End of an Era

Dr PC Shejwalkar (1929-2021)

 

With Dr Shejwalkar's departure on 8 January 2021 - just a week before he would have completed 92 -, an era has ended.

My association with him goes back to 1967, when I entered BMCC as a student.  He was the Vice Principal then and had introduced an idea of a Thinkers Club, in which students would give a talk on a subject of their choice and the club would meet once a week.  I made my first speech there. It was managed by the students.  It went on well for some time before the Exam Fever caught on and then it couldn't be revived.  But the impression on my mind was that here was a teacher who was interested in doing something outside the curricula, he was on the move and would trust and support the students.  And importantly, he was always smiling.

A little over a decade later, I returned to Pune having worked in the textile industry in Mumbai after my MMS from Bajaj.  Dr MD Apte suggested my name to Dr Shejwalkar as a visiting faculty.  I was only 28 then, but he trusted me and thus began my teaching career.  Sometimes he would call me to accompany him on long walks and explain to me very many things associated with academic life.  These used to be told through anecdotes and tales mostly experienced first hand by him.  After months of such an informal orientation, he asked me to consider joining a full time position.  I was enjoying doing industry work, especially project management.  It took quite some time for me to make up my mind and I finally joined IMDR in Dec 1982.  

I enjoyed teaching because there was total academic freedom and I liked conceptual work.  Dr Shejwalkar would informally discuss things at times and would ask me to pay attention to both administrative and academic aspects of work in an institution.  People who worked closely with him have always remarked about several of his exemplary work habits.  I must mention two of those here.  He was extremely prompt in responding to mails, invitations and calls.  No letter ever remained unanswered on his desk.  No article or book sent to him by anyone and especially a first time author, remained unacknowledged.  It was no wonder that whatever he undertook moved at great speed to completion, besides enlarging his social circle.  His responsiveness earned him many admirers and collaborators.

 The second of his exemplary habits pertained to payment by due date.  Employees would get their salaries on the due date and one might ask if it is something out of ordinary.  There are many institutions today who cannot keep up the date of payment of salaries.  But that's a different story today.  Back then, it wasn't unusual to get the salaries a couple of days after the due date.  But that wasn't the case with Dr Shejwalkar, who was fanatical about keeping the date of such payments to employees, visiting faculty and everyone else.  It earned him loads of goodwill aand gratitude.  He knew what that monthly bunch of notes meant for a household.

This combination of industriousness, simplicity and sincerity ran through everything he did.  It enabled him to reach out to people, sense their concerns and address them in an innovative way, by carrying a whole lot of people with him.  The scale of his acheivements grew over time to be stupendous: the number of doctoral scholars who earned their Ph D under him, the number of years for which he ran his monthly feature in Prasad, the Marathi magazine and the number of years he spent in academia.

Building IMDR as an autonomous institution outside the University framework was his outstanding achievement and to use Gopal Krishna Gokhale's words, in IMDR he has left behind the best work of his life.  IMDR became autonomous more than four decades ago when the term 'autonomy' wasn't part of the academic parlance.  He had to gradually evolve the curriculum, teaching-learning system and the assessments.  The whole idea was to make academia more open to the world outside and to engage with it actively without getting overwhelmed.  If he found either the academician or the manager pushing things too far in their chosen direction, he would step in decisively to check it, so that the equilibrium between academic requirements and industry demands was not upset. Had  he  not been adept at maintaining the equilibrium, IMDR could have easily lost its academic character and become another job fair venue.

Another notable achievement of his is not easy to discern.  He made many innovative advances, thanks to the autonomy that he had nurtured.  IMDR was the first to run a course for Defence Personnel who were seeking resettlement in industry.  IMDR was also the partner of LIC in training its sales personnel in Life Insurance marketing, as LIC was preparing to meet the challenge of privatization.  It is no secret that LIC  withstood the challenge of privatization in a creditable way, thanks largely to its vigorous presence in the market, among other things.  The point to remember is that Dr Shejwalkar did not have to set out to innovate.  It came naturally to him riding on the back of the tremendous goodwill he had generated in industry.  He was open to ideas and he was open to the world.  The world found a willing ally in him who would step out to solve the problems.  He would adroitly craft solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

Working with him gave me a unique opportunity to understand the way he looked at people, processes and institutions both in academia and in industry.  In a way he was orienting me to be the Life Member and eventually his successor.  Life Member system of the DE Society is a unique institution, whose real nature is so very elusive of neat conceptualization.  It is democratic, decentralized and extremely adaptive, if understood in the right sense. He was fully conversant with the organizational dynamics of this unique institution and was able to successfully situate an autonomous institution within the overall institutional framework of DE Society.  The success of IMDR led to many autonomous endeavours within the institutions of DE Society and it was indeed fortunate that the transformation of our flagship Fergusson College into an autonomous institution happened during Dr Shejwalkar's life time.

The other equally great achievement of Dr Shejwalkar was that he made Management a household word in Maharashtra.  He wrote, lectured and spoke at many places and fora in both Marathi and English.  He addressed industrialists, managers and also workers.  He was involved with the Productivity movement and also Workers' Education scheme.  He was accessible and open to such invitations and spoke with his characteristic simplicity reaching out to his audience in a manner they could relate to the experiences he shared.  In that sense, he made his vast reservoir of knowledge available to the general public.  It did not lay in locked cabinets of his study.

The more I think of him, the greater is my amazement at the many dimensions of what he has left behind for us.  Thank you, Dr Shejwalkar, for what you taught us and have still left for us to fathom, figure out and learn for ourselves!

 

At Udayan's Wedding

I delivered a speech at the Wedding reception of my nephew, Dr Udayan Kulkarni and Ms Manali Patel, at Atlanta on 19 Oct 2019.  Here's what I said:

"Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen.  I am brother no.2 of Udayan's mother, Suneeti Kulkarni.  In Indian languages the term for this uncle is "Mama" and there is a usage, 'I made a Mama of him'.  That is, I made a fool of him.  I think this relationship is peculiar.  Mama may think of himself as shrewd and wily in front of the world, but when it comes to his nephews, the Mama becomes a simpleton and all naive.  He becomes the keeper of nephew's secrets.

When I first came to US in 1996, my mother, that is Uda's grandmother, had asked me to hand over cash gifts to both Eddy, the elder one and Uda.  I used to be a smoker then, not any more.  So I stepped out with my two nephews and lit a cigarette at the first opportunity.  I thought my sister and Mayur didn't know about my being a smoker.  So when I smoked, I saw Uda's eyes pop up.  I told him,' don't tell your mom.' Then I remembered my mother's gifts.  I handed over to both Eddy and Uda.  Eddy said, thank you.  Uda said, 'don't tell my mom.' I don't know whether he trusted me then, but I kept his trust.

Both his grandma and Eddy are not there with us today.  But I'm sure their blessings are with Uda and Manali today.

My mother would have been especially happy today.  It was her fervent wish that at least one from the family should take up medicine as a career.  There are some of us who are Ph Ds but we are paper doctors.  Uda is the one who in a way fulfilled her dream.  

My mother was born and brought up in Saurashtra, which is a part of the state of Gujarat.  In our family and extended family, there are many matrimonial connections that link us to Gujarat.  We are very happy that Manali is continuing that tradition.

The interesting thing is that being neighbouring states, Maharashtra and Gujarat mingle with each other readily, especially in matters of food.  And this has been going on for centuries.  Both are proud of their heritage.  But there is a difference,  When Gujarati's talk, it is sweet music to the ears.  The language has that quality.  When Maharashtrians talk, you might think a stone crusher is at work nearby.

Here in Atlanta we are witnessing a union in which both Udayan and Manali are transcending those boundaries.  On behalf of our family I congratulate them and wish them a long, happy and blissful married life.

Thank you.

Wrong is not right

This morning I received a call from a stranger, who had wanted to call someone else.  The usual reply is "wrong number".  I have for many years now avoided saying it.  I'd rather say, it's not the number that you dialled, or, this is a different number, and some such response, but I carefully avoid the term 'wrong number.'  One or more of the several things may have happened.  The dialer made a mistake, the connection snapped or the exchange had some issue.  What happened as a result was a natural consequence of the action.  And it is no big deal.  But to call it 'wrong', induces a feeling of guilt in the mind of the dialer, which to me is uncalled for.  So I feel at ease when I calmly say, it's a different number and not the one you wanted.

Only yesterday I met a senior manager, who told me during a coaching conversation that he and his colleague had started meeting every morning to see what quality issues had come up previous day.  He said that when he approached his boss and told him about this way of collaborating to deal with quality issues, the boss said that this solution was 'wrong'.  What they should do instead is to convene a meeting to list anticipated quality issues during the week and take preventive action on those.  They should wake up before quality turned into a problem and do something about it, rather than deal with quality issues after those had arisen.  Sounds rational, isn't it?  Yes; but the managers' solution wasn't wrong; it was different and sought cure, while the boss wanted prevention.  That's fine, but every time your team comes up with a proposal and you as the boss keep saying,'this is where you are going wrong,' 'you made a mistake there' and such other critical remarks, just imagine the effect it will have on the team.  "No matter what we do, suggest or propose, the boss will always find something wrong in it."

Look at it this way.  The managers have their own understanding of the situation and judgment of what may work.  They have thought of one option.  You, the boss, based on your experience and judgment have come up with your solution.  Both are different.  Does it make others' thinking wrong?  No, it is simply different from yours.  By labeling it as 'wrong', you are passing a judgment and sending out a message inadvertently.  That is, 'you don't know what is right and I know it.  I am right'.  if this happens frequently then they'd say, there is no point telling the boss any of our ideas.  He will always prevail with his ideas.

So watch out when you call something 'wrong'.  Simply check if 'different' will do.  That may make you more accommodative, inclusive and democratic.  And less judgmental too.

Consumerist sabotage of Democracy

This title is not meant to startle you, but to make you think seriously about your role in democracy.

If democracy is also by people, then my role doesn't end with casting my vote for a candidate.  I have to participate in the democratic process of legislation, execution and justiciation.  For that purpose, I have to study what the representatives are doing and not doing and ask them to do and not to do what in my best opinion speaks with our constitution.  I have to keep a watch and a check on the goings on in the democratic polity, for which I have a number of avenues open.  I can do this as an individual, as a group and also as a member of a political party.

But we see today a large number of people discuss and debate among themselves without directly confronting the political parties and the politicians.  On being asked what stopped them from approaching political parties, they would say, "but it's not going to help as they are not going to change".  By indulging in private discussion, they are perhaps absolving themselves of the guilt of not doing right by democracy.  So there is a dualism of I, the citizen and they, the politicians.  The citizen is at the mercy of the politicians.  Citizens have only one choice: this or that political party at the time of election.  This is mirroring of the marketplace:  there are sellers and I as the consumer have a choice of this brand or that one.

Like the consumer, I as the citizen have become passive recipient of services dished out by democracy, such as utilities, infrastructure and security. 

With globalization and privatization, many of the services that were a part of the government provisioning have been going out of public sector.  Education, health and transport which earlier were a part of the public services have gradually been handed over to the private sector, with disastrous consequences.  The moment a service is moved from home to business, direct participation goes out and we become lazy couch potatoes waiting to be served readymade stuff.  Of course, it is always made out to be "inevitable".  Privatization is a political process in addition to being a commercial or economic one.  It takes away people's power over the political will and places it in the hands of those with purchasing power. 

Education, healthcare, banking and insurance, media and communication, transport and now IT services also create an educated middle class employee, who earns a high income and is eligible for loans.  This middle class is fed with messages of a decent life surrounded by gadgets of comfort.  In fact it is a cocoon tucked away from the hustle and bustle of common people's life.  You sit in the comfort of your living room, move in the luxury of air-conditioned vehicles and if not ordering online, go shopping in high street malls.  Unless you consume, you don't enjoy and unless you enjoy you don't live.  So consume more and enjoy more.  In the process, become less active and productive and believe you have choices only among the brands on offer.

This slow debilitation of mind is the real danger of consumerism and that is why we see the participation of people even in the most ordinary democratic process of voting in elections going down.  No wonder, politicians adopt the Election Marketing strategies, which are all about promises of more and better services to you, the consumer of democracy.

I have discovered that I don't have to drive to the Gym, if I can walk to the market and to the bus stop to catch a bus wherever I want to go.  It's better to be passive in consuming and active in living, as much as I could do.

Not Leaders, but Leadership Teams

A few days back, I heard Dr Vishwambhar Choudhari, a renowned environmental activist and a biologist, speak at a seminar.  He mentioned current view among biologists that the evolution of human brain on the physical plane seems to have reached an end, but the movement now seems to be toward connectivity among human brains, something like a collective brain.  It struck me that since the challenges of contemporary society and organizations are big, complex and new, it is not possible for one person to be able to view, comprehend and conceptualize a whole set of responses to these challenges.  Yet, we continue to look for solutions in the realm of Leadership and by that term, we always have in mind a single Leader who is inspirational, transformational, effective and successful.  Now that's a tall order and doesn't appear realistic to expect of a single individual, howsoever great (if great be the right word).

Then I came across another study by Rasmussen and Li, reported in the Institutional Investor, that investigated the MBA Myth and the Cult of the CEO.  They found that elite education and track record of success of the CEO did not seem to influence corporate performance significantly.  The authors after an exhaustive study of data on companies and CEO's expressed this view:

"Journalists, investors, and boards are placing excessive emphasis on CEO pedigrees and track records. In a world that is feedback-rich, stochastic, and “fat tailed,” the simple narrative of the “great man” does not appear to have much quantitative merit — rather, it seems like yet another cognitive bias in the vein of those discovered by Daniel Kahneman."

Then again I heard my well-informed friends, who have worked in top and senior positions in industry, ask me at the end of a predictable discussion on current politics: 

"yes, we agree the current government headed by Mr M has not delivered.  But where is the alternative?"  

The question presupposes that one man as a Leader with all the qualities that you desire in him is going to solve the problems facing the country.  If you look at the current state of evolution of human society and human brain, this expectation of a singular leader who will deliver is quite outdated.  The dynamism and the complexity of life have grown much beyond our conception.  So we need to supplement our concept of Leadership by that of Leadership team.

A leader must be able to marshal multifaceted talent, manage the team and inspire execution at the broad base ground level.  Obviously, such a leader must be an outstanding human being in terms of wisdom, strength and sensitivity.  His team ought to comprise people of calibre and character, and they must learn to work together, which translated in practice, means they must know how to manage differences productively.  

We have had Dr Man Mohan Singh as a Leader who possessed wisdom and sensitivity.  His strength as a leader was compromised by several factors.  His team had multiple talents, but he was not able to rein in his ministers and could not inspire execution at the broad base in line with the vision.  

Then we saw Mr Narendra Modi in the last five years working long hours.  That spoke of his stamina and strength.  But his team could not be described as having the intellectual and political bandwidth that a country like India needs.  From Gujarat to India is not a matter of scaling up, it is a quantum jump in complexity.  Mr Modi's difficulties have arisen primarily from lack of bandwidth of talent and from a non-playing team under a captain trying to bat, bowl, keep wickets and field all at the same time.  

So today when we are faced with a choice, we have to carefully look at all the contending candidates as Leaders and their respective Leadership teams, in order to answer the question," where is the alternative?"

A Fighter laid to rest....

There was no reason for us to be associated, as we worked in different institutes and unconnected disciplines.  But we belonged to the same institution, Deccan Education Society and more importantly, shared the same concerns about its health and vitality.  Circumstances brought us together and it was Dr Bharat Deogadkar who saved me from succumbing to sentimentality.  In the process I learnt a lot about the value of confrontation in institutional roles.  More about it later.

Dr Deogadkar was a post graduate teacher of Chemistry in Fergusson College, Pune and taught at the Bharati Vidyapeeth after retirement in 2008.  Strangers would mistake him to be a Police Officer on account of his build, gait and demeanour and maintain a respectful distance.  He was a very active member of PUTA - Pune University Teachers Association and represented the teachers of Fergusson College as a member of the Local Managing Committee for several years.  He earned respect of the succession of Principals of that hallowed institution on account of his forceful and fact-based representations.  He was a familiar figure in the sprawling campus of the Fergusson College, taking long strides with an upright military manner.

Dr Deogadkar fought a long battle with cancer and passed away on 5 Sept 2018, so aptly chosen Teachers Day!  I pay my tributes to him and salute his memory!

I became a Life Member of the DE Society in 1987 and was appointed as Director, IMDR in 1989 upon the retirement of my illustrious predecessor, Dr PC Shejwalkar.  As a LM, we function through Boards of LM's, which meet periodically and arrive at important decisions.  Depending on the importance of each matter, recommendations are made to higher bodies like the Joint Board, the Governing Body and the Council of the Society.  This is a peculiar system of bottoms up management, which combines local autonomy with centralised direction and governance.  It was laid down in the early years of the Society in the nineteenth century and has evolved and stood the test of time over the last over hundred years.

It so happened that in 1990 the Pune Board received a letter signed by 14 teachers of the Chemistry department of the Fergusson College listing several of their grievances against the HoD, who also happened to be a Life Member and hence a member of the PB. Dr Deogadkar was one of the signatories.  Principal, FC presented the matter to the PB which felt that the matter being serious, it should be  referred to the Joint Board.  The JB discussed it at length trying to find a way out of the difficult situation created by serious allegations made against a senior Life Member.  Several sittings of the JB were held to look at the administrative, political and legal angles of the matter.  Suggestions were made including one of asking the LM concerned to call a departmental meeting and  tender an apology to all colleagues admitting that there were errors of judgment.  But the LM flatly denied any wrongdoing on his part and insisted upon a statutory enquiry to be conducted regarding the allegations.  After prolonged discussion, a committee of LM's from Mumbai and Sangli was formed to hold discussions with the complainant teachers of Chemistry department, many of whom held Ph D.    The idea was to defuse the tension and arrive at some conciliation.  This committee came back and reported the gist to the JB and concluded that the discussions with Chemistry teachers revealed a more horrifying state of affairs than mentioned in the original letter.  There was then no option left but to follow the path of a duly constituted Statutory Enquiry.

This work began in August 1991 and went on for more than a year finally concluding with the GB ordering demotion of the concerned LM in Jan 1993.  The one man Inquiry Committee of Justice Dr RD Tulpule, retired judge of the Bombay High Court, held 100 hearings, allowed several witnesses to be examined and submitted a voluminous report of findings, which amounted to holding the concerned LM guilty of most of the charges of misconduct.  This whole episode was unprecedented in the long history of the DE Society.  A sitting Life Member was stripped of his Life Membership for acts of misconduct by the Body of Life Members and the Governing Body by following due procedure.  This episode was important as it showed the academic world that life membership was based on trust inspired by integrity and collectively all the Life Members were capable of dealing strictly and impartially with any trespass of the pledge, even though it was committed by one of their fellow members.

Through this period of about 20 months, I worked closely with Dr Deogadkar, since I was entrusted with the responsibility first as Assistant Presenting Officer and later as Presenting Officer, when Dr GN Jogalekar suffered a fracture in Mumbai which laid him low for several months.  We had to collect factual details of each instance of misconduct, brief the advocate (we had to engage one as the suspended LM had brought one to represent him) and also produce witnesses.  Dr Deogadkar not only knew all the details but was also concerned about setting right the abysmal state of affairs and upholding the honour and reputation of the Fergusson College.

Many of my colleagues in the Board were unhappy that I had been spending long hours over many months in this trial of one of our own brother Life Members.  I had put my doctoral work on the back burner for this entire period.  There were a number of occasions when I would experience a surge of fellow feeling and  a sense of futility of the entire inquiry process.  Dr Deogadkar seemed to sense my unease and he would always underscore the importance of upholding fairness, integrity and transparency of the noble profession of teaching.  His words of sage counsel would once again revive my spirits, dampened by the indifference all around.  His stand was vindicated when after a long trial, both the Inquiry Committee and the University Tribunal found the misconduct proved.  An unfortunate, painful and challenging episode in the history of Deccan Education Society had finally ended in a manner befitting the long and glorious tradition of academic excellence, professional integrity and democratic functioning.

My association with Dr Deogadkar grew into friendship.  When Prof Pulin Garg held a process lab for the IMDR faculty in 1993, I invited Dr Deogadkar to be a part of it.  A process lab is a setting in which participants sit around and talk about the vital aspects of life, personal choices and meanings they have held.  The idea is to break out of self generated constraints and experience real freedom to pursue what one truly believes in.  For all of us it was a totally new experience.  Pulin was the master facilitator who helped us delve deeper into ourselves.  Pulin used to come dressed in a dhoti and kurta.  Babanrao, as we used to fondly call Dr Deogadkar, was thoroughly impressed with the 'troublesome old man in dhoti'.  Somewhere the realization dawned upon him that all his energy was being deployed in being of service to others.  That was fine, so long as it did not push him away from his true aspirations.  There was a marked change in his pursuits subsequently.  He was no longer interested in doing 'more of the same'.  He started doing different things, taking charge of Laxmi Travels, for instance.  Years later, he would remember Pulin and the process lab, as the turning points in his career.  He would continue to refer to Pulin as the 'troublesome dhotiwala'.

The 6 years I spent after retirement in Gurgaon did not diminish our bonds and we did meet a couple of times after my return, when I noticed that Dr Deogadkar's health had noticeably gone down.  His spirit was strong and he held out for quite some time against cancer.  But the end came last week.  His strong conviction, unstinted support, exemplary courage and genuine warmth will always remain in my memory.  I will always cherish his silent but spirited contribution to the glory of Deccan Education Society.  I salute you, Babanrao!

You will be missed Dileep!

My friend Dr Prakash Bhave wrote a piece in Daily Sakal, which got published today.  That's how I came to know about the demise of my long time friend, Dileep Sadashiv Kulkarni. I had been enquiring with another friend of mine, CA Mukund Bhagwat about Dileep.  He had no information  about Dileep for over a year.  Three of us used to meet up once in six months for an evening of drinks and dinner.  But Dileep had turned a recluse since the last couple of years and so hadn't been attending.  The photo here was taken by me some years back at a restaurant.

Dileep was a couple of years senior to me in BMCC and Bhagwat , was a couple of years junior to me.  But we bonded much later in life, when I shifted back to Pune in 1978.  I used to work with Dr MD Apte, who was a Consultant first and later became an entrepreneur.  Dr Apte was also connected to the Pune Chapter of Cost Accountants.  That's how Dileep, also a cost accountant, came in contact with Dr Apte.  I had joined Dr Apte's consultancy in Pune.  By 1981, I moved to Prav Electrospark (Now Electronica Machine Tools) to handle their project of setting up a new plant near Pune.  The baton of the consultancy wing of Dr Apte was handed over to Dileep.

I noticed in Dileep a great desire to understand peculiar facets of people whom he admired for one reason or the other.  He was a film buff and a hardcore fan of Hindi film music.  Like a film director, he would choose carefully the angles from which he would study personalities.  Just as he would remember his school teacher, who always wore white clothes, he would also focus on the 'all-white' dealings of V Shantaram.  He was in awe of Shantaram for two other reasons: all his films that became hit were produced without a single star in them.  Secondly, he did not make losses on any of his films.  Dileep would reel off several anecdotes from Shantaram's life and hold his circle of friends spellbound.

In later years, he devoted a large part of his time writing about Satyajit Ray and his films.  With his characteristic style of focusing on the man and his profession, he unraveled many facets of Ray's personality.  He wrote with great feeling for the person behind the role.  I used to be in Delhi in those days.  We would meet whenever I visited Pune, talk about the new chapters he had written on Ray and then I would carry the manuscript with me back to Delhi.  The next time I would hand over what I had read and continue with the same routine.  The idea obviously was that he would publish it someday.  That day did not and has not come, as far as I know.  But I remember telling him that having read his writing on Ray, I felt sad that I had not met such a personality.

Dileep also wrote about Charkha and computer from his unique perspective.  He visualised the computer becoming as simple and accessible as the Charkha was during the heyday of the freedom struggle.  That did happen in his life time, though the smartphone is still not affordable to the masses.

Dileep had a child-like way of laughing in a happily amused manner.  The world was full of wonders and the more wonderful part for him was the way people led their lives.  Being true to oneself was what attracted him most.  He led his life the same way, picking up jobs, throwing them away, tasting all kind of liquor and then casually turning a teetotaler.  I am sure he must be chuckling to himself as he watches the goings on in the wide blue yonder.

You will be missed Dileep!