Kiran Bedi’s speech on visionary leadership

 Now I'm going to give you a story. It's an Indian story about an Indian woman and her journey. Let me begin with my parents. I'm a product of this visionary mother and father. Many years ago, when I was born in the 'fiftees -- 'fiftees and 'sixtys didn't belong to girls in India. They belonged to boys. They belonged to boys who would join business and inherit business from parents, and girls would be dolled up to get married. My family, in my city, and almost in the country, was unique. We were four of us, not one, and fortunately no boys. We were four girls and no boys. And my parents were part of a landed property family. My father defied his own grandfather, almost to the point of disinheritance, because he decided to educate all four of us. He sent us to one of the best schools in the city and gave us the best education. As I've said, when we're born, we don't choose our parents, and when we go to school, we don't choose our school. Children don't choose a school. They just get the school which parents choose for them. So this is the foundation time which I got. I grew up like this, and so did my other three sisters. And my father used to say at that time, "I'm going to spread all my four daughters in four corners of the world." I don't know if he really meant [that], but it happened. I'm the only one who's left in India. One is a British, another is an American and the third is a Canadian. So we are four of us in four corners of the world.

And since I said they're my role models, I followed two things which my father and mother gave me. One, they said, "Life is on an incline. You either go up, or you come down." And the second thing, which has stayed with me, which became my philosophy of life, which made all the difference, is: 100 things happen in your life, good or bad. Out of hundred, 90 are your creation. They're good. They're your creation. Enjoy it. If they're bad, they're your creation. Learn from it. Ten are nature-sent over which you can't do a thing. It's like a death of a relative, or a cyclone, or a hurricane, or an earthquake. You can't do a thing about it. You've got to just respond to the situation. But that response comes out of those 90 points. Since I'm a product of this philosophy, of 90/10, and secondly, "life on an incline," that's the way I grew up to be valuing what I got. I'm a product of opportunities, rare opportunities in the '50s and the '60s, which girls didn't get, and I was conscious of the fact that what my parents were giving me was something unique. Because all of my best school friends were getting dolled up to get married with a lot of dowry, and here I was with a tennis racket and going to school and doing all kinds of extracurricular activities. I thought I must tell you this. Why I said this, is the background.

This is what comes next. I joined the Indian Police Service as a tough woman, a woman with indefatigable stamina, because I used to run for my tennis titles, etc. But I joined the Indian Police Service, and then it was a new pattern of policing. For me the policing stood for power to correct, power to prevent and power to detect. This is something like a new definition ever given in policing in India -- the power to prevent. Because normally it was always said, power to detect, and that's it, or power to punish. But I decided no, it's a power to prevent, because that's what I learned when I was growing up. How do I prevent the 10 and never make it more than 10? So this was how it came into my service, and it was different from the men. I didn't want to make it different from the men, but it was different, because this was the way I was different. And I redefined policing concepts in India. I'm going to take you on two journeys, my policing journey and my prison journey. What you see, if you see the title called "PM's car held." This was the first time a prime minister of India was given a parking ticket. (Laughter) That's the first time in India, and I can tell you, that's the last time you're hearing about it. It'll never happen again in India, because now it was once and forever. And the rule was, because I was sensitive, I was compassionate, I was very sensitive to injustice, and I was very pro-justice. That's the reason, as a woman, I joined the Indian Police Service. I had other options, but I didn't choose them.

So I'm going to move on. This is about tough policing, equal policing. Now I was known as "here's a woman that's not going to listen." So I was sent to all indiscriminate postings, postings which others would say no. I now went to a prison assignment as a police officer. Normally police officers don't want to do prison. They sent me to prison to lock me up, thinking, "Now there will be no cars and no VIPs to be given tickets to. Let's lock her up." Here I got a prison assignment. This was a prison assignment which was one big den of criminals. Obviously, it was. But 10,000 men, of which only 400 were women -- 10,000 -- 9,000 plus about 600 were men. Terrorists, rapists, burglars, gangsters -- some of them I'd sent to jail as a police officer outside. And then how did I deal with them? The first day when I went in, I didn't know how to look at them. And I said, "Do you pray?" When I looked at the group, I said, "Do you pray?" They saw me as a young, short woman wearing a pathan suit. I said, "Do you pray?" And they didn't say anything. I said, "Do you pray? Do you want to pray?" They said, "Yes." I said, "All right, let's pray." I prayed for them, and things started to change. This is a visual of education inside the prison.

Friends, this has never happened, where everybody in the prison studies. I started this with community support. Government had no budget. It was one of the finest, largest volunteerism in any prison in the world. This was initiated in Delhi prison. You see one sample of a prisoner teaching a class. These are hundreds of classes. Nine to eleven, every prisoner went into the education program -- the same den in which they thought they would put me behind the bar and things would be forgotten. We converted this into an ashram -- from a prison to an ashram through education. I think that's the bigger change. It was the beginning of a change. Teachers were prisoners. Teachers were volunteers. Books came from donated schoolbooks. Stationery was donated. Everything was donated, because there was no budget of education for the prison. Now if I'd not done that, it would have been a hellhole.

That's the second landmark. I want to show you some moments of history in my journey, which probably you would never ever get to see anywhere in the world. One, the numbers you'll never get to see. Secondly, this concept. This was a meditation program inside the prison of over 1,000 prisoners. One thousand prisoners who sat in meditation. This was one of the most courageous steps I took as a prison governor. And this is what transformed. You want to know more about this, go and see this film, "Doing Time, Doing Vipassana." You will hear about it, and you will love it. And write to me on KiranBedi.com, and I'll respond to you. Let me show you the next slide. I took the same concept of mindfulness, because, why did I bring meditation into the Indian prison? Because crime is a product of a distorted mind. It was distortion of mind which needed to be addressed to control. Not by preaching, not by telling, not by reading, but by addressing your mind. I took the same thing to the police, because police, equally, were prisoners of their minds, and they felt as if it was "we" and "they," and that the people don't cooperate. This worked.

This is a feedback box called a petition box. This is a concept which I introduced to listen to complaints, listen to grievances. This was a magic box. This was a sensitive box. This is how a prisoner drew how they felt about the prison. If you see somebody in the blue -- yeah, this guy -- he was a prisoner, and he was a teacher. And you see, everybody's busy. There was no time to waste.

Let me wrap it up. I'm currently into movements, movements of education of the under-served children, which is thousands -- India is all about thousands. Secondly is about the anti-corruption movement in India. That's a big way we, as a small group of activists, have drafted an ombudsman bill for the government of India. Friends, you will hear a lot about it. That's the movement at the moment I'm driving, and that's the movement and ambition of my life.

Thank you very much. (Applause) Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Sachin Tendulkar’s Farewell speech

  

All my friends. Settle down let me talk, I will get more and more emotional (crowd gets louder as he composes himself).

 My life, between 22 yards for 24 years, it is hard to believe that that wonderful journey has come to an end, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank people who have played an important role in my life. Also, for the first time in my life I am carrying this list, to remember all the names in case I forget someone. I hope you understand. It's getting a little bit difficult to talk but I will manage.

  

The most important person in my life, and I have missed him a lot since 1999 when he passed away, my father. Without his guidance, I don't think I would have been standing here in front of you. He gave me freedom at the age of 11, and told me that [I should] chase my dreams, but make sure you do not find shortcuts. The path might be difficult but don't give up, and I have simply followed his instructions. Above all, he told me to be a nice human being, which I will continue to do and try my best. Every time I have done something special [and] showed my bat, it was [for] my father.

 

 

My mother, I don't know how she dealt with such a naughty child like me. I was not easy to manage. She must be extremely patient. For a mother, the most important thing is that her child remains safe and healthy and fit. That was what she was most bothered and worried about. She took care of me for the last 24 years that I have played for India, but even before that she started praying for me the day I started playing cricket. She just prayed and prayed and I think her prayers and blessings have given me the strength to go out and perform, so a big thank you to my mother for all the sacrifices.

 

 

In my school days, for four years, I stayed with my uncle and aunt because my school was quite far from my home, and they treated me like their son. My aunt, after having had a hard day's play, I would be half asleep and she would be feeding me food so I could go again and play tomorrow. I can't forget these moments. I am like their son and I am glad it has continued to be the same way.

 

 

My eldest brother, Nitin, and his family, have always encouraged me. My eldest brother doesn't like to talk much, but the one thing he always told me is that whatever you do, I know you will always give it 100%, and that I have full faith and confidence in you. His encouragement meant a lot to me. My sister, Savita, and her family, was no different. The first cricket bat of my life was presented to me by my sister. It was a Kashmir willow bat. But that is where the journey began. She is one of those many who still continue to fast when I bat, so thank you very much.

 

 

Ajit, my brother, now what do I talk about him? I don't know. We have lived this dream together. He was the one who sacrificed his career for my cricket. He spotted the spark in me. And it all started from the age of 11 when he took me to Archrekar sir, my coach, and from there on my life changed. You will find this hard to believe but even last night he called to discuss my dismissal, knowing that there was a remote chance of batting again, but just the habit we have developed, the rapport we have developed, since my birth, has continued and it will continue. Maybe when I'm not playing cricket we will still be discussing technique.

 

 

Various things we agreed upon, my technique, and so many technical things which I didn't agree with him, we have had arguments and disagreements, but when I look back at all these things in my life, I would have been a lesser cricketer.

 

 

The most beautiful thing happened to me in 1990 when I met my wife, Anjali. Those were special years and it has continued and will always continue that way. I know Anjali, being a doctor; there was a wonderful career in front of her. When we decided to have a family, Anjali took the initiative to step back and say that 'you continue with your cricket and I will take the responsibility of the family'.

 

 

Without that, I don't think I would have been able to play cricket freely and without stress. Thanks for bearing with all my fuss and all my frustrations, and all sorts of rubbish that I have spoken. Thanks for bearing with me and always staying by my side through all the ups and downs. You are the best partnership I've had in my life.

Then, the two precious diamonds of my life, Sara and Arjun. They have already grown up. My daughter is 16, my son is 14. Time has flown by. I wanted to spend so much time with them on special occasions like their birthdays, their annual days, their sports day, going on holidays, whatever. I have missed out on all those things. Thanks for your understanding. Both of you have been so, so special to me you cannot imagine. I promise you [that] for 14 and 16 years I have not spent enough time with both of you, but the next 16 years or even beyond that, everything is for you.

 

 

My in-laws, Anand Mehta and Annabel, both have been so, so supportive [and] loving and caring. I have discussed on various things in life, generally with them, and have taken their advice. You know, it's so important to have a strong family who is always with you and who are guiding you. Before you start clapping, the most important thing they did was allowing me to marry Anjali, so thank you very much.

 

 

In the last 24 years that I have played for India I have made new friends, and before that I have had friends from my childhood. They have all had a terrific contribution. As and when I have called them to come and bowl to me at the nets, they have left their work aside to come and help me. Be it joining me on holidays and having discussions with me on cricket, or how I was a little stressed and wanting to find a solution so I can perform better.

All those moments my friends were with me. Even for when I was injured, I would wake up in the morning because I couldn't sleep and thought that my career was over because of injuries, that is when my friends have woken up at 3 o'clock in the morning to drive with me and make me believe that my career was not over. Life would be incomplete without all those friends. Thanks for being there for me.

 

 

My cricket career started when I was 11. The turning point of my career was when my brother (Ajit) took me to Achrekar sir. I was extremely delighted to see him up in the stands. Normally he sits in front of the television and he watches all the games that I play. When I was 11/12, those were the days when I used to hop back on his scooter and play a couple of practice matches a day. The first half the innings I would be batting at Shivaji Park, the second half, at some other match in Azad Maidan. He would take me all over Mumbai to make sure I got match practice.

 

 

On a lighter note, in the last 29 years, sir has never ever said 'well played' to me because he thought I would get complacent and I would stop working hard. Maybe he can push his luck and wish me now, well done on my career, because there are no more matches, sir, in my life. I will be witnessing cricket, and cricket will always stay in my heart, but you have had an immense contribution in my life, so thank you very much.

 

 

My cricket for Mumbai started right here on this ground, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), which is so dear to me. I remember landing from New Zealand at four o'clock in the morning, and turning up for a game here at eight o'clock just because I wanted to be a part of Mumbai cricket, and not that somebody forced me. That was for the love of Mumbai cricket, and thank you very much. The president is here so thank you very much, along with your team, for taking care of me and looking after my cricket.

 

 

The dream was obviously to play for India, and that is where my association with BCCI started. BCCI was fantastic, right from my debut they believed in my ability and selecting me into the squad at the age of 16 was a big step, so thanks to all the selectors for having faith in me and the BCCI for giving me the freedom to express myself out in the middle. Things would have been different if you had not been behind me, and I really appreciate your support. Especially when I was injured, you were right with me and making sure that all the treatments were taken care of, and that I got fit and fine and playing [right] back for India.

 

 

The journey has been special, the last 24 years, I have played with many senior cricketers, and even before that there were many senior cricketers with whom I watched on television. They inspired me to play cricket, and to play in the right way. Thanks to all those senior cricketers, and unfortunately I have not been able to play with them, but I have high regards for all their achievements and all their contributions.

 

 

We see it on the mega-screen, Rahul, Laxman, Sourav, and Anil, who is not here, and my team-mates right here in front me. You are like my family away from home. I have had some wonderful times with you. It is going to be difficult to not be part of the dressing room, sharing those special moments. All the coaches for their guidance, it has been special for me. I know when MS Dhoni presented me the 200th Test match cap on Day One morning. I had a brief message for the team. I would like to repeat that. I just feel that all of us are so, so fortunate and proud to be part of the Indian cricket team and serving the nation.

 

 

Knowing all of you guys, I know you will continue to serve the nation in the right spirit and right values. I believe we have been the lucky ones to be chosen by the Almighty to serve this sport. Each generation gets this opportunity to take care of this sport and serve it to the best of our ability. I have full faith in you to continue to serve the nation in the right spirit and to the best of your ability, to bring all the laurels to the country. All the very best.

 

 

I would be failing in my duties if I did not thank all the doctors, the physios, the trainers, who have put this difficult body together to go back on the field and be able to play. The amount of injuries that I have had in my career, I don't know how you have managed to keep me fit, but without your special efforts, it would never have happened. The doctors have met me at weird hours. I mean I have called them from Mumbai to Chennai, Mumbai to Delhi, I mean wherever. They have just taken the next flight and left their work and families to be with me, which has allowed me to play. So a big thank you to all three of you for keeping me in good shape.

 

 

My dear friend, late Mark Mascarenhas, my first manager. We unfortunately lost him in a car accident in 2001, but he was such a well-wisher of cricket, my cricket, and especially Indian cricket. He was so passionate. He understood what it takes to represent a nation and gave me all the space to go out and express myself, and never pressurised me to do this ad or promotion or whatever the sponsors demanded. He took care of that and today I miss him, so thank you Mark for all your contribution.

 

 

My current management team, WSG, for repeating what Mark has done, because when I signed the contract I exactly told them what I want from them, and what it requires to represent me. They have done that and respected that.

 

 

Someone who has worked closely with me for 14 years is my manager, Vinod Nayudu. He is more like my family and all the sacrifices, spending time away from his family for my work, has been special, so big thank you to his family as well for giving up so much time for my work with Vinod.

 

 

In my school days, when I performed well, the media backed me a lot. They continue to do that till this morning. Thank you so much to the media for supporting and appreciating my performances. It surely had a positive effect on me. Thank you so much to all the photographers as well for those wonderfully captured moments that will stay with me for the rest of my life, so a big thank you to all the photographers.

 

I know my speech is getting a bit too long (crowd roars with 'noooo'), but this is the last thing I want to say. I want to thank all the people here who have flown in from various parts of the world, and have supported me endlessly, whether I scored a 0 or a 100-plus. Your support was so dear to me and meant a lot to me. Whatever you have done for me.

 

 

I know I have met so many guys who have fasted for me, prayed for me, done so much for me. Without that life wouldn't have been like this for me. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and also say that time has flown by rather quickly, but the memories you have left with me will always be with me forever and ever, especially "Sachin, Sachin" which will reverberate in my ears till I stop breathing. Thank you very much. If I have missed out on saying something, I hope you understand. Goodbye.

I have a dream – Rahul Bose

 I have a Dream. That the 26/11 attack on Mumbai will spur civil society to unite and present a force that government will never again ignore. That in time we will have the maturity to reflect on the mistakes India might have made to incite such hatred. That our new generation of political leaders will truly look beyond party lines and do what astonishingly few leaders in post-independent India have done – their duty. That Hemant Karkare’s work on the Malegaon case will not lose momentum or integrity.

I have a dream. That one day, the next time women are thrashed anywhere in a pub in India, the entire country’s women will march half to Bangalore, stopping the entire city for months, the other half to the Prime Minister’s – stopping the government for months. That 100 million Indian Children will not go to bed hungry every night. 100 million is two United Kingdoms. That pregnant women will never again have their wombs slit, their living fetuses torn out and dashed to death while they were set on fire – Gujarat 2002. That there will not be a rape every 23 minutes in this country. Or a dowry death every 33 minutes.

I have a dream. That small farmers will never again have to apologise to their children and then commit suicide. That Article 377 making homosexuality a crime will be abolished. That when a girl goes to her mother and says her uncle or her father has molested her, she will not be asked – Are you sure? And she will not be told – Don’t be silly – you’re imagining things. That Muslims who fled Bombay in 1992, will return to their homes and M F Husain will return to his.

I have a dream. Of a time when we will cheer a Younis Khan sixer as we cheer a Yuvraj Singh one. Of a time when no girl child will ever have to walk the 3 KM average to fetch water everyday - instead she will spend that time in a school. That we will allow people with AIDS to work with us, eat with us, live with us – with dignity. Where God is not a Setu, a pandal blocking the street or the reason for jihad, but is linked with our hopes, our hearts, our homes.

I have a dream.  That one day I will be six inches taller. Have a full head of hair. Look nineteen forever. And always have the right, witty answer when face to face with  a beautiful woman.

But I also have dream. That I will never ever be scared to speak the truth. That one day I will have the means, the time, the heart to gather all the street children in this country, put them on a train and take them to a land where they can heal. Where they can play, laugh, eat, do nothing. That we realize that – slum dwellers – are not the cockroaches of the world. They are fathers forced out of their villages through poverty, now struggling to make money pushed and abused by the police. They are mothers working as Kaamwalis in three houses a day so that their children can do what they didn’t – go to school. They are children, who have like all children an equal dose of delight and tears in them, not dirty, lice – ridden creatures shivering in the rain holding today’s papers in a plastic bag.

I have a dream. Where every Indian plays a sport, any game, for at least an hour a day. Where no hockey player will ever again have to sell his medals to feed himself. Where we win twenty Olympic gold medals in London 2012 – if we do things right, its possible. Where the Indian Rugby team wins the World Cup – We are ranked 83 rd now – I will cheer from my wheelchair.

I have dream. That one day we will all stop what we’re doing – working on laptops, tending to hundreds of patients, sweating it out at cricket practice, running our homeopathy clinic, trying to balance the books at your non-profit organization, begging our child to have bas one more bite, commuting in a local train, closing that complex merger .… we will stop what we’re doing and suddenly realize, all of us together, at the same, precise moment, that we are all Indians and that there is no one like us on this planet – we are unique. Because we fight with words all the time, with fists sometimes, we talk loudly on our phones, laugh loudest at our own jokes, we are sexist, smelly, love sweets, swear we will exercise tomorrow and don’t believe in queues. But that we are also moved by tears by a sad film song, we fight to pay the bill in a restaurant, you cannot leave our home without at least a cup of tea (and thepla and vadai and shingada and matthi ….), we feel guilty when we don’t stand up if someone elderly walks into the room, we don’t shake hands – we hug, we are all first cricket selectors, then bankers, lawyers, bad actors …., we stand up and cheer during the climax of Chak De, we all watch terrible soaps on television and swear we don’t and we all love Sachin Tendulkar.

And at that moment, that moment when we realize we are all the same, the choice will be ours – to turn to the foreigner on our side and say – we are 1.2 Billion – 1.2 Billion. The world is six billion. That’s one Indian for every four non-Indians. Sounds Good - Let’s do it.

My Vision For India by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

  have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards the Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation.

We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others. That is why my FIRST VISION is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of Independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognised today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn’t this incorrect? MY SECOND VISION for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top five nations in the world in terms of GDP.

I have a THIRD VISION. India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr.Vikram Sarabhai, of the Dept. of Space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash, father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year-old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is. She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim India is not an underdeveloped nation; it is a highly developed nation.

You say that our government is inefficient. You say that our laws are too old. You say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. You say that the phones don’t work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, and mails never reach their destination. You say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. You say, say and say. What do you do about it?

Dear Indians, I am echoing J.F.Kennedy’s words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians ……. “ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY.”

Subroto Bagchi: 'Go kiss the world', Indian Institute of Management - 2006

  was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep – so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal, she was a matriculate when she married my Father.

My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today.

As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government. There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not ”his jeep” but the government’s jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep – we could sit in it only when it was stationary.

That was our early childhood lesson in governance – a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do.

The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father’s office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix ‘dada’ whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed – I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, ‘Raju Uncle’ – very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as ‘my driver’. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe.

To me, the lesson was significant – you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors.

Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother’s chulha – an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman’s ‘muffosil’ edition – delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson.

He used to say, “You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it”. That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept.

Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios – we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios – alluding to his five sons.

We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply,” We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses”. His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.

Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions.

Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, “I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited”.

That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success.

My mother began developing a cataract in her eyes when I was very small. At that time, the eldest among my brothers got a teaching job at the University in Bhubaneswar and had to prepare for the civil services examination. So, it was decided that my Mother would move to cook for him and, as her appendage, I had to move too. For the first time in my life I saw electricity in homes and water coming out of a tap. It was around 1965 and the country was going to war with Pakistan. My mother was having problems reading and in any case, being Bengali, she did not know the Oriya script. So, in addition to my daily chores, my job was to read her the local newspaper – end to end. That created in me a sense of connectedness with a larger world. I began taking interest in many different things. While reading out news about the war, I felt that I was fighting the war myself. She and I discussed the daily news and built a bond with the larger universe. In it, we became part of a larger reality. Till date, I measure my success in terms of that sense of larger connectedness. Meanwhile, the war raged and India was fighting on both fronts. Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minster, coined the term “Jai Jawan, Jai Kishan” and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University’s water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination.

Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success.

Over the next few years, my mother’s eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, “Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair”. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, “No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed”. Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes.

To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light.

Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life’s own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life’s calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981. Life took me places – I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world.

In 1992, while I was posted in the US, I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi. I flew back to attend to him – he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, “Why have you not gone home yet?” Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self.

There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create.

My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.

Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts – the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant’s world.

My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event. My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca, my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions.

In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking.

Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum.

Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar. I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her. I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said,

“Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world.” Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world!

Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion. It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinary success with ordinary lives.

Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God’s speed. Go! kiss the world.

Narayanamurthy Speech:at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management

 

Ladies and gentlemen:It is a pleasure to be here at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management. Lal Bahadur Shastri was a man of strong values and he epitomized simple living. He was a freedom fighter and innovative administrator who contributed to nation building in full measure. It is indeed a matter of pride for me to be chosen for theLal Bahadur Shastri Award for Public Administration and Management Sciences. I thank the jury for this honor.When I got the invitation to speak here, I decided to speak on an important topic on which I have pondered for years - the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society. Coming from acompany that is built on strong values, the topic is close to myheart. Moreover, an organization is representative of society, andsome of the lessons that I have learnt are applicable in the national context. In fact, values drive progress and define quality of life insociety.The word community joins two Latin words com ("together" or "with") and unus ("one"). A community, then, is both one andmany. It is a unified multitude and not a mere group of people. As it is said in the Vedas: Man can live individually, but can surviveonly collectively. Hence, the challenge is to form a progressivecommunity by balancing the interests of the individual and that of the society. To meet this, we need to develop a value system wherepeople accept modest sacrifices for the common good.What is a value system? It is the protocol for behavior thatenhances the trust, confidence and commitment of members of thecommunity. It goes beyond the domain of legality - it is aboutdecent and desirable behavior. Further, it includes putting thecommunity interests ahead of your own. Thus, our collectivesurvival and progress is predicated on sound values.

 

There are two pillars of the cultural value system - loyalty tofamily and loyalty to community. One should not be in isolation tothe other, because, successful societies are those which combineboth harmoniously. It is in this context that I will discuss therole of Western values in contemporary Indian society.Some of you here might say that most of what I am going todiscuss are actually Indian values in old ages, and not Westernvalues. I live in the present, not in the bygone era. Therefore, Ihave seen these values practiced primarily in the West and not inIndia.Hence, the title of the topic.I am happy as long as we practice these values - whether we call itWestern or old Indian values. As an Indian, I am proud to be partof a culture, which has deep-rooted family values. We havetremendous loyalty to the family. For instance, parents make enormous sacrifices for their children. They support them untilthey can stand on their own feet. On the other side, childrenconsider it their duty to take care of aged parents.We believe:Mathru devo bhava - mother is God, and pithru devo bhava - father is God. Further, brothers and sisters sacrifice for each other. Infact, the eldest brother or sister is respected by all the other siblings. As for marriage, it is held to be a sacred union - husband and wife are bonded, most often, for life. In joint families, theentire family works towards the welfare of the family. There is so much love and affection in our family life.This is the essence of Indian values and one of our key strengths.Our families act as a critical support mechanism for us. In fact, thecredit to the success of Infosys goes, as much to the founders as totheir families, for supporting them through the tough times.Unfortunately, our attitude towards family life is not reflected inour attitude towards community behavior.

 From littering the streets to corruption to breaking of contractual obligations, we are apathetic to the common good. In the West - the US, Canada,Europe,Australia, New Zealand - individuals understand that they have to be responsible towards their community.The primary difference between the West and us is that, there,people have a much better societal orientation. They care more for the society than we do. Further, they generally sacrifice more for the society than us. Quality of life is enhanced because of this. Thisis where we need to learn from the West. I will talk about some of the lessons that we, Indians, can learn from the West.In the West, there is respect for the public good. For instance,parks free of litter, clean streets, public toilets free of graffiti - all these are instances of care for the public good. On the contrary, inIndia, we keep our houses clean and water our gardens everyday -but, when we go to a park, we do not think twice before littering the place.Corruption, as we see in India, is another example of putting theinterest of oneself, and at best that of one's family, above that of the society. Society is relatively corruption free in the West.

 For instance, it is very difficult to bribe a police officer into avoiding a speeding ticket.This is because of the individual's responsible behavior towards the community as a whole On the contrary, in India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and bribery have eaten into our vitals. For instance, contractors bribe officials, and construct low-quality roads and bridges. The result is that society loses in the form of substandard defence equipment and infrastructure, and low-quality recruitment, just to name a few impediments. Unfortunately, this behavior is condoned by almost everyone.Apathy in solving community matters has held us back from

making progress, which is otherwise within our reach. We seeserious problems around us but do not try to solve them. Webehave as if the problems do not exist or is somebody else's. Onthe other hand, in the West, people solve societal problemsproactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude.For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India.More than 40 years ago, Dr. K. L. Rao - an irrigation expert,suggested creation of a water grid connecting all the rivers inNorth and South India, to solve this problem. Unfortunately,nothing has been done about this. The story of power shortage inBangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided to build athermal power plant to meet Bangalore's power requirements.Unfortunately, we have still not started it. Further, the Milansubway in Bombay is in a deplorable state for the last 40 years,and no action has been taken.To quote another example, considering the constant travel requiredin the software industry; five years ago, I had suggested a 240-pagepassport. This would eliminate frequent visits to the passportoffice. In fact, we are ready to pay for it. 

However, I am yet to hear from the Ministry of External Affairs on this.We, Indians, would do well to remember Thomas Hunter's words:Idleness travels very slowly, and poverty soon overtakes it. Whatcould be the reason for all this? We were ruled by foreigners for over thousand years. Thus, we have always believed that publicissues belonged to some foreign ruler and that we have no role insolving them.Moreover, we have lost the will to proactively solve our ownproblems. Thus, we have got used to just executing someone else'sorders. Borrowing Aristotle's words: We are what we repeatedly do.Thus, having done this over the years, the decision-makers in our society are not trained for solving problems. Our decision-makerslook to somebody else to take decisions. Unfortunately, there isnobody to look up to, and this is the tragedy.Our intellectual arrogance has also not helped our society. I havetraveled extensively, and in my experience, have not come acrossanother society where people are as contemptuous of better societies as we are, with as little progress as we have achieved.

Remember that arrogance breeds hypocrisy. No other societygloats so much about the past as we do, with as little currentaccomplishment.Friends, this is not a new phenomenon, but at least a thousandyears old. For instance, Al Barouni, the famous Arabic logicianand traveler of the 10th century, who spent about 30 years in Indiafrom 997 AD to around 1027 AD, referred to this trait of Indians.According to him, during his visit, most Indian pundits consideredit below their dignity even to hold arguments with him. In fact, ona few occasions when a pundit was willing to listen to him, andfound his arguments to be very sound, he invariably askedBarouni:which Indian pundit taught these smart things!The most important attribute of a progressive society is respect for others who have accomplished more than they themselves have,and learn from them. Contrary to this, our leaders make us believethat other societies do not know anything! At the same time,everyday, in the newspapers, you will find numerous claims fromour leaders that ours is the greatest nation. These people would dowell to remember Thomas Carlyle's words: The greatest of faults isto be conscious of none. 

 

If we have to progress, we have to change this attitude, listen topeople who have performed better than us, learn from them andperform better than them. Infosys is a good example of such anattitude. We continue to rationalize our failures. No other societyhas mastered this part as well as we have. Obviously, this is anexcuse to justify our incompetence, corruption, and apathy. Thisattitude has to change. As Sir Josiah Stamp has said: It is easy tododge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequencesof dodging our responsibilities.Another interesting attribute, which we Indians can learn from theWest, is their accountability. Irrespective of your position, in theWest, you are held accountable for what you do. However, inIndia, the more 'important' you are, the less answerable you are.For instance, a senior politician once declared that he 'forgot' to filehis tax returns for 10 consecutive years - and he got away with it.To quote another instance, there are over 100 loss making publicsector units (central) in India. Nevertheless, I have not seen actiontaken for bad performance against top managers in theseorganizations.Dignity of labor is an integral part of the Western value system. Inthe West, each person is proud about his or her labor that raiseshonest sweat. 

On the other hand, in India, we tend to overlook thesignificance of those who are not in professional jobs. We have amind set that reveres only supposedly intellectual work.For instance, I have seen many engineers, fresh from college, whoonly want to do cutting-edge work and not work that is of relevance to business and the country. However, be it anorganization or society, there are different people performingdifferent roles. For success, all these people are required todischarge their duties. This includes everyone from the CEO to the person who serves tea - every role is important. Hence, we need amind set that reveres everyone who puts in honest work.Indians become intimate even without being friendly. They ask favors of strangers without any hesitation. For instance, the other day, while I was traveling from Bangalore to Mantralaya, I met afellow traveler on the train. Hardly 5 minutes into the conversation,he requested me to speak to his MD about removing him from thebottom 10% list in his company, earmarked for disciplinaryaction. I was reminded of what Rudyard Kipling once said:A westerner can be friendly without being intimate while aneasterner tends to be intimate without being friendly.Yet another lesson to be learnt from the West, is about their professionalism in dealings. The common good being moreimportant than personal equations, people do not let personalrelations interfere with their professional dealings. For instance,they don't hesitate to chastise a colleague, even if he is a personalfriend, for incompetent work.In India, I have seen that we tend to view even work interactionsfrom a personal perspective. Further, we are the most 'thin-skinned' society in the world - we see insults where none is meant.This may be because we were not free for most of the lastthousand years.

 Further, we seem to extend this lack of professionalism to our sense of punctuality. We do not seem torespect the other person's time. The Indian Standard Timesomehow seems to be always running late. Moreover, deadlinesare typically not met. How many public projects are completed ontime? The disheartening aspect is that we have accepted this as thenorm rather than the exception. In the West, they showprofessionalism by embracing meritocracy. Meritocracy bydefinition means that we cannot let personal prejudices affect our evaluation of an individual's performance. 

As we increasingly start to benchmark ourselves with global standards, we have to embracemeritocracy.In the West, right from a very young age, parents teach their children to be independent in thinking. Thus, they grow up to bestrong, confident individuals. In India, we still suffer from feudalthinking. I have seen people, who are otherwise bright, refusing toshow independence and preferring to be told what to do by their boss. We need to overcome this attitude if we have to succeedglobally.The Western value system teaches respect to contractualobligation. In the West, contractual obligations are seldomdishonored. This is important - enforceability of legal rights andcontracts is the most important factor in the enhancement of credibility of our people and nation.In India, we consider our marriage vows as sacred. We are willingto sacrifice in order to respect our marriage vows. However, we donot extend this to the public domain. For instance, India had anunfavorable contract with Enron. Instead of punishing the peopleresponsible for negotiating this, we reneged on the contract - thiswas much before we came to know about the illegal activities atEnron.To quote another instance, I had given recommendations to severalstudents for the national scholarship for higher studies in USuniversities. Most of them did not return to India even thoughcontractually they were obliged to spend five years after their degree in India.In fact, according to a professor at a reputed US university, themaximum default rate for student loans is among Indians - all of these students pass out in flying colors and land lucrative jobs, yetthey refuse to pay back their loans. Thus, their action has made it difficult for the students after them, from India, to obtain loans.We have to change this attitude.

Further, we Indians do not display intellectual honesty. For example, our political leaders use mobile phones to tell journalistson the other side that they do not believe intechnology! If we want our youngsters to progress, such hypocrisymust be stopped. We are all aware of our rights as citizens.Nevertheless, we often fail to acknowledge the duty thataccompanies every right. To borrow Dwight Eisenhower's words:People that values its privileges above its principles soon losesboth. Our duty is towards the community as a whole, as much as itis towards our families.We have to remember that fundamental social problems grow outof a lack of commitment to the common good. To quote HenryBeecher:Culture is that which helps us to work for the betterment of all.Hence, friends, I do believe that we can make our society evenbetter by assimilating these Western values into our own culture -we will be stronger for it.Most of our behavior comes from greed, lack of self-confidence,lack of confidence in the nation, and lack of respect for thesociety. To borrow Gandhi's words: There is enough in this worldfor everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed. Let uswork towards a society where we would do unto others what wewould have others do unto us. Let us all be responsible citizenswho make our country a great place to live. In the words of Churchill:Responsibility is the price of greatness. We have to extend our family values beyond the boundaries of our home. Finally, let uswork towards maximum welfare of the maximum people –

 

Samasta janaanaam sukhino bhavantu. Thus, let us - people of this generation, conduct ourselves as great citizens rather than just good people so that we can serve as good examples for our younger generation.

Give me blood and I will give you freedom: Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

 Give me blood and I will give you freedom” These words became the anthem for the youth during India’s struggle for independence. 

Excerpt from his speech:

We should have but one desire today- the desire to die so that India may live- the desire to face a martyr’s death, so that the path to freedom may be paved with the martyr’s blood. Friends! my comrades in the War of Liberation! Today I demand of you one thing, above all. I demand of you blood. It is blood alone that can avenge the blood that the enemy has spilt. It is blood alone that can pay the price of freedom. Give me blood and I promise you freedom.