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Heartbreak, Sadness and Vampires

Posted on by Penguin India

Love isn’t easy like Sunday morning. Seventeen-year-old Gehna Rai has normal friends, goes to normal school and belongs to a normally dysfunctional family. Everything about her is normal – except for the fact that she is also going to be a mom.

Erma is a nerdy high-school drop-out and dreams of becoming a poker pro. He also takes care of his dad, who has Parkinson’s disease.

Meet our latest favourite millennials in the excerpt below!

 

Gehna Rai was a girl who flirted with sadness.

She was tempted by it the way a person with vertigo sometimes feels drawn to the edge. It free-floated around the periphery of her days and she was aware of it following her always. When she was younger, and didn’t fully understand its nature, she would turn to meet it and it would squeeze her heart, seeping into her bones like a cold fog. In those days Gehna was optimistic: she believed that the sadness was a mood and, therefore, that certain distractions—like listening to music or going for a swim—could make it go away.

Wiser now, Gehna was no longer sure that she had any say in the comings and goings of the sadness, but she still held hope of ducking it. She had drawn strict boundaries, drip-feeding herself the pop songs about heartbreak and the tragic movies she loved, never exceeding a ratio of one part sad to nine parts happy. She stopped watching historical docudramas on the Holocaust and got Eram to screen her books before she agreed to read them.

‘I don’t get it,’ he had said the first time she asked him, shuffling through the pile of new books on her desk. Gehna was sitting on a floor cushion as far as she could from the books while still being in the same room. ‘You want me to tell you what happens in the stories?’

‘No. I want you to tell me what doesn’t happen.’ Eram steepled his fingers and nodded intelligently. ‘Right. It all becomes clear to me now. You’re saying, read the books and tell you what doesn’t happen in them.’ He lifted, with his thumb and forefinger, a book from the pile. ‘Now, this, for instance. Ian McEwan’s Atonement. I haven’t read it but I can tell you—just judging from the cover, mind you, and the fact that it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2001—that vampires don’t happen in it. No vampires at all. Or exploding sheep. It doesn’t enlighten us on the dark and bloody past of shipping insurance. Also, it only touches on the oral sex techniques of the natives of Bora Bora but doesn’t really—’

‘Stoppit,’ Gehna cut off his riff. ‘Like, children dying. Or nice people. If any children or nice people die in a book, I don’t want to read it. You know what I mean.’

Amidst the quirkiness, author Arjun Nath gives us some very heartfelt moments like these to remember.

Caught between a sincere friendship and something more, Eram and Gehna give us a story that is #litAF!

Words Do Matter- A History of the Preamble from Conception to Completion

Posted on by Penguin India

Universally regarded as the chief architect of the Constitution, Dr B.R. Ambedkar’s specific role as chairman of the Drafting Committee and his undeniable authorship of the Preamble became blurred in the haze of conflicting theories about how the Preamble came into being. Formally adopted on 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India has been a subject of interest to many but in Ambedkar’s Preamble, Aakash Singh Rathore establishes the presence of Dr. Ambedkar’s thoughts and beliefs in the intellectual origins of the Preamble and its most central concepts.

Rathore writes ‘Stated succinctly, the Preamble trumpets our collective aspirations as a republic; indeed, it articulates the principles that precondition the possibility for our unity as a nation.’

Read on for a peek into the history of how the Preamble acquired its meaning –

 

                   When securing justice implied removal of injustice

Throughout the writings and speeches of Dr. Ambedkar there has been an emphasis on the urgent implementation of policies to instate social justice even more than economic and political justice. When the Preamble was in its nascent stages, many voices raised the need to flesh out the justice clause and debated the inclusion of Nehru’s tripartite formulation of ‘Justice- social, economic and political’, which finally appeared in the Preamble as it was. However, there were no amendments suggested by Dr. Ambedkar to the justice clause even though there was an important underlying difference in his understanding of the concept-

 

‘In an effort to frame the Objectives Resolution, Dr Ambedkar had put forth his own ‘Proposed Preamble’, which although following Nehru in the tripartite division of social, economic and political, gave substantive meaning to the term ‘justice’ by speaking of the removal of inequalities. That is, where Nehru’s text spoke of securing justice, social, economic and political, Dr Ambedkar’s text interpreted ‘securing justice’ to mean removing social, political and economic inequalities.’

 

       When political liberties nudged social freedoms out of the Preamble

While debates swirled around the subject of freedom and liberty, there was a battle for terms to occupy place of pride in the Preamble. Positive freedoms such as thought, expression, belief, faith, worship which featured on Nehru’s list were pitched against other terms of value on Dr. Ambedkar’s list such as speech, religion and the freedom from want and fear. The final list that made its way into the Preamble established the distinction between fundamental rights and Directive Principles of State Policy.

 

‘The main components of economic justice, and many of social justice, were relegated to the Directive Principles as they were considered too controversial for inclusion into other binding sections of the Constitution. Similarly, the more robust, labour related freedoms were dropped from their privileged place in the Preamble. Thankfully, however, most of the terms found a place within the body of the Constitution itself, with some eventually being included as fundamental rights.’

 

                          When the inequality clause was flipped over

The rather concise equality clause remains unchanged from the way it was drafted and added to the Preamble. However, the clause ‘EQUALITY of status and of opportunity…’ is the briefer version of what was proposed in Nehru’s Objectives Resolution. Another turn in the history of this clause was that Dr. Ambedkar had, in fact, proposed an ‘inequality’ clause!

 

‘It may come as some surprise, however, that in Dr Ambedkar’s ‘Proposed Preamble’ from States and Minorities (March 1947), there was not really an ‘equality’ clause at all, at least not a positive one. Instead, there was an ‘inequality’ clause:

(iii) To remove social, political and economic inequality by providing better opportunities to the submerged classes.’

 

When the term ‘fraternity’ brought Gandhian ideas into the constitutional draft

One of the main pillars on which our Preamble stands upright is the ‘fraternity clause’. However, this clause did not feature in any of the preliminary drafts to the Preamble and Constitution of India. Added by Dr. Ambedkar, this clause went on to become the only universally applauded clause in the Constituent Assembly for its inclusion of an aspect of morality amongst mostly legal and constitutional principles.

 

‘On 6 February 1948, the clause first read: Fraternity, assuring the dignity of every individual without distinction of caste or creed.

This is purely the Ambedkarian formulation of fraternity, quite in line with the history of Dr Ambedkar’s articulation of the concept in his own writings, dating back to the 1930s… It drew upon fraternity as a resource for upholding individual dignity, which remains perpetually degraded due to the distinctions of caste.’

The terms ‘JUSTICE, LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, Dignity and Nation’ contain layers of meaning and form the basis of the progressive and liberal values espoused by the Preamble.

‘It is these six words that allow us to hack into the DNA of Dr Ambedkar’s preamble, gaining access to many of its secrets.’  establishes Rathore as he takes us back into the intense debates and discussions within the Constituent Assembly and the Drafting Committee that decided the final inclusions in the Preamble.

To know more about the journey of the soul of India’s Constitution, read Ambedkar’s Preamble!

 

Writing a Superhero(ine) Novel

Posted on by Penguin India
By Rajorshi Chakraborti

About two years ago, I found I wanted to write a superhero novel!

I was no doubt influenced by the wave of superhero movies and shows that has been such a dominant trend this past decade. I’m susceptible to influences of that sort: my wife points out that if a character picks up a glass of whisky in a show we’re watching, I often pause it and announce I feel like one too.

 

But then I encountered resistance, from within! The (mostly) realist writer inside me, who had been looking at the world in certain ways over the past six books, couldn’t so easily make the switch to all-conquering superheroes. So, with some regret, I realised my heroes wouldn’t be all-conquering, that the structures and systems they would battle would be enormously powerful, more entrenched and multifarious than any individual baddie. I also understood, without any regret, that this book – like several others of mine – would take place in locations I knew well rather than anywhere fantastical, beginning with my home city of Calcutta, and in a time period that I genuinely wanted to explore – the present political moment in India.

This is how Shakti was conceived – as a coming together of a part of me that wanted to experience for the first time the boundlessness of unleashing magic and superpowers in a story, and the part held down by gravity, by the boundaries of the plausible and the ‘real’. So, my challenge became – could the book be both? Could Shakti be read and experienced as a gripping ‘supernatural’ mystery thriller, and also work (hopefully) as a complex evocation of what it feels like for a range of different characters to be living in India now – in the India being remade at all levels by the many stunning transformations of the past few years?

 

Of course, I had models, the most incredible, inspiring models. From the great fables, fairy tales and myths that I most adored, to the Ramayana, the Arabian Nights and the Mahabharata, to modern works such as Midnight’s Children, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, The Handmaid’s Tale, and One Hundred Years of Solitude, as well as sci-fi, horror, ghost stories and some of the more memorable superhero narratives, magical, non-realist elements have been used throughout literary history to shed new, unique light upon the real. In these unsurpassable works, and this was my hope as well on a far humbler scale, a few fantastic ingredients act as keys that allow the writer, and readers, access to richer, deeper, more breath-taking and soul-stirring apprehensions of the actual. How do certain extraordinary experiences feel to people in their impact and their unreality? How might any of us respond if one or other impossible-seeming thing became true tomorrow? What if you found yourself trapped in a body or a society that rendered you completely powerless (as in The Metamorphosis and The Handmaid’s Tale respectively, or perhaps under the regulations of the NRC)? What if all the forests around your town were burning and the sky was an unremitting red (which is true of several places in Victoria, Australia as I write)? What if you were granted powers that ​promised to​ realise your deepest longings, but they came at a terrible, soul-destroying price (the premise of Shakti)?

 

At the very start, I knew my principal protagonists would be women. It was an instinctive decision that only felt more right when I reflected upon it. First, I hadn’t written a novel before that was entirely narrated by and centred on women protagonists, which seemed like something imaginatively overdue to attempt. But also, when I thought about the most challenging circumstances into which I could plunge my would-be superheroes – to see what would remain, or emerge, of their humanity and heroism – the journeys of several women characters from different backgrounds in an Indian setting offered an incredible range of possibilities. Speaking as a male writer, I await eagerly reactions from readers to this crucial aspect of the book, to the experiences and histories of Arati, Jaya, Malti and Shivani, my principal characters, and whether they feel true and moving to you.

 

Before concluding, I’ll confess something I’ve felt ever since I completed Shakti, that – proud as I remain of all my other books and the things each one tries to do – it is this novel I have been building up my entire career to write. The one in which I’ve tried to do the most; the one packed with the ingredients I most love. ​The one whose title I was pleased to an embarrassing extent to notice one day had been hidden in my name all along – RAJORSHI CHAKRABORTI – as if waiting for me to arrive at it. ​

 

There’s always the temptation when using magic in a narrative to make wishes come true – the writer’s as much as a reader’s – of happy endings and fulfilled dreams. I love many such tales myself​; note my showing off how Shakti is ​’concealed’ in my ​​name! I wish one existed that we could all believe in about our present age. For its protagonists too, Shakti dangles precisely such a vision of the future, before reveal​ing​ itself ​to​ ​be ​the other kind of magic story – that involves wicked masters,​ binding conditions, crimes and servitude, and offers no way back. The kind that throws up moral crises no superhero cannot overcome by their powers alone. Collective crises, in the case of Shakti, which no hero can overcome alone.

 

Here’s what I hope for my book, beyond the wish that people will really enjoy it. That, in a very small way, it’ll offer ​a recognisable reflection of some of the crises millions of ordinary citizens in India – and in other countries around the world that are experiencing comparable political moments – are currently heroically fighting.

 

Who are the Janamsakhis?

Posted on by Penguin India

History is telling and re-telling of stories by one generation to the next in the form of illustrations, written texts and verbal narrations. Janamsakhis are the birth (janam) and life stories (sakhis) of First Sikh – Guru Nanak. While the earliest of the existing Janamsakhi – Bala, (dated 1658) is a compilation of 29 illustrations, the B-40 Janamsakhi (dated 1733) is considered to be the most significant for its nuanced and detailed depiction through 56 illustrations.

The narratives in all Janamsakhis are linearly portrayed from birth till death but vary across time, region, and artist. Through detailed study of Janamsakhis, the author of The First Sikh attempts to convey the central meaning of these stories, that is that, “the First Sikh reaching out to people across religions, cultures, professions and societal hegemonies, and embracing them in his profound spirituality”.

Here are the most important lessons that we gain to learn five and a half centuries hence.

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Greatness lies in our deeds

The portrayal of the First Sikh in the form of an ordinary human being, without a halo, validates his temporal and historical presence in our world. The Janamsakhis present a natural progression of the First Guru as a baby boy to a bearded middle-aged man into a grey bearded old man.

“Rather than any exaggeration of external features and spacing, what spectacularly emerges is the Guru’s inner power and spirituality. In the early illustrations he is not depicted with even a halo. Yet, the First Sikh’s simple pose, whether standing, sitting or lying down, and his gentle gestures addressing people from various strata of society and personal orientation spell out his greatness.”

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Imbibing a pluralist approach

Various illustrations in Janamsakhis indicate the First Guru’s acceptance of beliefs and practices of different culture, both in his gestures and physical appearance.

“The illustrator of the early B-40 Janamsakhi accomplishes it by utilizing disparate motifs of the tilak and the seli: Guru Nanak almost always has a vertical red tilak mark on his forehead, just as he has a woollen cord, seli, slung across his left shoulder coming down to his right waist.” … “Evidently, the bright red line between the Guru’s dark eyes or the dark semicircle sinuously clinging his yellow robe go beyond art for art’s sake attractiveness: the tilak is saturated with the holiness of the Vaishnava Hindus; the seli with the devotion of the Muslim Sufis.”

“In almost all of his adult images Guru Nanak in the B-40 has in his hand a simple circle of beads on a string, ending in a tassel…” “Thought to have originated in Hindu practice, the ‘rosary’ is a widespread and enduring article used for meditation and prayer by Buddhists, Muslims and Christians alike.”

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Rejecting divisive cultural and political beliefs

The Janamsakhis elucidate the First Guru’s firm belief in equality and dismantling cultural practices that divide the community on the basis of caste, religion, and profession. A sharp and effective rendition of one those incidents is when young Nanak refuses to “participate in the upanyana ceremony, reserved for upper-caste Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya boys” and questions the priest who proceeds towards him with a sacred thread (janaeu). He retorts,

“‘Such a thread,’ continues Nanak, ‘will neither snap nor soil, neither get burnt nor lost.’ His biography and verse are thus blended together by the Janamsakhi authors to illustrate his rejection of an exclusive rite of passage antithetical to the natural growth of boys from all backgrounds alike. A young Nanak interrupts a smooth ceremony in front of a large gathering in his father’s house so that his contemporaries would envision a different type of ‘thread’, a different ritual, a whole different ideal than the rebirth of upper-caste Hindu boys into the patriarchal world of knowledge. That everyone treat one another equally every day is the subtext.”

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Living a truthful life

The Janamsakhis vividly and repeatedly portray the quintessential message of taking responsibility of our actions and performing our worldly duties in the society.

“Coming across some Pandits offering waters to the rising sun, the Guru begins to sprinkle palmfuls of water in the westward direction. When asked about his contradictory act, he simply responds that he is watering his fields down the road. This tiny story raises a loaded question: Is taking care of crops and other honest work any less than feeding distant dead ancestors? He draws the attention of his contemporaries to matters of living a collective responsible moral life. Whatever the setting, he conveys the futility of rituals and highlights truthful living midst family and society on a daily basis.”

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Engaging in community service

After his spiritual transition, when Guru Nanak reappears in river Bein after 3 days of immersion, he travels far and wide with Bhai Bala and Bhai Mardana to disseminate the importance of community service.

“As he reincorporates into society, ‘antistructure’ becomes the mode of existence. The earliest Sikh community that developed with Guru Nanak at Kartarpur fits in with the cultural anthropologist Victor Turner’s description of ‘antistructure’ because the neat horizontal divisions and vertical hierarchies of society were broken down.” … “The three important socio-religious institutions of Sikhism: seva (voluntary service), langar (community meal) and sangat (congregation) evolve in which men and women formerly from different castes, classes and religions take equal part.”

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Nurturing our body and participating in the natural, social and cosmic process

The Janamsakhis depict the extensive dialogue between Guru Nanak and the various ascetics. It comprehensively displays the conflict between Nanak’s belief in accepting and nurturing our body and the Naths’ ideals of “smearing ash on their bodies as a symbol of their renunciation”. Artist Alam presents an incident in B-40 Janamsakhi where,

“We see Guru Nanak climbing up a mountain where a conclave of Nath yogis is sitting (#20 in the B-40). The artist paints them with their backs against the world. Some have smeared. Their shaved heads, lengthened earlobes and long earrings (kan-phat, ‘ear split’) signal their rigorous hatha yoga practices and ascetic ideals.” … “Guru Nanak’s pictures with the various ascetic groups resonate with scriptural verses: rather than ‘smear the bodies with ashes, renounce clothes and go naked—tani bhasam lagai bastar chodhi tani naganu bhaia’ (GGS: 1127), we must ‘wear the outfit of divine honour and never go naked—painana rakhi pati parmesur phir nage nahi thivana’ (GGS: 1019).”

Pick your copy of The First Sikh to learn how the Janamsakhis gather meaningful incidences that are essential for the unity and continuity of the Sikh community.

Did You Know These Facts from the States of India?

Posted on by Penguin India

Each region of India is full of diversity in culture, language, food, tradition – you name it! If you have ever been interested in stories and tales from the many states of India then Sonia Mehta’s Discover India: Folktales of India is the perfect book for you! Join Mishki, Pushka and Daadu Dolma in 10 short stories on their adventures around India and learn more about this great land!

If you are intrigued by the many cultures of India, here are 10 facts and tales from different states!

 

Tamil Nadu

Did you know that Tamil Nadu is the largest producer of banana, turmeric and tapioca in India!

It is home to some of India’s best flora and fauna – much like the palmyra tree branch that helps save Kaveri from the scary tiger in the story of ‘The Tiger Groom’

 

Kerala

Kerala is also known as the Land of Coconut trees!

This delicious coconut is the key ingredient for Kozhukatta – Kumaran from the story ‘The Forgetful Son-in-Law’ will never forget the name of his favourite dish ever again and now you can remember it too!

 

Assam

Assam is known for its Assamese golden silk called muga. This silk is as special and beautiful as the magical shawl that Varya possesses in the story ‘How Peacocks Came to Be’!

 

Mizoram

Mizoram is also known as ‘The Land of the Highlanders’. It gets its name from the hills that make up Mizoram’s geography. You can find out more about the hills and its folktales in the story ‘Brave Nuchhimi’.

 

West Bengal

Bengal is best known for its Durga Puja celebrations that take place every year where the whole community gathers to celebrate!

Just like in the story ‘The Brahmins Ghost’ where Basudeb’s community gives him a helping hand – people of Bengal come together to celebrate this grand festival!

 

Odisha

Odisha homes one of India’s most famous temples in Konark – the Sun Temple. The story of ‘Dharmapada’s Sacrifice’ tells of how the grand temple was built and was able to gain its world renowned glory!

 

Gujarat

Gujarat is also known as ‘The Land of Legends’. Gujarat’s history is full of great legends similar to the king and Rasiklal in the legendary tale of ‘All for the Best’.

 

Maharashtra

Maharashtra was home to the great empire of the Marathas – who led with generosity, kindness and valour – much like Janba’s generosity in ‘Janba’s Story’.

 

Punjab

The land of Punjab is known as Golden Harvests for the great farms and harvest that are produced here. Much like in the tale ‘The Clever Sparrow’, the farmers of Punjab work hard and toil for a healthy and hearty crop from their farms – just like Chidhi!

 

Madhya Pradesh

This state is known as the Heart of India because of it central location on India’s map!

These are some interesting facts about some of the great states of India! If you’d like to learn more about the folktales from some of these wonderful states, then join Mishki and Pushka on their travels around India in Sonia Mehta’s Discover India: Folktales of India.

 Discover more of our regional richness with more stories and folktales from across the country!

Heartbreaking Lines from Layla and Tanya’s Story

Posted on by Penguin India

A richly atmospheric, deeply claustrophobic story with a stunning denouement, of two women confronting the everyday realities of their city and country, So All is Peace by Vandana Singhal provides an unflinching insight into love, lust, fear, grief, and the decisions we make, through a cast of sharply drawn characters brought together by an unspoken wrong.

Here are some powerful but heartbreaking lines that stayed with us long after we had turned the last page:

‘…it made me have an epiphany that that is how my life was going to be; its beauty forever marred by ache, its moments of ecstasy shadowed by agony. I was wrong of course. My moments of happiness reached a point and snapped off. Just like that. Never presaged and never returned.’

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‘That’s Tanya. She was always beautiful, always a better person, always by my side to make me stronger… But when I begin speaking again, the words stumble and lose direction and fall out as droplets of water. Ok. Perhaps I am not ready to speak yet. In time, but not quite just yet. Or perhaps never.’

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‘All I feel is pain. Unmitigated, unending pain. Like a loud horrible keeeeeeeee of a faulty microphone inside my head. And cold. I am always so cold that I seem to be discovering new parts of my body that are developing little icicles inside them.’

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‘His restlessness despite his otherwise structured life as a successful award-winning journalist probably comes from the complete lack of emotional support that he received from his parents throughout his life and although it feels a little juvenile and unfair as a thirty-seven year old man to still attribute his lack of emotional depth to his parents, what is undeniable is that they could be from another planet for how much he understood them or how much they have ever understood him.’

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‘It is difficult to feel unique when there is another person who looks exactly like you, mirroring your every expression, replicating your every action, even if the replicator is as good looking as Layla often is.’

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‘The spaces for women have been systematically, methodically truncated. Not by any dictate. That would be too obvious…No, there no boards saying ‘Women not Allowed’. But open a map of Delhi and there they are. The many, many places where no woman can go and the many, many more places where no woman can go after sundown. A temporal and areal-shrinking of their boundaries.’

Full of memorable characters and poignant scenes So All is Peace is a crucial commentary on the emotional realities and heartbreaks faced by women in today’s cities.

Here’s All You Need to Know, if a Job is on Your Mind!

Posted on by Penguin India

Knowing what career path to take and searching for jobs can sometimes feel like looking for a needle in a haystack – overwhelming and seemingly impossible. But fear not, Chandan Deshkmukh seeks to help you navigate your career woes in his latest book, 7 Dream Jobs and How to Find Them. The book provides essential tips and guidance on how to figure out your true calling in life and how to get there once you have.

Chandan surmises that ‘In short, career planning is not narrowing down the possibilities but looking for more potential fields of interest which you can carefully consider before making an informed decision’

So if you are looking for a job, or even attempting to figure out what that job might be, here’s all you need to know

1)Know yourself

The first step to figuring out what you want to do, is knowing who you are, what you enjoy and how that translates into a job you would enjoy. Think about what you’ve done that feels less like work and more like a fulfilling activity that you could spend hours doing – it could be reading, playing a sport, making videos – and further research what jobs on the market correlate to and include working on the things you enjoy.

Begin with understanding yourself and the wide range of things you enjoy – a career path will follow

‘Knowing which field matches your personality and aptitude would be the first step toward your dream job’

2)Build a specific skill set

Once you have decided which career path or job appeals to you, it is time to understand what skills and/or qualifications the role typically requires. Understanding the criteria required for applying to certain positions can help you to focus on and hone those skills making you far more suitable for the job than if you have a wide range of general skills.

Employers are always looking for how a candidate can fulfil the needs of the role rather than having a wide range of experience that loosely fits the job requirement. So, start by understanding the role, what skills are sought out for it and then you can work on gaining experience and building that skill set in advance.

3)Presentation is everything

Oftentimes, the secret of landing a job lies in how you come across to the employer. Therefore, it is essential to work on a clear and concise resumé of your work experience and history, and keep it handy for applying to jobs. Further, being well prepared for interviews can make or break your application! Coming across well informed and confident to the employer can help seal the deal to getting your dream job. In 7 Dream Jobs and How to Find Them, Chandan Deshmukh provides the essential tips needed to create the perfect resumé and how to ace an interview.

4)Be open to change

Although figuring out what you want to do, and where you want your life to go is a daunting question and the decision feels final and set in stone, it is important to understand that it is not. Choosing a career path does not mean you cannot change your mind in the future.

Being adaptable to change and realising that you can always change your mind and follow a different path later down the line is important and prevents you from putting too much pressure on finding the one job that you see yourself doing forever – so many jobs you might find interesting may not even exist yet!

5)Take a leap of faith!

Finally, don’t be afraid to take a leap of faith in life to pursue what you want to do – even if it seems impossible now, faith and hard work go a long way. Work hard and smart at building a skill set and taking steps towards your end goal, start today and you are sure to get there one day.

7 Dreams Jobs and How to Find Them guides you through the various opportunities and challenges of any career, and most of all, how to find a job that gives you satisfaction. If jobs and how to find them have been on your mind, pick up a copy of the book today – it’ll be sure to help!

The Evolution of the Hotel Industry in India

Posted on by Penguin India

India stands unmatched with its rich culture and tradition in hospitality, which millions of international and local travelers have experienced over the years.  Today’s travelers know what they want and are seekers of authentic, immersive experiences. Hotels are at the center of it all.

The Indian hotel industry, however, has shifted enormously over the years. Read on to know more about its tumultuous history and evolution.

Relying on Relatives

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Indian traveler did not have a decent room to stay in. The only hotels were either poky places with poor hygiene or grand five-stars run by the likes of the Taj or the Oberoi, which were unaffordable. So, there was nowhere decent and affordable for the large middle-class of this country. As a result, most travelers opted to stay with families and friends or in state-run tourist homes.

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What’s a Brand?

Till the early 1990s, the structure of India’s hotel industry was fairly straightforward. There was an owner, there was a manager and the brand. But in the majority of cases, the hotel owner simply ran the hotel without a brand.

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Post- Liberalisation

The Indian economy opened up in 1991, leading to high economic growth in the country all through the 1990s and the noughties. Breaking out of the shackles of socialism, India introduced policies that were market and services-oriented and this led to a boom of seeing good midmarket hotels that offered some of the frills of the five stars.

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Retaining the Throne

The badshahs of Indian hospitality, the Taj, the ITC and the Oberoi—often called the Big Three—have dominated the landscape for decades, with the over-100-year-old Taj having a significant market share in the branded-hotel segment. The Taj and Oberoi are iconic global brands, but their names no longer command the premium and undying loyalty they once did. Instead, post-2000, each of these players has had to work hard to stay relevant in a world where the customer has plenty of choice and is fickle.

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The Global Goliaths

They came, they saw, they failed to conquer—that was in the 1960s, and then again in the 1970s and 1980s. But if anything, international chains have been persistent in their attempts to occupy the Indian market. And eventually, most of them managed to crack the code. The entry of the international chains has been a really important turning point for Indian hospitality because while the complexity of the Indian market may have challenged them initially, once they got their bearings right, they brought in some important ingredients—discipline, efficiency, transparency and strong processes—to the sector.

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Lease, not Own

Today, there are five-and-a-half hotel models—OLMFD (Owned, Leased, Managed, Franchised or Distributed). Many hotels are actually not owned but leased for ninety-nine years or less. When they enter into these leases, people assume the lease will be extended for eternity but that’s not the case as seen with the Taj Mahal Hotel on Mansingh Road in New Delhi.

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The New Brigade

Entrepreneurs with no background in hospitality have jumped into the fray as they think there is a gap that the veteran players have not addressed. These include Ritesh Agarwal of OYO, Gaurav Jain of Aamod, Aditi Balbir of V Resorts, and Prashant Aroor of Intellistay. This new breed of hoteliers has the chutzpah and confidence to venture into this turf and the good news is that they have backing from venture capital and private equity players.

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The Digital Disrupters

Online travel agents such as Make My Trip, Clear Trip, Yatra and Booking.com that blazed into the digital landscape completely disrupted the hotel industry. They changed the way people chose hotels and booked and created a level playing field for unknown hotels that had no distribution muscle. Thanks to them, a small single-hotel company can now get 100 per cent occupancy while hotel chains with deep distribution networks may struggle to fill up rooms.

  • In From Oberoi to Oyo, Chitra Narayanan chronicles the origins of India’s hospitality industry and its transformation, and even crystal-gazes into what the future holds. Grab your copy of the book today to know more!

What Really is ‘Happily Ever After’?

Posted on by Penguin India

Sanam is a carefree, but headstrong young girl. A spat with a politician’s son pushes her to take up the challenge of becoming an IAS. At the same time, a small-town boy, Aamir, is nudged into studying for the civil services too. Both become rank holders.

They meet at the IAS Training Academy, Mussoorie. They fall in love and all hell breaks loose. Their religious differences come to the fore, things take a dangerous turn and there is an explosion on social media.

Meet the ambitious Sanam in an excerpt from the book below!

Life has a way of changing things around you with blinding speed, and in a way that you have little choice but to adapt to your new circumstances. Even a smiling sunflower basking in happiness could be dragged under the harshest spotlight the very next instance and whacked to answer questions that burn its yellow tongue. Our Sanam became one such bakra.

Not that you would’ve ever thought that possible, seeing the level of comfort and confidence with which she rode.

Two ‘Best Student’ trophies took pride of place on her desk—the one that had been awarded the previous day at college dwarfed the one presented at school four years ago, in sheer size. A figurine of the Laughing Buddha in onyx reclined next to them, guaranteeing both luck and prosperity.

The biggest challenge for Sanam today was to airbrush her Europe trip itinerary in such a way that she could squeeze out the maximum from this much-awaited time out to spend with her friends.

Two days in Lucerne . . . or just a day trip to Jungfrau, with an extra evening in Innsbruck? Sanam shakes her head. There are no easy answers in life!

But wait! Wasn’t there someone whose biggest preoccupation in life was to make the tough easy for her!

‘Dad!’

Sanam sallies forth to seek the one person who with his magic wand could iron out every crease and wrinkle in her way.

‘Dad!’ she calls out. The television news blared louder than her . . . her call drowning in the reporter’s excited outpouring:

‘Eight people have died as thousands of Dalits took to streets across India, protesting a Supreme Court order that, according to them, undermines a law designed to protect lower-caste and backward communities. Train services have been severely affected and main roads are blocked in a number of states . . .’

Grabbing the remote of the gigantic electronic screen that held her dad spellbound, Sanam reduces the volume.

Two pairs of eyes and ears swivel towards her immediately.

 

A heady mix of dreams and desire, Trending in Love is a story of undying love in the face of our society’s most dangerous beliefs. Are you all set to meet the couple?

 

Quotes you Can Relate to if you are Confused About your Career

Posted on by Penguin India

7 Dream Jobs and How to Find Them is a treasure trove of words that resonate with anyone navigating the tricky waters of job hunting and figuring out what career path to pick. Whether it’s sage advice or relatable sentiment, here are lines you can relate to if you are confused about a career:

‘Knowing which field matches your personality and aptitude would be the first step towards your dream job.’

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 ‘We are living in the most advanced times in terms of lifespan and health, where the possibility of what a human can achieve is limitless—and that obviously means creation of more and more jobs’

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 ‘Now I am like a kid in front of Baskin Robbins—with thirty-one options of ice cream to choose from, and I don’t know which flavour to pick. So, long story short, I haven’t figured out what to do’

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‘The goal is to persevere, be smart about your choices and also predetermine your career direction in some sort of way’

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‘The right job must enhance one’s life. It should suit the way you like to do things and reflect who you are.’

Insightful and perceptive quotes such as these and more can be found in 7 Dream Jobs and How to Find Them. Grab a copy now to navigate your way through the professional world!

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