The science of hyper-learning condensed in 52 Red Pills

The upper echelons of corporate service demand the highest levels of human cognitive and emotional performance, a fact that Eika and Siddharth Banerjee were well aware of. Eika, a CEO with one of India’s biggest conglomerates and Siddharth, a well-known corporate name in the FMCG and Technology sectors, both have all consuming jobs that threaten to disrupt the balance of their daily lives.

Their shared experiences in trying to achieve ‘work-life’ balance, the Holy Grail of the corporate world led them to discover the concept of hyper learning. Their conversation on New Year’s Eve of 2018 sparked a search for answers from experts and specialists in the fields of science, art, sports, medicine, and ancient wisdom.

They condensed their learnings and experiences on the subject and shared them in a book called ‘52 Red Pills: A New- Age Playbook to Become Healthy, Wealthy and Wise’ published by Pan Macmillan India.

Adgully recently caught up with Eika Chaturvedi Banerjee, CEO & Corporate Mythologist and Siddharth Banerjee, Global Business Leader and Bestselling Author to learn more about their new book.

What prompted you to write this book and what’s next for 52RedPills?

“Siddharth and I have been lifelong learners and as we have lived life together and evolved over our working and personal lives together for the past 20 years, we have undertaken many learning journeys. The 52 Red Pills hyper-learning journey across 52 weeks of 2018 was inspired by our desire to learn more into areas which made us healthy, wealthy and wise - combining insights from ancient Indian wisdom and contemporary Western knowledge. The personal journey became a community movement - and the community movement became a book at the end of 2019.” explains Eika.

“And let’s see - maybe 52 Red Pills will become a Podcast series and/or a Video series in 2020. Much excitement ahead.” adds in Siddharth.

Getting the nod from a publisher can be difficult. What was the response by Pan McMillan when you pitched the idea to them?

“We were very fortunate that our 52 Red Pills concept was already road-tested and the media had extensively covered our hyper learning journey before we had engaged with publishers.” explained Siddharth.

“Pan MacMillan loved the 52 Red Pills concept note and the contract got signed within a few days. We are grateful that we have a fabulous editor in Dr Avneet Kaur and a very dedicated marketing team led by Bharti at Pan MacMillan - who have then become integral members of the 52 Red Pills community and have powered the launch of the book in the last few weeks”, shares Eika with quiet excitement.

What can readers expect from the book?

“52 Red Pills is both an inspiration guide about our 52 weeks hyper learning journey  as well as a playbook for building your own 52 weeks journey. So you will find the 52 chapters to be short and concise and supported with stories and practice exercises. Readers will love the wisdom nuggets from experts and celebrities that we have shared in the book. Lastly, given that the book cannot cover topics in depth, we have provided reading and reference sources for further deep dive.

In summary, this is a practical book which we hope readers will use for useful takeaways for application into their daily lives. We have experienced the 52 Red Pills transformation and we would like to share it with the world.”

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