Beyond B-schools

Books are flowing from IIT and IIM portals. And they are for the masses       
By Mandira Nayar  in The Week dated 25th Jan 2009

Dil Chahata Hai changed everything. The movie not only proved that Aamir Khan-with the right haircut and the facial hair-can believably pass for a 25-something, but also that the young in their eccentricity have their own vocabulary. The DCH moment opened up doors for writers and film directors to finally use personal experiences to tell India’s urban story.

Rohithari Rajan, 29, an IIM-A graduate, probably never realised selling soap had fringe benefits (other than rare free samples). Stranded in villages he could barely identify on a map on a rural stint with Hindustan Unilever, Rajan decided to venture into a territory that his degree would have never prepared him for-fiction. Read more

Thoroughly Enjoyable – Deccan Herald

Abhijit Bhaduri’s Married but Available takes off from where his first novel, Mediocre But Available ends with the protagonist Abbey completing his Management studies and heading towards the corporate world. This, however, is not a sequel, Bhaduri explains in the beginning, but the second book in a series. As such you don’t have to read the first to understand the second.
Though the title of the book may suggest otherwise, Married But Available, is the tame story of Abbey’s professional as well as personal experiences as a freshly minted MBA. Bhaduri’s explanation of the interesting circumstances under which the book was named, sets the tone of the book.  Read more

Women Read More Fiction Than Men

Deccan Herald reviewed Married But Available in its Sunday paper dated Jan 25, 2009. Veena Pradeep says

“You may however be left with this vague feeling that this is more of a guy’s book rather than a gal’s. If writings of women about and for women that are also read by men are called Chick Lit, what would writings of men about and for men that are also read by women be called? In a way, Abhijit Bhaduri and his ilk may have spawned this new genre of Indian fiction. Can we call it Guy Lit for want of a better term?”
I generally get a little wary about classifying books, music, movies into genres and compartments. It is the equivalent of stereotypes that makes us pre-judge a person. We have a liberal list of stereotypes about countries, ethnic groups, gender and any other grouping possible.  Each stereotype puts a set of limitations around what we expect that group to be capable of or not even when it is a positive expectation. When it works in our favor we don’t mind the categorization and yet bristle with indignity when the grouping puts us at a disadvantage.

So when my book is classified as “guy lit” it automatically puts me at a disadvantage. Women will no longer read the book I fear. That knocks off half the human race from my readership and I will never make my millions in royalty . I ask Rascal Rusty for advice. He tells me that it is a good thing for my novel to be classified as “guy lit” because that will make more women read it. They would want to know how guys think. Who does not want to understand how the men in their world think or feel especially about them. I certainly hope he is right. 

Try this out for yourself. When you go to the bookstore the next time, politely enquire if they have more women buying the books or men. If the cashier is able to get past political correctness, you will hear what the NPR article  confirms what I have always noticed.

See what I mean, more women read fiction than men. Some biographies also may be passed off as fiction I suppose – just trying to defend the guys. Hey more guys than gals have read Harry Potter – doesn’t that count? The article hypothesises that women are comfortable with a wider range of emotions than men and perhaps they are buying the books for the men back home to read. Is that true for what you have seen?

“Surveys consistently find that women read more books than men, especially fiction. Explanations abound, from the biological differences between the male and female brains, to the way that boys and girls are introduced to reading at a young age.” says NPR. It further goes on to say, “The typical woman read nine books in a year, compared with only five for men. Women read more than men in all categories except for history and biography.”

Limiting as it is, a stereotype also helps us make sense of a really complex world and gives us the comfort of knowing what to expect. Classifying anything into groups makes it easy for shoppers to choose. So the person pushing the shopping cart around in the mall looks for the signage in the aisles that announces the contents on the shelves. In a library we like to make it easy for ourselves to choose the book we are looking for by identifying the classification. There can be some howlers in that. Games People Play – the 1964 classic by Eric Berne on the Psychology of Human Relationships was classified initially in the Sports section of our library until the Professor of Psychology intervened.

The final verdict: We may not like getting pigeonholed but it finally helps us make choices.

Who Wants to be a Manager?

Like the rest of the planet you started off your career at the bottom of the food chain. Everyone around in the office knew you weren’t expected to accomplish anything important in the first few days or even months. You were paid to just exist and crib – which you did in plenty. You cribbed to other low life around you and complained that you were underpaid and overworked even while you took long coffee breaks and longer lunch breaks. You complained how unfair life was treating you because you were doing all the grunge work while your manager got all the attention.

Read more

Slumdog Millionaire

Last week a delighted AR Rahman walked up to sign his name as the first Indian to win the Golden Globe. He won it for the song Jai Ho written by Gulzar. When Rahman dedicated the award to the country, he just floored the nation of a billion who were waiting with vicarious pride in having someone carve out a place for them in a club where membership is by invitation only. Read more