BOOM Edition 3 September 2016 Issue | Page 16

C H I T C HAT Something like fire T HE EARLY YEARS “Let me set the record straight, I don’t consider myself to have a stellar academic background,” says the man who got A’s in his O and A levels, graduated from Harvard University and went on to write a novel. From the very beginning of the conversation, Ali Sethi keeps making excuses for his success, accrediting the responsibility to someone, or something else. When he does take ownership of his achievements, he has a calculated, almost mathematical explanation for the world around him. An epiphany came to him very early in life, when he was almost as young as 15 years old and on the verge of failing 10th grade. He only had an A in English but was failing everything else. It’s not like Sethi was a complete failure of a student; his area of expertise was just always towards the arts: music, painting, writing – and the arts were never encouraged at Aitchison, where Sethi studied. The Principal one day called him in his office and said: “Sonny boy, this is no good. I know you can do it all. If you can cross this bridge, the future will become easier. Then you can finally go on to do the things you want to do, but this you have to do in order to get there.” Sethi stayed up all night thinking about what he