Orissa

 My memories of Orissa start from 1988, when I first visited Bhubaneswar and Konarak as a part of a honeymoon trip. Then came my first stint as a prof. in XIM in 1991, just after returning from the U.S. I did not stay long, but made friends for life. Some I still meet or interact with -both students and faculty colleagues. 

The most recent visit was in late 2019/early 2020 when I went for a conference, conducted at Mayfair Hotel, a sprawling, and luxurious property with staircases like we used to see in old Hindi films. Also met Gopal, who was my colleague at XIM (and IMT), now at IIM Trichy. In between, in 2011, I was there the day India won the cricket world cup. 

These are from 1988..

Recent visit..salesgirls at Tribes India, and Gopal, ex-colleague at XIMB

The staircase.. and Rohit, IIM Indore student I ran into

This is from Mayfair hotel...

of the staircase fame.

Cyclone Fani- A Job Well Done

The government doing a great job? It showed us what can happen when all the wings of government work together with focus. Of course, we have seen it before in our Space program or Nuclear Program, or even Weather Satellites Development (which is one reason why this disaster was managed so well).

This could easily have been a Killer cyclone with thousands of deaths, but timely evacuation and provision of services to the evacuated people (like shelters), turned it into just another storm, weathered well.

When I lived in the U.S., there was Hurricane Hugo which hit the South Carolina coast, and the damage was extensive. We heard stories from affected people, and they were bad- late 80s sometime.

I am glad an Indian State has made such progress in managing crises created by natural forces. May the Force be with us, for greater good of our citizens.