Month: July 2019

Prof. Dr. V. L. Mote. Om Shanti.

Seven years ago, I had written about a remarkable teacher who had touched my life in my early twenties. Subsequently, Dr. Mote became friends with many alumni like me on facebook and kept us connected to him till he passed away earlier this week after a brief hospitalisation.

Since then, the WhatsApp application and my email In Box has been filled with so many messages from alumni and fellow faculty expressing their sorrow and nostalgia for his personality. Most talk about how he had touched their lives in some way or the other just like I had shared in my blog post about him touching my life at a critical point in my life.

Just to give a flavour about his impact here is a link to an article from another alumnus who is a very well know Management Professional.

He was truly a legend and will be missed by a lot of people.

Reunions.

Shackman’s suggestion for this week’s Friday 2 on 1 Blog Post came as a total surprise to me and coincidentally, as I write this on the day prior to the Friday post, I have just returned from a reunion.

I have been attending three types of reunions the last two decades. The first are family ones where the family and some close friends get together during weddings, special anniversaries, upanayanams, special birthdays etc but, since the last three years I have stopped going out of Pune as I find it difficult to tackle airports, railway stations etc. So, an understanding family has decided to accept my absence with grace and forgive me my inability to attend.

Another reunion that I attend is of my classmates from Business school and here too, I attend only those that are held in Pune or, at best near Pune. The last one that I wrote about is this one. Subsequently, there have been a few more and one with many out of town and country visitors who exited to Mahabaleshwar via Pune in January. Some of the classmates who live in Pune now get together often particularly when one who normally lives in the USA visits Pune in the winter. Sometimes, some visitors from Mumbai on business to Pune give us an opportunity to get together and those too are very much looked forward to.

The third reunion that I attend regularly is that of my ex colleagues from Mumbai which is held twice a year. I wrote about one of them here. These reunions are held mostly in Mumbai or around these parts as, travel is easy for all of us. This is the type of reunion that I attended today at Lonavala. Some of my colleagues had come up yesterday and spent the night at the resort where the reunion took place but some of us just made the day trip for obvious reasons. Two of us from Pune drove up in the morning and returned after lunch.

For me such outings are emotionally very charged and I enjoy every moment that I am with old classmates or colleagues. I am however sad that I am unable to attend more due to my health issues. My regrets however are somewhat assuaged as I am in regular touch with all of them through daily WhatsApp group messages exchanged. A great way to keep in touch and share news and other information of interest to all in the group.

To see what Shackman has to say on the subject, please do visit his blog. Thank you.

T

Mobile Phone.

This has been a loyal companion for the past eight years but, age has caught up with it and was beginning to give trouble to me. I was still managing it but, every now and then needed help from the resident geeks.

The geeks decided to do something about it and so procured a brand new replacement, a NOKIA smart phone. They hope that it will make me smarter than I am.

The same phone with the wall paper lit when switched on. The wall paper is obviously of the geeks.
After they loaded all the applications and placing the SIM card, I was duly presented with the set and you can see how stumped I was with the totally new handset.
It has been over 24 hours since I got the hand set and I am still getting used to it. I feel like reverting to the old faithful!  A difficult task as the geeks have confiscated it and hidden it away somewhere.

Borrowed Time.

After I wrote my last post on Contentment, many memories of my past life popped up during my morning reveries and this one grabbed my attention for quite some time. When you read the lyrics, you will see why. This is a song written by John Lennon of The Beatles in the eighties.

When I was younger
Living confusion and deep despair
When I was younger
Living illusion of freedom and power
When I was younger
Full of ideas and broken dreams (my friend)
When I was younger ah hah
Everything simple but not so clear
Living on borrowed time
Without a thought for tomorrow
Living on borrowed time
Without a thought for tomorrow
Now I am older
The more that I see the less that I know for sure
Now I am older
The future is brighter and now is the hour
Living on borrowed time
Without a thought for tomorrow
Living on borrowed time
Without a…

Source: LyricFind