Connect The Dots (Paperback)

As Gurcharan das points out in India Unbound, Indian entrepreneurs and businesses haven't got the right kind of press they deserved for a very long time in our own country. Rashmi Bansal's latest work, "Connect the dots" and her earlier "Stay Hungry..." hold a candle to the Indian entrepreneurial community and its zeal and spirit in a very commendable manner by highlighting a wide gamut of startups.

With IT and by its extension "Infosys", in danger of becoming THE ONLY example and model of a successful startup being mentioned everywhere, this book is all the more welcome. Successful people from all walks of life such as restauranters, a nature photographer, a T-Shirt maker, a housekeeping services provider, a bookshop retailer, student-activists-entrepreneurs, a housewife-turned-cosmetics-maker, "car-sticker"-marketing-guy are all featured in this book. One coudn't ask for more variety, really. Good pick, Rashmi. What an eye for variety. Well done for that!

Indeed, this is one of the greatest services that this book and her previous book make. In a **'knowledge' and 'new/old' economy** jargon obsessed world, it is very very important to realise that there are larger but unspoken wheels that are imperative in keeping the wheels of economy and society moving. Such a tapestry is much needed in today's Computing obsessed India, and we are in real danger of becoming monochromatic, or to use a more appropriate modern word, "binary" (pun intended) in our world view, however small it may be.

Rashmi sticks to her strengths; as the bard would say "To thine own self be true". As with her previous book, the narrative is quasi-first person; the author interviews the study on various facets of their life. Rashmi is gifted with a chatty writing style and the narrative is very fast paced. Once you begin a biography, the book becomes "unputdownable", so to speak. Since the interviews are with the founders themselves, making them relive their past and their past decisions, their self-belief, their sincerity, their hard-work all suffuse the book from every page.

On the negative side, this ends up providing a one-dimensional, albeit very flattering view of the founders. As the old saying goes "You can never make omlettes without breaking eggs"; certainly the founders had difficult times, made compromises or did thoughtless things that others noticed? Rashmi never makes the attempt to get a "second opinion" so to speak. A family member, or the founders' "man-at-arms" who were around since the early days could have easily brought in that nuance which for sure would have enriched and elevated the book further. For example, in her previous book, Subhiksha and its founder were presented in (my opinion,) vainglorious terms while it was public knowledge even then that chain was in doldrums. Perhaps, she could get balancing views (or to put more bluntly, opposing views) to bring a more complete picture of the business and wealth creation process to the reading audience.

One can easily sense that the nature of the book is to inspire others into thinking "Why not me there, in those very shoes?". But Rashmi would do well to realise that a book that inspires so much should also point out life's thorns on the rose stem in order for people to appreciate that "Life is certainly not a bed of roses" for everyone. In fact, I feel that would make the audience even more appreciative of the "heroes and their adventures", i.e., the metaphorical "blooming of the rose" even more.

Despite my earlier point on the need for non-IT stories, it was the story of Lasersoft's Suresh Kamath and ex-Yahoo inmate (ooops! cubicle pun intended) Kalyan Verma that made the largest impact on me. Suresh's firm goes out of its way to "teach people to fish instead of feeding them fish". His reaching out to handicapped people and "non-BTech streams" left me truly misty-eyed. Would I have done something like that in his shoes, on my own volition? I don't think so. But after reading about him, I ask "Why Not?". And that's such an extraordinary insight about oneself a 'different' person's life story can bring! Every 4th rant I hear about from various modern Indian workplace halls today is the "frustration, meaninglessness, want to break free" cry. But how many of us channel our gall in a meaningful manner? One person did. Kalyan is such an individual. And thank you Rashmi for collecting gems like those.

But by far, my biggest gripe with the book is Rashmi's rampant mixing of Hindi and English in her writing. I found it much more in this book than her previous one and it was driving me to distraction and exasperation at times. Rashmi, I have news for you. Very unfortunately, not everyone in India is well-versed in Hindi nor do they have any interest in being forced to follow it. Without getting into the politics of learning Hindi, etc., I feel it is quite possible for a writer of Rashmi's calibre to convey an effective message in just plain English.

Some examples: I was floored with the term "Kitabi keeda" title and had to ask around for what it meant. Turns out it conveys the meaning "book worm", which itself is a very commonly used English phrase among Indians as well. Why not stick to that? Prem Ganapathy's bio was liberally 'littered' with Bombay slang (so I was told). They might have as well written those lines in Prem's mother tongue, honestly! It would not have made any more difference to my understanding. That is just plain laziness to let the lines stand as they were uttered. Rashmi, as a writer, it is your job not to merely 'transcribe' but to convey meaning and better understanding to the readers. One can argue that the lines are meant to convey the 'down-to-earth' persona of the hero, but that was already communicated via the impassioned description of his hard and difficult childhood in clear, simple English!

And like her previous book, this book can always be translated to another local language without resorting to unnecessary phonetic acrobatics in English. So, Rashmi my one complaint to you is this: Please tighten up your writing. You are clearly a writer with some calibre and flair for it, and you are famous now. So much more is expected from you.

This last diatribe notwithstanding, the book holds an excellent mirror to the lives some very diverse group of obviously talented individuals. It is well worth reading about them and inculcate some traits into our lives as well. After all if Newton himself said "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants", it will be wise to inject that humility into our lvies as well.

My recommendation. Get yourself this and Rashmi's previous book. It is time we stopped quoting Lee Iacocca (and many other western self-made biographies) for inspirational quotes and started identifying with our own local and homegrown heroes. And heroes they all are.

So is Rashmi Bansal to some extent for chronicling their exploits.

Dr. Suresh JeyaRaman.

Got the book reading it... its so good... very happy that it was author signed ...consider myself lucky;) cos iam a huge fan of stay hungry stay foolish... now this book will surely beat that... and thanks to flipkart for giving me a superb book with a discount of 45rs, author signed , timely delivery and last but not least at the comfort of my home order facility... thank you for all that and one more promise hereon any book i would order only at flipkart ..thanks once again :):)

Had pre-ordered the book, so got an autographed copy too. Have read 5 stories so far, and each one stays, cos it's written so well, and the stories of each of the entrepreneurs are so inspiring. I also like that there's no melodrama and all the interviewees seem to accept things for what they are (for example, Ranjiv Ramchandani when asked if he decided not to cut corners wrt the quality of his t-shirts says, nah it's just that i was ignorant about the quality! Great read, and like i tweeted, possibly the best spent 100 rupees so far..!

This is the first time I read a book by Rashmi Bansal as I have not yet read her book Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.

My belief is that an entrepreneur could come out from any profession, so why the author has an over ephasized angst against MBAs in particular.

Almost all the success stories are censored for the setbacks and breathtaking hurdles that the young entrepreneurs might have faced. I am not referering to the part-of-the-game kind of hurdles but those usually faced at the time of inception while breaking the proverbial glass ceiling.

I also strongly feel that all the stories are suggestive of a "one man show" (or woman so to speak). The author should also have covered the unbiased opinion of their close aides without whom the entrepreneur could not have established his/ her dream.