Ravi Subramanian's Blog

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For the past few years, my daughter and I have been going for movies almost every  weekend. Apart from popcorn, pepsi and pizza, it is also our own little bonding time. We would intentionally choose a theatre reasonably far from home. The drive back home, the fight over the silly millennial songs vs Hindi music,  late night coffee (if we made it to a Starbucks before closing time) was all part of the fun. We would watch all kinds of movies…. the good, the bad, the horrible… all of them. The fun of the outing, kind of overshadowed the movie. Even though we would normally pick Bollywood over Hollywood, the movie in itself never mattered much. Well for better part of the last few years this was the way it was.

Of late, things have changed. The movies have started taking the ‘fun’ out of our outings.

A few months back we watched Dear Zindagi. Then Raees.  And then came Naam Shabana. Then Phillauri…Then TubeLight…just to name a few.  And in the last one week – Mubarakan, Dunkirk and Jab Harry Met Sejal.

I haven’t walked out on a movie in a long long time. When I watched Phillauri, I wanted to, but I controlled the urge and stayed back till the end. But Tubelight…. Well I couldn’t take it. I walked out of the  movie hall just after the interval.  You can ask me why I walked out after the interval and not during the interval. Would have been a logical break. Well the reason was simple. We ordered pizza during the interval. And the pizza took time in coming. So we sat there, enjoyed our pizza and then exited the theatre. Salman Khans histrionics (or lack of it) got to us.

Last night, the familiar feeling was back. Well into the second half of Jab Harry Met Sejal, SRK asks Anushka…”Tired?” At that moment, I almost felt like standing up and responding … “YES. Very!” Something kind of gave me the feeling that all the people in the audience felt the same.

When I sit back and try to analyse what’s going wrong, two words stare at me – STORY and RESEARCH.

In recent times, most movies coming out of bollywood have either been a rehash of the age old plots or they don’t have a plot. Weak characterisation clinging on to a wafer thin plot cannot make entertaining cinema irrespective of who the lead is. Or is it that if you have a SRK or Salman in a movie, the plot does not matter? Audience tastes are changing. People prefer to watch taut plots, made in a slick fashion. Two hour thirty minute movies are passe. Just because you have SRK in a Jab Harry Met Sejal, you can’t pass off a 90 minute documentary as a 150 minute full length feature. As far as Tubelight is concerned, Well. Come on! I don’t even want to waste  a minute of my time writing about it.

And research. Well they have a word for lack of research these days. It is called creative licence. Well creative license is fine, as long as you don’t show a 30 year old woman, going to a cafe in a god forsaken country to hunt for a ring she lost, god only knows when. Not once in the movie did they feel it necessary to call the places they went to and check if the ring was found there. Not only that, they even show the lead protagonists visiting cafe after cafe, going down on their knees and hunting for the ring. As if it would be lying there waiting for SRK and Anushka to come and pick it up.  Isn’t that an insult to the audience’s intelligence.  They also have a crazy interlude with a villain called GAS (how creative?) in Portugal. And why did they need him in the movie? Just because Imtiaz Ali needed an excuse for Sejal to empty her bag and find the ring in it. Well couldn’t you have found a nicer and better way to do that. And you have the entire SRK – GAS interaction that supposedly happens in Portugal, shot not in Portugal but in the Taj Tea House (St John Baptist Marg) in Bandra, Mumbai. Come one guys! don’t take the audience for a ride. Yes SRK looks great, the dimples adorable, the heroine is a terrific actress… but then no story, no research and no chemistry. You might still get to a 200 crore topline, but that does not say anything about the movie which was complete trash – remember even Dhoom3 grossed over 300 crores.

Well, it is not like I have never watched mindless films. I used to be a big fan of Govinda movies. And I loved them because when I went to watch them, I went prepared. I left all the logic back in my car, before I walked into the theatre.  But when movies pretend they are intelligent and end up being crappy, it hurts. Makes you angry.

Why can’t Bollywood innovate? While Amir Khan has done duds too, his movies largely stand out compared to the others because of the plots and impeccable research.

Our film industry seriously seems to have gone bankrupt as far as plots are concerned. If story/plot is really where the buck stops, then why don’t our film makers look at books. When we have so many authors in this country writing brilliant books, plot fabulous stories – some which sell some which don’t – why can’t film makers pick up those books and turn them into movies. You will definitely end up making films which look, sound and feel better than the ones I named above. It is ironical that there is an ocean of wealth available, but the filmmakers won’t adapt them, but make idiotic films instead.

Films truly need a reboot.  Let me ask you a simple question – how long back was the last original Bollywood thriller that you watched. I am sure it will be difficult for you to answer. If anyone of you says “Drishyam”…. well Drishyam was a remake of a Malayalam film by the same name, which was inspired (loosely though) by Devotion of Suspect X ( A book by Keigo Higashino). A good number of Hollywood movies these days are adaptation of books. Why not in Bollywood? Time to introspect.

In India we have so many stories / authors ( across multiple languages), that it can feed generations of film makers and movie goers. But its a bit like the wealth hidden in the underground vaults of the Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple. The wealth there is in excess of USD 20 Billion dollars, but it has no developmental use unless the government figures out a way to use it. Similarly all our stories and story telling capabilities built over generations are useless, if no one wants to bring them out and give them a wider canvas.

If film makers continue to remain agnostic to book adaptations, films like Jab Harry Met Sejal and Tubelight will continue to be made while what could have been excellent film scripts, will continue to gather dust on some remote shelf in the bookstores.

 

Note : While things are changing on this front… the pace needs to be frantic compared to the current pace of adaptations. There are truckloads of stories waiting in the wings.

Read my latest thriller : IN THE NAME OF GOD … click to order 

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26th June 2017, as my latest thriller novel, In The Name Of God eased into the bookstores and even as the online preorder deliveries began, the significance of the occasion was not lost on me. It was on the same day, 10 years back that I stood on the small dais at Crossword Book Store, Kemps Corner, Mumbai, launching my first book. I stood there like a hero. A proud author flaunting his achievement. His first book. Little did I know that life for me would change that very instant. Readers, books, publishers – new friends from a world completely alien to me – would take over my life and turn it around by a complete 180 degrees.

Writing has been great fun. Yes it has taken its toll. I have had to give up a lot of things in life – family time, social life, weekends, sleep etc etc. Yet, I always come to the conclusion that everything that I gave up to write these books has been worth its weight in gold. Therefore it is quite fitting that my ninth book (12th including translations) which released on the day I completed ten years in this industry, is called IN THE NAME OF GOD.

God has been kind. He better be – I featured him in the titles of three of my books: If God was a Banker, God is a Gamer and now In the Name of God.

My writing career has taught me a lot. To write better is just one of them. Writing has taught me things which I would never have learnt in the course of my normal life and career – yes I am one of those who juggles a corporate life with his writing career.

Humility always pays: The problem with most senior management in corporates – I was one of them – is that they neither tolerate nor encourage dissent and debates. In fact they desist it. Without realizing that the aura surrounding you has more to do with the chair you occupy, you feel invincible. On the other hand, when you write, you are pretty much naked out there. Vulnerable. People don’t care about who you are, what you do, your level in an organization, etc etc. If they don’t like what you have written, they’ll tear it apart. And often criticism can be very disturbing. You need to be prepared for that. Your Vice President, or CEO tag will not work in the world of writing. I learnt it quickly. My first few reviews were terrible. I, arrogantly and with the swag of a MNC honcho countered the feedback. Fell flat on my face. That’s when I learnt that writing is a great leveler. It needs you to be humble. Accept the good with the bad. It has taught me not to fly too high when people praise your work and not slump into a corner when people criticize your work. You take it on your chin, improve and move on. Isn’t that what humility is all about?
You don’t compete with other authors, you compete with yourself: In my initial days I would compare my sales figures with other authors, and I guess many did with mine. It didn’t take time to realise it is pointless. Writing, contrary to popular belief, is not a very competitive field. In the corporate world pyramidal structures demanded that you go up at the expense of someone else. Jobs are fewer higher up and you need to be seen as better than your peers. In the world of writing, an Amish’s success or failure is not dependent on a Chetan’s success or lack of it. They chart their own course. So do I. A reader who reads my work is not going to drop me to read any of the other authors, as long as I make sure that my stories keep him excited and enthused. I do compete – but only with myself. And whats even better, I have made more real friends here than in the corporate world.
Don’t fake it : Don’t try to be who you aren’t. Just because a particular genre sells well, or just because the media loves a certain type of author, don’t try to ape. Don’t try to be what you are not. The reason I say this is because, you cannot fake it for long. The problem with lying is that the ability to connect all the lies in a cohesive story diminishes with every subsequent lie. The best way to deal with it is just be what you are. Don’t pretend. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take risks. By all means, please do. But there isn’t any point in churning out a potential bestseller if it doesn’t contain a piece of the author himself.
Good buzz can sell a product once : Just once though. These days, a lot of authors focus on a fab marketing campaign. Yours truly is guilty as well. Trailers, glitzy launches, contests, FB live, film stars and what not. Nothing wrong with that. But when you do that, remember that readers are buying into the campaign, trusting you and picking up your book. However, if they feel that the product is inferior and not up to the mark, they will lose faith in you. A great marketing campaign will definitely make readers pick up the book, but it may not make them fall in love with it.
Spend your time writing a good book: At the end of the day, you’re an author and an author’s job is to write good books. Live, breath and consume the book you write until you’re satisfied with it because if you aren’t, no amount of marketing and glamour is going to help you uplift it. And like they say, love your own book before you expect others to do the same.
Don’t try to change the world: It is not a prerequisite for an author. Most authors try to change the world. They believe that they can do so. Yes, writing does influence thoughts, create public perceptions and ultimately bring about change. But going in hypothesis cannot be that of changing the world. Writers write about what they believe in and people get influenced and pick up the strings. For most writers who changed the world, writing was one of the tools they used – but it wasn’t the only one. Remember most popular fiction writers of today didn’t start off with a message in their writing.
Know your limitations : You can’t be everything to everyone. Know your limitations. Not for a moment am I saying that you need to be defensive about your skills. If we box ourselves, we will never improve. At the very least, it is important to know what you can do or what you can’t. In a conversation with a good friend and another thriller writer, while discussing two popular romance writers in the country, I said, “we can never write like them.” And this friend replied, “But you know Ravi, they also can never write like you.” Fair point. Again, know your skills. Hone them. But always be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. This takes me back to an earlier point- don’t be what you are not. Writing is all about honesty.
Help mentor new writers : When I published my first book in 2007, I had no clue how to go about it. Honestly, not much has changed. How to get a book published remains the biggest concern of most aspiring authors. If you are a published author, you are in a position where you can help new authors reach out their manuscripts to the publishers. You can atleast mentor them on the do’s and don’t’s of the industry. You can help connect them with the right people. Don’t shy away from that. We owe it to the trade. To the new authors. I have realized that a lot of people have played a role in helping me get to this stage in my writing career. It is time to give back to the industry that has given me so much. It is time to help others get on to the bus. The more the merrier.
Never give up your day job to take up writing : I will NEVER give up my day job to take up writing. Yes I make enough money as a writer to take care of my needs. But the day I give up my day job, writing will lose the element of fun and spontaneity and become a job for me. Something from which I HAVE to earn money. And the moment the commercial pressures set in – fun goes out of the window. And I am in it for the fun. It is better that way.
Write for the right reasons : Never write for money. Rather, never write with the intention of making your millions here, especially when you are a new writer. Write because you want to. Write because you like writing and are passionate about it. Write because you have a story to tell. If you succeed, money will come. In the entire world, only a small percentage of writers make a living from writing. If you get into that list, wonderful. If you don’t, at least you can enjoy the experience of being a writer. And trust me, it’s a very addictive life.

Ten Years, nine books, millions of readers, countless friends and an identity which I cherish, is what writing has given me. And this is so close to my heart that I will never trade this off for anything else in this world.

 

I wrote this article for Telegraph and this came out in print on 24th July 2017

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Buy IN THE NAME OF GOD, my latest thriller: Click Here 

*** As it appeared in Mumbai Mirror ***

Fiction writers are always advised to write what they know about. But what if you are tackling unfamiliar terrain? Ravi Subramanian has a few answers.

Two years ago, on a rainy July afternoon, I stepped out of my hotel in Thiruvananthapuram and asked the cab driver to take me to the iconic Sree Pamanabha Swamy Temple. I was in the city to get first-hand information about the temple, the world’s richest religious institution, with wealth in excess of $20 billion stashed away in its sealed vaults. Stories about the temple and its riches had intrigued me enough for me to make up my mind that my next thriller was to be in the backdrop of the mysterious temple.

“Where from, saar? Mumbai?” the overenthusiastic cab driver asked me. And without waiting for me to answer, he said, “Not many people come to visit the temple during the rains.”

I did not respond to any of his questions. A few minutes of uncomfortable silence ensued after which I asked him, “Who killed the autorickshaw driver?” The driver slammed the brakes, turned on impulse and looked at me. “Police?” he asked me, suspiciously.

I shook my head. “No.” I said. “Writer. I write stories.”

Maybe there was a sense of honesty in the way I said it, or maybe he realised that I posed no danger to him. Either way, he relaxed visibly and started driving. An autorickshaw driver’s body had been found in Padma Teertha Kulam, the holy pond of the temple some time ago, and people suspected it had something to do with the temple wealth and issues surrounding it. Once the cab driver was comfortable, he sang like a canary. While most of what he spoke about the murder of the autorickshaw driver was based on hearsay, the fact remains that speculation is also a form of storytelling. It is nothing but an idle mind’s creativity. I was keen on figuring out the way the poor man’s body was discovered. The cab driver also gave me interesting insights into the discovery of the enormous amount of wealth, which made the obscure temple metamorphose into an overnight sensation. Most of what the cab driver told me on that fateful day has become a part of my thriller, In The Name Of God, lending it a realistic touch.

Asking around is not always the best way for carrying out onsite research, especially if one is working on a sensitive subject. The same day, while digging for more information on the temple and the wealth therein, I landed at a curio shop just outside the Padmanabha Swamy Temple entrance. Even though I was under the impression that I was asking around tactfully, in no time, I started attracting undue attention. Fearing repercussions, I beat a hasty retreat.

In the Name Of God, has been my most difficult book, as far as research is concerned. Not only was it a tough canvas to paint on, this was the first time I had stepped outside the comfort zone of banking thrillers and attempted a mainstream contemporary thriller. My stories have often tracked real life. The thrillers that I write owe their verisimilitude to the research that goes into identifying stories, finding out how they happened, digging out behind-thescenes occurrences that no amount of internet research will provide you with. For instance, how many of you know about the conflicts between the diamond and bullion traders operating from the new and flashy BKC Diamond bourse and the ones in the old and crowded Zaveri Bazaar? No amount of internet research would have thrown up just how messy the conflict had gotten. One-on-one conversations with a few diamond merchant acquaintances threw up stories; stories interesting enough to become a sub plot in In The Name Of God.

Court case papers are a goldmine of information which cannot be ignored. Padmanabha Swamy temple has been in the news off and on, on account of the case pending in the Supreme court regarding the fate of the immense wealth in its hidden vaults and the issue of the state taking over the control of the temple from the royals. Gopal Subramaniam, the honorable Supreme Court advocate, was an Amicus Curiae in the case and he had submitted a 600-page report to the court. That report, which was available online, made for intriguing reading and of course gave me enough to set my creative cells tingling with excitement.

Discussions with friends too can open new vistas. It was at a literature festival, that I ran into Devdutt Pattanaik, a close friend and fellow author. When we briefly discussed the plot of my book, he recommended that I read a book by Manu Pillai — Ivory Throne, Chronicles of the House of Travancore. Reading that book gave me deep insights into the Royal Family of Travancore. It helped me fictionalise events to make sure that no aspersions are cast on the real-life incumbents. If you don’t know ‘what is’, how will you make sure while writing the story that what you write is different from ‘what is’ and yet seems realistic.

Research not only tells you what to include, but also what not to. The research phase was the most stressful phase in my journey with In The Name Of God. But now, when I look back at it, and when I read feedback from readers which says that the book reads as if they are walking through the streets of Thiruvananthapuram and through the temple precinct; when they say that the conversations between the king and the CBI investigator seem brilliantly realistic, every bit of the effort seems worthwhile. That said, in the world of fiction, research is only as good as what you spin it into.

Ravi Subramanian’s In The Name of God was released last month.

The article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror dated July 16th

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The article first appeared in Mumbai Mirror dated July 16th

 

I am delighted to share with you the first chapter of IN THE NAME OF GOD, my latest thriller that [image error] releases on June 26. In line with my earlier books, this thriller too has short, fast paced chapters. Nothing establishes this more than the first chapter of the book which is hardly a page long. The story opens in the vicinity of the Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, in Thiruvananthapuram (the temple is the richest temple in the world, thanks to the discovery of unforeseen wealth in the underground vaults of the temple).

Here is the link to preorder the book : amzn.to/2pWpnZz 

Read on to form your own opinion of IN THE NAME OF GOD… Here we go

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Chapter 1

Thiruvananthapuram

He didn’t notice the body immediately.

Not even when he dipped the holy vessel into the Padma Teertha Kulam, the divine pond, to fill it up for the Devaprasnam. It was only as he was lifting the vessel, filled to the brim with water, that the right hand of the floating body scraped against it and he saw it break through the surface of the weed-infested tank. His voice deserted him; he stood stupefied. The vessel dropped from his hand and sank to the bottom of the pond with a gurgling noise.

‘Padmanabha! Padmanabha! Padmanabha!’ he chanted loudly as he ran up the steps to the pond and sprinted towards the temple gates. Whether he was upset at having touched a dead body early in the morning or it was the shock of having found said body floating in the temple pond, or both, was difficult to say.

… End of Chapter 1 …

Chapter 2 coming soon.

My daughter once accused me of reading like an assignment. This accusation, while it irritated me, also made me ponder over it. What made her feel so? The more I thought about it, the more it became clearer to me. My preferred genre of reading is crime thrillers – books by Harlan Coben, Jo Nesbo, David Baldacci, James Patterson, Ashwin Sanghi and a few others – and I write crime thrillers.

It is quite possible that because of this, when I am reading crime thrillers, my mind, inadvertently moves into the evaluation space. i.e. I am constantly evaluating the books that I read. It is either, ‘Oh my god! Why couldn’t I have written like this?’ or ‘Had I written this piece, this is how I would have written. This doesn’t read as good as it should.’ Maybe that’s why when I read, it looks like an assignment. Continuously evaluating. Continuously learning.

Haven’t discussed this with any other author, so not sure if this ails the others too.

That said, I do read quite a bit. I read almost everything that comes my way. I am very adventurous with authors but not very, with genres. I am not a great fan of serious, heavy writing. I prefer simple, short sentences, light on prose. Over the last few months I have read a number of thrillers. Here is a short list of thrillers that I have read in the recent past and which are on top of my ‘recommended reads’ list.

A Midsummer’s Equation by Keigo Higashino : Manabu Yukawa, a physicist travels to a summer resort town to address a conference. While he is there, a guest from the hotel where he is staying lands up dead on the sea shore. The cops suspect that the guest had fallen off the cliffs but the autopsy throws up a completely different angle. The guest had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. That’s when they begin a murder investigation. In his trademark fashion Keigo Higashino makes the reader a part of his journey as he unravels the mystery and solves the murder. A brilliant read. Keigo Higashino Special.










Fool Me Once : Harlan Coben : While I read it a few months back, I have just got to know that this is going to be made into a Hollywood film with Julia Roberts being the protagonist. A brilliant thriller which silently treads into the realms of Psychological thrillers. A Harlan Coben special. A woman comes back home from work to see her husband turn up on her nanny cam, that she has installed for her kid. But there is only one complication. The husband was brutally killed two weeks ago. How is it that he is there on her nanny cam now? Harlan Coben takes you on this roller coaster ride where Maya has to unravel the mystery behind her husband’s sudden appearance. Unputdownable.


Veerappan : Chasing the Brigand – By K Vijay Kumar : It is a true story. The problem with true story is that it is always challenging to keep the pace, the thrill and the intrigue at the highest level throughout the book. Vijay Kumar has managed to do exactly that in the story of a forest brigand who was a terror for everyone when he was alive. A high Octane thriller – a true story which reads like fiction.


Flawless : by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell : One of the few howdunit that has intrigued me. In 2003, representatives of an Italian mafia, infiltrated the Antwerp Diamond District and conducted, what at that time, was the largest diamond heist ever- and made off with $108 Mn worth diamonds. Not a drop of blood was shed, no bullets fired, no one hurt. It remains a perfect heist to have ever been conducted. What makes it intriguing was the timing of the heist. It was conducted on a Valentines Day weekend. The authors, after meticulous research tell the story of what went behind the heist – the planning, the execution and the escape have been brilliantly laid out in a very intriguing, pacy, non-technical manner. To me, till date, it remains one of the best heist books to have ever been written.


Conclave : Robert Harris : A quasi-political thriller which begins with the most tragic events the globe would ever witness. The death of a Pope. What follows is a series of political and religious manipulations, that take place between the time the Pope is pronounced dead to the world and the election of the next Pope. It captures brilliantly the aspiration of the cardinals, the behind the scene negotiations, the backstabbing, the lobbying and the angst caused by a few dramatic and unexpected events. Robert Harris plays a subtle political card here without being too brash about it.


Found dead : By Shantanu Guha Ray : There is something about murders in high places that intrigues us, kindles our curiosity and makes most of us turn into shameless gossipers. Shantanu Guha Ray possibly wanted to pander to this part of the human mind when he wrote Found Dead. Whatever his intent, he has produced a brilliant book that has looked at murder most heinous, death most terrible and acts most shameless. Impeccable research, hours of interviews have gone behind the unraveling of the cruelest conspiracies in India. Investigations into the murders of high profile individuals – Sheena Bora, Ponty Chadha, Sunanda Pushkar, Neeraj Grover, Jiah Khan etc – form the backbone of the book. Stories behind the scenes, that possibly your newspapers never told you.


Bookshots by James Patterson. : International Master of Crime Thrillers, one of the most successful and innovative writers ever, has come out with a series of Short Thrillers. These are 110-130 pages long, stories which can be read in a couple of hours. Never short on Adrenalin, these are high octane thrillers which you can complete in a couple of hours. While at the end of it, you will not remember the title of the book or the coauthor who has worked with Patterson, these books will thrill you to bits. I have read 11 of these books and I have loved each one of them. You cannot let go of them, once you have picked them up. Give it a shot… a Bookshot.

When I look back at the list, one thing strikes me. There are three true stories in there. Veerappan, Flawless and Found Dead. Believe me, it was not by intention. It only goes to show that if written well, true stories make better thrillers than fictionalized one. And there is a reason for that. The shock value of things when they happen in real life is exponentially bigger than when we read about it in fiction. We often dismiss things in real life while we are willing to accept them in fiction. For example, the murders that Shantanu Guha Ray talks about, were all unprecedented when they happened. The heist at the Antwerp Diamond District, one of the safest square miles in world, was unprecedented when it happened. Veerappan’s antics were unprecedented.

Well in life … everything is unprecedented till it happens for the first time. And that adds to the beauty of thrillers based on real life incidents.

 

This write up of mine was first carried by Timesofindia.com at http://toi.in/rx-z_a

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For any author it is a moment of great pride to see his book out in print. I have had many of those moments. Despite such beingthe case, every time a book comes out, butterflies begin to fly in my belly. My heart begins to palpitate and I start biting my nails even more. The feeling of nervous anticipation is a feeling which will never go away, irrespective of the number of books that you have written.

In fact I was the least nervous when If God was a Banker, my first book was launched. Back then, there was no sword hanging over your head. No pressure for performance. No reader anticipation. No reputation to live up to. No publisher pressure. For all those who grudge some authors getting large advances, let me tell you, there is no pressure which plays on an authors mind more than the pressure of unrealised advances.

But then whats life without some fun. Without some stress. Without pressure and the feeling of coming out on top despite all that.

So here I am, with my ninth book in English – IN THE NAME OF GOD.  The book releases end of June. An out and out thriller – this book has taken me a year and half to write. Possibly the longest that I have taken for writing a book. Published by Penguin Random house, the book is up for Preorder on Amazon. You can preorder by clicking here : http://amzn.to/2rEG6Oa

Watch this space for more information about In The Name Of God. 

And now …. go and preorder the book and read it on the day of its release.

Surprise is a small word. It didn’t surprise me when I read about Anvita Bajpai’s accusation of plagiarism and court case against Chetan Bhagat. It SHOCKED me.

You could read about it here: Economic Times Article.

My first instinct was, why didn’t Anvita Bajpai write to the publisher and the author asking them for a possible explanation. And then I rationalised saying maybe she did and they didn’t respond. She went ahead and sued Chetan Bhagat. She claimed that she gave Chetan Bhagat her book for review when the latter had visited Bengaluru for the Bengaluru Lit Fest in 2014. And guess what …Chetan lifted her story and made it the central theme of his latest book, “One Indian Girl”

While I don’t want to go into the case details (you can read about it here : Chetan Vs Anvita Case) I just had a few things to state :

Chetan can be anything but an idiot. He courts controversy, makes statements – stupid ones at times – which get him trolled, but he has never crossed the boundary as far as law is concerned. In his decade and half long writing career, you cannot point a finger at him for any impropriety as far as his writing is concerned. He fiercely guards the space that he has made his own. And surely wouldn’t do anything as idiotic as lift a story from the book of an author who gave him the book for review. That said, everything is unprecedented unless it happens for the first time.
A few examples of similar settings that Ms Bajpai claims have been lifted from her story, could be a plain coincidence. I haven’t read Ms Bajpai’s story, so can’t comment on how similar it is. But basis the case details that are briefly given in the link above, it doesn’t seem to be enough to press plagiarism. But then the court found it enough – atleast for the time being.
Putting a full stop to the sales of physical and/or e-books of One Indian Girl, to my mind is extremely harsh, and unwarranted.
Chetan Bhagat has made his money. If the intent was to push him on the backfoot, this surely hasn’t achieved the results. In this case, the poor publisher is now stuck with the case and possible losses.
Stopping sales of an authors books, exparte… like it has been done in the case of one Indian Girl is a very dangerous precedent to set. We had only heard of it in the world of movies.
I am seriously appalled that the publishing fraternity has not commented on it. Are we an industry of spineless incompetent people who cannot stand up and take sides and atleast comment on what is going on. The apathy towards the publisher and the author (s) in question disappoints me. As an industry we need to voice our thoughts a lot more freely and a lot more a-politically. There are points in time when political correctness needs to be shunned.

I do not know who is wrong or right in this plagiarism saga.  I can only say that if Anvita Bajpai is right, she must get what she deserves and the plagiarisers need to be punished.  However having been a part of this industry for a decade, and seen Chetan’s meteoric rise to fame, I can only say that he has worked hard to get here, and is not the one who is going to give it all up like this. He is not an idiot, and most likely he will come out of this looking even better than before.

My vote for round 1 in this saga clearly goes to Chetan Bhagat. He is not a literary thief. I don’t believe that he would have lifted the story, and I pray that I am right. I just hope it is a misunderstanding, a confusion between two authors and that it gets resolved quickly.

 

(Added later : Apparently she sent CB a legal notice and filed  a case only after he denied all allegations)

“Don’t lead a pack of sheep. Herd cats instead.” When I first read this statement it took me a while to understand its true meaning.

In modern-day corporate life, leaders often have the flexibility to pick their own teams. Most of them stumble at this roadblock. Mediocre managers don’t often realise the enormous ability this gives them to define their own career. They end up choosing team members whose intellect and capabilities are limited by their own bandwidth. Mediocre managers often end up picking members who do not challenge them, who do not threaten their position. They pick team members who would fall in line easily.  In other words they end up picking a pack of sheep. Have you ever seen a pack of sheep? All of them huddle together and meekly follow instructions of the shepherd. A small stick wielded efficiently keeps the whole pack together. In such teams, where leaders hire sheep, a bulk of the leader’s time is spent in doling out instructions , tracking and managing individuals and if any time is left post this, to strategically think about the organisation’s future.  Make no mistake, for a weak leader, the benefit of a team full of sheep is immense.  Sheep do not dissent. Do not challenge. Do not question and, most importantly, do not contribute to the team’s cause intellectually. So the leader is able to wield his personal authority, unchallenged. Their insecurity and lack of faith in their own abilities leads them to pick a herd of sheep as their team.

Cats, on the contrary, are a completely different breed. They are animals with minds of their own. Put three cats together and you will find them doing their own thing. Each one will be jumping around, pulling in different directions. Have you ever considered what it will take to manage a team of cats? Looks impossible , doesn’t it?

However, in a group or out of it, cats are fast, intellectually stimulating and managerially challenging. No wonder that when we refer to smart outstanding individuals in a team, we call them cats. Many leaders are often scared by the challenges they will have to face in case they hire cats on their team, and end up settling for sheep. For these individuals, I would like to point out one aspect of cats you can derive solace from. Cats, if they get comfortable , start trusting and become extremely loyal. Sheep, on the other hand, can be herded by almost anybody.  It all depends on how you treat cats and get them to build trust in you.

The message for managers in companies is simple — If you want to succeed in the long term, are desirous of building equity in the organisation and want to be known as someone who is capable of building teams which have great execution skills, then ‘sheep’ will not get you there. Hire cats in your team. Getting the right team is half the job done — efficiently leading them to accomplish the mission is the other half. Cats ensure the first half and also guarantee a fun-filled second half.

After all this, do you still want to hire sheep? If so, you are definitely not one I would have in my pack.

At Enchantico, our endeavour has been to send out specially curated and carefully picked, age appropriate books for children in the age group 5-12. Here are the books that we had sent out with the March Enchantico Box.

Click here to read about these eight books on Enchantico’s website. : https://www.enchantico.in/8-best-reads-for-march/