Subroto Bagchi - Go Kiss the World. Life Lessons for the Young Professional

Go, kiss the world were Subroto Bagchis blind mothers last words to him. These words become the guiding principle of his life.

Subroto Bagchi grew up amidst what he calls the material simplicity of rural and small-town Orissa, imbibing from his family a sense of contentment, constant wonder, connectedness to a larger whole and learning from unusual sources. From humble beginnings, he went on to achieve extraordinary professional success, eventually co-founding MindTree, one of Indias most admired software services companies.

Through personal anecdotes and simple words of wisdom, Subroto Bagchi brings to the young professional lessons in working and living, energizing ordinary people to lead extraordinary lives. Go Kiss the World will be an inspiration to young India, and to those who come from small-town India, urging them to recognize and develop their inner strengths, thereby helping them realize their own, unique potential.

Subroto Bagchi is best known for co-founding MindTree and as its Chief Operating Officer for the first eight years of the company. In 2008, Subroto stepped out of this role to become its Gardener. His work involves tending the top 100 MindTree Minds and serving the organizations thirty communities of practice. His first book, The High-Performance Entrepreneur (Penguin Portfolio, 2006), received critical acclaim and broke new ground in management literature in India.

Subroto is married to writer Susmita Bagchi and they have two daughters, Neha and Niti.

Visit www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi to read many of Subrotos articles.

Cover design by www.inkling-design.com

Go Kiss the World makes wonderful reading
for people of any age group. Nuggets of wisdom
and honesty shine through
N.R. Narayana Murthy

Go Kiss the World is a remarkable story of courage,
integrity and enterprise. Subroto Bagchis emphasis
on building a company with a heart and a soul is an
antidote to the hire-and-fire style of management so
prevalent today.
Mark Tully

PORTFOLIO
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First published in Portfolio by Penguin Books India 200

Copyright Subroto Bagchi 200

All rights reserve d

ISBN 978-06-7008-230-

This Digital Edition published 2011. e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-000-3
Digital conversion prepared by DK Digital Media, India.

This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise , be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior writte n consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published an d without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequen t purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of thi s publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, o r transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recordin g or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and th e above-mentioned publisher of this e-book .

For Susmita

Acknowledgements

I will fail in my duty if I do not thank several individuals who have helped bring this book to you.

Writing a book is sometimes like sculpting with words. As you proceed, the sculpture that emerges is often different from what was in your mind. Worse, while trying your best, as it emerges, you do not quite know what the final form will look likethe sculptor experiences moments of profound pain during this process even as he chisels away. In moments like these, my editor, Sumitra Srinivasan, stood by my side and helped me with a sense of direction. I am grateful, Sumitra.

I am also grateful to my publisher, Ravi Singh, who took great personal interest and urged me to stay with the story.

My brothers Debi Prasad and Amitav read the manuscript for accuracy of certain historical events, and colleagues Suma Thomas and Tridip Saha critiqued it during the early stages. Colleague Shanti Uday helped with version control, back-ups and other chores.

My cousin Pradeep Bagchi helped with valuable research.

Most importantly, I remain deeply indebted to the co-founder and executive chairman of MindTree, Ashok Soota, who gave me the space to write this book while I continue to serve the organization.

As with my earlier book, proceeds from Go Kiss the World will go to the MindTree Foundation that supports primary education, with special emphasis on children with disabilities.

Prologue

I was leaving for the United States, where I worked, after a two-week vigil by my mothers bedside in a hospital in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. She had suffered a near-fatal stroke. She was neither getting better, nor moving on. My wait was not helping. So I, her last born, thought it was time to get back to work.

On my way to the airport, I decided to stop by at the hospital one last time. An eerie midday quiet hung around the government hospital. Walking past listless cows and a couple of resident stray dogs in the compound, I entered her room. She lay on the bed, just like the night before, quiet and unmoving. I held her hand in my palms. After a few minutes, as I bent to kiss her forehead, wrinkled with age but still beautiful, she asked me in a garbled voice, Chumu kyano khaccho ? Why are you kissing me?

Khabona kyano ? Why not? I asked.

She replied, simply, Jao, jagat ta ke chumu khao .

Go, kiss the world.

These were my blind mothers last words to me and they became the guiding principle of my life.

The night-long vigil of the lone kerosene lantern in the room had blackened the top of its glass with soot. Around its flicker, Makhan Gopal Bagchi and his four sonsthe eldest fourteen, followed by a thirteen-, twelve-and three-year-oldsat huddled under the tiled roof of the small government quarter they lived in. From the adjoining room came the sounds of groaning. Labonya Prova Bagchi had cooked, cleaned and kept house for her husband and four sons till this day, when she had gone into labour. Outside the house, beyond the community well that served the needs of the few families in adjoining government quarters and the undertrials of the nearby police lock-up, it was still dark.