·advice
Tantri's graduation letters: 'reserve one hour a day for learning something new'
On the day each batch graduated, Tantri left them with a short message in the WhatsApp group. The Hyderabad and Mohali farewells from April 2025, side by side.
- #advice
- #careers
- #learning
- #tantri-files
From The Tantri Files — verbatim writing from Prof. Tantri’s WhatsApp messages, with his blessing. Two short notes — one to Hyderabad on April 5, 2025, one to Mohali the next day — sent on the day each batch was wrapping up.
To the Hyderabad batch — April 5, 2025
Dear Hyderabad folks,
Whatever you do from hereon and wherever you go from here, please reserve 1 hour a day for learning something new.
It could be about anything, from music to science.
Trust me, this will have a transformative impact.
Let the learning begin.
To the Mohali batch — April 6, 2025
Dear Mohali,
Unfortunately, I will not be able to come tomorrow. Too much travel has caught up and impacted my health a bit.
As you go back to the real world, please start thinking like future leaders.
Please treat any job you do as an art and you an artist.
Unlike what they teach in MBA, I believe that more than the customer you should be happy with your work and enjoy it.
All the best. I will be in touch with you for a long time. All the best.
And, threaded through that same week
A few of the smaller messages from the same week, clipped without his even meaning them as advice:
Tantri. Life will be so good when all of us start seeing ourselves as artists, including the hard-nosed investment banker and the lawyer. The sense of fulfilment is beyond words in such a world. The best part is, in most such cases, money also follows. Sadly, most of us are absorbed by mundane considerations.
Tantri. I am realising how difficult it is to sit and listen. Faculty who don’t give breaks should be prosecuted.
Tantri. Faculty not stepping out of campus is a disaster for education.
Editor’s notes
Verbatim from the INFS Co25 WhatsApp group, April 5–6, 2025. Two short messages from the day each batch graduated, plus a few related lines from the same week. The lines from the closing week are the kind of thing he says casually and which are too good to lose to a chat archive.