Dr V Gopalakrishnan

Born in 1948, in Tiruchirappalli, in the state of Tamilnadu, in India, Dr V Gopalakrishnan is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. He obtained a PhD in Thermal Sciences, later in his life. A Mechanical Engineer by profession, he held a senior management position in one of the largest engineering and manufacturing companies in India, until 2006. He switched over to full-time teaching for a few years and is now a free-lance consultant. Keenly interested in academic pursuits, he still guides PhD students and writes papers in his favorite areas. He has widely travelled and has visited the USA and several countries in Europe. He has a variety of interests including Astrology, Sanskrit, Carnatic Music and the Cultural Heritage of India.

He has published two books in English Dasaratha’s son and One-eyed Men, and has given numerous speeches motivating students. This blog contains most of his speeches and his presentations.

Dasaratha’s Son
Dasaratha’s Son is the story of a first born son’s struggle to live up to his scholarly father‟s high expectations and to fulfil his childhood promise to his depressive mother. Raghu’s long journey from a small village in rural India to eventual success in the industrial world is marked by his compulsive need to respect the traditions of a Brahmin family even as he struggled to keep his siblings together in the face of changing social norms and eroding family values. The story chronicles little known aspects of life in post-Independence India, highlights the complex relationships in a traditional Hindu joint-family and provides a behind-the-scenes view of the cloistered life of taboos and rituals into which children of orthodox Brahmins were born. It lays bare the stark realities of the life of most Tamil-speaking Brahmins of India, whose only wealth is their ‘upper caste’ status. The paradox of Hinduism with its stifling social practices as opposed to the anchor provided by its basic enduring human values is subtly brought out in the story. Dasaratha’s Son adds a new dimension to the Indian concept of Karma through the life cycle of the ‘big brother’ and sheds light on „Relationship as a maya‟ – a virtual concept – created, sustained and destroyed in the mind akin to the concept of the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, anchored in the Absolute Brahmam. Written in first person, in a cryptic style, it is full of wit, keen observation and a gentle acerbity that can be provocative in places. It carries a vision of an’Olimayamana Ethirkalam‟ which is almost a Tamil equivalent for Charles Dickens’ title – The Great Expectations. It also provides an antithesis of the typical image of an IITian built up by the media as a successful NRI techie – here is a man staying back in a remote town of India, fighting it out and coming out with success.

One-eyed Men

One-eyed Men is a sequel to the author’s earlier novel, Dasaratha’s Son, which dealt with Raghu’s personal life. This novel describes his rise and fall in the corporate world of opportunities, challenges and intrigues. From being the number two in a medium-sized plant in a small town, Raghu is catapulted to the position of the Corporate Planner in a Multinational. Soon, he is made the CEO of the largest manufacturing unit of the company in India. The trials and vicissitudes undergone by an honest and naive Raghu in the hands of unscrupulous politicians and self-seeking officials, to which he ultimately succumbs, form the rest of the story. The cultural shock of an orthodox Tamil Brahmin, with a traditional value system, while coming into contact with a ‘dog-eat-dog’ corporate world, is vividly illustrated in the novel. It also describes the typical rituals, beliefs, practices and procedures adopted in such companies and gives a bird’s eye view of the functioning of the various arms of a large company, often working at cross purposes. The novel makes an interesting study of the qualities required to rise to the top in any organization and explores the paths of a few talented persons among the mediocre lot. Some eventually become kings while a few do get lynched on the way. Written in a forceful and racy style, full of wit and sarcasm, the novel shows the ultimate triumph of values over expediency.