An Open Letter to Rohan (Infosys) and Lakshmi (TVS Motors)

Rohan Murthy, son of Infosys Founder Narayana Murthy, is engaged to Lakshmi Venu, daughter of Venu Srinivasan,CMD of TVS Motor Company Limited. Varalotti, as presumptuous as always, has taken the liberty of writing an open letter to the couple.

Dear Rohan and Lakshmi,

Accept my hearty congratulations. The whole country is happy for you. I cannot think of a happier integration of hardware and software than your union.

You may not be richest in the country in terms of value. But you two are surely the richest in terms of values. Infosys and TVS are names that are synonymous with integrity.

If only we accountants could devise a financial measure for the values cherished by your Dads’ companies, I am sure you will be the richest couple in the country as of now.

I am just a mofussil accountant, a chartered accountant and a part-time writer living in a Tier-2 city in South Tamilnadu.

I am a faceless guy whose name is definitely not going to be there in your wedding invitation mailing list. Your parents have been role models to millions and you surely do not need an accountant to preach you about life and values.

Yet I write this because I want you two to be remembered as great achievers who also had enough time to live a happy life.

You will be moving into the country’s most exclusive mega-rich club. I know that it is no longer fashionable to boast of your wealth, your market capitalisation or your group turn-over.

Instead the members of your club now make pompous statements like, “I work 14 hours a day. How about you?”

Or, “I have never taken a vacation in the last four years.”

“Oh your score is ten years, then you should be really great.”

You are the super-smart children of super-smart parents and I need not tell you that the number of hours you put in or the number of years you skip your vacation have no place in the grand scheme of things.

If your company's earnings forecast is down you can’t tell your shareholders that you worked for 14 hours.

And if your companies post good quarterly results your shareholders wont even care whether you worked at all.

So don’t put in long hours. One of our professional journals paid tributes to HDFC Chairman because he is so organised that he leaves office every day by 5:30.

I want you two to follow him. Come home early. Go out. Eat out. Cook to-gether. Go to the bowling alley. Take a long ride along the beach. Or just hold each other’s hand and talk about the day you had. That’s life. Just remember nobody in his death bed has ever regretted, ‘I didn’t spend enough time in my office.’

Build a cocoon to protect yourself from technology. When you are together switch off the mobile phone, the Blackberry, the laptop and unplug the landline phone.

Don’t let anybody intrude into your time. There’s nothing in the world which can’t wait for a few hours.

Read something every day. Something not related to your work. Some good literature. This is not an advice or a suggestion, but a prescription. Lakshmi, your Dad makes some of the finest two-wheelers in the country.

And Rohan, your Dad makes some of the best software in the world. And yet your Dads’ products need some kind of servicing or other to keep them working.

Your brain and your heart is no different; they need servicing. And literature is the best water-servicing mechanism to cleanse your heart of all the dirt accumulated in the course of your high-profile businesses.

Fill at least one room in your new house with lots of books and read at least fifty pages a day.

To call you guys globe-trotters would be the understatement of the century. Your parents have business interests all over the world. You can’t avoid travel. But you can and have to limit it.

Travel together and when you can’t, travel out at the same time, so that you will be together in your base for at least for fifteen days in a month.

I know a high profile couple travelling so much that on their wedding anniversary their PAs exchanged gifts. That’s a mockery not just of the anniversary but of the marriage itself. Don’t ever do that.

Soon you will be walking into your Dads’ companies and the day is not far off when you will be crowned the CEO. There will be so much to do. And if you let your executives have their way they will drown you in routine work and mindless detail. There will be a thousand people for that.

You will have to bring passion to the table. Leave an indelible mark in your respective field. Who knows Lakshmi’s company might invent a two-wheeler that runs on plain water; or Rohan’s company might write a software that would revolutionalize Governmental work and eliminate corruption.

Among those grand projects have this simple one as well – make life easier for your staff. Make them love their work. That would be as great an accomplishment as a bike running on water or a software that eliminates corruption.

I know it will be a little premature and pretty much embarrassing to you if I talk of raising children right now. There will be a time for that.

And now is the time to be happy.Have a great wedding, and a happy marriage as well. Let me sign off by invoking the blessings of our Madurai Queen Meenakshi on you.

Yours sincerely,

Varalotti

 

Thanks, muzna. I do miss you these days. When a couple of Rotary clubs insisted that I should address their members I talked about "balancing the books of your life" I made that stuff more relevant to the star-couple and posted the blog. Happy that you liked it.
Come in when you have the time and inclination. I always cherish your comments.
sridhar

 

Thanks a lot for your kind words.
You are right, Mythraeyi. But if I had addressed it to every couple they won't read. Again if I write to Rohan and Lakhsmi I can also showcase my knowledge about their companies and their high-profile parents.

sridhar