Overview
- Kalyan Chakrabarti, chief executive of Emaar India, posted on LinkedIn this month that a chance conversation on a 2014 Bengaluru–Delhi flight changed how he thought about health and happiness and the post was picked up by multiple news outlets.
- Chakrabarti says the man beside him, an unnamed senior scientist from the Defence Research and Development Organisation, dismissed career titles and asked, “What do you do for your health and happiness?”
- The scientist told Chakrabarti to “buy a good pair of shoes and start running” and described a decades‑long routine of early-morning long runs and more than 100 marathons as his model of discipline.
- Chakrabarti says he followed the advice the next morning, began with very short runs of about 50 metres, built endurance over weeks, and finished the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in under three months.
- The story has drawn positive reactions on LinkedIn and in the press because it frames simple, repeatable habits and unexpected mentorship as a route to better wellbeing and steady change.