Prof Bandookwala did his Ph.D from the University of Okhlahoma in the 1970’s. At Oklahoma he spent time trying to find particles that can travel faster than light. Einstein was relieved, Bandookwala couldn’t find any such particles, though he did find his Ph.D. He was advised one day by a Catholic Nun, ‘Go back son … Read more

Pravin Bhagwat is an IITK batchmate of Samir Palnitkar. Pravin spent a long time working with the Watson Labs at IBM. He was IBM’s representative in meetings that evolved the wireless standards for the computing industry – the blue tooth. There was a lot of haggling that went on between companies that were involved. And … Read more

The concept of an invitation only private dining restaurant was new to me. So when the Aragma invitation popped up for a midweek dinner, I cancelled whatever I had planned – and landed up at 1830 hrs at the Insignia complex, on Dhole Patil road. Poornima, the brains behind Aragma Food Studio, used to be … Read more

Pune generates 1500 t per day of garbage. 6000 t of waste every day in Mumbai. 65% of it is from residences and hotels. Out of this 9% is plastic. The reason for the shift to plastic is the logistics challenge: Should a manufacturer use 2.5 gm of pouch or 450 gram glass bottle? About … Read more

Jaman Lal Taneja comes from a business family. Was sure that he wanted to continue in business. During his growing up years in newly independent small town India there were not too many other options. The family sent across young Jaman to the neighbouring Muzaffarpur for completing his education. His graduation in commerce ensured that … Read more

Quite a few of us are in our fifties and stay away from our parents. And whether we like it or not, we have braced ourselves for that midnight call from one of the parents. Happened last week. Friend called from the US – local time 0200 hrs. His mom had passed away. They are … Read more

AB: How can we create moral, responsible citizens to lead tomorrow’s India? AS: By becoming one ourselves…by being the example. There’s no other way. To need someone or something external to motivate us means we believe that we are not enough. We already have it in us and our responsibility is to ourselves. That’s it! … Read more

Subramanian Swamy has a very justified reputation as a thinking maverick. So when TiE invited folks to join a session to hear the great man live in a Q and A session, I jumped at it. The first question put across to Swamy was what would he do if he were to be made finance … Read more

COEP 90 – Get together in 2014 Recently attended the COEP 90 batch get together in Pune. Got a call today from Nitin Gaekwad, our Mech batchmate, who could not attend because of a friend’s sickness. Nitin asked me: ‘How did the 90 batch get together go?’ ‘Paisa Wasool’ ‘Did you strike any deals?’ ‘No’ … Read more

Walked down to the railway station with Pinky. Reached in 1 hour 10 minutes. Walked across the railway tracks and went on to platform number 1. Did some fruit purchasing before getting into the compartment. Had interesting company. Lady who works with Schlumberger, along with her 7 year old kid and 20 year old nephew. … Read more