Anyone seen Arindam Chaudhuri without an impish grin on his face? Anyone? Well, chances are pretty bleak, considering the man believes in turning every calamity into an opportunity. So, when he tells you, “the economy is not doing too well and circumstances are not conducive to fresh business enterprise”, he is merely saying it is an opportunity to use your time elsewhere. So, one fine day, the management guru-author-academic-film producer decided to wield the pen once more. Actually, he took out five days to piece together “Discover the Diamond in You”, a quick read success mantra that he claims you can finish in an hour!
“I took out five days especially for this book. Two days just to jot down the things I wanted in the book. Then I typed out the contents on my mobile for the next three days. I SMSed it to my designer. Mobile is such an uncomplicated way of communication that I am not used to a computer even now. I prefer to speak the language of 140 characters than long mails.”
Arindam does make things look simple. Maybe, even simpler than they are. He could not have finished a book cover to cover in three days. “Well, yes and no. I have been working on two books for about three years now. They are both research-based. While working on the management strategies book, I thought I could easily take out some part that is non-technical for everybody rather than only for the professionals. I did not specifically set out to write this book but have been giving lectures on success for some seven-eight years.”
Inspired by Shah Rukh
Not surprising then, a lecture on success, this time delivered by Shah Rukh Khan at the IIPM convocation, inspired Arindam so much that he not only thought of penning this success saga but also thought he would ask Shah Rukh to do a foreword for the book that was released in New Delhi this week. So, writing a book in times of economic recession makes perfect sense to Arindam. But when did he realise he had the diamond in him?
“When students join us I look at them as diamonds, maybe uncut, maybe unpolished. But everybody has a diamond in him. We have 72 subjects and we cut the diamonds from 72 edges so that they sparkle more. I call this book a success book. My first book, ‘Count Your Chickens' was more of a management book. It appealed to those from the corporate world. This is for anybody and everybody who wants to be somebody. For all in the age group of 10 to 100.”
Apart from texting his entire book on the mobile, what is the strategy Arindam used to appeal to the young? “The youngsters want everything in an instant. So I kept the book short. There are only 110 pages and only 59 of them are written pages, others have illustrations, cartoons, etc. The font size is such that you can finish a page in a minute, effectively finishing the book in an hour. I have tried to speak in the language of the young and got Shah Rukh to do a foreword. He has written a very sweet foreword.”
But with his quick read, is he not treading in the territory marked as his own by Chetan Bhagat, who too speaks the language of the young and sells faster than newspapers in the morning?
“I have heard of that comparison but I have not read Chetan's book. As far as I am concerned, the process of discovering the diamond in me started when I was a student. I aspired to be a teacher seeing a couple of my teachers. Then that unpolished diamond got exposed to good light and the urge to emulate then only got stronger.”
Promotional tour
Simple words again from a man for whom success is anything but simple. For the moment though, he is doing a simple but time-tested exercise to promote the book. “I am undertaking a 22-city tour to interact with the young,” says Arindam. What he actually means is to get this book introduced to them, and come back with another in his mind! The grin promises to stay.
Published - December 09, 2009 08:30 pm IST
