#WakeUp or #PackUp #MadWithBhan #MADTakeWays

   Book Review - Make A Difference With  (a little assistance from) Bhan.

“Somewhere between 6 and 9 in every 10 Start-Ups fail.

No one is exactly sure how many.

And very few of us know exactly why?

Seventy-five percent startups fail, stated Harward Business School in 2012.

Eighty per cent start ups fail, Forbes told us in 2013.

As many as 90% of start ups in India fail within the first 5 years, according to 2017 survey conducted by IBM Institute of Business Value in collaboration with Oxford Economics.

By year 10, only one-third startups survive, as per US Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

All this is not my voice; it is not even #RavinderBhans voice. According to him, Owner, Founder, and CEO of #TPS ManagementConsultants, with 35 years of marketing consultancy experience behind him, in all he says is “Focus on succeeding.”

Precisely why I picked his book, Make A Difference With  (a little assistance from) Bhan.

After the initial few epages of forward, acknowledgments from India, UAE and USA giant multi-nationals, the author brings us straight to the subject – Do I have the money to StartUp? Do I have a product to sell? Followed by how to…detailed step-by-step way to do which engrosses the reader totally. Let’s admit it, you won’t pick up this book, unless you want to StartUp yourself. So, naturally, your mind is ticking away as Bhan hand-holds you through the pages, from start to take you to next level.

At the end of each Chapter you have the #MAD Takeaways and let me tell you, I have been to many conferences of StartUps, but have never come to such a precise summarization of thoughts placed across all the Chapters.

Every Chapter starts with a story, you can identify with if you are a startup or are planning to become one.

In 1992, the author tells us, he had been employed for one-single-day! It was the turning point in his life. He had a family to maintain and kids in school. At rock-bottom, as many of us in business or in life know, the springboard of transformation happens. One might have nothing except a burning will to rise like a phoenix and fly. That is exactly what happened to Bhan – straight from the horse’s mouth, straight talk, then. When you have been there, done that, there is nothing to look back to, only the journey ahead!

A highly motivating book, this!

In India, where the population is high, and education too is available to all, at least in the urban areas, jobs are hard to come by. The industry does not require the kind of manpower out there in the market. Automation is quickly taking over, so there is bound to be a huge shakeout of manpower or no human hands required for jobs except retail, and online activity. There is no option, but to StartUp, if one wants to survive. #RavinderBhans book comes to aid.

You might like to be inspired by him on the following online forums.

#RavinderBhan is on Facebook – Click HERE and Like his page And on Twitter Click HERE

On LinkedIn, where he has a huge following – Click HERE and follow/connect.

And on YouTube – Click HERE to get inspired.

You can also reach him at TPS Management Consultants

Website: www.tpsworldlearning.com

Cry wolf for change!

Just after the first quarter of the year 2014, we in India did cry wolf for ample good reason. Apparently the environment would change, although we are still to see that change in our daily lives.

Crying wolf may have become a practice well entrenched in our minds, for we do cry wolf every time, things happen to us, which we don’t like, but then, having done with crying, we settle down to accept the things we can’t change now, and begin to plan on the next round of howlers that might make us cry wolf again.

Indeed, wolves are associated with fear because we have not forgotten our childhood tales like “Little Red Riding Hood” where the wicked wolf sat in grandma’s clothing to eat Red Riding Hood. And therefore we cried wolf early 2014 too.

What we may not know about wolves is - How Wolves Changed Rivers and lives and the environment.

Now watch this fascinating video!

Book Review: The Temple Is Not My Father by Rasana Atreya

The oldest profession in the world prostitution, takes on a serious side in India, when one reads cases and books on what is called the devadasi system in India, which is rooted in religion. In Rasana Atreya’s new Novelette, The Temple Is Not My Father, the reader encounters the shocking realities of how, the system is both used and abused by bigoted family instruments which can bring up an immense amount of anger towards those, who force women to corners of society, where life is but a bleak existence of no hope.

Godavari, named after a river in India, is the third daughter of parents who have had five daughters, which in itself is ominous, because, only a son is an auspicious addition to a family. She has been sold at seven to the temple by her father, where like many devadasis in India, is wedded to Goddess Yellamma. Frequented by one after another man, on a daily basis, she becomes pregnant and bears a baby girl, Sreeja. Godavari’s mother has shown much resistance to this, but with an adamant husband to manage, she has lost to him. But, she decides not to allow, the plight of her daughter to be repeated with her granddaughter. By willing all her wealth to Godavari, she has raised the wrath of all her children, including her son, who ought to have inherited the wealth of his mother. Shunned by family except a single sister, Krishna, Godavari lives a solitary life with her daughter, in a house inherited from her mother.

Soon, their solitary life is interjected by two delightful girls, Neeraja and Vanaja, who have been sent by their chastity-obsessed parents living in the US to India, to live and study with their grandmother, for fear that the girls now coming of age may give in to poor moral standards existing in the US, and date and mate with boys! A great relief for Sreeja, daughter of Godavari, the little girl begins to know the value of friendship, with the two girls and also learn from them. But their grandmother is not happy at the association and stops the girls from coming. When finally they are able to break loose, it is only to tell Godavari that they would be sent away to boarding school so that they can be kept away from social outcasts like Godavari and little Sreeja. This is a blow to Godavari.

In the mean time, before the two girls leave, an NGO run by Asha garu takes little Sreeja away from her mother, and gives her for adoption, so that Sreeja can have a normal life, ands not as a shunned by society, uneducated daughter of a devadasi. This breaks Godavari’s heart but she survives the pain by focussing on changing her life too. She too joins an NGO and begins to learn computer and is guided into a life of saving children from prostitution. This is how she meets Raji, who is mimed from the torture of being given to prostitution at the age of seven. It takes Godavari three years to make the girl speak even a single sentence.

The book ends with a typical Rasana Atreya sign off – a tremendous twist in the story most readers would never have imagined in their wildest dreams.

Tibor Jones Asia Prize nominee, 2012, Rasana Atreya, is not only a story teller par excellence now. She is a Brand. She writes stories from the heart of India based on social structure that continues to exist despite its urbanization. She is disturbed by this and no reader can put her book down without feeling waves of disturbance themselves. Her writings rise the bile in your belly and make you want to go and change the system and yet, it is true, that perhaps those who stand to protect us, actually are the perpetrators themselves. Whether, it is The Temple is Not My Father, or her book which was nominated for the Tibor Jones Asia Prize, Tell A Thousand Lies, Rasana Atreya, jars you to sit up and think.

And the twists and turns of her stories are at once, a great art in story telling at the same time, very natural to Rasana Atreya as an author and a Brand.

You can read her book, by downloading it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Temple-Not-My-Father-Story-ebook/dp/B00LQE95FU

Book review: Time out with Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel

Shona Patel’s debut novel, Teatime with the Firefly, makes for an interesting read for die-hard fans of romance in 1940s, among elite, well educated, Oxford or Cambridge returned Bengalis.

Layla Deb, born under the unlucky star is orphaned early in life with the death of her parents. Her maternal aunt and uncle, Mima, takes Layla under her wing and Dadamoshai, who plays a pivotal role in the book, takes charge of Layla thereafter. Layla’s life finds wings as an able, educated girl, helping her, Dadamoshai, who is himself a London-returned, highly educated retired barrister, run, his village school, for girls in Silchar, a small town in the far northeast part of India.  In the meantime, Layla is has also received private tutorship from English teacher, Miss Thompson, who patiently tutors willing students, the Queen’s English, with all its emphasis on the where, when, what, why,  holding the palm, six inches away from the mouth. Needless to say, Layla has been a good student and even the English ladies she will meet in the tea gardens later on, are pleasantly surprised that Indians speak such good English!

Not so perfect, with her Ingliiish, Layla’s nieghbour, Konica, short name, Kona, is bigilee, tryiiinj, to brush up her English, in order to be ready to marry, the handsome, and of course, the Oxford returned Manik Deb who is going to join the upper crust Indian in British administrative services, after having been engaged to her, for six years.  That is of course, if cupid had not struck an arrow through two hearts – Laylas’ and Maniks’. Much to everyone’s surprise and the Kano family disgrace, our protagonist decides to join the tea garden working as assistant manager, instead of pursuing what he set out to do in the first place. A series of letters flow, between the two, lovers, Layla and Manik, over three years, a mandatory period to be observed without marital commitment, for all people, employed by British Tea Companies head quartered in Calcutta or England.

The letters get intimate even as, Kona’s father, distraught and angered and feeling betrayed, quickly manages to find her a good, affluent Bengali family to which he is happy to get his daughter married. Neither he, nor Dadamoshai are in the know as to why, a sane Manik Deb, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford, should take such an eccentric step as to go join a tea garden, Aynakhal T.E. The beautiful intellectual romance between the two, finally culminates into marriage and Layla joins her husband in the tea estate spending time among tea garden English ladies, Planter’s Club, evening high tea, needle work, knitting, gardening, baking, bearers, Ayahs and hoards of servants. She is happy to see her husband display his managerial qualities, but dreads the lust he has for her after marriage, fearing of course the first night! It takes a hornet’s bite between her breasts to initiate the sex between the couple. Thereafter, Layla joins her hungry husband to an assortment of surprising love-making in often unpredictable places, giving the romance a character of its own! Together with this, she however, has to cope with the world of bats, snakes, tigers, leopards, and all that comes with wildlife in the jungles of Assam. She lives and she learns.

In the background of all this, the slow growth of trade unionism, the oncoming Indian independence, the riots between Hindus and Muslims, Layla gives birth to their first child. Within days of her birth, Manik Deb nearly loses his life. It is at this moment, and as the book closes, that Layla, proves her love for her husband, over everything else.

The book fulfills another purpose for those with a leaning towards, anthropology. ‘Laahe – laahe,’ slowly, slowly, like a boat ferrying across the water of time, the reader is bound to love the experience of tea gardens in British India with time out with Teatime for the Firefly.

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA, 225, Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada
Title: Teatime for the Firefly
Author: Shona Patel
Pages: 427
Price: Rs 299


About the author: Shona Patel, 52, did her English Honours from Kolkata University and lives in Arizona, US, with her husband. She is a trained graphic designer and has won several awards for creative writing. Teatime with the Firefly is her debut novel. Presently, she is working on her second novel.

First published in The Hindu Literary Riview

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-literaryreview/planters-clubs-and-high-teas/article5643829.ece

Author interview in The Shillong Times

http://www.theshillongtimes.com/2014/02/09/tea-tale/

Was it an easy delivery?

Available at Amazon.com

Years ago, one of my friends from the US, wrote an ecstatic letter. She had just become a mother. She sent me a card with the picture of the baby boy on top, and a note inside. It said, she had given birth to a lovely little bundle of joy and she had, had a really, easy, painless delivery. A delightful feeling filled me as I saw her son and her personal note.

I remember that feeling today, as I introduce you to the fast, quick, and somewhat easy delivery I had had myself, with regard to my new born, second child – Laughing Stock Productions.

The manuscript had got misplaced the first time I sent it to my publishers. In the meantime, I worked hard, with the help of an Editor here in India, to make a better, finished product. It took a lot of time that one, but by the time I had it with me, I re-sent the manuscript only to know I was somewhat in queue now. I waited for the final copy to arrive from my publishers after their editing the manuscript.

What editing that was! If not for my eye for details, I would not have made out the changes made in the manuscript. A good Editor they say is one, who does the work so well that even the author is not able to make out the changes! There were however, many missing inverted commas, at the beginning of the sentence. This they said would be all put in place before the book was available on Amazon.com.

I had read the manuscript not less than 30 times over time and what I was beginning to suffer from is what Ph.D students suffer – they can’t look at their thesis anymore at the end! Friends advised I leave for a destination, taking a break from the manuscript, have a holiday.

I did! I went to Amritsar to see The Golden Temple, for the first time in my life. There, I forgot all about the book totally. Returning after two days, I turned on my computer and the next thing I knew was the book had gone to Story Cartel for its round of aggressive marketing and review seeking spree. And Gosh! Did they do a great job! Laughing Stock Productions was on!

It is the easiest delivery I have had. Before I knew it, the baby was out and falling on every eager lap! I was ecstatic! Like an able and skillful surgeon, while the mother takes a breather, from complaining, the Editor had done his job, expertly. Now, that Laughing Stock Productions was already born, there was only the sound of laughter to hear, in the here and now J

What a smooth, easy, quick and painless delivery that was!

To read:

First review of Laughing Stock Productions on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Laughing-Stock-Productions-ebook/product-reviews/B00EXSR9G8/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Check out for FREE download:

#ticktock10 4 days left! @juliadutta's Laughing Stock Productions Read, Review & Win $$$ @storycartel http://storycartel.com/books/265/laughing-stock-productions/ …