This TCS storyteller had once given up on life

If Sunil Robert Vuppula had not shown a steely resolve to take charge of his life in his early days, he believes he would have been either languishing in Cherlapally jail in Hyderabad, or doing some odd jobs in the city. Childhood was tough, as his father had lost his job. It was an uphill task for the family to eke out a living. Vuppula didn’t have any great company either and he lived in a state of constant rage. He even tried to commit suicide once, but was saved in the nick of time.

To make matters worse, he had to study a subject he wasn’t interested in. “I went to a polytechnic college. My parents thought it would help me quickly earn and support the family. But I hated electronics. Eventually, I said no to government jobs in the Railways and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) because I had hated the three years of polytechnic and I did not want to commit to another few years of soldering electronics and making printed circuit boards,” he says.

Friends and family thought Vuppula was committing career suicide by tossing away government jobs. But Vuppula was keen on finding his “true calling.” The one thing that Vuppula would look forward to was the weekly sessions at the Young Orators Club at the YMCA, where he would come across the best minds of the city debating, and practising public speaking. “That was an intellectually fertile club. It exposed me to philosophy, politics, economics and many more subjects,” he says. They also helped him sharpen his English language skills.

There was no looking back from here. He went ahead and did an MBA. And a Masters in communication at the Osmania University, where he bagged four out of the five gold medals that year.

His passion for communication, writing and storytelling opened many doors for him in the corporate world, and eventually took him to the UK and the US. He also wrote a book, ‘I Will Survive,’ which was endorsed by Ratan Tata.

Sunil is now in charge of products and platform marketing at TCS in the US. He also coaches other marketers in storytelling skills, so that they can engage with clients better.

And when he is not telling stories or coaching others, Vuppula loves to volunteer at the East Jersey State Prison at New Jersey where he teaches communication skills to the prisoners to help them cope with the outside world once they are free.

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