Leena Nair elected as chairperson of CII Maharashtra State Council

Mar 18 : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Maharashtra State Council has elected Leena Nair, executive director (HR) at Hindustan Unilever Ltd, as the chairperson of CII Maharashtra State Council for 2011-12.


Ms Nair succeeds Mr Milon Nag, chairman and managing director of K K Nag Ltd. While Satish Jamdar, managing director of Blue Star Limited, was elected as vice-chairman of the Maharashtra State Council, a release here today said.

Ms Nair, an Electronics Engineer, is a gold medalist and MBA in HR from XLRI, Jamshedpur. She has worked with Unilever for the last 17 years in a variety of roles like Employee Relations Manager, Management Development Manager, Business Partner for the Home and Personal Care Business.

With her appointment as Executive Director-HR in June 2007, Ms Nair became the first woman on the Management Committee of HUL. She is also the youngest Executive Director to be appointed. She also leads HR for Unilever South Asia. She has been on Business Today 'Most powerful woman' list for three consecutive years. She has also been awarded the 'HR Super Achiever of the year in 2009' by the World HRD Congress.

Quantum Theory

Dear friends, gosh it’s exactly two months after I am writing a post on this blog. I can’t believe when I saw that. Sorry for that friends. Though I wonder why other posts are not there from my friends in the meantime, I still feel regret for this. What to do friends, we live in India and in this country the person who is into act is held accountable for the same act, irrespective of whether it is a consensus on the team work or not. Anyway, my sincere regrets friends.

So we were brushing up our college days memories friends. I think we were talking about the learned professors of our batch. I think we missed one gentleman amongst the crowd. He used to teach us physics and I remember his was the first lecture every time. Yes, you guessed that right friends, its NNK.

Young professor; smart too. Maybe why very neatly dressed with a heavily pressed shirts and trousers every time. One could easily cut a lemon or two on the ridges of shirt ironed such. And the actions were so managed, so controlled that care was always there to not to disturb that ironed ridge. Just like a robot. Hair, very neatly combed. And even if you (not me, I hardly was present till last lecture of the day) see this gentleman on the last lecture somewhere else, you could see not a single hair moved unturned. Really Mr. clean; such an extent that even he didn’t seem right to write something on board just because board would get dirty after dusting off. He would point a finger to board while explaining but oh dear pointing to a clean, empty board.

He used to teach us the quantum theory. ‘Light travels in discrete units called as quantums and not in continuous ray like manner’. Oh god, I wondered then too and I still wonder why to study how a light is traveling? Sounds like either Hattori doing that saying a ninja technique ding ding ding or Jim Carrey making his facial gestures by very close observation along the path of a bullet shot out of a gun or an arrow released from a bow. He would clean that bullet carefully on the travel and let go further with a big satisfaction on the face in his style.

Might be a candidate then this professor, in the huge but illusive matrimonial market. Because hardly he could have a look over boys rows and that too if someone from boy’s section disturbed him. And that’s understandable. In fact, a testing time rather for any young man. One row full of bold and beautiful girls from holy cross. I wonder if there was a criterion in holy cross that the girl must be ‘to be beautiful ‘ if had to be granted admission. I still wonder, even if that criterion was there, how it could be fulfilled at the age of five or six. Strange, but true.  And another row full of shaleen beauties from rest of the schools. So, forget about how light travels man, here my heart is splitting into quantums. I wonder, if a professor had to go through this kind of situation how boys at sixteen could have handled that situation.

Alright, let’s get back to physiques. I mean physics, sorry for that spelling mistake. But one thing is sure friends; I owe my gratefulness to Mr. PKP and Mr.Pethe for their outstanding teaching of physics and maths which laid a good foundation for further studies. There is one more professor named Mr. Athalye to whom I owe the same feelings. God bless all of them always. And god bless all of our new college professors.

Dear friends, apart from science, hum log pehele friendship ki taraf se hai. So let the light of good spirit, health and prosperity travel continuously in your life as the festival of lights has begun. Enjoy the light, enjoy the festival and enjoy the life. Happy Diwali friends!!

Simple Math II

Hello friends, hope you celebrated friendship week or two with your family or friends and had a great fun. Couple of holy festivals too, added more flavors to whole last fortnight or so. And it would continue as generally we have a series of festivals to celebrate which start from month of August till the year end. For younger generation, this package of celebration usually concludes on the eve of 31 st Dec. and so the life goes on with the new year. Good.

Well, dear friends, we were talking about our math’s class in our college days. We had another math’s teacher Mr. VDK who used to teach us trigonometry. While Mr. BPJ would divide the board into two halves with a single line in the middle of the board, this fellow used to draw (only) a framework of three axes. And to tell you what friends, like BPJ, with this guy also I never understood three things.

First, he never ever came to conclusion for what axis to be called as what. The three axes were always there and he kept telling us ‘ phar tar X mhana, phar tar Y mhana or phar tar Z mhana ‘.  Ho sir, but which axis to say x and which to y and oh dear, z was like an orphan. He continued to do so till we left the college.

Second thing dear friends, there was a great amount of prejudice with this guy. That, this guy was the strictest teacher in the college. My dear friends, this wasn’t the case in real scenario. Agree, his personality like a western film character would justify that prejudice prima-facie, but never ever there was an incidence which would prove so.  So, I never understood why that air was there with this guy.

On the contrary, I could see, while there was nothing ever on the board besides those three arrows of axes, this period was always an exchange of arrows of stolen glances (sadly broken dreams later on) between boys and girls. Well, phar tar off period mhana!!, phar tar fun period mhana,  phar tar …..ah forget it.  

And lastly, a usual scene with the entry of this so called strictest teacher. As soon as he would start walking towards stage, the boys on back benches hurriedly go out of the classroom. In spite of care taken, there would be a noise as a whole bunch of boys were practiced to go out. And I realized later on, that this guy had an idea about that but never caught a single student red handed. (rather red footed). To me, he seemed to claim his wine as old in a closed bottle. In Marathi, we call it as ‘zakli muth savva lakhachi ‘. Phar tar adich lakhachi mhana!!

My dear friends, do you remember that incidence? One boy couldn’t succeed in first attempt with the mass of boys to go out of classroom. So later on he tried in single, with soft feet like cat and unfortunately dashed to the door. With that noise, he turned back swiftly and asked Mr. Khade ‘May I come in sir?’ and Mr. Khade pleasingly allowed him in. Dear friends, please bear in mind, the scenario in a Marathi film ‘Ashi hi Banvabanvi’ where Laxmikant Berde asks Sudhir Joshi, ‘Dhananjay Mane ethech rahtat ka? ‘was pitcturised seven odd years after this incidence happened in our college.  Is the script writer of that film from our batch? If not, then phar tar what a coincidence mhana!!

So dear friends, it’s a beautiful Sunday evening and its raining heavily out there. Phar tar ‘ bahaana ’ mhana ani enjoy kara !!

Simple Math

Ya..a….ksss!!     Any guesses what this could be friends?

A reaction of yours when you start jogging one fine morning and suddenly see a man clearing his nose indecently? Or a reaction of your friend who is a vegetarian and suddenly sees a non veg dish served to him by mistake? A joyful excitement in mind of a two days hungry Eskimo or a puma when suddenly seen a group of yaks? A reaction of sixteen years of boy or a girl who suddenly sees a father of her or his on spot on first date? Or a reaction from beautiful girls of our college when they had to dissect a frog first time?  

What the hail is that exactly …..?

Friends, its an alphabet ‘X’ pronounced by our dear math’s teacher Mr. BPJ.  Please strain your memories a little and try to visualize his lecture. I still remember his famous X and the gesture while saying that alphabet. His hands raised in air, fingers of both the palms spreading outwards like a demonstration of Mig or Jaguar planes on 26 th Jan and the facial expressions. Oh god, facial expressions such that if someone removes a snap of those and publish in south then people may ask ‘hey when the film of this hero is going to be released?’ Even I tried to imagine an analogy of a scene when I replaced Rahul Solapurkar with Mr. BPJ saying ‘ X’ instead of ‘ pisss …k’ while casting ‘ Takalu Haiwan’. And while attending his lectures I also thought many times that if mother of ‘X’ sees Mr. BPJ on stage, she might ask him worriedly ‘ mere betene apka kya bigada hai jo aap uske pichhe pade ho ?’

But my dear friends, there were three things I never understood with this guy. First, I never understood why he used to bisect the green board at the very next moment he would enter into the class. Secondly, as soon as he bisects the board into two halves brutally, making our bodies to shiver by that noise of a chalk and glass, he would draw a star in the upper right corner of the board. And to tell you what friends, I remember he could never draw a good, complete star, ever. Rather, I would rate not a single star or even a half star for his star then. Ha Ha Ha…

And the third and the important thing my dear friends. He used to teach us complex number represented by ‘ i’. And root of this small i  is equal to minus one. Great!!

But horrible thing was that whenever he himself gets stuck with some example, he would take the help of this small ‘i’. And then what, he would turn those two halves of board into battlefield and somehow arrive at the answer which he usually used to write in lower right corner of the board. Finding that answer was like finding a needle in the hey. How complex!!

But dear friends, we were so lucky to have Mr. Pethe who could teach the math in a simplified way. That’s the beauty of that subject. If taught in a simple manner, every sum becomes easier. And friends…this applies as good to your life. Your ‘Ayushyache Ganit’ will be easier too, if you try to solve it by simpler formulae.

More on that later friends. Last time I kept writing a little more because I had to keep myself awake to watch the match after a hectic day. Anyway, it’s a whole friendship week ahead and I wish you all to enjoy it like the way we used to enjoy in our college days. Happy friendship day!! And good night.

Unsung Heroes

We remembered a lot about our teachers in the last blogs. But missed them during the meet.
Why didn't we invite them? Were we too tied up? Were we expecting others to do this "work"? Were too keen to meet the select few? Were we so lost with nonsense commercial tuition teachers, who designed some select few to Engg,Medical? Were they not at all important to be invited?
Why?
Someone has to invite them for the next meet. If you don't, should I?
Missed them....while going through that group photo album.

Goal , Strategy and Golden Mean.

Goals everywhere!! Like a blind man in Mackena's Gold movie says 'Gold Everywhere’

Friends, I am enjoying soccer world cup like anything. But to tell you frankly, I couldn’t curb getting my eyes wet when Brazil was out of the tournament. Not just because of my favorite team went out of world cup but because of I love the way they look at the game and their happy go lucky nature. And it’s certainly a painful thing to see a happy, merry human being disappointed. So much has been talked about the changed strategies and will continue even after the tournament is over.

Well, that’s the point friends. Changing strategy will definitely affect on your goal. It might be a positive effect or a negative one. You cannot afford to change your goal (unless something drastic happens and is beyond your control) but you can change your strategies. And that applies as good to life as any game. Every game teaches you very precious, lifelong lessons my dear friends. In fact, in a game or in a life you get more attempts to rectify your mistakes depending upon the time you have left before the game is over. The only and major difference is that, for a game, you get more chances to play the new games as such, but… dear friends not with life!! You know that friends, you have only one life.

That’s where we are now friends. Half time is over and second half has begun. First fifteen overs are gone. Veeru might be in a pavilion after doing his job. (I like his strategy …Attack is the best defense). Your aces might be slowing a little. Dear friends, it’s a time now to play Dravid’s innings. You cannot afford to loose Yuvraj at this stage. It’s a time to be a Valderama or Lothar Matthias.

But in any case my dear friends, you have to win the game of life. I love you friends and I’ll feel the same way I felt with Brazil if you loose. Tell me, what I have to do with that country and the team. I told you friends, I love them too. I love to see them as happy as they always are. And I want you to be the same my dear friends. So believe in yourself. Those who are struggling now, keep trying, don’t stop and fight, fight and fight.. You will reach the goal one day. Those, who have taken a good lead, enjoy. But do think of giving something back to society.

By the way, have you defined your goals or not my dear friends? And please remember, there are other goals as well besides financial matters. Alexander and Napoleon too, being lastly a human, realized this, but it was too late then. Just think what could be the strategy of that blind man in Mackena’s Gold who is after gold when he couldn’t even see it even if he gets it.

Friends, yesterday was the last day of your past life and today is the first day of your rest of the life. So, jindagi bitate waqt jindagi jeena bhi chahiye mere yaar!! Wo bhi to ek goal hona chahiye na? So decide your strategy accordingly. Try to find out the golden mean of achieving your goals and living life. Or should I say rather try for a ‘Goal done mean’ friends. Well, I am not a campaigner for Nike, but just do It.!!

And one more thing friends. Though I don’t have to be busy like Alexander or Napoleon, sometimes I just think I should spare a time and express myself when I am anxious or excited. After all, I am a human too. And I know, ‘ek din bik jayega mati ke mol, jag mein rah jayenge pyare tere bol.’. So bol baba bol, this blog pe kuchh to bol.

Goal…mol…bol, what is this all jhol… Dilip? Forget yaar. You need a break. Wanna tea or coffee or Lassi? Tell me, where to go? Ashwamedh or TrishaShanti? See you there friend!!

Pour some sugar on me! Material Girl

A few hours back, I was driving through heavy rains through palm lined roads of my beautiful Goa, call it coincidence, but the title of this blog is not a sleazy invitation; but the sequence of songs that I just heard on radio!
Friends I'm probably the lucky few amongst we classmates who gets to enjoy the new and old of both western and Indian music, (nowadays also World music), on radio everyday! You'll knew my passion for music and so has God! He blessed me with a home in Goa, where I can meet artists and attend concerts of some great musicians.
Those days,few of you even laughed at my dreams to become a Rockstar! Trust me, I am a Rockstar now. That's when I choose my favourite Skull candy headsets, songlists, turn on the ipod and close my eyes! I'm also on world tour when there are public holidays and an occasional Bharat bandh, as it was today! My children attend classes for guitar and Indian classical music. And I have a dvd of "Rock On" too! The only similarity with the movie and my life is when the lead actress mentions that she knows little of Rock music! My wife too knows very little!!!
Back to reality, just as "Pour some sugar on me" got over, Madonna started crooning, Material Girl! And I remembered Live Aid telecast on our black and white tv sets then. My parents were fast asleep, and here I was flying between US and UK, watching Bob Geldof's most memorable get-together of our favourite stars for charity.
I spoke about the concert the next day and everyone questioned, "what was that?"
Today, times have changed and many of you still request me if I have that collection of songs.......Yes, I do have. Thousands of songs, on not just one, but on over 3 Ipods!.....and not just the old but also the new. And there's good news too, along with Rock, Pop, Jazz, Blues,Electronica and the latest club music from Ibiza; I also have some good Hindi and Marathi songs!
But I have a problem, I need to put them together as songlists according to their genres. I also need to add some of your favourite songs in my collection!
Lets come together online, share some good music and also create an album of our favourites!