Visit to IIM, Bangalore captured in an MP3!
Thank you to all my dear young friends for visiting my Blog. For all of you, I have something special here. It happened like this - last week, I was back at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore where the Class of 2006 had heard me deliver the “Go Kiss the World” speech, four years ago. I was overwhelmed with the welcome by the students last Friday, this time I had gone to read out excerpts of the book “Go Kiss the World” because it has its origin in their institution. The book reading was followed by a great question and answer session. Subsequently, over the weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to see the book reading and interaction available as a MP3 file - you can listen to it at your leisure by clicking on the link below:
http://coffeewithsundar.com/SubrotoBagchi.mp3
Before I sign off, thank you to Sritanu Chatterjee for your comment posted last Thursday. Why, you ask, did we admit our parents in government hospitals in the last leg of their journey? Weren’t we children well-to-do enough to afford better hospitals? Let me explain.
Go Kiss the World in Hindi!
Dear Aditya, Abhishek, Basanta, Chandra, Chandu, Nikhil, Sreeja, Joshua, Joy and Veena and all of you who have visited my blog recently.
Thank you to those of you who have left your thoughts on my Blog. I am sorry that I took a while to acknowledge - what with a daytime job and some travel as well. I am glad all of you liked the essence of “Go Kiss the World”. As early believers, I have the duty to keep you informed about happenings around the book.
First of all, the book sold out 10,000 copies in the first three weeks of its coming out; I am told it is a record for a business book in India. Penguin of course is reprinting it and that gives me a chance to rectify a few mistakes in the first print run. The other heartening news is that a Hindi version is on its way - I just signed the contract and that would take the messages in the book to a much larger audience. I am really looking forward to it. By the way, the Korean rights have also been sold. I am told there is a tremendous interest in India from Korean readers! Imagine a business book designed for young Indian professionals being of interest in far away Korea! But that also tells you that the world indeed is flat and that means so many new opportunities and so many new challenges.
The other day, I was listening to Gopal Srinivasan of TVS Group at a seminar in Chennai by Pegasus, the outbound learning organization. Gopal is a powerful speaker and he was outlining a few key directions for organization builders in the next decade. One of the things he pointed out was the phenomenal rise of the middle-class in the world as a powerful economic force. He said by 2020, 2 billion people in the world will be part of a great new consumptive force. They will join the middle-class. Its impact on society, culture, education, business and politics would be beyond what we can imagine. In the book Go Kiss the World, I have addressed myself to the young Indian professional because I believe that for the first time in the history of India, it is the professional of India who is defining the image of India, what it means to be an Indian. The rise of a global middle-class intersects this phenomenon. Gopal’s thoughts reinforce my belief that Go Kiss the World has indeed been well timed.
Meanwhile, keep spreading the word, keep writing in. Without you, what is the meaning of my existence?
Go, Kiss the World.
