People & the Ordinary

I did not enter the hospitality sector by design. I walked into it through a conversation. That conversation was with Param Kannampilly at the Orchid Hotel Mumbai, a place that, at that time, was already being spoken of as India’s first “ecotel.” This was in 1997. I remember less about the formalities of the meeting and more about the insistence in his voice. He spoke…

Cape House is one of those addresses in Bangkok that does not try too hard to impress. It sits quietly in Soi Langsuan, a street that manages to stay composed despite being located within one of the busiest parts of the city. Langsuan has always had a certain advantage. It is close enough to activity, but not consumed by it. A short walk takes you…

On Sunday morning, Professor and I took the lift to the 104th floor, Most of my readers know about my Friend who lives on the 104th floor in the tallest building in Mumbai. For those who don’t know, this friend of mine is the richest person in the world. His wealth is more than the wealth of Ambani’s (I mean Mukesh), Adanis, Tatas (including Shapoorji’s), Birla’s…

They live in an apartment on the seventh floor. The kind where every balcony looks into another, and curtains become a way of recognising neighbours without knowing them. They have been married for over forty years. Long enough to stop announcing milestones. Long enough to know that New Year’s Eve does not arrive with excitement anymore. It arrives with a question of what to do…

For most of my life, I have been the one holding the chalk and later the marker pens. A lecture hall at IIT Bombay, a factory floor in Vietnam, a boardroom in Mumbai, a workshop in Berlin — the setting never mattered. I was almost always the one explaining, interpreting, or provoking thoughts. So, when I enrolled in the ten-month Stanford Seed Transformation Program, the…

“Ladies and gentlemen, flight AI-456 to Mumbai from Hyderabad is delayed due to operational reasons.” The voice was polite, almost apologetic. To me flight delays are the great equalizers. They make CEOs, students, and honeymooners share the same stretch and stress of terminal time. Couples sitting next to you bicker in low tones over who should have checked the flight status earlier. I looked around…

It was a simple question, yet, for a moment, I didn’t know what to say. I was at an event when a young interviewer asked, “What’s your field, Sir?” “Sustainability?” I replied, hesitantly, as if I were unsure of my own identity. Her eyes lit up. “That’s great to know, Dr. Modak! But within that, what’s your specialization?” Now I was completely lost. Sensing my…

A reflection for a Diwali of distant lights. It is Diwali again. The diyas are lit, the sweets are exchanged, and yet the house glows with a gentler, more private light, but that light doesn’t fill in the home. There was a time when laughter spilled from every corner, The house was a stage for reunion and rituals. The children would compete to light the…

He lived alone now, in a quiet lane where the bougainvillea leaned into the sun. Three years had passed since she left, suddenly, but quietly, as music suddenly fades. The house had grown used to her absence, though he hadn’t. Sometimes, when he opened the kitchen cupboard, he still found her favourite teacup, chipped at the rim, but never thrown away. Her scarf still hung…

“Do you remember what your teacher taught you?” Most of us don’t—those lecture notes, formulas, and slides blur with time. What we carry instead are the memories of people who taught—their kindness, their quirks, their humanity. This blog is my tribute,  my gratitude to all the teachers, mentors, colleagues and students who taught me and made me today what I am. I refer here to…