A Season for Meeting Old Friends

 Seems to be the season for meeting old friends. If it started with Naresh hosting the New Years do (and promptly disappeared after that), and meeting Ram, Subbu and Choudary that very afternoon, it has been a deluge of old friends coming in. Here are some pics. 

Humour writers - Vinod Ekbote

Sunnie

My MBA pals - Pankaj, Ramana, Bharadwaj, Shrini, Shobha, Sunnie

School - Brother Joseph, Ravi, Joel

Sanjay

Mama, me, Vasu, Vardha

Cricket - Srikanth,, Vikram, Bansi, Masood, Mohib

Abhinay, me A and Vandana

S, H, A and Tenzin

me, Abhijit and Rudra

Cricket - Swaroop, Vikram, Suresh, Rajesh, me, Jyoti Shetty and Ehtesham

School cricket - Rajesh, Ehtesham and me

Writers - Sagar, Anjali, me and Taher

Writers - Krishna Shastri and Chitra Viraraghavan

College - Sreenu, Vijay, Ramaraju, me, AP, Srikanth

School - Farruk, Abhijit, Joel and me 

School - Sreenu, Abhijit, Joel and me

Arts Management - Over the Years

 I thought I'd compile all these pictures atone place. My students from the Arts Management course at the University of Hyderabad.

2010

(not in any particular order except Treena and me- Archana, Surekha, Priyadarshini, Radhika, Treena, me, Ramakrishna, Mallesh, Vijayalakshmi)

2015

At the canteen having chai with the first batch
Aiswarya, Rohini, Aparna, Sneha, me, Niyanthri, Suchismita, Ashwini, Sneha, Janimiya

A visiting faculty and prof Anuradha and Prof Aruna Bhikshu

Dr Sivaraju

Me, Prof Anuradha, Prof Aruna Bhikshu, Srinivasa Avasarala 

2016

Me with the 2016 batch students
Athira, , Seenaiah, Anusha, Vaishnavi, me, Tejaswi, Sridevi, Shiva, Radhika, Kavitha

2017

With Sankalp Reddy, Director of Ghazi
Sharanya, Pooja, Anju, Parijatha, me, Dr Sivaraju, Sankalp, Tejaswitha, Jhansi, Abanti

2018

With Suhita Thatte and Jhelum
(No order - Sneha, Sridivya, Veena, Sravanthy, Sarada, Sridevi, Sravya Manasa, Swetha, Hiranmayi,   
Anjali, Anuradha, Sravya Manasa Anitha, Sravani, Sridevi) 

2019

(No particular order - Usha, Radhe, Jui, Aswathy, Amalendu, Roshni, Karthika, Aiswarya, Aashlee, Amrutha, Tejeswini, Sravya, Datta, Sindhu, Sreeshma, Kavya

2020

L-R Front Niveshan, Subhiksha, Chetana, Ala, Hyma
L-R Back - Soumya, Sruthy, Gayatri, Krishnaa Suresh, Shilpa, Pooja, Aashika, Shanmugam, Satya Prasuna 

2021

Mallika, Sahithi, Gopika, Megha, Sravya,
Praveena, Jayalakshmi, me, Srilakshmi, Maneesha, Sivaganga
Lakshmi, Gangadhar, Dr Sivaraju, 
(Not in pic - Lasya Pranathi) 

2022

Sreelakshmi, Jeevana, Supraja, Lavanya, Vaishnavi, Sathya, Bhagyalekshmi, Bhargavi
Sahithi, Nimisha, Anusree, Chetaniya, Yamini, (Nihanthri, Nagarathna, Mounika)

2023

Kneeling l to r - Shresta, Pratyusha, Aiswarya, Poojitha
Standing l to r - Harideeptha, Sofia, Vaishnavi, Sharmila, Me, Srividya, Ketharani, Sreelakshmi Shaji, Sreelakshmi, Devamanohari, Nayana

With Srividya

2024

Coaching Stories No 13 - If There's Discomfort, There's Lack of Clarity In the Plan

 I have a plan but it does not seem right yet. What's missing?

What's missing is clarity. When we do not have clarity, the pan is vague. And when it is vague, we are uncomfortable. That feeling is enough to know which part of the plan is weak. When it does not vibe with you it only means you need more information.

Stop right there and seek more information. Ask the right questions - what do I need to know, why am I doing this, what needs to be done to achieve what we want. Once you get the information and there is no further information gap, you are in a good place. Your pan looks more complete and you can act on it.   

Coaching Stories No 12 - Don't Mistake Activity for Impact

 So we got detailed plans to act, and if we tick these items of, do we achieve success?

No.

Simple because you may have a 100 different items that you are doing but which ones to do first and which ones to do later is important. So start with defining the problem - why are we doing this? What do we need now? If its revenue that's an issue then you must look at why you are not able to generate revenue. Am I in the right market? Am I offering what the market wants? Do I know my market at all? Does my market know me?

So instead of focusing on building websites, social media promotions and other stuff, find out beforehand what the problem is that you are solving and what the market needs. That will help you refine your messaging and you can build better websites and social media campaigns with that information. Ticking off items is activity, but impact comes from moving the BIG ROCKS first. Yes, the small rocks have to be dealt with too, but only after moving the BIG ROCKS a bit.

What we are saying is, to move forward, you need to put the horse before the cart. One cannot tick off horse, and cart, separately and put the cart before the horse and wonder why it is not moving.

Step back. Get the big picture. Then get into the details.    

Everything Everywhere All At Once - Movie

 The title should give you an inkling of what to expect but hey, you really cannot expect anything from this film - its that whacky. Somehow he connects parallel universes, mother-daughter relationships, husband-wife stuff, father-daughter stuff, kindness, survival, pressure, potential and possibilities and hey, it all ends well. It is an unforgettable experience. Must see it once!

  

Thought for the Day - Hold Your Belief When the Stakes Increase

 This is something that always challenges you - you have beliefs which hold until the pressure increases and then you lose it. A recent experience taught me a valuable lesson.

Anjali was keen on joining a particular college for her 11th and 12th. So confident was she that she would make it to that college that she would not even look at other colleges. 'I'll get it Nanna,' she would say. We were used to the old school thought of backups and other stuff. 

One day I was speaking to a friend of mine about her decision and he immediately said - "man, that college seats are hot property. The seats will be reserved for those who use recommendation so she may not get it even if she writes well. I suggest you use some powerful recommendation to get admission."  

I told him that if I also try to get admission that way, the queue of these recommendation candidates will only increase. So I'd rather believe in the fairness of the process and go with it instead of using these methods. I spoke about it to Shobha and to Anjali and they were both fine with the idea. Whatever the consequences we'll go with it. For now, we'll hold our belief hat the world if fair and just (even if it is in Jubilee Hills).

As the exam approached we had to fight back a bit of a worry because there was really no backup. But as far as preparation was concerned we could not fault Anjali - she had everything done well. Exam written, we waited with bated breath for the results.

And a week later the results came - Anjali got in through the first list. So much for recommendations and insecurities and trying to control the process. Believe and it will happen the way it should.   

 This has been a classic relearning experience for me. Hold my belief from now on - however high the stakes may be. It will work, the way we want it to.

A Cherished Picture With the Backflipt Team

 After two months of meetings, workshops, discussions, planning etc the Backflipt team led by Vijay Sabbu and assisted by Ashfaq, Hithesh, Neha, Vamsi and Sudhir, got to a blueprint of the plan they wished to execute. Its a worthy challenge and I am certain they will achieve it and more. I decided to gift them all a copy of 50 Not Out which espouses many of the things we discussed in class.

And then we got a lovely picture clicked by Pradyumn. All smiles.

Vamsi, Sudhir, Vijay Sabbu, Ashfaq, me, Hithesh and Neha

Now, to execute and achieve. It will be an interesting journey but will certainly yield results. That I am sure of. So we will celebrate again after 6 months!