We stood on either end of a bed of broken glass that glinted menacingly in the morning light. Motivational guru Priya Kumar tossed back her blonde tresses, kicked off her stylish high heels, looked me in the eye and said, “This is it. This is how you do it.” And then as casually as one strolls in the garden, she put one foot on the bed of glass, then another and then a third and waltzed over to my side. “Your turn,’’ she smiled as Jeet, her associate, brushed off some of the tiny fragments sticking to her soles.

Well, I had travelled from Pune to Mumbai lured by the promise of learning to walk on broken glass—one of the many strategies that Priya uses to turn dispirited employees of big corporate houses into go-getters. But this command threw me off balance. My turn? But how? “Just how I did it,’’ she replied. But…but where’s the trick, I spluttered suddenly not feeling half as plucky as I had in her office an hour ago. “There is no trick, my dear. You just have to trust yourself and your natural instinct. This is just what walking on glass teaches you. Go on.”

I didn’t like this at all. Priya wasn’t telling me all. There must be some trick—-coating my soles with some protective ointment or perhaps hypnosis? “Look what is the worst that can happen? At the most you will cut your foot. It will be a one-inch deep cut that will require two stitches.  You won’t be able to walk for a week. That’s it. You won’t die!” she said. And this from an ace motivational speaker.

... contd.