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Tequila Leila, a sex worker in her 40s, is the protagonist of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World and she is dead. Yet, it is anything but a dead-end (please forgive the pun)! “Her name was Leila.” Straight off the bat, Elif Shafak establishes that the protagonist of the story, Leila is dead and proceeds to tells us her story in vignettes of memories recalled by Leila as she lays dying – her body dead but mind still alive for another 10 minutes and 38 seconds. Each of these 10 minutes unveils a key moment in her life—from her birth in an orthodox Turkish family living in Van to her upbringing, family secrets, her arrival in Istanbul and her life in a brothel. In these flashbacks, we are also introduced to her five friends who Leila knows will come looking for her even as she lays dying in a trash can on the outskirts of Istanbul in the early hours of the day. Friendship is a key theme in the novel. Contrasted with the family one is born or married into and hence, not a matter of choice, friends are seen as the family one chooses. Shafak calls them blood and water families while laying out the comparison between the silent lies and hypocrisies that lubricate an outwardly peace in Leila’s family and the unbridled honesty and loyalty of her friendships. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World is also a story about outcasts and how their unique perspective exposes us to the naked truth about our societies. Tequila Leila and her five friends with their varied backstories and distinctive names—Sabotage Sinan, Nostalgia Nalan, Jameelah, Zaynab122 and Hollywood Humeyra—are all outcasts in some way or the other. Shafak tips her literary hat not only to friendship but also the illusory concept of Time in the epigraph with lines penned by Albert Einstein upon the death of his closest friend, Michele Besso, “Now he has again preceded me a little in parting from this strange world. This has no importance. For people like us who believe in physics, the separation between past, present and future has only the importance of an admittedly tenacious illusion.” Leila, relives the past with reminiscences that are replete with lyrical, sensory details—the taste of spiced goat stew to celebrate the birth of her brother, the scalding hot vats of lemon and sugar the neighbourhood women used to wax their legs while men attended prayers at the mosque and   the fragrance of cardamom coffee shared with a handsome student. Shafak’s descriptions are masterful, engaging all five senses to immerse us in Leila’s world. The novel’s unusual narrative structure creates the effect of Leila’s past standing beside the present, melding into one unpunctuated entity. Every now and then, the story’s underlying themes shimmer through the tapestry of Shafak’s evocative imagery. Sample this, “Together they dangled strips of fabric from apple boughs laden with blossom, calling them ballerinas, took their sweet time to weave little baskets out of willow or crowns out of daisies; tied ribbons around the horns of the ram waiting to be sacrificed next Eid. Once they secretly cut the rope that kept the animal fastened… it returned to the same spot, finding the familiarity of captivity more reassuring than the strange call of freedom.” The city of Istanbul which serves as a setting for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World embodies disparate elements that come together to form a compound. Shafak’s Istanbul (complete with a map displaying all the relevant locations of the tale) is a concoction of past and present, conservative values and modern ideas, the East and the West and the conventional and the marginalised. The city is both a setting as well as a character in Shafak’s novel, leaving its own indelible imprint on the story. Istanbul’s landscape, as it were, is painted in the bright hues of humour, as seen in the story about the haphazard evolution of Hairy Kafka Street, but also in shades of sepia-tinged sadness with lines like, “Then there was the Istanbul of those who left long ago, sailing to faraway ports. For them, this city would always be a metropolis made of memories, myths and messianic longings, forever elusive like a lover’s face receding in the mist.” In my opinion, the strongest part of the novel are the 10 minutes and 38 seconds that form Leila’s recollections, etching out her life and times. The writing of this section feels spirited and livelier, very much like Leila herself. Read 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World for its concept, Leila’s characterisation and the vivid imagery. But most of all, I liked that it’s a story that addresses sadness, disappointment and alienation but celebrates survivors, friendship and courage.

Published in 2021, Orienting with its qualifier sub-title An Indian in Japan is a book about just that - an Indian orienting herself to life in Japan. The author, Pallavi Aiyar is a journalist who has reported for The Hindu and Business Standard from China, Indonesia and parts of Europe. Writing books documenting her years in some of these countries is part of her repertoire, with several books to her name. Orienting opens with Aiyar and family touching down in Tokyo in the summer of 2016. Her husband, Julio is a diplomat with the European Union and that entails moving from one country to another every few years. Orienting is divided into ten chapters, each dealing with an element of the Japanese experience. For an average Nipponophile like myself (my fascination is mostly cultural), anecdotes about lost umbrellas and tiffin-boxes that are almost always located and returned, the intoxicating fervour of the sakura-viewing season and the technological marvel that the Japanese call a toilet fit right into my idea of what Japan, with its sushi-dispensing vending machines and kintsugi philosophy, is all about. And before you roll your eyes at my inordinate praise of Japanese toilets, read this, “Manufacturer Matsushita’s “smart toilet” took urine and stool analysis, and could check the user’s blood pressure, temperature and blood sugar while at it. One of its models was even equipped with electrodes… yielding a digital measurement of body-fat ratio.” Now that we’ve established that I don’t use the phrase ‘technological marvel’ loosely, let’s move on. One of my favourite chapters was about the concepts of kintsugi and wabi-sabi . Wabi-sabi refers to seeing and accepting the beauty in impermanence and imperfection like loving an old and slightly wonky coffee mug. Kintsugi , I suppose, grows out of wabi-sabi . Literally, ‘ kin ’ means ‘gold’ while ‘ tsugi ’ refers to ‘join’. Hence, kintsugi is the art of joining broken things with gold, making broken artifacts more precious in the bargain. It’s the kind of minimalist metaphor that makes one fall in love with Japanese thought. And the author is quite effusive in her enthusiasm. Aiyar doesn’t shy away from highlighting her own failings especially in the area of her long and not-so-successful attempt at learning Japanese. The humour with which she talks about it is disarming and makes her struggle immediately relatable. She writes, “In Chinese, ‘thanks’ was ‘xie xie’, end of matter. In Japanese, there was ‘arigatou’ – informal, ‘arigatou gosaimasu’ – proper form, ‘domo arigatou gosaimasu’ seriously thankful, and ‘domo sumimasen arigatou gosaimasu’ – weak-in-the-knees-with-gratitude-thankful. Then I came across, ‘yoroshiku onegaishimasu’. ‘What does that mean?’ I asked my teacher. ‘It means, thank you,’ she replied. Basically, it was possible to learn Japanese for a whole month and only end up being able to say thank you.” Her frustration is relatable, hilarious and practically leaps off the page. I suppose fluency in Japanese requires shokunin (the relentless pursuit of perfection through the honing of a single craft). Reading about the Japanese idea of striving for perfection in Orienting reminded me of something I read in Arsene Wenger’s biography My Life in Red and White. Wenger wrote that in his time managing the Japanese team, Nagoya Grampus, he had to hide the balls to stop the players from practicising too much, so intense was their desire to improve. I would’ve been charmed by this book just for all the stuff I’ve mentioned but it is made all the more memorable for highlighting the foibles of Japanese culture including their oppressive working hours, political apathy and xenophobia. Whether the xenophobia stems from their reluctance or inability to speak English, their horror at foreigners not following the etiquette required in almost every aspect of life in Japan from separating garbage to eating at a restaurant to warm spring bathing, or just plain old racism is open to interpretation. Orienting also shows us that the fabled Japanese homogeneity is just that – a fable they tell themselves and the whole world. Communities like the Zainichi (of Korean origin) and the Burakumin are proof of that. Apart from this, Orienting - An Indian in Japan taught me that much of what I admired about Japan was originally Chinese from the practice of Zen to the Japanese writing system, ceramics, paper and literary influences. To their credit, the Japanese have added their own spin to it – either by elevating the rustic as in the case of wabi sabi or polishing it to a level of such sophistication that can exclude those not as well-versed in it. A case in point would be the famed Japanese tea ceremony. It has a whole plethora of rules that may seem incidental to the casual viewer. But here’s a tip. Nothing is incidental in chado – the way of the tea. From the manner of serving the tea, to holding the bowl properly, casual allusions to literary classics and season-appropriate poetry to having enough knowledge of ceramics to be able to comment with authority on the texture and quality of the utensils are all intrinsic to the ceremony. I suppose it goes without saying that it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. However, the great tea masters dismiss the idea that the ceremony is about anything more than drinking tea. Aiyar reflects on this with a quote by French art critic, Georges Duthuit’s observation on Zen-inspired painting: “Draw bamboos for ten years, become a bamboo and then forget all about bamboo when painting.” In the same way, I’m convinced that talk of tea simply being tea is just talk. But it charmed me, nevertheless. Aiyar writes with the clarity and specificity of a journalist and the whimsy and humour of a novelist making this part memoir, part travel literature and partly, a collection of essays immensely readable. In my opinion, someone who casts two cats as protagonists, as Aiyar did in her book, Chinese Whiskers: The Adventures of Soyabean and Tofu, is certainly a voice worth listening to. In conclusion, I would most certainly recommend Orienting: An Indian in Japan to anyone who wants to know more about Japan or simply wants an answer to how Japan is so clean without any trashcans in sight? As for me, I look forward to her next book about her time in her husband’s home country, Spain, where she and her family moved in mid-2020.

Leaders Eat Last begins with a foreword by George J. Flynn, a Retired Lieutenant General of the U.S. Marine Corps. The General gets straight to the point in his opening sentences, “I know of no case study in history that describes an organization that has been managed out of a crisis. Every single one of them was led.” That’s what Leaders Eat Last is about – the difference between managers and leaders, what makes a leader and how all of this impacts everyone with a job, regardless of their place in the totem pole called workplace hierarchy. Feeling valued, safe and brave enough to take risks for the greater good is on everyone’s wishlist, even if it isn’t verbalised. Simon Sinek shows us how the answers to most of our modern-day troubles lie in our prehistoric biology simply because our species hasn’t changed that much. Everything we do and are is rooted in our biology. And there’s no fooling Mother Nature. I particularly enjoyed the chapters about how the happiness chemicals – endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin are responsible for so much that we do; from squeezing in a morning run before work, helping with the dishes after dinner, chasing quarterly sales targets at work or catching up with friends over a drink. We many think it’s about discipline, motivation or affection. Simon Sinek demonstrates that it is about all of the above but that wasn’t Mother Nature’s original intention. As is usually the case with most things that Nature engineered, it was about survival. As is cortisol – the stress hormone . Sinek does a great job of explaining in conversational language how these hormones work and why our world today is causing them to malfunction a wee bit. He uses the metaphor of a snowmobile in the desert. Nothing wrong with the snowmobile or the desert. They’re just not an optimal match. Leaders Eat Last is not one of those books that elaborate only on the problem. Sinek explains why the problem is the problem. He illustrates why large organizations often have trouble holding on to a culture of teamwork and instead break up into silos with paranoia and distrust flowing through the corridors. And it’s not just about Dunbar’s number (which states that we can maintain only around 150 stable connections) but more fundamentally, it is a result of what these organizations stand for and reward. For instance, if meeting the quarterly sales target is the sole aim and only the people who achieve it are rewarded, while the rest are at risk of losing their jobs, then innovation requiring a long-term approach is not likely. Neither is team work. Sinek ties each of these to the hormone they generate, making logical connections to the consequences of each type of behaviour. Before he became a TED talk sensation (Sinek’s 2010 TED talk “How Great Leaders inspire Action” which grew out of his 2009 book, Start with Why is amongst the most viewed TED talks ever), Simon Sinek began his career in advertising, so he certainly knows how to brand and sell an idea. One of these ideas is Circle of Safety. I assume he came up with it since I haven’t heard it being used in a similar context earlier. Sinek uses the analogy of a herd to demonstrate why being liked and protected releases serotonin, while being sidelined leads to feelings of stress and anxiety caused by cortisol pulsing through our systems. Destructive Abundance is another such term. It signifies the imbalance between selfish and selfless pursuits and the results of a mismatch. Sinek stresses the importance of the social contract of leadership. Leaders Eat Last also lays out the roles played by various generations over the last 100 years, and how each of them partly rebelled against and partly perpetuated the ethos they grew up with, and where all of it has brought us. Of course, no one book can summarise the events of a century and their consequences, but Sinek lays down the threads of his thought process. And the rest is for us to think through. The role of abstraction in today’s behemoth corporations is explored and why it leads to a lack of leadership and accountability. What Sinek refers to as abstraction is how people- whether employees or customers – become a statistic, an abstract number. Joseph Stalin expressed this succinctly and Sinek quotes him in his chapter, Managing the Abstraction, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic.” Abstraction robs not only employees or customers of their humanity but also, the leaders of the corporations of theirs, because they no longer see their actions impacting people. They view their actions as only affecting digits on a spreadsheet. Sinek conveys this disconnect when he writes, “Numbers of people aren’t people, they’re numbers.” Speaking of numbers of people, Leaders Eat Last discusses how teams or organisations can cultivate cultures that reward positive behaviour which will, in turn, reap them long-term benefits. Sinek isn’t talking about some high-flying philanthropic approach. It’s practical and far-sighted. There’s an anecdote or two about Goldman Sachs when it was considered a 'gentleman’s' organisation and what makes 3M, the company that makes Post-It Notes, so successful at innovation . It's the kind of stuff that is instantly relatable. The edition I read also had an extended chapter about leading Millennials, who were probably employers’ least favourite employees till Gen Z arrived on the scene! It’s a fairly practical guide for both employers and Millennial employees to make their work lives more fulfilling and productive. Read Leaders Eat Last if you want to understand why certain workplaces and leaders make everything seem better and easier while the others do the opposite. It might also help you formulate a checklist of what to look out for before joining a new workplace. And most importantly, to think about what kind of leader you aspire to be.

What makes the world go round? Romantics say love, the literal-minded spout something about the rotation of our planet while some others say money. If you’re part of the last group of people, read on. Actually, read on regardless, because the subject of this book is likely to come in handy. In Dollars and Sense , economist and bestselling author, Dan Ariely and financial writer and comedian, Jeff Kreisler answer questions about money that we all should be asking in the pursuit of better understanding why we never have enough money. This is a delightfully funny book about our unconscious motivations, irrational instincts and misguided choices regarding money. Dollars and Sense  isn’t a self-help book because it accepts that we can’t help ourselves. In other words, Ariely and Kreisler recognise that we are bound by our psychology to make flawed decisions. By illustrating how our brains and emotions hijack the decision-making process, this book provides us with tools to game the system. The system, in this case, are our own minds. Understanding this can help us make better financial choices, spend smarter and save more. This book seemed like a good investment to me. I wasn’t disappointed. There is no fancy jargon to keep out folks who maintain a safe distance from the pink papers at the newspaper stand. This book discusses the psychology of money in the spirit of a conversation between friends – without judgment and with plenty of anecdotes. You might even find yourself chuckling in recognition at some of the scenarios described in the book because they’re so close to our own lives. Sample this: “Marco Bertini, Elie Ofek and Dan ran an experiment in which they gave coffee to students. They placed milk and sugar nearby in either fancy dishes or Styrofoam cups. Those who got their milk and sugar from the fancier set-up said they liked the coffee more and would pay more for it, even though, unbeknownst to them, it was the same coffee as the one served near the Styrofoam cups.” Tell me this has never happened to you! If it hasn’t, then you’re savvier than yours truly. That’s what makes behavioural economics so interesting and when it’s as well-written and humorous as Dollars and Sense , it’s a win all the way. Ariely and Kreisler break up their book into 3 parts to delve into the following areas: WHAT IS MONEY? Money represents VALUE. Money itself has no value. It only represents the value of other things that we can buy. It’s a messenger of worth.   And then, there is the idea of OPPORTUNITY COSTS. When we spend money on one thing, it’s money we cannot spend on something else, neither now nor any time later. HOW WE ASSESS VALUE IN WAYS THAT HAVE VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH VALUE Ariely and Kreisler shine a light on mind tricks like sale signs promising incredible discounts on marked up prices, the exaggerated value we place on things we own or our self-righteous desire to discard the laws of demand and supply to soothe our sense of fairness. To illustrate our love for sales and how discount signs cause us to make bad money choices, the authors narrate a story about the American department store chain, JCPenney. “In 2012, Ron Johnson, the new CEO of JCPenney, scrapped Penney’s traditional and slightly deceptive practice of marking products up and then marking them back down. In the decades before Johnson’s arrival, JCPenney always offered customers coupons, deals and in-store discounts… Johnson made the store’s prices ‘fair and square.’ No more coupon cutting, bargain hunting and sale gimmicks. Just the real price, roughly equal to those of its rivals and roughly equal to their previous ‘final’ prices… Most customers detested it and abandoned the chain, grumbling about feeling cheated, being misled and betrayed by the real and true cost, and not liking the fair-and-square pricing. Within a year, JCPenney lost an amazing $985 million and Johnson was out of a job.” Just goes to show that customer may be king but that’s not necessarily a good thing for the king! HOW WE CAN DEVELOP BETTER FINANCIAL SENSE We’re human and yes, we make silly choices and place a greater value on pleasure in the present than our needs in the future. Once we know our Achilles’ heel, we can work around it. Ariely and Kreisler appear to be optimists and believe we can use even our irrationality to give ourselves an edge. Packed with real-life stories and thought-provoking experiments, Dollars and Sense really makes one think about our dollars and cents. One of my favourite anecdotes in the book is about Pablo Picasso being approached in the park by a woman who insisted he paint her portrait. He looked her over for a moment, then, with a single stroke, drew her a perfect portrait. “You captured my essence with one stroke. Amazing! How much do I owe you?” “Five thousand dollars,” Picasso replied. “What? How could you want so much? It only took you a few seconds!” “No, ma’am. It took me my entire life and a few more seconds.” Ariely and Kreisler demonstrate how tempting it is to misjudge great value or ability as being too expensive when we fail to acknowledge the years of effort that have gone into achieving a level of excellence. I enjoyed reading Dollars and Sense . You might want to read it too, even if only to answer the eternal question: Cash or Card?

The 90s and 2000s are enjoying a renaissance in entertainment, fashion and make-up trends. Perhaps, for millennials and older generations, it’s fuelled by nostalgia for simpler times before the explosion of social media and information overload. However, this revival is not limited to folks older than 30. It's Gen Z too, even if some of them think they’re inventing it all instead of merely recycling old trends from tall socks, à la Lady Diana to baggy jeans. More surprising is the continued presence of TV shows from the 90s and early 2000s like Friends (aired from 1993-2003) and Gilmore Girls (aired from 2000-2007) on the lists of the most-popular shows on OTT platforms. In an age when so much fresh content is uploaded online every day, what explains this harking back? Is it to unwind from the ‘currentness’ of things—where there is a social pressure to stay updated on all the latest trends? Or is it nostalgia for a time when being earnest wasn’t ‘cringe’? Ask around, while most people watch the latest shows and movies, their idea of ‘ comfort TV ’ is a show from at least 15 years ago. For all you know, even the all-but-dead genre of romantic comedy might stage a comeback. Some of you might shudder at the thought but I enjoy a good romantic comedy because it can be charming, albeit unrealistic and a tad predictable. But most movies are unrealistic. Take Top Gun , for instance. Both the original and the sequel were unrealistic but I enjoyed them. It’s fun to watch something that’s not gunning for awards but also isn’t yet another retelling of some superhero’s origin story from the Marvel or DC Universe. I understand that with genres like superhero films, dystopia, sci-fi and period dramas being the current favourites with movie studios, the romantic comedy is up against a lot of competition. Yet, there is something soothing about a story that isn’t embarrassed by itself and doesn’t hide behind irony and forced self-deprecation. Just as long as it isn’t hobbled by triteness and unrelatable characters because that’s what ruins most romantic comedies. Unrealistic is often confused with unrelatable. If you’d forgive me for stating the painfully obvious—those are two different things. The film, Wall-E  was unrealistic in the sense that the idea of a lonely robot cleaning up an abandoned planet isn’t strictly realistic. I know I haven’t seen that happen in my life. Have you? Yet, the character of Wall-E with his big, round eyes and rusted, clunky body was intensely relatable and tugged at heartstrings across the world. Most of us want to watch all kinds of movies as long as they engage us. And nothing engages people more than people. That’s what separates fiction from non-fiction. The challenge for romantic comedies, per se, is how to make a fairly predictable plot feel fresh and engaging. I don’t think anyone is surprised to find that the actors on the movie poster are the ones who fall in love with each other. Not much of a plot twist, that one! The charm of these stories lies in an inviting premise as well as the chemistry between the characters. The onus of said chemistry lies not just on the actors but also, the writers. Often, the characterisation, plot and dialogue are so meagre, I just can’t be bothered with the fates of the protagonists. And then, there are films like You’ve got Mail that had one critic writing, “Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan should win a Nobel Prize for Chemistry!” I can’t say I disagree since their characters were so charming, bringing out the best in each other over email even as they battled it out in business, which acted as a substantial conflict. All in all, I miss the times when one could walk into a movie theatre and watch a film like He’s just not that into you , The Holiday , Clueless,   Notting Hill  or my personal favourite, You’ve got Mail . Surely, I’m not alone. I predict that romantic comedies and feel-good films like We Bought a Zoo, The Intern  and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel  are about to make a comeback although they might be slightly different from their 90s-2000s avatar. Something tells me that people are exhausted with bad news on every front – politics, economy, jobs, climate, you name it. I don’t blame them for wanting to unwind with a happy story. Last year’s big sleeper hit, Anyone but You  could well be considered a herald of the upcoming trend. The Glenn Powell-Sydney Sweeney starrer wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece and yet it raked in more than $200 million globally. Based on Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado about Nothing, it works around the familiar tropes of enemies to lovers. Not exactly new territory, but then what’s new under the sun? Familiarity isn’t always a bad thing. Especially when you can watch it in a pair of sweatpants, fluffy socks with a glass of wine. Oh, and some popcorn!

26-year-old Louisa Clark is unemployed after the café she works at—The Buttered Bun—closes down. She lives in a small English town with her parents, grandfather, sister Katrina and nephew. Her boyfriend of seven years, Patrick, is a fitness freak perpetually preparing for some or the other endurance race. After a few disappointing weeks working at a chicken processing factory and spouting scripted responses while manning the point-of-sale counter at a fast-food restaurant, Louisa accepts a well-paying job as a carer to a quadriplegic, Will Traynor. Louisa is far from keen on the job but the state of her family’s finances is a bigger consideration. Although Louisa is the character through whose perspective we see the story, Me Before You  opens with a scene from Will’s life. In fact, it is the day he meets with the accident that upends his entire life. Before the accident, Will was a partner at a London bank living a luxurious, globe-trotting and adventure-packed life. The accident leaves him paralysed from the neck down except for limited movement in one arm. The equation between the protagonists starts off distant and awkward with Louisa feeling ill-equipped and Will acting aloof and condescending. The coldness between them thaws gradually when they both realise they enjoy each other’s company. Louisa, with her sometimes questionable but always cheerful fashion choices and chirpy demeanour draws Will out of his dreary existence of living with almost constant pain and no change of routine. She fills his days with banter, delightful musical evenings and disastrous horse-racing events. Will, on the other hand, opens up the world for Louisa by encouraging her to read, watch and discuss films and art she has never been exposed to, causing her to gain confidence in her own abilities and potential. The interplay between their different tastes, life experiences and personalities makes for some good banter. Me Before You is a romance that builds slowly from companionship to friendship to a life-changing love. Written mostly from Louisa’s perspective (barring a couple of chapters from the viewpoints of her sister, Katrina, and Will’s nurse, Nathan), we see how Will and Louisa’s mutual affection for each other brings out the best in them even though they’ve met in very difficult circumstances. As far as genre tropes go, Me Before You is a combination of opposites attract and right person, wrong time. What works for the Me Before You is the chemistry between the main characters and the relatability of Louisa’s character. She is ordinary yet unique with real failings and redeeming qualities. Also, Moyes shows us Louisa’s growth as a person subtly, through the choices she makes as the story progresses. Will’s character too is a dynamic one with his emotional depth, candour, honesty and affection being revealed gradually to Louisa and the reader. Through Louisa’s eyes, we witness the extremely debilitating nature of his physical condition and the hopelessness of his situation. Me Before You is the sort of story that makes you think not only about living a better, fuller life but also what a gift it is to love and be loved in a manner that makes you want to be better. Jojo Moyes shows us Louisa being underestimated by everyone around her and how that, combined with childhood trauma, made diffidence her whole personality. Until Will, and her love for him show her what she’s capable of.   Sadly, there’s a reason why Louisa’s been employed for only six months and therein lies her challenge. Will’s character makes the point that a life not lived to its fullest potential is not a life worth living.   Since I read Me Before You more than a decade after it was first published in 2012 and many years after the release of the film adaptation starring Emilia Clark and Sam Claflin, I’m aware of the debate about assisted suicide and euthanasia it stirred up. This novel caused many to question the message it was sending severely-disabled people and their loved ones. It lies with each individual reader to make up their own mind about it.

I walked into a stationery shop, bought a pen and asked for a couple of refills for the same pen. I was told that pen didn’t have refills. Instead, one could just buy another pen. After all, it cost only 20 rupees. The shopkeeper added that I was the only person who had ever asked for a refill for that particular pen. That got me thinking. When and why did people stop replacing components and start discarding entire items? For some reason, the response to this question usually revolves around the comparative inexpensiveness of the replacement. Like the shopkeeper who told me, “Why bother with a refill when you can buy a new pen for 20 rupees?” A 20-rupee pen is hardly the first of its kind. Inexpensive pens usually sell for anywhere between 10 rupees to 50 rupees. The real news that businesses hope we’ll fail to focus on is that by not selling a refill which would cost 10 rupees, they’re forcing their customers to throw out a perfectly good pen and purchase another one when all we need is a refill. Think about it and you’ll come up with half a dozen examples of consumer durables no longer lasting as long as they once did. Take my parents’ first Prestige pressure cooker as a married couple. They bought it in 1974. It worked just fine till 2022. That’s 48 years. Now compare that to one they bought two years ago. It’s already giving trouble. Am I to believe that Prestige has forgotten how to make a durable pressure cooker? Surely, there’s something else at play here. THE PHOEBUS CARTEL Prior to the year 1925, the average life expectancy of an incandescent light bulb was 2500 hours. That’s when corporations that controlled the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs in much of Europe and North America like General Electric, Tungsram, Associated Electrical Industries, Osram, and Philips had a light bulb moment! On January 15, 1925 in Geneva, they incorporated a group known as the Phoebus Cartel (Incidentally, Phoebus is the Greek God of Light). The cartel set out to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs at 1,000 hours (down from 2,500 hours), while reducing operational costs and raising prices without fear of competition. This was one of the prime examples of planned obsolescence at the time. A few engineers noted that bulbs with a shorter life can burn brighter for the same wattage. However, it doesn’t take a bright spark to decipher that the cartel's primary motivation was boosting profits by forcing customers to buy bulbs more often. Like all cartels, the Phoebus Cartel wasn’t kind to those defying orders. They tested bulbs by all manufacturers and those whose bulbs lasted more than 1,000 hours were fined, discouraging anyone from providing customers with greater value. The group had initially intended the cartel to last thirty years. However, with the outbreak of World War II, it ceased operations in 1939. Not that it mattered. Even post the formal dissolution of the Phoebus Cartel, light bulbs continued to be sold with 1,000-hour lifespans. WHAT IS PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE? Unfortunately, things were just getting started. This policy of planned obsolescence (also referred to as built-in obsolescence and premature obsolescence) has been adopted by most companies selling consumer electronics, clothing, utensils, etc. At its core, planned obsolescence is the concept of designing a product with either an intentionally frail design or with an artificially limited utility. This results in the item becoming obsolete after a certain period of time by either ceasing to function, operating at a reduced standard or just being perceived as less desirable. What this strategy achieves is greater long-term sales for the company, by reducing the time between repeat purchases.  This is no conspiracy theory. It’s all in the public domain and deemed legal. PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE IS ALL AROUND An award-winning 2010 documentary, The Light Bulb Conspiracy , also known as  Pyramids of Waste , delved into the idea of planned obsolescence of industrial products. One of the case studies in the documentary is the Epson Stylus C42UX inkjet printer. The printer would issue a defect message after a certain number of printed pages and prevent further use of the printer. This lock, was said to be caused by a chip, which was added by the manufacturers specifically for this purpose. But do we need to go that far? Surely, you remember a time when you could replace a cell phone battery when it packed up. You bought a replacement battery, popped open the back cover of the phone and replaced it. Nowadays, you have to buy a new phone. And this is supposed to be cutting edge technology? Phones may be getting smarter but the makers of phones are certainly counting on folks getting dumber. TYPES OF PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE FUNCTIONAL OBSOLESCENCE: Products using inferior-quality materials or designed to have a limited lifespan. Light bulbs designed to burn out after 1000 hours, irreplaceable batteries, and pens with no way to replace refills are examples of this. SYSTEMIC OBSOLESCENCE: Incompatibility with newer software or accessories that make older products unusable or less functional. I’m sure many of us have experienced software updates that make older devices slow or incompatible with newer apps. PERCEIVED OBSOLESCENCE: Marketing campaigns that make consumers believe that the product they own is outdated, even if it is in peak working condition and there isn’t much difference between the old product and the latest offering. Fashion influencers with their innumerable fashion haul videos are part of the problem, manipulating their unthinking followers into purchasing sub-standard toxic junk. The lines outside Apple stores every Autumn is just another example of this mass idiocy. THE REAL COST If you’ve reached this far, and still believe I’m overthinking this and/or that I’m particularly tight-fisted, let me be clearer. 20 rupees is the price of the pen, not the real cost. The real cost is when a pen that you discarded lies in some garbage dump, not breaking down because it is made of plastic. At some point, it will get crushed under the weight of a discarded crate or some other trash, continue to break down further till it is smaller than 5 millimetres. This is when it will be known as a microplastic. Even smaller fragments of plastic are known as nanoplastics. They are smaller than a red blood cell. These plastics then find their way into our food, water and the atmosphere, polluting the environment and endangering animal life. Human beings are impacted too. While the full impact of microplastics on human health is still being studied, here are a few effects that scientists have zeroed in on: inflammation  cancer lung and liver diseases deterioration of the gut microbiome altered lipid and hormonal metabolism Other studies suggest that microplastics disrupt marine micro-organisms’ crucial role of sequestering carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. I can’t speak for you but to me, at first glance, this looks bad. And the view doesn’t get better at second and third glance. So, the next time you buy a pen, buy a brand that sells refills too. I know I will, because we’re all paying with a lot more than just money.

The case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus’ inhumane imprisonment following his wrongful conviction in 1894 is infamous in the records of world history. The Dreyfus Affair is widely acknowledged as an absolute sham of a court martial, adjudged on the basis of flimsy circumstantial evidence, in the hope that it would look like justice when it was really just a fig leaf for antisemitism and dereliction of duty. Robert Harris’ An Officer and A Spy  is about that case and the two men at its centre—the first, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Mulhouse Jew serving in the French Army who is found guilty of a crime he did not commit and imprisoned most cruelly on Devil’s Island; and second, Major (later Colonel) Georges Picquart, a man of rare integrity and courage who stood up to the entire French establishment to right a wrong at great risk to his career, reputation and liberty. An Officer and A Spy  is an engrossing retelling of a riveting story, taking the reader through the initial court martial of Captain Dreyfus in 1894, right up to the culmination of the case in 1906. In a clever touch, Harris makes Picquart the narrator of the story, allowing the reader to view the facts of the case as they emerge and be a party to Picquart’s dilemma and finally, conversion from being yet another believer in Dreyfus’ guilt to becoming his staunchest defender. Robert Harris opens the novel with Major Picquart narrating to the Minister of War, General Auguste Mercier and the Chief of General Staff, General Boisdeffre, what he witnessed at Captain Dreyfus’ military degradation in public view for treason, on charges of passing on military documents and secrets to a foreign power which, though unnamed, is understood to be Germany. The author establishes Picquart as a man of great intelligence with a flair for words and a knack for knowing what his audience wants to hear. And it is through Major Picquart’s astute point of view that we are introduced to each character. His descriptions are both discerning and entertaining pen pictures of the main players, combining both his keen observation skills and understanding of human psychology. While describing a French officer with delusions of grandeur, Picquart says, “I always found something disconcerting about du Paty. It was as if he were acting the central part in a play for which no one else had been shown the script. He might laugh abruptly, or tap his nose and adopt an air of great mystery, or disappear from a room in the middle of a conversation without explanation. He fancied himself a detective in the modern scientific manner… I wondered what role in his drama he had chosen for me to play.” An Officer and A Spy  evokes an image of Paris as a hub of culture which it was, but also adds a strain of a defeated France, still licking its wounds after a resounding defeat by the Germans in 1870. The stench of a military humiliation permeates the entire novel and Harris conveys well the desperation of the defeated to find someone to blame and victimise almost as an antidote for its own defeat. The inciting incident of the novel is Major Picquart, having played a role in the arrest and conviction of Captain Dreyfus, being promoted to the rank of Colonel and appointed chief of the counter-espionage unit called, in a coup of boring names, the Statistical Section. It is in this role that Colonel Picquart is forced to revisit the Dreyfus case and question whether or not the Army caught the right man. As Picquart uncovers sinister lies and conspiracies, his faith in the incorruptibility of the organisation he is devoted to, is shaken, causing him to question even his own character and motivations. The novel’s key themes of nationalism and ambition versus integrity play out in court as well as in Picquart’s mind, knowing as he does that pursuing this case would destroy his career and likely end in a court martial for him and social ruin for those he loves. When facing disciplinary action himself, Picquart muses, “In this quasi-religious house I perceive that I have become something beyond a mere dangerous nuisance to my masters. I am a heretic to the faith.” Harris is masterful at depicting the sky-high stakes of the political scandal that shook Europe, weaving in the rising antisemitism, the grubby journalism of the scandal sheets as well as the tenacious activism of staunch supporters of Dreyfus’ cause like Anatole France, Henri Poincaré and Georges Clemenceau. At the height of the scandal, Émile Zola wrote, in a French daily, an explosive open letter known quite simply as J’accuse…! , accusing high-ranking officers and ministers of colluding in the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Captain Dreyfus. An Officer and A Spy  is not a quick read but Harris keeps it pacy even though it must be said there are portions in the middle that focus rather minutely on procedure. However, I suppose that is to be expected in a novel about a real-life case with many fine details and a multitude of characters. While history must be credited with providing the plot of this novel, Harris enhances it with a narrative structure that keeps ticking and a well-rounded narrator. Picquart is a man of culture with his interests in literature and music highlighted throughout the book bestowing him with an air of gentler sensibilities and a sense of humour offset by a few flaws of character making him feel like a real person instead of a bookish paragon of goodness. In a lighter moment, he muses on the status of older bachelors, “Bachelors of forty are society’s stray cats. We are taken in by households and fed and made a fuss of; in return we are expected to provide amusement, submit with good grace…however short the notice.” All in all, I greatly enjoyed An Officer and A Spy . If espionage thrillers and historical dramas are your scene, then do pick this one up. If, however, you prefer watching over reading, you could check out its film adaptation directed by Roman Polanski.

Many of us have been taught history, economics and politics through somewhat incomplete and at times, inaccurate stories of cause and effect highlighting the role of great individuals and exceptional happenings. With The Evolution of Everything, Matt Ridley intends to show us how almost everything around us is a result of a bottom-up, gradual evolutionary process. This book's strength lies in the ideas it throws up, causing us to re-examine and rethink the way the world works, grows and changes. Ridley makes the point that much of recorded history, “places far too much emphasis on design, direction and planning, and far too little on evolution.” In separate chapters devoted to the evolution of varied fields such as government, morality, education, population, money, etc, Ridley lays out his primary thesis, that changes in all these spheres are incremental, inexorable, gradual and spontaneous. And quite often, this slow evolution is not visible to the casual observer who may have trained his or her eyes on larger-than-life personalities or organizations expecting them to be the founts of change. Ridley writes, “Much of the human world is the result of human action, but not of human design; it emerges from the interactions of millions, not from the plans of a few." Ridley states that things which survive and thrive are a result of bottom-up evolution, created without any active decision towards making a change, be it the evolution of all living things, industrialisation, religion or language. No one person or entity created or caused them and yet, here they are… all in working order. Furthermore, Matt Ridley makes the point that top-down policy-making is a recipe for disaster since it is prescriptive without fully understanding any issue in addition to not allowing for the rough-tumble of the real world to separate the wheat from the chaff in the dustbowl of ideas. Ridley leans heavily on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to support his view. For me, the most compelling chapters were about the evolution of morality, culture and technology. Ridley illustrates the concept of nothing being able to stop an idea whose time has come with an example of the light bulb and Edison: “Suppose Thomas Edison had died of an electric shock before thinking up the electric bulb. Would history have been radically different? Of course not. Somebody else would have come up with the idea. Others did. Where I live, we tend to call the Newcastle hero Joseph Swan the inventor of the incandescent bulb, and we are not wrong… In Russia, they credit Alexander Lodygin. In fact, there are no fewer than twenty-three people who deserve the credit for inventing some version of the incandescent bulb before Edison.” The Evolution of Everything sets off to cast aside confirmation bias, the Great Man theory and mostly, the dusty idea of top-down policy-making. Unfortunately, Ridley isn’t very convincing in all chapters. The chapters about leadership and economy are especially crippled by the very thing The Evolution of Everything  is so determined to expose – confirmation bias and the desire to fit cherry-picked events into pre-determined theories about the world and how it works. Ridley states that one of the chief characteristics of an untrustworthy theory is that it is not refutable. Some of his own ideas and versions of events share that characteristic. More specifically, in the chapter about the evolution of the money, Ridley writes that the 2008 Recession was caused more by the top-down policies of the Clinton and Bush administrations rather than bottom-up deregulation (such as the repealing of the Glass-Steagall Act which separated commercial and investment banking activities). He also mentions, in passing, his own exposure to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis . “My own experience as chairman of a bank was of endless reassurance from intrusive and detailed regulation right up till the point when it all went wrong. Far from warning of the crisis to come, regulators did the very opposite, and gave false reassurance or emphasised the wrong risks.” It's a pity that he doesn’t mention that in September 2007, Northern Rock (the bank he was chairman of) became the first British bank since 1878 to suffer a run on its finances . And it’s not like he followed the libertarian, ‘survival of the fittest’ credo when his bank was sinking. Instead, Northern Rock applied to the  Bank of England  for emergency liquidity funding at the beginning of the crisis, but failed. Ridley resigned as chairman in October 2007. In February 2008,  Northern Rock was nationalised following a bailout by the UK government .  A parliamentary committee criticised Ridley for not recognising the risks of the bank's financial strategy and "harming the reputation of the British banking industry". But the 'bottom-up' £27 billion failure of Northern Rock and its 'top-down' rescue don’t find a mention in The Evolution of Everything . That's confirmation bias and ideological blindness at its peak. I suppose, that is to be expected when an author is cherry-picking examples and anecdotes to prop up a theory that springs interesting questions and explains some things but not everything. I found it surprising that there is no mention of China's economic revolution in the chapter about economy just as Singapore's visionary leader, Lee Kuan Yew, viewed as 'authoritarian' by the West, is ignored in the chapter about leadership. Ridley wishes to make the point that top-down policies are always failures and these two examples amongst many others don't suit his narrative.   The American author, F Scott Fitzgerald is reported to have said, “The truest sign of intelligence is the ability to entertain two contradictory ideas simultaneously.” I dare say, it is also a sign of a genuine spirit of inquiry and grace which, sadly, is lacking in The Evolution of Everything . As  a result, it becomes a rather tedious read by the end.

I watched Netflix’s Persuasion last week. It is based on Jane Austen’s last novel, Persuasion , in terms of the broad plot and the Regency aesthetic – which seems to have been Netflix’s sole reason for going ahead with this adaptation, given the success of the Bridgerton series . In keeping with the wokeness of our times, Netflix brings in actors of diverse backgrounds (of African and Malaysian origin) to play characters that were written as white and English. This is another Bridgerton effect, I suppose. I haven’t read the Bridgerton series but did watch the first two seasons of the show. The author of the romance series, Julia Quinn wrote it in the early 2000s. I can only assume that Julia Quinn is fine with Shonda Rimes, the executive producer of the show, reimagining the Regency Era with more racially and culturally diverse characters. That’s great. Jane Austen, on the other hand, had no such ideas, given that she was writing of that time in that time. Also, she didn’t have a twitter (now christened X) account! COLOUR BLIND OR CONFLICT-AVOIDANT? I get it. Regency fashion is a vibe at the moment and so, the folks at Netflix thought any drivel in those outfits is likely to be a hit with the demographic that watches Bridgerton. What they seem to have forgotten or perhaps never realised is that literature is more than an aesthetic. In fact, even aesthetics are more than an aesthetic. They are, more often than not, a reflection of social, religious, political and economic factors. Don’t buy my statement? Think about why we dress differently from the way that our grandparents did. To ‘modernise’ characters to better fit our current ideals and soothe our sensibilities rather than reflect the truth of the period depicted is a form of dumbing down. Not only because it assumes that the viewers wouldn’t understand the social mores of the era in question but also because it attempts to fool its victim (the viewer, in this case) into mistaking this screening of facts as a symbol of their power to alter the public discourse. To gloss over historical wrongs (as in the case of slavery or colonialism) is not just factually incorrect but also escapist. Does pretending that injustices that occurred centuries ago didn’t happen make our present-day world a fairer place? What’s next? A white Nelson Mandela in a remake of Invictus ? Or does ‘colour-blindness’ not work in that direction? If so, then perhaps we should re-examine its efficacy. I know there is a stereotype of Generation Z and Millennials being conflict-avoidant but this has got to be a new level of avoidance. History, I’m afraid, doesn’t come with trigger warnings. Not at least, in the real world. WHERE IS THE REAL ANNE ELLIOT? Despite my obvious irritation at the ineffectual and token inclusiveness of diverse or colour-blind casting in dramas set in periods of history when race was practically destiny, the aspect of Netflix's Persuasion that baffled me most was the characterization of the protagonist, Anne Elliot. In Jane Austen’s novel, she is a somewhat plain-looking, quiet and melancholy aristocratic woman with a rich internal life. A wallflower with more intelligence, fortitude and kindness than she gets credit for. Unmarried at 27, Anne believes that life has passed her by and worse still, she’s to blame for it. We are told that eight years ago, she broke her engagement to a man she loved, Frederick Wentworth who, at the time, lacked both status and wealth as an ordinary naval officer. The sadness and guilt that followed the end of that relationship has been a heavy burden that Anne has borne in silence and without any real confidants. The passage of time has only deepened her feelings for Wentworth and sharpened her regret at having allowed herself to be persuaded to abandon a love worth fighting for. Jane Austen puts it best, “She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older: the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning.” This character in Netflix's film is portrayed by Dakota Johnson who, I’m quite sure isn’t anyone’s idea of plain-looking. But that’s a minor niggle compared to the assault of the ‘feisty woman’ trope that so many filmmakers and showrunners are determined to foist upon us. I wish someone could get a memo to folks in the entertainment business that every female character cannot be feisty, outspoken and given to enacting rambunctious impressions of naval captains, complete with jam moustaches (yes, I know, this a spoiler but it was a spoiler for me too. In a different way though). Jane Austen was a master of characterisation and like any good author, many of her plots develop from the interactions between her characters and their circumstances. Change the character and the outcome cannot be the same. I find it hilarious that Netflix executives don’t understand that characters in stories (at least, good ones) have agency and purpose within the plot and aren’t interchangeable. What’s next? Anna Karenina as a chirpy soccer mom? I shudder to think. In Persuasion , Anne is in the situation she is in because she lacked the conviction and boldness to not be persuaded by a person whose opinion she valued. If she was as feisty and strong-willed as Wentworth said she was (in the film, not the book), then why did she not marry him in the first place? That way, there would’ve been no movie. And that, in itself, would have been no mean achievement, I promise you. A WENTWORTH WITHOUT MYSTERY Further on in the story, we are told that Wentworth’s sister and her husband, Admiral Croft would be renting the Elliot home, Kellynch Hall (due to Anne’s father’s diminished finances and consequent move to Bath). As expected, Captain Wentworth also shows up on the scene soon enough. His prospects have improved drastically over the years, making him an eligible match. For the rest, you’ll have to order yourself a copy of the book. Or catch the film, at your own risk! One of the major elements of suspense in Austen's Persuasion is what Wentworth thinks or how he feels about Anne eight years after she called off their engagement. In the novel, both Anne and the reader are equally in the dark. The film ruins that suspense by injecting a strange chat between the protagonists on a beach. Hence, when at the climax of the film, Wentworth writes Anne a letter (which ranks amongst the greatest love letters in English literature) professing his feelings, it doesn’t have quite the same impact because the build-up to it has, frankly, been punctured. FILTERING MELANCHOLY Persuasion is a story of true love lost and the regret it leaves in its wake. So, it’s not hard to imagine that melancholy would be the presiding mood of the novel. Jane Austen achieved this by using free indirect discourse in which a third person narrator often views things from the protagonist’s perspective and weaves their insights and thoughts into the narrative. But it’s done so subtly that you might forget it is happening at all. Austen also balanced her satire of societal norms and Anne’s silly relatives with an underlying current of loss and sadness, mirroring Anne’s state of mind. Netflix's efforts in this direction seem limited to using a colour palette that reminded me of a blue-toned Instagram filter. It looked nice but that’s all it was - style over substance. KNOCKING DOWN THE FOURTH WALL With respect to weaving in Anne’s perspective, the makers of Netflix's Persuasion took a chance with having her speak straight to the audience. I can understand their reasons for doing that. One of the challenges of film-making or any visual medium is to show what someone thinks or feels. Novels have omniscient or close third person narrators or even first person point of view where readers can literally read the character’s mind. Film-making doesn’t have that advantage. A technique to make up for that lack is for a character to directly address the audience by breaking the fourth wall . The term ‘fourth wall’ originated in theatre. It refers to the imaginary wall between the characters of a play in their fictional world and the audience. In Netflix's Persuasion , Anne Elliot speaks directly to the viewers as if they were her confidants. It’s been done earlier, of course. An example I can think of at the moment, is Kevin Spacey’s character, Francis Underwood, in House of Cards . That was a masterclass. This, on the other hand, is detention! It fails mainly because the movie Anne continues to sound chirpy and upbeat (even in this intimate exchange with her confidant, the viewer) in a story about a woman who is in the depths of misery at the prospect of watching her lost love find love with another in front of her very eyes. I’m sure you, dear reader, see the incongruity of it all. I imagine that the screenplay writers and the director probably thought this could be their way of giving us, the viewers an insight into Anne’s inner world. Sadly, snarky and almost witty comments don’t do much to evoke sympathy for Anne’s character in the film. PERSUASION’S THEMES: MISSING IN ACTION Jane Austen’s Persuasion revolves around the themes of constancy in love, regret and transformation brought on by love and regret. In the film, we don’t see that kind of constancy, no regret other than surly references to being ‘worse than exes’ and certainly, no transformation in the Anne’s character. You could be forgiven for thinking of her as a single-note character. GET A CLUE In conclusion, I hope the failure of this venture for Netflix wakes them up to the consequences of jumping onto the bandwagon of a megahit success i.e. Bridgerton and churning out lazy and soulless adaptations of beloved classics in the hope that their target demographic won’t catch on. Next time, instead of focussing only on keeping the empire waistline (a staple of Regency era fashion), perhaps Netflix could stay loyal to what the story is about. If all else fails, they could pick up a clue or two from Clueless . The makers of that film adapted Jane Austen’s Emma and set it in a high school in contemporary Los Angeles, complete with cellphones and designer outfits. Starring an effervescent Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd, Clueless had a diverse cast, all while staying faithful to Austen’s characterization and the spirit of the novel, making the film a cult classic. Watch and learn, Netflix!

As I write this, it is almost four months since Anna Sebastian Perayil’s tragic death, caused by a cardiac arrest. That’s almost as long as her tenure at Ernst & Young. It was her first job and her death at the age of 26 is shocking but sadly, not singular. Chronic stress, mental health issues and other indicators of ill-health have become too common amongst corporate employees to warrant comment nowadays and yet, the ruinous effects of work stress multiply silently, till a case like Anna’s hits the headlines, rousing us all. TOXIC CORPORATE CULTURE Anna’s mother, Anita Augustine’s letter to the CEO of E&Y India, Rajiv Memani is both poignant and explosive. Anita’s letter spoke of how many corporate organisations are ‘glorifying overworking’. I couldn’t agree more. Working long hours has become a norm in the corporate sector, creating a toxic work culture focussed almost solely on profits, treating employees as an endlessly expendable resource. In cases that make the headlines, the public relations machinery of the corporate organisation usually swings into action, slyly shifting the blame onto the victim or spouting vague platitudes about ‘introspection’. Most of the time, their only intention is to weather the media storm which eventually dies down. The same holds true for government ministers. In the case of E&Y India, investigations have been ordered. With regard to what will come of all these probes, your guess is as good as mine. But the realist in me isn’t optimistic. When money speaks, ethics and human rights are seldom allowed to interrupt. CRUX OF THE MATTER So, what’s the solution? Well, the answer lies within the person reading this post – you. You need to make the choice about how you want to work and live. I don’t subscribe to the rose-tinted view that you can have it all. No one can. That’s only happens in the movies. The rest of us must stand up for ourselves and make choices that benefit our long-term well-being. While such measures aren’t usually practical for a rookie, they are certainly a viable option a few years down the line. To do so, we must start valuing our well-being over a pay hike , fancy job titles or bragging rights about business trips. None of it matters that much when you’re unwell or dead. WORKPLACE TIPS The following are the workplace tips I've picked up along the way. Having followed most of these pointers, I can attest to their value. The rest are what I wish I had done earlier and I hope you will benefit from them. IMAGINE YOUR IDEAL LIFE Visualise what you want from your life – all aspects of it, not just work. Work is a part of your life but influences your routine and lifestyle more than almost any other life choice. Let’s say you live in India and work as a head-hunter for a company looking to hire and place candidates in Canada. To interview people living in Canada, you need to work their hours. As a result, expecting to maintain a healthy sleep cycle with that job is a pipe dream and is bound to impact your health in the long-run. KEEP UPSKILLING Learn new skills in areas related to your work but also engage with stuff, outside the professional realm, that interests you. You never know what may spark a new work/business opportunity. And even if it doesn’t lead you to new pastures on the professional front, upskilling makes life interesting. LOAN EMIs KEEP YOU CHAINED Live within your means. You might think this isn’t strictly work-related advice but hear me out. Debt is often the difference between sticking it out at a job you hate and taking on an assignment that pays a little lesser but is a lot more enjoyable. Avoid taking loans as much as you can because they will keep you plastered to jobs you don’t like. Don’t let your expenses rise just because you’ve got a raise especially once you already have a comfortable standard of living. NOT LOVING YOUR JOB IS OKAY Don’t expect your job to fulfil you always. Sometimes, a job is just a job. It pays the bills. Don’t expect it to lead you to new heights in self-actualization! CORPORATE COST-CUTTING IS CRUEL Never make the mistake of believing that your company will hold your hand when the going gets tough. They won’t. Job cuts can be brutal. Don’t expect any favours or kindness. FIRED DOESN’T MEAN INCOMPETENT Pink slips aren’t a referendum on your capability. Just because you got sacked doesn’t mean you’re not good at what you do.   WORK IS NOT GREATER THAN LIFE Maintain a work-life balance. Please don’t be one of those losers who consider being perpetually overworked a badge of honour. It’s bad enough being a corporate hostage, don’t sign up for Stockholm syndrome too! Let Anna’s case be a wake-up call. Invest in your health, friends and family. They will stand by you when your company doesn’t. KEEP UP WITH INDUSTRY TRENDS Technological advances can completely upend your industry. Be aware of what’s happening and which way the trends are headed. And if you can, upskill in that direction. CULTURE IS KEY Company culture is a living organism, evolving with time. Be cognizant to how your workplace makes you feel. If the culture in your office leans towards micro-management, top-down decision-making and cliques, you can bet a million bucks that the focus is not on doing or encouraging good work. Introspect whether or not you want to be part of such an organisation. PRIORITISE THE POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH Choose companies that focus on employee growth and have opportunities for professional development and advancement. Not where stagnation is the name of the game. MIX IT UP Make a conscious effort to meet people from different walks of life. This will keep you out of echo chambers. The world is a big place and sometimes, the industry we work in makes us myopic. I know this to be especially true of the media industry which is why I made a conscious effort to meet people outside of it. BE PATIENT Be willing to earn your stripes. Don’t expect to become CEO in five years. That’s not going to happen unless you or your parents founded the company! The path to success is quick only in the movies where it can be traversed in a 30-second montage. CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT Be willing to take the highs with the lows. Don’t expect to be on a perpetual high. Things change even if you’re very good at your work. Bosses change, requirements change, as do team dynamics. This is one of those lessons that can’t really be explained, only experienced. HAVE THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION Stand up for what you believe in and do the right thing whenever you can. And you usually can. It boosts your self-esteem and earns you the respect of those who value character. Be warned though. Doing the right thing may make you a target for those who like to tread easier (if that’s the word for it) paths. CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES Understand and accept that almost every major choice you make will have consequences. Make the choice you are willing to live with. CLICHÉS ARE BORING Don’t become a cliché of your profession. For instance, many journalists smoke. It surprised many of my colleagues that I didn’t. And their surprise surprised me. A lot of people do many things to fit in and ‘look the part’. I don’t buy into that logic. Do your job well – that’s the part that matters and gives you a confidence that’s hard to miss. Plus, why be a facsimile when you can be an original? TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK It’s not enough to be good at your job. When you grasp how your individual responsibilities fit into the larger process , it helps everyone, including you. Acquire a basic understanding of what other departments do, so that you can do your bit in the most seamless way possible. Let me give you an example. As a news producer, I produced shows. One small aspect of it was to send promo lines to the person who promotes the shows on the ticker (the band with news headlines and other information that scrolls at the bottom of the screen). The feedback he gave me was that the character limit for the promo lines was 25 characters. Up until that point, I had not given it any thought. After that day, I made sure I didn’t send the ticker team any promotional lines longer than 25 characters. As a result, I never had to watch the promo lines of my show being mangled into something I didn’t like. And the members of the Ticker team appreciated their job being made easier and were much more helpful even if there was a mistake, delay or special request from our end. Being open to feedback greases wheels in a way nothing else can. KEEP IT CONSTRUCTIVE Be willing to give and receive constructive feedback graciously. One of the best things you can do for a new employee (especially if it’s their first job) is to take them through what is expected of them, answer their questions and praise a job well done. Be the senior you wish you had. It makes a huge difference. CYA Learn to cover your ass (forgive my French). This means putting assignment requests or any other instructions on e-mail or text messages which can back up your story, if and when the need arises. And the need arises more often than you can imagine, especially in toxic work environments. It's better to have it and not need it than the other way around.   SNAKES AND LADDERS Office politics is the dragon that cannot be slayed. Here’s what you can do even if you don’t want to participate. Be aware of the camps. You don’t need to be a part of them, but the awareness helps you figure out what to expect. It’s either that or learning tarot! THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE Speak up for yourself without being obnoxious or putting other people down. Playing the long-suffering martyr may fetch you some dull praise from self-serving managers, but it will also result in endless work being dumped on your never-complaining shoulders or well-deserved holiday plans going down the drain, leading to a sense of resentment and exhaustion. Take your pick. PRIVACY PAYS Keep your personal life private. Discussing it at work usually backfires. And yes, even posting details of your personal trials on Instagram constitutes oversharing if your colleagues follow you on social media. BE BRAVE And if all else fails and you find yourself stuck in a job you don’t like, move. You’re not a tree! Analyse with a cool head the source of the problem - a particular manager, job, department or line of work. Once you have that clarity, you can look to make changes.   And if you, like me, want a complete change, be brave. Sometimes, it takes years to build up the courage but it’s easier if you did all of the above. Wishing you the very best!

This is a novel about ghosts of the past haunting one’s present. The protagonist of A Stain on the Silence is James who has a good job and a wife he adores. The story is narrated in first person by James takes us through his comfortable suburban life being jolted by a revelation made by Lily Murthington, a former lover whom he hasn’t heard from in 24 years. Lily tells him that their affair from when he was a teenager and she, the step-mother of his school friend, Carlo, resulted in a daughter, Kate. Laid up in a hospice, practically on her deathbed, Lily pleads with James to help Kate avoid going to prison for the murder of her boyfriend. Does James help? Yes, of course, else this would be a very slim book. But there’s a weightier reason for his assistance. James has a secret of his own - one he’d like to take to his grave. However, Lily has evidence that would destroy that plan. As far as set-ups go, this is fairly sufficient but somehow, the unlikeable characters and the unnecessary running about makes A Stain on the Silence feel like a wasted opportunity. It’s a story that is unable to choose between being plot-driven and character-driven. With its bleak outlook and almost every major character from James, Lily, Kate to Carlo being either a liar, manipulative or violent, A Stain on the Silence lacks an emotional centre which readers would identify with. In addition, there are parts where the action in this story comes across as solely a means to etch out a character profile and perhaps, justify the end. The theme of broken families, childhood friendship and deceit in everyday life are never fully explored. I’ve read one other novel by Andrew Taylor called The Scent of Death  which is an atmospheric and layered story set during the American Revolution with characters who, though complex have real-life motivations and are decidedly more relatable. Unlike characters in A Stain on the Silence  who do cruel things and yet carry themselves with the air of injured sparrows. The constant flashbacks in James’ narrative are overwrought and feel false since he holds back crucial pieces of information from the reader for no reason other than to spring a somewhat soggy surprise in the final chapters. Taylor manages to drum up some pace towards the end of the novel by revealing a twist in the final lines of almost every chapter but they left me cold. Arguably, the ending or pay-off at the end of the story in a thriller or mystery, more than any other genre perhaps, is what makes the book. And that is, sadly, A Stain on the Silence’s greatest letdown. It’s an ending so timid and half-baked that I was left looking to turn a few more pages. It’s open-ended with no real resolution of guilt and the reader is left wondering about the real motivations for certain characters’ actions in the climax. The last chapter of A Stain on the Silence  left me with a sense of reading a book which has had its last few pages ripped out.