1) PBR: Good Morning Mr. Sethi, thank you for joining us today. What prompted you to share your story and to write this memoir? Was there any particular event or someone’s urging that made you consider writing He Opens Another Door?
I truly believe I have had an extraordinarily exciting lifetime wherein I have gone through numerous fascinating experiences over the past 66 years. What makes it even more remarkable is that those have been in highly diverse backgrounds - the first 51 years in India, where I served in the Indian Army for 31 years, and the subsequent 15 years teaching Business Strategy and International Management in three US universities. Friends and family therefore had been urging me all along to share my experiences with a wider audience, since they sincerely believe my story is truly inspirational. They also emphasized that my tale would provide rich insights into ‘two worlds’ on the opposite ends of the globe.
My decision, to take my second retirement from academia last year, has enabled me to find time to write this book. I am now also in a position to fulfill my urge for some more Globetrotting, and then share my experiences and thoughts in my forthcoming books as well as on my blog – ‘Musings across Time and Space.’
2) PBR: Your memoir takes an interesting look at your life and starts essentially in the middle of the story to when you came to America and began your academic career. At the end of the book, you discuss your career in the military. What made you decide to make the focus of your memoir the academic parts of your life rather than on your earlier years growing up in India and in the military?
As the book’s title suggests, my aim in this book is to highlight all those events and incidents in my lifetime where I believe, He, the Supreme Being, led me out of very difficult situations. He virtually opened another door for me, whenever the circumstances appeared bleak. The most dramatic, life-altering event in my life occurred on 6 January 1997 when my wife suffered a stroke just as I was about to take my son to the airport, from where he was to fly to USA for higher studies. Barely a week earlier, my son had received an unprecedented second chance to get his US visa approved quite miraculously. As I narrate in the book, I was able to earn my PhD under very dramatic circumstances in July 2001, within three weeks of my PhD Committee Chair’s demise. For this reason, I chose to start my memoir from this remarkable life-changing later phase of my life.
It is true that there were numerous dramatic events even during my first 51 years in India, when God had baled me out of very difficult situations. However, if I had started the memoir chronologically with those events, some American readers might have lost interest if they were not able to appreciate fully the Indian context of those events. That is the reason why I chose to provide only a very condensed account of my childhood and military life in India in the later part of the book.
3) PBR: You have written many academic papers, but He Opens Another Door is your first book length work. How different is it to write a work like this? Did you find it easier or harder to discuss your personal experiences?
Academic papers are an entirely different kettle of fish. Those are far more challenging and take an inordinately long time to develop and write. From its conceptualization, theoretical hypothesizing, data collection, statistical analyses, and then writing it – it is almost a yearlong process. Despite so much effort, the chances of it being accepted for publication in a leading academic journal – a champagne-popping event - are less than 7-8 %. Hence, it is often an unrewarding exercise.
Writing the memoir was much more fun. It helped me re-live all those wonderful and memorable events of my life that are indelibly etched in my memory. It also enabled me to take a more philosophical and detached view of those events; reanalyze my thought-processes at the time when I made certain decisions, and even laugh at myself for my silly blunders. It is my memoir and my take on my life events and therefore, unlike academic papers, reviewers cannot be too judgmental. Discussing my personal experiences was not too difficult – I have worked hard, performed all my duties to family, country, and society with sincerity, and have nothing to be ashamed of, or hide.
4) PBR: One of the things I admired while reading you memoir was your sheer determination to not give up or take no for an answer. However, you have written that you wrote this book to show that God has a “Grand Schema” for your life. How do you balance these two philosophies? How can someone tell when they should continue fighting or trust that God has a different plan?
It is an excellent question, and I wish I could give a definitive answer, despite the benefit of all my experiences. On many occasions, when I have worked very hard towards a goal, persevered with my efforts, and yet failed. On many of those occasions, the alternative path that He opened up for me, turned out to be much more beneficial. Therefore, I truly believe He has a Grand Schema for me, which being a mere mortal, I cannot fathom in the present.
In a lighter vein, I am sometimes hesitant to ask God for anything specific. I fear He might grant me my wish and later events might prove how foolish my wish was, and He would be laughing at my naivety. These days I am therefore trying to be clever – I never ask him for anything specific – I just say, “Please do whatever YOU think is best for my family and me.”
As regards, when one must continue to persevere on a course, and when one must back off from an unproductive one – again a million-dollar question to which the entire world would love to find an easy answer. My take on this is to fall back to one of the tenets of Hindu faith. One is enjoined to perform one’s ‘karma,’ one’s duty, with due diligence and sincerity, but one has no right to its reward – that is His prerogative. This notion is best encapsulated in one of my father’s favorite quotes: “Do thy duty that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest.” In times of trial, and when one is faced with a terrible dilemma, one must earnestly ask for His guidance, and I believe, He would always be kind enough to show us the right path.
5) PBR: More students are going back to school at later ages. As someone who successfully completed higher education in your later years, what advice would you give to these students?
I see immense benefits for anyone going to school for higher studies at later ages. Such students invariably have more life experience, and are more mature and responsible. More importantly, their life and work experience enables them to better correlate theory with practice. Such students enrich the discourse with their experience and invariably come up with innovative ideas. Their horizons are wider and their ability to comprehend complex issues is much better.
I strongly urge students, even if in a higher age bracket, to take the plunge. They would find the experience rewarding, and their relatively higher age, an asset and not a handicap.
6) PBR: You mentioned another book that you are working on, India at 67—at Sixes and Sevens. Can you tell us a little bit about his book? What shouClick hereld readers expect from it?
Next year I will be 67 and so would India be, after her independence from British rule. I have thus witnessed firsthand all the events in her history, all her trials, tribulations, and triumphs. The canvas therefore would be wide. However, the intent is not to recount all the historical events, but to use those as a backdrop to analyze the extent to which she has realized her potential, and the factors behind her failure to do so in certain respects.
In the evolving geopolitical dynamic of the 21st century, USA, China, and India would be the leading players. Given my background in military strategy, and my current area of expertise in International Business Strategy, I will also attempt to analyze how this dynamic would affect these three players.
I am likely to change its title to, “India at 67 – Her role in the 21st Century geopolitical dynamic.”
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