The Beautiful Life

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...

I had interviewed Kanwaljit Singh for a portal of Zee Interactive Learning Systems (ZILS) way back in the year 2000. During his interview, Kanwaljit spoke about his hobbies, his love for Urdu poetry and tennis. This interview was later picked up and re-published by India-Forums. http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=348953 Kanwaljit Singh graduated from Saharanpur and then joined FTII Pune. His first film was 'Dastaan-e-Laila Majnu' followed by 'Hum Rahe Na Hum' by Vijay Anand, "Sharat" and 'Shaque' by Ketan Anand. Kanwaljit Singh debut on television Two of his films 'Hum Rahe Na Hum' and 'Shaque' which he heavily banked on did not do well at the box office. He was slotted as a failure, and it was around this time that he was introduced to television (the small screen, then was not a popular medium). His role as an illegitimate child in Ramesh Sippy's mega serial Buniyaad gave him instant recognition. This ea...

Prof. Shilpa Sawant is a faculty member with NMIMS University, she spoke about the Google Online Marketing Challenge, which is a unique opportunity for students to experience and create online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords. Over 110,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 9 years. During her interview, she explained how her team was able to be the winner of the competition for two consecutive years This is the second time in a row your teams have won this competitive? What factors did you concentrate on both the occasions? Prof. Shilpa Sawant:  There were three factors... i.               Team members. We need a blend of competencies and a synchronised effort. ii.              The choice of business. We really brainstorm the most for this. iii.  ...