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The Gandhian in a B-school

In June 2004, as a young student at what was then NITIE Mumbai (now IIM Mumbai), I stood on the streets of Mumbai with simple educational toys in my hand, a modest sales target, and a very unconventional assignment from one unconventional professor: Dr. T. Prasad, fondly known today as “Mandi Sir” was debuting the very first edition of Mandi. What looked like a freak, even frivolous, street‑selling exercise that day has since grown into a nationwide movement in entrepreneurial, Gandhian, hands‑on learning - the Mandi and Maha Mandi pedagogy. Two decades later, as Dr. T. Prasad retires from IIM Mumbai, it feels the right moment to pause, reflect, and celebrate the revolution he quietly sparked and the thousands of students and entrepreneurs he has shaped along the way. From tailor to “Mandi Sir” Dr. Prasad’s own journey adds extraordinary moral weight to his message. In various talks and interviews, he has openly shared how he funded his own education by doing tailoring work on we...
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I am proud of my heritage - hopefully for the right reasons!

"The Maratha Military Landscapes of India have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as India's 44th World Heritage property." 🔴 BREAKING! New inscription on the @UNESCO #WorldHeritage List: Maratha Military Landscapes of India, #India 🇮🇳. ➡️ https://t.co/seTyyVu3sT #47WHC pic.twitter.com/mEpa6RWLRx — UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) July 11, 2025 That simple announcement from UNESCO filled me with immense pride. It is not every day that the world pauses to recognize a part of our collective history, and this recognition is long overdue. As someone who now lives in Mumbai, and proudly traces his roots to Maharashtra, these forts are not just monuments on a map. They are familiar silhouettes on the Sahyadri skyline, stories narrated by grandparents, and enduring symbols of courage and resilience. They have shaped the identity of this region for centuries. Yet, alongside that pride, I feel a sense of disappointment. Within hours o...
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Why are dad's clumsy at emotion management?

Image Credit: Photo by Raneesh Ravi on Unsplash I am a dad - twice over now - and I have years of experience of being the son of my dad. So, I can claim to possess a reasonable level of experience on the subject of fathers and emotion management - and my verdict is that All Fathers are, in general, very poor at emotion management? To begin with, look at the very characteristic constipated expression of the Dad in the photo above. I am sure he is so elated, happy, his heart palpitating, but his face betrays all of that - the contrast being the expressions of the kid on his lap. But many of you in general would agree that most of your dads would be the same - their happiness would be subdued, so would their sorrow; at best some dad's are good at showing off their anger - we often label such dad's as toxic, but I believe (or at least sincerely hope so!) that these are far fewer than the good dad's out there, who are even incapable of dealing with anger as an emotion. As I sto...
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Learning from History: Evolution, Success, Stasis, Colonisation of Societies — and What Present-Day Trends Indicate About the Future

Human civilisation has never advanced evenly. Progress has always been lopsided, contingent, and cumulative, shaped less by virtue or intelligence than by geography, institutions, and the incentives societies create for adaptation. To understand why some regions prospered early, why others stagnated, how colonisation emerged as a global phenomenon, and what the present moment implies for the future of humanity, we must look at history not as a moral story but as a systems story — one of feedback loops, compounding advantages, and institutional lock-ins. The earliest large-scale prosperity emerged in Eurasia , not because of inherent superiority, but because geography quietly stacked the deck. The Eurasian landmass runs primarily east–west, allowing crops, animals, and technologies to diffuse across similar climates with relatively low friction. Wheat, barley, cattle, horses, ironworking , and writing spread over thousands of kilometres without encountering drastic seasonal or ecologica...
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Mumbai Civic Polls: The End of an Era, and the Beginning of Strategic Reckonin

Image Source: Hindustan Times   The recently concluded Mumbai civic polls mark one of the most pivotal political moments for Mumbai - and the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) - in over three decades. To fully grasp their significance, one must go back to 1995, when Bal Thackeray and the Shiv Sena first rose to power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Since then, control of Mumbai’s civic body has been the unquestioned crown jewel of Marathi local politics - whoever won Mumbai, was sure to be the power broker at the Maharashtra state level. That era has now decisively ended. The Fall of the Thackeray Stronghold For Uddhav Thackeray, this election represents more than just a political loss - it is the forfeiture of the family’s most valuable inheritance. The BMC, formerly the Bombay Municipal Corporation but now the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is not only the richest municipal corporation in India but arguably the largest local body in the world by popula...
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