Rajani Nagesh Tadimalla

We are much more than our profession.

Human being first. My career started with a corporate banking firm soon after I finished MBA, which was promising. This was after a 45-minute interview, which was actually a wonderful discussion. However, I decided to be with my family in Bhilai and be of practical help to one of my parents who was recovering from an accident and who was a great source of inspiration. Consequently, I left before I can get the official joining letter, which was pending receipt of MBA result card by informing Mr Shankaran, the then relationship manager at BBK Hyderabad, who appreciated my frankness. As such, this doesn’t appear in the formal resume. I don’t have any regrets and I cherish that I was of practical help to my parent and family. Later, I cleared the written test for the Staff Selection Examination yet couldn’t make it to the post-interview shortlist. After briefly working with an auditor and taking home tuitions, I appeared in an aptitude examination for a six-month course conducted by SIDBI at IIT Kharagpur. While I cleared the test, the concerned faculty advised me to reconsider as I already had an MBA degree. This was again a rare suggestion. I came back to Hyderabad and got an opportunity at ICICI Bank after clearing a computer-based written test, which was followed by an interview. Fortunately, I escaped unhurt in a bus accident near Nagpur while travelling to formally join the bank. I consider this as a turning point because in an instant moment, things could have gone either way. It was a fascinating experience to communicate with people while working at ICICI and to understand the effort that is involved in developing various innovative banking products. The opportunity to work in publishing came with the ICFAI University Press (Selected after clearing written test and interview. Roles: Research Associate and Senior Research Associate). While I cleared the written test when I gave it for the first time, I couldn’t appear for the interview as I couldn’t get leave on the date of interview. At ICICI, our division was working in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Due to some elections in the former, all leaves for Hyderabad team were cancelled on that day. It was a great experience at ICICI and when I visited one of the branches later, I was proud of the Bank. I appeared and cleared the written test as well as the interview when applications were invited again at ICFAI. My MBA background helped me in understanding the working of the wider academic publishing industry. This was followed by a tenure at EC-Council (Selected after clearing written test and interview. Role: Assistant Editor) and Oxford University Press (Selected after clearing written test and online interview. Roles: Associate Editor, Editor, and Senior Editor). I cherish the value addition gained from working in various editorial roles and teams in various organizations, namely ICICI, ICFAI, EC-Council, and Oxford University Press. It was great to be part of various editorial teams and to work with authors, faculty members, copyright, design, operations, administration, communication, development, commissioning as well as freelancers, typesetters, and vendors. After the initial contribution to books and magazines in 2007, I realized that I had something valuable to contribute to the world and turned to writing on various topics. From writing articles, book chapters, seminar papers, blogs, white papers, editing modules, to editing manuscripts, reviewing edited manuscripts, letters on causes, microblogs, I worked on a wide range of subjects, themes, and ideas. Now with authoring books, there are many bridges to cross and valleys to discover with letters and words. Nature is precious and has been a part of life from an young age. Sustainable and eco-friendly way forward is important for the planet earth. Many publishers develop print as well as digital formats of the written word. It is a great feeling to hold the physical copy of a book that one has contributed by way of authoring or in various ways. I have gratis copies of books and magazines that include my earlier contributions. At the same time, the working of my division at ICICI as well as my work at EC-Council was paperless. I prefer e-books for my authored works. Some books may have audio versions in future depending on the theme and the page extent.

We are fortunate to have many languages. Yet we often come across debates on languages. Some languages are at the verge of extinction. My endeavour is to come up with works in my mother tongue telugu as well as in several Indian and other languages. I don’t wish to limit myself to a particular genre or category. If people are wondering on science topics in non-fiction, I was a science student who chose commerce stream instead of science after tenth as there was a craze for CWA, CS, and CA courses in those days. I do keep track of developments in biological and other sciences. Similarly, quantitative techniques was a subject in MBA and CWA stage 2. Hopefully, we will come across some fascinating discoveries. My writing projects are my own ideas. Living beings do face challenges occasionally. It’s a comeback time after an injury. Still I went out of my way to communicate on various national and international topics, which is a thankless activity. My gratitude to all who had the faith. To the rest, my work during my lifetime is the only response that I prefer. There are many other additional ways to contribute to the society, nation, and the world. I qualified in the Andhra Pradesh SET (Examination Centre wherein appeared: Visakhapatnam. Mode of Test: Offline OMR-based at the Centre) and UGC NET Exam (Examination Centre wherein appeared: Bhilai. Mode of Test: Online Computer-based at the Centre), which opens up the possibility of a combination of teaching (subject to application and recruitment process) and contributing further academic or related work as well as publishing various forms of literary and non-fiction work.

Wars can destroy lives and places. All lives are precious and I support peaceful resolution of conflicts amongst countries. With gratitude to be a citizen of an independent country, I believe India together with other nations can play a greater role in promoting peace and stability in the world. Our world can be a much better place to live in.