Its not about what you do-but how you do it!!

Between Wednesday and Sunday last week, Hyderabad saw at least three leading speakers on the lecture circuit-all well attended, with people thronging and with some even standing .

Dr Tarun Khanna addressed the intellectual elite at Manthan's monthly meeting. He came in late and didn't even have time to go through his presentation slides-choosing to ramble on 2 themes on how China was different from India. (In China, the public interest rights are more dear than private property rights. The right to information being the other.) Personally, I was disappointed as it was such a great opportunity for him to expound on his experience - 18 months since his book launch. Fortunately, my 13yr old daughter Vandana was enamoured with his academics, command over language-and is now aware of what education in a ivy school does.

(The takeaway from the meeting though was the nonchalant extempore presentation by a guest-who doubled in to speak and keep the audience enlightened about his life in China-none other than the US Consul General Dr Cornelius Keur. For a change where an Indian outsourced the talk to an American- and as usual, the outsourcing company upstaged the principal :-)!)

Prof John Mullins stuck to his presentation as the awe struck entrepreneur wannabes were hoping to lap up every 'mantra' as he dwelt on the path of "Getting to Plan B". Again a little disappointing, as the London Business School professor stuck to case studies of Ryan Air, napster, Apple-when so easily he could have shared the 'home grown' Indian stories of Pantaloon and Myntra.

In contrast, Lord Jeffrey Archer just floored the reading and writing enthusiasts!! The Master story teller had hour long Q& A sessions, and actually gave a lot of tips to those who dreamt of a career in writing-while extolling the need for 'knowledge of one's domain', discipline, hours of redrafting, self belief, while still being grateful for a lot of things one usually takes for granted. I suspect he has influenced Vandana more!!