college titbits

Wine, a book of verse and thou by my side
I had finished my work and was eyeing the coffee flask in the college room when Shaila entered.
'Coffee, a book and thou by my side' I quipped and started pouring coffee.
The aroma and the first hot sip after three continuous lectures! Shaila closed her eyes and nodded appreciatively.
A few minutes passed.
'Those very words were the beginning of a romance in our college.'
'Where? What? How? In our college?'
Shaila laughed
'You remember Jyoti?'
I could not. We teach different subjects to different classes.
'That tall girl with long hair. She must have passed out by now.'
I have recalled students on the basis of fewer, vaguer details but not this time.
'She used to diligently attend all my lectures.'
'No, I do not know who you mean. But what happened?'
'You know how these girls circulate autograph books, slam books at the year end? So Jyoti circulated her book. I scribbled something and passed it on. It reached boys in the class. Shekhar was one of them.'
My face remained blank.
'You don't remember Shekhar? That round fellow from Mauritius. Dark, medium height, he wore glasses.'
'So?'
'He wrote those very words of Umar Khayyam and returned her book. Jyoti did not understand them. She came to me asking what it meant.'
'Then?'
'The message took a lot of time to sink but then she changed. Started taking care of herself. Shekhar and Jyoti started being together.'
'Then?'
'I met her recently. They are married and have a kid. Shekhar has a job in Mauritius but every six months they are here.'
'Wow! Everything is here around us but we spoil things by being either unobservant or very demanding.'
'Yes, true. I have often remarked this.'

and the book

Notwithstanding by Louis de Bernieres
It is a delightful book dealing with life in an English village. The community remains but it has few members, mostly old and eccentric. But some of the stories are very pleasant and the style, its soft humour are absolutely entertaining in a gentle way. I did not know anything about this author or this book and so the find is all the more engaging.

another new Marathi movie and a book

Rajwade & Sons is a new Marathi movie released in Pune recently. It got favourable reviews and so went to watch it. Found it utterly disappointing.
The story is about the third geneation's rebellion in the prosperous Rajwade business family. The second generation grew up in the shadow of the founder of business but the grandchildren have decided what line they want to pursue. The fourth son of the founder who left amidst rumours of embezzlement of funds is back and encourages the youngsters to go their own way.
These happenings are shown against a backdrop of modern upper middle class lifestyle. The clothes define the people, particularly the youngsters. No importance is given to knowledge, learning, professions etc. Marathi group from which Rajwades are drawn, still do. This group is also hardwired to be individualistic and rebellious. So the foundation is all wrong.
Small people lost in their material possessions. The successful business is shown as a millstone around the necks of every other family member. They are angry with the centralization of power in the hands of the founder but this point is lost in the tirade against family business. Wish the producer, director had done some reading about how family businesses take care of succession. Y.M Deosthali, the finance director from L & T is the financier of the film and so the mistake is very glaring.

students' enthusiasm
Other teachers in the college could not spare time and it fell to my lot to judge students' research paper presentations. I had suggested earlier 'Make in India' as a topic. There was only 1 entry for it. Examination reforms was the popular topic but few students participated. All had their PPTs ready. There were complaints later that some had been lifted from the Internet but it was clear that students had worked.
They freely used terms like sample survey, hypothesis without understanding their meaning. What was very important that they had boundless energy and few inhibitions. Made me aware once again of the responsibility of teachers.

A new Marathi drama

'Don Special' is a popular Marathi play running to packed auditorium these days. Loksatta's drama critic Ravindra Pathre who writes very sensible reviews has praised it sky high. So we went last week.
The play is based on an old story by ha.mo.Marathe. It relates to the mid-'70s which look like innocent times now. He is an idealistic journalist clinging to his values despite the odds. He has been transferred to night shift for some dispute with the editor. His previous lover comes there. A building has collapsed on a construction site, killing 3 workers. The journalist is all set to reveal the name of the builder but his lover is employed in that builder's office and she has come with the sole objective of persuading him to drop her employer's name.
The biting sarcasm of the journalist goes away when she reveals her story. She hopes for a miracle which will let both of them realize what they are seeking without abandoning their values and it happens. It is a rather tame miracle but it resolves everything.
Very good acting by Jitendra Joshi and good sets.
A cohesive, consistent plot, good dialogues. Paisa vasool.

It has happened

There is this chick-lit book I got from the British Library for time-pass:

Love always by Harriet Evans, Harper Collins London, 2011

It is more serious than I had thought at first glance and curiously, the protagonist's father is one Aravind Kapoor, a professor of philosophy! This is the first time I have come across a full-fledged Indian character in a book like this. No, wait! It is the second time. There was an Indian doctor and his daughter in J.K. Rawlings detective story. (Forgotten the name.) 

Indian sidekicks are many, even in films. The raj quartet and Passage to India naturally had Indian characters and Indian authors writing in English are a separate genre in English literature.

The substantial diaspora is getting reflected in literature at last. This is good.
PS: I have finished Love always and feel it was much ado about nothing. In spite of a good beginning, the suspense is not sustained, the plot becomes obscure because of the characters and the novel goes on and on. 

www.amitavghosh.comFlood of fire by Amitav Ghosh
The last book in Ibis trilogy out in May 2015. I have been waiting for long for it. It was out of print almost immediately and finally I have procured a copy. Curiously, now that the book is at hand, I have become loath to take it up. Have skimmed it of course. Why the reluctance? Perhaps I am afraid that it will be over fast and then I will lose the prop of last so many days and months.
With consummate skill, Ghosh is joining the dots in this last volume. Thorough research backs his writing. A superb plot with many twists and turns, his play with languages and words, deft characterization and an astonishing grasp of customs, social mores. An extraordinary achievement.
All I want now is an omnibus volume in paperback to read it once again. 
No, after reading through half of the third volume I revise my opinion. The volume falls flat. I got a feeling that Ghosh has got carried away by his language and is neglecting his characters.

A new project
Commercial life, a book of readings
I am collecting extracts from books on different aspects of commercial life.
Four major areas have been identified thus:
Occupations and activities
Organizations
Types of business and
Social change (initiated by commercial change)
I have located some 30 extracts so far spanning a period of nearly two centuries from 1833 to 2014. My work consists of identifying extracts, preparing them, writing introductory, explanatory notes for each and prepare section-wise introduction
I hope to capture a lot of variety of commercial life and its evolution in this anthology. Hopefully, the anthology will prove to be useful and interesting to students as well as lay readers.
Extracts collected so far relate to:
Occupations and activities: factory workers, menial occupations, financiers and brokers, advertising, board meetings
Organizations: turnaround of State Bank of India, setting up Amazon.com
Types of business: departmental store, realty business
Social change: reflection of office work and women's contribution to it in literature and films, conditions of working class, entrepreneurs versus organization/ company men
I am enjoying myself in this work.
You are welcome to make comments and add your ideas.

Killa (fort) is a new Marathi movie we saw in a nearby theatre yesterday. Were pleasantly surprised by the sizeable crowd - by multiplex standard- that had gathered on a weekday. People of all age groups were present and there was a boisterous college crowd which is a sure sign of success of the movie.
Marathi theatre, once known for its vibrancy, is now quiet and its place is taken by Marathi movies. The spirit of adventure and experimentation is present plus two developments have helped. One, the new media and easy access to them and two, location of Film Institute in Pune. In the last two months, so many Marathi films have been made that each is bound to make a loss. However, builders, television soap makers, other businessmen - many non- Marathi- are now willing to finance Marathi movies.
Killa is about the growing up of a school-going boy. His father is no more and his working mother gets transferred frequently because she is honest and upright. The boy is therefore forced to abandon his friends and get used to new locale and company. He has come to Guhagar in Konkan and gradually makes friends with four naughty, not good at studies boys who abandon him when they arrange a cycle race and visit the nearby fort (actually at Alibag. I think there is no fort near Guhagar. This was an avoidable glitch.). The boy shows his displeasure and his friends are repentant. And it is time for the boy and his mother to shift to Satara.
A simple plot. Superb photography and natural acting make the story alive. It lingers in viewer's mind. Far better than action-packed Bond movies which do not let let your eyes flicker from the screen even once but are promptly forgotten the moment you are outside.
Killa won a special award at an international movie festival in Germany and was hailed by children there. The director, producer of the movie is from FTII and he has had to travel a lot because of his father's transferable job. He has said that he started and then the movie just happened before he was fully aware of what was happening.

Prarambh by Gangadhar Gadgil

Its size put me off. 500+ pages in oversize hardbound copy. A quick look showed boring stuff but when I began at the beginning it proved to be interesting. Gadgil has written on today's Mumbai, yesteryear's Bombay while it was being made. It is history of Bombay when the British rule was getting consolidated in the country. However, it is history written as a novel. That is a point repeated by Gadgil but it comes across as very plain writing for a novel. What we have is a mix of some real and some fictional characters that occupy an old period beginning from 1818 and ending with 1860/1870 and actual developments in it.
The protagonist is Nana Shankarshet. Gadgil is very partial to the British officers and their efforts in establishing the rule of law in Bombay. Some prominent Parsee traders, mainly Jamshedji Jeejibhoy, are also written about in glowing terms. Gadgil is overwhelmingly in their favour.
Khushwant Singh has written on Delhi and he presents the city as a courtesan writing about herself and her life. We do not have in Marathi any other book covering a city in a novel. So credit is due to Gadgil on this count.
However, there is plenty of repetition here. Some pet phrases of Gadgil recur sometimes in one paragraph! Tighter editing was necessary.
Amitava Ghosh's Ibis trilogy came to my mind. It has a far wider canvas and Ghosh is so much ahead of Gadgil in both imagination and research.
Gadgil cites Gilian Tindall's 'City of gold' on Bombay. Will someone cover the 20th century and update the history of Mumbai?

Office work
When did offices start employing women?
Who coined the term 'white-collar'?
What caused the decline of office work?
Are office design and layout important?
Virtual offices and paperless offices? Offices of the future?
Anyone who has pondered over these questions will find 'Cubed, A secret history of the workplace' by Nikil Saval (Doubleday, New York, 2014) an absorbing book. It packs a whole lot of information together. It also covers the reflection of office life in movies and novels.
The style of writing is slightly off-putting. I mean it is a serious book but too many commas and 'didn't', 'couldn't' etc. are used. Too much attention is given to office design. One is not clear about the secret part of the history.
All told, a meticulously researched, engaging book.

Change

It is everywhere and what goes up comes down.
How many things and trends have I seen obeying the above dictum?
Industries: automobiles, banking, construction, IT, telecom, web technology, education (yes, saw its transformation from public service to industry), retail trade, micro finance, financial services
Other organizations: NGOs, EPW
Ideologies: socialism, secularism, feminism, economic planning

Correction?

The Economist (23- 29 May 2015) carries a special report on India. It gives an accurate assessment of Modi's first year in power. The report repeatedly mentions that manufacturing sector makes only 16% contribution to the economy.

As per Economic Survey of 2014-15, the break up of gross value added is:

Agriculture 19%

Industry 31% and 

Services 50%.

So what causes the gap between industry and manufacturing contribution? Laypersons might treat the two as the same. But mining and quarrying, electricity, gas, water supply and construction are the other parts of industry and together they contribute the difference of 15%.

It is important to remember that Modi's Make in India refers to manufacturing and not industry. Increasing the share of manufacturing from 16% to 25% is proposed and it is a very difficult target.

labour market intermediaries

Human resource management and labour economics belong to the same area but they have developed in a mutually exclusive manner. A book I am reading recently: Work in the new economy, flexible labor markets in Silicon Valley by Chris Benner, (Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 2002) makes the connection very clear. Its treatment of labor intermediaries in IT industry is comprehensive and very informative. It reveals a whole new world which subsumed in the topic of sources of recruitment in HR management.

A short walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby

Travelogues get so boring. Balancing geographical and general information with characters involved and action is tough.
A short walk however does it admirably. The style of the author is deprecating and typically English - tongue in cheek. Reader's interest grows continuously and the end - it leaves readers wanting more.
Somehow I am always drawn to Central Asia in travel readings. Culturally it is close and also inaccessible now. Newby writes about his trip to Nuristan in 1956 with Hugh Carless of Her Majesty's Foreign Service. Hugh had gone to the region earlier but Newby was completely new and to his horror learnt that Carless also did not know anything about mountaineering. Still they persevered and climbed up to a short distance to Mir Samir - the peak they wanted to scale.
Evelyn Waugh has written a preface and Carless has added an epilogue. Fiftieth anniversary edition in 2008 is what I chanced upon in British Library and have enjoyed myself very much going through this much thumbed copy sans some photos

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