My Life in Full - Autobiography of Indra Nooyi

Yesssss, finally, someone wrote about a single Indian woman’s experience in US (those who went during the pre-social media era). Experiences such as: picking and paying for food at the checkout, operating coffee machines, finding vegetarian food, eating a pizza with Mozerella cheese and wondering what’s so special about it, deciding what to wear, making friends from around the world, questioning the profs and having conversations with a diverse set of people. This is something that I felt genuinely connected to and it kept me glued to the book, *My Life In Full by Indra Nooyi*.

In her autobiography, Indra Nooyi, the ex-CEO of PepsiCo, is open and honest about her journey from growing up in India to becoming one of the most admired women business leaders in the world.

Her message is clear - that everyone must internalise (and act on) the fact that despite women being half of the world’s citizens, they are not proportionally equal part of its economic growth. Thus, when women choose to work our society must encourage them, and make it safe for them to go to work. This would lead to a more egalitarian society and a country’s full potential can be realised.

I enjoyed reading the many wonderful stories of Ms Nooyi’s life, though I skimmed the pages where she got a little too business-y. Its heartening to learn that with proper support systems in place (such as more good quality child and elderly care centres), we don’t have to struggle with having a good balance between work and family time, as the author felt throughout her own career.

As for the US experience, just as Ms Nooyi started liking baseball, tennis and ball room dancing in US as a way to know their pop culture, for me, it was basketball, marathon movie nights, ping pong, pool and racquet ball. A slight reminiscence of a slice of my past was quite nice.