I was mentioned in the following article of Deccan Herald.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/176886/in-search-life.html
Relevant excerpt is given below—
Chandra Kant, who teaches at a management school in Bangalore, has a different approach to spirituality. He says what triggered his thinking was a term called ‘drop dead money’ that he read in a book. This is a term used by a character in the book to describe the amount of money she wanted to earn, so that after she possessed this ‘X’ amount, if anybody asked her to do something she did not want to do, she could simply refuse, and ask them to ‘drop dead’ without fearing the consequences.
Chandra Kant worked in Japan — he is an IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Kolkata alumnus — and was able to make a specific amount of money that he thought would be sufficient for him to have his version of the ‘drop dead money.’ On his return to India, he says, he was able to join companies where he could truly make a difference with his knowledge and skills, rather than be dependent on them for his bread and butter. “This way, if I found I had finished contributing to the company and found myself redundant, I could quit and move on to another where I could make myself more useful. This also helped when there were issues of ethics — I could easily refuse to do something if I found it was wrong from my point of view.” He also found numerous colleagues discussing with him the changes he had wrought in their way of thinking and working. This set him thinking. When a college of management opened near his residence, he turned to teaching students as a full-time professor.
Apart from teaching them ‘management gyaan’, as he puts it, he also speaks to students on issues such as self-esteem and a more holistic approach to management. He uses tools like staging theatrical plays and making films using mobile phones as project work. This, he says, drives home the point of working together towards a goal, marketing, or managing ego-based issues — things that are sure to crop up in their lives ahead as corporate workers.
When disillusionment sets in…
He says students perceive a management course to be a sure-fire magic wand to a lucrative career, and are soon disillusioned when they find it is a grind like any other course. He has even written a soon-to-be published book on MBA blues, and how students can make it work optimally for them. “Even in this college, this freedom of not being totally dependent on the salary for a living allows me to make a very real contribution to the students and the institution, rather than working on teaching the syllabus and walking away.”
This sort of helping and giving, he says, is his way of spiritual growth. “In the traditional definition of spirituality (where there are four stages), this could be termed my vanaprastha, which is to serve the community. I will be in this stage till I am 60 (he is now in his late 40s) and then will begin my next stage of sanyaasa, which traditionally focuses on God. In my case, I will focus on ecosystems and harmony. Sixty is far away — by then, who knows!” he laughs.
—end of Excerpt
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