Shershaah - Beyond the Movie

"Yeh dil maange more" ये दिल मांगे more!

"Dushman ek chalaye to aap do chalao" दुश्मन एक चलाए तो आप दो चलाओ.

"Waapas to zaroor aaonga, tiranga le kar ya phir tirange mein lipta hua" वापस तो ज़रूर आऊँगा, तिरंगा ले कर या फिर तिरंगे में लिपटा हुआ 

These words of Capt Vikram Batra, Param Vir Chakra, kept echoing in our mind much after seeing the movie Shershaah. The movie is based on the life of a brave son of India who made the supreme sacrifice in the Kargil war.

Ghumakkad conducted a video case study based on the movie Shershaah in his PGDM class. The students were asked to watch the movie before the class. The posters in the picture below are courtesy the film producers.

Old movies like Lagaan, Patton, Twister, The Bridge On The River Kwai etc have been used for management lessons in many B-schools earlier. But we wanted to use a recently released movie and derive lessons for MBA students. It adds to the excitement in the class both for the students as well as the teacher. The teacher has to prepare in advance. Which scenes to discuss, what questions to ask and which concepts or lessons will it bring out? Needless to add that the effort was worth it. Video cases are a powerful pedagogical aid, specially for management education. It also helps the institutions to keep their syllabus current.

The video case discussions were based on the movie. We did not discuss whether the movie portrayed Capt Batra's life or the Army operations accurately or not. That is left to innumerable film critics. Our case discussions were focussed on learning from real life and thus brought out the following lessons from Shershaah the movie:

1. Leadership
2. Motivation
3. Goal setting and goal clarity
4. Team work
5. Inter-personal relations
6. Courage and fearlessness
7. Decision making
8. Building trust
9. Group Dynamics
10. Leading from the front
11. Dealing with uncertainty
12. Determination and Perseverance
13. Ethics and Values
14. Nation first
15. Task Orientation
16. Training and Development
17. Competency Mapping
18. Managing failures
19. Staffing Decisions
20. Humility

Any teacher or student who wants to know which scene in the movie to correlate with the above concepts or topics can mail me at hbindia@gmail.com . It would be my pleasure to help. I firmly believe that knowledge multiplies with sharing.

Two years ago, we had conducted another video case study based on the movie URI- The Surgical Strike. It also generated lively discussions in the class. You may browse our story linked below which has been read by more than 3000 management professionals/teachers/students:

Uri The Movie with Many Lessons in Management

Do give your feedback if you have also conducted any of the above case studies based on these two movies.

In the Google-dominated world, the students love being 'current'. We conducted the case study within a fortnight of the movie being released. It added to the thrill factor of learning. Had the classes not been on-line, the level of excitement would have been a notch higher. But Covid dictated otherwise. Let Covid not bog you down! Class of 2022 at VVISM Hyderabad- you guys did a great job!

Just one more thing. We have neither been retained nor paid for promoting this movie. It is purely for purposes of learning and sharing. It should not send a wrong message otherwise.

Thanks for browsing. Stay connected.

   - Harsh-the-teacher-Ghumakkad/27th Aug 2021

#mba #pedagogy #casemethod #videocases #learning #reallife #Managementlessons #shershaah #googledominatedworld #beingcurrent #learningwithfun #learningtogether #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #teaching #teacheraslearner #beyondgoogle #thrilloflearning #beatingthecovid

Need and Greed

Does Nature gives us enough? Not only for us human beings but for all living beings and plants? Yes, it does. And continues to do so.

Nature addresses the need. 

It ensures enough feed. 

But not human greed! 

As Mahatma Gandhi had said that the “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”

While walking around our neighbourhood lake during monsoon, we noticed many wild vines and creepers all over. Many leaves in these wild creepers appeared half eaten with holes and perforations. We saw similar wild growth around a golf course close by. Here are some pictures.

It set us thinking. All this is part of the food chain. Food chains are part of Nature's evolution. So the leaves provide nutrition to the plant or the vine. The leaves also are food for insects and caterpillars. Similarly in a forest, Tigers may be on top of the food chain thus: 

Tiger-deer-grass-birds-soil-water-dry-leaves-as-manure and so on. You may read how birds are an important part of Nature's ecological balance.

How birds sustain the Food Cycle in a Tiger Reserve?

Some more food chains could be: 

Vultures-dead-animals-plants-etc. 

Serpent Eagle-snakes-rodents-plants-roots-insects etc.

Owl-snakes-lizards-frogs-insects etc. See the diagram below.

Fruit Bats-fruits-trees etc. In each of these food chains the decomposers like mushrooms are equally important to sustain the cycle.

As human beings, we should be responsible for maintaining and not disrupting Nature's food chain. For example, denudation of forests leads to reduction in number of deer which are food for the Tigers. This leads to increasing man-animal conflict. Deforestation in the hills leads to landslides causing silting of the rivers down stream and resulting floods. Floods also occur due to encroachment of river flood banks and Nallahs or drains in cities. Readers may browse our previous stories highlighting this aspect and listed below:

Chennai Floods Man-made

Flood Fury in Hyderabad - How a 91-year old reacted to flooding of her house!

KBG-62 Contest

The 62nd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad, our online Captions Contest was based on the theme of Nature's Food Chain. The picture below received 30 different captions from more than 300 readers worldwide. 

We thank all the participants. Complete list of captions is given below:

Sl.	Name	Caption for KBG-62 Contest
1	Sunisha	Unknown pain seen!
2	Pradeep Sethi	Harbinger of change!
3	Jaishankar	'Cater' ing for others is the 'pillar' of an evergreen life.
4	PRR Rao	Happiness is letting go of what you think your life
5	Poonam Bhargava	छिद्र हुए तो क्या, किसी को तृप्त किया मैंने।
6	Avinash Tiwari	Bandhani work.
	Poonam Bhargava	परोपकार से बड़ा कोई धर्म नहीं
7	Rohini Tiwari	Nature's Origami....unique and beautiful!!
8	Veeky Baths	Barishon ke mausam ki bheegi hariyali
9	Ajai Bhumri	"  बना बलवान अपने को वरना नुच जाएगा् " "Survival of the fittest "
10	Kishor Thakre	Caterpillars at work!
11	Pradeep Siwach	Lebanon (Refugees ate up the nation)
12	BC Jayaprakash	Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13 .....Bible
13	Bharat Ladha	Global management of survival.
14	Rashmi Bhargava	Self sacrifice is a real miracle
15	Sujata Das	Nature's rangoli🙏
16	Amandeep kaur	There is no better designer than nature.
17	Siba K Patnaik	I am ok , I am fighting.
18	Manju Khetan	इक दिन बिक जाएगा माटी के मोल, बुरे बिचार के किटाणू ऐसे ही हमारे मस्तिष्क को क्षति पहुंचाते हैं।
19	Manu Bhatnagar	A very hungry Caterpillar
20	Shereen Sultana	Make a life by giving what you have
21	Ritu Bhargava	Not dead, nor alive, still breathing.
22	Nidhi Bhargava	जीना उनका जीना है जो औरो को जीवन देता है
23	Radhika Sareen	My loss, someone's gain
24	Radhika Sareen	Giving makes me more beautiful
25	GR Sreenivasan	Plant kingdom, lives to nourish other species including humans without expecting anything in return.
26	Saumya Goyal	There is beauty even in being broken.
27	Mamta Bhargava	We will survive no matter what may come.
28	Yogesh Verma	Jab Tak Hai Jaan Jeevandaan
29	Peter de Padua	Nature's nature.
30	Peter de Padua	Green Gold, isn't it yummy?

The Winners of KBG-62

We are delighted to announce and introduce the winners of KBG-62. Their winning captions are also displayed alongside.

Yogesh Verma is a former Colonel from the Army Medical Corps. He is a nature lover and keen photographer. His simple caption जब तक है जान, जीवनदान meaning 'Keep giving till the last breath' conveys the self-sacrifice of the leaves as food for the caterpillars and other insects.

Saumya Goyal, a PhD in psychology is a poet at heart. She believes that Nature is the world's largest canvas on which God paints. Saumya's caption 'There is beauty even in being broken' interpreted the picture creatively.

Peter de Padua has won the KBG Contests previously also. A former Wing Commander of IAF, Peter is a water sport enthusiast. His short and crisp caption 'Nature's Nature' won the Jury's appreciation.

Radhika Sareen is an electronics engineer from BITS Pilani who worked with TCS for three decades. A keen traveller she is a regular participant in KBG Contests. Her caption 'Giving makes me more beautiful' caught the Jury's eye.

Once again our congratulations to all the winners and thanks to both the Jury members Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava for their time.

We end this story with a PQ picturesque quote on maintaining Nature's balance through the food chain. The picture of Tigress Sonam was taken in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.

Thanks for browsing. More KBG contests coming up. Stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/26th Aug 2021

#monsoons #rain #nature #wildvines #leaves #foodchain #predators #consumers #producers #undergrowth #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #life #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #secunderabad #monsoonphotography #selfsacrifice

Nature's Self Sacrifice

Nature teaches us many things.

Patience. Perseverance.

Dealing with adversity. Steadfastness.

Managing change. Positivity.

Peaceful co-existence. And so on.

It also teaches us self-sacrifice. How?

Look at the picture below.

Give it a caption. Here is another picture without the Contest banner. It may help you visualise your caption better and win KBG-62, the 62nd edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad online Captions Contest.

Once again, give the above picture a caption. You could win KBG-62.

How to Submit a Caption

For the first-timers on KBG, you can respond using any of the six channels below:

1. Leave a comment on this post
2. Send email to hbindia@gmail.com   
3. Respond on the FB post
4. Comment on Instagram @ghumakkadhb 
5. Comment on Twitter @HarshBh21184761
6. Send a WA message. If you want your WA number to be added to Ghumakkad's list, send an email.

Now get going and give your caption pronto! If you feel like, you may suggest more than one caption.

Hope we have helped you in overcoming the Covid boredom to some extent.

Previous Contest

KBG-61, the 61st edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad Caption Contest featured a picture of suspended rain drops.

This picture fired the imagination of 200+ readers! We received more than 30 captions. For a complete list of the captions and the winning entries, click the story 'Rain is Life'. Two of the winning captions are reproduced below.

Be your creative best and shoot your response. Most catchy captions will be the Winners of KBG-62! All the best.

Thank you all the readers for your continued support.

Stay connected, stay safe.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 12th August 2021

#monsoons #rain #nature #wildvines #leaves #undergrowth #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #life #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #secunderabad #monsoonphotography #foodchain #selfsacrifice

Rain Is Life

Rain brings life. Rain is essential for completing Nature's cycle of seed-seedling-sapling-plant-tree-fruit-back-to-seed!

Rain brings cheer. Cheer on the faces of children, farmers, trees, plants, flowers and animals! Suspended rain drops cast their own magic spell. Like the lone rain drop clinging to the edge of an Ashoka tree leaf below.

What does the rain do? How is it welcomed by the environment? Read our earlier story 'When it Rains'. 

Another story 'Monsoon Magic' chronicled the magic which monsoon creates in India- from misty hills to foggy roads to overflowing dams and even man made floods in places like Chennai. It also has the story of Ghumakkad and family on a cross country monsoon drive! Sharing few pictures here.

Rains nurture the growth of wild vines and flowers. Many such wild flowers have been the subject of our KBG Kaun Banega Ghumakkad online Contest. One of these is reproduced below.

It Sprouts During The Rains

Monsoon also brings floods. But these are largely man made due to encroachment of flood banks of the rivers, nalas, lakes and ponds. Do read our story titled 'Flood Fury' about a 91-year old tackling a flooded home at midnight in Hyderabad. This happened in Hyderabad in Oct 2020.

We had carried a cautionary story in Jan 2020 titled 'Shrinking Urban Lakes and Impending Disaster'. It appeared like a premonition, sadly. Our house got flooded in Oct 2020.

KBG-61 Contest

Picture of rain drops suspended from a fibre optic cable was the subject of KBG-61, the 61st edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad online captions contest.

Creative Captions

KBG-61 received more than 30 captions which are listed below. KBG Jury selected four of these captions as Winners.

Sl.	Name	Caption for KBG-61 Contest
1	Raghuraj Bhargava	Pearls can be found in the eyes of the beholder
2	Gouri	Nature's pearl string.
3	Gouri	Overcoming gravitational force - beautiful adhesive bond of wire and raindrop.
4	PRR Rao	बरखा लाई मोतियों की माला
5	Poonam Bhargava	Rain drops on the line are actually our life line
6	Avinash Tiwari	String of Pearls- motiyon ke maala
7	Rohini Tiwari	Har ek boond me sagar!
8	Ajai Bhumri	पानी रे पानी तेरा रंग कैसा जिसमें मिला दें लगे उस जैसा We can learn from water without having an ego, let others do not lose their colours, without losing its own importance .
9	Ajai Bhumri	Water is precious than gold
10	Peter de Padua	Will do some rain thinking!
11	Pradeep Siwach	Swati ki do boond!
12	BC Jayaprakash	Tip tip barsa paani!
13	Bharat Ladha	Paani hai to Jeevan hai, bin Paani sab soon.
14	Rashmi Bhargava	Let the rain sing you a lullaby
15	Vinay Prasad	Appreciate the Pearls of nature. Do not touch! 👍🏾
16	Sujata Das	Raindrops, raindrops, do you know? You will help the flowers grow.☔⛱
17	Amandeep kaur	Mohabbat = Baarish+Chai+aur Kishore Kumar ke gaane 😁
18	Rajendra Singh	Godsent droplets to quench Mother Earth's thirst !
19	GB Sethi	पलकों से गिरे मोती दामन ने संभाले Palkon se gire moti daman ne sambhale
20	NN Pashupathy	From pearly drops we transform to mighty torrents!
21	Vinod Dhanuka	Waxing & Waning
22	Manju Khetan	Boond jo ban gayee moti!
23	Manju Khetan	Some people can feel the rain others just get wet.
24	Veekt Baths	Life is a raindrop!
25	Ritu Bhargava	मीलों का सफर कर के आई बूंदे,खूबसूरत मोतियों के रूप में चमक रही हैं।
26	Nidhi Bhargava	ज़िन्दगी की यही रवानी जानो तो मोती, वरना बहता पानी
27	Radhika Sareen	Pearl harbour
28	Radhika Sareen	लड़ी रे लड़ी कैसी मोती से जड़ी
29	Yogesh	Inseparable
30	Neeta (non competitive)	Pearls of Wisdom
31	HB (non competitive)	Social distancing by rain drops!

KBG-61 Winners

We are happy to introduce the winners along with their winning captions. Congratulations to all the Winners.

Raghuraj Bhargava is a veteran banker who has worked in India and USA. An alumnus of NIT Warangal, he loves Nature and gardening. His caption 'Pearls can be found in the eyes of the beholder' was simple and appealing.

Amandeep Kaur is a regular participant of KBG Contests. She has won several KBG honours. A management professional she is full of life. Her humourous caption 'Mohobbat = Baarish+Chai+aur Kishore Kumar ke gaane' was an instant hit!

GB Sethi is a PhD and a former adviser to several educational institutions in Hyderabad. He has a great sense of humour. His caption in Hindi Palkon se gire moti daman ne sambhale पलकों से गिरे मोती दामन ने संभाले  roughly means Pearls in the lap of Nature.

Manju Khetan is also a regular reader of Ghumakkad's blog. She holds a degree in Literature from Delhi University and loves solving puzzles. Her caption based on Bob Marley's quotation 'Some people can feel the rain others just get wet' was very apt.

Special thanks to both the Jury members Manik Srivastava and Neeta Bhargava.

Ghumakkad teaches Entrepreneurship at a B-school. We end with my favourite quotation 'An entrepreneur is like a rain drop, never afraid of falling'!

Monsoon is around. The next KBG Contest will feature the leaves of wild vines which thrive in monsoon.

Stay connected and stay safe. Corona is not going away soon.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/7th Aug 2021

#monsoons #rain #baarish #chai #pakoda #nature #raindrops #raindance #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #KBG #kaunbanegaghumakkad #onlinecontest #lockdownfun #takeabreak #captions #life #craetivecaptions #pqs #picturesquequotations #naturetheteacher #learningthroughpictures #secunderabad #monsoonphotography #entrepreneurs