This started with two girls from the placement cell, coming to my office to pitch for their passing out batch from IIPM and after the discussions they left me with this book and said “Hope, you like it.” Now born as an Indian, the mentality is very basic, let me try - after all it’s for free, nothing is lost. So I went on…
The first page talks about media appreciation for Arindam’s ideas, workshops and seminars – think it should have been at the last page instead or limited to 2 -3 pages at the most. The very first few pages are loud enough to boast about the very first self authored book.
Then after these six pages, came the making of CYCBTH (including the overtly written paragraph on making of the cover page too), it appeared on the lines of the making of ‘Kabhie Alvida na Kehna’. (It’s a contemporary comparison rather than ‘Sholay’ that the author himself has used to describe the vividness he tries to maintain in the book) No, guys I haven’t lost sanity as yet and I am not writing this in a tangent, I am just reminded of Karan Johar making a kind of an appeal to audience to see his movie before the release by selling all proof points of his best made movie so far, from Rani to Shahrukh, from Abhishek to Zinta, from the exotic foreign locales to the hip hop dancing numbers and a veteran like Amitabh Bachchan in a silly - belly role. Needless to say, we all know the end results of how the movie fared at the box office. Rather here, it looked as if Mr. Chaudhuri had already received the Oscars (ok it will be a Pulitzer or a Booker prize in this case) and he kept thanking his friends, his wife, and his 9 month old child to have supported him and borne his absence while he was writing this book.
Then finally, the gyan begins…the gyan probably I too would have enjoyed sermonizing…things like ‘If you think you can, you are right – Just be passionate about what you think’.
Now you can’t really be all skeptical about a book- it cannot have everything bad or unworthy, there ought to be something decent enough for a read, what was the publisher doing all this while then? So to mention, you have few elements in CYCBTH which are not that bad after all, like mention of dimensions to success - the ‘ASK’ principle (believe me this is also not something I read here for the first time, it was shared in my MBA classes at IMT by a faculty). I would not disagree that it is Attitude, Skills and Knowledge and yes in almost always in the same order that makes or breaks a person. Incase you are interested to know how the subject is dealt; you may undergo the tumultuous pressure of reading this book J. The mention of names of successful people (Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, J.F Kennedy) and the most ordinary instances and examples taken from their lives to inspire the readers are almost deliberately overshadowed by the intermittent interference of the author of not keeping himself away from relating them with his own glorified life incidences. Pardon my yawning, but beyond a limit this self appraisal that grew monstrously to become an uncontrolled obsession was intolerable, he went up to the limit of boasting about his organizations’ recruitment outfit. I was wondering what the book or the author wanted to deliver and make its audiences understand at the end of it.
I wanted to read about theory I – management which I am made to believe are based on the learnings drawn out of Bhagwad Gita (Now Naren will say, what man read my nightingale pocket sized books rather – it will save you time), but I guess I am a bit biased against Mr. Chaudhuri now; it will take me some more time to muster and regain my level of interest to finish reading this book. (yes I will be unable to conclude this review as I could not reach the last page). Honestly, the content isn’t that bad, for a motivational spiel, this may be real handy for the team leaders at Blue Lotus. And for starters/ freshers – the young green lot, this is not a bad option at all. But what I sincerely doubt is the author’s unconditional objective of allowing the spotlight on the content rather than his own achievements and ambitions. Though he has been to some extent able to pull in some great examples and ideas, he has not been able to provide an undisturbed flow and structure.
With no offence meant to the author and to the readers who have read this book already and liked it, but I would not have bothered to pen down a ‘book review’ on a book which is not really a book but a self obsessed autobiography of a person, that too if not published would have made no difference to anyone anyways, less it came for free. J
Cheers!
AJS
