A Feast for the Stomach and the Mind

Time Friday, 30th January 2009

Location: “Sandesh” Hotel Savera,Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai,Mylapore, Chennai.

Event: Tea Party

Guest Speaker: Satish Kumar,

Managing Director, Henkel India Ltd.

Topic: Lessons from the Recession.

Outcome: A fantastic evening filled with facts, knowledge and information, meeting new people, previous lecturers and most importantly, students from the previous batches.

Now as a student from Ad Club Madras, I gotta tell you folks, when the Ad Club is throwing a tea party, they really know how to do it. The food is fantastic, it isn’t too heavy, it isn’t too light, it’s just right. There was Paav Bhaji and samosa, both were really good. Then we could choose between coffee and ice cream, and again, really good.

At about 06:55 pm, our President, Mr. Seshadri invited our guest, Mr. Satish Kumar and the former President, Mr. Jagannath Ramaswamy onto the dais. Then he gave a small prep talk as to what was going to happen through the evening. He introduced our guest and his accomplishments to us (which unfortunately was incomplete although Mr. Satish completed it for the listeners’ benefit).

Mr. Jagannath Ramaswamy, then requested Mr. Satish Kumar to give certificates and medals to the students of the previous batch. Mr. Venkat received the “Best Student of the Year” award and MR. Gyanamurthy, Ms. Vanitha and Mr. Arun won gold medals for their performance for the year 2007-2008. Mr. Venkat currently works at HDFC Bank and comes to Ad Club once in a while to give lectures on marketing. His classes are usually very informative and enjoyable.

Then Mr. Satish Kumar came up to the podium and told us how he was told it was only to be tea party and not a mini lecture. He, however, did talk on how the world was beset with the problem at hand and what could be done to cope with it. He also spoke at length on how it began or some of its root causes.

He also brought out how the industries could bring out the best during the recession. He conversed on the consequences of the depression, although he did apologize for projecting such a grim picture. He also enlightened us with his thoughts on how long the slow down would last.

When he completed his talk, a few questions were thrown at him which he answered with some thought. Afterwards, Mr. Seshadri gifted a memento to Mr. Satish Kumar and thanked him for enlightening the crowd. Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening both informative and engaging, a combination which can be rarely had at a tea party.

Karthik Hariharan