BRAToSPHERE

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  • The Dum Dum Bullet – Book Review

    After reading Konjo, by Sandeep Goyal, I was instantly curious to read up his previous book – The Dum Dum Bullet. I laid my hands on it recently and finished it within a week.

    The name of the book is from the bullet factory at DumDum Arsenal near Calcutta, where the author equates life in corporate to a bullet. The tagline of the book states – “Adventures of a corporate soldier” and who better than Sandeep to recount his adventures.

    Sandeep is the founding chairman of Dentsu India Group and was the CEO at Zee. Prior to this he served as the president of ad agency Rediffusion DY&R at a young ripe age of 35 itself.

    The book recounts an insider’s view of the dynamic advertising world in India through the 80’s to the 21st century. It is a real life account of life in advertising, and has an anecdotal style told in a humorous fashion. It has real life incidents involving many corporate doyens from Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal and corporate ranging from Citibank to Bhutan Board.

    The book gives a biographical feel, where the author recounts incidents and learnings right from his days as a management trainee in a paint company in the hiterlands of Rajasthan to his rise in the corporate world.

    Throughout the book Sandeep’s perseverance, his quick thinking and his fresh ideas come across. Right from the instance in Nerolac Paints, where a Calendar for the dealers was part of the annual marketing expense. Sandeep suggests shooting hot models on the calendar with Nerolac branding and personalizes it for the dealers with their names on it. The dealers now were purchasing the calendars in hordes as a gift item to their customers. An Expense item was now a sales item, with a much higher reach in terms of branding.

    Such simple ideas and wonderful execution is what set apart Sandeep from others.

    The book is a wonderful easy read for anyone interested in the basic working of corporate India, and especially the advertising industry.

  • Being Single and Happy

    As an afterthought to my previous post on the limitations of Being Single, I think being single also has its own charm. There are many a plus being singe – be it woman or man.

    This is like a dossier to those on a constant look for love. Well, wait a minute, catch a breath, not every grass on the side is actually green, even if it appears green. Appreciate the present being, and you would be much happier.

    How?

    1. Healthier social life

    We have all been there when a very good friend has ditched us in favour of the new found girlfriend. Single people have the liberty to meet anyone without any prejudices from the significant other. You are free to catch up with anyone you would like to meet at any time. No Obligation. You automatically become a part of all the guy’s night out playing poker with beer in your hands. No regrets or guilt at all. And no nagging phone calls in the middle of a wonderful hand.

    1. Allowed to flirt with anyone

    You like that hot girl in red top at a party. Go ahead, flirt with her as you are what they say in Dilli – “Khulla Saand”. All this innocent flirting, in spite of being innocent can lead non-singles to enough heartburn. Singles are in no place to get into such awkward situations. Be what you are wherever you are!

    1. Get all the “Me Time”

    You want to read the book tonight, or want to watch the entire season 5 of Game of Thrones this Saturday? You can if you are single. You get all the me time and are free to spend it watching mindless TV or sleep all day. Your time, your wish. Nobody interferes.

    1. Move geographies

    A good career opportunity but you would have to move cities? No problem. You can keep an auto yes mail with your boss. No questions asked, no need to discuss with anyone. It is worth the move, you move. No considerations!

    1. Do what you want, when you want

    You like being awake all night and sleep all day. Please do. You hate the sight of the mall? You don’t need to go on that road itself. You feel like eating pasta early morning, you shall eat it. Your wish is your command, and no one else’s wishes are into consideration. You do what you want, whenever you want, in the way you want it! That’s it. No questions to be answered.

    Looking at it, Being single seems like a great situation to be in.

    Well, as they say, every coin has two sides. Whichever relation status describes you presently, that is the best thing that could happen to you. No grass is green, it is all pale. Accept it and move.

    p.s.: Maybe, all grass is green. Does not maketh any difference

  • The Scion of Ikshvaku – Book Review

    After the hugely engaging and popular Shiva trilogy, I have been waiting for Amish’s next and was probably one of the first ones to pre-order the book on amazon. And Boy! He does not disappoint a bit. The simple language and familiar but still different story keeps you engaged right from the beginning.

    This book is the first in the Rama Chandra series, and narrates the most famous story of this part of the world – The Ramayana. Blending and telling the story like it was happening right in front of your eyes is a talent Amish has perfected. I still remember a colleague ecstatically mentioning Amish’s first Shiva book back in 2010 – “Have you heard of this new Shiva book? Shiva dances, smokes up and fights goons in it. You should read it.. “.

    This one is no different in that promise. Lord Rama, and the other characters of the pic are depicted as normal characters conversing in today’s language and talking normal basic world stuff. Amish does well to take the modern reader back to the original philosophical conundrums, especially when he explicitly puts these debates in a modern context.

    The integration of the infamous Delhi rape did look as a populist move but makes the reader think – How would a perfect society handle the situation?

    The first book details the epic through Ram’s childhood and education, along with the politics surrounding his ascension to the throne, and ultimately his 14 year exile, accompanied by wife Sita and brother Lakshman.

    The ending of the book is quite dramatized in a typical Bollywood movie style, where Ravan has kidnapped Sita and Ram looks up to see the Pushpak Viman flying away and is filled with rage.

    Looking at the pace of the series, my guess is that the second book would detail out the battle between Ram and Ravan, and the remaining three books, of the five part series, would dwell on the perfect society concept – Ram Rajya.

    Can’t wait for the next book!

  • Being Single

    As a continuation to my earlier post on Marriage Rights in India, let’s see how the single ones fare here.

    Talking about single, being Happily Married (a misnomer?) myself might seem contradictory but well, I just got married less than six months back. (Yes, a couple days more for six months, and I just realized this!). Now please, will you? Ignore smaller facts that I was not really single before the marriage too! Let’s move on? Shall we?

    Not having a boyfriend/girlfriend these days is such a trouble. Everyone in your peer starts doubting your straight preferences.

    People just can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that being single actually rocks! Really.

    Well, not really. There are many things like freedom, can-do-anything-anytime, can hit on anyone and the explorer mindset that can be explored if you are a single, but still there are some things where you’d prefer not being one. The fact that all of your friends are not in the single zone anymore adds to the misery.

    1. Restaurants – it is no fun ordering the entire Pasta at the newly opened Johnny Rockets all by yourself. It is too huge a portion anyways.
    1. Holidaying alone – Who does that? Well, I know backpacking is a wonderful kind of a holiday, and you explore wonderful things, but well, not all the time. There are times when you wished there is someone who could do the planning bit of the trip!
    1. Party – Well, pubbing without a partner is just no fun. Many hip pubs do not even allow single entry. Anyways, if drinking alone is the agenda why bother with a pub?
    1. A good listener – All of us have sometime been in a mood were we just want to rant off about the irritating colleague, and wished there was a patient ear to take it all. Well, as I had mentioned, friends no longer being single does not help a bit!
    1. Coffee? – If you are a single girl, well everyone and his cousin wants to ask you this question. Mostly everyone. And the ratio of jerks to non-jerks is no great in this country, so all the best to you. Guys, it is no fun here either. For once you would want to go to a pub and mind your own business on the dance floor rather than conducting a psychographic analysis of every single female sitting out there.

    I could go on with such instances, but the fact of the matter remains – being Single is no Fun.

    With these little thoughts to ponder on a beautiful Sunday evening, I am off to my Happy Married life. See you till then.

    p.s.: An afterthought tells me, things can be rosy being single too! Does grass always seem greener on the other side?

  • Who moved my Cheese – Book Review

    Had heard of this small tiny book long back, and I recently stumbled on it again on my bookshelf on the iPad. Right time I thought, as I was looking for something light and quick to read.

    This deceptive book is none of it. In spite of the small volume of the book, and a seemingly simple story, it takes you on a thinking spree and gets you completely in a reflective frame of mind.

    The book starts with a gathering of several former classmates, and their conversation leads them to work and relationships. Everyone seemed to be coping with the changes that were unexpectedly happening over the recent years. Most of them admit that they do not know how to handle this, and this is when the author recites them a short story.

    The story is about two mice – sniff and scurry, and two little men – Hem and Haw,  and their search for cheese. Initially they feast on what seems like a never ending station of cheese and they settle in, growing fat and lazy. One fine day the Cheese station becomes empty and the cheese is all gone. This is where the mice decide to put on their running shoes and start scouting for new cheese. Hem and Haw, on the other hand, sulk around the maze.

    After some time, Haw decides it is time to move on and puts on his running shoes accepting the fact that the cheese station is no longer going to be the same and he would have to work to look for a new source. Hem refuses to join his quest. Along the way, Haw finds small morsels of cheese but nothing that can sustain for long. He keeps searching and learns new truths which he keeps drawing graffiti of for Hem to follow, just in case. Examples of the life truths –

    If you do not change you become extinct

    Change happens

    Adapt and Enjoy Change

    In the end, Haw discovers an even bigger Cheese station and this time he is wise. He enjoys the cheese at this new station, but still keeps his running shoes ready for the time he might have to enter the maze again.

    The mice and the little men, in spite of the differences in their brain processing powers, woke up everyday searching for new Cheese. The mice did this immediately and the little men, using their complex brains, took some time to realize this reality – Change happens.

    The book continues with the room full of former classmates now reflecting on the story and draw parallelisms to the change in their own lives.

    Cheese here is the metaphor for everything we want in life – good job, loving relationship, money, health, peace, etc..

    The reality of life, very well explained through the simple story, is the fact that the cheese would keep moving and the sooner we adapt to the new environment, the higher the chances of attaining our goals.