Writing Uncharted Spaces was the most fun part of the past year. Even more fun was that I could bring all of my self to it. My background and upbringing, my interest in languages, my curiosity about cultures and their similarities and differences, my penchant for injecting humour and cultural references into the mundane to make it pop and stick in the audiences’ recall, and my professional side that thrives in challenge and enjoys horizon scanning and tech stuff for fun.
As a result, the book features insights garnered from board directors and CEOs around the world.
Advance readers, in their early 20s to those in their 70s, in the west and in the Global South, have moved me by sharing what they saw in the book.
The references are in several languages, sometimes with human help with accurate translations. One reference features a parrot. “A first“, said my publisher. “For me too”, I responded.
But most of all I have enjoyed digging into ancient Indian texts for wisdom that remains relevant to leaders in boardrooms and in the broader world in the present day.
In my day-to-day life I often quote poetry and aphorisms. One of my favourites:
आस्ते भग आसीनस्योर्ध्वस्तिष्ठति तिष्ठतः
शेते निपद्यमानस्य चराति चरतो भगश्चरैवेति
चरैवेति चरैवेति!
(If one’s sitting, his/ her destiny remains similarly sitting; for the one who rises, his/ her destiny does too; when one remains asleep, his/ her destiny remains asleep too; but when one starts walking, one’s destiny starts to move too. Ergo, keep walking.)
It embodies the theme for 2026: movement. Not stasis. Not sleeping on things willy nilly. Not over-thinking. Movement. Physical, mental, spiritual.
Befits the year: the year of the horse that starts in February 2026, the year when the book takes wings and lands in bookstores and on your shelves.
(Credits: Mahatma Gandhi’s image from Vecteezy; Johnnie Walker is a registered trademark of Diageo.)
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