Leadership Talk from Jug Suraiya

JS receiving a momento, My humble self with JS.

Jug Suraiya (JS), the iconic Associate Editor of Times of India (TOI) was at our office for the Leadership Talk series. It was indeed a privilege to interact with this intellectual human being and i thought of immortalizing this experience in my blog. I grew up reading TOI and regularly follow JS's column Jugular Vein and Second Opinion. While the former contains humorous, witty, irreverent and often satirical opinions on anything from current affairs to travelling, the second is for more serious deliberations on issues of present importance. Of late 'Dubyaman' , the cartoon strip from 'JS' has caught my fancy.

So coming back to the talk, the topic was 'What defines a leader or Who is a leader ?'. 'JS' very succinctly put forth this definition: 'A leader is the one who empowers you to achieve your dreams, that one would not have otherwise, due to skepticism of his own's abilities' . JS substantiated this thought by walking us through his life and the vital role that Desmond Doig played in molding him as a future leader of Journalism.

'A true leader passes the baton on the day one and builds a team that is equally competent like him'. I liked this idea and reflected back on my career. I had couple of bosses in the past and one or two really stand out in the periphery of this hypothesis . They believed in my abilities and supported me through thick and thin. The wait to get results out of my work was long, but they reinforced to keep the charge on. The end is not that important as is the journey to the destination. My professional interaction with these leaders did shape my thoughts,actions and decisions in professional life and career. I often say that what we become is an amalgamation of myriad experiences and learning out of our interaction with the outer world. It's sheer luck that we meet and work, with leaders like 'JS' in our lifetime.

'JS' has recently penned a memoir, titled 'JS and the Times of My Life: A Worm’s eye view of Indian journalism'. I got my copy personally autographed by 'JS' and have started reading it already. The author shares with us deep insights from his own life that is cleverly woven with satire and good humor  An interesting and  engaging read ,Pick your copy soon .

Posted in: Article, Journalism, Jug Suraiya