They Taught Us More Than Lessons

Why do you remember an MBA Prof?

Academic brilliance!

Sure! But do you remember all brilliant Profs?

No. 

Then whom do you remember even after few years and why?

Perhaps, those Profs who listened to us.

All Profs have two ears. What's so special about listening?

I mean we remember those who were empathetic to us.

You mean they tolerated indiscipline in the class?

No, far from it. In fact we remember a Prof who was very strict and would admonish us for disturbing the class and would not tolerate any indiscipline.

But as adults, you don't like to be ticked off.

Yes, that's the point. This teacher would later counsel us and fathom the cause of our immature behaviour.

What about teachers who put up boards for 'visiting' hours? They tried to inculcate time management habit in you.

We hated such Profs. On the other hand, we remember the Prof who had an open-door policy for students.

But a Prof also needs privacy for research and self-study.

Agreed. But we feel students' accessibility should be a higher priority for any Prof.

Any other characteristic of a Prof which you remember?

Oh yes! We paid extra attention to a Prof who narrated real-life stories rather than the boring slides. We also felt valued when a Prof called us by name and helped us improve our self-confidence and the overall personality. A Prof  who taught us more than lessons!

The above conversation is not AI-generated. It is based on the interaction with the students over the years.

Whether you are a teacher or a student past or present, ask yourself where do you fit in? And you will find realism in above conversation. Of course there are many other reasons why we remember a teacher. But we wanted to keep our story short.

Happy Teacher's Day 2026 to all my teachers, students, colleagues, parents, family and friends. Ghumakkad-the-teacher is grateful to each one of you for enriching his life.

Sharing below few pictures and links to our earlier stories on Teacher's Day

Teachers Other Than Teachers - Can Nature, trees, birds, pets, sickness, bereavement also be our teachers? What do we learn from them?

Do Teachers Get Bored? - far from it! There is always action all around. Click the link to browse an outdoor activity with MBA students and lessons from a forest!

A Teacher Keeps Learning - that is the best part! A teacher learns more from the students.

Harsh@IBS - Journey of a different kind. Browse this story for multiple activities which Ghumakkad did along with his students and faculty colleagues at IBS Hyderabad.

A teacher is like an explorer, out in the open!

If the story has triggered some nostalgia about your former teacher, do share. Because 'They Taught Us More Than Lessons'.

Postscript 6th September 2026.

A regular reader, fellow BITSian and an IT-pro all her life wrote the following poem yesterday. Sharing with her permission:

Great composition, straight from the heart. Am sure many readers will relate to it.

Thanks much Radhika.

End of Postscript------ 

Thanks for browsing.

Stay connected and do leave a comment to encourage us.

   --- Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 5th Sep 2026/Secunderabad

#TeachersDay2026 #gratitude #impactinglives #MBA #touchinglives #discipline #empathy #student #opendoor #accesstoteachers #approachability #highereducation #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb #shapingyoungminds #futureofIndia

Entrepreneurship For Teenagers

"What is Entrepreneurship?"

"How do I set up a business?"

"I have an idea. How to move ahead?"

And many more such questions came from the teenagers at Bhavan's Vivekanand College at Sainikpuri Secunderabad yesterday. The college has more than 4000 UG and PG students on campus. Ghumakkad had the privilege of interacting with the young minds. About 100 students had registered for 'Entrepreneur Foundation Program' organised by the Entrepreneur Development (ED) Cell of the College. ED Cells form part of the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) program of Osmania University. TBIs in the universities are in turn sanctioned and supported by National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI)- a program of the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India.

The Foundation Program had 100 plus inquisitive minds full of energy and ideas. It was very heartening to see their active participation. Ghumakkad engaged the students with examples of real life startups which addressed the customer needs successfully. Thereafter, we triggered further interaction by shooting the following questions:

1. Do any of you have an idea for a startup? What is it?
2. What need of the customer will it address?
3. Who else is providing a similar service or solution to the customer need? Do not fall into the mythical trap that 'My Startup Idea is unique with no competition!'
4. For those who haven't yet thought of a startup idea, why are you here in this Program?

All the above questions led to a highly interactive session. Some of the ideas which the students shared are listed below:

1. Online support to other startups for mentoring and scaling up (Jaywant)
2. Online platform for content creators for brand building of businesses (Ananya)
3. Support to farmers for pest prevention and control (Aditya)
4. Specialised consultation for patients needing dermatology treatment (Tejaswini)

The second half of Ghumakkad's session covered the Business Model Canvas (BMC) and its utility for startups. BMC was explained using two live examples one each of an e-commerce company and the other of an educational institution. We developed both the BMCs during the workshop with the active participation of the students. 

Thereafter the other two speakers addressed the participants. For Ghumakkad, it was a fulfilling morning on a rainy day! 

I presented a copy of my book on Social Entrepreneurship to the College. 

Thank you Bhavan's College for the opportunity. Thank you all the student coordinators including Garima, Kaustubh, Aditya, Sanjana, Ananya, Vamshika and others. You guys rocked!

Sharing below the links to some of our earlier stories on related topics. You may click to browse.

Young Entrepreneurs Bootcamp - An exclusive residential program for school students (9th to 12th graders) conducted by BITS Pilani. Ghumakkad was a resource person. 

 

National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) also promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. But very few educational institutions have been able to implement it. The story below brings out NEP implementation by BITS Pilani.
Implementing NEP-2020

Startup Fever Grips VVISM - This story chronicles a B-Plan Contest held at a B-school in Hyderabad. Browse to read how the teams battled it out!

Startups are the way ahead. In India, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon have emerged as startup hubs. However, most of the other States also promote startups by setting up facilities, funding and other support. But we can not rest on our ores.

Thanks for browsing and stay connected. Do leave a comment to keep us going.

   - Harsh-The-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 23rd Sep 2025/ hbindia@gmail.com 

#startups #innovation #TBI #NIDHI #DST #entrepreneurship #youngminds #mentoring #incubation #university #UGCollege #teenagersideas #BMC #businessmodelcanvas #NEP2020 #implementationofNEP2020 #BhavansVivekanandCollege #Secunderabad

Dreams to Reality

"What does success mean to you?"

"How can we learn to adjust with the realities of life?"

"Setting up own business is a challenge. Then why do so many young people set up their startups?"

"How to deal with people smarter than you?"

"What is the impact of the economic crisis in Pakistan for us in India?"

"Are we heading towards a recession? Will we get jobs when we graduate?"

These and many more questions from college students kept all of us, the panelists, on our toes throughout the 90-minute session titled 'Dreams to Reality'. It was part of the 5th Development Dialogue an initiative of Kakatiya Sandbox (KS), Nizamabad and Deshpande Foundation, Hubbali. The Dreams to Reality session was attended by 200 students from a degree college in Kamareddy, IIIT Basar and Skilling Plus program of Deshpande Foundation run by KS, Nizamabad. Development Dialogue reminded me of 'Vikasa Saddasu' (meaning development convention in Telugu), an annual event held in coastal Andhra by Byrraju Foundation, Hyderabad during 2005-2008.

The panelists came from diverse fields as you can see from their brief profiles below:

Jaishree Deshpande is co-founder of Deshpande Foundation, and a trustee of Museum of Science. She is involved with many charitable organisations in USA and India. An alumnus of IIT Madras and Boston University, she is a picture of humility.

G Chandrasekhar Reddy belongs to the Indian Forest Service. He is the Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Telangana State Forest Development Corporation Ltd, Hyderabad. He is currently involved in promoting eco-tourism.

Sireesha Yadlapalli has worked in the pharmaceutical sector for more than 20 years in USA. She sees purpose beyond profits. Her motto "learn fast, fail fast, adapt and repeat" till you succeed.

Harsh Bhargava that is me, was the moderator of the session. After 30 years in Indian Navy working on real-time mission-critical systems, I have been learning and teaching social entrepreneurship for last two decades. Have worked with some incredible MBA students leading to the publication of three books on Rural Transformation and two on Entrepreneurship.

It was a pleasure and privilege participating along with above panelists. The students were initially hesitant in asking questions. But once triggered, they fired a volley of questions. All in all, it was time well spent having travelled all the way from Hyderabad (170 kms one way). Sharing few pictures taken during the event.

Thank you Raju Reddy for this opportunity.

The man who visualised the concept and implemented it, Desh Deshpande the doyen of NRI Philanthropists.

Readers may read more about Kakatiya Sandbox, Deshpande Foundation and their programs in our book  (available on Amazon) 'BITS of Social Impact' released recently.

Entrepreneurship - can it be taught to school children? Yes.

You may browse the story of 9th to 12th graders here who attended a Young Entrepreneurs' Bootcamp.

Thanks for browsing.

Stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 7th Feb 2023

Postscript 8th Feb: Raghavendra Suryavanshi, a social entrepreneur from Goa wrote:

"I attended Development Dialogue in Hubli twice when I was a student and once in 2018 as audience. I was among first batch of 20 Leaders when Lead program was started in 2008. Now there are thousands of Leaders in Lead program."

The above comment goes to prove the effectiveness of Deshpande Foundation and its initiatives in nurturing entrepreneurship among the youth of India.

#SkillingPlus #KakatiyaSandbox #ShapingYoungMinds  #DevelopmentDialogue #DreamstoReality  #DeshpandeFoundation  #Nizamabad #RuralTransformation #entrepreneurship #socialentrepreneurship #HubbaliSandbox #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #yeb2022 #bitspilani #bitsians #navyveterans

Young Entrepreneurs' Bootcamp

"This is my design of a solar-powered refrigerated EV three wheeler for small farmers to transport and sell their produce at a better price", said Layasree an 11th grader from Bengaluru while showing the sketch on her tab. She wanted to know how to proceed further ?

"How is startup valuation done? How does it affect the investor's decision while making an offer between debt and equity", asked Chakshu, a 9th grader from Lucknow.

"I have an idea to use AI for crime prediction and detection in crowded areas through CCTV image processing. How do I get customers?", queried Prasanna an 11th grader from Chennai.

"We have two ideas for a startup in the healthcare sector. How do we choose one?", was the dilemma posed by Arshroop from Indore. 

Layasree, Chakshu, Prasanna and Arshroop- all of them- are participants of  a six-day Young Entrepreneurs' Bootcamp (YEB) being held at BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus from 24-29 Dec 2022. Another YEB was held in Pilani campus last moth. With the idea to catch them young, YEB aims to give a glimpse of technology driven innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem at BITS Pilani. YEB comprises lectures by BITS faculty and alumni and hands-on activities to give students an exposure to high tech labs and innovative startups. Readers may browse the YEB link for more details.

YEB-22 has 61 participants selected from across India and overseas. Three-level selection has brought together the best of the best school students of 9th to 12th grade. I had the privilege to interact with the YEB cohort on the topic of 'Funding of Startups- BITSian Stories'. As you can see from some of the questions listed in the opening part of the story, the session was interactive and the participants' inquisitiveness and focussed thinking floored me. 

BITS Pilani has taken the lead in promoting entrepreneurship at the school level as enunciated in the National Education Policy NEP-20. YEB is the first step in the implementation of  NEP-20.

Am sharing a few pictures of YEB-22 at Hyderabad. 

For the readers not known to me personally, I have been teaching Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship at PG level for more than 15 years now. Readers may browse some of our earlier stories listed below:

Proof of the Pudding - Real life stories of ten young MBA/BBA graduates who took up the entrepreneurial challenge successfully. All of these entrepreneurs were my students.

Startup Ideas - Ideas submitted by a PGDM class

Get Your Hands Dirty - Advise by the Jury of a B-Plan Contest

Can Startup Management be Taught? - Experience of another B-Plan Contest

Learning from Failures 

Raindrops and Entrepreneurs 

We end with a picturesque quote on one of my pictures shot during the rain.

Thanks for browsing. Thanks are also due to my alma-mater for giving me the opportunity to interact with the budding entrepreneurs.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 28th December 2022

Postscript 30th Dec 22: Manik Srivastava, an experienced high school teacher wrote, "9th to 12th  Std, is a tricky age. Either it is uphill or a complete  burnout for them. They need guidance  and  good advice  from the best to go forward". Thanks Manik for your feedback.

#entrepreneurship #nep2020 #yeb22 #bitspilani #bphc #hyderabadcampus #bootcamp #youngentrepreneursbootcamp #startups #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #entreprenurshipatschools

Celebrating 50 Years of Work Life

What better way to celebrate 50 years of one's work life than to be with 150 young minds!

Thanking God for His blessings today and everyday. 18th October 1972, when I was commissioned into Indian Navy, little did I know what was in store for me. A twenty-year-old grad fresh out of engineering college, set sail from the sands of Pilani in Rajasthan to the greener coastline at Cochin (now Kochi) in Kerala. Days, months and years rolled by. 

How was the journey? All I would say it has been fifty fulfilling years. Full of excitement, adventure, thrill, ups and many downs too! But that is what life is all about. Just keep moving on. Am reminded of Robert Frost's words, "In three words I can sum up everything that I have learned about life. It goes on."

Sharing few pictures of 'Shaping the Young Minds' interaction first at BITS Pilani Goa campus and later at VVISM Hyderabad this week as part of the commencement of BS (Computer Science) and Integrated BBA/MBA programs. Thank you VVISM, IBS and CSIM (all at Hyderabad), BITS Pilani, IIM Indore and GIM Goa for keeping my life's batteries charged all these years! Special thanks to all my students and former students for making me feel young!

Sharing some real life experiences with future Computer Scientists and Management professionals was great fun. Learning-by-doing has been Ghumakkad's endeavour in his classes. We close with Swami Vivekanand's words spoken more than 100 years ago. "One ounce of practice is worth a thousand pounds of theory".

The readers may browse the following stories related to both the topics learning-by-doing and power of volunteering:

Proof of the Pudding - Stories of Ghumakkad's students who became entrepreneurs

Startup Ideas - By the students of Startup Management course

Taming the Second Wave of Corona with Volunteering

Volunteering at Fourteen and Learning Leadership

Thanks for browsing. Do drop a line with your feedback.

Stay in touch.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/18th October, 2022

#50yearsofworklife #navyveteran #joyofateacher #learningtogether #indiannavy #bashonregardless #keepmoving #swamivivekanand #robertfrost #learningbydoing #teacherlearner #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #volunteering #bitspilani #ibshyderabad #csimhyderabad #iimindore #gimgoa