Madhosh Kiye Jaa

Sustainable Blogging

How do you sustain a blog beyond a couple of years? Many ways, just like films have survived, telling pretty much 5 stories over the decades, be it Holly- or Bolly- or Tollywood. Some suggestions, having done it for over 14 years now..

1. Add pics to the events you describe.. and describe the events as they happen, before you forget.

2. Have an opinion, and express it. About anything and everything. Opinions make things interesting, within limits of course..

3. Review books, films, art, games.. extension of the above.

4. Meet people, create memories, and write about these, pics included

5. Summarise your quarters-learn from finance- balance sheets, for one.

6. Look for triggers on your friends' posts, or other bloggers' blogs..

7. Take a break, and come back with fresh thoughts.

IIMB PGP Inaugural and Distinguished Alumni Awards

IIM Bangalore, my alma mater, chose three distinguished alumni for the awards. This awards ceremony was also combined with the inauguration of the 50th batch of PGP (MBA). I was among the invitees and it was wonderful listening to the achievements of the awardees in different areas- the corporate world (Abhijit), entrepreneurship (Teamlease) and Social Entrepreneurship (Samina). They were from these batches-

Abhijit Roy, PGP 1991
Ashok Reddy, PGP 1995
Samina Bano PGP 2010

The Chief Guest, Rashmi Mohanty, also was an alum, and is now the CFO at SBI Cards. There were around 600 new entrants into the MBA programs lapping up every word. Some pics..

The new entrants, Batch 50 of PGP.

The Chief Guest, above.

Gopal Mahaptra, my batchmate and now a Professor of Practice, IIMB. This was our classroom in 1982-84.

My t shirt marks the 50th year -Golden Jubilee year of IIMB. It started in 1973.

I also tried out a set of drums before the event!

New Team Members at Prestige University

Two new faculty members, Juhee Singh Verma and Bharat Singh Patel, joined us at Prestige University.

Pics of them, with me and some older team members - Amandeep, Group H.R. head, and Chandrakant Singh, Corporate Relations head.

People I am Impressed With

Lots of people impressed me, over the years, for many different qualities.

Among colleagues, Thomas and Dayakar Rao, from VJIM. Dayakar later became VC of ITM Univ. at Raipur. And Banikanta Mishra from XIM, B.K. Mohanty from IIML and XIM, Bharat Bhasker of IIML (now director of IIMA), Harsh Halve of IMT Nagpur, along with Jitendra Sharma, Maheswaran, Smita Dabholkar, Ekkirala, TK C, also from there, Manoharan, Manasa, Shahida from PES, Dhanapal and Vijayakumar of KIAMS, Yashad Gaur from Mysore Kirlsokar, and Indrajit, Jayasimha, Harshal, Shweta Kushal of IIM Indore, Preeti Ravikiran, Narayani, Deepak from NMIMS. The reasons are varied, and will fill a chapter or two.

Students are actually many more in number. I will start with a few- A for Abha, Anchal, Anusha Soni, Anushka Mishra, Aashneet Gautam, Aishwarya (Iyer and Omprakash), Anupama, B for Bhuvneet, Bugzy, Bhawana, Bhavana, Bharath Shenoy, C for Chittaranjan, Chaitra Hegde, D for Deepa Beena, Divya Anand, Divya Sharma, G for Gowri, J for Jogeswari aka Jogi, Jasmine, K for Kokila Chopra, Kanika (2-Mhendiratta and Bhatia), L for Laura Shah, M for Meenu (Mynam), P for Praveen Kotta, Pavan (Tarawade), Praddy, Padmapriya, H for Harshad (Lunavat), N for Nikita, Nandini, Namrutha, Nikhil, Nishka, R for Ruminder Kaur, S for Sheetal, Sirisha, Sanjana Rao, Shreyashi, Sandeep (prof. in U.K. now), Shruti, Shatakshi, Shailaja Gupta, Sanjeev Undri, T for Tosha, Thoshitha, Tanaya Kar, Tanya Jakhar, U for Urmi Patel, Y for Yogita, Yamini Sha, Z for Zenitha and a bunch of Ph.D. students I met recently, including Neeti, Pratishtha, Geeti, Vanshika, ..

Golfers have a special place- Aditi, Garima, Prachi Jain, Aakansh, Sohni Roy (yeah, even a Range qualifies), Muskan Agarwal, Mahek Singhal, and some women faculty - Tanmeet, Alisha and Prerona from NMIMS and Radha Ladkani, IIMI. My regulars Gadgil, Vijayakumar with whom I have been to Kodaikanal for Golf and Dhanapal (we went to Pattaya too with Jogi who runs Golftripz).

Many others, musically minded, but that's for another day..

Repositioning

For a brand of any kind, repositioning involves changing its perception by the targeted market segment.

For Hindi films, these are some examples-

the character of a bandit/daaku/dacoit used to be a dhoti clad, moustachioed character carrying a longish rifle for many years -until Gabbar Singh came along in Sholay. Tht changed the perception of the villager-dacoit. This one was more sophisticated.

The hero never got into comedy..there was always a separate character doing comedy, until Amitabh and his drunken solos came along. The hero became an all-rounder, and did everything himself- dancing, comedy, action.

Same with the heroine, to some extent. She also tried out her vampish side, becoming a grey character, a seductress, etc. And did 'Item' numbers in others' films too.

Indian films themselves used to be technically backward in special effects etc. Bahubali and the recent crop like Robot, RRR etc. have changed that perception too. Though song and dance rules, as before. Natu, natu..

Random Stuff-Here and There

Just a collection of random clicks from here and there- last few months..

Bahubali and More at Ramoji Studios

A visit to Ramoji studios after a good 15 years, I think. Much water has flown under the bridge, but this time, a Bahubali set was awaiting us, and we had a nice guide too.. Ayushi Deshpande, on our bus. So despite the heat, we enjoyed most of the sights- pics to prove it.