Aruna Jayanthi

"We have taken on 23,000 people, in addition to the 62,000 that we had. This has taken our combined strength to 85,000"

"I am leading the integration work in India"

"The global M&A team drove the deal. I was involved as it had a big impact on India"

"By January, we will start operating as a single company"

"But that's a very small part of what we do in India"

"We do more work for global clients out of India"

"There was no point in getting into an argument with this opinionated, old-fashioned lady. But women feel a lot of such pressures. You can’t be just strong, you have to be super-strong and be extremely determined to overcome these challenges"

"May be because I never really faced them. I come from an environment where you are treated as an individual — you do what you have to do"

"So I have no nice story to tell you about how I overcame anything"

"But then I realized there was some merit in talking to women, people who are thinking of leaving for family and such reasons, and tell them it was high time they stood up for themselves"

"But I have seen women in our offices in Bangalore and Chennai also feel the family pressure"

"So I worked from home till one day before my daughter was born. And three weeks after she was born I was back at work, in the office. I had worked two months from home and I was going nuts. I had to see my colleagues. I was sick of being in conference calls and on email"

"My daughter may be the greatest looking thing on Earth, but you can’t spend 18 hours a day looking at her. It’s also social conditioning that makes you feel that the baby needs you. I figured out that the baby doesn’t even need you. They just need someone to wash them and take care of them"

"There is no glass ceiling. It is a myth. If it exists, it is in your head. I have worked in the IT industry for the last 27 years, and I know it doesn’t exist. Our growth rates are so high, our industry is so hungry for talent, why would there be any discrimination? Get over this.”“Wipe out any guilt today. Even if you have an iota of it, you will hesitate"

"I don’t like this job at hand right now, let me go somewhere else I am not sure this is always the right way to look at things. You have to take a much broader view of your career. I am not saying that people should not change jobs, you can and you should. But take a much broader view of your career, and focus on the big picture"

"I don’t care about the environment, but I will make it work"

"Go get the job done, who cares whether you come to office at 7 or you don’t come to office at all"

"And finally, one has to have fire in the belly and a strong desire to succeed – without that you don’t get anywhere"