TREAD MARKS THAT LEAD YOU TO A TREASURE ISLAND

'Failure is not an option' by Veer Sagar is as much a chronicle of his personal journey and life-lessons as it is a curation of key events that punctuated and defined the Indian IT landscape. Tips and tricks to navigate leadership, teams, conflicts, contingencies, crisis-hours and camp-escapades - are a big bonus. Read it for a lazy jog down the memory lane of the builders of Indian IT story.

- Pratima H

"Then I surreptitiously made my way down to the mess kitchen, outside which Lucky Café's van was parked. The café lived up to its name, and I wasn't spotted. Without permitting myself any further thought, I climbed into the van. I found large boxes of buns, loaves of bread and pastries, presumably for deliveries outside the IAF campus. I crouched behind the boxes in a corner. The driver started the van and headed for the campus gate."

Reading these lines does not give you any warning of what's about to come. You may brew yourself a long cup of coffee and a good bowl of popcorn - expecting some thriller to unfold in the ensuing pages. Yes, he escaped. But from where and went where? This book is all about that-and more.

Veer Sagar throws in the twists and turns of a 'Abbas Mastan' movie quite deftly in this ride about how he became who he is today and what life epiphanies he added in his luggage on the way. The writing style is as easy-going and relatable as that of a Chetan Bhagat thriller but is also as poignant in places as a Yuval Noah Harari tome.

He starts from his young school days all the way to his feats at college learning Nuclear Physics, to his adventures of cracking an interview at Dunlop, to escaping the meteorological department of IAF because he wanted to join Dunlop as a management trainee, to his taking the bull of 'turnaround' by the horns as he climbed the management ladders at Dunlop, DDM DP and ICIM. He also captures how he pioneered the medical transcription KPO scene in India and how he is now busy creating e-coaching cricket platforms and Criconet.