The Man behind the headlines...

On a Saturday morning, I had to push myself off the bed. The first thing I saw was my phone, it was very unkind to me. The mean phone showed a horrible 9am. I gathered my thoughts and got ready to tend to my very hungry stomach. I walked like a drone with my mickey mouse cup to have breakfast. It was nice to see a happy smiling face of my friend. I had breakfast with her. We noticed that everyone in the cafeteria were all dressed in formal n readily heading someplace. Then it hit us! There was a guest lecture at 9.15am. I wanted to go. I had a tough week and slept too much. I chose not to go and hence continued to sip my tea.

I have always felt that in all moments in my life when I take wrong decisions there is this inner alarm bell. It keeps ringing so loud till I take notice of it. It was life this tedious fire drill every-time I took a wrong decision. I felt it that day too. It was 9.30am I was on my bed wondering what was bothering me. My friend came in out of the blue and asked me to join her immediately for the guest lecture. I was in my night clothes with olive oil on my face. I just blinked. She just said "Chalo Chalo". Within 15 minutes I was running towards the auditorium in high heels. The inside alarm stopped the moment I stepped into the auditorium. I was late, very late. We were ushered into the hall and granted first row seats. (trust me its not a privilege, its punishment). Then there I saw this man, in blue jeans, sport shoes, thick framed Ray Ban glasses and white shirt (it was cool that he didn't tuck it in). It was none but the one and only Dr. Bhaskar Das (President, Times of India Group).

What a persona! Every word he said went right into my mind like an arrow from Arjunas bow. Suddenly the first row didn't feel like a punishment. I felt like this really crazy fan waving at her favorite rockstar. I have heard that to become a leader you need a flair, it must be in you. Well, I though it was crap. But he had this aura, I took him serious and he didn't have to wear a suit to make himself look important. It was not only the speech which made me surrender with at-most attention. Once his speech was up, he didn't sit on the dais with all the other important people. He walked right down to sit in the front row. Unlike the impressionable other people who we see regularly, he actually wanted to listen to the next speaker. He sank into the red cushion chair and stretched his legs. One would have passed him off as a fun loving careless student if not for his gray hair.


There were 2 other speakers after him. They were all fabulous in their own way. But it was Dr. Das who redefined marketing as we know it. He called himself as Philip Das and Bhaskar Kotler. I loved the level of comfort that he had with himself. I am at times amazed at the level of self consciousness we all have. That too as we grow up in the social ladder we have more eyes looking at us. Impression matters!.. But not for Dr. Das. He was clear about what he wanted to say and how to say it. He was simply in love with what he was(he seemed so). There are only 2 kinds of people in this world, the ones who keep looking at others to see their reflection and the other group who stand tall and show the world who they are. I mean who comes to talk about marketing unbound in blue jeans and white Ts to a B school? He did and I liked him better than all the other people I have ever listened to.He said that he knew that newspaper will be replaced by other online medium of news and called it as evolution. Most people stand up to defend their business. But he was not in a state of denial, I loved his "So what if that happens attitude?"


There are many guest lectures in which I felt there was a value addition. But only in few that I can actually connect with the speaker. This was one such a person. When you have high trust on a person everything uttered will enter the head and heart unboundly. I never used to read the news paper. I felt it was disturbing. Post taking up a MBA course I tried really hard to focus my energy towards such typical MBA activity. I started with "The Economic Times". I felt that the headlines were all berserk. But after I saw the man behind the headlines, I understood it was self expression. He made the paper stand out from the clutter of jargon filled business papers which intimidate me. He stood tall confident and smart in that blue jean and white shirt in the pool of the ominous black suits. Try to be yourself and success will make you the man/woman behind the headlines!