How Times Have Changed

For the better, I mean.  In my student days, we generally maintained (a safe) distance between ourselves and our teachers..most of the time. I don't remember teachers who were very friendly, either, with one or two exceptions. After my MBA, though, I found Dr. JD Singh who taught us just one course at IIMB, and he was great fun to be with, whenever we met..he went out of his way to meet us whenever any of us visited Delhi. He was the founding Director and Director General of the Jaipuria Institute, NOIDA. After a long stint at IMI, where also I had met him. When I left Ghaziabad/Delhi, I met him last, just before I went to IIM Indore. He was his jolly self, full of beans and humour!

I find my own students a lot more open than I was, to meet and spend time with. I have enjoyed meeting them whenever possible, at a restaurant or at their home or mine. Some, like Tosha Dubey, planned multiple meetings for me and reintroduced me to her IMT mates. Anshita also managed to draw a big crowd of friends when we met last -in Bangalore! Good managers, I'd say! Of course, in ones and twos I have met at least 30-40 students in just the last few years. Some groups in alumni meets too. The pandemic has made it more difficult, but still I met a couple of them one on one, though less often.

I enjoy online banter with quite a few. Great fun to share stories of yesteryears, and of the present, and their future plans..I feel twenty years younger when I am with them. Just had a long phone call with Nishka, a student of Batch 4, from KIAMS, Harihar! She's a (ghost) writer of repute.

Great Art and Money - An Inverse Relationship?

Not too sure if this hypothesis holds, but it's worth hypothesising. Is there an inverse relationship between good/great art and money? Is the penniless artist struggling for survival just a stereotype? Is tragedy a part of an artist's life, mostly?

The hypothesis is inspired by a movie I saw on TV after maybe two decades. The movie is Rajnigandha. It was made by Basu Chatterjee in the early seventies and remains one of my favourite films. The budget would have been modest, no big stars, sets or ostentation of any sort. It had lovely music, good technique (Vidya Sinha speaking with herself often, imagining or re-imagining herself alternately with the two men in her life, symbolism through the bouquet of flowers) and a simple, riveting story. If you compare it with expensive, crass extravaganzas churned out by the dozen, this one warms your heart (at least mine) any day.

Another movie made in the same period was Anand, by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Rajesh Khanna was paid a limited amount though he was a star of sorts, and the tight screenplay, wonderful dialogue, great acting from all the actors (I remember Ramesh Deo and Seema speaking some homely Marathi-mixed dialogue, Lalita Pawar in the role of a lifetime, Johny Walker likewise). Absolutely brilliant!

A third example, and I will rest my case. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro from the eighties. Ravi Baswani and Naseeruddin Shah, Satish Shah and Om Puri, Bhakti Barve or any of the other characters, they all were just right, Neena Gupta added the oomph without any effort, and it made for wonderful viewing. A top-class comedy. Kundan Shah never directed anything better.

Now I will await your views.