Why this blog?

“The Sardar was a man of few words. He wrote very little; he hardly kept any record of his public or party work. He destroyed letters addressed to him after reading them and replied by hand, not keeping copies”

– Minaben, Daughter of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Excerpt From Hindol Sengupta’s “The Man Who Saved India.”

Sardar Vallabhai Patel is one individual who truly helped shape a billion lives. Today, his statue, the statue of unity, stands 182 meters tall, gazing into the mighty Narmada river. For the uninitiated, Patel was India’s first deputy prime minister, and the man who pieced together hundreds of princely states and helped form the India we know today. Imagine the wealth of knowledge that was lost with the letters he destroyed. Fathom the quantum of statecraft that went undocumented as a result. Thankfully, some of this knowledge has been recreated from other secondary sources. But, sadly, they may never truly compare to that of the writings of the Sardar himself.

While little may be known about the Sardar, his contemporary and friend, Jawaharlal Nehru offers a stark contrast. Nehru, unlike Patel, made detailed notes of his thoughts, letters, and ideas. Some of these works (e.g. his letters to his daughter, India Gandhi) were later put to print. Today, we know much about Nehru and his thoughts. His books have been read by thousands over the years and have immense value.

Clearly, documenting one’s work has immerse worth to many stake holders. I am positive that there may not many who would argue against documenting one’s thoughts in some form or the other. At the very least, such an exercise helps create a record of the ideas, processes, perspectives and notes of a truly unique individual- you.

I want to document my thoughts too. What thoughts exactly, you ask? I have a great many ideas that run though my head. Many quite useless, but some that have some utility (I would like to believe so). I like to think about marketing, sales, distribution, the process of teaching, marketing research, parenting, pet management, technology, entrepreneurship, methods, politics, business ideas, anime, and video games. And I thought it may be a good idea for me to get into the habit of writing regularly.

In this blog however, I think I would be documenting my journey as a young faculty in a management school. My thoughts and feelings before and after teaching class, the heated up debates we have in class, the revisions I make in my own thinking after facing a barrage of questions from students, among other are details that may get lost to time (much like Patel’s letters). If there is one person out there who can benefit from this exercise I am doing, and uses is to not make the same mistakes I did, and perhaps better the initiative I take forward, I think that is going to be a win in my book.

Look forward to hearing what you guys think about my stories in the weeks to come!

Cheerio and Happy learning.