Lives Life in Bold Uppercase — Deep Kalra #JeenaIsiKaNaamHain

Having engaged with inspirational leaders for well over two decades, what I find striking is the unique trait or two that every leader brings in. As we all know, leadership has a common set of tools — a Playbook of sorts. But when you look deeper with an observant eye, you are likely to see something unique about the person (leader) that you will probably not see elsewhere.

With Deep Kalra, it’s about typing in lowercase (in messages) — probably a reminder that the massively famous brand that he has built out of India and got listed on the NASDAQ, makemytrip, is in lowercase too.

Well, I am just guessing, and it may well be that it’s just a habit and nothing as deep as I am suggesting.

The hospitality industry is about caring and when you interact with Deep, his friendly gaze is always on you, trying to absorb the information to see what valuable insights can be quickly churned and acted upon.

Yes, to create the proverbial customer delight!

He is an incredibly caring human being and never misses an opportunity to create personalized moments be it in the form of greetings, gift hampers, kind words, et al.

The other incredible aspect is his commitment to routine affairs. At NASSCOM when we started the NASSCOM Internet Working Group, there was an occasion when I inadvertently missed out on a call, but he was there which left me red-faced. I apologized later and he was very sporting and made me feel at ease. Today, we spend the greater part of the day in collaborative platforms, but this was a different time — more than a decade back — when online meetings had a very different connotation.

Going back nearly twenty years, I think it was in 2004 when Sangeeta Gupta and I went to meet him in his office which was at Adchini (at that time), near IIT Delhi. Many IT companies had their first offices there. We were trying to pitch to him to be a NASSCOM member and he listened to what we had to say with great intent even though, we didn’t have a specific value proposition for Internet companies in those early days.

Fast forward to 2006–7, it was at NTLF (NILF those days) when I got him to moderate a session on product companies and he was very happy. The outcome was positive but more so it was serendipity that I could leverage. He was in Mumbai that day and had a return flight to catch but we worked around his tight schedule and got him to moderate. The attendees and co-panelists were very happy too and later, a lot of companies reached out to him which set in motion a flurry of activities in the coming years — NASSCOM Internet Working Group, NCR Gurgaon Council, NASSCOM EMERGE Friday Sessions, and with TiE — India Internet Day. I have also had the privilege of working closely with him in these initiatives and learnt a lot under his leadership.

Deep is a DOER. He follows through with what he believes in and never shies away from rolling up his sleeves and getting into the action.

I think it was in 2015 when I messaged him and didn’t get a reply. I thought he was upset with me about something, so I let it pass. I met him again after a couple of years and he was his usual warm self. Passingly, I mentioned about the missed message and asked him if he was cross with me. Affably he waved it away and I realized that we frequently jump to conclusions and it’s better to always talk it out with the individual concerned and clear all doubts.

A deeply caring man, that’s Deep Kalra for you. There’s much to learn from him — how life is to be lived, legacies are built and nurture people in a way that earns prestigious laurels such as Great Place to Work.

Deep here’s wishing you great health, happiness and success!