Coffee Time in Chikmagalur

 After a long wait, it finally happened. I have visited several tea growing regions, but hardly any coffee growing ones. This last weekend, I made up, ticking one more box on my Bucket List. Very interesting place, Chikmagalur. A Sufi saint is supposed to have brought the coffee seed here, the legend goes. Believable, because Monks are supposed to have invented Beer too.

Anyway, amazing scenery, simple and clean living in a two-street town, and a 4-5 hour run from Bangalore are some of the attractions. You can stay a couple of nights, and soak in nature's bounty. My guess is monsoons should give you more greenery, but less clear views. So take your pick, or do both seasons. Some pics- 

Managing Egos= Managing People?

 Yes, most of the time, these are the same thing. 

That is one reason why flattery works in a lot of places. Bosses, for example are usually happy to hear good things about themselves. King's courtiers knew this very well, in the days when monarchy was prevalent everywhere.

It is a rare person who is immune to praise- deserved or undeserved. I am not recommending this route to get ahead, but maybe awareness of it may still be useful. Even otherwise, you can get things done if you recognise that people have egos- sometimes, bloated egos and the easiest way is to play along and get that satisfied.

Government servants in monopolistic situations are a good example, because they can block any initiative or request, unless egos are massaged. Well, that is sometimes given other names, but like Shakespeare said, the name is not very relevant. So, recognise and work around it if you face a monopoly of power. 

IIM Alumni of Different IIMs

 An innovative idea put into action by Shailaja Gupta Kapoor, a former student from IIM Indore, now in Bangalore. We have over 100 members, and an active WhatsApp group. There are some get-togethers physically. One such was delayed by Covid, but happened yesterday. Some pics. Met a lot of alums from IIMC, IIMK, Shillong, Lucknow and Bangalore. Many were surprised when told that I had taught at their institute!

Women's Day Celebration at NMIMS

 Women's Day Celebration at NMIMS in pictures. March 8, 2022.

Wartime Innovations

 Ok, war is bad. We all know that. But it is necessary for the war machines to keep production of ammunition going and growing. We also know that. Therefore, we need innovation in wars-or innovative wars.

There have to be wars. Understood. But destruction, killing, mass migration? These are not inevitable. So, to achieve painless but real wars, here are two suggestions (one borrowed from a friend, one mine)

1. Have real ammunition fired at specially created dummy targets created in the enemy country, by prior arrangement with them. Fire all your missiles into those. That's how films do it, so we have the expertise, in creating sets that will get destroyed, instead of real people. The warmongers get the satisfaction of having done their macho thing. No people are harmed.

2. Both sides acquire technology which can divert all missiles and bombs to sites that are harmless, once these are fired/dropped. They are detected midstream and diverted, so there is no damage to life and property, but both sides can claim that thousands of bombs were dropped on the enemy.

How about it? Both are viable solutions, and the first is cheaper- just set aside some land for the bombings. 

Will Zoom Survive?

 In case we all revert to life as in February 2020, what will happen to Zoom and Teams? There may be occasional use by some, and a regular use by a few, but the bulk of users may forget the online and move on to the face to face paradigm again.

By the way, even at the start of the online/WFH movement, whatever happened to Skype? Did it morph into Teams, or is it dead and gone? It was too complicated for most, I thought.

So maybe the lesson-another one- is that the better designed service will win. Zoom over Skype and Gmail over Yahoo earlier, are cases in point.

Energy of Youth

 It is a fact of life that youth is the time when you have energy at its zenith, and it gets lower as you age. One reason why man has always been trying to reverse nature's law, and remain young. But even as you age and (hopefully) mature, you can retain the bubbly energy of the young by being with them. Their enthusiasm is contagious (much more than Omicron), and you feel young. Take a look at these pics. These are photoshoots with young students of NMIMS Bangalore.