So, it seems kind of final and ‘this is it’ kind of feeling. But that is what life is all about, ends and new beginnings.
I waddled into
education accidentally. Sometimes in 2005, we were invited at the Japanese
Consulate. I started feeling unwell and asked my wife to drive us home. Halfway
through, I told her to take me to the hospital. The hospital bed is a great
equalizer. It helps you realize very quickly who you are.
As I lay there, I had
an opportunity to think about lot of things. I had a very well-paid job – among
the top in the industry, a fancy car a good house and my family was doing well.
But something was missing. I was living my life quarter by quarter.
So, within a few months
of getting out of hospital, I quit my job. I didn’t have a clue as to what I
would do next but one thing I was sure of – I will stop the quarter numbers
from defining my life.
As the industry got to
know about my quitting, I started getting request from people to help them sort
out some of their problems. One of the first was Hindustan Lever. The promised
consulting engagement of one month extended to eighteen months. More such
consulting assignments followed.
One day I met a friend
and during our chat he mentioned that he occasionally taught in a business
school. I found this idea very interesting and after a few phone calls, landed
a teaching assignment. This was 2007. And I had finally found that missing piece.
When I started teaching,
my goal was to impact the life of at least one student a year. I would like to
believe that I have had some amount of success in this area based on the
messages and calls that I keep getting from amongst the 10000 odd students who
happened to be in my class sometime or the other. Sometimes I bump into them on
flight or in a market. I sometimes cannot recognize some of them or remember
their names, but they do.
During the eight years
that I spent in my current role as the Director of this Institute, I have
received a huge amount of love, respect regard and support from everyone
irrespective of their job role. We did lot of things together – our team of staff,
faculty, and executives. We were able to scale the numbers, introduce new
courses & pedagogy. Bring in new technology and perspectives.
My style of working has
largely been participative. Whenever I took a decision, I asked myself three
questions – 1) is it good for the staff? 2) is it good for the organization 3)
is it good for my internal & external customer. And I believe that either
in the short term or in the long, all three questions have to be answered with
a yes, otherwise it is not a good decision.
I am grateful to all of
you for your prayers especially when both me & my wife were down with
covid. I must take this opportunity to thank all of you for being part of my
journey. A special thanks go out to Mr. Mark Clive & Joy Benjamin for
believing in me, my immediate team – Poonam, Simmi ma’am, Angelina who was
there for some time, Maujee, Jiyalal, Vir Bahadur, all the faculty members. My
co-directors Mrs. Gupta and Mr. Maccune Mr Ashish Makkar, Mr Vineet Masih and
Rajdeep Bhagat, Mr. Milton & his team for keeping us connected and everyone
who made life possible. There are two people who are no longer with YMCA but I
would like to mention them here – Arun Anthony and Christu John. My thanks goes
out to them as well.
Before I end, I would like
to share a small story. When Brezhnev, took over from Khrushchev he was handed
two envelopes with the instruction to open envelope 1 when the first crisis
happened and envelope 2 during the next. When the first crisis happened, he
suddenly remembered the envelopes and he opened envelope 1. The simple
instruction inside was – ‘blame everything on me’. He did just that and
survived the crisis. And when he opened the other envelope during the next
crisis, the advice inside was – prepare two envelopes.
I haven’t prepared any
envelope because I firmly believe that Dr. Mehra would not need them. He brings
with him his years of experience and wisdom to take this organization to the
next level. I welcome him and wish him all the very best.
Thank you once again
and god bless you.
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