Book Review: The Long Road by Dr. Vivek Banerjee

The Long Road: Journey is the Destination
By Dr. Vivek Banerjee
Cedar Books
Link on FlipKart

Four days back I started reading The Long Road, Dr. Vivek Banerjee’s debut novel. And now that I ended it, I have also ended up ordering three more copies of this book as a gift to my friends. I have rarely done this for any other book, and my reasons for this special treatment are as follows.

The Long Road is the story of young doctors pursuing Post Graduate in medical sciences. It’s the love story of Rahul and Sarika which goes through many challenging times and phases. It’s also a parallel story of Dr. Hina, a girl from a very different background who goes on to achieve something which not many from her circumstances could; yet almost gets defeated against her personal challenges. The story also captures Ranjiv’s and Sagarika’s life stories – each equally fascinating and full of life than any others. On the surface it may look like a maze of characters, but this is where the author’s real talent is proven and this is what makes this book equal to four books. Each character has been given enough thought to develop and by the end of the book we forget which one of them was the prime one. The Long Road takes readers on a virtual long road passing through the lives of each character; each unique and complete in itself.

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The Long Road’s characters are so real that we connect with them instantly. We feel a personal connection with each character as the story moves. We feel an anger when Sarika dumps Rahul on a rather trivial issue, a sorrow when Rahul meets with an accident, butterflies in our stomach when Rahul gets close to Rita, shock when Sagarika discovers unexpected about her husband, and a great relief at the end. Often we get a feel as if things are happening in front of our eyes – this is where the first time author has proven his prowess. The environment of a hospital and the characterization of the scheme are very appropriate. For example, when young lady doctor Hina is on her first duty, a nurse who is 15 years old in the hospital gives her a ‘motherly smile’ with empathy. The author has been highly successful in weaving sense and sensibility in even the minutest details. The description of environment around the characters is appropriate – e.g. the visual description of the hospital main gate when Sarika goes to join her college for the first day. The novel also has a lot of dramatic moments, for example the day when terrorists attacked Mumbai. When I started reading this portion I felt that it would be too bold and adventurous to include as part of a love story, but ended in admiration. Situations are sensible and complementary to make the most of the things on hand.

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If I have to give suggestions to the debut novelist, I felt the second half of the book had been slightly hurried. Some very critical events happened in the second half and slowing down the pace a bit at those places would have been better. Also, I felt the front cover was not exactly bringing up the idea of ‘The Long Road’ properly, though it indicated a love story under the covers. The length of the book was very perfect and never did the reader get to feel heavy – author has been a good strategist on this front.

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When my wife read The Long Road, she commented that it was like Chetan Bhagat’s (whose fan she is). But I found The Long Road much more sensible, less controversial, and more appealing to heart than attempts to gain some easy popularity which young and restless new Indian authors have tried too often. I am sure Dr. Banerjee has added to the list of quality read from new Indian writers in English.

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I have not read many books making the rather neglected life stories of doctors in the medical profession as their theme. I thank Dr. Vivek Banerjee for bringing out some real challenges in their lives, something which perhaps only a doctor like him could do. I have myself been able to get a peek into their lives and their hardships – the challenges of their profession taking much toll on their personal lives and also of their close ones. I really congratulate Dr. Banerjee for this book – it was long needed and is highly appreciated.

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It has been a delight to read The Long Road. The characters from his book will always remain personal to me, and a sequel of the same may not be a bad idea. I would eagerly wait for the author’s next book.

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- Rahul

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.P.S.: Except this post, Book Reviews on this blog have been pushed to 10 years back on the Calender, which you can browse through from the right hand side menu. These days I am reading more than I write, or truer, writing less than I read, and I didn’t want this blog to become my Book Review Blog, which is http://rahulreads.wordpress.com

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Reaching out to Goonj

I had written before on my blog, about how I got an idea of making a social change by helping my colleagues in my office to donate old clothes and other items to the poor and needy (through an NGO). I started collecting material from colleagues about a month back. People used to call me up, used to bring old clothes and other materials in poly-bags and I would meet them to collect. At times they even dropped the materials at my home, when the material was heavy. I could meet them during lunch, or after the office hours before going home. The collection system worked very well but I had not imagined that it will gain so much popularity. Within a month I collected so much material that the space in my flat started looking stuffed. By that time I had also realized that Goonj’s warehouse (the NGO through which I had planned to help donate) was too far away in a very different portion of the city. Two colleagues had initially expressed interests to help me by carrying materials in their cars, but later on we were finding issues with their availability (also because the place to go was about 30km from our place). But at last, Supriti and her husband obliged me by giving a helping hand.

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So one Saturday, she and her husband came with their car and we went to the NGO’s warehouse. She had already collected a lot of material from her neighbors also, and together we had a huge amount – perhaps 200 kgs or so. Goonj’s warehouse was near Wagheshwari Temple, and even Chokhi Dhani was not far away. It was a pleasant drive to reach there. But more pleasant was what we saw after reaching there. It was their warehouse cum processing center. The center’s in-charge told us that if the donated clothes were in good shape they donated those to the poor as-it-is. But in case of torn clothes (especially cotton or denim), they make a lot of useful items like bags, wallets, etc from the clothes. Even a cotton thread doesn’t go waste if they collect it, as we saw that they were creating very good doormats from those waste clothes. We also saw the bags and wallets they had made and everything looked very new and fresh. We saw about 20 rural women working there in their center. We came to know that at times they also ran campaigns or stalls and sell the items made by the women. The money goes back to the poor, and the women are also employed in a way. I found their model very innovative and worth emulating by others. The person from the NGO gave me a receipt, which was actually printed on one side of a used-paper. Great to know that they actually practice what they preach.

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<< I have pictures of the bags they had prepared. I would load those here in some time. >> You can also check a similar observation here [Link] The following picture taken from www.goonj.org shows the women making school bags out of old collected clothes:

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In the events like a flood, earthquake or tsunami, Goonj helps the affected regions with supplies of clothes and other items. The NGO is also connected with a lot of other allied NGOs for many activities.

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I wish to continue the collection drive and help others help the poor. And then I have some of my own other plans to help the poor and needy, which I look forward to starting someday.

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- Rahul

Forbes list of World’s Most Innovative Companies

Forbes has brought out a list of World’s Most Innovative Companies, ranking them by a matric called Innovation Premium: 

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http://www.forbes.com/special-features/innovative-companies-list.html

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Salesforce.com is ranked as world’s most innovative company. Amazon.com is at #2, confirming that technology companies will remain in the most innovative lot as a practice. Some favorites appear like this: #5 Apple, #7 Google. We have good representation from the ERP players also: SAP is at #63, Oracle at #77, Microsoft at #86, (Well, Salesforce is at #1, as I started with). 

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We have Intuitive Surgical as world’s #3. #24 is P&G, #31 General Mills, and #50: Pepsico. Syngenta is at #79.

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Some rankings would of surprise to many and a matter of pride for others. E.g., some Indian companies appear as top notch: 

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Hindustan Unilever (Indian arm of Unilever) is world’s 6th most innovative, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL, from India) appears at #9, and the #15th place is occupied with pride by Infosys (Indian IT major).

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We could still guess it for HUL or Infy, but is it really that BHEL is world’s 9th most innovative company? A lot of people won’t easily believe that the PSU would hold that position. Here, the key is to understand how Forbes estimated the positions. The bottom text says, 

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The Innovation Premium is a measure of how much investors have bid up the stock price of a company above the value of its existing business based on expectations of future innovative results (new products, services and markets). Members of the list must have $10 billion in market capitalization, spend at least 1% of their asset base on R&D and have seven years of public data.

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This explains many of the inclusions and exclusions. Anyways, I found the list predicable, surprising, and interesting, at places. 

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- Rahul

‘Goonj’ from the eyes of Darren Gest

A very interesting article from Darren, who spent some time with the NGO ‘Goonj’ while in India. It is a kind of review of Goonj, as well as a feedback for we Indians :)

I am sure you will find it very interesting.

Someway, Somehow: The valuable lesson I learned in India

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-business/2010/11/someway-somehow/

Darren Gest, who earned his MBA degree from Vanderbilt in 2010, is currently a Human Capital Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago.

‘Goonj’ from the eyes of Darren Gest

A very interesting article from Darren, who spent some time with the NGO ‘Goonj’ while in India. It is a kind of review of Goonj, as well as a feedback for we Indians :)

I am sure you will find it very interesting.

Someway, Somehow: The valuable lesson I learned in India

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-business/2010/11/someway-somehow/

Darren Gest, who earned his MBA degree from Vanderbilt in 2010, is currently a Human Capital Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago.

A very interesting article from Darren, who spent some time with the NGO ‘Goonj’ while in India. It is a kind of review of Goonj, as well as a feedback for we Indians :)

I am sure you will find it very interesting.

Someway, Somehow: The valuable lesson I learned in India

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/vanderbilt-business/2010/11/someway-somehow/

Darren Gest, who earned his MBA degree from Vanderbilt in 2010, is currently a Human Capital Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Chicago.

My Experiments with Made-in-India Brands!

I remember the day when I had to buy my first motorbike. I was on my first job, in Chhattisgarh, and I went on a search to find a bike in the market. I wanted to buy an Indian brand only. I won’t even take a Hero Honda because Honda for me was Japanese, even though my father and all my friends recommended me to buy one from the HH brand. Ultimately I chose to buy a Bajaj bike; because it was an Indian Brand. The Bajaj bike was not so great in looks, but it gave me good mileage. Next, when my father had to buy a car, we children did an analysis comparing all the cars in the market. I was biased in favour of an Indian brand, but didn’t want to show my biasness so early. Ultimately we found that a Mahindra car scored over all others in the segment, on most parameters. Today, father is very happy with the selection. I am sure if we had found some other foreign brand as the best suited, somehow I would have persuaded everyone to buy at least a Maruti, if not a Tata or Mahindra. My love for Indian brands often made me buy a Tata product or an Airtel or a Dabar product. I would choose a VIP baggage or a Westside cloth, because these are Indian. I tried to stay on Rediff, because it was Indian. I even tried hard to retain my India.com email ID, for a long time. I bought a Moser Baer CD even if it was 2 rupees costlier than the Chinese brand. Even at times I have preferred to buy a medicine with an Indian brand, when I had a choice.

I accept that it is not always possible to find an Indian brand without compromising on the best quality or service. For example, I have longed to have a great Indian cola; and a best quality toothpaste with an Indian brand. My favourite ones for these products, be it ThumsUp/Coke, Pepsi, Pepsodent or Colgate, all are foreign brands. I would also love to buy an Indian Digital Camera. In such situations I have to make a trade-off. How much am I ready to sacrifice on service or quality, when it comes to choose the second rank Indian brand Vs best-in-class foreign brand. I accept that many a time I choose to buy a foreign brand when I am not happy with the competing Indian brand. I think there is no point in promoting bad quality products just because they are local. Now do you think my experiments make sense?

We are in a world which is increasingly becoming global. Our Indian companies and brands are doing great business in the US and in Europe. At the same time there are foreign brands making money in India. What is wrong with the later? I think there is nothing wrong. There would always be customers who would choose to buy a foreign brand simply because they are foreign (this attitude has come from the colonial era and then the decades when owning an ‘imported’ product was a social status). So if there are some people who buy local brands just because those are local, it only balances the power! At the same time, it does make an economic sense also. Do you feel something is wrong if India buys from China; China buys from Japan, the Japanese buy from the US, the US buys from Taiwan, while Taiwan buys from India? It would lead to a very inefficient global-economy! Even the proponents of globalisation have now woken up to the fact that it makes a lot of sense to manufacture and consume locally. Often we have woken up with a shock, like after Japan’s nuclear disaster disrupted global supply chains or after tainted elements were discovered in Chinese food products. This is not the best way to realise facts; and the lessons learnt in such haste are not even permanent. After the disaster gets over, people may start going the same old way; until once again the same disaster repeats. As much as possible, manufacturing makes sense locally. But there are things which are best managed globally for the benefit of all – like information and capital flow. And to some extent, free movement of skilled manpower. But for products and raw materials – a long supply chain always has higher risks and is inefficient.

The path that I have chosen is not so easy. We can’t always have everything locally made. Yesterday when I was buying Oats at a D-Mart store, I found two brands. I saw one was from Saffola – a Marico brand. Marico, from Harsh Mariwala and company. I bought it thinking that it was an Indian brand. But when I brought it home and looked at the package, it said, “Origin: Australia”. It was only packaged and sold by Marico. I found that India doesn’t stand anywhere in the top-10 oats producers. But I felt let-down, not finding a made-in-India product. I am also waiting for a great Indian brand in a lot of other segments. For example, I have always bought a Shoe with a foreign brand; have never found an Indian brand appealing enough. But when it comes to floaters (footwear), I have found a Khadim or a local product very good. I think this was the historical situation – Indian brands would make good regular products with less sophistication, but won’t be able to design higher up. The situation has changed in a lot of areas, but not in all. For example, I was tempted to buy a Wipro laptop. But how could I ever do that, leaving HP or Dell? I would long for that day when I would choose to buy a laptop with an Indian brand.

If we are rational, we shall face a dilemma: which one to choose: African brand but Made-in-India, or Indian brand but made-in-Africa? Tough call? I shall choose the later. Why? Because, the first choice: African brand but made-in-India would have destroyed (outmatched, taken market-share from, or reduced profitability of, by price war / scale of ops) many other indigenous Indian brands! While the later – Indian brand made in Africa would make the Group a bigger one, which may decide to make many new products too! If I sum this up in a matrix, here is what I think should be like:

Going one step further, we can even develop an index (may be, called Swadeshi-Index). A lot of Indian companies (e.g. ICICI, HDFC) have a high foreign stake-holding. These need to be differentiated from totally ‘Indian’ enterprises. Anyways, back to the main issue.

Does my preference for Indian brands make me a local-citizen, as compared to the global one? Does it make me a kind of a chauvinist guy? I don’t care, until I am buying an Indian brand which is also best in the segment. And when there is a tie – two products as good as each other – I shall buy the Indian one. Now, can we qualify this practice with a tag “patriotic”? I don’t care for tags or qualifications, until somehow my money is going to help my country more than any other. Do I recommend this practice to all? Do it if you are convinced that it is the best way. Otherwise do give it a thought.

My experiments with buying “Made in India” brands might have occasionally given me second-best products and services, but it has always given me the best possible feeling. Today, money can’t buy all the happiness. But one of that happiness is the happiness that comes with a feeling that somehow our money is helping our motherland. What can be a greater feeling?

I love my India, and I support my Indian brands.

- Rahul

Which is more Powerful - Good or Bad?

Someone asked me, “Which is more powerful: good or bad?” Here are my thoughts and the reply:

There is a similar debate on which is stronger gender: males or females. I think many reached the conclusion that their strengths are "different" and hence not comparable. Both are powerful, in their own way. If we compare them on one particular criterion, then only one would appear more powerful than the other.

I think to find which is more powerful between what we call 'good' and 'bad', we would have to clarify what we mean by 'powerful'.

If power means an ability to contract and spread - I think bad is more powerful.

If power means one which gives strength to the heart and soul, and virtues like will power and confidence - I think good is more powerful.

If power means an ability to retain, persist when faced with opposition - I think bad is more powerful.

If power means an ability which makes us feel well even alone and not to ask for external approval - I think good is more powerful.

If power means an ability to win over others on physical level - I think bad is more powerful.

If power means an ability to win over others on intellectual level - I think good is more powerful.

If power means being such a virtue which one can wish to have even at the death-bed and even after earning all that one can earn in this world - I think good is more powerful.

- Rahul

Trip to Shimla - A Beautiful Town on the Mountains

A Case of Lost and Found

In April, I lost my wallet in my office. I had kept it on a sofa on ground floor of my building and forgot to take it with me. I returned back in 3-4 minutes but found that it was gone. I went to the security gates, but they were only noting down the “found” items and not the “lost” items. I kept visiting them for a month, but nothing was returned to them – that I could see by going through “Lost and Found Register”. I had lost my 2 credit-cards, 1 debit-card, 1000+ rupees, my driving license, and pictures of self and my wife. Losing the Driving License was a great loss for practical reasons, others gave me emotional pain. I found it weird that there was no place in our campus where we were registering/documenting the lost items in the campus. 

Till then, the security team used to register only found cases. Suppose I lost my wrist watch and followed up with the security (by visiting each of the three security gates and checking the respective registers) for a month and then gave up my hope. Someone had got the watch but was not able to return because s/he was on leave/onsite/travel. The person returns the watch on 31st day. Since I am not following up with the security anymore, where will this watch go? If they have a “lost” register, they can match the descriptions and verify and return it to me. Also, the benefits of noting down the details of “lost” cases are many. Just an example: if we analyze the data and find that 50 thefts have happened from a particular area in a building in a month - we can install a CCTV to monitor and curb the trend / catch the person responsible. We have about 20,000 employees in our campuses here, and daily a number of items are lost and found. A proper “system” should be in place to document the cases. 

I raised a formal request, asking “where can I register the ‘theft’ I have faced”. The initial response was insensitive. But I never accepted the explanation. The company has a fair and just system, so I had faith that I would end up making a positive change. The request went through many cycles and escalations. I was tempted to get discouraged and close the case. But I let it persist. Ultimately after two months, I have now got a communication from the facilities team that they have directed all security gates to register “lost” cases also, in the same “Lost and Found Registers”. 

I have informed my colleagues with the new development and asked them to use this facility when needed. It helps those who lose their items and have to face a lot of troubles enquiring/reclaiming those items. It also makes our facilities system more transparent and effective. I am happy that I was able to be an agent for this positive change. I haven’t got my wallet back, but there are chances that those who will face the same would go through less distress than what I went through, and the cases would also reduce just because someone is keeping a tab on them. 

- Rahul

Pictures from Shimla

Here is my public album with pictures from my ShimlaVisit:

Trip to Shimla - A Beautiful Town on the Mountains

Slideshow:

Saving Nature

Heart melts at this news:

Sadhu dies after a 73-day fast to save Ganga

http://tinyurl.com/3wc7cl7 and http://tinyurl.com/68qkndu

New Beginning for me in Volunteering

Donating old clothes and some usable items like toys and utensils is a very good idea. Often we have the will but don’t find the opportunity. There are many NGOs who specialize in facilitating in that. I knew of a very good NGO which ran a campaign to collect old clothes in cities and then reach it to remote and needy people for ‘cloth for work’ scheme. It has also won many awards, including a Best NGO and a World Bank award. They have a collection center or warehouse in my city, but that is far from our office. So here is what I thought and made a scheme: 

I talked to them and offered myself as a volunteer. I planned to collect old clothes and items from my colleagues and friends, and would deposit those to their collection center in the weekends. They have agreed to my offer and gave the necessary details. 

So I have informed my colleagues and friends that anytime if they want to donate old clothes and some usable items for the poor, they could feel free to contact me. I shall make sure the items reach the NGO. I am not posting the specific details like name of the NGO and address; would like to pass these to those who are interested. 

This is my first proper social initiative. So far I have tried to be part of some one-off social campaigns and also contributed monetarily, but this time I wish to contribute my efforts, selflessly, with a plan… 

Regards,

Rahul

Puppy

Our company has an online bulletin board on which people can post ads and messages for a host of things. Buy and sale for items, flat on rent, any event being organized - colleagues are allowed to share the message with others. At times some very touching messages appear there. Like one that appeared today. A lady colleague posts the picture of a pup she said she had rescued and wanted someone to adopt. She says the pup is around 1.5 months old and needs to be adopted by some family which cares. And what a cute pup it is! See yourself: