The Hindu : New Delhi News : A to Z of success is here

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

A to Z of success is here

Staff Reporter

NEW ARRIVAL: Member of Parliament Baijayant "Jay" Panda releasing "A to Z of Success: A Companion for Youth" by Principal Adviser to CII Y. S. Rajan (left) in New Delhi on Wednesday . — PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

NEW DELHI: Y. S. Rajan, co-author of President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's "India 2020 -- A Vision for the New Millennium", has come out with another book, "A to Z of Success: A Companion for Youth", that attempts to provide the youth with a basis on which they can formulate their own definition of success and achieve it in a realistic manner.

Releasing the book at a function organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at India Habitat Centre here on Wednesday, Member of Parliament from Orissa Baijayant "Jay" Panda said it successfully bridges the gap between a self-help book and a book on philosophy. "It is not about careers but about life," he said.

Dr. Rajan, Principal Adviser CII, who had earlier written "Mission India: A Vision for Indian Youth", said that apart from self-help and pragmatism, one requires elements of philosophy in the modern context to understand the complex process of life.

The book, comprising 26 chapters, each pertaining to one letter of the English alphabet, has been structured keeping the youth in the mind, said Dr. Rajan, who has also been associated with the satellite communication programme as well as the remote sensing satellite programme. The author has also used concepts of physics to explain the complexities of life.

However, Dr. Rajan said the book did not attempt to oversimplify anything. "The youth should not aim for long-term targets but only have a long term imagery of what they want to be," he explained. "They can also learn from some of the successful methods adopted by people around them but should not look towards completely modelling themselves around certain personalities," he added.

But the most important element in life, according to Dr. Rajan, is defining success itself. "The youth should not narrow down the options by looking for success in terms of money, power or position," he said.

Arun Maira, Chairman of Boston Consulting Group (India), said the youth needed to ignite their minds -- reference to which can be found in the "I" chapter of the book -- using "self-starters": "It dismays me that students from elite institutions only aim at getting better pay packets or a better designation," he said.

Lieutenant-General (Retd.) S. S. Mehta, CII Director-General, said real success in life lay in the ability to live with a clear conscience on a daily basis and the book aimed to develop that kind of thinking among the youth.

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