"My father's work was more than just a job for him. He was ten years old when India became independent, and approximately a dozen or so years later my father joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) as a civil servant.

To him, this was not a professional career choice, but a calling. There was the fervor of nation-building in the air, and he inhaled it all with an unwavering deep sense of passion and commitment throughout his life.

To him, land reforms, bonded labour abolition, watershed development, rural employment programs, self-help groups, disabled communities, and much more were not topics or portfolios, but his life's purpose.

He spent many years at India's National Academy of Administration, first as a student, then as junior faculty, and later as its director. He took great pride in all the people he trained at the institute.

He felt his work at the institute could have an amplifying impact by taking the most amazing talent that joined the IAS, shaping their mindset, and turning them into committed missionaries working and fighting for India's underprivileged people and regions.
He spent many years at India's National Academy of Administration, first as a student, then as junior faculty, and later as its director. He took great pride in all the people he trained at the institute.

He felt his work at the institute could have an amplifying impact by taking the most amazing talent that joined the IAS, shaping their mindset, and turning them into committed missionaries working and fighting for India's underprivileged people and regions.

He knew that those selected for the IAS possessed the capability to do the work, but it was the institution's purpose to translate that intellectual capability into the everyday actions of a committed civil servant.

What gave him deep satisfaction was not abstract, but the people he was working for and the impact that his work was having in their lives. The way he combined his work with his life's passions, and the deep meaning he derived from it, has been instrumental in shaping my own views of work and life.

He would say to me that life is a terminal condition, and no one makes it out alive. But one's life can speak to us by passing on what is most important about being human and how to live."

BN Yugandhar spent many years at India's National Academy of Administration, first as a student, then as junior faculty, and later as its director.
Mr Nadela said the most enduring of his father's life lessons was the need to keep an open mind and to keep curiosity alive throughout one's life.

"I work and live in a very different context and time. And yet I am guided by the lessons he taught me by living his life to fulfil his passions and principles," he said.

These words of wisdom are truly valuable even in today's age and time.