at IMT) and I met after a decade, in Bangalore.

Swati Jain of the curly hair fame, at Grandmama's, Juhu

Another Grandmama's at Phoenix, with Anuj, Tosha, Sirisha and Abha

Four beautiful golfers, NMIMS Bangalore alums.

Vidya TC and Swapna, in Singapore.

Aditya Naag, Shruti, Nikita in Gurgaon.

And Anusha Soni visits my home at Pune. My pal from Bhopal.