This post is dedicated to two of my friends who just turned
50.
A Creative Persona
He was one of the first friends I made as a doctoral student
at IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA) in 1991. Poet, film buff, supporter of the underdog,
teacher of creativity, voracious reader, questioner of authority, former left
activist, jazz enthusiast Vidyanand Jha celebrated his 50th birthday
recently.
As doctoral students at IIMA, we had to do many of the first
year classes along with the MBA students. So, we were part of one of the
sections of the MBA class, in the spacious amphitheatre-like classrooms for
which IIMA is famous. We were seated towards the back, on the right hand side,
with one MBA student between us. But as
far as I can recall, we were already friendly even before we were
serendipitously seated so close to each other.
Several things stood out about Jha – his looks, his photo-chromatic
glasses which helped him hide his eyes or even let him sleep while classes were
in progress, the diversity of his experience compared to the typical MBA
student! Many of our classmates had probably never heard of the CPI-ML, let
alone been a member. I recall one occasion on which a professor asked how many
students had a rural address, and Jha was the only one who put up his hand. Jha
used to hang out with the senior, scholarly yet rebellious doctoral students
who held forth on the philosophy of management thought and life.
While at IIMA, Jha and I used to attend every seminar we
could. So, we got exposure to a wide variety of subjects and speakers. But,
neither he nor I became great researchers in the traditional academic sense. I
think we just enjoyed the exposure and the discussions.
As evidenced by his Facebook posts today, Jha is a member of
multiple worlds. One is the world of Maithili literature. Jha is an
accomplished poet himself, and has been published by the Sahitya Akademi. He
has also translated books into Hindi. I tried to persuade him to translate my
book From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation into Hindi but didn’t succeed in
doing so. Maybe he would have done it if it were fiction. I often ask myself
how strong is the dividing line between fiction and non-fiction – after all,
even non-fiction is based on the lens through which you see things. But, may be
Jha doesn’t see it that way.
Jha has been a member of the faculty at IIM Calcutta since
he finished FPM at IIMA. Kolkata has always been the gateway to the east, and
his location has helped him remain in close contact with his home. He has also
become a fluent speaker of Bengali. Kolkata has a good number of literary and
cultural events, and it’s a clear sign of Jha’s cultural interests that he has
managed to attend these in spite of the fact that IIMC is miles away from the
centre of town. That’s quite unlike many contemporary management academics who
lead a much more sequestered life.
Over the time I have known him, Jha has been a compulsive
giver, particularly of macabre films. But the fun part is that he doesn’t see
them as violent or offensive. Maybe that just comes from being a writer and a
film buff.
Many years ago, in an article in EPW, Ramachandra Guha
bemoaned the loss of the bilingual intellectual. Guha spoke too soon – Jha can
be an intellectual in Maithili, Hindi and Bengali in addition to English! But
if I have one regret, it’s that Jha (like many other Indian scholars) has been
more in the Indian oral tradition than a great writer as far as management is
concerned. From talking to him, and seeing the feedback of his students, I can
see that he has lots of interesting insights into management and organizations,
but few of these have found their way into print.
Reflecting his left leanings, Jha has always been quick to
take the side of the underdog. I can remember one warm afternoon many summers
ago when he and another friend of ours derided the IT industry for creating
cybercoolies.
A Change-Maker
Another friend who turned 50 recently, is an equally weighty
academic. Dheeraj Sanghi was technically one batch junior to me at IIT Kanpur,
but we graduated in the same year as he did a 4-year BTech, and I did a 5-year
integrated MSc programme.
I got to know Dheeraj thanks to another friend, Pramath
Sinha. We were building our team for the Cultural Festival and Pramath brought
in Dheeraj to manage our finances. Dheeraj was active in student politics , and
so was I, but I got to know him well only after he became a member of our
Festival team (he did a great job!).
After a PhD at Maryland, Dheeraj returned to our alma mater
and has been a faculty member there ever since. Like Jha, Dheeraj is also a
straight talker, and not one given to excessive diplomacy and tact. But he has
been fiercely loyal to IITK and has put tremendous effort into sustaining its
best traditions. As Dean of Academic Affairs over the last few years, he was an
enthusiastic innovator, with all his efforts directed towards helping IITK achieve
the best academic standards.
Dheeraj has never been afraid to experiment. He took a
couple of years off to head the LN Mittal Institute of Technology in Jaipur,
and though I couldn’t visit him during that stint, from what he told me it is
clear he managed to try out a lot of new things there as well.
Dheeraj just moved to IIIT Delhi for a couple of years. IIIT
Delhi already has a creative leader at its helm. But Pankaj Jalote should watch
out, Dheeraj will soon be ready to unleash his ideas there as well.
Dheeraj’s commitment to engineering education has been
evident from his blog. He has waded into controversial issues like the
two-stage JEE process with gusto and has always managed to provide very logical
and thought-provoking analyses.
One of Dheeraj’s other passions has been the Indian
Railways. He travels long distances (by train, of course) to attend conferences
of other rail buffs like himself. He explores the myriad options available on
the IRCTC ticketing website, sometimes landing up in all sorts of trouble as a
result, and he then has to valiantly try to recover his money using various
clauses of the Railway manual.
I am surprised that Dheeraj hasn’t figured in the recent
round of IIT director appointments. Maybe he is too outspoken. But, time is on
his side, and I hope the country will take advantage of his energy and vast
reservoir of ideas to build one of our institutions.
It’s been my privilege to know Jha and Dheeraj. As they
cross 50, here’s wishing them many more years of creative endeavours.
