Burial of the Dead
What are the chances that you work in an entry level position or even a middle level job in a hotel, a hospital, a software company, or a government organization? Or, for that matter, you could be a self-employed professional like a doctor, a lawyer, or a journalist. In all probability you are educated, know English, and are working in (or have interacted with) the corporate sector. Perhaps an MBA, or a student at an engineering college? You probably consider yourself a professional, or on the road to becoming one. Definitely your station in life is well above someone whose job is to bury unclaimed corpses from city hospitals.
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A Lesson in Humility - Professional’s Quote
While we wait for the release of The Professional, here is a lovely piece from a professional I have never met but like many of you, keeps in touch over the Internet. Dr. Ramana is a neuro-surgeon from Vizag and he has this absolutely humbling story to share.
“The ghat-road passing through deep jungles on the way from Koraput to Visakhapatnam (Vizag) is dotted with hamlets inhabited by tribal people living in harmony with nature. Medical facilities are not easily available unless they travel to the nearest town - sometimes to a primary health centers through forest paths carrying the sick on a make shift stretcher. Usually the literate among them or patients from small towns who have relatives at Vizag come here for specialized treatment. This is how a family of four landed up at our hospital one night.
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The Professional - Book Launch, 30th September 2009
The long wait is over.
Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, clearly the most iconic professional figure in our midst, will launch the book in Mumbai on September 30th at the Taj Mahal Hotel at 7:00 PM.
For those of you in Bangalore, I will do a book reading at the Crossword on Residency Road at 6:30 PM on Tuesday the 6th October.
And for my readers in the North, I will come by to the India Habitat Center on Thursday the 8th October.
I am looking at a visit to the east later in the year.
Thank you all for your affectionate wishes, your encouragement and I look forward to your critique when the book is in your hands.
Meanwhile, tell your friends not to buy a pirated copy!
Dalai Lama Visits Zen Garden
While we all wait for the launch of The Professional later this month, I have something special to share with you.
I trust that all of you are tracking the Zen Garden in Forbes India magazine in which I have had the rare privilege of hosting some truly remarkable people from Jimmy Wales to Siddhartha, from Anu Aga to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. In this unusual column, I get to know of their personal space, their ideas about life and work and their life-lessons.
This fortnight, I have the rarest of rare occasions: His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is the visitor to the Zen Garden. He is, to me the CEO of the soul and entrepreneur of the spirit.
On behalf of all of you, I had the opportunity to converse with him recently in Delhi. We talked about today’s business crisis, on leadership and the young professional who loses affective regard for the idea of work while seeking early material success.
Do not miss it, you must pick up the collector’s issue from the news stand in the coming week and let me know your thoughts.
