People who influenced me: Napoleon Hill

It is difficult to say whether Hill influenced me or his book 'Think and grow rich'. His book is the result of a long stretch of interviews that he was commissioned to do by Andrew Carnegie. Hill himself was later advisor to two American Presidents.

Although the title of the book smacks of extreme materialism and indeed it is about making money, it goes into esoteric discussions on the power of the brain, subconscious mind, sex transmutation and imagination among others it is unlike the other book on the same topic 'Rich dad, poor dad' discussed elsewhere in my series of people who influenced me.

It is my feeling that the book should be read only after or around forty and any sort of precociousness that this book or any other, takes away from an innocence. HIll himself says men are seldom successful before forty for the reason of 'sowing of the wild oats' and I believe men are entitled to a certain amount of innocence in their early years.

Transmutation of the sexual energy occurs only after forty by Hill's own version and implies it is meant to be so by nature. So reading Hill at an early age without considering your own age may be detrimental on yourself.

Nevertheless the bringing down of achievement to formulae is an achievement by itself and has been taken up by many others as well but the legitimacy of Hill is the backing by Andrew Carnegie himself an achiever. Perhaps the merit is greater in its quintessential Americanism, in an obsession with Achievement.

People who influenced me: Mark Twain

Mark Twain has an immediate appeal especially to children as in 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'. I am sure that all young children and men who retain their childhood would want to be Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. Tom represents the civilised self and Huck, the raw superstitious one. Both enjoy the free life and refuses to meddle with hierarchies.

Mark Twain is thus a reminder of the paradise that every secure child feels the world to be and the world should be, but spoiled by the hierarchy which man has created albeit from a practical point of view, yet destroys the charm of life when over time we forget that hierarchy is our servant and not the master as with many other aspects in the process of civilisation.

Man finds himself in chains everywhere for this reason that every one of his inventions both material and social eventually takes away from his freedom when forgotten and shorn of the original purpose which is serving humanity and humanness.

All great men remind of this yet we dont seem to learn.

People who influenced me: Le comte du Nouy

My introduction to du Nouy is from an obscure book that was gifted to me while in Loyola. For a long time, almost 20 years I did not know who the author was and then came to know that the author was a French philosopher and scientist.The wikipedia says "Du Noüy believed that mankind should have confidence in science, but be aware that we know less about the material world than is commonly believed".

Human destiny combines very elaborately the material sciences with the themes of Christianity in that both evolutionary theory and the Christian view of humanity are combined so beautifully. One almost is convinced that science and religion are compatible. Or perhaps I was already convinced that science and religion go hand in hand that du Nouy had an immediate appeal to me.

At times he sounds like Arthur Koestler, but Koestler's answers to human problems are more pragmatic and scientific whereas du Nouy holds religion above science and considers the immersedness of humans in an ongoing evolution on a spiritual plane in enlightening us.

Koestler I believe cannot wait for the spiritual evolution to save us because he thinks if we wait for that slow process to save us we would not be left at all to be saved. Also Koestler never seems to have considered the postulate that evolution is still continuing on a spiritual plane. He considers the fault in the construction of the human brain as the dead end in evolution. Assuming Koestler is right in the postulate of the muddled hierarchy of the human brain, the last answer may still be Koestler's.

People who influenced me: E M Forster

E M Forster had an Indian background. His

'Passage to India' captures the Indian mind of the colonial times or perhaps the English mind of the colonial times. It deviates from the historical in that it shows the good relations that existed between the English and the Indians although the unexplained twist at the end is variedly interpreted as the inscrutability of the Indian mind among other things. Other things include that 'the east is east and the west is west'.

People who influenced me: Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey's self help books are rooted in Principles as he himself distinguishes the two genres based on the Personality ethic and the Character ethic.

Also there is a progressive nature in his theories in that they proceed from the mastery of the self first and then the mastery of other things. Perhaps the most important and the least understood are the paradigms of dependence, independence and interdependence in ascending order. Many are still rooted in a paradigm of independence whereas a paradigm of interdependence is a solution to many of the problems that afflict humanity today. Above all his is a philosophy that advocates reform from within than a sham outward improvement of the personality for personal ends.

People who influenced me: Charles Dickens

I did a term paper in my undergraduate years on the theme 'Children in Dickens'. England comes personal rather than historical in Dickens. The book Oliver Twist is the one that was prescribed in our tenth standard. Great Expectations captured both the mind of the child and the aspirations of the times. There is also the surrealness of Miss Havisham who remained in her wedding dress in defiance of her love lost. The other novel David Copperfield has the character Mr. Micawber whose ideas of management of money is so profound as it is fundamental.

On the moral plane though most of his novels have a moral tone none simplifies it than 'A Christmas Carol'. The influence of Dickens is more in the kindling of interest in Literature and in hindsight a capturing of the times of which he wrote. The drawings in many of his novels captures in vivid detail the rustic English life.

People who influenced me: Miguel de Cervantez

Cervantez captured the medieval times perhaps almost as much as Walter Scott did. The greatness of Cervantez in 'The Adventures of don Quixote' is at once its many facetedness in the exposition so much so that it lends itself to many interpretations.

At times it is an expose of the folly of chivalry, an exultation of romantic values, the conflict between the rational and the visionary part of life in its portrayal of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and above all its timelessness although set in medieval times.

In modern Management the organisation man is juxtaposed with the gentleman of the victorian era and the knight of the medieval times. No wonder don quixote is recommended reading in courses such as "Leadership: Competence, Vision and Mission" with immense insights to the student.