Young adult fiction in India: losing direction?

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Life seems to have come a full circle for young adult fiction in India. In 2004, Chetan Bhagat burst on the scene with 'Five Point Someone' and almost overnight created a huge market for young adult fiction which even forced the big publishing houses to shed their cloak of elitism and churn out mass market fiction written in easy vocabulary with plenty of local references and flavours. Hundreds of young adult titles by hundreds of first-time authors have hit the shelves since then. However, going by the recent trends, the readers seem to have reached a saturation point. The reason is lack of differentiation between these 'semi-autobiographical' young adult novels. Even a price of 100 bucks (even lesser if you buy the books online) doesn't seem to entice many readers into purchasing some titles due to this. They do have a point. Most of the recent....

Warning for aspiring authors: beware of fake literary agents

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Followers of Indian publishing world are only too aware of the boom that has taken place in the industry, especially in mass market fiction, since investment banker Chetan Bhagat churned out a bestseller in his college days in 2004. The book captured the imagination of almost every age group and catapulted Bhagat into instant stardom. It made every second English-educated person in India believe that he/she had a best-seller in him/her. Since then over a hundred such first-time authors, who had full-time jobs, have gone on to write their debut novel on anything from school days to college life to experiences at workplace. Many of these books have been resounding commercial successes thereby inspiring thousands more. However, while all this is good news for aspiring authors, publishers and readers, the trend has had one negative side-effect - birth of shady literary agents in India. In the West, most....

Four conflicts I don't want to see in 2012

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At the time of writing this piece, two encouraging pieces of news have come in. First, it seems that Greece is likely to get the much awaited second bail-out. Secondly, The People's Bank of China (PBOC) cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 50 bps. The market seems to have reacted positively to these developments if initial indications are anything to go by. Add to these claims for jobless benefits in the US unexpectedly dropped last week to the lowest level in four years and I don't remember the sentiment in the market being this positive in the last six months. However, well known to fund managers and not so well known to many common men on the street, there are a few potential conflicts brewing in the world that threaten the stability of not only the global markets but maybe even that of global peace. ....

The flipsides of Facebook

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Let me begin with a confession here - I am a social network junkie. My love affair with social networks started with Orkut way back in 2005 which I dumped in favour of Facebook two years later. I have been quite active on Mark Zuckerberg (co-founder of Facebook)'s creation since then. I am certain that I was one of the first thousand users of Twitter and I also have accounts on Google+, Foursquare, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Foodspotting etc. (somehow I could never get myself to like MySpace) Thanks to iPhones and iPads, I manage to stay alive on all of these. I completely understand that social networks mean different things to different people and the way I use them may not be the manner in which another individual shall. The following were MY purposes of signing on to them: Facebook Reconnect with old friends Keep....

The inexplicable 'superior NRI complex'

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Unlike my previous pieces, this one is more of an outburst than an insight or a viewpoint on any topic/issue. That is because I am seething from inside at a phenomenon which has absolutely no justification irrespective of how hard I try to play the devil's advocate. I had heard a lot about it from friends and family before I left Indian shores but seeing it first-hand really makes my blood boil. I call it the 'Superior NRI complex'. The trigger for this tirade is a recent conversation that I overheard on my flight from Singapore to New Delhi between an Indian Jat man in his twenties who seemed to have spent at least three quarters of his life in Delhi and a Scandinavian couple who were travelling to India for the first time. The couple occupied the window and middle seats while our Jat....

Generation Z: Smarter but more materialistic?

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My trips to India over the last few years since I shifted to Singapore have been few and far in between. However, every time I am there one thing that never ceases to amaze me, both positively and negatively, is the sharpness of Indian kids whom I meet socially or notice in restaurants, neighbourhood etc. My generation was titled Generation Y while we were growing up. Today's kids, aptly called the Internet generation (or Generation Z) are shaping up in a way that merits a detailed study by social scientists. I am not sure about the readers of this blog but I for one was intelligent but at the same time naïve in many ways during my childhood days and so were the kids around me. We exuded what children are supposed to exude - childlike innocence. Even in our tantrums there was more cuteness than 'bratness'.....

Is an MBA degree still the magic wand?

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Back in 2007 when I was looking to switch from banking to asset management, an MBA degree in finance seemed to be the only way to do it. 'A 12-24 month full-time programme at a reputed university and a lot of doors would open for me once I come out of it' was my line of thinking. But if I had to make the same decision today, I confess I would be having second thoughts. In 2007, India and most parts of the world were in a bull market. That meant that MBAs from even Tier-II B-Schools had multiple jobs offers upon graduation, companies were hiring aggressively, generous bonuses were being handed out and Lehman Brothers was a dream workplace. Today Lehman Brothers is history, US seems to be in for a prolonged period of sluggish recovery and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe threatens to unleash....

No justification for attack on Bhushan

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"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" - Voltaire The very foundation of a democracy is based on the statement above. The 'live' assault on Prashant Bhushan yesterday, just moments before reporters from a television channel were about to interview him (and just moments after the camera started rolling, now that's some coincidence) was more an attack on 'freedom of speech' than on Bhushan himself. The reporters in question were from a channel, which in my humble opinion was completely swayed towards Anna Hazare's recent campaign against the government. Indeed, the dramatic manner and deep husky voice in which the prominent anchor, a journalist whose integrity and knowledge I have had the deepest regard for over the years, spoke on television during the entire protest reminded me repeatedly as a viewer of Shah Rukh Khan's dialogue....

Dip in quality of IITians: Fault lies with the aspirants

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Apart from being the toughest place to get into, the IITs are probably the most talked about technical institutes by the citizens in any country. The national obsession whole of India has with these temples of higher learning is not funny. Even MIT and Harvard don't enjoy this kind of reverence in the US. The reason is not hard to miss though. IITs represent hope for millions of middle and lower-middle class households in the country - hope for better money and hope for higher societal standing. Most middle class Indians feel that education is the only way to get rich and earn respect ethically in this country and IITs symbolise the very culmination of this 'Indian dream'. The sentiment is so strong that it makes 15 year olds toil for years away from their family in places like Kota to prepare for an exam that lasts just....

Strong Lokpal plus laws against Black Money = India Shining

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As much as I keenly follow WikiLeaks, I don't know how true they are. So when I read Julian Assange's claims about Indians having more bank accounts than any other nationality in Swiss Banks or India losing more per capita tax money than Germany's, I took it with a pinch of salt. However, irrespective of what WikiLeaks says, one thing that can't be denied by anyone is that India has a substantial amount of evaded tax lying in Swiss Banks. The general consensus is that between US$ 1 trillion and US$ 1.4 trillion. This is around 40% of our GDP and around 30 times our foreign debt. It is worth mentioning that the black money stashed by Indian residents in tax havens consists of both evaded tax and unaccounted income as unlike US, UK and Germany, India residents can't hold accounts abroad. So clearly the stakes are much higher for....