I DID IT MY WAY BY BIKRAM DASGUPTA [HARDCOVER]

A contemporary of well-known names such as Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Pradeep Kar (Microland), Pravin R Gandhi (Digital Equipment), Pradip Gupta (Dataquest), Rajendra S. Pawar (NIIT), and others, Bikram Dasgupta in "I DID IT MY WAY" traces his journey from his humble Bengali middle-class roots to helping create India's Number One PC company of its day.

Given the sobriquet of being 'an ideas man' by none other than Shiv Nadar himself, one the doyens of the Information Technology industry in India, "I DID IT MY WAY" is not a rags-to-riches story nor a fairy tale with happy beginnings and ends, but a fascinating insight into the life and times of someone who didn't shy away from thinking big and, for whom, progress only meant a milestone passed in a road lined with milestones.

A storyteller at heart Bikram takes his reader along as he explores his beliefs, his ideas, influencers, his failures, and his successes in his rollercoaster journey of over 30 years - a journey exemplified by the single minded, near obsessive determination to heave himself out of his middle class circumstances and the impatience to get going with life.

As the book meanders its way, we find Bikram with HCL, the company that gave shape and form to the IT Industry that exists today in India. His years at HCL were full of fervent and intense learning at the feet of such masters such as Shiv Nadar, Arjun Malhotra and Amit Dutta Gupta - a largely unsung hero of the Indian IT Industry.

From HCL Bikram, along with a few of his friends and contemporaries from IIT - Kharagpur, when on to co-found PCL. Bikram goes on to describe how he single handedly swung an eye-popping $50 Million hardware export contract from Dell. This single order was to change the face of the Indian IT Industry forever, catapulting PCL to the Number one PC Company slot in India.

The story moves on to trace the fervour of Bikram's solo entrepreneurial when he founded Globsyn. With Globsyn, Bikram became one of the early pioneers to make Bengal the home of its operations and has over the years helped Bengal figure in the IT Map of the nation.

Bikram also talks about his deep love for the youth and his untiring energy in helping them find their rightful place in the world. Bikram uses AICTE approved PGDM programme as a potent vehicle and platform to reach out to vast numbers of high aspirational youth.

Bikram lives in Kolkata, India with his wife Ranjana. His twin sons, Rahul and Romit work for Globsyn. Bikram is an avid traveller. A true globetrotter he is interested in dramatics, music, table tennis and cricket. He also reads a lot "to reiterate his beliefs", he says.