Reading Books and other Hobbies : The Summers of 1970s

I have set an incentive for my son Pratyush. If he reads a chapter of the Harry Potter book - lying with him for more than a year; then he can watch the Cartoon Network show between 8 to 9 P.M. - a nonsensical serial he is hooked on to is coming these days around that time. The incentive system worked precisely for two days!

I some times read with interest and sadness how the era of book reading is over. With so many avenues of knowledge and entertainment, books as a past time have lost ground. Unlike the times in our childhood when the only way to beat heat during summer vacation was to latch on to a book, or play cards or ludo; kids can now spend hours on a computer game, or watch non stop nonsense churned out by numerous channels catering to kids and adults.

We as kids never had the choice.

Doordarshan - the only TV channel for a long time - was available only at Delhi and subsequently at Bombay. The national network reaching out to the rest of the country came only after the Asian Games of 1982.

Aso, Doordarshan up to early Eighties was fully confined to the socialistic mumbo jumbo, that TV in a developing country should primarily be for educational and development purpose. As a consequence we had one hour of Krishi Darshan, followed by News and some programmes devoted to discussion and debates in Hindi and English. Occasionally one would get to see some imported serials from the UK or US - which used to become hugely successful. The only progarammes catering to pure entertainment were the Sunday movie and the Wednesdays Chitrahar. So kids as well as adults had a lot of time to deal with - especially during the holidays.

Books were a great source of entertainment and past time in those days. We as a family were voracious book readers. Magazines and comics were available on hire from a number of shops in the neighborhood. We had access to books from college and university libraries – courtesy our mother, and, you would not believe - we had mobile libraries run by Delhi Public Library which used to come to each colony on a weekly basis.

I got initiated into book reading very early and by the time was through with the school, could claim to be an adequately read person. My earliest assault was on kids magazine - Chandamama, Parag, and Nandan. By the time one reached class four Enid Blyton set our imagination on fire through her books on kid detectives solving mysteries.

Around the same time we got into reading classics. ‘Treasure Island’ by R L Stevenson was the beginning. ‘Kidnapped’ followed soon enough, taking us to a different world centuries ago.

We had classics even in our text. In class five we had an abridged version of ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ by Alexander Duma. It was only a year later that I could lay my hand on the full version from a college library and found that the book ran into more than 1000 pages.

That was when the battle began between me and my sister. The full version of the novel was too voluminous. Despite the intensive grip of unfolding plot we could at best give it couple of hours of intensive reading before taking a break. By the time I was rejuvenated to continue another sortie on the book – it was invariable in the captivity of my sister. Obviously a different strategy was required.

The book had come on my request, so I believed that I had the right to finish it first. I therefore started hiding the book after the reading fatigue would set in. Some times my sister would discover it some times she would not. The strategy worked, and I was able to finish the book at the expense of my sister.

More than a decade later browsing through some books at Khan Market I came across ‘The Count of Mounte Cristo’. I purchased the book immediately and wrote a small line before giving it to my sister - ‘To my Didi, to atone for the sins of the past’.

After a couple of months I asked her how she found the book. She said that the book was good, but no longer had the kind of hold it had on us as kids. I borrowed the book and quickly realized what she said was true. Grown ups can never feel the intensity of the narrative as it unfolds to a kid. A number of books are to be read only at a certain age after which it no longer means the same.

That the modern age kids are not drawn to books came as a shock to me when I discovered that my nephew and niece, then in class 7 and 5, had not read the classics such as ‘Kidnapped’ and ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ lying at their home.

Does the modern era mean a gradual end to book reading? Although book shops are having a tough time to survive in the West, one is still struck by the number of people carrying books and reading books in the buses, trams and Underground Metros etc. The public libraries also have a good number of visitors. How come we have dwindling number in our country?

At an international airport a couple of years ago I found a little girl of class five or six reading a big fat book. I was surprised. That was how I came to know of J K Rowling and Harry Potter series that restarted book reading as a hobby for the kids in Britain.

But my incentive system had failed to work on Pratyush. He has seen the Harry Potter movies – courtesy POGO channel, so reading the book is avoidable. I only feel sad that reading the great classics and fantastic novels would never mean the same, even if Pratyush finds interest to read at a later stage some day.

Close Encounters with an Indian Public Sector Undertaking

Interviewing Chairman SAIL

I was young and naive then and a part of a small but energetic consultancy organisation, which was aghast that the Union Budget - the single most important economic event in the financial calendar of the country - does not get the coverage it deserves on Doordarshan.

The incident relates to the era when one did not have a channel other than Doordarshan as an option. Nevertheless, Doordarshan was convinced of the importance to have a series of programmes covering presentation of Economic Survey, the Railway Budget, and the Union Budget.

The coverage of the Union Budget that year was to be made exciting, as an expert panel on Doordarshan was to discuss and debate the budgetary proposals trickling down via our contact placed in Parliament and through the the tickers of UNI and PTI. To remind the younger generation again - live coverage of proceedings of the parliament was yet to find acceptance in those times.

For the programmes leading to live budget coverage we had planned a series of interviews with eminent economists, bureaucrats and corporate leaders. In our list of potential interviewees the only public sector chief to figure was Chairman, SAIL and I was assigned the task of fixing an appointment and interviewing him.

I started my quest with a ring to SAIL PBX, which was quickly transferred to the Chairman’s office.

“I am speaking on behalf of Doordarshan. As you are aware, the presentation of the Union Budget is to take place in a couple of days, for which we would like to interview Chairman, SAIL. May I speak with him ?” I bumbled.

The voice on the other side was curt and brief “Chairman is busy right now. If you leave your name and phone number we will get back to you.”

I divulged the required information, and waited patiently for the call confirming the date and venue.

The list of questions with which I was to confront Chairman, SAIL, was reviewed and refined over the day but I did not get the call of confirmation. Next day, I repeated my call and we went through exactly the same sequence without any progress. The third day a colleague of mine tried her luck. Although she could talk much longer than I did, her attempt also failed. Ultimately, we decided to throw in the towel.

Incidentally, that year we were able to successfully interview among others Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime minister, who was also holding the finance portfolio.

SAIL : A First Hand Experience

I was yet to become a part of the SAIL fraternity. As a part of our consultancy assignment we had to visit the steel plants. The first visits in our itinerary were Bokaro and Durgapur.

I can never forget my first plant visit. The larger than life industrial structures defied imagination. We were awe struck by the sheer size of different process centres in the steel plant. Eager to learn, we spent almost 4 to 5 days in Bokaro, visiting different shops in day time and holding discussions with the plant personnel in the afternoon.

I am reminded of an interesting incident during our visit. In one of the meetings, a young finance officer was present in the group of technical experts briefing us on the technology and economics of coke making and bye products generation. Time and again the young finance officer would contravene what the technical experts would have us believe. In the end he was brow beaten to keep mum for rest of the meeting. But we had caught on, and had a separate meeting with him in the evening to have a better grip of reality. It is only now that I marvel at his self confidence. How tough it is to speak in a dissenting note in a hierarchical organisation, can be known only after spending a few years in a corporate set up.

A Part Of The Family

As a Junior Manager I was given the opportunity of speaking to a group of 200 to 250 MTTs joining SAIL in 1988. I was to speak on the Public Sector and its performance. Although the idea of lecturing a group of such a formidable size made me nervous, I was more unsure about communicating the issues of economics to a technically oriented group.

The interaction with MTTs is one of the most cherished surprises of my professional career. In no time during my interaction, it became clear that I was interacting with a highly intelligent group. All the questions that I threw at them were answered with panache and originality. Their spark and pep was contagious. Interacting with Management Trainees is an eye opener to what a fine talent organisations like SAIL draw at the entry level. However, the public sector enterprises have yet to evolve the environment where the spark in the young is nurtured to its potential. The drudgery and the routine of every-day life takes away from young professionals their pep, and from the organisation, the voices of dissent which is such an important ingredient for any organisational break through.

In Support of Staff

“How did you reach me ?” I enquired over the phone to the friend of mine, who had tracked me down to the computer centre on my second day of joining the office.

“It is one of the biggest surprises for me too” responded my friend from the private sector. “I just told the operator that my friend Sanjay has joined SAIL. I do not know which department or which building.” my friend elaborated.

With that information, the operator rang up Corporate Planning where he knew some fresh persons had joined, and found that I had gone to the first floor computer centre. He then tracked me down on the first floor and passed on the call. Instances like this makes one think how public sector can be as good as the best in the private sector if the staff is well trained and motivated. Sadly, instances such as above are not the norm.

Another big surprise for me was the first Private Sectretary (PS) we worked with. Personal Computers (PCs) had just been introduced in SAIL, and most of the staff did not have exposure to it. The PS attached to our group - Economic Cell, was also an Office Bearer in the Union. We were unsure about how much of help we could get from him. Here again we were in for a surprise. The PS attached to us was willing to learn the use of the PC from scratch. We had entrusted to him a job which involved a substantial amount of data punching in spreadsheets. Despite his time commitment to the Union, we found that he stayed back to finish the assigned work after office hours. His quality of work had the highest degree of accuracy, and his management of various tasks at the same time, a lesson for novices like us.

“In a private sector you would have been my boss and not a subordinate,” I gushed in admiration.

Personal Planning

One area where PSUs definitely score over private sector is that of personal planning. I never knew how to calculate income tax before I joined SAIL. In my earlier organisation a Chartered Accountant used to work out all the details for us, while we continued with our level of ignorance. In SAIL I found that every officer was able to work out optimal savings and taxes according to his/her preference.

We also discovered that every one was very well informed about the pecuniary benefits available under the company rules, and acted in a shameless capitalistic fashion to optimise it. One possible way of channelling this enterprise is to link it with the organisation’s progress in a more direct way. How such systems can be created is the challenge for enterprises world over.

On privatisation

I some times wonder why the issue of privatisation evokes such strong emotions in public sector employees. The proportion of excellence in public sector would not be any different from private. The only difference is that the excellent and hard working professionals in PSUs or Government work much harder as they have to compensate for the portion of the workforce that knows that it can get away without putting in the effort due from each employee.

Seen in this light the good professionals should have nothing to fear and the majority nothing to lose except a bit of free time. It is after all generally accepted, that the work shirkers - which any way is in minority, should either tone up or leave. So why this apprehension ?