Arjun Shekhar (born 20 April 1965) is an Indian entrepreneur and writer. An XLRI alumni, he is the founder of the Vyaktitva. He is also the writer of the books, ''A Flawed God'' and ''End of Story?''.

Life and education

Early life

Arjun was born in Jalore,

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. His mother is from

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

and his father is from

. His father is a retired IPS officer who was the CBI Director during the start of the Bofors case and also the Director of Police in Rajasthan.

Education

Arjun graduated from XLRI in 1990 after having studied at Delhi School of Economics previously. He captained the XLRI

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

team during that time.

Professional career

After 7 years of corporate citizenship, dissatisfied with following other people's agendas, Arjun decided to begin his own venture. According to him, "Entrepreneurship makes you take complete responsibility for something – you suddenly have a baby and you can't blame anybody else when it cries or pass it on. In this claiming as against blaming, you learn so much – it's the best way to learn about yourself and the world around you – by taking complete responsibility of something and committing fully to it." He is the founder of Vyaktitva, an organizational development firm that works with companies,

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

and individuals to bring out the true element of their character. Services include leadership

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

, people system

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

, coaching, facilitation of groups, and many other services in the people management domain. Vyaktitva works with clients of varying scales, locations and outreach.

Writing career

''End of Story?''

His book, ''End Of Story?'', is a thriller that features questions as chapter headings to run through a plot featuring a

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditio ...

unemployed journalist’s experience with subliminal advertising. The book is inspired by Shekhar’s business venture’s 'Get Real' journeys that focussed on identity as a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

instead of individual lives. According to him, "Humans represent what is not present through stories. The ability to interpret a story and create authentic stories ourselves – what I call symbolic literacy – isn't taught unfortunately in schools or colleges. And yet it is the most important meta process that humans need to learn. Through my workshops I realized how inadequately understood this field of symbolic literacy is in spite of us being a symbolic species." The book has met with mostly positive reviews. Heena Khan from ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

'' calls it an "effortless read, reading through which one often does not want the story to end, quite contrary to its title."

A Flawed God

Shekhar’s first book, ''A Flawed God'', was

published Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, new ...

in 2010. It followed the experiences of a consultant through his choices in his dealings with the corporate world and the stock market. "A brilliant satire of the boxwallah’s world in which every incident makes you chuckle.." says Jaya Bhattacharji Rose from the Asian Age. The book reached the Sunday Guardian bestseller list of July 2011.

''The Ocean in a Drop''

He co-wrote the book ''The Ocean in a Drop'' with Ashraf Patel, Meenu Venkateswaran and Kamini Prakash in 2013, exploring "how young people have contributed significantly to society in the past, and suggests ways in which they can take centre stage again."

Personal life

Arjun married Ashraf Patel, who studied with him at XLRI in 1992. She left the corporate sector as well to start up a social enterprise. He likes

and

trekking Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on one's back, while hiking for more than a day. It is often an extended journey, and may involve camping outdoors. In North America tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain ...

, and has trekked to

Annapurna Annapurna (; ne, अन्नपूर्ण) is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. It is the tenth highest mountain in the world at above sea level and is well known for the diffic ...

and

Nanda Devi Nanda Devi is the second-highest mountain in India, after Kangchenjunga, and the highest located entirely within the country (Kangchenjunga is on the border of India and Nepal). It is the 23rd-highest peak in the world. Nanda Devi was consi ...

base camps.

References

External links

Jaipur bibliophiles interact with Arjun Shekhar

Arjun Shekhar's profile on Goodreads

Hindustan Times' review on The Ocean in a Drop

Social media page for A Flawed God
* http://www.sagepub.in/authorDetails.nav?contribId=682928
Interview with thehungryreader

XLRI

End of Story? on BookGeeks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shekhar, Arjun 1965 births Living people Indian male novelists Novelists from Rajasthan People from Jalore district XLRI – Xavier School of Management alumni