What I Like About Countries

 The food, and foot massage.. in Thailand.

The Ha Long Bay, in Vietnam.. 

The discipline, in Singapore. Also the public transport.

The politeness, and the public baths- Onsens- in Japan.

The language, in Malaysia.

The National Parks, in the USA.

The pretty islands in Greece. And Moussaka, my favourite dish.

Simple, hospitable people in Cambodia.

Greenery in Sri Lanka.

The temples in Bali, Indonesia.

The openness in Holland.

Monuments in Italy. Venice too, though Bezos didn't invite me..

Of course, many things about India.. will list those out separately.

Global Friends of Mine

 Of course, my classmates from school and college and MBA (IIMB), plenty of them are abroad- Kamalesh, Adithya, Seshu, Jayan, Lurdumar, Srinivas, Avadhanulu, Banny, Kishore, Ramu, Vicky and so on..

Childhood friend Kiran Kenjale, and a few others in various places around the world.

Alumni - Nidhi (from Indore originally), Tanya, Anchal, Anuj, Meghana (Joshi), Tanaya Kar, Pooja Daniel, Anu Bhoopathy, Vidya TC, Swapna, Smita (named after Smita Patil by her Dad), Sanjeev Undri, and lots more, I am sure- 

Relatives starting from my cousins, brother, Nieces and nephews large in number.

Also, friends I made in conferences - like Samudrika from Sri Lanka, Yapin from China, Natalija from Lithuania, Tim Lee from Korea, and so on..

Of course, there are NRI friends like Anil and Suresh who were flat-mates in USA, and 

Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas

 Pals from various places. An attempt at a comprehensive classification of my pals, geographically.

Australia- Pooja Daniel, Sanjeev Undri

Dubai- Smita Mohan

China- Yapin

Sri Lanka- Samudrika

USA- Nidhi Kanungo, Annie, Samren, Leslie, Ron and family, Dr. Soni, and Athena, Kamalesh Nayudu, Avadhanulu, Seshu, Nandakumar (Junior), Jockey, Zoom, 

New Zealand- Chasha and Ruab, Gurvinder Singh

Canada- Vaseem, Tanya Shrivastava, Radhax, 

Finland- Anusha, Bhawana Moondra

UK- Senior (Nandakumar), Shuchi Bhatnagar

Hyderabad- Jogi, Venu, Nagarjuna, Nagu, Ramesh, Basudev and lots more, Pratima of Satara fame. HPS classmates galore, including Dattu, Krishna, Praveen (part-time resident).. Aditi Gupta ( lived in South Carolina too)

Lithuania- Natalija

Delhi- Shruti, Aditya, Nikita, Shweta, Sunil Kataria, Harish Chaudhry, Himanshu, Harish Arora, Pradeep Acharya, Kanika Mhendiratta, Padmapriya

Jaipur- Achint, Garima Shah

Bhubaneswar- Ramana, Banikanta Mishra, 

Lucknow- Bhuvneet, Anam, BK Mohanty

Mumbai- Bhagyalakshmi, Sheetal Garg, Abha, Meghana Joshi, Meghna Sinha, Pallavi Sharma

(Originally from) M.P. -Tosha Dubey, Anusha Soni, Pooja Shukla, Manuja Seth, lots in IIM Indore

Bangalore- Bharath, Nagendra, Shailaja Gupta, Anushka Mishra, Savitha, lots of IIMB classmates- Prabhakar, Himanshu, Ramesh, Lingu, Sid-Shubha,.. SP Kumar, Manasa, Sowmyashree, Rajiv Krishnan, Ram Seshu, Muthu

Chennai- Vijayakumar, Lady Daga (Bhawana)

 

Brands That Surprise Me

 Either with good product quality, or with service, I mean.

Dabur Red toothpaste. It looks good, tastes good, and I have the same kind of loyalty to it (my wife discovered it, to be fair) that I once had for Colgate. But Colgate was in a monopolistic situation, with not much of competition. Dabur is also a home-grown brand.

Polo. I have grown fond of the mint with a hole since the pandemic began, and I usually have it around me in office and at home. It's comfort food, and doesn't do much harm.

Airtel has improved its service over the years. Now, it's pretty good. Pre-sales and after-sales, particularly. 

Wion, among TV channels that I watch for news, is pretty decent. Also, I am now a regular watcher of some films and serials 3 days a week on TV 5 Monde (Asie), which has no ads, and decent evening content with English subtitles. 

Branded clothes, I was never a great fan of, I care more about fit and comfort, which no brand seems consistent with. So I am a switcher, and stick to a budget.

The deliverers and their back-end have improved a lot. The food deliverers are a deliverance for many during the pandemic times.

Bookstores. I am now a fan of Blossoms and Bookworm, both on Church Street, Bangalore. I recently found a few Nero Wolfe (by Rex Stout) books at Blossoms, so doubly a fan. 

Sayaji at Indore used to be consistently good with food. Barbeque Nation is their brand, though I haven't seen much of that.

Park hotel in Belapur was pretty good with its service, and I spent a lot of time there. The breakfast buffet was very good, better than a lot of others. In Kolkata, I liked the Peerless Inn. The Adamas Hotel in Hanoi was a good international one I stayed at. 

ANA, the Japanese airline, and Sri Lankan were two that surprised me pleasantly. Almost everything about Sri Lanka as a destination, actually. 

Places Like No Other

 There are many places with a unique flavour to them (not just the food!), across the world. Here are a few in my list. All these I have visited at least once.

Japan as a country is unique in many ways. They are extremely polite, and cellphones are not used in most public places. Efficiency is prized, and trains and buses run on time.

Greece. The islands are a unique mix of Mediterranean blue and homes in white. 

Sri Lanka. Emerald isle indeed. Very beautiful, friendly people.

Vietnam. Hard working people, and one of the fastest growing economies, with good reason. After all, they beat the U.S. in a war earlier.

Ladakh is a cold mountain/desert with great views, and I haven't seen anything like it anywhere. My daughter visited again to do a course at Sonam Wangchuk's place, and got to see some Ice Stupas too, used to store water.

Coonoor, Darjeeling.. Tea gardens are the unique thing in both.

Yellowstone National Park..Very large, diverse, with Host springs, geysers, Buffalo (American variety) and lots more

Bryce Canyon- amazing sight, unforgettable. Grand Canyon too.

Las Vegas. Mayanagari in a desert. Unique, heady feeling that makes you bet big at the casinos..one almost empathises with the Pandavas.

 

Radio

 Even after TV and digital media came around, radio remains a favourite of mine. Starting from around 1970, the radio was always on in our house, and KL Saigal had the last word in Purane filmon ke geet on Radio Ceylon (later, Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corp.). The same channel used to broadcast Aap hi ke Geet from 8 am to 9 am, and Binaca Geet Mala, hosted by Ameen Sayani, on Wednesday nights. This was everybody's favourite, and we made it a point to listen in. It was a weekly countdown of top songs. My taste in Hindi film songs was shaped during the 70s, listening to Kishore, Rafi, and others-Hemant Kumar for instance-Bees Saal Baad had two great songs sung by him. 

Also a lot of SD Burman, RD Burman and lyricists like Neeraj, Sahir and Majrooh. The songs of Mere Jeevan Sathi and Kati Patang were a rage in the years they released, and are remembered to this day. Also Jewel Thief, Teesri Manzil, Jawani Diwani, Prem Pujari, Gambler and Hare Rama Hare Krishna..we grew up adoring Nasir Husain romcoms and his stage songs in Yaadon ki Baarat and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin. The theatres were grand too, and I remember watching Sholay in 70 mm at Hyderabad. (Also Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare).

Anyway, I switched to Vividh Bharati later, and they have great archives from that Golden Era of music. I continue to listen to the radio to this day.

Innocence Lost in Lanka and Elsewhere

There was a time when governments fought wars over territory, or colonials conquered the armamentally backward for commercial gain, all through history. Dictators occasionally chipped in with murder and mayhem, but at most of these times, common people got along well, and there was an age of innocence among them. It seems that those innocent times are now history. It is no longer an army participating in an officially declared war with some rules (Dharma Yuddh?), but anyone who has a grouse getting up and killing anyone who may or may not have had anything to do with the creation of that grouse.

Where all this will lead, is anybody's guess. This could be the time for good governance to kick in, and show that it can bring humanity back from the precipice where it finds itself. More than all the nukes in the stockpiles of the nuclear powers, this is the trend that is likely to eliminate humanity. Not sure how much of it remains, after the regular spate of killings by individuals and organisations that see no other alternatives to killing other humans.

Hopefully, there is still some hope..

Interesting Conferences

One was on Retailing (about Online versus Offline Pricing), and a paper I had written had an unexpected reaction on fb- lots of people requested a copy, and I was amazed.

Another very interesting conference was in Beppu, a small Japanese town. Met some amazing professors and students there, and got a taste of Japanese culture- one of the most polite people on earth. Another was in Sri Lanka, and I thought about why we in India don't do more in partnership with their universities-could be very fruitful.

There were others, one in Cambodia by ABEM, that enabled a visit to Angkor Wat, which was on my bucket list. Some of our domestic conferences- one on Social Media at Bangalore, and another on film and literature at BITS Goa recently, also gave me  a chance to explore interesting themes.

My Avatars on Earth- 5

More avatars. An Irani chai lover, starting from the Hilton at Hyderabad's Osmania University campus (below).

 Author/editor of books- this one's edited, with Romy Saini.

 and the party-goer. Above, at a niece's wedding in Sri Lanka, and below, Bhangda with an international crowd at a conference dinner in Sri Lanka.

2019-What I Look Forward To

 A pavement in Clemson (above) which has my name on it ..that is looking back, a pre-requisite to looking ahead.

Look forward to-playing golf, travelling (road trips too), teaching and mentoring, having conversations on the tea and lunch table with colleagues, karaoke-ing, blogging, watching more films, reading good books/blogs, tasting some more Single Malts, listening to a lot of music, maybe a few more concerts (like the one below)..and some completely unexpected experiences! My book on Marketing Research is set to come out with a fourth edition soon too. 

 

Look forward to random and planned meetings- I met at least these friends/students in the last 2 years (at least some whose names are in italics I met for the first time, having known them pretty much from Facebook-I am grateful to Zuckerberg for this- some others I have subjected to torture in my classes).

Meghana Joshi, Varun Somaiya, Vikas Jain, Vishal Golchha, Anant Ajmera, Navroze Sethna, Abha Kulkarni, Tosha Dubey, Pallavi Sharma, Sirisha Adi, Khyati Jha, Divya Singh, Urvasi Anand, Shatakshi Tripathi, Garima Shah, Shreyashi Chakraborty, Nidhi Kanungo, Jogeswari, Bhuvneet Raheja, Shruti Suman, Swathika Selvam, Akash Gupta, Shafique Gajdhar, Anupriya Pandit, Zargar Basharat, Manjari Mundanad, Achint, Savitha, Punyashlok Dwibedy, Sanjana Rao Yarram, Sapna Patni, Shripad Kulkarni, Dheeraj Mohan, Mrunal M B, Pragya Singh, Arvind Joshi, Supriya Jain, Umesh M., Vishal Tibrewal, Vrinda Khanna, Aishwarya Omprakash, Sidhanta Patnaik, Bhagyalakshmi, Shahida, Saumya Sharma, Gadgil, Vijayakumar, Dhanapal, TK Chatterjee, Anant Ram, Milind Fadnavis, Radhika J., and a little earlier, Vidya and Swapna Reddy, Meghna Sinha, Nikita Kumar, Animesh,..

Made some new friends from Conferences- among them people from China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, (finally went to Vietnam too). Reconnected with some from Vignana Jyoti on fb.

Tried some new things while teaching Digital Marketing and Marketing Research, and from collaborations with students of our programs- from IPM (Shivangi, Aradhya, Satchi, Ayushi,...) to FPM (Shweta Jha, Anjali Sharma, among others). Presented a few of these papers in conferences.

Travelexp 3- Sri Lanka

I travelled to the Emerald Isle twice last year and instantly fell in love with the place. Some pics will illustrate what I want to say, better than words can.

 Horton Plains National Park, where this is THE WORLD's END, nothing less. Below, some of the flora in the Park.

 Other end of the World's End.

 Prarthana is aided by a walking stick, as she finds the walk a bit long!
Below, Baker's Fall, halfway along the trek.

 Negombo beach-I left my imprints on the sands of time.

 A rainy drive, getting us to Kandy and the Temple there.

View to kill for, on the way to Nuwara Eliya.

Nearing 5 Years at Indore

I have been notorious for changing workplaces faster than Hindi film heroines changed their costumes in song situations. But looks like I am trying to change. Must be the poha-jalebis, and the nice people of Indore. I am about to reach my fifth anniversary at Indore, in early December. So what are my thoughts?

The beauty of the campus is incomparable- inspired by buildings at Mandu.

The Sun rises over IIM Indore (above), and below,  Singing in progress- Sadhana Lakshmi tries out her skills- karaoke party with my Google Online Challenge champs-Kalaivani and team

 Above-Nidhi Kanungo with her dad, visits. She was my student in 2000 at Kirloskar Institute. Below, our first Digital Marketing executive program in 2017, at Indore-dinner at Mashaal.

 Gulmohar gar tumhara naam hota..

 Above-Indrajit at the Mumbai campus, and below, the PGPMX 16-18 batch at Mumbai, during the Convocation visit to Indore.

I am thrilled with the peace and quiet, for one thing, on the campus. The variety provided by the PGP/MBA, short term MDPs, and the Executive programs at Indore and Mumbai is a great plus point. We did a couple of interesting programs for Trent, Whirlpool, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.

A chance to experiment with new courses, particularly in the Doctoral program, is for me a definite attraction. Even in the MBA, I started teaching Digital Marketing for the first time in my career, and have learnt a lot from it. I had only one stint with the IPM in a seminar course, apart from some good CIS projects they did with me. But I did interact with a few good actors and actresses during the plays they acted in.

Bright students are like Oxygen, and there have been quite a few, from the first batch whom I taught Advertising to, to the batches thereon, whom I taught Marketing Research and Digital Marketing-you know who you are 😃 Some champions have also won numerous awards and recognition- not necessarily due to me, I might add! I also have been on Doctoral committees of various students in the full-time and part-time programs.

Faculty colleagues are also great fun to be with, and I have had a chance to meet most at breakfast, lunch or dinner, informally, if not at recruitment seminars. Many past students and colleagues visited me at Indore, and I met a few elsewhere during these years. Some also contributed to books that I managed to edit, publish, and I look forward to meeting many more.

Had two admin. stints as MDP chair and Dean-Faculty, that were also enriching. I ended up visiting (for conferences) a lot of nice destinations, from Beppu in Japan to Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Since I also teach Tourism Marketing, it was all useful in my teaching too.

Enjoyed visits to places nearby such as Maheshwar, Pataalpani, Omkareshwar, and Mandu (several times-my favourite). 

Marketing Conference in Vietnam

Just came back after a very interesting marketing conference where Anjali Sharma, my FPM student and I had a paper, and so did Jayasimha, a colleague. Some pics from the event. A bonus was that it was held in Vietnam.

We (Jayasimha and I) take the stage, for a pic.

 Informal networking with global scholars is a highlight of conferences (above)- below, a presentation by two Sri Lankan participants (Samudrika Rasanjalee and her co-author) in progress.

 Lunch with a Vietnamese spread-above. Below, TQT, the conference hotel in Hanoi.

 The Conference chair speaks- he is from Florida Atlantic University, USA.
Below, some of the participants from the University of Jayawardenepura in Sri Lanka. Another interesting keynote speaker was from Nielsen, the Marketing research company.

Running Away

This is supposed to be me running- irony? Maybe. I haven't run since I discovered walking. Running away from anything except running is not my style. Maybe pointing out things, or pointing towards them-that is more like it. I am pointing at a walkway in a Pondicherry garden..only, the walkway is on a wall.

Being touristy, as opposed to being too wristy, as in VVS Laxman, one of the most wristy. Posing at a Sri Lankan dhaba a year ago..on way to Sigiriya, THE ROCK.

Even More Memories

We happened to go to Sri Lanka for the first time in 2017.

 with family at the destination wedding of my niece Miskil.

 Vaseem and I pose.

 My foot poses.

 Can Pooja be far behind? At World's End, Horton Plains. Below, a mask in the showroom, Laksala.

 Second trip to Colombo,..for a conference. with Bhakti More and Fanni Wong.

 Also went to National University of Singapore. For a training program.

 Met my music group in Hyderabad.

 Muthu and Vasanti in KGA Bangalore. Borrowed a flowery shirt from him.

And of course, caught up with Osmaniacs in Hyderabad-my engg. classmates.

Lanka Images 2- Craft Shopping

Or should I call it crafty shopping? Any which way, it was interesting to visit this showroom, Laksala, which calls itself Sri Lanka in a Shop. Located on Baudhaloka Mawatha off Galle Road in Colombo, it is a beautiful store to visit, even if you don't want to buy.

 At the entrance.

 Store window displays that welcome you..

 Fascinating variety of masks.

..and a pic from inside the store, which reminds you of Cauvery Handicrafts in Bangalore. It has a lot of good stuff made by Lankan craftsmen in a wide price range.