As the world was celebrating the ghar wapsi of Sunita Williams and the industrious heralding Navroz, the parsi new year, the Express Adda with Bill Gates in conversation with Indian Express Group’s executive director Anant Goenka was setting a new benchmark. Iconic leaders from India Inc., pioneers from the world of art, social enterprise and from the government, who are usually looked up to and listened to, chose to be listeners themselves. In the era of social media and snap judgements with the power to comprehend confined to mere 140 characters, here was a congregation of celebrities, a ballroom-full of fine minds showcasing the power of quite reflection.
They demonstrated an unambiguous belief in the power of pausing and processing. This time listening to a trailblazer on issues that they were all deeply engaged with almost on a daily basis. The Express Adda, the much-awaited, well-attended platform where newsmakers drop in for a candid chat has always drawn interest from some of the finest minds. This time however it turned out to be a meet where icons met icons in the hallway or were seated together. The who’s who present at the Adda included many who knew Bill Gates at a personal level.
What also stood out about the guest list at the Express Adda with Bill Gates was also the fact that none of them needed any descriptor with their names and included the likes of Ajay Piramal, Dr Swati Piramal, Mallika Srinivasan, Falguni Nayar, Kunal Shah, Prasoon Joshi, Hemendra Kothari, Manish Kejriwal, Siddharth Parekh, Claire O’Neil, Soha Ali Khan, Anu Malik, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Kunal Shroff, Nilesh Shah, Navneet Munot, Jaspal Bindra, Rumana Hamied, RPG group’s Anant Goenka and Radha Goenka. Or the heads of the global MNCs in India – Bhushan Akshikar from GSK, an MNC with a 100-year history in India and Amitabh Dube from Novartis among others.
That the evening was engaging was apparent from some of the messages that some of them shared on how they enjoyed the discussion or liked the ‘good interaction’ or how it was fun and at the same time also had much to reflect upon.