‘Echoes of Gasping souls’ is not just one story – it is many stories weaved into one. At one level it is the story five strangers stuck together in a hotel, battling a menace that threatens not only their lives, but has the power to unsettle the country and the world at large. At another level it mimics the numerous mutinies that are precariously held together by our souls – and the gasps that lay buried under the veneer of normalcy.

The five who are together could not have been more different from each other. Sitam, a nepali speaking, works in the dusty offices of Indian bureaucracy. He has seen racism at its worst. He is a frustrated Indian bureaucrat.

Kulwant Kaur, 62, from Amritsar is on her first solo trip, disguised from her family as a pilgrimage – a revolt against the inescapable north-Indian patriarchy.

Razia is a Malyali Muslim married to a Hindu. The only identity that matters to her is that of a woman. She hates it when others want her to be a Muslim or a Malyali.

Manoj is a typical Engineer MBA, highly driven, ambitious and suave. His superiority complex is nauseating.

Sunil Paswan is the hotel manager, a dalit from Bihar. He survived caste riots 30 years ago and has never returned back.

They are stuck together in a hotel, during the unprecedented lock down announced in the wake of Covid . They hate it. They hate each other much more.
How do these five strangers respond to each other in the lockdown and relative captivity? How do they give cold shoulder and judge each other, fight with each other and finally warm up to each other? How does their own pettiness reveal itself while they notice it in others.

Kabeer in Korporates addresses the many issues faced by modern day employees, arising from the trials and tussles of the workplace. The book uses Kabeer as the font of practical wisdom to balance philosophy with action and theory with practice, using the same, timeless wisdom that helped dissolve human angst hundreds of years ago.

There are many sources of workplace wisdom that have been published – most of them based on the Western worldview, and now, increasingly, on Oriental perceptions. Yet a gap remains. Kabeer fills that gap effortlessly, uniting the world of theory and practice. Kabeer, the medieval bhakti saint, remains the voice of the masses, speaking in simple metaphors, and, most importantly, prompting one to action.

This book, drawing on Kabeer, is a guide for the modern employee, demystifying the angst and challenges and providing lessons, insights and solutions to personal and collective issues and problems. There are many reasons why Kabeer is just what the doctor ordered for corporate employees: First, Kabeer questions the individual before allowing him to question the world around him. Second, Kabeer does not give solutions, he only asks questions. Third, Kabeer is unpretentious.

Finally, Kabeer dealt with an extensive range of subjects that are still relevant to the modern employee – focus, determination, how to be a coach, how to be a good learner, and how to manage success, failure and stress. I have attempted to provide the reader with access to the treasures of Kabeer by not only translating the dohas (couplets), but also by interpreting them in the context of today’s world, and the modern employee