Madhosh Kiye Jaa

Foreign Jaunts

We are all familiar with 'jaunty' government officials going to a foreign country at the drop of a hat- even while not wearing hats, but the virus is more widespread.

Celebs and corporates also go on foreign jaunts, for their own reasons. Yeah, you guessed right. The reasons mostly include showing off that they are capable of going where they please.

Companies also use foreign jaunts as rewards - for salespeople, dealers etc. who perform well.

Lesser mortals may spend their own money and do an all-inclusive 12-day Europe trip once in a lifetime, to be able to claim some brownie points.

Parents who have kids in the U.S., go there regularly as baby-sitters for their grandkids.

Academics like me just go there to attend conferences, and contribute to the state of knowledge!

Guest Lecture by a Former Student

Pratima Gaikwad, a former IIM Indore student who is now with MyDNA in Hyderabad, came for a guest session to our University. She spoke about marketing and branding of products and services, including those of her own company, MyDNA, that is into preventive testing based on genetic mapping. Students enjoyed the interaction and she did too.

Outdoors and Indoors, at Indore- Prestige University campus.

and in class with MBA students.. below.

IIT Roorkee

Pronounced Roodkey in Hindi, this is an ancient town with a 177 year old engineering college turned IIT. We went there to meet some graduating doctoral students, to try and interest them in joining Prestige University. A beautiful heritage building is now being worked on to restore it. Some homegrown mangoes also were available, and we were shown around by a Prof. from IIT. A very nice colonial-style guest house was pleasant to stay in.

Heritage building and person

..people.

the host of our wanderings, Prof. Mohanty

I was an electrical engineer once..

The seminar we held for doctoral students- above and below.

Hollywood - An Objective Look

A lot of Hollywood films are masala of a different kind. A few are good, in various genres. But overuse of technology and special effects/VFX have spoilt the kind of good films we got to saw earlier in decades gone by. This also seems to be happening in India to an extent, with tech playing a larger role than before.

When I started watching Hollywood films in the 70s and 80s, I did not understand the accent, always. But some movies made a mark with good action, comedy and so on. Slapstick was also a part of some. Laurel and Hardy were early favourites in childhood. Until we came tp appreciate Charlie Chaplin and his social commentary/satire, in Modern Times and The Great Dictator.

In humour of a different kind, fell Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. I liked both. Some action films like Guns of Navarone, Mackenna's Gold, or Where Eagles Dare were awe-inspiring. I did not dig the ovies that relied on special effects all that much. Star Wars or Close Encounters or disaster films like The Towering Inferno, I mean. Lawrence of Arabia seemed like a meaningful film, about the history of the Arabs.

Lately, I have liked the trilogy starting with Before Midnight which was really made well. Before that, some capers like Romancing the Stone, or A Fish Called Wanda were also fun watches.

A really good suspense film- apart from Hitchcock films- was The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, remade badly as Karz. The original was deadly!

Film Review- Hindustani 2

I saw a movie in a theatre after a while. It was not bad, but I was left with a feeling it could have been better.

It's about a vigilante who plays cat and mouse with the CBI, and outwits the son of an officer who had earlier failed to catch him. There is obviously a lot of action -some of it unbelievable- and chases across Indian states/towns.

The gripping part of the story is actually what the protagonists (a group of youngsters) discover within their own families- a story of corruption of some kind, at the urging of the main character-the vigilante.

Somewhat predictable in the storyline after the first couple of instances, it may have helped if fewer instances had been covered in some detail rather than so many. Also, the length of the movie could have been shorter by at least 15 minutes, as I always say about a lot of Indian films.

The first in the series was better, in my view. This is not bad, if you like Kamal Haasan. I actually prefer Rajnikanth in roles where there's a lot of action. He is somehow, more believable as an avenger!

An Amazing Group of Friends

It is rare for strangers (mostly) to be such great friends that you want to meet as often as you can. In groups large or small- as small as 2 too! One such group is of music aficionados which I joined around 10 years ago, at the urging of a former student from XIMB. I did it without too much of expectations. But what I got from it is a bunch of music-crazy friends who I learn from - about music, and life, every day. I am not joking. We have met physically twice before COVID and online a couple of times during COVID, but smaller meets keep happening when we visit each other's cities. We also add our friends who like Hindi music to the group. Some pics from our Bangalore meet in March 2020.