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One Day At A Time
HOW does a
corporate journo even attempt to review a piece of work that takes in an
entire era in a nation’s history and also gives the reader his own era
in his path to the eternal one and the legacy he leaves behind? that is
the dilemma faced as one attempts a review of One Day At A time, the
biography on the life and times of S K Birla and his wife
Sarladevi. What you do do, is take its leaves between the palms of your
hand, take in one verse at a time, One Day At A Time, (ODAAT)
and let it take you, one step at a time, in your onward journey. And
what is this work? Is it a biography, a corporate chronicle, a prayer
book, a piece of meditation? Perhaps it is all of the above and more. One
Day At A Time, penned by Ingrid Alberqueque-Solomon chronicles the
life and times of S K Birla and his wife Sarladevi and their bretheren.
It also chronicles her own life. Perhaps few biographies give as much
space to the author as its protagonists. But thats how the Birlas are,
always more time for others than themselves. For Ingrid, ODAAT,
began with her questioning of two beliefs — that business enterprise
turns all good men into devils and that only Christians will go up to
heaven. She says she "found herself demolishing both." Also
she says "In them Christianity and Hinduism meet and the former
stands like a flower on an Indian stem". For S.K. Birla, ODAAT
was the outcome of his need for a "biography that came out
while I am alive unlike others written about those gone." Says he
in the book "I wanted to know what people say about me while I am
still alive". Says daughter-in-law Rajashree, ODAAT has the
best "takeaway anyone can give — an offering of
spirituality." Says Kumaramangalam and his wife — "It is my
tribute to my grandparents". Says P.K.D. Lee, Vice President of
International Development, Haggai Institute, Atlanta Georgia, who wrote
the foreward to the biography, "it is a goldmine into the emotions
and passions of a leading business family". ODAAT does not
take the Fifth Amendment... it gives to its readers the Fifth
Commandment and all the others. It wishes to, along with the Birlas
inculcate in the readers "a need to leave a legacy of spiritual
richness in place of material wealth". For the historian, it
chronicles details and data, for the corporate historian it offers
business insights, for the ordinary man it offers prayers and words with
which to reach your Maker. Singularly, it offers a single parent
meaningful interpretations of the Word of God. One Day At A Time
is the culmination of five years of association between t Ingrid and the
Birla family. Its a freewheeling, anecdotal biography of the doyen and
‘first lady’ Sarladevi. "They gave me full freedom to be
everywhere", she says. It is embellished with photographs,
transcripts of personal letters, verses from The Bible. Its 34O
pages have been bound in shades of red and black. The book jacket
describes it as "culling the lives of Ingrid’s subjects S K Birla
and his wife under the relentless microscope of God’s Holy
Word". Ingrid, is writer, businessperson, Founder of effective
single parenting, and is on the faculty of Haggai Institute.— PTI
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