IIMB Year Book 1984

STARTING IT ALL 

This was the editorial prelude to our year book compiled in 1984. (both of us eds. are in the pic below)

(Our batch was the first to move to the IIMB campus at Bannerghatta Road)

We were the lords and ladies of all we surveyed. A campus emerging, Sphinx-like, from the ruminating remnants of prehistoric stones, an open-air mess with cloistered smoke inside and a green nursery without, hundred percent compulsory attendance, a fragmented library providing ex-cases for bus journeys to the City, all this presaged a two-year sojourn that ends with quadrangled card games and bucket-bashes. It was a time for venturesome dreams, gigantic castles in the air, generous undercurrents of apprehension and excitement, for exchanging names and qualifications and identification details with a hundred others, remembering some, forgetting some, and then trying to remember some more. A time for forays into skits and songs. Talks about the Inter-IIM. And first, tentative attempts at beating the system.

And soon there was a time for waking up. For wiping away the mists of gossamer dreams from one's eyes. For taking stock. For realising that, idyllic existence or otherwise, it's all over. The last card had been dealt. The last supper in what we call the mess, devoured. Tomorrow will be a different territory, an existence separate from Bannerghatta. No more deleterious last-night battles for the next morning's quiz. No longer the long walks to Uncle's at eleven in the night. Time to pack up and flaunt the M.B.A. degree in an evanescent world of corporate make-believe.

And in between. In between lay a two-year stretch when a lot of dreams crashed, a lot were rewritten and some new ones born. Who wins and who loses- in exams, in Frisbee, in Cricket, in JAM, in Baddy. Who gets a better grade and who gets the rough end? Who is how what. Keeping count till the cows come home.

Tragic interludes. Of Puneet and Salvo snatched away in their prime. Of visits to the Electric Crematorium. Of ashes. Of bitter butterflies in the stomach. Two who were living were now dead. We who were living were also to come to ashes, with a little patience. Bubbling moments. PJs bandied about with competitive zeal, Mural coming alive with yesterday's headliners.

Mimicking the Profs. The inter-IIM trophy won in the first year and lost subsequently. Chorus chants of Beatles numbers and limericks to fill the darkness when the KEB calls the tune. Late-night efforts to bring out printed IIMBIBEs (our mags). Finding places of solace on MG and Brigade. And discovering the mysterious ways back to the hostel.

All this and a lot more were what those two years were all about. We will look back upon the memories of this unpremeditated past, we are bound to.

The new growing campus may, on some distant or not-so-distant date, become the epitome of all that is best in the best possible of worlds, a meeting place for enlightened, avante-garde haute-management. Or it may degenerate into the stale nemesis of dreams relinquished, academic might-have-been.

Whatever happens, we will have the consolation that we started it all.

Dash n' Gunds

March 1984.

Anopheles Takes Stock

Anopheles, my winged friend, was back. Her first question to me was, "Why are you perpetually having elections?"

"Because we are a democracy, of course," I had to say.

"Yes, but so many of them? With so much of misleading misrepresentation of truth?"

"You can call them lies, I have no problem with the truth," I told her.

"But the real issues get side-tracked, don't you think?"

"Not really, the bullet train is still on track," I told her.

"Hope that's not the SILVER BULLET,  the end of the story," she replied. I could sense some sarcasm.

"No, of course not. We have Vikas."

"Who's he?" she was curious, having known some names of my human friends.

"Well, it's not a 'he'. It's a word for development, in Hindi."

"Oh, you mean the stuff that's happening ever so slowly since the British left you to your own devices?"

I was amazed at her knowledge of history AND electoral rhetoric.

"And how are all the bans doing?" she persisted. And I started counting them...I promised her an update on her next visit, along with the election results, and went back to sleep.

Rajasthan Over the Years in Pictures

 First, Udaipur, then, at Jodhpur (with Sita Mishra recently), and with Prarthana in the traditional colourful headgear on a roadtrip.

 Stayed in this haveli with Manoharan for admission work, 2009. A shot of the ceiling, below.

and the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur.

Jodhpur, Mehrangarh, with Neveen Das, my Ph.D. student then.

 Chittorgarh victory tower, above, and a camel ride, below in Jaisalmer. 2015.

Rajasthan is fascinating, and I have been there several times.

and finally, the swag at having done it. Kuldhara, the mysterious deserted village near Jaisalmer.

A Wedding Party in Nagpur

Went to her wedding and met Abha Kulkarni, a former student (of IMT), for the first time there- I was the bride's guest. Must have happened for the first time. Thanks to Facebook, though, I feel that I know her pretty well. She's been a winner of some of my awards on fb. Anyway, the feeling of meeting someone in person (and seeing the radiant smile in this case) is much more than a facebook friendship. I highly recommend meeting some fb friends regularly when you can, and multiplying your joy. I try my best to meet one per visit to any city, at least. My own alumni meets of sorts.

In this case, of course, I was accompanied by my ex-colleagues Vijayakumar and Anant Ram who had taught her at IMT and told me she was a great student. It was a coincidence that her husband Rohan is from Nagpur, and enabled me to be here for the event. Found out from chatting with her parents that they have lived in Bangalore for many years. I am a fan of Nagpuri stuff like Oranges, and I also like its clean roads in the newer parts. Of course, the speedy Metro construction is causing some traffic issues, but they won't last long, as construction is progressing at 'Gadkari speed'- defined as 20 times the average Indian speed. If he'd been in charge of the economy in the 1960s, we'd never have had to face the "Hindu rate of growth".

I was also happy it wasn't too cold- I am not a fan of sardi-Dilli ki ya aur kahin ki. Just the right medicine for ending the year- Food, Friends and Thums Up, as the old ad said. Thumb's up, totally.

Spending Time in Nagpur

This is a special place, as many pleasant years were spent here, and a majority of my student/alumni friends (thanks to facebook, naturally) happen to be from IMT Nagpur where I worked. Some of my faculty friends are the major reason I was spending the weekend this time around, but I was able to drop in on a wedding of a former student, Abha, too.

IMT was an exciting place to be, and we had a whole empty canvas which we filled with colour, to the best of our abilities. Some good initiatives that we were a part of- alumni meets in 5 cities, a Goa case conference, regular guest lectures from industry, and some training programs for regular clients like GSI and Asian Paints. A couple of new ventures by students also blossomed on the campus, one of the loveliest I have been a part of- IIMK and IIMI are also pretty campuses. And KIAMS, on the banks of the river Tungabhadra.

What particularly impressed me was the EQ of students at Nagpur, in addition to their IQ. I think the combination works better than only high IQ, beause technical skills can also be hired, but interpersonal skills have to be your own. Many have also turned out to be authors, or have followed other creative pursuits like photography or film-making (professionally), or turned entrepreneurs. A few I can readily recall are Abhinav, Pavan, Sreeram, Bhagyashree, Shraddha, Divya and Supriya Jain. Harshad, Vivek Anant and Pradyumna were also very good photographers while at Nagpur.

My Ideal Person

I am an evolved being- at least that's what I like to think, after all these years on the planet. So my choice of humans is those with some or all of the following qualities-

Fun, not overly serious about every little thing going on.

Good singers- I like music, so Cacofonix is certainly not a favourite. Actually, good atany creative arts.

Courteous, and not just to the boss or superior. Just naturally.

One who laughs a lot. Related to no. 1, but not exactly the same thing.

One who clearly prefers a human to a mobile phone (it's a thing for me).

Sensible too, if possible, but that's not essential :)

Shashi Kapoor is No More

I liked Shashi Kapoor, though I don't think he was a great actor. But he radiated good vibes and charm in any role he played- I particularly liked his light-hearted roles like the ones in Trishul and Chor Machaye Shor (this was the film with the song Le jayenge, le jayenge dilwaale dulhaniya le jayenge, that inspired the DDLJ title).

He did many unique things in his 79 years. He produced a range of good films, like Junoon, 36 Chowringhee Lane and Utsav. I thought Utsav was aesthetically brilliant, and tackled a subject that we don't hear of too much. Some songs were outstanding too, and Rekha looked great in the movie.

He also preserved Prithvi Theatres, along with Jennifer, his wife. Marrying a foreigner was also not common in those days, but they had met during his theatre days. His early success was a film co-starring Nanda, an established heroine who acted with this newcomer to films.

Unlike some others, he had no compunctions playing the second lead, and that led to many good films with Amitabh Bachchan like Kabhi Kabhi and Trishul, and one of my favourites, Namak Halaal. Sharmeelee was another favourite starring him, though I saw most of his films. Deewar was of course, an outstanding role where he uttered the famous line, "Mere paas maa hai."