Writer Perumal Murugan is dead,’ said an update on the author’s own Facebook page.
For a country that’s moving towards a brighter, more developed, digital future in the twenty-first century, India’s people seem to be regressing in a strange direction. From attacking writers for their work without understanding it – to a point that the writer has to claim that he is ‘dead’ – to forcing anyone who questions the ruling party’s ideas to conform, India is slowly but surely moving away from the very ideas that formed its identity: a culturally diverse democracy.
While A.R. Venkatachalapathy examines what led a venerated writer like Perumal Murugan to commit ‘suicide’ in ‘Who Killed Perumal Murugan?’, Manash Bhattacharjee, in his essay ‘The Force of Dissent’, talks about why dissent is not only important but also necessary in a democracy as big and diverse as India.
The road to success can be long and winding but the journey can begin right away – and it always starts with people.
At the workplace and in your personal life, much of your happiness depends upon the relationships that can be built with the people around you. How do you ensure you act the right way, say the right thing? How can you stay confident, calm and graceful under pressure?
From highlighting the importance of conversations, friendships, and basic courtesies to simple pointers about social cues that help make a good impression, this is a handy guide that can help you navigate the most stressful of social situations with élan.
You can go from making a new acquaintance to having a conversation to getting insights to landing a new client, all in the span of one party. But the first rule of networking? Don’t treat it like networking.
Not all parties are networking events. As a guest, you’re expected to bring good cheer and a pleasant outlook to the table, while as a host, you’re expected to bring all of the above and some more. How do we navigate the tricky waters of professional and personal? Can you really let your hair down in front of your boss? And how do you authentically connect with people who you will be seeing at work?
Luckily, Suhel Seth, professional thrower and goer of parties, has it all figured out and lays it down in simple, easy to follow rules.
How does one navigate friendships at the workplace?
A truly successful person has a diverse group of friends because they understand the value of bringing different people with varying opinions and ideas about the world into their lives. The trick to maintaining these friendships is unsurprisingly trust.
However, things get complicated when professional acquaintances also begin to translate into friendships. Luckily, Suhel Seth is someone who has navigated these tricky waters and brings wisdom, wit and a few rules about how you can develop and maintain real friendships in the professional world that go the distance.
Have you ever suffered from anxiety when having to talk to new people? How often have you come up against that deadly terror – the awkward silence? How many of us struggle with that basic problem: what do I say next?
Conversations are the life of a good party, and great conversations are the sign of a truly successful party, but not everyone is blessed with the gift of the gab.
Thankfully, Suhel Seth, talented talker, has some quick and easy pointers on how to cultivate the art of talking for social and professional success. From highlighting the importance of having and expressing opinions to knowing when not to express one, from walking that thin line between taking a stand and being overly aggressive to effectively handling arguments, Seth has advice – and a lot of wit – for it all.
Climbing the social ladder isn’t all about building connections or financial success. A successful person knows the importance of helping people feel listened to, while being compelling in turn – to be both interested, and interesting.
Interested people create good conversations. Good conversations make up interesting people. But that’s not all because there’s nothing quite like the subtle charm of the truly charismatic.
Suhel Seth, who has mastered the art of being both interested and interesting, lays down some basic rules on how to cultivate a winning personality. Based on the premise of growing a wholesome, inviting personality, he charts out tips and tricks on how to develop the critical skills required to go that extra mile.
When Swwapnil’s father tried to build a cooperative sugar mill for Dalits in 1991, he was told by the chief minister to come back in two months. The work he had put in already was extravagant and he was hopeful that it would finally, happily go through. What he didn’t know then was that minutes after he left the room, that minister had turned to a supporter and said, ‘Now these ##@@** also want to own a sugar mill,’ referring to his caste. That sugar mill was never built.
Determined to fulfil his father’s dream, Swwapnil, who had gone on to build and own factories of his own, decided to take matters in his own hands. Fighting the vagaries of changing policies, natural disasters and caste-based discrimination in financial institutions, he managed by sheer hard work to keep his head above water. Timely business pivots and an adaptive approach to barriers allowed his business to grow in leaps and bounds, showing that, no matter what happens, with knowledge, focus and a clear head a man can do anything—even build his business from scratch.
Read on to find out how this extraordinary businessman did it.
Sanjay Kshirsagar started out his life in a one-bedroom kholi in a chawl, fixing speakers on the side with a friend while working at Compton Greaves. Today his company owns 14 acres of land in which they intend to build 300 flats, earning Rs 500 crore.
Determined to be more, he worked on his business on the ten days off he would get after every project with Crompton Greaves where he was a senior supervisor. Strategic thought, creative flexibility and the urge to do something new helped Sanjay and his partner create custom-made speakers designed to be an unobtrusive part of people’s homes. His breakout moment was when Kumar Mangalam Birla gave him a special order to design a mechanism for a problem that even the smartest people at Philips could not solve.
His success gave him the means to enter politics, and his first order of business was to ensure that the people that he grew up with had better homes. Read on to find out how this extraordinary businessman achieved his ambition.
Sarath Babu’s mother used to drink a lot of water. He always thought it was just a habit, but only on growing older did he realize that it was because she’d given all the food to her four children.
Sarath’s exemplary academic record brought him first to BITS Pilani and then to the prestigious IIM-A, where he could have had his pick of jobs. However, a month into placements, he opted out of interviews, in order to cater for them. Hastily licensing his business under the name ‘Foodking’, he made Rs 70,000 in his first month through sheer chutzpah, and went on to build a nation-wide catering empire offering the good, wholesome, inexpensive food of his childhood.
Sarath’s poverty has made him sensitive to the grave social injustices in the country, and he wants, more than anything, to ensure that sustainable employment and development is accessible to people below the poverty line. Now joining politics, he hopes to be able to leave behind a legacy of determination and change—find out how here.
At his first job, Phulia’s department was jokingly called the ‘Brahmin department’ because the four people comprising the team were Brahmins, and the work was also very laid-back. Phulia was the first Dalit to be recruited to this department, and the other four left no stone unturned to unsettle him so that he would quit.
After a humiliating incident that nearly cost him his job, Phulia was determined to avenge himself with sheer success—and in a few years, his unrelenting hard work ensured that he was heading that department, responsible for imports valued at Rs 100 crore. But eager to be his own master, he left his job with Rs 9000 in his pocket to start his own company. Having ruthlessly navigated caste-based discrimination himself, Phulia is now a strong advocate of independent businesses for Dalits to empower the next generation.
Read more about this extraordinary business story here.
