The Hindu Business Line : Take a long view of life

For all practical purposes this is an autobiography; how difficult was it to share personal details of your family members, like the mental affliction your father suffered from?

I have merely adopted the narrative style of an autobiography - it is not meant to be one. I am too young to write an autobiography. However, I needed a warm, personal style that would get the reader's attention and deliver the messages. It is almost like an artist who must have a canvas to paint upon. The canvas is not the painting.

My personal story is merely the canvas - the brush strokes are the life lessons. Coming to my father, I needed to share the message and in itself a life lesson. Mental illness is such a taboo in India; I want young Indians to shed the taboo. It is taboo for the afflicted as much as for the family. If you are a child of someone diagnosed with a mental illness, it is tougher than being the child of someone with diabetes or high blood pressure. It is just another disability that we in the society and the workplace have to deal with. I am proud of my father who gave me a global outlook and integrity despite what he had to deal with.

You've had quite a chequered career. Can you sum up briefly your message to the young professional you seek to address in this book?

Take a long view of everything; do every small job as if life depends on it and you would one day see how one thing leads to the other. In whatever you do, build inclusion - finally, it is inclusion that makes you stand out from the crowd.

Why did your wife Susmita want details of your relationship with her left out? Is she a very private person, unlike you?

Susmita is a writer. She writes fiction in her mother-tongue, Oriya. I believe most fiction writers are usually private persons.

R.B