ANOTHER SORT OF FREEDOM By GURCHARAN DAS

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‘Affecting, disarming and occasionally provocative—just like the man himself’-  S H A S H I  T H A R O O R

‘An honest, riveting tale that will live long on bookshelves and in libraries’ –  G O PA L K R I S H N A  G A N D H I

‘A great book, beautifully written! A story told with a lightness of touch and unflinching honesty’ – N A N D A N  N I L E KA N I

‘A lovely book . . . a great account of the many-splendoured life of Gurcharan Das!’ –  M E G H N A D  D E S A I

 

Another Sort of Freedom is a funny, moving and honest memoir of a man’s struggle to break free from expectations. Gurcharan Das was born in Lyallpur, Punjab, during World War II, when Hitler, Churchill and Hirohito were bashing everyone around. His mother noted in her diary, ‘This is a restless baby.’ By age two he had become ‘a difficult child’, and by three she was calling him a ‘troublemaker’. He discovered one day that he could run, and he has been running ever since.

 There are strange twists in his journey, from Partition’s chaos to misguided attempts at winning over first loves. Setting out to become an engineer, he ends up with a philosophy degree from Harvard University. He then abandons a promising academic career in ivy-covered halls to become a salesman for Vicks VapoRub in India’s dusty bazaars. This leads him to the CEO’s position of Procter & Gamble India. One day, at the peak of his professional life, his high-powered corporate mask crumbles, and he walks away to become a celebrated writer and public intellectual. 

 

Candid, witty and wry, the memoir is filled with moments of deep introspection at every turn alongside wise observations on the author’s encounters with history on four continents. This is Gurcharan Das as you have never seen him before.

 Gurcharan Das is a renowned author, commentator and thought leader. He is the author of two bestsellers, India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good, which are volumes one and two of a trilogy on life’s goals, of which Kama: The Riddle of Desire is the third. His other literary works include a novel, A Fine Family, a collection of plays for the theatre, Three Plays, and a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm. His recent book India Grows at Night was on the Financial Times’ list of best books of 2013. He is general editor for Penguin’s multivolume Story of Indian Business series. He studied philosophy at Harvard University and was CEO, Procter & Gamble India, before he became a full-time writer. He writes a regular column for six Indian newspapers, including the Times of India, and occasional pieces for the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs and New York Times. He lives with his wife in Delhi.