Gurubhyo Namaha.

" Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant. There is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks " said Johann Herder, an 18th century German philosopher. Being inspired is always a great feeling. I write this post to thank my teachers at LIBA who inspired me a lot. Hence the title Gurubhyo Namaha (meaning salutations to the many gurus).

In my two year stay at Loyola Institute of Business Adminstration (LIBA), Chennai, I saw more than thirty teachers. All of them taught me valuable lessons both within the classroom and outside. But four of them made deep impressions in me. In the following I recollect with gratitude some of my memories.

Professor AC Fernando (ACF as we call him) taught me Economics. I had a formal exposure to economics only at LIBA. I always aspired to become a writer. ACF as the editor of LIBA's official magazine, Management Matters, recognised a writer in me and published two of my book reviews in the magazine. Winning an editor's appreciation is always a dream for any aspiring writer. For me the dream came true at the most unexpected moment. Other articles that featured in the same section were from some of the most experienced teachers. That made me feel very humble. I have always admired his thirst and passion for writing. He is one of the very few teachers at LIBA who continually publishes books. Dear professor Fernando thank you for the generous gesture and thank you for inspiring me.

Professor U Srinivasa Raghavan taught me Retail Management and Business Strategy. He is a great teacher. He is a man who believes in simple living and high thinking. Each and every word he uttered in the classroom reverberated with credibility. He had an illustrious career before he took up teaching at LIBA. He retired as Secretary to Government of India. Sometimes back I was a civil services aspirant. I missed to convert a golden opportunity into an IAS job. I have pondered a lot on the possible reasons behind my failure and would conclude everytime saying 'it was tough luck that day'. But during one of his Strategy sessions he presented the 'Vision Statement' that he prepared for India Posts way back in 1994. As he presented the statement slowly I realised the real reason behind my failure. I wanted to cry out but just shed a few tears regretting my failure. Then I thought probably I should have met this man before my IAS interview. Dear professor Raghavan thank you so much for helping me understand something that I never understood before and thank you for inspiring me.

Professor Jayaram K Iyer ( JK as we call him) taught me Marketing Management. In fact he taught me more than that. JK is popular for his characteristic style of interaction with the students both inside and outside classroom. He taught me a course on Research Methods. In his first session he threw a question at us asking 'Can mother's love be measured?'. Almost the entire class said 'nay'. But he slowly proceeded proselytizing students and made them believe that it is indeed possible. But at the end of the session I was still not impressed with the lecture. Slowly it dawned upon me that the true purpose of the session is not to make me believe that mother's love can be measured but it is to drive home the message that anything and everything can be measured. Today I would attribute my interest for research, however rudimentary it is, to that lecture of JK. He also introduced me to different interesting areas of inquiry like Behavioral Finance and Social Media Marketing. Dear professor JK thank you for raising the bar every time I came to you and thank you for inspiring me.

Professor SV Vijayaraghavan taught me a course on Financial Markets. He is a dedicated and energetic teacher with a long corporate career behind him. He added a lot of value to the course by leveraging his practical experience. In my limited interactions with him outside the classroom I understood that he is a self-actualised (Maslow's ideal) person. When many teachers work to maximise their returns by visiting maximum number of campuses and teaching as many sessions as possible, here was one teacher who attached a bit more importance to teaching than to the returns it generated. The initiatives he took out of his way to help some of the slow learners of my class (myself included) spoke volumes about his integrity and passion for teaching. Dear professor Raghavan thank you for teaching me the essentials of Finance and thank you for inspiring me.

There were a few professors who visited LIBA campus to teach. Among them there were two professors who inspired me a lot.

Professor Ananthraman taught me Inter-personnel Dynamics. He has a very long academic career. His characteristic laid-back approach in the classroom impressed me a lot. He used to remark that 'I consider people who bunk my lectures as geniuses' (though I never bunked his lectures). He is a true genius. One thing that inspired me a lot was the fact that he actively published in leading international journals, a hall-mark of a great teacher. Thank you professor for inspiring me.

Professor Mohan Kuruvilla taught me Business-to-Business Marketing Management. He is popular for his characteristic Bihari-Hindi laced lectures. Most of his students would remember phrases like 'याद है वो दिन साहब ', ' Sheela and Shyamsundar' etc. He taught me one of the most important lessons of my life - 'Marketplace will make you humble'. Thank you professor for inspiring me.

Sometimes in the future I aspire to become a teacher. All my teachers whom I remembered here will be my sources of inspiration then. Thank you teachers. गुरुभ्यो नमः ।