Op Sindoor - Pride Without Prejudice

Shershah
Uri The Surgical Strike
Lagaan
Ain't these the titles of Hindi feature films?

Yes.

What about them?

These films make excellent teaching and learning aids.

How?

We let the students watch the film and then select few clips/instances for discussions in the class.

What do you discuss?

The lessons that can be drawn from the story. The correlation with relevant concept or theory being taught otherwise.

How does it help?

It helps in understanding the concepts and how is it useful in real life. It helps in internalisation of the concepts and theories as applicable. It makes the learning more experiential.

Sounds cool.

Add to the above list real life incidents or events in real-time. Such real-life events also help in experiential learning. And if done in real-time (immediately after the event), it generates a lot of debate and excitement in the class.

This story is based on a real-life event, Operation Sindoor. Although it happened in 2025, yet it re-surfaced few weeks ago. While teaching a one-semester core course on Project Management(PM), we chose Op Sindoor to bring out many concepts of PM. Sharing below some of the takeaways from the case discussions.

Was Op Sindoor a Project?

In simple terms, a project is one-off, not repeated, has a start and end, a well defined objective and outcome, which demand resources. The MBA class unanimously said yes it was a Project. See the pictures below of the two cohorts of 50 students each. They look energised after the case discussion, right?

Any reader who thinks otherwise, your views are welcome in the comment field.

Similarly, the discussion on following topics saw active participation from the students:

Who was the Project Manager?

What was the Objective of the Project?

How was it achieved?

How was Project Planning done? What were the options?

Who executed the Project?

Were multiple agencies involved in execution? How were they monitored and controlled?

What was the outcome? How was it measured?

Who were the stakeholders?

How was the communication to the stakeholders managed? Was it effective?

What were the risks? How was risk mitigation done?

Was it just a Military Operation? If not, what else and why?

Sharing another picture of the 'live' case discussion steered by Vaishnavi, one of the students.

Another student Vishwashanthi was present in J&K at the time of Pahalgam attack. She wrote, "In April 2025, I went on a trip to Jammu and Kashmir with my friends to explore its beautiful tourist destinations. We had been enjoying our journey and visiting different places. On 22 April 2025, while we were near the Vaishno Devi Temple in Katra, we heard the heartbreaking news about the Pahalgam attack."

"The news came as a complete shock. I felt scared and anxious because we were also in Jammu and Kashmir at that time. The atmosphere suddenly became tense, and everyone around us was talking about the incident and checking for updates. I immediately called my family to let them know that I was safe.Although we were safe, that moment reminded me how quickly situations can change. It was an experience I will never forget, and my thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was affected by the tragedy."

Thank you Shanthi for sharing your memories.

An opeartion like Sindoor has lessons in many other subjects and areas like, Strategy, Leadership, Decision Making under Uncertainty, Team Work, Goal Setting, Contingency Planning, Resource Mobilisation, Technology Adaptation, Media Management, International Relations etc. But we had restricted our discussions to the lessons in Project Management to keep the story short.

Corporate Lessons

While discussing the above questions, we also brought out the corresponding lessons for the corporate world. The whole exercise appeared very meaningful. The students seem to have internalised the Project Management topics with clarity and ease. Thank you the PGDM Class of 2027 at VVISM Hyderabad for your wholehearted participation.

Question for the Reader

Whether you are an MBA grad, student, working professional in any field, home maker, parent, grandparent, veteran or any other netizen, what was the most significant outcome of Op Sindoor? Mail your response to hbindia@gmail.com or leave a comment. Selected responses with names will be included as Postscript.

Postscript 28th July: None of the readers responded to the above query. However, two of the students nailed it! The most significant outcome of Op Sindoor was not the destruction of the terrorist camps but enhancing of the National Pride. Don't you think so?

End of Postscript.

The Title

Did you like the title of this story? The credit for suggesting the title goes to Padma Ramesh, an accomplished journalist and former Dean of a PG Institution of Media Studies. In her own words:

"I thought of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's novel! (When I saw the word) --a Literary echo.

There is pride in what we achieved with Op Sindoor. The phrase "without prejudice" implies pride that isn't driven by bias or hatred."

Thanks Padma for creating such a befitting title for our story.

Experiential Learning - Some More

Ghumakkad has been a strong proponent of experiential learning. As a child, most of our learning has been experiential. Learning by doing, simple yet effective. But as we go up the 'education' ladder, experiential learning takes a back seat. It is more of lecturing. Sharing below some of my endeavours at experiential learning for my MBA students. You may click the link to browse the corresponding story.

Uri The Surgical Strike - Many lessons in Management from a feature film

Shershah Beyond The Movie - Based on the real-life story of Capt Batra of Kargil fame, the movie brings out many lessons in Leadership, Team Work, Task Orientation etc

Teachers Also Love Outdoors - Real learning happens outside the classroom.

Real-Time Cases for MBA Teaching - How to design and conduct the classes for enhanced experiential learning. Faculties are free to reach me for details.

Thanks for browsing. Do share your experience of making the teaching and learning more experiential.

We firmly believe that knowledge gets multiplied when shared.

Stay connected.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 18th July 2026/ hbindia@gmail.com 

Postscript:

21 July: Vinay Bhargava, an experienced marketeer wrote; "Indeed military operations are very inspirational as it involves clear aim, astute planning, dedicated research, inputs, execution etc.

In our marketing campaigns to inspire sales team we based many on wars and used terms as pincer movement in strategies. Excellent!"

#learning #teaching #ExperientialLearning #VideoCases #CaseMethod #MBA #PGDM #VVISMHyderabad #OpSindoor #Shershah #UriTheSurgicalStrike #LearningFromMovies #ManagementEducation #RealLife #RealTime #PahalgamAttack #ProjectManagement

Teaching Design Thinking Differently

'Design Thinking- such a drab subject!'

'We know the five phases - EDIPT!' 

'We have seen enough examples on YouTube.'

When your MBA class is so forthright in expressing their views, you have to think differently. Taking a cue from Dr Abdul Kalam's famous quote 'Creativity is seeing the same thing as everybody else, but thinking differently', we converted the remaining sessions of the course 'Innovation In Business' into a Design Thinking Workshop. In a workshop you are supposed to use some 'tools' and 'do'  and 'make' something like in a carpentry workshop. 

We asked the class if they would recommend the college to others? The answer was a chorus 'No'! Do they regret the decision when they joined the college? This time another chorus 'Yes'! When asked why, many reasons came up. That ignited Ghumakkad's mind to do a 'live' workshop on issues plaguing the students' minds. For a class of 70 students, we identified 24 'live' issues being faced by the students. Teams of three each were free to choose any one issue. The process was repeated for both the sections of 70 students each. The die was cast. Few of the issues selected by the students are listed below. Am sure students at other colleges would not feel much differently.

• Improving student quality
• Developing college pride & sense of belonging
• Branding of the College
• Entrepreneurial Support
• Attendance through biometrics

Each team was given 48 hours to complete the first step of Design Thinking 'Empathise'. It involved interacting with the people concerned for the issue at hand. It could be other students, faculty, staff or management of the college. It could also be other colleges in the same geography. By actually empathising with the people concerned, the students learnt the nuances of Step-1 of design thinking. Whether it was mere observations or an interview or a focussed group discussion or collection of facts and figures, the students gained 'insights' of the issue at hand. These insights were then utilised for further steps of Design Thinking.

Remaining steps namely Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test were completed by each team after two days in the class itself. Breakout areas gave freedom for brainstorming. The teams had two hours to deliberate the issue and apply the design thinking to come up with suggested solution. The teams were also given a chart paper and coloured markers to summarise their design thinking effort and present it to the class for greater learning. The posters were thereafter displayed in the college foyer for wider viewership by other students, faculty, staff and management of the college. The whole event thus generated lot of enthusiasm and energy by the students in experiential learning mode. Sharing few pictures of the event below.

Through the workshop, the students could address many real-life issues like how to select the internship company? Big vs small? Branded company vs a startup? And so on.

The whole design thinking workshop was conceived on the go. The idea came because of students' disenchantment with the college (a normal reaction towards the end of the two-year-PGDM-program). Germinated in the class, a 'drab' subject was successfully transformed into an invigorating and participative workshop. It led to experiential learning. See the video clip below of the poster designing in progress.

For teachers like Ghumakkad, there is never a dull moment. With 140 inquisitive and restive minds around, it is a pleasant challenge to devise and conduct such 'live' learning events. Special thanks to all the students who participated, both the class reps and Dr V Jayashree for the wholehearted support.

Sharing below the links to some of our other 'live' teaching and learning events which had also ensured experiential learning at PG level:

Uri the Movie- Management Lessons

Shershaah Beyond The Movie

Real Life to Real Time Cases

Hope you enjoyed the teaching and learning of Design Thinking with Ghumakkad. Do share your experiences of other modes of experiential learning.

Thanks for browsing.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with the PGDM Class of 2024@VVISM Hyderabad/ 30th March 2024

#learning #experiential #PGDM #MBA #highereducation #nep2020 #designthinking #workshopmode #reallifeissues #insights #innovationinbusiness #creativity #learningbydoing #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh

Startup Fever Grips VVISM

Covid could not abate it. And now that Covid is behind us, the Startup fever has gripped the PGDM students. Yes, it is time again for the Annual Business Plan Contest named VVISM Launchpad!  As part of the core course titled 'Entrepreneurship and Startup Management' taken by the students of a two-year full-time PGDM program at VVISM Hyderabad, it is an exciting contest.

Forty teams, forty startup ideas. Twelve hours of gruelling pitches. Assessed by 100 peers and six faculty members drawn from marketing, finance and HR specialisations! Eight finalists to battle it out. Five Jury members from India and overseas. The battlefield is set!

How were the finalists selected? After every team pitch, every student as well as a faculty panel made an online assessment. On completion, it was sorted to select the eight finalists. It was heartening to note that 7 out of 8 selections made by the peer group and the faculty, matched 100%. Many times, teachers do not entertain peer assessment by the students. But this is the third year in a row, when it has been proven that both assessor groups arrived at the same merit list! You may browse our previous story listed below proving the same point:

Startup Contest Finalists Selected by the Students Themselves

So, if you are a faculty reading this story, empower and trust your students to be fair and just. After all, we want them to be fair and just in their later life! So, make a beginning now. 

Sharing below few pictures of the selection round.

The Jury

We are grateful to the Jury all of whom are the founders of startups and enterprises. As you can see, the Jury comprises of people from different sectors like manufacturing, agri-business, space-technology, education using AI/ML and microbe-resistant textiles. We thank them again.

The Finalists

Eight Startups which made it to the Finals of VVISM Launchpad 2023, are listed below:

The Startup ideas range from manufacturing to environment to leisure travel to mental health. It was a matter of satisfaction that few teams conceived their startups in the social impact space like Health Therapists, Crunchy Cups and Waste to Wood.

The Contest

Each team was given 8 minutes for making a pitch followed by 7 minutes of Q-A. Sharing below few action shots.

Words of Wisdom

Each of the Jury members shared their experiences with the students drawn from MBA, PGDM and BBA programs. The Jury not only drilled the founders on their B-plans but also mentored the teams very effectively. Few nuggets of their wisdom superimposed on the picture of the Jury member:

The Winners

The winners and two runners up of VVISM Launchpad 2023 were announced by the Jury. Each team received a cash award, certificate and a book prize. 

Winning Startup: Waste to Wood. The founders J Hasmitha and BP Sindhura made a business plan to set up a unit to convert the rice husk into compressed board which can be used for making furniture, false ceiling etc. They received the Winner's cash prize of Rs 30,000.

1st Runner Up: Aqua Lights. The team of Vivek Mattam, Mohd Nawaz and Akshitha Goud proposed setting up a company to generate light out of salt water using magnesium in off-grid regions in India. They won a cash prize of Rs 13,000.

2nd Runner Up: Health Therapists. The team of Anusha Patro and J Sushmitha plan to provide necessary therapy to people suffering from depression and other mental health issues. They won a cash prize of Rs 7,000.

Congratulations to the winners. We hope they will browse the book given to them and implement their startup idea someday. The book titled 'BITS of Social Impact' is a primer on Social Entrepreneurship and carries the stories of 25 founders who have made a social impact on the lives or people. Readers may browse the following link to get a glimpse of the book:

BITS of Social Impact is Released

The readers may also browse other related stories below:

Can Startup Management be Taught?

Get Your Hands Dirty - Advise from Startup Investors

Can 9th to 12th Graders become Entrepreneurs?

Igniting the young minds is always a fulfilling experience. I thank VVISM for providing the platform for teaching and learning. It enables the students to get hands-on learning experience like organising the above event. The org-team in the picture below deserves special thanks.

We end with a quote from Aldous Huxley about things known and unknown. Startups start with many unknowns to convert it to known!

Thanks for browsing the story and encouraging the budding startup founders.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad 26th Jan 2023

#startupindia #entrepreneurship ##startups #vvism1 #startupmanagement #nep2020 #yourstory #thebetterindia #wayahead #ignitingyoungminds #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh

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

Forty Four And Life Moves On

What is common between a wedding anniversary and national highway?

Both have the same number 44! Yes, 44th wedding anniversary and NH-44 in India (old number NH-7) which connects Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

What else is common between the two?

Both are the longest! NH-44 is the longest highway in India and 44th Anniversary for us seemed longest too. Why? Read on.

Covid slowed down the pace of life for everybody. But in our case some other events posed additional challenges. But by God's grace and the support of family and friends, the worst seems to be behind us. Sharing the year gone by in our life.

Dad diagnosed with CKD: During his hospitalisation in August-19, Dad was diagnosed with CKD (chronic kidney disease). Although showed signs of recovery, it was a battle for him in 93rd year of his otherwise healthy life. We had to manage it with diet and medication as dialysis would have been difficult at his age. Manne and Sarita were taking complete care of him. I was making monthly visits from Hyderabad. Here he can be seen walking in the house in December.

Come December and it was reunion time when the entire family got together for my mother-in-law's 90th birthday bash in Secunderabad. 

After the celebrations, Naman went to see his great-grand-father at Jaipur. Four generations could meet up in Dad's 93rd year of a happy life. Alas, it was to be the last meeting.

Jan-2020: Was with Dad and returned from Jaipur on 15th. He passed away peacefully on 17th night. He spent 34 years in BITS Pilani mostly as the Registrar. BITS Alumni observed two minutes silence as a mark of respect during the ongoing BITSAA Global Meet in Goa. Tributes poured in. Our humble homage in the story linked below.

A Legend Lives On

The Prayer Meeting in Jaipur was attended by well wishers from all walks of life.

We went to Haridwar for immersing the ashes as we had done for our mother in 2008. God has united them again in heaven.

Feb-20: Back in Jaipur. Took Manne bhai and Sarita out on a Leopard Safari. Thereafter, I squeezed a birding trip to Khichan. Both picture stories linked below.

Leopard in Jaipur

Demoiselle Cranes- Morning Roll Call

March to May: Covid lockdown in force. Ghumakkad confined indoors. However, our lockdown stories linked below had wide readership.

Covid Couldn't Deter Us

Take the Virus Head On

I Got A New Life- Corona Survivor's Tale

Breaking Free in Lockdown

Bouncing Back In Lockdown

Every Day Is A Sunday

Stay home stay safe

Lockdown Is...

Shrinking Urban Lakes- Impending Disaster- includes video clips

Baya Weavers Create Magic - see the video clip

Online Teaching: Harsh switched to online teaching for his PGDM classes. The students quickly adapted to the new mode although mid-way through the semester.

Cancer Attack: Ashi our daughter detected with Lymphoma in June. Life kind of ground to a halt. Chemotherapy started. Six doses three weeks apart. She and Ankur, our son-in-law braved it in California. And so did both her children and in-laws. Our helplessness got compounded because of Covid travel ban. Testing times. She showed us the power of being positive. In addition, the prayers of family and friends across the globe worked. 

While undergoing the chemotherapy, Ashi made a short video titled 'One day at a time'. It has been hailed by viewers across the globe. Our hat tip to her as a gallant cancer warrior! After the therapy was over, this is how she looked on Diwali.

Life goes on: Harsh continued teaching.This year the Startup Management core course had to be run online including the Annual Business Plan Contest. One advantage of online event was that we could get outstation Jury from Bangalore, Coimbatore and Nagpur. Pictures below.

House Flooded: As Ashi was showing signs of recovery, our house got flooded, Hyderabad experienced incessant rains that night flooding many colonies and areas. For us it was a man-made disaster with plenty of damage. See the story below.

Hyderabad Flood Fury

On 4th November Neeta lost her Mamaji in Ghaziabad to Covid. Next day he would have been 89. Due to Covid protocol, none of us could travel to pay our last respects

Mother-in-law turned 91. We had a low key celebration. As we grow old, we forget even to blow the candles on the cake! See the video below. 

Ansh our eldest grandson sent a musical birthday greeting to his great-grandma. See the video clip below.

Golf Again: After eight months of layoff, I resumed golf. It was heavenly to be back at the course. Few pictures.

Kitchen moves to the Living Room: Grappling with flood damages, we are back to a 'field' kitchen. Whole kitchen is being renovated. A makeshift kitchen has come up in the living room. Sharing a short video and few pictures below.

44th Year of our married life has been quite eventful. But as we say जान है जहान है meaning 'If you are alive, your world is alive'. We thank each one of you for being with us in the tumultuous times. Your frequent calls and messages kept us going. Our sincere gratitude.

We hope the 45th year of our wedded life would be brighter and better.

Thanks for browsing

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ 25th Nov 2020

#44thAnniversary #lifemoveson #overcomingtheodds #cancer #survivors #warrior #floods #coviddeath #bepositive #powewrofprayers #nevergiveup #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #gratitude