Bonds- A Reflection

 I have been able to bond with people quite easily. It could be students, colleagues from faculty or staff, and friends, classmates, and cousins/relatives. A new category has been added a few years ago- a music group on Facebook that I became a member of, and instantly made over a 100 like-minded friends who bonded over music.

I am not age-ist, and I am glad most of friends aren't. Or else, why would a twenty-something or a forty-something want to spend time with a Sixty-something like me? I have rarely been turned down when I proposed a meeting with alumni of different B schools that I taught in, in various cities- in India or abroad.

So I have met Smita Mohan in Dubai, Vidya and Swapna in Singapore, and countless alums of Kirloskar Institute, IMT Nagpur, or IIM Indore, IFIM, Vignana Jyoti Institute, or colleagues from IMT Ghaziabad, IMT Nagpur and elsewhere.. some names are Anshita Chetty, Rupam Verma, Aashish and Anusha Mamidanna, Gowri Kishore, Sreeram, Meghna Sinha, Sanjana Yarram, Swati Jain, Nishka Rathi, Sudeshna Ray Srivastava, Ranjana Rudra, Roopali Saxena, Deepthi Balagiri, Pratima Gaikwad, Savitha, Nikita Kumar/Ray, Shruti Sharma, Aditya Naag, Shafique Gajdhar, Abha Anagha Kulkarni, Tosha Dubey, Siri Adi, Anuj Mathew, Anushka Mishra, Bharath Shenoy, Vishakha Sugandh, Anusha Soni, Garima Shah, Pushpinder Singh, Harshad Lunavat, Phalguni Banerjee, Ananya Nani De, Divya Singh, Swatika Selvam, Jogeswari, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Amit Gope, Mohan Gopalratnam (both from XIM Bhubaneswar back in 1993).

And colleagues from IMT Nagpur like Tk Chatterjee, Smita Dabholkar, Veena Pailwar, Saleena Khan, and others, IIMK staff members from my day who are still there, Keyur Purani and SSS Kumar and Neeraj Dwivedi who were faculty colleagues there, Jayasimha and Shweta Kushal from IIM Indore, and Ph.D. students from IIM Indore like Prachi Jain, Akansh Khandelwal, Pratishtha Batra, Vartika Varyani, Neeti Ingole and Geeti Mishra.

I have also met Vrinda Khanna and Surbhi Mehta Chaddha, Pallavi Bajpai, Abhinav Kamal, Aditi Gupta (who played Golf at IMT Nagpur). Probably a few more that I am missing right now.

Trip to IIM Kashipur

 My wife and I visited a friend at IIM Kashipur. Neeraj Dwivedi was my colleague at IIM Kozhikode, in the 2003-05 period, and we were together at IIM Lucknow too. He and Shradha are family friends. We had a great time meeting with them and staying on campus. It's a lovely 200 acre campus with plenty of greenery, and buildings inspired by IIM Ahmedabad. There's also a small lake. I got a chance to speak to some Doctoral students, and also taught Golf to a few students and staff. 

We also managed a small getaway to a resort nearby, Camp Hornbill, dedicated to bird history. 

Itika (above) has played before.. others were first timers. 

The CAO is a Golfer, ex-Army.

Golfing in IIM Kashipur

 I was at the IIM Kashipur campus last week. They have a few large patches of green on campus, and we had a couple of Golf Basics sessions for students of MBA and Ph.D. Some admin. folks and the Director also joined in. 

Itika, an MBA student, has played Golf, so she joined in as Coach.

Some more students try out the tee shot.. below, Poorvi, a Doctoral student.

Putting, above, and a demo below.

Almost the entire group of trainees. 

Teaching Golf Over the Years

 Over the years from Nagpur (2009-13), IIM Indore (2013-2020), NMIMS (2020-22), and Prestige University (2022-24), I taught Golf basics to a wide variety of students including MDP participants from industry, MBA/BBA/Ph.D. students or alumni, and faculty members. Staff too. Some pictorial reminders-

Professors and families, above, IIM Indore

Sohni Roy, colleague, at an Indore Driving range.

Prachi Jain above, and Akansh , Ph.D. students, IIM Indore

Below- Radha Ladkani, prof., IIM Indore

Above- An unusual one, a kid we met at Kodaikanal Golf Club, is being taught by a caddie, while her Mom and we assist.

Students above, and profs. - Tnameet Sahiwal and Prerona Baruah- below, NMIMS Bangalore

Students from NMIMS above, and IIM Indore (Anusha and Shantanu), below

Snehal, visiting faculty at Prestige above, and Veronica, Argentinian faculty who visited Prestige.

Juhee Singh, faculty at Prestige, and below, students..

Below-Natasha Kothari, guest faculty, Prestige

Below- Gayathri, a friend of Prof. Preeti Ravikiran.. she's a Cricket umpire for India.

at NMIMS Bangalore