Fight or Flight

This interview came 2 years back in a business magazine.It inspires me a lot.When he can create infy cant we just get in IIMs. Hope all of you enjoy, At 53, N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman and CEO, Infosys Technologies (1998-99 sales: Rs 513 crore), heads India’s most successful Silicon Valley style start-up. Established in 1981 by seven professionals who pooled in their savings of Rs 10,000 (borrowed from their wives), Infosys has set all kinds of records. It was the first company to institute a company wide, performance based Employee Stock Option Plan that cut right across the hierarchy. This year, it was the first India-registered company to list on an American stock exchange (Nasdaq). On measures of transparency and corporate governance, Infosys is the epitome of the upright corporate citizen. To Murthy goes the credit for first having the vision to see the opportunity in software, pick the right team and more significantly keep it together. The Infosys success is striking since al...

Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things, I want you to understand two things very clearly and to consider them from the same point of view from which I am placing them before you. I ask you to consider it from my point of view, because if you approve of it, you will be enjoined to carry out all I say. It will be a great responsibility. There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question. Let me, however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920. I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to non-violence that I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous writings and utterances. Occasions like the present do not occur in everybody's and but rarely in anybody's life. I want you to know and feel...

NEEDED, A VALUE SYSTEM WHERE PEOPLE ACCEPT MODEST SACRIFICES FOR COMMON GOOD. As it is said in the Vedas: Man can live individually, but can survive only collectively. Hence, our challenge is to form a progressive community by balancing the interests of the individual and that of the society. To meet this we need to develop a value system where people accept modest sacrifices for the common good. A value system is the protocol for behaviour that enhances the trust, confidence and commitment of members of the community. It goes beyond the domain of legality - It is about decent and desirable behaviour. Further, it includes putting the community interests ahead of your own. Thus, our collective survival and progress is predicated on sound values. There are two pillars of the cultural value system - loyalty to family and loyalty to community. One should not be in isolation to the other, because, successful societies are those which combine both harmoniously. It is in this context that I w...

"I 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, 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. My second vision for India's DEVELOPMENT, For fifty years we have been A developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are ...

Brigida Viggiano takes a paid tour of Asia’s largest slum and changes her mind about slum tourism The first time I heard about slum tours in Mumbai, I wasn’t shocked. I was already aware of the global trend of focussing on the grim underbelly of cultures: guided walks through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the shanty towns of South Africa and the garbage dumps of Mexico. A stroll through the claustrophobic gullies of Dharavi was thus par for the course for New Age tourism. The Dharavi walk is the brainchild of 33-year-old Britisher Chris Way who, along with his Indian business partner Krishna Poojari, founded Reality Tours and Travel in 2006. Since slum tours are largely about spectacularisation, the process by which detached viewers participate vicariously in a crisis or event, maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the Reality Tours and Travel logo reminded me of Big Brother’s eye. I embarked on the tour with mixed feelings: curiosity on the one hand and embarrassment on the ...

No pasta please, we’re Indian He may be loaded but he’s not the best travelling companion. Priyanko Sarkar on the quirks of the Indian tourist US philosophical writer Dagobert D Runes once said that people travel to faraway places to watch in fascination the kind of people they ignore at home. Obviously he hadn’t reckoned with the average thepla-carting Indian tourist who pays through his nose for exotic holiday packages but has to lug a little bit of Bharat along. It is not something that travel companies and the hospitality industry acknowledge openly, but the pugmarks left behind by Indian travellers aren’t exemplary. “Indian tourists lack basic hygiene and don’t respect the culture of the country they visit. In spite of giving them clear instructions, they do whatever they feel like,’’ says Puneet Sehgal, Yatra . com ’s senior manager on the frustration of having to deal with Indian women turning up in saris for parasailing in Thailand or men gracing formal dinners on cruis...

Come and share the enchantment and magic, Of Disney’s dreams come true, Wave your wand and watch wonders appear, Waiting there for you. It’s time to take a jolly holiday, Where teacups are dancing, And brooms are entrancing, Whistle all your cares away, Just believe and if you imagine, Just believe and your dreams will come true. Discover the magic inside your heart, Hear it calling you to play, Some pixie dust is just the start, Once upon a time is forever and a day. Come and share the romance and duty, Of Disney’s dreams come true, Feel the splendour, the hope and the joy, Waiting there for you, In a tale as old as time you’ll be, Where princes are charming, And villains disheartening, They are true, a fantasy, Just believe and if you imagine, Just believe and your dreams will come true, (Just believe and your dreams will come true.) Where stories never end, Make new memories with friends, It’s time to discover, let magic uncover, The dream lives in you… Come and share the exciting a...