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