My poem, ‘Jhansi se jahan tak’, that I presented in 2010 from the Red Fort, on an invitation from Hindi Academy, Government of Delhi, for the Gantantra Divas Kavi Sammelan, sums up my personal academic journey from small town of Jhansi via IIMA and University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, to building innovative institutions in the country that are now well known. 

 

These ‘Creations from Shunya’ include, Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore, Women’s Institute for Studies in Development Oriented Management (WISDOM) at Banasthali University, Rajasthan, and Indus Business Academy (IBA) at Bangalore and Greater Noida. These experiences were interesting and exciting as I experimented with some new ideas.

 

Along with institution building, my academic writings became well known for creative synthesis of Western and Eastern ideas and synthesis of science and spirituality in management and social sciences. My book, ‘Western Windows Eastern Doors’ first published in 1996, has been considered as a seminal contribution by scholars. 

 

My academic contributions have been cited at the global level by scholars and researchers and have also been acknowledged as 'creative and original' with 'quite a few exciting, non-traditional and revolutionary points of view' (Business Standard). In 2013, my research article, ‘From Newton to Nirvana: Science, Vigyan and Gyan’, was cited in a Supreme Court judgment.

 

My poetic journey continues from 1993 onwards in the form of books such as Creation from Shunya, Quantum Rope: Science, Mysticism and Management, Arrows of Time: From the Black holes to Nirvana Point, Market’s Maya: Lotus Millionaires from New Madhushala and Shunya Poems: My experiments with Corporate Rhymes. My two songs viz. ‘Light in My Heart’ and ‘Step by Step’ were adopted as institutional song by WISDOM and IBA respectively.

 

Moving ahead with this creative journey of ‘creations from shunya’ remains my motivational force.