Aditya Puri's retirement plan: Teaching in a MBA college

Best childhood days
Playing football in the rain and bunking school.

One lesson from school teacher
Don’t be too honest.

College days’ role model
Who was concerned with having role models in college? I was concerned with watching where the girls were going. We didn’t wonder about role models at that time.

Life’s best moment
When I joined Citibank. At Mahindras, I used to travel by train to their Kandivali office and stayed as a paying guest. My cousin’s Citibank office was air conditioned and he was going to Beirut for training, so I said to myself, “Yahi theek profession hai.”

Favourite literature
I liked Ayn Rand and Enid Blyton. Ab toh main economics padhte tang aa jata hoon. (Get tired reading economics these days).

Movies and heroes
'Gone with the Wind’ and ‘Guns of Navarone’.

Advice to youngsters
Youngsters worry too much and they think too much. Work hard and if you possibly decide what you like, then nobody can stop you. If you are confident, you do what you like and if you are working harder than the next person, then you will go up.

Mantra for work-life balance
What have you come in this life for? There was a saying in school, “Jisko maar padti hai usko pakoda nahi milta”. So, if you are here to get scolded in life, then be it... I have not come for that. I want to be balanced, I want to enjoy my family life, golf, drink in the evening, work, movies, gardening, writing. If you don’t have a full life, it’s entirely your option. You may decide you want to make a lot of money, you want to be fastest, but ultimately you must realise that if you go back to the Gita, you can do whatever you want, there is a thing called destiny.

Next vacation
Others want to go to various places, but I would like to go to Lonavala. I can go for a walk, I can eat the food I want, my dogs are there, my garden is there.

What kind of music?
Ghazals of Mehndi Hassan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, old Hindi songs, jazz and classical Indian music. I sing the Jagjit Singh ghazal “Chandi jaisa rang hai tera” to my wife in a bad voice.

Do you Worry about Life after retirement?
No, my wife might. That’s an honest fact, but I will be quite happy. I don’t see myself in total retirement. I will help the under-privileged, may teach in some MBA college, do my gardening, have my drinks, listen to music and I will write. There is a lot to do.