Skip to main content

The Corporate Dance


Book Review

One of the amusing truths about the human species is that in spite of the breathtaking achievements we have made, and continue to make, in various fields, our lives continue to be dominated by superficiality.  There are some manners that we have to learn and practise in order to belong to our class and the manners are, more often than not, quite silly.  Even our physical appearance matters a lot.  'Fair and lovely' is one of those silly norms.  What we boast of in the name of our culture too has a way of attaining superficiality.  For example, we can wear the typical western attire and go to deliver sermons on the ancient Indian culture to youngsters who may be celebrating the Valentine’s Day.

Lata Subramanian’s debut book, A Dance with the Corporate Ton, is about the paradoxical superficiality of our species.  The very first sentence of the book will tell us what it is about: “If you wish to be successful in your chosen career, if you desire to build a corporate empire and be known as a corporate tsar, it is not enough to be talented, honest, hardworking and committed.”  What else is required?  The superficiality I spoke of above is the answer, though the author does not use that word.  The elite society of the corporate world has certain rules that you have to abide by if you wish to rise in that society.  Those rules are about how your physical appearance should be, how friendly can you get with your subordinates, and so on. 

These are not new rules, however.  The author takes much pains to show us that the world has always been like this.  The rules of the elite society go back to long past, to the days of the aristocrats and the royalty of the bygone eras.  She draws many comparisons between the manners practised in the old world and those embraced by today’s corporate world.  

Lata Subramanian knows what she is speaking about.  She spent her entire working life in the corporate world.  She “has over 35 years of work experience across the Advertising, Civil Aviation, Hospitality and Publishing industries in India.”  Moreover, she is well-read and cites illuminating examples from classical literature, mythology and history in order to show us how certain aspects of the corporate culture are integral parts of the age-old courtly manners and practices.  The corporate boss is a king in today’s world.  Lata Subramanian shows us that in her inimitable style that sparkles with wit and wisdom.  The illustrations in the book are hilarious at times and always splendid.

The book is sheer delight to read.  Every page is suffused with humour.  The inevitable ironies and paradoxes of  human life wink at us constantly teasing us out of our complacencies.  

The book is also highly autobiographical.  We get enlightening peeps into the life and career of the author.  We understand what made Lata a success in the corporate world and yet an outsider. 

Lata becomes a visionary towards the end of the book.  She envisages a world in which robots take over all the labour and shows us dramatically how dull such a world would be. How absurd too!

The book is an enlightening read not only for those who wish to take a close look at the corporate world but also for those who wish to understand our world better.  What are we trying to achieve?  How much achievement will make us happy?  What is happiness?  These are some of the underlying questions that the book asks and answers too. 

The only problem is that the book is available only in the digital version.  I find it difficult to read digital books.  There may be many others like me who would prefer a hard copy.

Let me end with a quote from the book.  “The sad thing is that I see little sign of society changing its measures of success or making much effort to change the conditioning of young minds. If anything, unfettered capitalism in the last few decades seems to have accentuated the ageold measures of success.”  Can we take a relook at success?

To buy the book: follow this link


Comments

  1. A very balanced and practical review, Sir. Loved your usage of words and insights!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well reviewed. Interesting read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful review that reveals that this is a wonderful book on the corporate world!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Written by an insider who is actually an outsider!

      Delete
  4. I agree in totality when you say talent, hard work and sincerity is not enough. Unfortunate enough, superficiality rules the parameters. It often kills a great idea and makes kings out of unworthy concepts. The book sounds interesting. Good review!

    www.numerounity.com
    www.hautekutir.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. A precise and balanced review... Thanks for sharing... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Superbly written review and well deserved by the author too. I have read the book and it is everything you say and more. Lata is intelligent , witty, humorous and at the same time shows great depth and humility.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right, self-effacement is one of the great qualities that Lata seems to possess in addition to the more visible wit and wisdom.

      Delete
  7. A wonderful review. The book sounds very interesting :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have to learn to write like this - touch each aspect of the book in brevity without losing the essence of it all. You have done it well. But I was hoping to see you draw comparisons between the superficialities of the corporate world and the professional world you have been a part of.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was tempted to do that, Sunaina. Honestly, it took me some effort to restrain myself. Whatever I went through during the last two years in Delhi was a cruel reflection of the corporate approach to the staff. But I didn't want to taint Lata's book with my personal life :)

      Delete
    2. Maybe in another post then.....I wanted to see how you use Lata's observations to speak about superficialities in the larger world. Corporate world is one part of a larger system. Wanted to see your views on that, if possible.....:)

      Delete
  9. Liked the succinct review sir, particularly the way you have highlighted the questions that the book raises.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Second Crucifixion

  ‘The Second Crucifixion’ is the title of the last chapter of Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’s magnum opus Freedom at Midnight . The sub-heading is: ‘New Delhi, 30 January 1948’. Seventy-three years ago, on that day, a great soul was shot dead by a man who was driven by the darkness of hatred. Gandhi has just completed his usual prayer session. He had recited a prayer from the Gita:                         For certain is death for the born                         and certain is birth for the dead;                         Therefore over the inevitable                         Thou shalt not grieve . At that time Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare were moving to Retiring Room Number 6 at the Old Delhi railway station. They walked like thieves not wishing to be noticed by anyone. The early morning’s winter fog of Delhi gave them the required wrap. They found Nathuram Godse already awake in the retiring room. The three of them sat together and finalised the plot against Gand

Vultures and Religion

When vultures become extinct, why should a religion face a threat? “When the vultures died off, they stopped eating the bodies of Zoroastrians…” I was amused as I went on reading the book The Final Farewell by Minakshi Dewan. The book is about how the dead are dealt with by people of different religious persuasions. Dead people are quite useless, unless you love euphemism. Or, as they say, dead people tell no tales. In the end, we are all just stories made by people like the religious woman who wrote the epitaph for her atheist husband: “Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.” Zoroastrianism is a religion which converts death into a sordid tale by throwing the corpses of its believers to vultures. Death makes one impure, according to that religion. Well, I always thought, and still do, that life makes one impure. I have the support of Lord Buddha on that. Life is dukkha , said the Enlightened. That is, suffering, dissatisfaction and unease. Death is liberation

The Final Farewell

Book Review “ Death ends life, not a relationship ,” as Mitch Albom put it. That is why, we have so many rituals associated with death. Minakshi Dewan’s book, The Final Farewell [HarperCollins, 2023], is a well-researched book about those rituals. The book starts with an elaborate description of the Sikh rituals associated with death and cremation, before moving on to Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and finally Hinduism. After that, it’s all about the various traditions and related details of Hindu final rites. A few chapters are dedicated to the problems of widows in India, gender discrimination in the last rites, and the problem of unclaimed dead bodies. There is a chapter titled ‘Grieving Widows in Hindi Cinema’ too. Death and its rituals form an unusual theme for a book. Frankly, I don’t find the topic stimulating in any way. Obviously, I didn’t buy this book. It came to me as quite many other books do – for reasons of their own. I read the book finally, having shelv

Hate Politics

Illustration by Copilot Hatred is what dominates the social media in India. It has been going on for many years now. A lot of violence is perpetrated by the ruling party’s own men. One of the most recent instances of venom spewed out by none other than Mithun Chakraborty would shake any sensible person. But the right wing of India is celebrating it. Seventy-four-year-old Chakraborty threatened to chop the people of a particular minority community into pieces. The Home Minister Amit Shah was sitting on the stage with a smile when the threat was issued openly. A few days back, a video clip showing a right-winger denying food to a Muslim woman because she refused to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ dominated the social media. What kind of charity is it that is founded on hatred? If you go through the social media for a while, you will be astounded by the surfeit of hatred there. Why do a people who form the vast majority of a country hate a small minority so much? Hatred usually comes from some