Curiosity, Communication, Confidence and Courage

If one word could be used to describe the thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking lecture given by Mr. Ajay Bahl, it would be ‘resonating’. His speech resonated across the room and everyone present could feel that he/she could relate with it in their own ways.

He spoke of ‘Curiosity’ or rather the lack of it that he often found in young professionals today. He stressed on the need to keep the hunger for knowledge alive, even for domains and issues outside one’s area of work. His emphasis on the willingness to learn new things and to make the effort to ask questions, struck a chord with everyone. He devoted a considerable part of his speech to ‘Communication’ and how in this digital age, it has become faceless and cumbersome and which often ends up distorting the message, rather than getting it across. He then turned the speech around and spoke of another facet of ‘Communication’; the communication we have with our colleagues at the workplace. Because of work place dynamics, we are often required to communicate with people across different sectors, hierarchies and different kinds of clients as well. He placed immense thrust on ensuring that we modify our communication according to the receiver and in the process make others feel comfortable, which is the key to long lasting work relationships.

Finally, he spoke of ‘Confidence’ and ‘Courage’ and inspired us to show confidence in ourselves; to be proud of our ‘jugaad minds’; to courageously stand upright and not bow down to outside pressure or influence and to avoid over-competitiveness. He believed that there is a specially cut out place for everyone in this world, and all we need to do is to identify what that is and work towards it.

Despite the answers he gave to the questions raised by us or the questions he left us with to mull over, he certainly left the audience wanting more.

(The writer is a Fellow at Young India Fellowship, Class of 2015)