These blogs are a collection of some work that I did post MBA. They consist of my thoughts, ideas and opinions regarding businesses and emerging businesses.
That's my school song. We sang this song every morning in the school assembly.
Dear Reader,
I passed out of HPS (Begumpet) in 1994 with ICSE. In 2021, the school celebrated the passing batch's silver jubilee anniversary. Officially I am part of the class of 1996 batch and hence it will be 25 years in 2021. I got the opportunity to visit my school in Dec 2021, take a tour of the school, eat the school lunch, meet my classmates and batch-mates, and reminisce about old times. It was a wonderful experience that brought back tons of old memories.
Below is a short video created as a collage of all the photos that we took from those years. Thanks to all my batch mates for sharing these memories.
When touring my school a fellow schoolmate from another batch quizzed me about what did I get out of the school. The simple answer I gave him was 'so much that I can't even put it in words' besides a world-class education. But that got me thinking about what is it that I 'really' got from the school that laid the foundation for me in the future. Hence I've jotted down some of my key lifelong takeaways from school.
Getting back to BASICs (Academic Studies)
At school was where my interest in studies was taking shape. English (Panorama - A Selection of Poems, Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar', short story classics by famous English authors), History (dynasties in India, historical places of significance, Indian Civics), Geography (countries, deserts, grasslands, etc.), Mathematics (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus), Physics (pinhole camera, convex and concave lens, refraction, light), Chemistry (physical, inorganic, organic), Biology (plant biology, animal biology, dissecting cockroaches, looking at a dissected frog, etc.), Hindi (एक और एक ग्यारह). Our foundation was on these subjects and what we learned then formed the basis of the paths each one of us took in the future.
Mathematics, as they say, is the language is science. Without mathematics, you can't talk about science. Physics was my favourite subject, I guess because it allowed me to understand how the world works. Biology was great for knowing about living things. Chemistry was always my weakest subject and I really had a hard time getting my head around it.
I was a big-time astronomy enthusiast. We didn't have an astronomy club in school then. Nevertheless, it kinda made a lot of sense to me. The movement of the planets, gravity, forces, the math behind them and how it all affects us.
I even won prizes in Physics and Biology... fun stuff.
(that is not my handwriting!!)
I wrote my first computer program in school. I still have a soft copy and a hard copy of the program. It was like a 3rd language to me in the 10th grade and that was also the year when computers and computer science were introduced in my school. I was fortunate to be part of a gang that spent hours playing computer games and exploring software. We first learnt Logo and then GW-BASIC. My computer project was in GW-BASIC and it still runs today!! Here is a link to the program on Github. And a link to the project report.
Getting back to GW-BASICS... I had as much fun getting it to run on an emulator today as I had written the program 27 years ago. Using DOSbox , GW-BASIC.EXE and following the instructions on how to run it in this stackoverflow question I was able to run my program. The entire GW-BASIC code is now made available by Microsoft on GitHub.
Today, years later, I still write computer programs and software as part of my daily work and career. Something that I learned and started 27 years ago in school is my daily bread and butter. Below are some screenshots of my project report.
Not Just Academics... Thinking Outside the Box
Structured thinking was encouraged at my school. We were encouraged to try new things, try different things and let us explore our interests. One such non-academic interesting course we went through was the EREHWON thinking program. It was super interesting at first but the course kinda fizzled out and we didn't actually complete it. I think it was only introductory and not many kids were interested due to the extra work we had to put in to do the exercises in addition to the homework from regular classes. If I remember correctly it also ate into our sports/games time so that was a bummer.
Here is a link to the course contents in 1991. The EREHWON Thinking Programme is a structured way to think in different ways with techniques to solve problems creatively and innovatively. It is still a paid program today. Link to their current paid program. And an online news article about it.
Sports & Teamwork
Sports and games were a big part of my school. We had a dedicated 60 mins of sports every day. In my time, sports (or as we used to call them games) were any kind of physical activity. The school was limited in its sporting equipment but there was no limit on space, grounds and classmates to play with. We even invented games to play if we had nothing to play with. And we had fun doing it. We cramped a fun game even between classes, running from post to post to make the most of our spare time.
A sporting highlight of my 6th grade was when we beat the 7th graders in an inter-class middle school football (soccer) tournament. No one expected the 6th graders to beat the 7th graders, it was just not heard of. Even we didn't expect it to happen. It was high for my class and as class captain (leader), it was an honour for me. It just showed that teamwork, skill, and passion sometimes beats everything else. Of course, we lost to the 8th graders in the final but we gave them a tough fight. Pretty much the entire middle school was there watching the finals. There was no pressure as no one expected us to even make it that far. Most competitions are inter-house and this was one time when the school decided to have inter-class competitions.
A big learning from those days is teamwork. A much-emphasized word. At that time, it went without saying, if you were part of a team you played for the team and as a team. There was no individual. It was just a natural way of playing a sport and it came to us naturally as kids. The team worked together with a single-minded intention of scoring a goal. It was just that simple. And if someone fumbled or goofed up, we just moved on, chided each other and pushed forward. No hard feelings.
At that time, we never really paid too much attention to the word teamwork. Now, teamwork becomes centre stage in every organization and is emphasized so much in the corporate world. I'm glad I learned the importance of teamwork early on. And for that, I thank my school.
Art, Music & Social Studies
My school had an active arts, music and social studies culture. We had regular inter-house competitions in these and they contributed the overall points to the house everyone wanted their house to win the cultural and sports shields. It was not all academics.
I loved painting in school. I think the fact that you are given a blank white sheet and asked to paint anything you like; gives your mind the freedom to be as creative as you want. I also won some prizes in painting and below are a few of them from 25 years ago. I never continued my painting skills in later years but it was the foundation of my going digital with tools like GMIP, understanding layers, colours, photos, and videos; all of which I use all the time.
The social study subject was a combination of learned skills in carpentry, bookbinding, knitting, social service, and... I can't remember the other things we learn. Most of us looked at it as something that we just needed to get done to get a Passing grade and sometimes we just made it more fun by mixing it up with games and being competitive about it. Years later, I think of these as vocational skills that could have become a mainstream profession for some and a hobby for others. For me, music turned out to be more of a hobby.
Social studies also allowed us to interact with other people. I remember we had a donation collection event in 6th grade for Help Age India and those with a significant collection got a lapel pin, a certificate, and an autographed poster from the entire Indian cricket team and then captain Krish Srikanth. Who could say no to that! The competition was so fierce that we compared our collections every day to see who would top the list and spent the next day chasing that target by going to neighbourhoods that we never went to, knocking on doors we had never thought of before, saying hi to people we never met and explaining to them why we are doing this. I can't remember how much the school ended up collecting at the end of the day and donating but it was a significant amount in those days and we students were the ambassadors of the whole event.
More than anything it helped me build my social skills.
Leadership
I was the captain of my class from 6th grade to 10th grade. Being a class leader not only meant maintaining discipline in the class but also setting an example, representing the class, interacting with other class leaders, taking initiative, etc. all the while watching out for your classmates. I even had to take one for the class at times. An early lesson I learned was that rules are applicable to all and as a leader, you cannot show favouritism even with your closest friends.
I was also the troop leader for my NCC Airwing B-Troop and was voted the NCC Best Cadet. That meant leading a troop of cadets in the investiture march past ceremony, NCC camps (unfortunately we didn't have one in my year due to a nationwide strike), and instilling honour and discipline. It is not easy. During the national strike, all of us were at home due to curfew restrictions and we had no information regarding our camp. I ventured to the nearest NCC Directorate in Secunderabad, met with the then-leader there and asked him if we can expect the camp to be conducted or not. I think he was impressed that I was so passionate about the camp. But said that the camp will not be conducted with a probability of 99% due to the ongoing national strike and the threat to the safety of students coming to the camp from all over India in case the camp was held.
Here is me receiving the best cadet award.
My school is now one of those rare private schools that are certified for the NCC B-Certificate Program.
The Grand Finale
The 25th Reunion of the batch of 1996 was... ahem fun. Got to meet a lot of old boys and girls (our school alumni are called old boys). Most of whom I don't even remember or recognize. But some recognized me 😊. Here is a pic from the celebration of those who could make it.
And yes, yes... I gave a short speech (voluntarily).
It was even more special because my dad (who paid for my schooling) and wife (who wanted to see my school) attended the celebrations.
Conclusion
There is so much more that I can't possibly put into words. Everyone cherishes their school days and so did I.
