Book Review: How Gourango Lost His O, by Sanjoy Ghose

What happens when a lawyer practicing in Delhi, locked down at home due to Covid – 19, sets out to write a book of fiction? Well, the reading public gets to know, How Gourango Lost His O. Purportedly a work of fiction, How Gourango Lost His O features a number of lawyers, clients, their families and most importantly, court clerks, for every lawyer worth his/her salt knows how important court clerks are to the smooth functioning of courts. The characters in How Gourango Lost His O come in all shapes, sizes and ages. Some are good, many are clever and a few (like Narendra Biswas aka Nasty Naru) are downright nasty, because fate had been unkind to him ‘and compassion and kindness had left him years ago’.

How Gourango Lost His O had been on my reading list ever since it came out many months ago, but it was only very recently that I managed to read it. I read it in one go, since I found it unputdownable. The best thing about How Gourango Lost His O’s cast is that everyone is real. Real as in, I’m sure the characters either existed or continue to exist, somewhere in India, most probably in the vicinity of various chartered High Courts and the Supreme Court. Since the author Sanjoy Ghose is a lawyer who practices in various courts and tribunals in the NCR region, including the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court, it is possible that the main protagonist Gourango might bear some resemblance to Ghose and some of the characters in How Gourango Lost His O (like Gourango’s senior Indumati Khilani) might remind the reader of well-known lawyers who grace the corridors of courts in Mumbai and Delhi. However Ghose doesn't offer any clue as to where facts end and fiction begins.

Noor Malik is forced to litigate when the government frames a new rule that would prevent him from being the headmaster of the Madarassa where he teaches. Enter (no, not Gourango at this stage) Keshto Bannerjee, a Kolkata lawyer who is decent enough to not hold out false hopes to his clients. Ghose tells us from the beginning that Noor Malik does not have a strong case and that the odds are stacked against him. However, Ghose builds up the reader's sympathy for Noor from the beginning and there is always a glimmer of hope.

Wasn’t it George Orwell who said that the best books are those that tell you something you know already? As someone with more than a passing familiarity with courts and lawyers, How Gourango Lost His O told me a lot of things I already knew about lawyers and courts, but in a nice way, tickling my funny bone quite frequently, but more often than not, it brought in a flood of memories.

Ghose writes in limpid, but elegant prose, which makes it all the more easier to turn the pages of this finely crafted, not-too-thick, not-too-thin storybook.  How Gourango Lost His O has at least fifteen significant characters and for each of them, Ghose paints a fine portrait, in the most economical manner. For example, we are told that Keshto’s clerk Jobu is someone who has made himself indispensable to Keshto and also ensured the sacking of four juniors who made the monumental mistake of miscalculating that Keshto was the boss of his own office. In contrast, Ghose would have us know that Parambrato Basak, a ‘service judge’ was not a compassionate man. However, while serving as a district judge in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, two judges of the Calcutta High Court visited him to hear appeals against Basak’s orders. Basak was at the aerodrome, to receive the judges, as per custom. Mrs. Basak hosted a lavish dinner for them on their first evening on the island. The judges go back to Calcutta with stories of Basak’s honesty and industry. Within weeks, Basak is promoted to the High Court!  

Does Noor receive justice from the Indian legal system? Do kind, capable and not-so-expensive lawyers like Keshto Bannerjee and Gourango find answers to Noor Malik’s prayers? Please do read this excellent novel to find out more.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

How Gourango Lost His O is divided into three parts. In Part 1, Noor Malik fights his case in the Kolkata High Court where Keshto Bannerjee is his lawyer. Later, in Part 2, he takes his fight to the Supreme Court, where Gourango is his counsel. But after Judgement Day, the last chapter in Part 2, Noor disappears from the book. In Part 3, Ghose introduces a number of new characters, ranging from Naren Gujjar, a landlord from Greater Noida and an original inhabitant of Delhi, to Rajesh Aggarwal, who gamed the Indian legal system so judiciously and Mohandas Chaddha, a corporate litigant who was, unusually, fighting for his honour. All of these characters come with their own story packs and Ghose dispatches them with the same efficiency as he presumably would, a plate of kosha mangsho and half a dozen piping hot luchis.

Cultural Appropriation – Or Is It Cultural Appreciation?

 Cultural appropriation is a term that I came across rather late in life, a few years ago, to be honest. Initially, I brushed it away. As a child growing up in India, it was common for us to wear attires from different regions once in a while. Come Onam, everyone wore Malayalee clothes. For Navratri, if you are lucky enough to be invited to a Garba, you wore Gujarati clothes. During the school annual day, there would be so many regional songs and dances in which everyone participated. Surely, it’s a matter of pride if someone from a different culture copies your attire or style or even name?

Well, it’s not as simple as that and it took me a while to appreciate it. The cultural appropriation that one objects to is apparently when members of a dominant culture – for example, white Americans or white Australians – take elements from the culture of an ethnicity or racial group they have typically oppressed – e.g. Indigenous peoples – and use them for themselves. That is, they appropriate a culture that is not their own. And it’s most problematic when that appropriation occurs for reasons of power or profit.

Now I do see where the objection is coming from. There is no law in the world which says you can’t copy the culture of someone else. There are Caucasians who immerse in Japanese culture, so many Indians and other Asians are anglophiles and everyone in Asia and Africa has adopted a lot of western customs and traditions, not to mention attire. So, is it a big deal if a Caucasian wears a bindi or a Maori dress? The objections seem to be that, until two generations ago, your people oppressed mine saying we are inferior, now how dare you wear our clothes or adopt our hair style? The objection becomes more vehement if a white model wears a native Indian or Maori dress or has dreadlocks, because the model is profiting from the attire. I do understand the objection, but my heart says this is not such a big deal and  appreciation of the culture of those previously oppressed by former oppressors should be welcomed. You can be sure that two generations ago, white men and women did not dress up as native Americans or as Maoris. Times have changed! Isn’t it time to move on?

Going Back To Duolingo To Learn French

And so, I went back to Duolingo after a 8 month break, mainly because its so convenient to use and suits my lifestyle. If I could attend an in-person class, I would do that, but my French learning is restricted to the time I spend commuting to work by taxi. I don’t drive myself, mainly so that I can practice French on Duolingo. I avoid the normal black and yellow taxis since they are usually noisy and stick to airconditioned Uber taxis, whenever possible.

I found the following changes in Duolingo from the time I signed off in July 2021.

• Earlier, when there was one blank and two choices, the correct answer was always the second one. This is no longer the case now - the correct answer is often the first choice.  Did Duolingo change this after reading my previous post? I wonder!
• Duolingo French had only 9 Units, but now a 10^th Unit has been added
• In each Unit, there is a 6^th or legendary level. Earlier there were only 5 levels.  To clear the Legendary Level, one needs to complete four challenges without any hints or tips.
• The number of Duolingo Stories seems to have increased. There are 72 Sets and each Set has 4 stories. Right now, I’m at the 61^st Set.

I found these changes to be for the better.

As in the past, I am constantly prompted and encouraged to maintain my Streak and I am in some Leaderboard or the other. I am doing my best to not get distracted with such stuff and focus on my language learning.

Book Review: Limitless: The Power of Unlocking Your True Potential, by Radhika Gupta

 

When steel is heated in a forge and beaten into shape, it becomes stronger. When faced with setbacks, if you draw the right lessons and move forward, you are bound to achieve success. Radhika Gupta, the current MD & CEO of Edelweiss  AMC, had more than her share of drawbacks in life, but bounce back she did and she happily shares her experiences, mostly professional and a few personal, through her newly released book Limitless.

Born in Pakistan when her father, a career diplomat, was posted there, Gupta grew up in a variety of countries, ranging from Nigeria to Italy, until she went to college at hyper-competitive Upenn. In 2005, when she was just twenty, Gupta took to heart seven consecutive rejections from consulting firms during campus placements at UPenn and tried to commit suicide by jumping off from the 19^th floor of a building.  Luckily for us readers, she did not succeed though the reasons aren’t fully spelt out. She also drew the right lessons from her desperate action and went on to become a business leader and an inspiration for many across the world.

Accept difficult feedback gracefully, Gupta tells us, citing a number of examples of feedback that she did not initially accept or was happy with, but which added value to her professional life once she was able to gracefully accept them.

Take risks, but do so sensibly. Gupta refers to Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani’s example to buttress this point. Dr Velumani, the founder and MD of Thyrocare, one of India’s largest diagnostics companies, went from having just ₹500 in his pocket to seeing his idea develop into a public listed company with crore market cap in excess of a RS. 5,000. Dr Velumani was able to throw everything he had into his venture, comforted by the fact that his wife could get a reasonably well paying job easily, if his venture flopped.

It is important to get started. Take small steps if needed, but do get started. This one resonated with me.

What’s the best thing someone who is just graduating from college or is in the early years of their career, especially women, can do? They ought to ask for opportunities, a task which is not very easy to undertake when one suffers from lack of confidence However, if you don’t ask, you usually don’t get. What’s the worst that can happen if you ask for an opportunity? When Gupta started her corporate career, a family friend told her that those who speak up always get more than those who stay silent. There are no points for being shy. Those who ask end up getting the bigger promotions, the raises, the better projects, because they keep vocalizing their needs. Gupta tells us that this advice made sense only many years later, but she swears by it now.

Change is always constant. One has to accept it and take it in one’s stride. Gupta quotes lyricist Javed Akhtar who used the ‘my mother’s cooking is better than my wife’s’ dialogue at the Jashn-e-Rekhta Urdu festival in 2017, to explain this. ‘Why does every man, when he gets married, tell his wife, you make good dal, but not quite as good as what my mother made? Has the quality of dal in India just deteriorated over 1,000 years?’ It hasn’t! We need to accept today’s dal – one slightly different from the one we grew up with – as our reality and move forward.

Let go of the past. Gupta tells us that she always tells new employees at Edelweiss Mutual Fund that if they want to have a chance at succeeding in their new organisation, they have to embrace it and let go of where they came from. One is certain to face problems after a job change and it is so tempting to look back to one’s past organisation with nostalgia, but if the rose tinted glasses are taken off, chances are there was no shortage of problems at the previous organisation either. If one were to take an honest count, one will find that there is no shortage of problems anywhere. A guaranteed way to fail at a new organisation is to focus on the problems in the new environment and compare them to the positives of the past.

Be adaptable. Charles Darwin theorised that the most important factor for survival is neither size, nor intelligence, nor strength. It is adaptability. Gupta fully agrees with Darwin. Gupta uses the example of the Kakapo to buttress her point. Honestly, I hadn’t even heard of the Kakapo until I read Limitless. Gupta mentions Kunal Bahl, the co-founder of e-commerce giant Snapdeal, as an example of a person who built a successful business by adapting and pivoting, based on feedback.

Gupta firmly believes that the job market is fair and very little arbitrage exists in it in the long term. In today’s information-rich world, one gets paid what one deserves. If you feel you are getting a lot less than someone else doing the same job, the most likely conclusion is that that someone else has a lot more experience doing that job in a larger organisation with a much larger profit and loss statement. I was reminded of the stock market, though Gupta doesn’t use this comparison and I am not sure if this would be a good comparison, since the job market doesn’t have to content with insider trading, for starters.

Everyone has his or her imperfections and these imperfections that set you apart from your peers and make you what you are. Gupta repeats the story of the ugly duckling, based on the fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen, who, after being teased and taunted by fellow ducklings, decides to throw himself at a flock of swans, assuming he will be killed. He forgets that he has grown up and matured into a beautiful swan and is finally welcomed by his fellow swans. Gupta wishes for a new version of this story, one where the duckling owns his imperfections, where he understands that it’s his imperfections that set him apart from his peers and make him who he is, where his happiness does not depend on becoming a swan. Who defines what ‘ugly’ is anyway? Gupta wonders aloud and I found myself nodding my head. ‘Self-confidence comes from accepting yourself, rejections and imperfections included’ Gupta advises.

The ability to reach out for help and to confide one’s problems in others is an important life-saving skill, something Gupta did not always have, but had to develop over a period of time. Gupta divulges a very personal story, one very traumatic, that took place just after she started working at Edelweiss. Either on account of her insecurities or the fear of judgement, she felt trapped. Though she had an incredibly kind team and an incredibly kind boss, she was unable to be honest and reach out to them during one of the toughest moments of her life. I’d rather not divulge the actual event in this review. Do please read this excellent book to find out for yourself. Five years later, an internal restructuring impacted the financials of Gupta’s division and Gupta just couldn’t wrap her head around the situation. Finally, she forced herself to ask for help from three very senior members of her team in sales, strategy and marketing. The end result? Gupta found herself out of the morass pretty quickly.

I’m going to wrap up this review, lest this become a summary of the book. Gupta has a lot of advice on investing in education, relationships, finding a mentor(s), work-life balance etc., all of which made a lot of sense to me. Do please read and find out for yourself.

A google search tells me that Gupta has a permanent tilt to her neck due to certain birth complications, but she doesn’t discuss this disability in her book, except for occasional references to her “broken neck”. There is a brief mention of a personal tragedy (in the context of her inability to reach out to her colleagues for help), a short but sensitive description of the day she and her partners sold their start-up to Edelweiss, took the signage off the door of their Worli office and crossing the Bandra–Worli Sea Link as they drove to the Edelweiss office in Kalina. The personal references are just right, as a percentage of the whole book, and make Limitless more wholesome and readable, without making it an autobiography.

They say that corporate organisations are glass pyramids, designed to make people slip off the smooth sides, as they gain experience and grow older. Despite all the risks and challenges that lurk ahead, hundreds of thousands of men and women pursue an education, usually an MBA, that sets them on course for a corporate career and then jump into the corporate well quite happily. If anyone falls of the pyramid, it is usually on account of an inadvertent slip-up in tactics or a defect in long term strategy. Limitless is a treasure trove of advice for all career-minded and ambitious folks and will definitely help all readers who imbibe its wisdom to avoid many of the pitfalls that befall many as they progress in their careers. Gupta writes in simple English, that is classy, easy to read and doesn’t force the reader to ponder over the language at the cost of her narrative. I highly recommend this book.

Book Review: Kopi, Puffs & Dreams, by Pallavi Gopinath Aney

 

When Puthu and Krishnan open their eatery in British ruled Singapore in the early part of 20^th century, they choose to serve curried puffs and Kopi, the black coffee traditional to the Malay peninsula, instead of the standard heavy south Indian fare served at restaurants like the Anna Vilas.  We are not told if the curried puffs were spicy or mild, but I’m assuming they were ‘somewhere in between’, not too mild to turn off the Indians in Singapore and not too spicy to turn off the others. Pallavi Gopinath Aney’s Kopi, Puffs & Dreams maintains that not-too-spicy-not-too-mild ambience throughout the novel, in the prose, its plot, the wry humour and the twists and turns, of which there are many.

They served meat too, in their café, though both men had started eating fish and chicken only after they arrived in Malaysia. In that sense, both men, but especially Puthu, constantly push their boundaries. Puthu is a visionary, a man much ahead of his times and he takes Krishnan with him, grumbling, dithering and even pulling back, as they establish a restaurant chain in Singapore. Puthu and Krishnan are quite different, though not exactly chalk and cheese. Puthu is from an upper class family, while Krishnan is from a broken home, his mother an alcohol addict, whose preoccupation with the bottle made Krishnan learn to cook.  Krishnan too pushes the boundaries in his personal life, maybe more than Puthu ,as he marries the daughter of their well-to-do businessman landlord, without the consent or even knowledge of  the bride’s parents.

Puthilath Parasuraman, Puthu for short, is a peculiar man, different from most other men. In a way, it is this difference that made Puthu board a ship for Malaya and his upper class Palakkad family was only too glad to be rid of him. Aney keeps her readers guessing about Puthu’s peculiarity till the very end. Puthu is not necessarily a warm personality. Though generous to those close to him, he is calculating. Nevertheless, Aney makes her readers fall in love with him from the first page. One ends up liking Puthu even more than Krishnan, though Krishnan is the better looking man, the people’s person, loyal and good. Puthu’s and Krishnan’s friendship is so heart-warming, as they navigate foreign lands, that one starts wondering immediately whether it will stand the test of time.

Aney’s language is elegant, in a classic 20^th century sort of way, writing with a light touch and a deft turn of phrase.  The best part of Kopi, Puffs & Dreams is that Aney captures the atmosphere of early 20^th century India, Malaysia and Singapore very well. However, certain values and skills are the same, whether it be  the 20th century or the 21st.  Puthu’s market survey before setting up his venture in Singapore would put a modern day entrepreneur to shame. Years later, when faced with a law suit from his investor, Puthu turns lawyer and wriggles out of his trouble. On landing in Malaya, Puthu receives a very rough welcome, something very different from what he had envisaged. However, his bad luck doesn’t last for long and he is on his feet in the beautiful Jacaranda House, which reminded me of Manderley in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. The bulk of the novel is set in Singapore and names like Serangoon Road, Orchard Road, Penang Road, Joo Chiat and Nassim Hill crop up from time to time.

As mentioned in the beginning, Kopi, Puffs & Dreams is full of sudden, gentle roller-coaster spins, which turn the facts upside down and show everything in a different mild light.  I don’t want to say much more and give away the plot or the ending. I really enjoyed reading Kopi, Puffs & Dreams and highly recommend it to one and all.