It was the summer of 1994. A year had gone by in my engineering course. I had done reasonably well enough to secure a scholarship (given to the top 25 students in the college). It meant that I was viewed by the studious kind as a potential roommate. Vivek K S and Karthikeyan V looked every bit the topper. Wearing specs with thick lenses, they were always engaged in topics around computer science, rarely swore, and showed little interest in girls. …
Home, my favorite place in the world
Walls, floor, ceiling
Staircase,
Kitchen, bathroom, bedroom
A place where we live
Laugh and cry,
Fight and make love,
Read and write,
Grieve and party.
We missed you
When we travelled
And came back to
Home sweet home.
I was lost
And found myself.
I can smell
My children, My partner, My books.
In every
Part of our home
Apple, orange, artichoke
Piano, plate, rose
Soap, stone, solitude
Nature
All inside our home
We celebrate the
Mundane
Give significance
To the
Insignificant
Turn sorrow
into Hope
Despair
into longing
Pain
into Love,
Smell, taste
and images.
Home
Will remain
Earthly and eternal
My favorite place in the world, my HOME
(Inspired by Pablo Neruda)
22 books that changed my life (and how)
It is very hard to pick your favorite books because your choices are fluid and can change over time. However, the easiest way is to just go with your memory — pick the ones that touched a deep chord, were very personal, and have had a lasting impression. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t mean as much if I read them today because the context would have changed. So here is my list of top 22 books, some of which I’ve re-read and some not, but all of which played a…
At the Academy for Engineering we are tasked with celebrating SAP’s engineering pride. It is a return to our roots, to the engineering culture that makes SAP, SAP.
Our approach is to curate and co-create a small portfolio of world-class, immersive, six-month programs, one each for each key actor in the engineering ecosystem: engineer, manager and architect.
With an engineering population of 30,000 engineers across different roles, we think of shifting culture like nuclear fusion. …
Every campaign has a start and end day. Our new photo campaign “Everyone is good at something” has a start date (2 April 2021) but no end date… or at least we believe so. We believe the campaign should continue until we have a truly inclusive India — an India where the rights of Person With Disabilities (PWD) are understood and upheld by everyone.
How does one sensitize an entire country to the rights and realities of the disabled? By combating ignorance about disability on multiple fronts.
The India Inclusion Summit (IIS) is an annual gala in Bengaluru that has…
When our favorite professor from NIT Warangal, Prof R Govindarajulu (fondly called RGR Sir) passed away, our college WhatsApp group was flooded with emotional messages. A group that usually shared occasional messages of birthday wishes and forwarded jokes woke up to reminiscence about our college days of two decades ago.
Our favourite professor had left an unforgettable impression on each of us, in different ways. Known for his charisma and rare combination of being strict yet humorous, RGR Sir’s classes were a full house. While many of us attended classes to merely fulfill attendance requirements, RGR Sir never bothered to…
In front of the New York Public Library sat a tall, bespectacled man wearing brown shorts, a blue t-shirt and a lovely, broad smile. The chair he sat on could just about support him. A few books were kept on a small table with a large sign “Meet the Author”.
Meet Garrett Buhl Robinson, the sidewalk sonneteer. He is a poet and author, selling his books for $10 apiece on the streets of midtown New York. I stumbled on Garrett one day in September 2016 just after I had stepped out of the New York Public Library, and since that…
Why 55? You might ask, after scrolling down to the bottom of the numbered list. Well, that’s the number I got to before I got back into the car after a long hike. I typed this on my mobile while doing my weekend hike. And I must warn everyone that hiking and typing is not a good idea — maybe slightly better than texting and driving, though!
These were just random thoughts that popped into my mind. They are in no specific sequence; a few are famous people’s quotes that I remember, so they may sound familiar to you. I…
When I met Cheryl Bayer, founder of Living Popups, at my office in Palo Alto, I was not sure what to expect. I felt a little overwhelmed by her insisting on flying down from Los Angeles just to meet me for a couple of hours. I wondered if it would be worth my time — and hers! It turned out to be one of the most fruitful and insightful meetings I had had in a long time.
Cheryl has an enviable bio: having worked and been instrumental in the success of blockbuster TV series such as Sex and the City…
Discovery in Times of a Pandemic
V. R. Ferose
When millions are unemployed as a result of the pandemic, to speak of discovery in these times feels like fiction. When they’re barely keeping their head above the water, to say they should focus on enjoying the water feels like a cruel joke.
But to not talk about it, to not recognize that things will not go back to business as usual would be the real cruelty. A recent study showed that 42% of the jobs lost during the pandemic are not coming back. What can we offer those who are struggling in these times? …
Ferose V R
Senior Vice President and Head of SAP Academy for Engineering. Inclusion Evangelist, Thought Leader, Speaker, Columnist and Author.
