it’s very good to be here when I felt I
first heard that you know I am gay is
having the statics and the topic was
where magic happens
I just hope that they’ll not have this
red dot because magic does not happen
when you are constrained magic happens
here when you moved out of that red box
because that’s what happened with me
right when you have constrain with the
right door magic does not happen okay so
going on to going on to my talk I gave
my first talk when I was when I was 20
when 20 or 21 when I when I was writing
my first book and I have been described
by a lot of different things and TEDx
says that you know when you when you
start your talk you have to describe
yourself so at 21 I was described as an
engineering graduate at 22 I will
describe as a design in general at 24 I
was described as a management student at
25 I described as someone who is working
at a credit card company at 26 I was
described as someone who’s a publisher
and entrepreneur at 27 I was described
as a full-time novelist at 29 I was
described as a stream writer but when
you describe yourself you do not
describe yourself by the things that
you’re really applicant and I was really
after and all these things you know
being a student being an entrepreneur
and being all these things Ivory’s I was
really average at all these things what
I was really good at was reading books
so I would like to introduce myself as
though joy that are the first of his
name and he’s a really good reader I
describe myself as someone who has read
over a thousand books and someone who
can name the best-selling authors of all
countries possible so I describe myself
as a reader so now that we have got the
introduction out of the way I would like
to go onto the topic of my talk which is
we are all Hermione
I do not know how many of you are fans
of Harry Potter how many of you have
read the books or how many of you have
seen the movies but if you have in the
first order of businesses go back home
and was was the movies please do vote
please read the books Hermione Granger
is one of my favorite characters and not
without reason she is intelligent she’s
ambitious and she’s like a really clever
muggle she does not have magic but she
grew on to be one of the most powerful
witches in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry and what I constantly think
about is what if she had not discovered
that her real true calling was to become
a witch what if she had not discovered
that she was born to be a witch that she
was born to make potions and put out
spells what if she had not discovered
that and everyone in this room should
should relate to Hermione Granger
because all we are all intelligent we
are we are all reasonably ambitious so
I’ve constantly thought that aren’t we
all looking for her hoc words you know
going to a place where we can we can
truly be ourselves so my talk is going
to be about how I found my hawk words so
I was I was born in a in a middle-class
family in Delhi and all my relatives
were engineers and it’s a solid career
choice so I grew up wanting to be an
engineer I I so badly you wanted to be
an engineer that I wasted a year and I
gave an entrance examination twice to
get the college that I really wanted to
go to and get the stream that I really
wanted to do once I got to that
engineering college I would not say that
I really loved it but I did not hate it
I could have done it for the next
two years at the need if the neither I
rose but what I was also doing on the
Sian was I was writing a blog because my
time in engineering college was very
interesting I made a lot of new friends
had a lot of new experiences I thought I
and I and I started writing this blog
and I had a readership of 40 50 people
who told me that why don’t you start
writing a book I think they were being
polite but I took it very seriously I
thought they were very serious they
thought that I was writing well and I
wrote this book which sold a few
thousand copies in the first year and I
thought that you know I’m successful but
you know as as we are all at 21 I
thought that this is not something to be
taken seriously that this is a Lucky
Strike this is the flash-in-the-pan is
not going to sustain I thought that you
know writing is is something that I can
always do on the side but my career is
my engineering and something that I do
beyond it so what I did was I I came by
a management Entrance Examination I I
honed in on a college that I really
wanted to go to and a course that I
really wanted to do and I wasted another
year I gave that interest examination
for two years and I got through that
college and again the same cycle
repeated I did not love it but also I
did not hate it I could have done it for
the next thirty years but what happened
on the side was that my speed and said
my MBA College was was brilliant I made
a lot of new friends a lot of new
experiences I loved my time there and I
wrote three books on it what happened
after my management colleges that I was
one of the first guys to get placed I
had a job which put me in the fast track
part to senior management I was paid a
lot of money and the workers weren’t
crazy I was recognized as one of the
lead performers in the company so I
what that this is what my life is going
to be and I thought that this is
brilliant man I have really found my
calling in life this is what I am going
to do but on the side I had written five
books so my publishers called me and
said I think your calling is writing
this is what you should do you know
writing is what you should do for the
rest of your life because really you’re
really really good at it but what
happened was that because I am
conditioned to have a stable career I
thought that because I had no role
models you know when it came to writing
I thought that you know how to continue
with my job and I start right I
continued writing on my side I did not
take them seriously but they were really
persistent if you have watched Harry
Potter you will know that you know they
keep sending these owls if you don’t
accept their message that you are
invited to hogwash as a student they
keep sending your you owls over and over
again so these publishers were miles
they told me that you have to write this
is this is this is what you’re born to
do I ignored them for a really long time
but then I have to pour down and say
okay fine I’ll I do what you ask me to
do and I left my job and my parents my
friends and everybody around me told me
that you know this is not a very wise
decision that you study for six years
you’ve worked at one companies why you
leaving everything to just write you
know this is this is a stupid decision
but then I was doing being very selfish
and I thought that you know this is
something that’s going to be fun why not
try it so I left my job and I went into
writing have you ever felt like you know
then there’s this best friend of yours
and you do not know but you are in love
with that best friend that is something
that happened with me when I started my
own publishing house I thought that I
read books I select poster and publish
them that is that is what I did after I
left
management job but what I realized at
that point in time that I was in love
with reading books I was obsessed with
books ever since I was a child so much
so that I remember when I was in eighth
standard and our English course changed
a lot of students started scoring really
low so what a teachers did was that you
could read supplementary books and you
could get extra marks I’d read so many
books in that time period that has
called more than hundred person somehow
so my report card says then I scored 116
person out 100 that’s that’s that’s how
much I love books so you know when when
I when I started this publishing house
it was like I had found my one true love
in my life then you know I would not
need anything else in my life other than
books that was a revelation for me so
imagine my frustration when the company
shut down in two years I was like now I
am it was like a part of me died I was
like I will not get to read books I
found love after I was at the point that
I was 25 years a failure I was like you
know if books if you remove books from
my life I am NOT going to I there’s
nothing there’s no meaning to my life so
what I did was I was I was depressed for
you for like a good few months and then
I found television writing now
television writing is just like another
job you are slave to your broadcasters
your slave to your producers your slave
to the actors your slave to your
readings it was just an the job some
days are good some days are bad but what
I realized is that I was sad for a month
but I wasn’t sad after that I was very
happy still and I realized that just
like love you aren’t unhappy because it
ended you are happy that it happened I
was very happy that I found my one true
love in books that reading books gave me
the kind of joy that nothing nothing
else in the world ever
it was 100% pure joy I hadn’t realized
it when I was growing up but if if and
when I was ever sad as as an engineering
student as a management student as
working in different companies I would
come back home and I would I would have
a book I would never sleep unhappy
because I would read a book I’d be
always happy reading that book and I
would go go back to bed being being
extremely happy so I found my one true
love and that’s that’s what gave me a
lot of happiness you know and it only
happened because my parents they’d been
good I have grown up in a Bengali
household in India and you know what
happens in Bengali households is that
when you grow up you you go to your
temple and you see pictures of gods you
see pictures of your ancestors and
there’s a picture that you don’t
recognize when you’re growing out that’s
a picture of an author called
rabindranath tagore so you grew up in a
household where an author is respected
so much that he has a place right next
to the gods so I grew up in this
household where authors were respected
so much and so when I became an author
and when I professed my love towards
book it was accepted you know it’s it’s
only acceptable that in a Bengali
household a man would fall more in love
with books than his old then hit then
his own wife so so so I was very lucky
when I when I when I found that my one
true love in my life was books so that’s
what happened when you know even if I
company shut down was very happy that
that books is where I found refuge to
you know that it was my bonk cozy place
even if I had a bad thing at work if I
if I did not manage to strike up a rap
again with my with my seniors I could
always go back to books I I could always
be happy at the end of the day and and
it only happened because I opened myself
up to experiences
was a little child you know my parents
pushed me into reading when I was really
young and I am very sure that I would
have resisted the first book when they
would have given my first book I would
have said that you know I am NOT going
to read this book because this is not
going to come in exams but I read that
book because they would have insisted I
I would not have said no for a really
long time I accepted that new experience
and that’s why I found my one true love
so my little advice to you guys is that
don’t be defined by the career you are
in don’t be defined by the by the kind
of academic qualifications that you have
be defined by what you really love
that’s why I feel very odd when people
define me by my economical I can’t make
qualification I feel very odd when they
say that he’s a best-selling author
because I’m none of that how I like to
define myself is that I’m through Judith
I have read a thousand books and I’m a
reader and I’d really like to do it
because my search ended at that point in
time I did not I did not have the
struggle that how do i define myself
because I’m not I don’t consider myself
one of the best writers I don’t consider
myself as one of the best students but I
do consider myself as one of the best
readers they have there has ever been
and now a thousand books later I can say
that I am do joy that the reader so that
is what you have to look look look out
for you have to find that one thing that
you really really like to do you have to
find your hog words you know before
concluding my talk I’ll talk about
another character from from hog words we
talked about her mind whose brilliant
who’s clever who’s ambitious whose
everything but there’s another character
was called Ron Weasley now Ron Weasley
wasn’t a great wizard he wasn’t even a
good one he was mostly he was stupid you
know but even his safe place was AHA
words you know there was this place that
he would go to and he would be accepted
he could go to Hogwarts and he’d be
loved that is where he felt at home you
know so it’s not important for you to be
good at your passion it’s important for
you to love your passion
love you back it will love you
unconditionally endlessly irrevocably
it’s very important for you to find that
quash passion so it doesn’t matter
so in conclusion doesn’t matter whether
you are whether you are Ron Weasley the
dumb lizard or your Hermione the clever
witch what’s important is that you find
your Hogg words the place where you can
truly be yourself because that is where
magic happens
not in this red box thank you [Applause]