I left Kashmir on the night of 19 January 1990, at seventeen — not by choice, but because survival was the only thing on offer. Everything that came after, I built from scratch.
In the years that followed, I rose to the top of some of India's biggest media houses. As CEO of the TV Division at The Times Group, and later CEO of Network18 (Broadcast & Publishing) and Managing Director of A+E Networks│TV18, I led some of the country's largest news and entertainment portfolios.
Fear can push. It cannot pull. It carried me further than confidence ever did — until the question changed from what I was running from to what I was climbing for.
Underneath all of it sat a belief I've held since before I had words for it: that the way information moves through a society shapes that society. That was the forest I started in.
Today I channel that lived experience into three pursuits — advising CEOs, founders and boards; speaking to leaders worldwide; and writing The Next Mountain.