“Go kiss the world,” were author Subroto Bagchi’s visually impaired mother’s last words to him. He turned them into the guiding principle of his life.
Go Kiss the World, the book, talks about author Subroto Bagchi’s journey of life starting from his modest childhood days to the successful leader as the world sees him today. It is a story of his journey from a small village boy to a co-founder of one of the first venture capital funded IT start-ups in India. He says upfront, “ This book is not an autobiography, but my learnings and experiences in life .They are like a plain canvas ,it is the what you gain from the book and use them in life whenever necessary is the painting you make on the canvas.”
It is an inspiring read. The book is aimed at young professionals from small-town India, and talks a lot about information technology, but could be appealing to members of all age groups, especially those considering entrepreneurship as a career option. Who would not like to read the story of a small-town boy becoming a big shot?
Go Kiss the World is presented in three parts. The first part tells you about the ‘life of simplicity’ of Subroto’s family. He tells the readers how he was brought up learning essential life skills. It also tells you how he had to keep changing schools every time his father got transferred and how that actually helped him to build a high degree of comfort with displacement. How displacement helps you to explore everything around you and develop curiosity. How he was mentored by his brothers and how it actually helps. He also narrates an experience where he was caught smoking beedis at the age of five and was let go after his father remained silent. He tells that how not handing out the punishment when it is most expected is the best way to bring lasting repentance. How he started working as a junior clerk in the industries department of the Government of Orissa and his experiences.
In the second part, he tells you how he learned to fly after he read the book ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ and how it inspired him to join HCL inspite of a 40 per cent cut in his salary. His comfort with displacement helped him change jobs often. He tells us how he learned to fail when MMC decided to close down its computer business. He, along with Sujit Bose then decided to start a training institute called Project.21. After having had a decent three years at Project.21, it was acquired by NIIT. It was then that he decided to quit and go in search of his own destiny. He then joined Wipro where he met Ashok, KK, Partha and others who were to become co-founders of MindTree with him one day.
In the third part, Subroto he explains ‘The Pain of Re-birth’ after his decision to join Lucent Technologies turned out to be a bad one. He then gives you a complete picture of how MindTree was born and how different people took different responsibilities within to help it blossom. He also explains how they had to cope-up with the 9/11 tragedy. It talks of effort in building the three kinds of infrastructure – physical, intellectual and emotional to raise MindTree to the next level. He relives those moments that could have changed his life. He also talks of an incident where an old man in his eighties told him – “Never think of retiring.” Once, his landlord advised him – “Open your mind before you open your mouth.” He calls these people as personal angels – people who live in our midst. He then in the final chapter gives us some important lessons which he learnt in his life. With those lessons comes the capability for all of us to go kiss the world.
The story is inspiring and proceeds fluently. The narration is done with a personal touch. Along the way, the author offers lessons that he learnt in his journey. What he and the co-founders did differently and how they survived the dot com bubble burst and 9/11.
There are a few aspects of the book that appeal to the emotional and practical minds alike:
As an aspiring entrepreneur, this book will hook any Indian IT individual with its content. The neutral tone of the author work for the book, and so does the progression of the story. It didn’t drag too much into any one chapter of the author’s life, which could worked against the book. The essential message of the book, Bagchi says, is that “ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”
Go Kiss The World: Life Lessons For The Young Professional
Authour: Subroto Bagchi
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 399
