Rarely does a career span from commanding troops in active conflict zones to advising a global tech giant on cybersecurity strategy, but that is exactly what Colonel KPM Das has done.

His journey from joining India's National Defence Academy at just 16 years old to becoming National Cybersecurity Advisor at Cisco is genuinely remarkable.

In this episode, Das reflects on how the Academy's demanding structure (40 percent dedicated to physical training alone) forged a resilience that carried him through decades of service. He describes being posted to Nagaland and Manipur in 1979 during a period of active conflict, learning firsthand that military training doesn't eliminate fear but teaches you to manage it through teamwork. That lesson, that strength lives in teams rather than individuals, stayed with him ...