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Cricket:Enough is Enough

January 6, 2013 / Prof. KCR Raja

Disastrous defeats on the home turf against Pakistan and England have been hard to bear. Particularly since they came after the humiliation we had in England and Australia last year. Where do we turn ?

Commentators have been quick to call for several half measures. Sacking of Dhoni, Sehwag, replacing this person with that etc., quick fixes that, they hope will bring some improvement in performance.

Amidst all this, the BCCI has maintained an unusual calm, pretending that nothing serious has happened. Like the Bourbons, BCCI seem to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. As one foreign player remarked,they seem to be obsessed with cash more than with cricket. After all the next IPL season is not far away. That is where cash is and they must get ready for the big carnival.

Address of K C R Raja on the Kalyan Banerjee Leadership Lecture series

September 14, 2012 / Prof. KCR Raja

This was during the inaugural function on 24 December 2011 at the Jamnabai Narsee auditorium, Vile Parle West, Mumbai. Dr R A Mashelkar inaugurated the series with a lecture on Reinventing India

Two decades ago, in a hall not far from here, an Indian R I President inaugurated one of Bombay West’s most prestigious projects- a Chair in Management of Non profit Organisations at a leading management institute in India. Today, twenty years after, we have another RI President, an Indian R I President-and I take the liberty of saying our own- President Kalyan Banerjee not to inaugurate but to witness the launch of a program in his name – the Kalyan Banerjee Leadership Lecture series. The Chair in Management was a momentous steo and has helped produce scores of young social entrepreneurs. It is our belief that today’s launch of the annual lecture series will prove equally auspicious and will have a significant social impact.

Why this Kolaveri di…….indeed why?

December 12, 2011 / Prof. KCR Raja

The phenomenal success of Kolaveri di is now being discussed in marketing sessions at leading management institutes. Dhanush would probably be the first to agree that the unintended consequences of his effort should not be elevated to the outcome of a grand marketing strategy. It is a fun song. It just happened.

Reporting in the Times of India of 5 December, Chitta Unnithan quotes an IIM Professor’s reference to the song as “a perfect example of viral marketing, which has created a huge difference in the world of publicity”.

DR K C K E Raja

April 7, 2011 / Prof. KCR Raja

FOND MEMORIES – Of Dr Kuttiettan Raja

(Of a Life that made a difference to many lives.)

At the age of twelve, I was told by my mother and uncle that I would shift permanently and pursue my school and college studies in Delhi. My uncle took charge of my life from then onwards and I spent over 19 years, the most impressionable years of my life with him. Till his death in 1963, he tried to give me the best he could.

Today, at a distance of 48 years, I can perhaps see and feel his presence with a deep sense of love and gratitude. I am recording for my own satisfaction observations on what I have seen and heard of him during those years.

As a member of what was once one of the most orthodox families in Kerala, he had many firsts. He was the first member of our family (all three branches) to become a medical doctor, the first to go abroad for higher studies (going abroad was then frowned upon by the conservative, senior members of the family) the first Indian to hold the highest post in health administration in India.

The Japanese Threat and the Long March to Kozhichena

January 23, 2011 / Prof. KCR Raja

As I drove from Kozhikode to Kottakkal last summer, my eyes suddenly spotted the word Kozhichena on a small signpost. Did it ring a bell? It did. Of my first and only visit more than 60 years ago, under strange circumstances. Of the Japanese threat and of our school’s long march to Kozhichena in my second year in high school.

Kozhichena’s claim to recognition lay in its being the training hub of the Malabar Special Police (MSP). The MSP was a para military force , set up by the British Raj soon after the Moplah Rebellion in 1921,to handle all forms of disorder in the Malabar region which then was part of the Madras Presidency. The MSP was specially trained in the brutal tactics of torture. Even we , the children, had heard of their skills of savagery. In the pre- independence period,MSP used their tactics indiscriminately on whoever fell into their hands, be they communists, communalists or congressmen.

Kozhichena was known for little else. ..Till, one day in 1942, an incident suddenly gave it a brief moment of heightened attention. Continue reading