Conference at Bhubaneswar

To close the year, I attended a conference at Bhubaneswar organised by IIM Sambalpur (our mentee as an institute in its early stages) to present a paper on Tourism Destinations and their Marketing. One or two highlights were that I met a couple of former colleagues, one of whom and I had worked at XIM Bhubaneswar in the early 90s. Also met a first batch student from XIM who I had not taught.

But, surprisingly (or maybe not), ran into an IIM Indore alum, Rohit Kumar, at a cinema hall where both of us had gone to watch different films. It was a multiplex, and we exited at the same time. Anyway, a couple of meetings over coffee and dinner happened. In the process, I rediscovered an old haunt of ours Dawat, which was one of the few restaurants back in 1991. I also remember I saw Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar while I stayed in Bhubaneswar. Lots of memories..remember attending the Konark Dance Festival too..

 V. Gopal, my former colleague at IMT and XIMB...

 Rohit Kumar, IIMI alum, now with Oxford University Press at Bhubaneswar..

 Dawat restaurant, an old haunt from my days there..

 Above-Hotel Empires, a nice place to stay.. and below, with the salesgirls in Tribes India, where I did the unthinkable- shopping!

Tribes India

Not satisfied with buying a house with a lake and a plane (my last post was about those), I went shopping again. To an interesting place (Tribes India) that sold tribal craft from all over India. Managed to chat up two lovely young ladies working there, and their manager. Got some interesting stuff, too. They have outlets in multiple places across India. Do visit one when you can. Support our tribals.

 Priya and Srinanda work at the store, and were good salespeople-persuasive, but not aggressive. Their boss is in the pic below- a selfie!

 They pose sportingly at my request, in their metalwork products section!