Anuradha Sridharan

Pratima has painted a beautiful picture of the hilly region of Daroga, the characterization of the two female protogonists, their lives and contradictions in this interesting novel "Indian Summer". The title had caught my attention that I immediately borrowed from my library. The storyline is simple - Sarla, the teen protogonist was really looking forward to her summer holidays but her plans were shattered when her mom had to travel on account of her work. So she decided to spend her holidays in India with her grandparents. She meets Bina, the granddaughter of her grandparent's caretakers. Although there was friction initially between Sarla and Bina owing to the different environment in which they were brought up, soon they become understanding friends and they began to discuss their problems and secrets. Having brought up in a foreign country, Sarla comes to terms with the way women were treated in India and was able to provide a helping hand to Bina on the different pro...

With textbooks taking a safe place in my wardrobe, it's time to get back to reading other books. Last week, I finished reading a simple and insightful book on leadership. One of my colleagues recommended me this book three years ago. Although I purchased it then, it was safely tucked inside my bookshelf. " Ready to lead? " by Alan Price narrates the story of Mark Gibson's journey into becoming an effective leader in his organization. Facing a daunting challenge of fixing a loss making division within his organization, the story takes you through Mark's attempts in understanding leadership. It's a simple story told in simple words. The concept of having your own definition of leadership is relevant. Although books might tell you what leadership is and what it is not, it is important to have one's own definition of leadership. Ever since I read this book, I have been introspecting on what my definition of leadership is. The author clearly distinguishes b...

As a product manager, I receive information from different sources at all possible times of the day - emails, action items, random ideas/thoughts, meeting notes, telephonic discussions with various stakeholders, interesting nuggets of information from blogs and news sites, useful links for future references etc. Having made the shift from an engineering role to a product management role, the first challenge that I had to face was to manage this sudden pile of information. I initially made notes in a single text file and searched through this file whenever I need to refer. But this was proven to be a cumbersome task when I had to organize this information into clear groups. Then I shifted to a model of creating separate text files based on the categories - Project Ideas, Tasks, Meeting Notes, Conference call discussions etc. This was working well for a while until I realized it wasn't easy to transfer the information collected in this manner across different computers. I stumbled up...

It still hasn't sunk in; the feeling of not having to go to IIMB every Fri and Sat, attend fantastic lectures, work on assignments and projects. This has been my weekend routine for the past 2.5 years which has finally come to an end last week. My classmates who have one more term to go ask me how do I feel. "I feel relieved, yet I know I am gonna miss something" is my standard reply for now. Looking back, these 2.5 years resulted in creating some memorable experiences. Unless you are interested in knowing what the hell I did in these 2.5 years at IIMB, you can skip this post. After I joined work immediately after completing my Engineering degree, I didn't have any BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goals) except for the fact that I wanted to do my post graduation. One of my well wishers told me that once I get involved in work, I may just drop the idea of pursuing my higher education. She asked me to keep looking for opportunities for higher education. As family commitm...

To celebrate the completion of my exams in the last term of PGSEM, my husband and I decided to go on a one day drive last Sunday. We narrowed down on Somnathpur and Talakad the previous night and set the alarm clock at 5 AM. Our plan was to leave home at 6 AM. As luck would have its way, we ended up switching off the alarm and dozed off until 8:30 AM when our maid came home and rang the door bell. Although we were a bit disappointed, we decided to go ahead with the plan and left home at 10:30 AM. Hubby had browsed through google maps and neatly taken a printout of the route. Although I like to browse through maps, I don't really believe in following the map to the finer detail. I let the route and the directions on the way take the lead. The traffic wasn't bad and we hit the NICE Road and later Mysore Road in less than an hour. This route is a familiar one as we have done such short trips earlier. We stopped at Hotel Kadu Mane for breakfast and packed lunch for the trip....