Insights from an insider

In his latest book, this banker questions the functioning of the corporate sector and believes the ends are becoming far more important than the means

Mumbai-based banker Ravi Subramanian’s third book, The Incredible Banker, will be released this week. The last in his trilogy of banking chronicles—after If God was a Banker (2007) and Devil in Pinstripes (2009—The Incredible Banker is set in a foreign bank and tells the story of two employees who get embroiled in “dirty” corporate politics and become scapegoats.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Subramanian is the president and CEO (non-chit) of Shriram Group. He has worked with various multinational banks, including Citibank, ANZ Grindlays Bank and HSBC, in a career span of more than 18 years.

His next book project is likely to be more of a family-oriented story about three generations of a south Indian family. In a phone interview, Subramanian spoke to us about the existing corporate culture in India, where it is headed and why, and his new book. Edited excerpts:

What is ‘The Incredible Banker’ about?

This book, like my previous books, is set in a foreign bank. It’s about how two people, trying to be one-up, play with each other’s careers, and in the process, how the organization as a whole suffers. It’s also about how people external to the organization actually make use of such conflicts.

I’ve attempted to ask pertinent questions about the functioning of corporates in India. For instance, many MNCs in India have foreign CEOs. Do we really need them when we’re so rich with talent? I also want to put across the message that even if you have the best policies and processes in place, if the people behind those are compromised, then nothing would work.

About the storyline, the two protagonists are Deepak and Karan, who work in an American bank called Boston Global. They enter into a conflict with each other, try to settle old scores, Karan eventually leaves and joins a media firm that exposes the big scam. But finally Karan realizes that Deepak was innocent, yet suffered as a consequence of the exposé.

Full interview here Mint

Delhi’s date with books

It’s almost like a mini-paradise for book lovers and distributors, as the 17th annual Delhi Book Fair kicked off in the Capital on Saturday. With over 300 publishers participating in the fair, there are thousands  of books to choose from.

“This year, the theme of the fair is travel and tourism. We have 625 stalls and 300 publishers who are participating, and we also have delegates from countries such as UK, Pakistan and the US,” says Shakti Malik, general secretary, The Federation of Indian Publishers.

Among the participating publishers are Penguin, Rupa & Co, S Chand, Pustak Mahal. Besides networking opportunities for publishers, the fair is also a great venue for book launches and workshops. “People coming into the book fair and browsing through the books is a very different experience from checking out books at a store that can stock limited number of books. At our stall, we will be talking about two books - Pakistan Beyond The ‘Crisis State’ by Maleeha Lodhi and The Punjab Bloodied Partitioned And Cleansed by Ishtiaq Ahmed,” says Kapish Mehra, managing director of Rupa & Co.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Snakes on a plain

A new pulp phenomenon tells a great story, but is derailed by corporate-speak and sloppy editing

There are probably years to go before an Indian book series achieves the level of devotion (or the sales) of the Harry Potter series. We do not have costumed fans thronging book stores for midnight readings (which the Shops and Establishments Act would make impossible anyway), or websites dedicated to picking apart plot points and sneaky hints.

But the last month has shown that we’re capable of getting there, with the explosion of interest in The Secret of the Nagas, the second book in Amish’s Shiva Trilogy. The Shiva Trilogy brings two new things to Indian books. Commercially, it brought its publishers blockbuster sales in a new segment. Chetan Bhagat’s raging sales have been helped in large part by Rupa and Co. pricing his books at Rs.95, a tactic quickly adopted by other mass-market publishers such as Srishti. The Secret of the Nagas, though, is retailing at Rs. 295 (the first book, The Immortals of Meluha, which has sold more than 125,000 copies, is published in two editions, for Rs. 195 and Rs. 295).

Full report here Mint

Davidar ties up with Rupa Publications

Noted publisher and writer David Davidar, who last year exited as CEO of Penguin’s international division amid controversy, has tied up with Rupa Publications, India to set up a new literary firm, the Aleph Book Company.

Announcing the partnership in a press statement on Monday, Davidar said: “Each book published by Aleph will be distinctive, original and of outstanding literary quality.” It will be headquartered in the capital.

“Our books will be creatively packaged and innovatively marketed through traditional retail and grant outlet as well as digital and other channels,” the veteran publisher said.

Kapish G. Mehra, managing director of Rupa Publications, said the new publishing partnership with Davidar was a “perfect way to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Rupa as the new company will complement and round out Rupa’s existing publishing”.

“Rupa has an excellent publishing relationship with retailers nationwide. It has seven offices around the country and reaches deep into the market. So every Aleph book and author will have an excellent chance to succeed in the market,” Mehra said.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Rupa - the Paper Tiger

Reading books is good. Making people read books is better, says Rupa’s Kapish Mehra

Kishore Biyani was in unfamiliar territory in 2006-2007. He had written a book, It Happened in India, and was evaluating publishers. He was in talks with a couple of publishing houses who wanted to work with him. But they told him that they would do a print run of 10,000 copies and price the book at Rs. 199. Biyani balked at the suggestion. Now, Biyani is not a man who thinks small. His Big Bazaar chain caters to lakhs of Indians who love a good bargain. Biyani wanted all these consumers to read his book. He knew that there was no way these people would pay Rs. 199 for a book. And 10,000 copies? Were they joking? He wanted a publisher who thought as big as him. Enter Rupa Publications’ Managing Director Kapish Mehra.

Rupa and Biyani reached an agreement. The first print run was two lakh copies. The book was priced at Rs. 99.

It Happened in India sold over three lakh copies. “Typically we look at books that can sell us a lakh of copies,” says the unassuming Mehra sitting in his office in Delhi’s Daryaganj area, “when we see that the content is right and the target audience is clear.”

Mehra knows his market: The growing number of people who want to read English books. English has always been a language for business communication in India. Now it is also gaining popularity as a general purpose language. Everyone from drivers, watchmen and house maids want to speak the language. “Everybody wants to speak in English as it adds to their skill set. Over the years we feel that the need to speak in English is only going to grow and this can be seen from the growth of our students,” says Aslam Moosa, CEO, Speakwell Academy. Speakwell has experienced a 100 percent growth in the number of students over the last five years.

Full report here Forbes

Games they wrote

A deluge of books has hit the stands in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. V. Kumara Swamy leafs through them

Given the shambolic state of preparations for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010, and the tales of corruption that have been cropping up every day, this particular edition of the Games will probably be the most written about ever. But there’s a raft of books out already in anticipation of the Games. And despite the negative news flow, or perhaps because of it, they look likely to generate a lot of reader interest.

“When I began writing the book it was all about the history, preparation, legacy of the Games and such things. But as things started unfolding I had to touch upon topics that I had not planned to include,” says Sunil Yash Kalra, the author of Road to Commonwealth Games 2010 (Penguin) which was released early this week.

The cover typeface of Sellotape Legacy: Delhi & the Commonwealth Games (HarperCollins India) gives the impression that it’s a newsy book about the secrets behind all that has gone wrong with the Games so far. But, for its authors Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta, it’s a bit of that and more.

Full report here Telegraph

Book makers

Publisher Rupa & Co completes 75 years of cracking the mass-market formula

At a busy Big Bazaar in Gurgaon, recently, there was more than the usual clanging of shopping trolleys. In one young man’s purchases, you could see toothpaste, a ketchup bottle and, right on top of it all, a copy of Chetan Bhagat’s The 3 Mistakes of My Life and Kishore Biyani’s It Happened In India . Kapish Mehra, Managing Director of Rupa & Co, smiles as he narrates this incident, which comes as no surprise to the publishing house which has an alliterative tagline: “Reach, Range and Reading pleasure”.

As it celebrates 75 years of publishing books, Rupa also has an enviable mass market appeal. “Books now are an impulse buy. We have titles in fiction, non-fiction, biographies, self-help, sports, religion and business management, and these are at a price that people are comfortable with. You have to be happy to pick up a book, and that works for us,” says Mehra, of the company’s pricing mantra for the last seven-and-a-half decades.

The story of Rupa has a humble beginning — Mehra’s late grandfather Daudayal Mehra started the business in 1936 by publishing two volumes of Bengali poetry and Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. Today, of course, with a Chetan Bhagat Five Point Someone available across the globe, the publishing house has some of the highest figures in the Indian publishing industry.

Full report here Indian Express

Before He Was God: Ramayana—Reconsidered, Recreated

Varma’s intense engagement with his subject yields moving insights, while humorous and tragical interludes lend immediacy.

Before he was God: Ramayana -
Reconsidered, Recreated
Pavan K Varma; Rupa
Rs 995; Pp 344

Epics like the Ramayana gain in resonance with every recension. Retired bureaucrat Ram Varma has laboured long and hard to produce his Ramayana, conceived like a “Baramasa” tribute. It follows the course of a seasonal appreciation, from Chaitra and Vaishakha through the searing summer and the rains until Phalgun, where Rama sheds his human form in the Sarayu river. This is a feisty personal appreciation rendered in verse, though rhyme and meter tend to be uneven. Yet, Varma’s intense engagement with his subject yields moving insights, while humorous and tragical interludes lend immediacy.

Varma’s version here discredits and discards Sita’s  “agni-pariksha”. Instead, he has Sita sent into a second exile, then returning to her father Janak’s court for shelter, where she discovers her “real” mother Rohini. Her husband then recalls Sita from the forest to fulfil her ceremonial role in the Ashwamedha yagna. This compassionate resurrection exemplifies the very spirit of bhakti, where each devotee is free to image and fashion the object of his worship. The powerful illustrations add to the evocative quality of this book.

Full review here Outlook

‘After DCH, it was salads for a week and after Maqbool mutton’

Yesterday, Rupa launched a new novel, Can’t Die for Size Zero, the story of a 30-year-old professional, Joyeeta Naik, who has no man, no career, not even size on her side. To add to her humiliation, her best friend, Lara, offers to fix her up for a makeover show on TV. Joyeeta’s weight loss journey is studded with experiments with fancy diets and improbable exercises. But will she lose herself in the metamorphosis from XXL to Size Zero?

Mumbai-based author Vrushali Telang who was a TV reporter for a decade, moved to writing and producing shows and has been working as an independent screenwriter for the last couple of years, admits that she was also asked to be a ‘star’ in a makeover show. She refused, but it became the starting point for her first novel.

“Lately, Size Zero has become a major talking point and had me thinking about its trickle-down effect on those on the other side of the fence. I’m comfortable in my own skin, but there are many who aspire to be a Kareena Kapoor,” Telang says, pointing out that while she can understand Kapoor’s motivation given that she’s in the glam business where the camera adds 10 pounds and Size Zero did give her career a boost, it’s not imperative for the girl-next-door to allow herself to be cut down to size so drastically.

Full report here Hindustan Times

An evening dedicated to books

At the age of 14 LK Advani read How To Make Friends And Influence People, Advaita Kala has still not sold the rights of her book Almost Single, Gautam Bhimani has taken a lighter take on cricket in his book and calls himself the light side of the game. Chetan Bhagat is getting ready to pen down another book. For Jaswant Singh books are one's best friend. Writing is Gulzar's lifeline. But why are we discussing books and people? That's because a leading publishing house recently completed 75 years and hosts, RK Mehra, Kapish G Mehra and wife Dr Asheena Mehra, made sure no one missed out on good times.

MY VIEW: Every guest got talking to us and shared their views. Whereas, Advani stressed that authors should be readers too, Chetan taught us how to handle embarrassment, "If you are embarrassed, embarrass others!"

HOST KAUN? In the middle of all the revelry, we saw the surprise guests – Vishal Bhardwaj with Rekha Bhardwaj. But later the duo along with Gulzar vanished from the scene. We heard them discussing, "Let's go and have chicken." And when the host stopped them Vishal said, "Hum mehmaan nahi host hai, aap apne mehmaano ka khayal rakhiye hum apna rakh lenge." What a relief, Mehraji, no?

Full report here Times of India 

Readers, the new 'in' thing for India's oldest publisher

At 75, when people usually bask in their past achievements, one of the oldest book publishers in India is adapting to the fast changing market trends, entering new genres and firming up expansion plans overseas, always keeping the reader in mind.

"For us the reader is the new 'in' thing," says Kapish Mehra, Managing Director of Rupa & Co, the publishing firm which introduced into the Indian market aggressive marketing and pricing trends along with genres such as campus and corporate fiction, chic-lit, even experimenting with pre-teen authors.Graduating from a bookseller's representative in 1936, to an independent publisher, Rupa & Co set up by D Mehra had played a role in the freedom struggle supplying books to Allahabad's Naini Jail where the frontline soldiers of the movement were lodged.

"I would say the reader is coming back to the books. I probably would not have said that earlier but look at what the success of Chetan Bhagat's 2 States which sold two million copies already and is still clocking sales," Mehra told PTI in an interview.Since its inception, India's only publisher-cum- distributor, says Mehra, has been constantly ahead of the curve by anticipating the reader's needs.In its platinum year the firm which prides itself as a mass market publisher with a wide variety of books ranging from anthology, non fiction, self-help and management books among others, is now looking to expand operations.

"We are already very strong in Middle East and some East Asian countries. We want to deepen our presence in smaller B towns in India as well as are looking to grow our networks in East Asian markets in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines among others," says Mehra.The 27-year-old director who helms the firm points out that to maintain a market position they strive to bring out books that mass readers would like to pick up."A book is a noble product. We believe it should be affordable to the reader rather than pricing it so the reader can afford to buy it," he says.

Full report here IBNLive

The reach of Rupa

This August, Rupa completes 75 years in the publishing world. Managing Director Kapish Mehra talks to about its humble beginnings from Kolkata

Providence chooses its people. Otherwise, late Daudayal Mehra would have passed away trading in hosiery, and worse, there would have been no Rupa & Co.

Seventy-five years after his late grandfather set sailing the journey of Rupa in the world of publishing and book distribution on a humble note, company managing director Kapish Mehra talks of having a list of nearly 2000 book titles and “a front list that is growing by leaps and bounds.” With its present well-entrenched as the frontrunner in the mass English readership, and the future already etched on the drawing board, Rupa is indeed at a defining moment in its platinum year. But its past is equally inspiring.

Relates Kapish, “It was by accident that my grandfather got into publishing. Late K. Jackson Marshall, the India representative of Collins dictionary, noticed his salesmanship in hosiery business in Calcutta's New Market and persuaded him to sell their dictionaries.” It, however, didn't take much time for Mehra to develop a liking for books which led him to start Rupa at College Street corner, “near Presidency College and the Sanskrit School, the hub of intellect and the litterateurs” to be precise. Kapish fills in, “His first customer was Humayun Kabir, who later went on to become the Education and Culture Minister of independent India.”

Full report here Hindu

What's your recipe?

The steady flow of cookery books and food columns suggests that cooking is not just a fad with a generation which loves to experiment

Hollywood hottie Gwyneth Paltrow has recently authored a cookbook titled My Father's Daughter in memory of her late dad. The actor's father Bruce Paltrow died in 2002 from pneumonia after battling throat cancer and she launched the book because she feels close to him when she is making new dishes. Sydney Morning Herald recently quoted the Oscar-award winning actor as saying “Health food was never really on the agenda, it was about fun and deliciousness and togetherness. The most striking aspect about his cooking was how much joy he derived from feeding the people he loved. I mean, genuine, bursting happiness….”

Well, one doesn't always need such stimuli to write a cookbook. At least, that doesn't seem to be the case with the Indian cookbooks the monsoon season is showering us with.

Lasting success
Wisdom Tree, Roli Books, Rupa and Co. have been courting this genre for a long time. One of the publishers attributes the success of this genre to the exposure a well-heeled Indian is getting these days. Availability of varied cuisines at home and the world contributes to the cause.

Full report here Hindu

Of a lost game!

Victoria Gowramma – The Lost Princess of Coorg digs deep into the past to tell stories of intrigue and desire. The book is an interesting story of Veera Rajendra, the exiled raja of Coorg, and his 11-year-old daughter Gowramma. Belliappa's research reveals that he was the first Indian royal to land in Britain.

If Alice were alive, she would have been jealous of Gowramma, and her wonderland – the royal palace and spaces of Queen Victoria of England – though now she is remembered as the “Lost Princess of Coorg”, in the book that tells her enticing story.

Published by Rupa & Co., the 235 page book, that has just hit the stands, is written by C.P. Belliappa who is considered an authority on Coorg. The book titled Victoria Gowramma – the Lost Princess of Coorg was recently launched at British Council by Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Law and Justice who belongs to this picturesque coffee town of Karnataka.

The book is an interesting story of Veera Rajendra, the exiled raja of Coorg, and his 11-year-old daughter Gowramma. Belliappa's research reveals that he was the first Indian royal to land in Britain (in 1852). The exiled raja's journey to England is an intense tale of intrigue, scheming and a desire to gain lost attention and wealth.

Full report here Hindu

This is the best time to write for children, says author

Even in this age of Cartoon Network, Wii, Playstations and iPods, it seems that kids are returning to the basics of entertainment: reading. And adults have an optimistic notion that this trend will continue to grow. In light of this, Shoba Naidu released her first children’s book, On the Yeti’s Trail, on Friday at Crossword.

The book is about a young Kashmiri boy, Mushtaq, who lives in the remote Himalayan ranges with his mother during his school vacation. On his break he stumbles upon a ‘Yeti’ better known as the ‘Abominable Snowman’. Along with his friends, Mushtaq sets out on an adventure to find proof that this creature really exists.

Shoba Naidu, who did her masters in communication and journalism and bachelor’s in education, worked in various publications in India such as the Economic Times as a journalist. Tired of writing facts, she turned to fiction.

“I wanted to write for kids for quite a while,” says Naidu. “I read a few lines in the paper a few years ago about a yeti, that’s when I got the idea and wrote the story. Though I wrote it many years ago, I got to publishing it only now,” she says.

Full report here DNA

Pritish Nandy’s book of poems ‘Again’ launched

India’s leading lifestyle bookstore along with Rupa & Co hosted the official launch, reading and signing of Pritish Nandy’s book of poems‘Again’. Gulzar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Shashi Tharoor, Chetan Bhagat & Anupam Kher were in conversation with the author.

Acclaimed as one India’s most exciting poets in English, with a following  to die for, Pritish Nandy suddenly stopped writing poetry one day. None of his 32 books of poems, some of them runaway bestsellers, were permitted to be reissued as he walked away  from his literary pursuits and began his spectacular career in journalism and public life.

This is his first book of poems since then.

Typically, Nandy plays with form, visual, typography to create a world of his own, unique and resonant with images from his past and present. The man who once redefined Indian poetry is back with his unique play of words and metaphors to take you back to the times when poetry ruled, when thousands of Pritish Nandy’s obsessed fans thronged to readings to hear him speak his lines and win over their hearts.

Full report here ISB

Alack, bareheaded!

There's a poet lurking inside every copy writer. The ends may differ  — to move the reader to a certain mental state in poetry and to move him enough to procure or recognise a product in advertising — but the means of using words to 'startle' the reader from a humdrum condition to a more engaging one is the same.

Again  Pritish Nandy
Rupa; Rs 995;  Pp 103

So it comes as no surprise that one of the best advertising men that India never had, Pritish Nandy, has returned to poetry, his first love, after wading through the swishy waters of journalism, politics and film production. Unsurprisingly, Again is a collection of poems that has the smell and the spring of topshop billboard slogans. The cascading typography that comes with the words has a glossy ad's signature on them. The rather ironic lines, "My friends are famous. My enemies too./The women I have loved (or escaped from) are now more famous than me./And that's how I would like it to be./I raise a toast/to my anonymity," remind me of the good old liner notes on an LP.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Romancing the book in the time of rain

What better time to leaf through love stories than the monsoon. Take a man, a woman, an edgy locale - sprinkle passion, mystery, a whiff of history - and you are set for some perfect reading in the rains.

Romance is the flavour of the season as new books, fiction as well as non-fiction, reveal.

'All women are in love with the idea of a manly man who has an abiding passion for a woman for a lifetime,' says Toronto-based novelist Sarita Mandanna, whose new novel, 'The Tiger Hills', was released in India last week.

The book, published by Penguin-India, is woven around the ancient Coorgi tradition of tiger hunting and modern sensibilities. It is the story of a triangular love between Devi, a Coorgi girl born, Devanna, a motherless boy, and Machu, a tiger hunter.

Mandanna's inspiration, as she says, 'was the handsome men of Coorg who still hunt'. Coorg and its romantic history recur as the subject of CP Belliappa's new racy non-fiction The Lost Princess, a Rupa & Co publication.

Full report here Sify

Who is Gauhar Jaan?

Author Vikram Sampath confesses to being besotted with Gauhar Jaan, a high-brow Hindustani classical singer and courtesan who spent her last years at the Mysore Palace. There are however, no reasons to her death, only piles of hospital bills, a death certificate and miscellaneous memories, capsuled in time at the Palace’s archives.

Sampath stumbled upon the existence of Gauhar by chance, during his research on another book. His curiosity about her soon turned into an obsession which led him through the by lanes of Kolkata, where she attained fame, the alleys of Azamgarh, her birthplace, and the ruins of the Rampur Palace, where she spent some years, among other destinations. In his recent book, My Name is Gauhar Jaan, Sampath documents the life, love and tragedy of Gauhar’s life.

The inimitable Gauhar Jaan; (inset) her records She was born in 1873, in Azamgarh as Angelina Yeoward to an Armenian Christian couple. Her father, William was an engineer and her mother Victoria a musician. The marriage ended as a result of varied interests and Victoria moved to Banaras with her daughter in tow. There she converted to Islam and changed her name to Malka Jaan and Angelina’s to Gauhar Jan.

Full report here Bangalore Mirror

REVIEW: Operation Red Lotus

REVIEW
Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus 
Parag Tope
Rupa
Rs 595
Pp 468
ISBN: 9788129115621
Hardbound

Blurb
Tatya Tope's Operation Red Lotus is a quest to understand the real history of the Anglo-Indian War of 1857. A quest by the contemporary members of the Tope family, which led to the discovery of the dramatic battle manoeuvres of their ancestor, the legendary Tatya Tope, as well as the true import of the war.

Reviews
1857 and all that TOI Crest 
Why would a book on a historical figure – a national hero in the first war of independence – not have a single photo of the man, except for a grainy sketch on the cover? "Because not a single photograph of Tatya Tope is available anywhere. The sketch is an artist's imagination and the only photograph taken by the British in April 1859 can't be real because Tatya had died in January 1859, three months before," says Parag Tope, who is descended from the freedom-fighter.

Parag's "Operation Red Lotus: Tatya and the Anglo-Indian war of 1857" has just been published. He is not a historian and does not claim to be one, but he believes Indian history is too serious a matter to be left to the British. "History is always written with an agenda," says the engineer and MBA who owns a company in San Francisco. Parag worked with five others to research his famous forebear in an attempt to bring out the "truth....We grew up hearing stories about Tatya's life and his bravery from old people in our family but we could not find any of this in history books."

=/=/=/=/=/=/=
Reverberations – 150 years later 2nd look
The 1857 war in India, is something that remained an enigma for the last 150 years. For “the public was at the time and for years to come saturated to an astonishing degree with lurid accounts of the uprising, which became the subject of countless sermons, novels, plays and poems, and about which more than eighty novels were written, six appearing in the “peak” year of 1896 alone”.

So, I too was vaguely thrilled to receive a draft copy of the Operation Red Lotus (Red Lotus) by Parag Tope, some 7 months ago. Over the next 2-3 weeks, I went through the book. The first time with more enthusiasm than objectivity. Then came the time to take a 2ndlook look.

This book was an interesting experience. For one it represents yet another attempt to clean up Indian history of colonial detritus.