Students From Indore

 Having spent 7 years at IIM Indore teaching, there are a lot of students who have turned into friends, some of whom I have actually met a couple of times as and when I travelled to their cities (workplaces) or they dropped in, or are staying in Bangalore now. Shailaja Gupta Kapoor and Shatakshi are from the latter category, and we have met up in Bangalore. Anwesha too, I may end up meeting soon.

Some pics of the meets, here, or elsewhere, over the last couple of years- mostly before the Corona pandemic struck. 

Students and IMTians

 Many friendships with (ex) students from IMT have bloomed, or endured, since the time I left IMT. Spent longer in Nagpur than Ghaziabad, so naturally, many are from Nagpur IMT. A pictorial sample, which I think is representative of the mutual affection. 

Anuj, Tosha, Abha and Sirisha.

Divya Singh.

Meghana, and three bad husbands- not hers.

My twins- two of them!

Abhishek's not the only one- Aishwarya ko hum bhi jaante hain.

Anshita and gang. Bangalore meet.

Shraddha, first meet. Mall in Vashi.

Sreera, Anusha M. and Aashish.

Delhi favourites-actually Gurugram.

This is a Delhi favourite, India Habitat Centre. Kanika Mhendiratta.

Another Kanika, Bhatia, and friends.

Sampark the smiler..and others. Orchid, Mumbai.

Keyur, Ishan, Ankita... Ahmedabad!

An alum meet.. Shilpa and others.

My mann ki baat partner, Meghna..in Mumbai.

Enduring Friendships- Students

 I am amazed at times when I count the number of years I have known some students of mine. I would 

Students from IIM Indore and IFIM B School, above and below. 

Rajeev Roy Chowdhary above (with wife Sangeeta), and Anushka Mishra below, both from different batches of KIAMS.

Savitha is from KIAMS Batch 1.

have been 32 when I joined Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management, Hyderabad. I am in touch, virtually, with at least half a dozen students of a very small batch 1. KIAMS at Harihar followed soon after, and I am in touch with many students -Batch 1 onwards, and some I did not even teach there. Some evidence above of  meetings with some. 

It's great fun, both planned and unplanned meetings. I will add some more about these meetups, particularly for IIM Indore and IMT Nagpur, where I have met dozens of students across India, in just the last 2 years or so.

Thought Leaders

 These are few and far between. In any field. This is ironic, since as a species, humans are supposed to be thinkers of a higher order than other animals/species. Maybe the way we have built society, politics, governance, bureaucracy, education etc. has something to do with it. Thinking skills are hardly rewarded anywhere, from education to corporate work cultures, despite the usual lip service to 'thinking outside the box.'

But there have been a few souls that I can think of in India, who contributed immensely to our country's progress, through thinking big, fresh and also helping implement those thoughts-at least one of these two. 

Verghese Kurien, through spearheading the White Revolution, ensured availability of milk, to a population that was malnourished and deprived of this basic nutrition-especially children. Farmers' interests were also protected, because it was done through cooperatives.

Sreedharan, on the other hand, implemented Metro railway and other projects successfully, and brought to urban commuters a safe and reliable mode of transport. The founder of Nirma showed us the power of advertising and pricing, albeit with help from an ad agency that created the best-selling campaign. Similarly, Amitabh Kant spearheaded advertising campaigns for Brand India and Brand Kerala with the Incredible India and God's Own Country campaigns. 

The Tatas set up institutes of learning in diverse fields such as Science and Social sciences, when none existed-at least not of high quality.

ISRO did some good things.

Manmohan Singh and Narasimha Rao at the centre, and Chandrababu Naidu in his stint as Chief Minister, brought in a vision of something drastically different from the plodding on governance and licensing. Maybe the Healthcare crisis brought on by COVID 19 will spur something in the healthcare sector? Maybe we can become vaccine suppliers to the world, at the very least?

Guide to Throwing a Tantrum

 Tantrums come naturally to kids..at least that's what we are taught to believe. But what about adult tantrums?

Husbands throw tantrums, wives do too. Sometimes the latter are silent ones, but unmistakable. 

Politicians are prone to throwing some, particularly when elections are close, or they are close to being thrown out of their ministerial portfolios.

Older people may be afraid to throw one, lest they get bundled off into an Old Home by the same kid whose tantrums they were forced to tolerate in his childhood.

Celebrities are always throwing one- otherwise they wouldn't be a celebrity.

The key to throwing a good tantrum- or an effective one, is that the audience should be the right one. If an Indian celebrity throws a tantrum in Japan, for instance, it won't work. They may just bow, and move on. Phir kya ukhaad loge aap?

Trip to an MBA Class

 I mean my MBA class, as a student. That would be late 1982. The subject was Organizational Behaviour. I recently found some notes-cyclostyled (you may not know what that is, but it was a primitive form of copying or Xeroxing. They involved some readings, an exam description, a definition, and an analysis of my personality. Here they are. Most are self-explanatory-

This set of courses- 3 of them, including one elective, were some of the best I had at IIMB and the others were not bad either! Only a couple I slept through. But O.B. really opened my eyes, helped me understand myself and others a lot better, and I think may have contributed to whatever little success I have had at managing people in various positions of academic leadership I have held in my 40 years since! That's a lot of contribution, but of course it was the foundation for other learning over the years. This is probably the most important subject in an MBA program, if taught by experts.

Vaccination for COVID in Large Numbers

 Finally, I got my first shot.. 

There has been a lot of discussion around vaccination, for and against. But I decided it's a good idea for majority of people to get vaccinated, rather than not get vaccinated. So, like many of my eligible family and friends, I got the first shot of Covishield made by Serum Institute, I believe.. second one will be between 45-60 days. Hope that means a lesser chance of catching or spreading it.

Of course, you should think for yourself, about pros and cons, but it seems safe for 45 plus people, since many have taken it, so no harm at least will be done-my thoughts.

Also, I think the vaccine should now go to people in colonies, educational institutes once the age limit goes down, so as to speed up the drive. In Bangalore, I hear some apartment blocks have started it. When we reopen in June or July, I think educational institutes should vaccinate students to prevent loss of another academic year, if allowed to.