IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath, who was in the city on Monday for a special lecture on globalisation, startled the audience by speaking in flawless Kannada for sometime.
Though it was a prepared text, she spoke fluently with the right diction and accent which won a round of applause from the audience. But she switched to English after stating (in Kannada) that having lived abroad for nearly 25 years, her Kannada was weak.
Recalling her formative years in India, Ms. Gopinath said: “I am very much a Mysuru girl. I went to Nirmala Convent and studied in Mahajana’s College, then left Mysuru for Delhi. But my fondest memories of growing up are from Mysuru and I always look forward to combing back and it is a very special place.”
She had a word of advice for youngsters and students one of whom wanted her suggestions on becoming leaders in future.
“Be unique to be a future leader. Remember to cultivate your own strengths and develop skills and specialities that is unique to your own background and culture’’, she advised.
Ms. Gopinath said there was no substitute to hard work.
People who have accomplished have tremendous amount of hard work behind them, she added, calling upon students to be ‘irrationally’ optimistic. “Some are naturally optimistic but I was pessimistic and have trained my mind to be optimistic,” she quipped.
Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University University K.R.Venugopal released a book ‘Bharath: Global Ambitions and Local Challenges’ on the occasion.
