An evening with Mr Gurcharan Das

On Friday, July 18, we had an inspiring session by Mr Gurcharan Das, former CEO Procter & Gamble India and now well-known writer.

About Mr Gurcharan Das

Mr Gurcharan Das graduated in philosophy with honours from Harvard University, where he was later inducted in Phi Beta Kappa for 'high attainments in liberal scholarship'. After a successful career in business – leading Procter & Gamble India and Southeast Asia and later serving as Managing Director of Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Strategic Planning) – he retired early to pursue a writing career.

Mr Das is today one of India’s most celebrated authors and thinkers, best known for two iconic, bestsellers: The Difficulty of Being Good and India Unbound, which have shaped public discourse on India’s economic and social transformation. His newspaper columns are among the most widely read in India. His latest books are a memoir, Another Sort of Freedom, and Dilemma of the Indian Liberal.

About his early days

Mr Das began with a childhood memory. When the young Gurcharan was four years old and studying in kindergarten, he brought home a report card. His mother was waiting at the door and immediately asked, "Did you stand first?" His soft-spoken father, standing behind her, interjected, stating that it was the wrong question. He suggested she ask what the young Gurcharan liked about school, if he told or liked stories, if he drew pictures, what interested him, and who his friends were. His mother’s concerns revolved around making a living, while his father’s focus was on making a life. For his father, success was not the key to happiness. Happiness was the key to success.

They were a middle-class family. Gurcharan’s father was a government engineer, a common occupation at the time. Despite his father’s attempts to guide his mother, she continued to prioritize making a living. She constantly advised the young Gurcharan to "work hard, come first," and so on. Those days, within the Indian middle class, children were expected to excel in school, attend a good college, secure a job, marry, have children, and then repeat the cycle with their own offspring.

Going to Harvard

At the age of 17, Gurcharan had the incredible fortune of securing a scholarship to Harvard University for an undergraduate degree. At Palam Airport, his mother's eyes were filled with tears. Between her sobs, she implored, "Make sure you study something useful. Why don't you be like your father, become an engineer? India needs engineers, and so you'll get a job." This clearly highlighted her primary concern: making a living.

His father, however, reiterated, "Now remember, you also have to make a life. So why don't you go to Harvard and make a life through books and read what books you want to read?"

Gurcharan duly arrived at Harvard. On his very first day, he went to the Dean's office and declared his intention to major in engineering.

From engineering to philosophy

Gurcharan had a roommate who loved Russian literature. One day, at lunch, he was reading Anna Karenina, a renowned novel by Tolstoy. He casually remarked to Gurcharan, "Gurcharan, if one day you have an affair with a married woman it should be somebody like Anna Karenina." He then proceeded to list Anna Karenina's many virtues. Gurcharan, thought to himself, "This is not fair. This guy is dreaming of sleeping with Anna Karenina, and here I am calculating pipe friction, mugging up Bernoulli's equations, and something is wrong."

Consequently, Gurcharan went back to the Dean's office and dropped engineering. The following semester, he enrolled in courses on Greek tragedy and Roman history, and later, Renaissance painting. Over the next two years, he returned to India only once. He realised that one needed to go abroad to truly grasp India's poverty. So, upon his return, he pursued studies in economics and the economic history of capitalism. He also studied Sanskrit. He felt that while abroad, he served as an ambassador for his country. People would often pose various questions. Learning Sanskrit would help him answer those inquiries.

By his junior year, the Dean became concerned, urging Gurcharan to declare a major and complete his thesis within that field. Gurcharan responded, "Philosophy." When asked why, he stated, "I want to be happy. I want to learn what is happiness." The Dean was surprised. This was the first time someone had given him such an answer. But he conceded it made sense. Gurcharan ultimately graduated from Harvard with a degree in philosophy. He subsequently received a scholarship to Oxford to pursue a Ph.D. in the same subject.

From philosophy to business

During a summer break from Oxford, Gurcharan was in Chandigarh, relaxing in a park. He gazed at the sky and pondered, "Do I really want to spend the rest of my life at that stratosphere of abstract thought?" His answer was a firm no. He craved a life of action. Although he was not entirely sure what that life had in store for him, he quietly wrote to Oxford that he would not return. Oxford's response was gracious, indicating that if he wished to return in a few years, he could simply inform them.

Gurcharan's mother's worst nightmare had come true. She had a grown-up son sitting at home, idle and doing nothing. A nosy neighbour would ask his mother every now and then, "And what is your son doing?" His mother would become uncomfortable, replying, "I don't know." Gurcharan observed her discomfort and felt deeply embarrassed.

Meanwhile, Gurcharan was engrossed in a story titled The Mouse Merchant, a tale of one of the first startups in Indian history. This 13th-century Sanskrit story was from the Kathasaritsagara. The book had been recommended to him by a retired judge of the Punjab High Court.

The story was about a 17-year-old boy from a poor family. His mother earned a living by cleaning houses. One day, she told him, " I have educated you. Now you have got to make your own life. But you are not going to do what I do. You are going to do something bigger." She then directed him to the wealthiest man in town, a good man who would offer him advice on what to do.

So, the boy went to the rich man's house. While waiting for the man to emerge, he noticed a dead mouse in the courtyard. When the rich man appeared, the boy asked if he could take the mouse. The man was surprised. He pointed out that people usually came to him for jobs or loans. He asked the boy if he didn't want anything of that sort. "No, just the dead mouse," the boy replied. The rich man, feeling that the boy was doing him a favour, allowed him to take it.

The boy then went to a nearby widow who owned a cat. He sold the dead mouse to her as cat food for a small price.

With this small sum, he went to the bazaar, bought some spicy chana and made puris from it. He also took a pitcher of water. He then proceeded to the town square in the afternoon. He knew that loggers would arrive from the forest, carrying logs of wood on their heads. They would rest in the square before selling their timber at the market.

At that time, the boy offered each logger a glass of water and a packet of the snack he had prepared. No one had ever shown them such kindness before, and they were delighted. They had no money. So, each of them gave him a log of wood. The next day, he sold one log, bought better spices and more chana, and repeated this process for three months.

Then the monsoon rains came, and the logging stopped. The price of timber began to rise. The boy had a house full of logs. He started unloading his logs slowly and made a killing. He had enough money to buy a timber shop by the end of the season. He set himself up as a timber merchant. His competitive advantage was that the loggers knew him and liked him. So, they would go to him first with the best wood they had. Thus, he prospered.

But after a couple of years, he realized that there was more money to be made in converting the wood rather than selling it. So, he met a carpenter who was a shipbuilder, and said: I'll make you my partner, and you make a ship for me. Thus, he diversified into the ship building business, and he was successful.

The boy discovered there was more money in shipping rather than ship building. So, he found the retired captain of a ship. He made him his partner, financed him, started a third business. He became a successful shipper, sending his ships all over the world. By 25, he was the richest man in town.

He went to a jeweller and asked him to make a 24-carat gold mouse. He took that gold mouse to the rich man and told him, this was the return on investment for the capital he had provided. The old man was so flabbergasted to hear the story that he gave his daughter in marriage to this boy.

Joining Richardson Hindustan

The Mouse Merchant greatly inspired Mr Das, showing him "another way to live." He responded to the very first advertisement he saw in the newspaper, believing he needed to learn about business. The company, Richardson Hindustan manufactured Vicks VapoRub and would later become Procter & Gamble, India.

Despite knowing nothing about business, Mr Das's resume, specifically the mention of Harvard, seemed to secure him an interview. Though the interview did not go too well, as Mr Das mentions in his memoirs, he got the job. Thus, he embarked on his third career. First, he had intended to be an engineer, then a philosophy professor, and now he was in business. His mother was very happy.

Life at P&G

Suddenly, Mr Das found himself walking the dusty bazaars of India, selling Vicks VapoRub. He would often say, "One dozen one free “while selling to his customers. This is how he received his initial training at Vicks.

Mr Das worked hard and performed well, applying himself diligently. However, he eventually grew bored, missing the intellectual excitement he found when studying. His father offered sound advice: "You can make a life on the weekend. You work from Monday to Friday at P&G, but on Saturday and Sunday, why don't you do something that gives you another form of pleasure, something that you like."

One Sunday morning, at the age of 22 or 23, Mr Das sat down and began writing a play. This play proved to be quite successful. It was performed and produced, including a Bombay production by Alyque Padamsee, and staged internationally. This success gave him the confidence to write another play, this time about Mirabhai. This second play was produced in New York, as his company had transferred him to their headquarters there. The director notably set the Mira bhajans to hard rock music, which Mr Das really liked as it captured the spirit of Mirabhai, her bhakti, and her love for Krishna.

Becoming a writer

For the next 25 years, Mr Das wore two hats: a "Monday to Friday hat" for his corporate job and a "Saturday-Sunday hat" for his creative pursuits. This five-day, two-day rhythm sustained him. But at the age of 50, he experienced a mid-life crisis. Mr Das decided "Enough is enough" and resolved to pursue something else. Fortunately, he was able to fall back on his weekend career and became a full-time writer.

By the time Mr Das decided to leave his corporate career, he had achieved significant roles, including CEO of the Indian Company, CEO of South Asia and Southeast Asia, and ultimately, Managing Director for Strategic Planning at P & G worldwide. He had saved enough money to provide his family financial security. He persuaded his wife that, even without a regular monthly salary, they would remain comfortable, even if their standard of living didn't increase further. She agreed and for the past 30 years, Mr Das has been a full-time writer.

Mr Das clarified that not everyone needs two jobs. He later shared the story of a former colleague, Kamble, who managed to "make his life" entirely within his job.

Q&A