A busy 8th... a full circle...

A blink of an eye. One more year since leaving the corporate race. Every year around this time, I have written an appraisal about how I did in the last here. Today, I want to reminisce a little about the roads not taken and life coming a full circle.

The last year was about 80-hour workweeks, much before Mr. Murthy made headlines with his comment. Not that he wanted each one of us to work that much, but he might want to reconsider since Infosys is likely to hold off on yearly increments based on news reports.

Last year was a sprint, and I loved it. 15 courses, endless readings, re and re-readings, end-term assignments—the PhD coursework was almost a third MBA after 丹麦哥本哈根商学院 and XLRI Jamshedpur . And considering that I did manage to maintain a good CGPA (9/10), the sprint was worth it. But you can't sprint a marathon, and eventually we all have to slow down. The pace will be gentler now that I direct my energies toward a PhD proposal and publishing some articles. The place where I am today was decided a long time ago, more than two decades ago. I just took my sweet time to get here.

I've always been comfortable in academia. The first person who suggested a PhD to me was Prof. Andrew Wheatley. A smiling man always with a twinkle in his eyes, Andrew commented after I finished presenting my Masters thesis at 英国拉夫堡大学 that I was good with it and must pursue my PhD. He would have gotten me a fully funded PhD at his lab, but I would have had to pay the difference in tuition between British and international students. That was a significant amount. Coming back to India in 2003, we tried for several years if we could make it work, and despite Andrew's best efforts, it was not meant to be. Life moved on, my focus shifted towards management. I did well at work in the wind industry, but the thought of doing a PhD lingered on.

I prepared to get an MBA and then a PhD in management. I appeared for GMAT sometime in 2006, but before I could apply anywhere, Henrik appeared on the scene. My mentor and guide until today, Henrik suggested I come work with his team in Denmark and pursue my MBA there. I began my executive MBA at CBS, and he ensured I had all the flexibility to manage my work as well as my studies. As I neared completion, structural changes at work made me decide to come back to India. Career continued, and so did the PhD thought. I appeared for the GMAT again in 2013 and made some applications for a PhD. Things didn't pan out. Thinking it was because I had been away from academia for a long time, I got into XLRI to reconnect with it in 2014.

I got placed well, offered a good role and package, and my corporate ambitions (greed if you like) took over, and it took till 2017 for me to get my bearings back. By this time, I was 37, had a lot of stories in me to write, and I began writing. And teaching. I also began wondering if a PhD was for me, if I could give anything novel to the academia, if the supervisors would be anything like the ones the great Jaspaal Bhatti characterised in Flop Show, if I had the tenacity to run a marathon that a PhD was. By 2023, I had wondered enough. Doing it was the only way to answer the questions, and that was the beginning of my PhD at Thapar School of Management .

As I complete the coursework, I know PhD is for me. After reading a lot of research articles in different areas, I have narrowed down to entrepreneurship. Having just completed a paper in the domain, I also know that I can add value to it. As to the supervisors, I have not one, but two. Both of them encourage me to challenge myself and keep me focused on the goal to complete the PhD and publish. The universe has always been kind to me when it comes to managers and supervisors! Do I have the tenacity to run this marathon? Hari ichchha*.

What about writing, you ask? I have done nothing but that the whole year. Only, it was academic writing :). I promise I will find the discipline to publish a couple of novels this year. If my supervisors are reading this, please ignore this as wishful thinking of a PhD student!

Did you see the featured image? Do you see the sepantine, crocodile-filled Vishwamitri River in it? It has a lot of bends, and so, although it flows quite a distance, it doesn't go far. It's like it belongs just there, in Vadodara. Just like my journey. It was long, but it brought me back a full circle to the beginning, to the PhD. To the place where I am today, to where I belong...

Prof. Wheatley has since retired, and being the extreme introvert (read relationally challenged person) that I am, I haven't kept in touch. I will wait till I complete the marathon to tell him about it.

So, that's it for now. Here's wishing that you take a less circuitous route to where you belong. Remember, however, that the bends, the journey, they do count. Until the next appraisal then... Ciao.

*As Lord Krishna (Hari) deems fit