Report Card for the Year of the CONSOLIDATION

I think i had something in mind when started this year and decided to call it the year of the CONSOLIDATION. This year has been lot different than what was expected of it by many around me. Precisely what i had in my mind is what makes it so different from people's expectations. Having said that i submit the report card for the year of the Consolidation hereby.

I completed my shift from IIM Indore to IIM Ahmedabad in January -February amidst a brief trip home to be with my parents on thier 40th Marriage Anniversary. Only this time i wasnt alone and i was home with my wife, their daughter-in-law. I reaffirmed within me that pleasures of life are not only mostly non-economic they are also emotional in character. Common Sense will tell that Pleasure is an emotion of sort.

The IIMA story has been sort of revelaing itself slowly and the year was defintely less ventful than the year at IIM Indore :). I taught one course (management of agri-inputs) and am teaching another one that i have developed as a new elective - agricultural entrepreneurship.


This is proving to be an interesting journey as it is very cose to grounded theory involving generation of transmitable knowledge as close to the phenomenon as possible. The classes are largely in a workshop mode.


Work apart from teaching saw me fnially get my case on KNIDS green pvt. lts pubslihed at the Indore Management Journal. I am already working on two more cases - one on Jain Irrigation Systems Limited as an Indian company that has gone global. The other case is about a Farm mechanisation project which is a partnership between the DSAG (Development Support Agnecy of Gujarat) , John Deere and NGOs in 4 districts. This might also expand into a bouquet of cases on entrepreneurship, PPP, New Development project managment for NGOs, and tapping of hitherto untapped markets for marketeers and manufacturers.

The year also saw a project proposal on studying the consrvation impact vis-a-vis the water utilisation impact and economic impact of micro irrigation systems being accepted. This is slated to start soon as well but the action will happen in 2012. apart from this the year saw me and my colleague and teacher prof. Gandhi develop three chapters for the India Infrastructure Report for the policy group of IDFC.

This year Also saw me being invited to a group of researchers brought together by Ford Foundation and Prof. MS Sriram inducted me into it to take a closer look at NRLM and it has developed ino a huge learning exercise for me abut government systems, livelihoods and rural management and developemtn as such.

I made some progress finally with the help of Rini in doing data entry for a study on happiness and MBA students which is still in its infancy but shaping well. I also made some progress on a data set in hindi on decision making by farmers. This year also saw two Independent Projects by Students - one on Organic food and elasticity of consumers choices and the second one on the hybrid seed sector using a system dynamics model. The Year also saw a paper presented in a conference in US on development of a framework for anti corruption and transparency led governance change at grassroots in three Eastern States.

On a personal Note, i tried to collect the results of the social project in greetings but the results are incomplete and what has been compiled has not been either stated very crisply by me or it has not clicked with the readers as per their feedback. This year also leaves with a wish left unfulfilled of taming my Temperament and the passionate me is still at unease with the logical me and the fight within continues. I was also unable to connect to as many old friends as i wanted and was unable to take over a 500 year old scroll of genealogy. That sums the year that has gone by and it closed on a note of a ranking of our PGP-ABM (Post Graduate Program in Agri-Business Management) as the best of its kind in the world by Eduniversal.

Overall This was a year to consolidate my development of the past.

Yeh.... Aaj ki Zindagi

ek khwaish si hai zindagi..
ek aazmaayish si hai zindagi..
kisi hod mein fasi hui si hai zindagi...
rukk ar sisakti si hai zindagi..
daud kar thakti si hai zindagi..
ek aazmayish si hai zindagi ..
ek khwaish si hai zindagi

gar khwaish ho puri ..
to khushi ki fuhaar si hai zindagi...
aazmayish ke baad na ho haath khali...
to aksar ek numaish si hai zindagi...
daud mein niklo aage..
ek tamge mein samayi si hai zindagi..
aur kinara kar ke dekho to..
aksar insaan ki ghulam hai zindagi..

ek nirantar dhara si firbhi hai zindagi..

dhara jaisi khud ko nirantar naya banati hai zindagi..
ek nashe si bhi hai zindagi...
kyun ki har nas nas meni rahti aur bahti hai zindagi...
har din suraj si aati hai ek nayi zindagi..
aur chand si sheetal chandni andhere mein deti hai zindagi..
chandni mein sapne piroti hai yeh zindagi..
ek khwaish si hai yeh zindagi

V.B. 15th November - 20th November, 2011

the field of management and the affective domain ..how insensitive!!!

We talk about professionals need to be logic oriented and not emotional.. and then we only crib that they don't bring any "passion" into their job..
tell me o wise businessman and academicians.. when did 'passion' cease to be an emotion ?

ek aane ka sach..

main sirf ek aana hoon.. aaj ka zamana rupye aur paison ka hai.. main isme ak aana hoon...
aise to zamane ko meri koi zaroorat nahi mehsoos hoti lekin jab logon ke paas kisi naye shahar mein thoda samay hota hai to museum mein jakar mujhe dekhna man kafi khushi hoti hai.. mujhe dekhte hue.. nawvadhu ka haath uska pati pakd leta hai aur dono mein romance ho jata hai..
mujhe dekhte hue gusse se alag thalag hue dampatti bhi ekdoosre ke paas akar apni ekta ko jagruk kar gussa pee jate hain ..
mujhe dekhte hue kitne Boyfreind apni girlfreind ko kissa sunate hue "patate" hain...
thik waise hi jaise kisi chote bachche ke ma baap use meri kahani suna kar rijhate hain..

par main ek display mein band item matra hoon.. shanti se ek sthir bhaav se sab kcuh mahsoos karta hoon . dekhte hoon samajhta hoon .. lekin kuch kahta nahi.. gir kar awaaz karta hoon ya takra kar.. lekin use koi na to sunta hai aur na samajhta hai...main chup chap apni jagah mein pada rahoon tabhi achcha hooon...

mere saamne jo aata hai woh meri banavat and dhalti umar ko dekh kar apna man banata hai .. ki main dekhne layak hoon ya uske samay ki barbaadi hoon.. aakhir main sirf ek aana hoon...

waise majboori mein bade kaam ki cheez hoon.. bechne par apni rupye mein keemat se zyada hi laata hoon kyun ki main antique hoon.. aur kafi achche dhatu se bana hoon isliye "thos" hooon ..agar kuch na ho to mujhe bech kar kahin bhi fit kr ke kafi kaam ban sakta hai.. suna hai kayi automatic locks mere kone se ghumne par khul jate hain.. main kaam pade to aise hi tale kholne wali chaabhi hoon.. lekin agar mueseum main qaid hoo to sirf ek item matra hoon.

waise socho to is duniya mein sabhi buddhe aur purane logon ka yahi haal hain. item matra hain.. sab kuch dekhte hain samajhte hain .. lekin kh kuch nahi sakte.. jab tak apni jaagh baithe hue hain tabhi tak achche hain.. uske siwa waqt ki barbaadi hain.. aur haan waqt pade to kafi kaam ki cheez hote hain khas kar jab chote bachchon ko palna ho.. unki dekh rekh karni ho aur unhe kuch sikhana ho..ie automatic locks ke liye main ek mast chabhi hooon.. kyun ki logon ki apni chabhiyan to aaj ki bhag daude mein kab kahan gir kar kho gayi kisi ko bhi pata nahi....

buddha samjho ya antique main sirf ek aana hoon..waise kaam aata hoon to main sirf "anna" hoon

Captain Cool and Public not so cool..!!!

I have been interested in that phrase called 'Captain Cool' coined for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He is definitely an icon like no other, sharing space with Tendulkar yet so commanding in his presence that he stands taller. However the recent spate of criticism of Captain Cool has led me to think of why are we as Fans and public not so cool.

The captain was 'cool' when his attitude to risk taking paid off and won us matches , series and tournaments.. He is the one who brought stability to the captaincy of the team and to the team.. do we remember how we had the best individual players and managed to lose so many series and matches when we were poised for victory. He and Saurabh Ganguly are to be credited to make us believe that we can do it as a team. They stand out.. they took some risks and they excelled. Risks by nature will not work out all the time. Ganguly took risks and didnt work out. This series the risks of Dhoni did not seem to work.

Isnt it all part of the plan.. you keep taking risks.. and you keep learnign to take better risks.. and take risks better...but if the personality of the captain is about taking risks .. he will and he should continue to..cause that is what works for him. You stop him from taking risks and we lose one of the best players across the various fromats of the game from the infant T20 to the over aged Tests. A player who probably comes second in consistence to Rahul Dravid in the last half decade. A record of consistency better than even Tendulkars at number 7 down !

for me clearly the captain is cool.. he has give us the team of tomorrow... ajinkya rahane.. murali vijay...suresh raina.... virat kohli....Rohit Sharma....r ashwin ... Ravindra Jadeja...R P Singh..Sreesanth.. and more importantly he has made them play together as one unit.. which was difficult even when the greatest of individual players ramped up the Indian team together in a group of 11.

To me the captain has a more long term focus than most critics and analysts of the game can have.. he has made us think.. what beyond the world cups and the best coaches and the best individuals players... ask yourself .. Do you think Team India can be a world winning side without Tendulkar / Dravid and Srinath and who takes the credit for enabling that..

Take it from me.. The Captain is Cool.

Hope is a subtle glutton

Emily Dickinson had written

"Hope is a subtle Glutton
He feeds upon the fair;
And yet, inspected closely,
What abstinence is there!

His is the halcyon table
That never seats but one,
And whatsoever is consumed
The same amount remains"

Little did i expect to see a mass explanation of this ever in my life. But i am only lucky to see it so. How many of us had ever expected this to be the result of the movement against corruption led by Anna Hazare vouching for the Lokpal bill ?
Yes the answer is not that we had not, But not so surprisingly the answer is that yes most of the common man worried about corruption had thought that this will happen - a middle path shall emerge and the country shall stand united against corruption.

There is no point to doubt that the country today and actually the society stands united against corruption. whether we are or we are not for or we are still considering where to be for on the lokpall bill, we are all definitely against corruption and stand united in an effort to take the first step. An Individual taking a step ahead had no hope but a huge mass of people like India (which is practically like a continent in itself given the diversity and vastness we have) move together .. who will feel afraid? being on in such a mass can only give hope.
Gandhiji was the first one to realise the combined power of mass of people and non-violence. Anna ji has proved that it is not a ghost of the past but a living giant of the present times and of probably many more centuries to coming ahead.

Hope it was that bound us together in this movement from a corrupt society where the head is not held high to a society where the head is not only held high but also is allowed to work in peace. This is the dream of hope.

Hope is that we will be able to create the space and willingness towards this goal / dream. Hope is that we will be able to stand tall and hold hands together and not let this huge movement go in vain. Hope lies in our collective being and collective fate as in Ramlila ground we saw not only young IIM and IRMA alumni from metropolitan cities rub shoulders with illiterate and octogenarian members of the movement from hinterlands like Gorakhpur and Nalanda. In this Hope against corruption , i have hope for the disappearance of the differences that fissure our society into oneness of holding our head high.

So this is a toast to Hope, Oneness in society ( India) and ability to connect between different Indians (members of society).

Another Day of Rain and Another Terrible Night..

As it continues to rain continuously for the 4th day in ahmedabad.. almost incessant rain..i am happy to be in at home..and as i sip that one wisp of smoking sip of tea from my saucer .. i am transported back to one eventful night which changed many things in my life.. it is that one night that movies are made on and this story is no less..only this night and story won't get people to pay money to watch as a movie until shyam benegal steps in ..

i was a young kid wanting to do something in this world and wanted to work on the set of rural problems as the world was gearing to move into the next century based on IT and computers..i had taken admission into IRMA (Institute of Rural Management Anand.. http://www.irma.ac.in/) and was promptly as per schedule left in a village for a week to learn about the environment that IRMAns are supposed to work for and understand if i could survive. I was alotted to stay with Haribhai in his village .. in his home.. and this home was a kuccha hut made of cow dung with two cots and a few utensils and clothes.. haribhai worked as an agricultural labourer and did not own farming implements. He was the only one in bhangi colony of the village who had successfully passed the high school exam but owned no land. His father decided to give all his landholding which was very meagre to his elder brother who was illiterate thinking haribhai would land a job. he landed none and was forced to work as an agri labourer.

The first night was alsmot like eco-tourism as in the gujarati hot summer night i got to sleep on a cot under a neem tree with the breeze soothing me.. i knew i had made the right choice to join IRMA and work for the rural areas of the country.

The second night was more eventful, we started on our cots outside the hut and under the neem tree but the breeze was cooler and more moist. after about an hour when i had barely slept for about half an hour.. there was a drop that fell on me..i was so pleased.. i have always been fond of getting drenched in the rain on every opportunity irrespective of whether health allowed it or not. i still continue to be so. My happiness increased porportionally to the number of drops falling on me and my heart was ever so romantic and i wanted to write a poem.

Five minutes later as the rain got more dense and the droplets increased in size my host came running and haribhai called out "lets take the cot inside you wont survive a night full of rain outside gettign wet!".

and then it hit me.. and do you know what hit me.. take a moment to think about it.. feel it and imagine yourself there..

A night with nowhere to go and take shelter.. and its raining.. all drenched all night long.. no warm cozy room or heater .. no warm drying with towels .. no escape from the rain.. damn.. i was already thinking of rain as a capturer and i wanted to escape it. haribhai and i moved the cots inside and i for the first time got to know that out of the five cots that were put up under the tree only two were 'owned' by haribhai. suddenly the cot was a really big asset as it was the license to stay dry the whole night. wait..staying dry to survive the night was that what i was thinking? survival? in something called rain? we have always loved it.. we have always danced in rain dances.. and i am talking of survival in the rain..

inside the hut we got down to putting the cots only to realise there werent enough leaves on the thantched roof, the dust storm in the day had blown some away and now the hut was a huge leaking bathtub and the cow dug -mud mixture had started to turn into a sludge on the floor where it was bright and clean and savi ben (haribhai's wife) had cleaned it to perfection. she took a great deal of pride in keeping her home clean despite her poverty. we moved the cots to the east and the west and then 20 degrees to the north we rotate it and nothing helps..there is still water falling on the cots. While we are busy positiong cots to sleep, savi ben is positiong the limited utensils of home to capture water and protect the cow dung sludge flooring of the hut or she will have to do it again but only when the water would dry. Finally we placed the cot in a position we thought the least amount of water was coming to it and was likely to come even if it rained the whole night.

this had taken an half hour to position to cots.. and now haribhai wanted me to sleep on a cot while saviben and their three kids aged 5, 3, and 1.5 would sleep on the other cot and yes for the record.. there was no privacy for saviben or the family.. i as a stranger had no option but to stay that night in that hut .. first i felt awkward to sleep on a cot next to a couple sleeping and i could'nt give them privacy... second i felt bad at how unequal the world was. . i had one cot to myself and they were five humans to one cot. i requested haribhai to lend me the kids for the night so that they may sleep in my cot while he and saviben managed on the other cot. yes these were cots and not king size double beds.

after an hour and half of bargaining .. thanks to the indian hospitality which defeats reason and logic for emotion and tradition hands down.. haribhai was convinced by me to 'lend' me two kids for the night. it was really touching that in such adverse conditions haribhai thought of hospitality to his guest.. (sadly this guest was me and i was feeling guilty of being there at that moment as a guest). i for once never thought about the mission of IRMA or going where i was needed versus rewarded.

so the ordeal happened but did not end here.. i first positioned myself so that no water fell on me as i slept on the cot and haribhai would not have the arrangement in any other way. then the two kids who were borrowed by me for the night came into the cot in positions so that minimum water fell on them or if possible no water fell on them. in less than five minutes they had hugged me like little kids will when they want to keep warm and i was happily asleep with my loan of "two" kids for the night.

That nightful of rain, the fact of having nowhere to escape rain , and that fateful 'loan' of two kids taught me what POVERTY was. i for the first time understand what dr. kurien meant when he had told us "Go where you are needed and not where you are best rewarded". i understood a need that night.. the need of LIFE and HOPE because i wanted to see a morning SUN after a rainy night.

i hope Saviben and Haribhai are doing good in life and their kids are getting educated.

An Experimentation in Real life - Part II

In part I we had a prologue, an introduction and a description to the experimentation in real life. As indicated by the comments of few readers they are eagerly awaiting the results. Those who join midway can get to the start here http://vitalenergy.blogspot.com/2011/03/experimentation-in-real-life-part-i.html

Well First let me state that those were not only experiments.. they are based on my belief that such wishes have the potential to have a good effects and hence i put my beliefs on the anvil of judgement. So neither were those who received them guinea pigs nor were the wishes only experiments. i believed in every single wish i sent and i start to present how my belief fared with the results.

Many People will say that a simple good day or good morning will be a passing greetings and will have no impact on how a day really goes.. here comes the twist.. add a message to reason how to make the day good or why the day might be good.. so the greetings now becomes.. "starting the day with smiles brings smiles back .. have a good day with many smiles" seems silly yet simple..
and this seems to work.. it evokes response from most who receive the wishes.. even if it is for courtesy sake of etiquette..It means that people are reading these messages...

Result No. 1: Most people are open to positive ideas..irrespective of gender..

many friends in random discussions had remarked that such responses are more common from a particular gender . my experience says otherwise..irrespective of gender people are reading such messages.. this still leaves open how the interpretations and responses can be different according to gender but thats a matter to be dealt later.. for now.. People do read and are open to positive ideas.. thats good news for the world around us.

Some people are perplexed and even ask the meaning of the message if its not so simple or if its counter-intuitive..now thats wow!.. People not only skim they actually read and try to understand!

Result no. 2 : People are trying to find ways to give positive ways a chance

now that's too far a conclusion from what i mentioned above but ill tell you how i make that conclusion and you can decide if its fair or not.. when people ask meaning they also tend to discuss what they had initially thought when they first read and if its conditional or more true universally and stuff like this..All these discussions have a common underlying thing about them.. people are searching for universal truths in good and positive statements.. the quest for goodness in human beings may be subdued but it is not over.

Now to dampen all that positive spirit. Most of the times the people who ask for the meanings or appreciate the status or like the thought are the same bunch of people .. about 30 percent of those who receive the messages.. maybe not everyone is searching for the positive thought.. actually try looking at it in a different way .. .like this..

Result No. 3 If you are looking for positive things you try really hard to find them and often find a way to find the positive energy around yourself

i have put this in bold because this is an important result and the one that needs to be critiqued the most. generally the same set of people replying in a similar manner.. that is definitely a pattern of behaviour.. maybe a trait in these people that they all share.. to that extent they are similar individuals.. well they are all trying to figure out the meaning of positive statements.. maybe even some random statements.. they are seeking the truth behind them and that means a lot. My experience and this is where you may disagree ..and feel free to do so.. is that they are more inclined towards positive energy than negative energy or in negating the statements .. the latter are likely to ignore the statements and the wishes.. and even more so after pointing out their flaw once or twice especially when in close succession. so here is the twist.. there is some reason to see they look at the wishes and statements as positive. there is a lot of reason to believe they are trying to uncover the truth .. and the two add up to individuals who are interested in showing that positive energy is a truth and it works..

ill close this blog here.. on a very positive note.. lets sum the results..

Result No. 1: Most people are open to positive ideas..irrespective of gender..
Result no. 2 : People are trying to find ways to give positive ways a chance
Result No. 3 If you are looking for positive things you try really hard to find them and often find a way to find the positive energy around yourself

and i build my own inference from all these... I am part of a network of individuals who are inclined towards positive energy and the positive aspects of existence.

so till then keep chewing and keep reading and ill present more results from the experiments.

An Experimentation in Real Life - part I

As a young boy i did not read but learnt from people around me - the story of my experiments with truth.

in retrospect, the Mahatma has had a profound effect on me . Maybe not so much in being an ascetic but definitely in terms of beng foolhardly or having the courage to say the right thing sometimes even at the wrong moments. Also in terms of experimenting with life and its various facets only to learn more and more about it and myself.


I grew up constantly hearing people complain that the fast pace and eroding value system of life was rapdily transforming people into more inhuman mehcanical living beings rather than being emotinal beings with a quotient for societal and relational existence. I decided to experiment like Gandhi. Can one individual make a difference? The believers say Yes and the non-believers say Impossible and to me the confused individual it was a puzzle that i had to try to solve.


I put myself in the shoes of an individual everyone would judge. I became the experiment myself to reduce any side effects if any affecting anyone else who would be the subject to the minimum. I put myself on the anvil to be judged because that would reveal the true character of the people of the world in close measure to me.

I decided on a simple activity.. small to be almost unnoticeable and an optional activity for all of us and yet placed at a time of the day that it had the ability to impact manifold events of the day.

I decided to send "Good Morning" wishes to some individuals to see what happened. I chose this because since my childhood i like to wish people and i saw the incidence of wishing and greeting each other reducing around me and it is one small thing i want to revive around me.


At this moment many of those reading this can relate to my good morning and good day wishes that i send online or at times over the sms. Yes these small wishes are the treatment in the experiment. I started by wishing some people regulrly good morning and some also good night through emails. This was strange for many to receive nothing in an email apart from just "good morning have a nice day". It almost felt like spam for many. the responses to the wishes are interesting and make for a separate follow up blog on its own lest this on gets to be too long.


So after almost ten years of running this experiment what do i feel and how has it gone.. ? I wish this was an easy queston to answer.. the very fact that it has taken 10 years to answer reveals a lot. what started as simple wishes has seen many versions and multiple forms also.


The wishes can be sent online through email , through yahoo or gtalk messenger , through social network sites like facebook and twitter. The wishes can also take the mode of the mobile either from the handheld itself or through the internet through sites which give free delivery to mobiles for text messages within a limit.

Thus there are multiple people , multiple modes delivery, and one treatment .. and mutiple interpretations.. we will talk about each of these separately one by one in the following blogs..in the meantime feel free to send your interpretation of the wishes if you were receiving them.

The need for Systems Processes and strong Institutions

Today Everyone is talking about the ouster of Mohd. Yunus from Grameen Bank. Most of the discussion is judging its righteousness or the lack of it. My thoughts drift to a different reality. What do i learn from this event? a learning that stays with me for long.

Most young entrepreneurs entering the development / social / rural space in emerging markets and economies rarely realise what it really means when they say that there are so many other factors apart from performance that matter in order to survive and be sustainable. Politics and the burden of history or morality might be the most frequent or they might not, however the events of Bangaldesh and Grameen Bank highlight the need for systems , processes and strong institutions to effect development (whatever your definition of development might be) and the amelioration of people and thier lives.

Assume that Grameen Bank delivered a required service to some people of Bangladesh. ( please not i have not even claimed they are poor or needy). Also assume that the need for the service remains. What do events like the ouster of Mohd. Yunus mean for these people ? you can make your choice out of the options given below

a) uncertainty of whether the services will be the same or not.. for some if the services will be continued at all.
b) uncertainty if Grameen Bank will remain afloat and if so the uncertainty if their own investment and activities with the bank are safe or not. its an uncertainty of both the future as well as the risk exposure.
c) Loss of an inspiring figure and strong brand ambassador for Grameen bank and its services. This is likely to lead to another agency to deliver the same services and in an emerging economy the search costs can be susbtanital and the chances of committing an error high.
Given these three instinctive reactions from people. Do we realise that the strongest human instinct will stem from uncertainty of Future and the Financial and business risk they are exposed to ( some can read business risk as livelihood risk depending on the dependance on microfinance and Grameen for the respective livelihood).

If the unceratinty is about the future and the risk.. due to the sudden change in leadership..Do we need more evidence to see that leadership alone is not the best form of governance. It is clear that a governance system which survives beyond the individual leader, the larger than life founding father is an absolute must. How do we generate such non-indivudal leadership and directioning capability in an institution?

The answer is in making the Institution adaptive - capable of absorbing shocks like a crisis of individual leadership and resilient to be efficient and reduce the risk exposure of the clients. My Thesis is about creating such adaptiveness in institutions. ( you can get the same from this link...http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/library/ )one of the points that i highlight is the need for complete structures so that there is not one leader but more individuals are forced to come together and collectively work for the institution.

The open processes provide both flexibility and continuity by defining the routine procedures and leaving the speical requests to discretion. The binding force is nothing but a strong institution which is larger than the founder or the paternal / maternal individual leader. Suddenly the conclusion flows , to me at least smoothly.

To the youngest of entrepreneurs there is an important lesson - if you operate in an emerging economy or an environement where politics or some such external environmental force matters .... it is not a choice but an imperative that you need robust systems, superior processs and a strong institution to continue delivering services to those who require them.

The moral implication of this monologue is .. if the systems and processes are not in place and the weak institution crumbles - you might have to be ready to take the blame for breaching the faith of people twoards fulfiling their needs.

Year of CONSOLIDATION

Transformation

Rising

Making

Realization

Blossoming

Is there a pattern that you see? This might be the journey of a branch on a floral tree through different seasons and stages. For me it’s more like the story of the various stages of my doctoral studies. Blossoming included the start of my new job at IIM Indore. These are also the themes around which I lived my years as I led my life into a new phase altogether. Having completed five years of the journey I look back with satisfaction and some sense of achievement and loss. Satisfaction, I feel because I am satisfied with what I set out to do and what I achieved. Yes for satisfaction no one else but only me and those very very near and dear to me matter. Achievement I feel a little because moving in the mainstream while being different is not easy and I have survived so far. My experiments with life and my own convictions have not left me lacking good stead so far. There is also a sense of loss as I have made compromises on the time and togetherness I could have shared with those who matter to me. Economics it seems is more important in life than anything else as I realize. TANSTAFL – There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Well especially if you’re on the receiving side.

Here starts my learning, if you got to create free lunches. First get to the giving side.. give some free lunches and hope that more people may start giving. The surety is never there but this is the only way to have a probability.

So I start another new year.. trying to create change trying to put together the wide variety of experiences and learning that I have collected through my travels in geography, demography and sociography. I am consolidating my learning and experiences to make better sense of them. This year I also start my new job at the Centre for Management of Agriculture at IIM Ahmedabad. (http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/faculty-and-research/research-centers/cma.html). This sets up the need to and also enables me to consolidate my professional leanings and focus on being most productive to creating change where it is needed. Professionally this is clearly a year of Consolidation of the blossom in the last season.

Personally, Mridul is set to complete her thesis and we start our true journey of life together ( at least a new phase of it) as a couple shifting to officially one city of residence and therefore we also consolidate our life together. I also want to reconnect to the people and friends and individuals who have mattered and who inside the deep of my heart do still matter to me. A start has been made but much more needs to be done. Hence at a personal level also this looks like a year of consolidation.

So with folded hands and faith in my heart .. I welcome the YEAR of CONSOLIDATION.

Report Card - The year of BLOSSOMING

Just like every year i shall be putting up a report card out for everyone to see. Like every year (for the past 5 years) this year had a theme - it was the year of BLOSSOMING. At the start of the year i expected to complete my Doctoral Studies, get married and start my professional life as a management teacher and researcher. The expectations were definitely not modest but were loaded with many events of the past few and many years.

The PhD got over and i graduated in March. see here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=221357&id=723865049. The happy go lucky soul was ready to start searching for happiness in the real world moving out of the cocooned environment of being a student. I was trying to be a little experimental. The PhD Left me feeling satisfied as i have mentioned in the opening blog for the year with the appreciation i received in Australia followed by Indore , Lucknow and back again at Ahmedabad. So some dissemination has happened and lots more is waiting to happen and focus must be on that in the first half of the coming year.

I also got married this year. see here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=247130&id=723865049. Finally me and Mridul are one family. She has brought a lot of luck and focus to life and it has been giving rich dividends so far. Marriage starts with benefits of so much more love from new relatives and friends.. it also makes your old relatives look at you in new light and shower more love, especially if you have been a little rebel younger kid in the family. Marriage also delivers at times, like it did for me, benefits of home cooked food, a loving wife to look forward to when u leave office and more goodies like hot tea and snacks served to you with a round up for the day.. and no office gossip !!!

I also started my new job . see here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=222840&id=723865049. I joined the Economics Area of IIM Indore and found myself in between a group of lovely people. We were able to expand the area from 3 to 6 people ,i,e, double the strength this year. We also launched some 3-4 new electives from the area in this year. We hopefully continue to be one of the highest rated areas in the institutes.

Professionally at IIM Indore i had a rewarding stay. I launched a new elective called the "Economics of Rural-Urban divide"(ERUD) that was well received by a bunch of very enthusiastic students who show a lot of promise of doing new and different things in the near future. I was also able to complete teaching in almost all programs of the institute - the MBA (PGP as we call it) first year, second year, The Doctoral Programme (FPM) and the one year Executive programme (EPGP) as well. I was also able to revise and rehash the "History of Management Thoughts" course for the doctoral students. The end of the year was exciting as i collaborated with other faculty to launch a new stream called the "Role of New Media in Management" which aims to look at communications , IT and Strategy aspects of new media and take it one notch higher to Management levels. ERUD looks at Rural and Urban areas with a theortical base , URP or Unlocking Rural Potential took a look at the same with a practical in-situ approach and saw the students visit DRI in chitrakoot ( http://www.chitrakoot.org). What could not be done was the development of UCRM or Understanding Culture for Rural Management and a connectivity conference fro the PURA work. We did a one day workshop on PURA in June (http://www.iimidr.ac.in/iimi/pages/posts/working-conference-on-pura-conceptualization-impact-assessment-and-implementation-issues162.php?p=10) which was graced by none less than Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Shri Arvind Mayaram of GOI. A research Proposal on Wastewater irrigation has firmed up and one case is set for publication while one more is in the pipeline. There was one paper at an international conference too http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/agsaare10/58885.htm

The year was marked with a short visits to Australia and Portugal overseas and to the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. There was a fair bit of travelling and obviously with travelling comes learning. So there was a lot of learning this year too.

So the year did see a lot of blossoming and a lot of other things that i keep doing either kept on in reduced measure or were put on the backburner for a while...sure to return in the future..

The not so good patches of the year were - not enough time with parents and family .. not able to visit Dubai ...

And as we must move one.. we must enter the new year .. a new year.. a happy new year :) that leaves us happier and healthier.