Transit Umbra, Lux Permanet - A Farewell Note

Today is my last working day as a full time faculty member at #IIMA. I owe much to #IIMA recently for supporting the research on healthcare and innovation I try to do with the #ICICI Bank Chair and Chairpersonship at #CMHS. Thank you #RedBrickCampus and #ICICI Bank. It all complemented nicely the fellowship support from #HooverInstitution at #Stanford University last few years.

More generally, it's time for some broad strokes on the #India canvas building on the past decade as a faculty member at #IIMB (my first post PhD university employer), at #ISB and recently at #IIMA. This has been an absorbing experience filled with vignettes of moments. The poet Muriel Rukeyser once wrote that "the universe is made of stories, not atoms." So has been this journey working at India's elite academic institutions in management studies. One critical realization for me has been that interdisciplinarism is easy to profess and difficult to sustain; #IIMB #ISB and #IIMA deserve credit in perhaps unconsciously supporting me (& some other faculty colleagues) on such a path. Thank you also to my coauthors around the world and much gratitude to many research assistants too over the years. Not to forget data providers and policy/industry colleagues who deserve a big high five. Research to policy and practice and vice versa is not easy to translate anywhere these days; but someone tried and will keep trying. :)

Some musings on academic leadership in India might be timely. During this last decade, I have had the opportunity to work with a few Directors and Deans at all the 3 campuses observing heterogeneity in styles of working, variations in tastes and preferences too as to how to make impact. This is in addition to observing the Boards and their role in evolution of Indian academic campuses. One realization is undeniable. Every one in their own way are trying (or have tried) to positively change the equilibrium of #excellence in management education in #India. We don't appreciate this well enough but it is not easy to do so and the efforts (despite the multidimensional nature of constraints), to me at least, have not gone unnoticed. I salute their struggles and wish them continued success in their aspirations.

Thank you also to faculty colleagues for their collegiality and encouragement. Much gratefulness in addition for many administrative staff colleagues, teaching assistants and secretaries for keeping the faculty life in India on track over the years. It was not easy as a fresh Assistant Professor when one started in 2011, nor so even now and you deserve a lot of credit for keeping my journey honest. Needless to say, you know who you are, be it in Bangalore, Mohali, Hyderabad or Ahmedabad and I have only but #gratitude & fond memories for your hard work and unwavering passion, patience and support.

They say that a former employer becomes like a family for life. Even if you have moved on from them, you retain for them somewhere a moist corner in your eyes. More so in #academia and I am no exception here. To especially my former students of this family over the years at #IIMB #ISB and #IIMA, sincere appreciations and thanks. As a teacher I have tried to share the best I could have. I hope you have learnt a bit. I learnt a ton from you and if I have erred, I seek your forgiveness.

Finally, no words will suffice for Anu, my better half, who has stayed w/me during this decadal journey, also for my parents and in-laws. These days, our little one Anay offers the inspiration one needs to continue the trudge. The academic's life is lonely and relentless; if it were not for them, the walks and trysts with referees and editors at top journals could have got exhausting more than fun. :)

To end with, just one thought for everyone reading this farewell ramble. Times are not easy anywhere in the world, so please "be kind, for everyone is fighting a great battle" as the old lines go. From the #UniversityofSussex (my next employer in UK) my best wishes will always be with you. #India and the world needs you and your work & empathy (however small/big it maybe) to improve the human condition as we all globally recover from the pandemic.

Let's keep at it. Remembering that Transit Umbra, Lux Permanet; Shadow passes, Light remains.?