Debjani - Mentor, Coach Extraordinary
I stumbled upon this video
in a online by Ms. Debjani Biswas & hope she will not mind if I share a few old memories. For those who don't know her, Debjani is Founder of a Executive Coaching organisation in USA. She has been a Author, TEDx Speaker, has held Directorial and senior positions in some globally renowned companies and an alumni of IIT and IIM from India.
In 1981/82 I was yet another confused kid & wanting to do what seemed popular - join a B School. Totally incompetent I joined a small group of folks who were being trained by a org called TETCOS. Debjani was one of the instructors & *gasp* just a 2nd year student at IIM. An extremely lovely & gorgeous girl it took 1 minute to "fall in love" & all of 2 minutes to "unfall in love" as you realised she was tougher than nails. She tore you apart & then put you back together in class. The "love" 3 minutes later was undying adulation like one adores a famous movie star. Honestly the number of times I have met her can be counted on our fingers. But yet she managed to leave a lasting impression on me that has lasted a life time.
Her training classes were always full of life and learning as she effortlessly guided you through Maths, English lessons with dollops of entertainment and fun in between as she encouraged us to show off our school boy talents while we her students got a private audition of her Oscar sized talent.
For the mock interview sessions I was lucky (it then seemed unlucky) to draw Debjani and by the time she was finished with me - I was literally in tears - no exaggeration. But guess what - instead of being so disheartened as to give up the dream of joining a B School I was like the rat in this video - so THANK YOU Debjani - I owe my selection in a B school largely to you.
Rat chases a Cat
Her talents were amazing - be it intellectual, dramatic, arts, literary, speaking, Dumb Charades - there seemed to be nothing that she wasn't good at. Popular folklore was that whenever there was any competitive event in India and the organisers knew that Debjani was participating they printed the first prize certificate with her name on it before the event itself instead of writing it down on a blank certificate later. Others said that competitors just gave up without even trying not because they were losing but they wanted to grab those vantage positions from where to watch her perform. She was sublime.
By some stroke of luck we became friends and on one occasion I got the chance to go meet her for a chat and coffee and trust me every other friend of mine was envious that I had managed to meet her as a friend. The bragging rights that I had with many in the student circles who knew her was - "OK you chaps know Debjani, like hundreds others, but guess what? Debjani knows me !!!". By this time my adulation and admiration had turned into a kind of hero(ine) worship and Debjani was like the didi (elder sister) I fervently wished I had.
I stayed in touch with her even after she joined TAS (Tata Administrative Services) which only the creme de la creme, the blue blooded could aspire to get selected. Again popular folklore was that TAS literally begged her to join them. She did a stint in Tata Steel as I recall.
Somewhere, somehow I lost touch with her totally and my snail mails to her unanswered and life moved on till 2009 when I stumbled upon her on here. Since then I have followed her success on here and realise that what she was in 1982 - Mentor, Coach, Inspiration - she still is in 2020 but now touching the lives of many many more globally. We have not been in communication but when I know that she reads my posts and I receive a word of praise from her on here it means more to me than anything else. If I had to now claim some bragging rights I would say that I was probably one of her first "students" in her career as a Mentor & Coach.
I was unlucky not to be able to meet her when I was in Dallas some years ago but when this Covid crisis is over and I get to travel again I am hoping that I will have the privilege of meeting her in person again.
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