Second Coming at IMT Nagpur- Musings

Musings on my Second Innings (Feb-Sept 2013)

Came back to IMT Nagpur just before the Convocation 2013 in March. It was executed flawlessly again, and Mr. Azim Premji was a very nice Chief Guest (simple, humble and focussed) to have. A farewell party for outgoing students in February was a highlight. Made some new acquaintances among the departing students- Dushyant, Madhulika, Esheeta, Haritima, ...

Now, as I prepare to go back to Ghaziabad, I am looking back at a few things that happened between then and now. We (IMT Nagpur) became a member of the AACSB, and plan to apply for the global accreditation. We have also applied to the Indian accreditor of B-Schools, the NBA.

We revamped the curriculum and evaluation methodology in a series of meetings at Nagpur and at Marble Rocks, Bhedaghat (off-site) in April, to address dissatisfaction among students and faculty. Done through a consensus among faculty, it should stick. Three bright young faculty, PhDs/FPMs from  IIML, IISc.  and NITIE, joined us. So did new Faculty Research Associates, Urvika and Samiksha.  Romaa, an alum of Ghaziabad from 1987 joined us in the Delhi placement team, and T.K. Chatterjee took over as Placement Chair.

The faculty outing at Bhedaghat in April was great fun (and work). Stayed at MP Tourism’s hotel overlooking the Marble Rocks. We also revived a tradition of having faculty parties, and a new element of these- Karaoke singing- caught on, with lots of colleagues getting (and using) one.

We added an IBM Analytics lab with Cognos and SPSS certification available to students who want it. A Bloomberg terminal is also available, with a new course being designed to make use of it. We started an HR Analytics centre, with a launch at Centre Point hotel in town. We did training programs for Asian Paints in the summer of 2013. A great monsoon followed, the best in recent history at Nagpur, leaving the campus beautiful as ever. We developed a second golf green at the campus, and inducted some new members (like Madhuri Helchel) into the IMT Golf Team. The golf team celebrated good performances by having a party for each birdie and par!

Alumni chapter meets were held in May-June with a lot of warmth, at Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai. Met a lot more people in these, and exchanged views on life and careers. Some of the alums I remember meeting are Kaavish, Piyush, Abhinav, Mohit, Harshad, Chetan, Akash, Sheetal, Anumeha, Shuchi, Veethika, Hanika, Vaishali (the heroine of a feature film made at IMT), Abhinav (the maker of that film and now an independent director), Sushant, Anjali, Himani, Shilpa (twice), Bhagyashree (aka Bugzy, who portfolioed a lot of students while here), Akshar, Garima, Aditi, Nidhi (Maheshwari), Shivangi, Kedar, Shreyasi,  Sriram and Sriram (Chennai/Bangalore and Kolkata), Meenu, Abdullah, Roshan, Meghana (Joshi), Varun, Vikas, and of course, some of the organisers, like Nancy, Sonia, Chaitra and their gang.
For the first year, I taught a class on the Case method of learning, and a class on How to Play Golf at the IMT Golf course. This is a USP that no Indian B school has, and I hope it catches on with some students. We also did an inaugural IMT Golf tournament for first years, with about 44 competitors, including an alum of 2010, Nidhi Shukla, who joined in. Lots of bright people in the new batch, including a full-blown author, Tanya Shrivastava, who has written and published a novel!

Some  students that I interacted with included Saksham, Nikita and Kanika of Placecom, and Punyashlok and Vishal of the Corp. Communication student team.  Bhawana Moondra was an impressive host to some guests who visited for lectures. Students have planned a mock United Nations at the campus later this year. Seems appropriate, considering the situation in Syria right now.

Managed to get in a golf-cum-sight-seeing trip to Kodaikanal and Vedaranyam with Vijayakumar and Gadgil, colleagues at IMT, and Dhanapal (a former colleague at Kirloskar Institute, Harihar).  Before that, a memorable, long-awaited trip to the Lonar meteorite crater happened in August, with friends and family. It’s a weekend outing from Nagpur, and worth seeing. Not too well-known, until I started publicising it! MTDC might appoint me their ambassador.

Some classmates from IIMB, Prabhakar, Sandhya and Subbu Vaidyanathan came for guest lectures on various occasions, sharing their corporate and life experiences with us. Jaya Jha, (alum of IIML and founder) of Pothi.com and Devapriya Roy, an author and friend, also visited to talk to students.

Parting is difficult, but recounting the good times ( and the lovely people in those) helps. Hail IMT Nagpur!

Interview with a Stock Market Analyst

Mr. Shah, expert on stock markets, is being interviewed by the PYA (Pretty Young Anchor, of which there are many on television)-

PYA: Mr. Shah, what do you recommend today?

Shah: Well, I think half the Gujjus will have dhokla today, so I see an upside in flour making companies specialising in Chana Dal....

PYA: How about Banking, Pharma, IT, and Metals? Should you go long or short, Mr. Shah?

Shah: Well, it’s been a long time since I was so bullish on IT stocks. If the rupee goes to a hundred against the dollar, they’ll double their sales turnover by doing nothing. It’s like a magic trick, or alchemy.. so I am going gaga (no threat to the Lady) over IT now.
Pharma, I am also sure will also do well, as the rupee is giving high BP and heart trouble to all the importers in our country. So they have to do well, there is no option..
Banking, I will say that people don’t want their hard-earned rupees to go waste, so they will buy gold as that is the only tangible asset they can see. Real-estate is more likely to melt down than the yellow metal....as a result, banks will have a tough time, so I would say sell banking stocks.

PYA: Brilliant analysis, Mr. Shah. What advice do you have for the retail investor?

Shah: There was always conventional wisdom that to be a successful investor, you must know your onions. Never so true, never so true as today. You must stock up on onions like there is no tomorrow. Even if you don’t eat them, stock up on them. Buy a deep freezer and stock up on onions. That can ensure your daughter’s marriage, your son’s education, and a hedge for rising petrol prices. Since you can’t stock up on petrol, stocking up on onions is the only way out.

PYA: Thank you soo... much, Mr. Shah.


Viewer (Switching channels to Ekta Kapoor’s serial) : Am I the only one going bananas out here?

Cellphone Etiquette

A cellphone, though useful sometimes, is the most invasive tool ever invented by mankind, heat-seeking missiles included. Here are some tips for its use on me.

I am not a teenager and you are not my girlfriend. Therefore, I am not waiting for your call. Sorry, I got better things to do (eat, sleep, work, blog, golf, stare into space etc.), so if possible, stay away from your cell- and DON'T call me. Note: This does not apply to about 6 people. And, I KNOW who they are. You can guess who.

If you have to call, be prepared for my not wanting to answer. It's my cell, and my prerogative. Some days, I may not charge it, if I don't want to. Obama will not stop bombing Syria if I pick up your call.

I have some email IDs that could be accessible if you try and find out. Please send me a note explaining why I should talk to you. I will think about it.

Don't ever try to sell on the cell to me. I most likely will never buy from you after that. Even if it's a free holiday to Hawaai.

SMS was invented for Dodos to send relatively less invasive messages. Use it. And wait for a reply. It may happen in a minute, or a day, or a week. You did your job by sending it. (Yes, I know the Dodo is supposed to be extinct. I am still not sure.)

The Name of the Rose- Film Review

I caught this by chance on the World Movies channel. The book (by Umberto Eco, translated from the Italian) I had read a couple of years ago. This is a classical tale of ancient Italy, with intrigue in an abbey where there is a large library of handwritten and translated tomes from around the world.

It is such a tome translated from the Greek that becomes the reason for the intrigue, and murder, because it has the potential to challenge the existing dictates of the Church. How? It advocates doubt and laughter. And it is written by Aristotle. So scared is one of the older monks there that he prevents the book's discovery, and kills anyone who finds it or tries to. There are sidelights like a witch-hunt, and the love story of the young monk with a village girl who gets accused of being the witch.

Brother William, a somewhat maverick monk, along with his understudy, figures out the truth, but not before a lot of drama happens on this remote hill-top abbey. The story is engrossing, and Sean Connery in the lead puts in a credible performance. Do watch it if you get a chance.


Farewell My Concubine

This is the title of a classic Chinese film made in 1993. I had heard about it somewhere long ago, and got a chance to view it today. It is stupendous, and unlike many of today's films that can't keep you interested for even an hour and a half, it leaves you wanting more after 170 minutes! That's real art, in my view.

Like Dr. Zhivago does for Russia, it also takes in a lot of the history of China from the Japan-China war to the Chiang Kai Shek era, to the communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. But all this is in the backdrop. The story is of two boys who become stage partners in an opera company and perform the role of the King and his concubine who remains loyal to him through thick and thin, finally laying down her life for him when his kingdom is about to be lost to a rival. The name of the opera they perform successfully is Farewell, My Concubine. This itself is mesmerising, and holds one spellbound when it is on, a few times in the movie.

As they turn successful, there enters a woman, a prostitute, whom one of them marries, and this drives a schism in the relationship of the 'stage brothers'. How they all get through the years of political turmoil and persecution, sometimes lucky and other times not, is the rest of the plot.

A must see, for any movie buff interested in good cinema One of the classics, reminds you of the Kurosawa films from Japan.

Solving Grave Problems in a Jiffy

I was thinking. About grave problems that the media tell us we are facing these days. And then, I thought about them for about 30 minutes. And bingo, came up with solutions for all of them. Here they are-

How to Stop Chinese Incursions

-Threaten to exchange our currency for theirs. We get a strong currency, and get rid of the Chinese, at one stroke.

Problem of Import of Oil Leading to Current Account Deficit (CAD)-whatever that is.

-Make Nano the only passenger car that can be sold in India. This solves all the above, in addition to solving the parking issue, and congestion on our roads.

-Another one for the CAD. Ban gold possession by individuals, citing ancient and modern philosophers. We are the land of Buddha, who taught renunciation. The women ,may not vote for you, but that is a calculated risk, because the men might!

If you ban gold, it will automatically boost the bank deposits and stock market investments by Indians, and we don't need FIIs (whatever they are) to do that. Masterstroke, or what!


Tamilnadu Diaries

This is a brief travelogue of recent forays we made into the deep end of eastern Tamilnadu. On the way back from a golfing trip to Kodaikanal, we decided to be adventurous and ventured into the area near Vedaranyam, and the tip of the sea nearby at Kodikkarai (pic 2 with me and the boat). Sri Lanka is easily accessible from there. The Tamilnadu government wants to turn the area into an ecotourism destination, as there are forests with animals and birds in and around. Vedaranyam is also a big salt-producing area, with around 5 lakh tonnes of the stuff being produced in a year.

Our route took us from Kodaikanal through Madurai, and after a lunch halt at Mellur (pic no. 1- Biryani in what is called a military hotel in those parts), through Pudukottai,



Pattukottai, , Muthupetta to Vedaranyam and on to Kodikkarai by the sea. Got there just in time for a breezy sunset. We took another route to reach Trichy, our night halt, by way of Mannargudi, and Thanjavur.

Next morning, after a stay at Trichy, we drove back to Chennai via Mahabalipuram (last two pics) via the East Coast Road, and spent some time at the beach near the famous Shore temple. The ECR is a picturesque driving alternative to the regular highway. We also partook of the Kumbhakonam brand of Filter coffee which dots the highway.

The first pic features my colleagues and golf partners Ravi Gadgil (he is also in no.3) and Vijayakumar, from IMT Nagpur.




Kodaikanal -golfing in

This was my second golfing vacation in India, not counting a visit to BEML in Kolar near Bangalore. Second time in Kodai, which has a tough golf course, but a hospitable one outside the course.

Some pics might help explain the feeling you get when playing there.



Film Review- Chennai Express

Having seen Bol Bachchan, I knew what to expect..kind of. Like David Dhawan before him, Rohit Shetty seems to have a brand of humour mixed with action, of his own. It works, mostly. Leave your brains behind, and it's fun.

A Don whose lovely daughter runs away from an unwanted marriage, and is abducted by his goons (and her cousins!) to be brought back to his 'territory' sounds corny enough, but in the days of khap panchayats and honour killings, it is believable. Trouble is, our hero gets embroiled in it, and despite many attempts to get away, he remains embroiled. Until he falls in love, that is.

There is a lot of humour, and though it's not as sparkling as some other films old and new, it's probably the best one can expect in today's age. The LOL days (Angoor, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Padosan, Bombay to Goa, Chashme Baddoor) are long gone, I presume. But Shah Rukh, whose last few films I had boycotted for obvious reasons, does a pretty decent job of this courage-lacking character for the most part. Deepika actually steals the show, and looks great in her South Indian avatar. Satyaraj, the Tamil villain, acts his part well as her dad.

Dudhsagar falls, Goa, ( I presume) where the train stops for the goons and their catch to get off, looks spectacular. The village where the lead pair take shelter later on also looks beautiful. The action is a bit hackneyed, but provides a change of pace.

All in all, not a bad way to spend 2 hours plus. The pace is pretty decent. Songs are OK.

Women of Substance

These are not mythical entities, but real ones. Three such accomplished women visited IMT Nagpur recently for a guest lecture.

Sandhya Sekhar was till recently, CEO of a unique Research Park near IIT Chennai. This is an initiative that leads India-based corporates to do research that is likely to transform products, services, processes, even raw materials, or fuels, with India in mind. Needless to say, original research is sparse in India, in most fields, so this is a great idea. It also took a lot of time and energy to sell the concept to all the funding agencies. But the baby was finally born, and is going great guns. Quite incidentally, Sandhya was a classmate at IIMB around 30 years ago.

Devapriya Roy is a recent friend I made after reading her impressive first book, The Vague Woman's Handbook. A great communicator, and a very friendly, unpretentious soul, she has another piece of fiction, The Weight Loss Club (weight loss has to be fiction, you might say). She has also modelled for Keo Karpin earlier, and is pursuing a PhD in natyashastra from JNU.

Ruchira Chaudhary is a consultant based out of Singapore, who does this for the likes of Michelin in the field of Organisational Development and allied areas of H.R. She was introduced by another classmate, a mutual friend.

Hats off to the likes of Sandhya, Ruchira and Devapriya.




Lonar Crater - A Pictorial Tour

Here are pics worth a few thousand words- the original meteorite that caused the hole is buried deep below the water. The humans seen are Prof Ravi Gadgil in blue, self in red and spouse even redder.





Anopheles and the Vanishing Rupee Trick

Ok, this is the latest tete-a-tete with my old friend Anopheles. For those who came in late, she is a female mosquito who specialises in intelligent conversation, sometimes giving me a complex.

This time, she asked me what problems my countrymen were facing. Brainwashed by the stories on TV every breathtaking hour, I replied, "The falling rupee."

She said, "What do you mean?"

I explained, "It's our currency. The rupee. It has fallen to an all-time low against the American currency, the US dollar."

She seemed amused. "Do you travel abroad frequently?"
"No," I said.
"Do you need something so badly that you have to import it?"
I was about to say "gold" but checked myself and said, "Not really."

"Then, pray, how does the rupee fall bother you?" she wanted to know.
I was a bit flummoxed. Then I thought of a killer reply "We need petrol and diesel, you know.That has to be imported. So we need dollars."

"Oh, so you can't do without oil." She seemed quite disdainful. "What research have you done into using solar energy, which is almost free? Or any alternative sources? Why haven't you developed electric cars, with all those millions of engineers whom you keep churning out of your wonderful colleges?"

How did she know so much about what we didn't do, I wondered. But outwardly I put up a brave front.
"Research is on, you know. We'll soon have some of those."

She was not convinced. "Are you sure? How many products or technologies have you produced out of your labs in the last sixty-five years?"
I could count about  four or five, and gave up.

"Ok, let's talk of something else," I beseeched her. She relented, so I told her how my state of birth was being split into two- Telangana and Andhra.

She was sceptical of the benefits.
"How do you expect the same bunch of people who ruled the earlier state to do anything different with the people just because you made a new boundary line?" was her searing question.

"Smaller states are easier to govern," I argued.

"Then how come you had all these great empires in the past? Were they all badly governed? The U.S. is large. Is it badly governed?" I had to admit my logic was sounding flawed, in retrospect.

Mulling over that lesson in "good governance", I bid her goodbye with a promise to meet another day.



Dancing Heroes

Heroes have to dance in Hindi films. That's a given, and except a couple of them, all others have fallen in line, dancing.

Mithun Chakraborty was one such who rose rapidly when he danced to some Bappi Lahiri tunes. One such movie was Wardaat. In this he gyrated to some fun steps in Dekha hai maine tujhe phir se palat ke and so on. Suraksha was another combo movie of this duo. Disco Dancer was another, and Kasam Paida Karne wale Ki where he teamed up with an unusual beauty, Salma Agha, was yet another.

Jeetendra was known for his tight pants and white shoes, but he managed to dance nevertheless. Farz, Humjoli (Hai re hai, neend nahi aaye), a couple of films with Mumtaz, and a host of them with Sridevi (Mawali, Himmatwala), were made for his energetic brand of song and dance. Dildaar, Judaai were some others.

Kamal hasan was a good dancer too, but his forays into Hindi films were limited. Sanam teri Kasam and Ek Duuje Liye were two where he did show his prowess.

Rishi Kapoor probably did the stage dances better than most. Hum Kisise Kum Nahin in particular, where his Bachna ae haseeno was a rage. Or Karz where he did Paisa, yeh paisa, with lots of verve. Of course, Rafoo Chakkar had Chhuk chhuk, chhak chhak, and Khel Khel Mein had a few good ones like Ek Main aur Ek Tu, and Khullam khulla pyar karenge hum dono.


Leadership- Faculty Management

This is a longish post, with some original thoughts based on my experiences on leading B schools.

Faculty Management

I found faculty the easiest to manage, for some reason, in my few years as head of various institutions. According to me, the key is to treat the faculty as an equal unless you have some reason to exert your authority. I was a faculty member once, and found this above-mentioned facet to be a key differentiator in the way I was dealt with by various bosses.

I am not suggesting that this is the same as abdicating your responsibility or not thinking problems through. For example, assertiveness is required in some situations. For instance, I have had to sack faculty in exceptional circumstances too, but they were exceptional. I was also forced to take a call on performance evaluations at times, in unpleasant ways, but did not shy away from it.

But in the normal course of events, faculty are your biggest assets, and should be respected as such. They will actually go beyond the call of duty, and do, if their basic need- respect- is given to them by the bosses and the management (owner/promoter). This can happen in any level of B school, not just in the top ten or fifteen. Sometimes, even the reverse happens- resulting in better than expected performance in lesser known B schools.

How do you gain the confidence and respect of a faculty member of your team and help them perform better? First, you need to convince them that their development is aligned with the name and fame of the institute. Philip Kotler is an asset to Kellog’s at Northwestern University, and not vice-versa. Srikant Datar has brought fame to Harvard with his book on ‘Rethinking the MBA’ in recent times. Parasuraman of SERVQUAL fame is better known than his university, in fact. I am not sure which university he works for.
So a faculty member can actually play a major role even in branding his institute. But above all, he must contribute more than just good teaching. He could develop his training skills by offering or teaching in Management Development Programs, or publish scholarly work in journals of repute, or write a text book (where would Kotler be without his famous text?).

Value-added Activities
I call these value-added activities, and these are as important as teaching. Of course, your students will remember you if you teach well, but the whole world will salute you if you do more in different forms suggested above. You could also lead a PhD program or at least be a guide to some doctoral students, or start a journal for your institution, or do some more innovative things- for example, consulting. Faculty need to excel in at least two of these besides teaching. And then you will automatically become a much sought-after person in your field of expertise.

Setting Expectations
At PESIT, Bangalore, I first set out my expectations that every non-PhD faculty would get a PhD. To their credit, every single faculty who did not have one, enrolled for one, and we had 100% faculty who either had one or were registered for one- including a 58 year-old! It helps to set out expectations in terms of teaching, research, Ph.D., training, and academic administration.

Let me tackle some of these. Academic administration is the toughest. Most faculty members ask, why should we do this (unpaid labour)? My answer is, I expect you to be a Dean or a Director of a B school in a few years. These are valuable experiences along that path. I was once a placement chair in an institute. Not a very good one, I might add, because my selling skills were weak. But I learnt how to handle students and placement chairs after that stint, which was to prove useful to me later on.  I was also an MDP chairperson at another school, and a research chair at IIMK, in addition to coordinating admissions and the Post Graduate Program at various stages in my career. All of these were useful stints, and helped me grow. I saw one of my major successes in appointing the right people for the right job, in some of my later stints as head of an institution.

Teaching
Load for teaching needs to be defined, and should not be exceeded beyond a maximum. It is an exhausting process when you include preparation and evaluation (in an autonomous school the faculty does this himself), particularly when class sizes are large. Therefore, to find time to do other things that are important, teaching hours need some control. Unlimited teaching may produce a good teacher incapable of adding value to himself or the B school over a period. Four courses could be a good starting point, for an annual academic teaching load at a top autonomous school, because grading papers takes a lot of time in these. In some cases, you may need one or more additional courses to be added.

Publication
Either empirical research or case study publication is a must to prove that you are pursuing current knowledge. Contribution to the profession is also measured through publications. Accreditation agencies like AACSB, EQUIS, and NBA,  and ranking agencies evaluate a B school on the basis of their faculty’s publications, which is counted towards the intellectual capital. Therefore, for various reasons, publishing your work is crucial. Training and hand-holding of new faculty may be needed to help them achieve this goal. Journal lists of potential journals to publish in must be generated and updated. You could start an institutional journal. Research seminars by internal faculty can be organised regularly for sharing of work in progress. Training on research methods could also be imparted internally or through sponsorship to programs done by other B schools.

Conferences
Conference papers are more easily accepted than journal papers, but do need effort. They can be co-authored with faculty from other B schools or your own. The presentation of papers is a break from routine, and can expose you to new ideas as well as new peers. I once found a co-author at one conference at MDI Gurgaon- he happened to be an Indian working in a New Zealand University and it led to a decent international publication.

Industry Interaction
This can take several forms. If the budget allows it, faculty must get industry speakers to come in to their class for a couple of sessions in a course. This builds a network with industry, and exposes the faculty to some industry jargon and events. Also, consulting or training opportunities may come as a result of these interactions. Industry seminars on  a theme that is current or trending, can be organised as a day-long event, with the help of student interest groups. This may create leads for placement or projects.

Case Writing
I believe, and have proof for this assertion, that anybody can write a case. In fact, students have written several cases for me based on both real and simulated or fictional data. Faculty can certainly do so, if they put their mind to it. I have had a faculty colleague write a case in I.T. , and I have thought about cases in other areas that I know nothing about. Of course, in Marketing or Organization Behavior, it is far easier to think of case situations. I have also done a video case by interviewing the protagonists once.

A novel idea we tried out at IMT Nagpur is writing cases on the companies of participants in an Entrepreneurship program. This involved documenting and rewriting the experiences of a dozen participants of a long training program, where they presented their own case studies. Rewriting these for a particular set of problems or questions made them very good topical case studies for teaching. We also encouraged people to write cases at a conference that we (IMT Nagpur) conducted at Goa every year. Budding case writers were encouraged to write cases and were given feedback by experts who have written several cases for teaching or publication.

Evaluation of faculty
Usually a mix of criteria, that include teaching quantity and quality (measured through student feedback and other criteria such as novelty, etc.), publications, and service to the institution through academic administration are used in evaluating faculty contribution. You can devise a method that suits the goals of the organisation. But this needs to be clarified many times orally and in writing. Goal-setting for the institution also needs repeated discussions with individual faculty and in groups.

International Exposure and Development
You need to handle faculty with care, as an important resource. Their developmental needs can be met through exposure to training, foreign teaching, and networking opportunities. Future leaders can be groomed through such exposure. For instance, at IMT Ghaziabad, over 80 partner institutions are available for faculty and student exchange, as MOUs have been signed with them. In a given year, at least 10-12 faculty go out and teach internationally. This brings in great exposure and an incentive for faculty to continue with the institution. In other words, it is a retention tool for those faculty members who value such opportunities.

Designing Faculty Development Programs
While designing FDPs, there are three major (and one minor) areas that must be covered.
1.      Research techniques and methods, which help in publishing
2.      Use of cases and other innovative pedagogical tools
3.      Publishing avenues and strategies
4.      Networking with faculty and industry

The programs can be designed and conducted in-house with internal resources (if available) or external resources, if these are not available. Usually, the payoff is immediate, in terms of increased productivity, if the exercise is handled correctly. For example, in a Bangalore based B school, we had faculty papers going up from nearly nil to about 15 per year, including conference and journal papers.

A liberal policy of encouraging conference participation funded by the institution needs to go hand in hand with raising expectations and conducting FDPs or sending people to attend them elsewhere. It is probably cost-effective to conduct them in-house for the topics/themes mentioned above. For specialised or technical training which is very narrow, they could be sent out to other institutions, or even to industry as ‘interns’.


Lonar Crater

Planning a trip to Lonar crater this long weekend. What that is (Indian English), you may well ask. So I will try and explain. Nagpur is in the far east of Maharashtra, a biggish state. It is about 900 kms. wide, the state.

Somewhere to the west/south-west of Nagpur lies a little known town, Lonar, in a district known as Buldhana. There, in or near the town, lies a crater formed by a meteorite that hit the earth some thousands/millions (not sure of the units here) of years ago. This was a huge meteorite, and would have flattened anything in its way. Glad I was not in the way.

Anyway, it left behind a crater, that filled up into a lake. Remember seeing a similar crater in the U.S. somewhere- probably Arizona, where we saw a sign and took a detour. More on this after the trip.

Continued...Hat Tricks

Laxmikant Pyarelal had two hat tricks that I can recall (a hat trick being defined as a movie album with three or more hit songs.

Shagird which had the famous Dil vil pyaar vyaar main kya janu re.. and Bade miya deewane aise na bano, haseena kya chahe, hum se suno picturised on Joy Mukherjee and I.S. Johar. And, Woh hain zara, khafa, khafa,...

Bobby which brought in Dimple and Rishi Kapoor as a lead pair and captured the hearts of teenage lovers in the seventies, had great music from them, almost every song still remembered. HUm tum ek kamre mein band hon, ...Main shayar to nahin, Jhooth bole kauvva kate, Na maangun sona chandi with its Goan twist of Ghe, ghe ghe ghe re, ghe re saiba,.and so on.

R.D. Burman had numerous hits to his credit in the hat tricks department.

Mere Jeevan Sathi, Teesri Manzil, Kati Patang, Aandhi, Ajnabee, Jawani Diwani, The Train, Aap ki Kasam, Namak Haraam, Amar Prem, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Yaadon ki Baaraat, were some. No wonder it was tough to forget RD anytime after the seventies. He was all over the decade. Hare Rama Hare Krishna with its landmark Dum Maro Dum, I Love you and the melodious Kanchi re kanchi re, and Phoolon ka taaron ka was in a class of its own.

Hat Tricks- Movie Songs

I have no idea where the hat comes in, but it is customary to call it a hat trick when you have three successes in a row. But the context in which I am using it is that of a movie album. A typical Hindi film had about six songs, at least in the days that I watched them regularly. Out of these, if three were big hits, the album was a 'hit'. And the late sixties and seventies that I remember the most, had several such musical superhits. I shall attempt chronicling a few.

Kismat (1968) starring Biswajeet. It had Laakhon hain yahan dilwaale, and Aankhon mein kayamat ke kajal, and Kajra mohabbat wala..I think it was O.P. Nayyar who tuned the songs. O.P. also had Kashmir ki Kali, and Ek Baar Muskura Do in which he had Kishore Kumar sing most of the songs, unlike his earlier films. Roop tera aisa darpan mein na samaaye, the title song, and a Savere ka suraj tumhare liye hai were some of those hits.

S.D. Burman had one of his greatest musical hits (for me) in Teen Deviyan. The magical songs were-

Arre yaar meri, tum bhi ho ghazab, Likha hai teri aankhon mein kiska phasaana, and Khwaab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat kaun ho tum batlao. Of course, he then had Aradhana in which almost every song (at least five) were great. Roop tera mastana, Mere sapnon ki rani, Kora kagaz tha, bagon mein bahar hai, gunguna rahe hain bhanware were some sterling compositions.

Shankar Jaikishan had Love in Tokyo and An Evening in Paris during this period. Some of the songs- O mere shah-e-khuba, the title song Love in Tokyo, and Sayonara, sayonara from the first, and Akele akele kahaan ja rahe ho, Aasmaan se aaya farishta shot in a water-skiing scene in which Shammi hangs down from a chopper, along with the title song, were big hits.


Laxmikant Pyarelal had two hat tricks that I can recall (a hat trick being defined as a movie album with three or more hit songs).

Shagird which had the famous Dil vil pyaar vyaar main kya janu re.. and Bade miya deewane aise na bano, haseena kya chahe, hum se suno picturised on Joy Mukherjee and I.S. Johar. And, Woh hain zara, khafa, khafa,...

Bobby which brought in Dimple and Rishi Kapoor as a lead pair and captured the hearts of teenage lovers in the seventies, had great music from them, almost every song still remembered. HUm tum ek kamre mein band hon, ...Main shayar to nahin, Jhooth bole kauvva kate, Na maangun sona chandi with its Goan twist of Ghe, ghe ghe ghe re, ghe re saiba,.and so on.

R.D. Burman had numerous hits to his credit in the hat tricks department.

Mere Jeevan Sathi, Teesri Manzil, Kati Patang, Aandhi, Ajnabee, Jawani Diwani, The Train, Aap ki Kasam, Namak Haraam, Amar Prem, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Yaadon ki Baaraat, were some. No wonder it was tough to forget RD anytime after the seventies. He was all over the decade. Hare Rama Hare Krishna with its landmark Dum Maro Dum, I Love you and the melodious Kanchi re kanchi re, and Phoolon ka taaron ka was in a class of its own.



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