A Landmark

My first Ph.D. student submitted his thesis this week to the university I worked with once at Bangalore. It is a landmark of a kind, though it will take a while for him to clear the evaluation and defend his thesis , and get his doctorate. My Ph.D. was obtained in the US, which has a totally different system, more autonomous, with the guide and his university department doing everything in one place. Here, we have a more distributed system for part time Ph.D. students.

Which brings me to my regular lament- or famous grouse, to borrow from the name of a whisky. That we don't have enough good institutions offering a Ph.D. program in India, at least in the area of Management. The system we have does not encourage excellence with a few exceptions, and falls short of most autonomous institutions like those in the US or Europe. IMT now has a new Ph.D. program in collaboration with NLU Jodhpur, an autonomous institution. We hope we will be successful in launching a few good doctorates in management. Academics should also pay well enough to attract talent to teaching and research. We are relatively better than we were a couple of decades ago, but we still have only about 30-40 institutions of excellence in management. We need a hundred more, at least.

Undiscovered Delights

After our foray into MP last time (pics of which are uploaded here, from Bhedagat's marble rocks), we decided to explore the unknown territory of Easternmost Maharashtra in Gondia district. A place called Navegaon Bandh (dam) was our target. We finally succeeded. But after consulting many maps, because directions were not too clear. After taking the highway to Raipur, we turned right at a place called Sakholi, and went asking for directions from friendly residents, turned left at Sangadi, reaching Navegaon Park around 3 and a half hours after we started.

Amazing place, a combo of Sundarbans and any lake that you may have seen elsewhere. Lazy birds in the marshy surroundings of the reservoir of the dam, trees of many varities, a mountain backdrop with yellow and green leaves resembling the US Fall colours in October, made for a mesmerising and tranquil experience. The flame of the forest, an tree with blazing orange flowers in full bloom along the way to Navegaon also made it a great visual treat. After a quick bite, and a drive through the park, we headed back.

Tsunami

In 2004, I did not know the meaning of the word. But the Dec 2004 experience that Eastern India and the Andamans went through changed all that. This one in Japan has also proved devastating, never mind the technological brilliance of Japan. There is fear of nuclear radiation leaks too, after the explosion in a nuclear plant. Just goes to show how fragile our equilibrium on the earth is. It can vanish at a moment's notice, if nature chooses to make it.

So, what are the lessons for humankind? One is not to be too arrogant under the false notion that we can control everything. Humility, is lesson number one. Second, celebrate the moments and the life that we DO have, doing everything you wanted to, or enjoy doing. And it is not the big things necessarily, though they are also contenders. The world cruises, the big holidays, the houses (or castles) to be built, and so on. It may also be the small things, like smiling at friends (or strangers), or going for a walk, or cooking something special, or a celebration with friends. Or in today's world,making the status update on facebook that you wanted to. Whatever gives you joy, you can never have too much of. Or doing the best at your workplace. And not because the boss said so.

A Memory to Treasure

Excitement was in the air as the chopper neatly landed in the front lawn. Out emerged two figures. Much was expected, and delivered, in the space of the next two hours. What went on inside the large dome of white that resembled a hangar which houses aircraft, is difficult to describe, but the emotions of all the stars of the event were running at a high.

The stage had the look of a film set, well-crafted to look stunning, with necessary details like the name of the event, the date (11 March 2011) and the name of the major dignitary who was the Chief Guest- Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal. The second dignitary was Mr. Kamal Nath, the dynamic Union Minister. Yours truly was the third person on stage. The medal winners were all agog, and so were all the graduating students and their proud parents.

The occasion, as you may have guessed, was the Convocation held for the first time at IMT Nagpur. It was a memorable occasion, and time just flew by, ending with a lunch, and a press meet, and a farewell to the guests, everything well-choreographed thanks to efforts of all volunteer staff, faculty and students. Now an encore will be expected every year. Hats off to everyone who made it a success.

Sunset at Ambazari Lake

Discovered two lakes in a single day. One was Ambazari, which has a decent garden built on one of its shores, and a play area which even has a large Pirates' rocking boat, the kind of thing one has seen in Disneyland abroad. Not bad, for a park run by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The sunset view from this park is fantastic, and there is a musical fountain which even without music, is impressive when it is on.

But the walkway on the bund outside the park is not very well maintained, and could do with a little more of cleanliness and upkeep. Many interesting tree and flower species can be found in the park and outside.

The other lake, Phutala, or Telangkhedi, is done up a lot better with some exotic food stalls to keep people occupied while they enjoy the lake view. Good for an evening's outing, particularly in the 'warmth' that will soon envelop Nagpur in the next two months or more.

Makes me wonder why many more of such public spaces cannot be created wherever residential layouts are present. Simple, functional ones should not be too expensive, and can be funded through a small user fee too.

World Cup Cricket

Somehow, I am unable to feel the excitement this time around. I can't put my finger on the reason for it. Is it due to an overdose of cricket since the IPL began? It seems as if every other day, there is a cricket match on TV. How much cricket can a guy watch? It is an ideal pastime if you have an hour to spend at the airport, and staring at other bored passengers is the only other option you have. As an aside, the number of people airlines manage to bore in a year would be mind-boggling. You can try calculating the numbers, if you want to get out of your boredom!

But even watching a David Dhawan or a Priyadarsan movie, though both have let their standards slide of late, seems more entertaining to me than watching a Canada Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe West Indies match. Of course, an occasional Irish rope-trick will appear to keep you happy, but there are not nearly enough of them. Even the much vaunted India-England match was quite boring to watch. 600 plus runs on an Indian pitch? That's equivalent of two and a half days of test match batting in six hours! And with hardly a bowler looking like taking a wicket, it was worse than the tests.

Anyway, for the sake of the TV channels which paid millions to ICC, and the advertisers who in turn paid the TV channels, let's hope the situation gets better. If not, I may even consider watching an Exta Kapoor serial, God bless her soul!

The Smell of the Place by Sumantra Ghoshal

The link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUddgE8rI0E provides a glimpse of what Sumantra Ghoshal, one of India's NRI management gurus thinks about the Quality of Management in various companies, in his own words. He calls it The Smell of the Place. Interesting..