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Another Sort of Freedom
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.
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.
- GenresMemoir
298 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 30, 2023
11 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Gurcharan Das
38 books400 followersGurcharan Das (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਚਰਨ ਦਾਸ, Hindi: गुरचरण दास), (born October 3, 1943), is an Indian author, commentator and public intellectual. He is the author of The Difficulty of Being Good: On the subtle art of dharma which interrogates the epic, Mahabharata. His international bestseller, India Unbound, is a narrative account of India from Independence to the global Information Age, and has been published in many languages and filmed by BBC.
He is a regular columnist for six Indian newspapers in English, Hindi, Telugu and Marathi, and he writes periodic pieces for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and Newsweek.
He graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy. He later attended Harvard Business School (AMP), where he is featured in three case studies. He was CEO of Procter & Gamble India and later Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Strategic Planning). In 1995, he took early retirement to become a full time writer. He is currently on many boards and is a regular speaker to the top managements of the world’s largest corporations.
His other literary works include a novel, A Fine Family, a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm, and anthology, Three English Plays.
He is a regular columnist for six Indian newspapers in English, Hindi, Telugu and Marathi, and he writes periodic pieces for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, and Newsweek.
He graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy. He later attended Harvard Business School (AMP), where he is featured in three case studies. He was CEO of Procter & Gamble India and later Managing Director, Procter & Gamble Worldwide (Strategic Planning). In 1995, he took early retirement to become a full time writer. He is currently on many boards and is a regular speaker to the top managements of the world’s largest corporations.
His other literary works include a novel, A Fine Family, a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm, and anthology, Three English Plays.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 27, 2023
There are many entertaining memoirs written by Punjabis in English. I can think of Ved Mehta's books, 'Punjabi Saga' by Prakash Tandon and of course Khushwant Singh's 'Truth Lies and Little Malice'. Gurcharan Das's book joins this company. Having recently read the first volume of Prakash Tandon's 'Punjabi Saga', I can vouch for the close parallels between the lives of Gurcharan Das and that of Prakash Tandon. Both were born in West Punjab and both their fathers were engineers associated with the irrigation department. Both of them studied abroad and then returned to India to become chiefs of the Indian arm of an MNC. Tandon became CEO of Hindustan Lever and Das that of Procter and Gamble India. Both of them recall shocking incidents from Partition. While Tandon's book is more sociologically informed (My references to Tandon are based on a reading of the 1st volume of his memoirs only), Das's concerns are political and economic.
The seminal event in Das's life was his undergraduate education in Harvard. This came about fortuitously as his father was part of the Indian delegation to the UN to negotiate the India Pakistan Indus water sharing treaty. The liberal education that he received in Harvard changed his outlook forever. Despite joining business, he retained a love for ideas. In Das's own words, he has remained a perpetual undergraduate.
The one big idea that Das has peddled in all his books and articles is the need for economic liberty to unleash India's potential. This is very much a concern of this book also. But this memoir is so much more. It is a thoughtful and poignant account of a life well lived. We can all profit from learning from Gurcharan Das's varied experiences across the globe.
Early on his life, Das's spiritual father (This is another similarity between Das and Tandon, both their father's were very spiritual; Tandon's father belonged to the Arya Samaj, whereas Das's father belonged to the Radha Soami movement) gave him an advice that he should not just make a living but make a life as well. This book is a call to make a life as we struggle to make a living.
The seminal event in Das's life was his undergraduate education in Harvard. This came about fortuitously as his father was part of the Indian delegation to the UN to negotiate the India Pakistan Indus water sharing treaty. The liberal education that he received in Harvard changed his outlook forever. Despite joining business, he retained a love for ideas. In Das's own words, he has remained a perpetual undergraduate.
The one big idea that Das has peddled in all his books and articles is the need for economic liberty to unleash India's potential. This is very much a concern of this book also. But this memoir is so much more. It is a thoughtful and poignant account of a life well lived. We can all profit from learning from Gurcharan Das's varied experiences across the globe.
Early on his life, Das's spiritual father (This is another similarity between Das and Tandon, both their father's were very spiritual; Tandon's father belonged to the Arya Samaj, whereas Das's father belonged to the Radha Soami movement) gave him an advice that he should not just make a living but make a life as well. This book is a call to make a life as we struggle to make a living.
March 5, 2024
This is a deeply moving and insightful memoir. Utterly candid, deeply introspective, Gurcharan tells the story of his search for meaning and pursuit of Purpose from growing up in Punjab, suffering the trauma of the partition in 1947, to his serendipitous life-changing undergraduate education at Harvard and then his successful though ultimately not sufficiently satisfying pursuit of a corporate career first at Richardson Vicks and then Procter & Gamble. Along the way, his love of writing, fiction and non-fiction and exploring the path to self fulfillment and advocating passionately for economic liberalism in his native country of India carries the reader along with prose capturing the nuance and challenge of a good life (dharma) together with the immediacy and human texture of a past clearly remembered.
Das conveys with honesty and clarity the challenge he found in discovering ones true self and true purpose. His candor about his motivations and acknowledged attachment to his ego emerge again and again, with unblinking introspection unlike any other memoir I have ever read. It spoke to me. This aside illustrates the point: "I was young enough to dream of being somebody but old enough to be cynical about everybody".
I was not surprised to learn about the refuge and freedom he gained from writing. It brought him "self-forgetting" through discipline and accomplishment. "Writing was a way to bring coherence and order to my life, working my way out of dark places. This is how I developed beliefs and convictions".
Das found that "self forgetting is the path to high performance and happinesss". So have I, not only in my work, but in my pleasures whether that be on a walk with one of my children, kayaking in Georgian Bay or having a quiet dinner with my wife, Francie.
I identify with Das' tribute to his wife, Bunu, "In her presencc, I felt weightless....Love makes you recover the present, bringing you alive in the present moment with your whole being".
Gurcharan presents a clear roadmap of India's struggle to honor the diversity of its population and achieve the economic liberalism finally introduced by the long delayed reforms in the early 1990s, now leading to India growing faster than any other major country. And yet this is now accompanied be the growth of Hindu-nationalism threatening the democratic underpinnings of the country
Das clarifies for me that Hinduism is a way of life, not a way of belief and that it is best lived through dharma: commitment to "duty, law, justice virtue and religion"..in simplest terms. to do our best to do the "right thing". Of course, the understanding of what is the "right thing" and defining the "right answer" brings us (or at least me) back to what Das would describe as "economic liberalism, embracing the right to Freedom and fullfillment of every person's full potential no matter their race, religion or origin.
At its heart, this memoir brings to life Gurchan Das' sometimes tortured and always driven search to identify and fulfill his life's purpose and meaning. His is a story sensitively and honestly told about a unique life well lived.
Das conveys with honesty and clarity the challenge he found in discovering ones true self and true purpose. His candor about his motivations and acknowledged attachment to his ego emerge again and again, with unblinking introspection unlike any other memoir I have ever read. It spoke to me. This aside illustrates the point: "I was young enough to dream of being somebody but old enough to be cynical about everybody".
I was not surprised to learn about the refuge and freedom he gained from writing. It brought him "self-forgetting" through discipline and accomplishment. "Writing was a way to bring coherence and order to my life, working my way out of dark places. This is how I developed beliefs and convictions".
Das found that "self forgetting is the path to high performance and happinesss". So have I, not only in my work, but in my pleasures whether that be on a walk with one of my children, kayaking in Georgian Bay or having a quiet dinner with my wife, Francie.
I identify with Das' tribute to his wife, Bunu, "In her presencc, I felt weightless....Love makes you recover the present, bringing you alive in the present moment with your whole being".
Gurcharan presents a clear roadmap of India's struggle to honor the diversity of its population and achieve the economic liberalism finally introduced by the long delayed reforms in the early 1990s, now leading to India growing faster than any other major country. And yet this is now accompanied be the growth of Hindu-nationalism threatening the democratic underpinnings of the country
Das clarifies for me that Hinduism is a way of life, not a way of belief and that it is best lived through dharma: commitment to "duty, law, justice virtue and religion"..in simplest terms. to do our best to do the "right thing". Of course, the understanding of what is the "right thing" and defining the "right answer" brings us (or at least me) back to what Das would describe as "economic liberalism, embracing the right to Freedom and fullfillment of every person's full potential no matter their race, religion or origin.
At its heart, this memoir brings to life Gurchan Das' sometimes tortured and always driven search to identify and fulfill his life's purpose and meaning. His is a story sensitively and honestly told about a unique life well lived.
January 30, 2025
Memoir of serendipities that shaped a boy born before the horrors of partition into a successful and accomplished (liberal) Indian.
Really well written book. I realised one can read anything as long as it’s written well and the writes knows the art of story-telling;Gurucharan Das certainly does. I mean, he isn’t the most well known personality about whose life people would be lining up to read about.
Gurucharan has led a blessed life as can be guaged by the reader. He has been prolific but reading such accounts one realises the immaculate role of destinty and what we term as luck in a person’s success or lack of it. His honesty about religion, beliefs, envy and ego are refreshing.
I found it hilarious that the man is such a westernised liberal that to learn Upanishads and other Vedic scriptures, he chose to go to America and learn from goras!
I had read Gurcharan Das’s Kama The Riddle of Desire earlier which too I had thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to reading his other books.
A good read that I picked up instinctively.
Really well written book. I realised one can read anything as long as it’s written well and the writes knows the art of story-telling;Gurucharan Das certainly does. I mean, he isn’t the most well known personality about whose life people would be lining up to read about.
Gurucharan has led a blessed life as can be guaged by the reader. He has been prolific but reading such accounts one realises the immaculate role of destinty and what we term as luck in a person’s success or lack of it. His honesty about religion, beliefs, envy and ego are refreshing.
I found it hilarious that the man is such a westernised liberal that to learn Upanishads and other Vedic scriptures, he chose to go to America and learn from goras!
I had read Gurcharan Das’s Kama The Riddle of Desire earlier which too I had thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to reading his other books.
A good read that I picked up instinctively.
April 30, 2024
Had somebody not gifted me this book, I would have never picked up to read biography of an author who, while accomplished, does not excite me enough to want to know everything about his life. But having read the book now, I feel as if it is a story of how a child belonging to an average educated family at the dawn of independence would have grown up.
Reading various instances in the book, I could imagine other thousands of persons who would have gone through the similar life trajectories. It is the skill and desire of putting thoughts to paper that distinguish the author from the others.
It is a good book for beginners who are not into reading serious stuff yet and would want something light but still interesting. To more serious readers, interest gets sapped as one reads along, especially towards the end.
Reading various instances in the book, I could imagine other thousands of persons who would have gone through the similar life trajectories. It is the skill and desire of putting thoughts to paper that distinguish the author from the others.
It is a good book for beginners who are not into reading serious stuff yet and would want something light but still interesting. To more serious readers, interest gets sapped as one reads along, especially towards the end.
May 1, 2024
I found the book very slow. The heights to which the author scales in the business world is not fully reflected in the writing. There are many typos too and I wish the editor had done a better job.
The interesting part is his journey of self discovery, understanding that business & CEO title is not the objective of his life. The author is also very candid about his own weaknesses and does not mince words when describing his own vanities. This would have required a very high ability of honest self reflection which is very impressive to me.
I liked the second half of the book and it was good to see someone go through the journey of giving up the typical "make a living" path that our societies endorse to fully own up a "make a life" mantra.
The interesting part is his journey of self discovery, understanding that business & CEO title is not the objective of his life. The author is also very candid about his own weaknesses and does not mince words when describing his own vanities. This would have required a very high ability of honest self reflection which is very impressive to me.
I liked the second half of the book and it was good to see someone go through the journey of giving up the typical "make a living" path that our societies endorse to fully own up a "make a life" mantra.
September 12, 2024
Loved it.
I enjoyed it particularly since I left my corporate job (albeit not to become a writer like him) in the recent past and its wonderful to hear from someone who followed the same journey and struggled with the same questions on the topic. He lives in Delhi and follows a routine somewhat similar to the one that I have come up with - it was funny to note.
The author writes without pretence and one can potentially have differing views on many of the points he makes which makes it read like a nice conversation with a friend with whom you may differ in opinion but still like to meet and talk.
I enjoyed it particularly since I left my corporate job (albeit not to become a writer like him) in the recent past and its wonderful to hear from someone who followed the same journey and struggled with the same questions on the topic. He lives in Delhi and follows a routine somewhat similar to the one that I have come up with - it was funny to note.
The author writes without pretence and one can potentially have differing views on many of the points he makes which makes it read like a nice conversation with a friend with whom you may differ in opinion but still like to meet and talk.
November 5, 2023
Exceptionally candid and forthright. This book has the right blend of philosophy and autobiography so it continues to turn the pages seemingly on its own.
The discipline of continuing to write daily between five a am and 12 noon is worth emulating.
I learnt another insight. He says - there are two types of people, one who do the hard work and the others who want to take the credit. There is a lot of competition for the latter group but very little for the former. How true!
This is just a very small sample KD innumerable such musings. Well written book.
Go for it.
The discipline of continuing to write daily between five a am and 12 noon is worth emulating.
I learnt another insight. He says - there are two types of people, one who do the hard work and the others who want to take the credit. There is a lot of competition for the latter group but very little for the former. How true!
This is just a very small sample KD innumerable such musings. Well written book.
Go for it.
November 25, 2023
Funny witty thought provoking and at times moving. The author, who I have admired earlier in his avatar as the corporate CEO and later as a thought provoking writer does not disappoint in his writings. He says it is his memoirs which it is, however in many ways it is about the human who wants MOKSHA as he describes .
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews