The Beautiful Life

Tanmay Nayak, Director, NUSSD smiles on as Jyoti is honoured by Prof S. Parasuraman From a normal graduate girl, brought up in the city of Nanded to being a programme manager at NUSSD , TISSian Jyoti Kapale has come a long way… Jyoti's story makes an interesting read on how training at TISS has changed her life forever. Meet Jyoti Kapale, (MA, counselling psychology, 2013) whose sheer dedication and hard work has helped NUSSD, the flagship project of TISS, earn a reputation as a creator of employability among youths in one of the most backward talukas of Maharashtra. To the people of Ambad taluka in Jalna district, situated around 96 kilometres away from Aurangabad, she is heir own ‘Jyoti madam’, who have helped their children develop into skilled professionals armed with employable course certificate, that has helped them earn jobs with reputed banks and other financial institutions. These children are now drawing the kind of salary their family had never ever ...

File Picture: Prof Armaity Desai is seen with Mr JRD Tata. The former director strongly feels that the values system practised by the Tata group should not be forgotten by TISSians When we met Prof Armaity Desai, she was waiting for us in her cosy bedroom filled with a large number of books, and select pictures of her brother and parents, that adorned the space which gave away a sense of warmth and wellbeing. Prof Armaity Desai has aged with grace, she looks elegant, poised with confidence and is beaming with energy. Even at 84 years of age, she appears charismatic, who can bring immense value to any venture she takes up. Prof Armaity Desai was so quick in answering all our questions, and her responses were loaded with wisdom, which reflected values nurtured carefully over the years. What strikes the most while one interacts with Prof Armaity Desai is that she has an excellent memory. She could not just remember the names of her faculty, colleagues and students, in...

Prof P Vijayakumar: Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs, TISS and Chairperson of C SOL.   Transcendence is a flagship annual event of Centre for Social and Organisational Leadership (C SOL), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) that attracts delegates across spectrums and spheres from national and international level. Committed to continuously advance the global and local thinking and practice of Organisation Development, Change and Leadership (ODCL), C SOL has been evolving to understand current practices and develop more effective and adaptive leadership in businesses, government, civil society organisations and communities. Transcendence is aimed at creating a platform for exploring the emergent paradigms in OD, Change and Leadership through the showcasing of transformative efforts accomplished by organizations and communities. Transcendence is organised by the ODCL Executive Diploma & the ODCL Masters students of TISS. The C SOL team supports them. TISS Al...

10-year-old, Urvi Patil with her dad AnilPatil At just 10 years, Urvi Patil has reached impressive heights in following her hobby. The girl became the youngest girl ever to scale astounding 13,800-feet in the Shivalik range of the Himalayas in the freezing temperature of minus 8 degrees Celsius. She completed the arduous Himalayan mountaineering journey with the wind speed of 30 to 40 km per hour, scaling the SAR PASS trails of the Shivalik range of the mighty Himalayas. Urvi said, “initially, to get acquainted with this fiery environment, we went for smaller treks including Kasol, which is a base camp with 6,500 feet, and next to Grahan (7600 ft) Padri (9 300 ft) Minthas (11200 ft) Nagaru (12500 ft) biskery (11,000 ft) and Bandakthaz (8000 ft). Urvi’s father, Anil Patil, said the young climber likely doesn't fully comprehend the magnitude of her achievement in successfully scaling the treacherous terrain. Urvi has managed to accomplish the task, which even the l...

The TISS Convention Centre reverberated with applause as TISSian Krupa Ravi performed. The audience was left awestruck as the captivating performance by Krupa Ravi drew to an end. All of them, one by one, rose to their feet, clapping in tandem to share their response to her graceful performance. Taking their salutation as a mark that she was successful in conveying her message, a young TISSian Krupa thanked joining her hands as gracefully as she tapped her feet and swayed across the stage for over thirty minutes mesmerising the spectators at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) campus. While the speechless dialogue between the audiences and Krupa continued, Prof P. Vijayakumar moved a bit further towards the stage. He stood still witnessing to a unique episode unfolding, which, was his one of the most coveted creations. Though, the entire show which consisted of several narrations was curated 21-year-old Krupa, the mastermind who worked on the unique concept of thi...

During the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, a movement for the formation of Maharashtra state,  based on a common linguistic identity, the folk art form of shahiri became the central force. Revolutionary artists Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe, Lokshahir Amar Sheikh and Lokshahir Sabale, firebrand performances gave  further edge in mobilising the people for the cause, which saw the formation of Maharashtra state on 1st May 1960.  Now, the art is dying a slow death, but, however, few individuals and groups are struggling to preserve shahiri and keeping it alive in recognition of its role, without much support from the government. Shahiri has been a part of Maharashtra's tradition for several hundred years, however, it received its widespread popularity during the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Originally, began as a form of oral history telling, shahiri as a form of poetry and singing has forayed into socio-political spheres and ideologies of different hues. Sh...