Shailaza's Blog

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  • Decoding Mandalas of Time

    Malashri Lal is not just a daughter of a very successful and renowned man, she is also a respected professor, critic and a bestselling author who is known for fiction and non-fiction books. However, her accomplishments extend beyond the prose. Her recently released book of poems, ‘Mandalas Of Time’, has proven that she is a master of the verse as well.

    Once while talking about the IAS officers of Rajasthan origin not going to central government on deputation, the common refrain that emerged was the poor standard of English in the IAS officers of Rajasthan origin was the main cause for the poor representation in the set up in Delhi. There were of course some exceptions like D. R. Mehta, Jagat Mehta and Bhawani Mal Mathur. But of these three, two studied outside and not in Rajasthan. So, when a local lass made it big as the professor and the head of department and dean in the Mecca of English in north India, i.e. Delhi University , it was a matter of exceptional pride for the people of this feudal desert state. It was like a domestic tiny sparrow flying high in the ionosphere on the strength of its wings alone.
    Beauty, brains and poise- Malashri had everything going for her since her schooling in MGD, graduation in Maharani College, M.A. in Rajasthan University. In the 60s, St. Xavier’s School Fair was the high point in the social calendar of young people, when the girls from MGD used to visit the fair.

    Malashri Lal

    Remembers Dr. Gautam Sen, the venerable cardiovascular surgeon of Jaipur, probably the first of its kind in Jaipur (he in mid-eighties now and probably a decade senior to Malashri) that Xavier’s boys and alumni used to wait for the MGDians to descent from their bus on to the fairgrounds. Even amongst the 20-30 MGDians who came to the fair, Malashri stood out shining beautiful and poised. The doctor’s reaction was also the response of most of the senior Xavierites of seventh and eighth class onwards attending the fair.

    These Xavierites now in their 60s remember most about her after her beauty was charm and poise, she exuded, probably inherited from Mohan Mukherjee, her father who also happened to be the chief secretary of Rajasthan, still remembered for his gentlemanliness, politeness and patience. He was a person to go to for young IAS officers when faced with knotty situations which was often in revenue matters and other administration where laws and procedures were almost copied from UP or Bengal governments and not evolved in the legislative assembly after long discussions and deliberations.


    One aspect of Malashri’s personality which probably most Xavierites and Jaipurites were not conversant with is the academic excellence and poetic depth of Mohan Mukherjee’s daughter as is reflected in the ‘Mandalas of Time’, a book of 75 poems she has presented to the literati. Here Arbit is making an attempt to showcase these in its columns.
    The word literati is deliberately used because though Jaipurites were not fully aware of the academic and poetic heights of Malashri’s pen, but to the literati of Delhi and abroad, it was no secret. In fact, Bashabi Fraser, professor of English and creative writing, Edinburgh, Napier University writes, “Malashri’s poems are a lifetime labour of love, embodying and resolving the dichotomies and different loyalties and loves that the poet has carried with her through her life.”


    “One the one hand, the poet has the memory of watching and listening to the Bhopa singers accompanied by the dancing folk epics in her home town of Jaipur in the 1960s, performed by the roving artists against the light of the oil lamps in the Jaipur mela. On the other, there is the deep resonance of her heritage, finding a voice which is steeped in Rabindranath Tagore’s atmosphere of Bengali culture and literature and cultural freedom practiced at Shantiniketan.”
    As Malashri puts in one of the poems:
    “The feudal heritage of my childhood
    Fights with the reformist Bengali lineage,
    My troubled feminism struggling
    Between the Poshak and Purdah.”
    The awareness of today’s threat of climate change as Malashri writes reassuringly , “the moon is so far from the earthly pollution” in spite of the “footprint of human ego.”
    In the poems, Malashri proves herself to be a consummate wordsmith who combines in her multifaceted self her multicultural identities bringing world’s together through telling imagery in compelling rhythms.
    The poet recalls the lessons learnt from Tagore:
    “…I learnt from Gurudev,
    Emotions have no fixed language.
    The merit has no physical limits.
    Music resounds in the open sky,
    Dance is the joy of a free spirit anywhere”
    Bashir Fraser writes, “Mandalas of time is the expressive voice of a true free spirit who creates harmony through her voice. These poems sing of “life renewal” affirming a “beautiful certainty.”
    Another “fellow traveller” friend and well-known literary critique writer Ranjit Hoskote writes thus “The sensuous abundance of the natural world pervades Malashri’s Mandalas of Time. These poems celebrate the arboreal and the floral. They evoke a profusion of trees, shrubs, fruits and flowers. But, nature to Malashri is not a grand theatre that enfolds to its own music offering to delight but rejecting our participation. On the contrary, she approaches nature as an intimate, integral party of a continuum that includes the human realm with all its discontent.”
    It is a fact even as nature infiltrates our consciousness in subtle ways we exert a claim over nature through language and scientific scrutiny. Malashri’s poems record, intuitively, the process of pull-push that results from this, our own desire to carve and the resistance on the part of the things we seek to name.
    And yet, Malashri celebrates the colours and flavours, the aesthetic surplus and memorable inner success of Indian culture, she never loses sight of all the elements with the tradition that calls out to be confronted and critiqued.
    The joy in the textiles, the vistas and the epics of Rajasthan is balance by her elegiac awareness of female infanticide in that region. Her poems never shy away from revealing the suppression of female will and desire that often serves as a foundation for the myths of the feudal patriarchal order.
    She interestingly asks when the mountains have brought low by global warming, the forests denuded, the rivers poisoned, where can the gods live now? In the same breath her poems urge us to ask: how do we live, by what rules, by what canon of conduct towards others -human and more than human- with whomever we share the planet? Shall be merely survive or could we yet relearn to flourish and learn to flower with, and not flower at the expense of. Let us learn from “the supple leaves” that:
    “Flat and curved
    Cradle the flowers that have no other family.”
    Malashri herself quotes Khalil Gibran when talking about her poetry, “Poetry is a dash of joy, pain and wonder with a dash of dictionary.” She also quotes Andre Horde
    “ […] Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of light within which we can predicate our hopes and dreams towards survival and change.”
    “In the larger context of my life narrative, I have come to believe that poetry is a balm for the troubling dislocations that are an inevitable part of the experience. The biographical aspect drowns under the issue of transition and transformation that poetry hopes to articulate.”
    “Only poetry captures the inner dialogues, the cracked mirror of troubled consciousness, the silent cry of those who travelled beyond tears. Its value resides in principle of integrity, and genuineness.”

    Malashri Lal with her husband Robey Lal and friend Sudhir Mathur


    According to Malashri, “The inner transition too and these poems are perhaps the most challenging. Every poet and novelist in every language from time immemorial has carved stories from a store of emotions. My personal poems are droplets in the same ocean of desire for an immutable world while coping with the angst of its forfeitures that dawns the realization that bereavement, heartbreak, betrayal is both individual and universal.”
    She remembers Tagore’s anguished call, “when I stand before thee at the days end, thou shall see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healings.”

    Mohan Mukherjee with Y B Chavan, Maharashtra’s first chief minister


    Looks come from genealogy and grace and poise from upbringing given by parents. But your achievements are your own, acquired through your hard work, determination and honed talent. One creation of hers that in totality, embodies different aspects of her creativity is called “Ardhanareesvara”
    The poem shows her philosophical sensitivities, her comfort level with mythology and folklore and her sympathy, sensitivity leading to rebellion against patriarchal society and values. She seeks equality and fairness between man and woman and leads to the ultimate equality i.e. Ardhanareesvara.
    Ranjit Hoskote writes, “The dyadic interplay of opposites- the dvandva, in classical terms- forms the ground rhythm of Professor Lal’s poetry. Nature and human kind are one such pair; Shiva and Shakti another; Radha and Krishna yet another, each incomplete without the pulsation and presence of the other. Krishna’s flute, cast aside in the Vrindavan of his teenage years as he goes away to Dwarka, adulthood and kingship never to return- Radha picks it up and preserves it as a keepsake, but it will never be played again, a mere reed emptied of affect and significance. Shiva cannot achieve his fullness without Shakti and the poet evokes them as an inseparable composite, the Ardhanareesvara. Such ideals of communion, to be regarded as at once sacred and worldly- for these, too are a dvandva in Indic thought, not binary poles- emerge in Mandalas of Time, from a world of seasonal festivity and cultural expression offered in dedication to the Cosmos.”

    //Ardhanareesvara
    “Indivisible unity, Parvati and Shiva forever entwined.
    Women and men interdependent,
    Infused with traits of each other
    A softer left lineament draped in finery,
    a muscular right stretched over taut skin
    Artistry overlaying a deep philosophy of a shared destiny
    Symbols associative of power and grace
    But not attributed to a dichotomous gendering.
    Sages, sculptors, storytellers knew the eternal truth
    That form bellies essence much of the time
    Masculinity and feminity are the same word,
    Read in reverse
    To denote the other
    That too is an illusion
    In Creation there is only One
    Ardhanareesvara
    The God who is both woman and man
    Ubiquitous, limitless reminder of equality.”//

    To be continued…

    This article by Shailaza Singh appeared in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on Wednesday 24th April 2024

  • Simon Rowe Loves A Good Story

    Simon Rowe loves a good story. In fact, he is so fond of story telling that he signed up for an English teacher’s job in Japan and taught his students to talk about the Japanese culture in English. His students learnt English and he became a story teller.

    When I read Mami Suzuki, the latest detective novel by Simon Rowe, it was as if I had found a friend in her. Like me, she is a single mother, struggling to make a living and raise her child. She works two jobs, struggles with the loneliness that comes with being a single mother and tries her best to cope with it. Mami Suzuki seemed so real that I had to know from her creator Simon Rowe if he had really met her in real life or if it was a channelling of sorts. Some excerpts from the rendezvous at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

    Are you anything like your heroine Mami Suzuki?
    (Laughs). Yes to some extent, I am. I am middle aged, I live in Japan but that’s where the similarity ends. Mami is a composite character, a figment of the imagination but drawn from all the women that I know in Japan, who are middle aged, who are working hard (in some cases two jobs), might be single mothers. My wife too is a middle aged Japanese woman. She is very busy too. Mami means true beauty.
    So, was this character inspired by your wife?

    (Smiles). That is what I will tell her! But it is much more than that. As a foreigner, I guess I can see and observe more details about the Japanese people and a lot differently as compared to the natives. Though I have been here for the last 27 years, Japan still looks new and fresh to me. In a way it is death by stimulation. There is just too much for a writer to take in.

    Did Mami walk into your brain preformed or did you have to think her up?
    First of all, we start with the motivation. I wanted to tell a story where the character overcomes a lot of difficulties and succeeds in the end. About that time in 2020, I was creating a collection of short stories which was to be self-published through crowd funding. The motivation for the last story came from a leaflet advertising services of a female detective in Japanese language which is very rare. It showed a middle-aged woman dressed in short suit. I filed away this idea but then ideas have a life of their own. They pop up at unexpected times. I was reading detective series like Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexander McCall Smith (the author of No.1 Ladies Detective Agency). So the idea came to me of a single mother who lived in Kobe, a place where I live in western Japan. A tale of triumph and adversity. So that is where I found the story. That’s how the character came about and it was built by research which including interviewing some Tokyo detectives as well. The thing is there aren’t many female detectives in Japan so the thing is you need a new spin on the old stereotype of the wine drinking, chain smoking detective with a woman waiting for him in the bar. So, I flipped it upside down. So, now I have the hard working, beer drinking single mother who has two jobs and she has her love interest waiting in the bar!


    Mami you say is a work of fiction. However, when one reads the book, it seems as if she is real woman. Did you study single mothers to write Mami?
    Mami feels like a woman I know well, although I’ve never met anyone exactly like her. I know quite a few single mothers here in Japan. They are friends or acquaintances of both my wife and I, and so often we hear about their trials and tribulations, but not so much about their triumphs. I guess that was the motivation behind writing this story. 

    I wanted my protagonist to finish victorious. That is, by the end of the story, Mami retakes control of her destiny by going professional and ridding herself of the male-dominated hotel executive world. To go it alone is very risky in Japan, it takes guts and determination, but there aren’t too many options for single mothers, many of whom have to juggle work and family life to the best of their (financial and emotional) ability. I believe their lot has even gotten worse due to inflation (and wages not keeping pace with rising prices) and the ongoing recession, which means less full time jobs with benefits (although childcare remains sparse here in Japan) and more part-time jobs without benefits.
    I find there is more social stigma attached to single motherhood in Japan. My sister, who lives in rural Australia, is a single mother but she is lucky that she has a full-time job (with benefits) which allows her to work from home. There isn’t the same stigma in Australia either. 

    Japanese single mothers struggle to find childcare possibilities because they must travel to their place of work, which is more likely to be part-time rather than full-time, and therefore not possible to do from home. Japan was ranked 125 out of 146 countries for gender inequality, which is very negative indeed. 
    I guess the other source of research has been my job as an English teacher. Most of my students now are female (I teach at Kobe Women’s University) and so I often read their very honest stories of family life and relationships with their parents. Writing gives them a chance to say things they wouldn’t say aloud in class. In a way, writing is a cathartic exercise and I feel many of them enjoy it for this reason. I certainly don’t mine their lives for details to add to my stories, but as a whole they give me a feeling for the single parent dynamic which exists here in Japan.


    Tell us about your growing up days.
    I grew up in New Zealand. We immigrated to Melbourne for the final days of the schooling. I have younger siblings too. I finished the university and I became a travel writer. I was always fond of writing and I realized travel and writing together were really a good way to see the world. So for the next 10-12 years, I travelled around the world. I used to write a story, take photos and make a package and send it to multiple publications and be paid multiple times. We can’t do that now. I had a self-perpetuating existence where I was travelling with a back pack and had cameras and I had pretty wild life. Things I won’t do now. Like take small boats way way up to the jungle or ride a bus to Morocco. A lot of hard travel. It was stimulating and gave me something to write about because I believe if you write a travel story it should be authentic. Like for example, I met this guy who is chef and he makes the best chicken biryani in Delhi. So, it is not just about the food but the man also. With time, the competition became great to the point where I would go to a small island in the Pacific and discover someone from my rival publication was already there. Though I was working freelance, yet the competition was great.

    …To be continued

    This article by Shailaza Singh appeared in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on April 3rd, 2024

    ….To be continued

  • Anarkali Invoked Strong Reactions Even Today

    It was a cozy evening straight out of Nav Gulati’s book. Gentle showers of rain and cool breeze. The only thing that was missing was the Anup Talav of Fatehpur Sikri and a dancing Anarkali. However, one could still feel Anarkali’s presence as Nav Gulati talked about his experiences with his book ‘Anarkali- One Concubine and Two Emperors’ with Rajesh Sharma, editor, Rashtradoot.

    When he was asked what made him write this book on Anarkali, he replied, ‘I have always felt that I have some connection with Anarkali. When I watched the movie Mughal-e-Azam, this connection sort of became stronger. Maybe it has to do with my past lives. One day, I dreamt that I was a Ghulam who was assigned to protect Anarkali and it was I who travelled with her from Istanbul to the court of Akbar. I felt as if I understood her plight, her life and her desires better than anyone else. Perhaps that is why I like to read and talk about her. This book too is like an ongoing conversation with Anarkali.’

    A member of the audience who had read the novel commented that when one reads the book, it seems as if the author has done some painstaking research on the subject which is apparent in his language and description about various customs and aspects of history. He then asked Nav about his modus operandi with regards to the research to which Nav replied, ‘I was always fascinated with the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire. But since I also wanted to earn good money and have a career in life, I focussed on my job too. Though I had already thought about the story; it was like a movie running in my head, I really started seriously writing when I got posted in Dallas in 2010. I was working with a  bank at the time. I used to stay in California. So every Monday, I had to travel to Dallas and every Friday evening I would be back in California. However, after my work got over during the week I didn’t have anything to do. I wasn’t much into television or socializing. So, I decided to do some detailed research about the Mughals and the Ottomans. There was a library close by and every evening I would go to the library and read. So, for six years, till about 2016, this was my schedule and I read every book I could find about these empires. Since I already had my story in my head, I would make notes and add in these little details to my story.’

     As the rain drizzled, people sipped on hot tea and enjoyed the cozy, serene vibes. Another reader wanted to know about how Nav Gulati came up with the idea of two Anarkalis. He replied, ‘the idea of the two Anarkali’s came to me when I was reading about the debate in Emperor’s Suleyman’s Divan in 1535 whether to invade India or Persia. At the time, Baghdad was the seat of learning and prosperity. Humayun’s emissaries got the wind of this and asked Humayun to do something so that the Ottomons don’t invade India since they were a relentless war machine and could bring down the Mughal empire in a flash. Humayun sent the Sultan tributes in the form of gold, silver etc from India, which made the Sultan turn his attention to Persia. This is a fact that is well known. However, I added that he also sent the Sultan two concubines Anarkali I and Jalpari. In my story, Anarkali 1 was the grandmother of Anarkali. Anarkali was the daughter of Selim and Sufiye who was the daughter of Anarkali 1.  It was Anarkali who had to travel back to Hindustan since her foster mother Jalpari wanted to spend the last days of her life in Hindustan since she was born here. It was this Anarkali who met Salim and together they created an eternal love story. So, when I read about Anarkali and I thought about Salim (later on Emperor Jahangir), my only thought was Anarkali went from one Selim to another Salim.

    It was quite an interactive and lively session as the audience clamoured to add their comments and ask questions. Some of them found the book too explicit while the others wondered if sensuality was such an important aspect in the Mughal or Ottomon Empire. Nav replied, ‘ sensuality was an art when it was about Ottoman or the Mughal empire. They took pride in their procedures to turn a woman into a sensual one. There were perfumes, each of which was designed for a specific part of the body and was applied on the woman to ensnare the senses of the man. It was about all the senses, whether it was taste or smell or touch or vision. The lady was taught to dress in a certain way, smell in a certain way, walk and dance in a certain way. They even had musicians who would hide behind the curtains and play serenading music. The sultan would have a slave ready who would hand him the opium pill which would further enhance his experience with his concubine.’

    Amidst the laughter, discussions and even some disagreements, one thing was quite evident. The enigma of Anarkali had captured everyone’s hearts and minds. Many of the audience even said that this kind of book deserves a magnus opus which can bring out the beauty, pain and tragedy of being Anarkali.

    This article by Shailaza Singh appeared in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on 15 February 2024.

  • Investor Decoded

    He is immaculately dressed. He offers you a chair the moment you walk in. Anirudh Rathore exudes an old-world charm which is sadly missing these days. He is the author of ‘Investing Decoded’ which has been well received especially by those who don’t understand investing at all and he runs two very successful hotels too. So, what more could a man want, you would ask! Well, a lot more investing, he would say!

    He doesn’t have a degree in finance. He is not your typical bespectacled finance guy who spouts numbers at the drop of a hat. In fact, he and numbers didn’t see eye to eye a few years back but today people seek his advice on investing. When I met Anirudh Rathore at his hotel in Dera Rawatsar in Jaipur, I was expecting to meet some sort of finance whiz who would be talking on three different phones at the same time. But to my utter surprise, Anirudh Rathore turned out to be your friendly neighbourhood entrepreneur who owns two heritage hotels and is now a proud author of the best seller ‘Investing Decoded’.

    He has written a book on investing which has been well received by the public. So, was he a numbers person from the very beginning? No, not at all! I was never into numbers at all. I used to run away! My weakest subject was mathematics in school (Mayo College, Ajmer). As a matter of fact, since it was such a nemesis, I gave up mathematics after my X class. I was so happy to leave mathematics after X. In XI and XII standard I studied arts. I studied history, geography and English. After that I did my graduation in history honours from St. Stephens.

    So how did he get into investing? After I finished my graduation in 1993, I applied for a lot of jobs but got no calls. Now, that was the time when the Indian economy had just opened up and all the graduates were rushing to join the private sector. But there was obviously catch to it. If you wanted to join a good organization in a good position, you had to be an MBA. My classmates and me realized that we had to do more to get a good job. At one time, I was almost on the verge of joining the army. Both my army exam and the MBA entrance exam were on the same date. Although my parents wanted me to join the army, but that time, there was such a craze of joining the private sector that I sat for the MBA exam instead of joining the army.

    But wasn’t the MBA entrance test all about numbers again? True! It was. In fact, before appearing for the MBA entrance exam, I devoted a year for preparing for the exam and learnt math all over again. I got through the exam and joined MBA in the Rajasthan university. After MBA, I joined banking.

    From a history graduate to MBA to a banking professional. What made him go for banking? From my very childhood, I have a tendency to dive deeper and explore things I don’t understand. As a child when I used to watch these people in the bank, I was always curious to know what they did there sitting all day long! It seemed very impressive to me to see people working in Grindlays, Barclays and all such fancy banks. They spoke in a language which was understood by no one except them. So, I thought that was a very cool thing to do and be a part of. So, once I completed my MBA, I applied for a position and luckily, I got through and joined as a trainee assistant manager in IndusInd Bank and was posted in Chandigarh.  Initially everything was new to me. I enjoyed all the different aspects of my job for the next couple of years. However, after a while it became a routine and standard work and I wanted to learn more since banking and finance is such a big and diverse line. Just joining a bank doesn’t teach you anything about finance. Banks are massive, there are so many departments and when I was in IndusInd bank, I realized that it was only catering to retail banking. There was nothing about investment banking or things like that. So, I started looking out for new avenues. As luck would have it, I got to know about an opening in HDFC bank in the private banking segment. There was no other bank in Rajasthan that was dealing with private banking at the time. Although I knew nothing about investing, luckily, I applied and got the position. Suddenly a whole new world opened to me. A world which people were either quite clueless about or they found it very intimidating. That set the pace and tone for me. We were part of a very selective group of people who were doing something which was very unique. No other bank except HDFC used to do private banking in India and only we 20-25 people were doing it in India and I was the only person in Rajasthan doing it. There the quality of people I interacted were crème-de-la-crème.

    I remember once during my MBA class, I got up and asked my teacher about the Harshad Mehta scam which was in the news at that time. But the professor himself didn’t know much about the scam and said that he could not answer the question and that I should meet him after the class. Then I went out to all the bookstores of Jaipur which could help me to understand this scam. But to my great surprise, I could not find a single book on the topic in the entire city! After some years, I went to Delhi and got books like The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis that gave me an understanding of the subject. To put it in perspective, it was only when I got into this private banking sector, I completely understood the Harshad Mehta scam. I doubt if even today people in those MBA classes have a clear understanding of it.

    What made him write this book? A couple of years back, I noticed that though there seems to be a lot of information regarding banking, investing on the internet, there also is massive confusion and gaps in that knowledge. People who want to know about investing feel as if they need to climb a mountain to understand investing. Most books on this topic are either difficult to understand or they simply talk about the experiences of the author. They don’t explain the main things you need to know or the kind of psychology and mindset you need to succeed in this field.   I also feel that people who do talk about investing are just saying or doing things that have been said before or are hearsay or are in vogue. Even many investors are just blindly following news channels or influencers. Of course, some of them are right about a lot of things but there is a gap which made me think about writing a book which can simplify things. I myself am no professor in finance and neither do I work as an asset manager in a company or handle people’s money. Like most people, I am self-taught and I have learnt these concepts on my own and have learnt to apply them on my own. So, I thought that maybe I could relate to people by writing a book which they could understand. 

    What is investing from his point of view? According to me investing is a combination of  about 70 percent psychology and 30 percent analysis. For example, when there is a sale in a department store, all of us will rush to buy but when there is a sale in the stock market, people will cringe in fear because they feel that whatever they are going to buy will fall in price even more. We are programmed to operate in either fear or greed or ego. If you notice at any point in time, you will find that either you are exuberant about something or you are scared about something or you have a personal ego about something. These things if you cannot master, you cannot master the stock market. We have so many vices build inside us. Let’s say you have a sum of 1000 rupees that you can invest. You have even analysed the company. Now the hurdle that most people face is when to invest and how much to invest. They keep wondering whether they should spend these 1000 rupees ten days later or today or should they wait for the price to come down or they follow the television which tells them that the market is going to collapse or this is going to happen or there is war in Palestine or Ukraine. There is so much of interplay of information that is going on which confuses and scares the person and he is unable to take a decision. Instead of one thousand rupees, he ends up investing only 100 rupees. This is because there is so much of chatter in his mind because of these vices. He is not able to make a rational decision.

    Is there a way to mitigate this fear and banish this misconception amongst the common people? Yes, there is. I can give you small and easy example. Let’s say some one has five crore rupees to buy a flat in a place like Mumbai. In a real estate market, that five crore rupee flat will fluctuate between four crore seventy lakh and five crore thirty lakh. That is the price range of plus or minus five to ten percent that it fluctuates in and hence people are not afraid to invest in it. But in case of a stock, if you happen to invest five crores in a company, that stock may fluctuate between three crores and eight crores in the same year. It is volatile and that’s why it scares people because the fluctuation is uncontrollable and then it plays on the human emotions. But a good investor takes advantage of this volatility. He plays on the same emotions. He doesn’t get scared when the value is down. He knows that the true worth of this company is five crores but right now the stock is for three crores so he buys the stock and waits. He knows that the stock will again hit eight crores and that is the time he will make a huge profit on it. Here the bottom line is that a true investor knows the worth of that particular company since he is done his research. For me, if the stock market goes down tomorrow, I am not afraid. In fact, I will buy more stocks since I will get them at a cheaper rate rather than getting worried or upset or fearful. For people who are quite new to stocks can first get their feet wet with mutual funds and understand the market.

    What is the reaction of his family and friends to his new found love of investing? Anirudh laughs! There is this constant tussle for the remote between my wife, my children and me. I would always watch the finance news and they would get irritated since they wanted to watch their own channels. I had not told them about my book being published with Penguin Random House. But when I revealed this bit of news to them, it was then that they realized why I was hooked on to those channels! My classmates who had studied history with me were totally taken aback because they had all expected me to write a book on history!

    This article by Shailaza Singh appeared in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on January 8, 2024

  • The Ziddi Administrator

    …Hardworking, innovative, out of box thinker, so much admired, but never a favourite of any politician

    He had about 34 postings in 33 years of service. Some of the postings have lasted just about 4 months. Yet P N Bhandari, former IAS officer has never complained. In fact, he is almost arrogantly proud of what he has achieved in his three decades of government service, seeking justice rather than mere adherence of law.

    P N Bhandari, former IAS officer and Addnl. CS

    Once the CM Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, asked a senior officer who knew PN Bhandari from his childhood days and hailed from PN Bhandari’s home town Jodhpur ‘why is P N so ‘akdu’?’ The senior bureaucrat laughingly told him that as the legend goes, that all Oswals of Jodhpur were Rajputs who converted to Jainism. The last of this lot who joined this transformation were the Bhandaris of Jodhpur. Hence, they are more like Rajputs.


    It is worth mentioning here that Bhairon Singh was a great admirer of Bhandari as a bureaucrat. In fact, once in the assembly, when he was the leader of the opposition, he got up to defend Bhandari, who was commissioner, sales tax and was being attacked in the assembly by young Nathu Singh, a leader of Bhairon Singhs party for waiving off interest amount in an overdue payment worth crore. Bhairon Singh told his young MLA that PN Bhandari’s integrity and commitment is unquestionable, so there should never be an iota of doubt about his honesty. Later when they met at a social function (marriage), Shekhawat Saab told PN Bhandari that he defended him in the assembly ‘because if an officer like you is attacked, it will actually sully our credibility.’
    But where did Bhandari get this steely style of conviction and governance? How did he have such self-belief which over time developed into hardened, unchangeable, intense commitment?

    Aristocratic Taste
    After talking to his friends, it was evident that Bhandari was greatly influenced by two people in his life- his father, who was a government employee in the labour department and his maternal uncle, Justice Inderjeet Modi who later on became the chief justice of Rajasthan. Both were men of letters, very disciplined, very meticulously painstaking in their work. Both came from mainly Marwari speaking background, but both were known for their exclusive English as is evident from Bhandari’s father’s letters written to his son and Justice Modi’s judgements that he penned in the court.
    However, Justice Modi was known for his aristocratic taste, his love for expensive cars. He was also quite close to the Hanwant Singh, the erstwhile maharaja of Jodhpur. Bhandari’s father died early and the family sent Bhandari’s sister and him to live and study with his mama Modi. Bhandari inherited both the men’s dedication and fluency in English language, but he did not inherit the aristocratic sartorial taste and style of his maternal uncle. Till today, whether it is about his attire or tastes, Bhandari is a simple man almost austere in his mannerisms. The question is where did he get his ‘akdupan’? The general belief is that he developed his unique style on his own.
    This style also entails a single-minded devotion to work. His son Rajneesh recalls that while growing up, he hardly got any time to interact with PN Bhandari. Bhandari was working or dwelling in his work where ever he was posted. There was a library at home of about 5000 books but not Perry Mason type fiction but substantive and heavy reading ones. There was no television at home till Rajneesh passed his twelfth standard but every weekend his mother would pack up some lunch and the family would be out in the country side where Bhandari would meet people to talk to them alone or in groups. This was his style of getting feedback.
    The night before the family left for this (‘holiday’), Bhandari would give Rajneesh a book, a serious and fat one. All throughout the journey Bhandari would intensely and passionately discuss the contents of the book: analysing, debating, illustrating with examples and incidents.

    Strong Conviction
    Once as the car journey started, Bhandari realized the book was in the dickie of the car. He parked the car and opened the dickie to retrieve the book. The bonnet fell on his head as he was rampaging through the luggage for the book. The hook got embedded in his head. There was massive bleeding as Rajneesh recalls he was frightened out of his wits. Bhandari was rushed to the nearest hospital. The treatment took some time and stitches under anaesthesia and the doctor asked him to have complete rest in the day. But Bhandari ji was back on the wheels and resumed the discussion on the book as if nothing had happened and the intermission or the tea break was over.
    Rajneesh also remembers from his childhood, that at home there was such great intensity about work that there were no diversions like even going out to eat. Rajneesh says he studied in nine schools of all types: Hindi medium, English medium, government schools, private schools, all over Rajasthan, wherever his mother was posted in government college and Bhandari in the government in the same place.
    It was often discussed in government circles why Bhandari did not take a posting in Delhi where his innovativeness would have found a wider and more appreciative audience. Probably the answer is that he needed the money; because the salaries of wife and self were required to run the large family of five brothers and sisters and he happened to be the head of the family. Oh yes, there was one cheating. Wherever he was posted in rural, semirural or urban centre, there used to be almost once a week, late night movie on Saturday night in the hall because then and even now Bhandari and his wife are fond of movies but not at home or Netflix or television. Television even today is only meant for news as a part of Bhandari’s effort to know what is happening in the society.
    This single-minded concentration had helped Bhandari top the Rajasthan judiciary exam. The mama, the great jurist was surprised. He said, ‘you can become IAS officer. Study and take the exam.’ Bhandari protested, ‘You are the only one who prevented me from trying for IAS. And now when it is almost too late, you are asking me to do it. Only one chance remains for me to qualify.’
    But mama persisted and told him, ‘Take your cousin D.R (Mehta’s) notes. He had worked very hard and prepared extensive notes and has just got into IAS (the first one in the family).’ The rest is history. Bhandari became the second IAS officer in the family.
    Even today his nature of cutting the fuss and getting along with the work keeps him going. After retirement, he took up law, nothing greatly unusual but during COVID when his stenos found it hard to come to office or home for dictation, he learnt at the ripe age of 80 plus the use of the computer from his granddaughter who returned home after completing her course in innovation and engineering. Now he is so adept at it that he handles (types etc) long, lengthy complex files of his cases all by himself.
    As you get to know him better, you realize that the so-called arrogance is actually an unyielding, uncompromising style in work and general existence. But what really dawns through is his conviction. His views are so well shaped in his mind that they are almost etched in his psyche and personality. He feels that his conviction in his thoughts don’t need any correction. This strong conviction gives maybe him the strength to stick to his views and out of the box thinking no matter how unconventional or irritating his approach may appear to his seniors or colleagues.
    Out of the box as implied by definition is not simply about not treading on well-trodden paths mentally but almost shunning these conventional methods and trying to find new and solutions. For being so daring, one has to have a lot of self-belief.
    To be continued…

    This article by Shailaza Singh was published in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on 5 May 2023

  • THE KING OF ROMANTIC WRITING

    Durjoy Datta has ruled the world of romantic novels since 2008. All his books have been bestsellers in the teen world. This engineer turned writer is now also writing for movies and serials.


    Judging by the crowds of youngsters following him at the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival, if Shah Rukh Khan is the king of romance in movies, Durjoy Datta can be called the king of romance in novels. Since 2008, with his first book ‘Of course I Love You Till I Find Someone Better’ he has been ruling the hearts of millions of teenage readers, especially girls.
    An engineer by education, Durjoy tasted success at the age of 21 while in the final year of his college. Slowly as each of his books started topping the bestseller lists, he decided to turn into a full-time writer with a specialization in romance. On reading his books, one would expect the author to be the traditional chocolate faced hero, however Durjoy Datta is quite different from the common perceptions. He is soft-spoken guy who believes that romance is the only pond he’d like to circle.
    Some excerpts from the tete-e-tat:

    Shailaza Singh in conversation with Durjoy Datta . To watch visit https://youtu.be/h-DJ8jcLJ8Q

    From the time you published your first book in 2008 to today, how have you evolved as a writer?


    I think at that time, I was a teenager and had a different perspective on romance. After my first book was declared a best seller, writing became a means to earn money. But over the years, I have started enjoying writing and the kind of freedom I get with it. Hence, I would like to safeguard my career as a writer.


    Why do you only like writing romance? Why don’t you experiment with other genres like fantasy or mystery etc?


    To be honest, earlier romance used to be the main theme in my novel but now it has become incidental. I have also written mystery novels, but my books are still sold as romance novels since my strong point is romance. I know what the limit to my talent is. For me, it is the easiest to make the characters fall in love with each other. Even in television shows, you can do it for 6-7 seasons. In India, you cannot write fantasy unless it is backed by some mythology. I am just waiting that someone sets a precedent and I will hang on to it and write my own fantasy novel.


    From a college boy to a married man and now a father. How has your writing changed with the changes in your life?
    I think now I cannot write about teenage romances or young romances the way I used to. I am 37 years old. I can only write what I feel strongly about otherwise it will look artificial and put on. When I am writing a book, I look forward to constructing a good story. All of my earlier writing was touch and feel-I just wanted to know what the characters feel like. Now they are more in-depth. In my book, The Boy who Loved which was published in 2017, the story of the boy was set in 1999. So for the story, I had to travel back to 1999 and remember how I was in that time. My latest novel When I Am With You is about a single mother who is also an entrepreneur and is dealing with a new relationship as well.


    So, what kind of a person were you in 1999? How has the world changed from then to now?
    Frankly speaking in 1999, I was just 12 years old. At that age, I was really intimidated by women. In those days, even if you had a crush on someone, you couldn’t talk to them or express your feelings . But today, the society has shifted. Earlier it was all cloaks and daggers but now we can have open conversations about most things. Now people can express themselves. I remember in those days, there were two different worlds of girls and guys where each had their own groups. They had clandestine messages which if discovered by the elders could wreak havoc. Now the barriers have broken down even in the interiors to a large extent.


    As a person who specializes in romance, you must have read a lot of romantic books in your young years?
    Actually, not at all! In my childhood, most of my reading has been dictated by my parents. Book reading was compulsory at bed time and no romance was allowed. I used to read Enid Blyton, John Grisham, Stephen King. After a while, ,my parents tried to introduce me to Salman Rushdie’s work. Initially I didn’t understand what he was talking about but then after a while I could relate to the books. In fact, I did not even know romance as a genre. Most of my introduction to romance has been while writing for television where you can create two extremely likeable characters and then make them fall in love and continue for the next 1200 episodes.
    People say with the social media and Kindle, paper books are not going to be around for long. What are your thoughts?
    I remember hearing about it in 2008. People used to say that with the introduction of tablets and smart phones, books won’t last for long but now it is 2023 and books are still here!
    Are you on social media? Has social media taken over books?
    Earlier I was on social media and when I used to get into my Instagram account, I used to spend hours swiping. I used to think that if I am doing this, my readers would also be doing this. But lately I have started noticing that many people have dumped Instagram and have started reading books. I really got hooked on to the social media when I became a parent. Parenthood is extremely boring- at least for the first few years. So, Instagram helps you to reconnect with your child in a different way. For example, when I see my daughter doing something cute, I record it and post it. When people find it cute and like it, I go back and look at that 15 second clip to see what is cute in it. This way I use my followers as a dopamine fix. But then this used to take over my life because I used to then think about what should be the next video to maintain the same likes. So, I pulled back. Now I am on social media just to sell my books.
    What is the difference between writing for television and writing novels?
    The difference between writing for television and a novel is a lot. Writing a book is a solitary exercise. There isn’t much money unless your book becomes a best seller. But in case of television, the money is huge and the feedback of the writing is almost instantaneous. For example, if I publish a book today, the feedback will come after six months but in case of an episode, the feedback comes the very next day through the TRPS. That allows the writer to change his ploy if the TRPs aren’t good or the audience isn’t enjoying the story.


    So, how much does TRP impact writing for television?
    Actually TRP ratings are the life blood of television. The fact is that on television, a show cannot survive if it does not have high drama. Trends also dictate the show. For example, five years ago, there was this huge trend of getting animals on the show, so everyone followed that. Every show that you see on television starts with a very noble thought. They have a social issue they want to tackle through a story. But eventually every one has put on so much of money, that they try to get as much traction as possible.
    I remember Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi was perhaps one of the only shows in the history of television that went for so long because everyone involved in that show believed in that show. The interesting thing is that though it did not have the usual saas bahu drama or those stories of reincarnation etc and it was a very progressive show, it still did not get good TRPs. Despite that the producers, the writers and the creators kept giving the show time so that people could see its value. And people saw its value. It is one of the highest watched shows on YouTube. A lot of people go back and watch the show. But it did not get the traditional TRPs.
    Do you think this kind of TRP governed shows are impacting our society?
    Of course, there are conversations about this everywhere. For example, on social media a lot of people talk about toxic boyfriends but toxic husbands have been a theme on television for like years. Now its like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You don’t want to show such a thing but when you show it, your show works and attracts TRPs. That really impacts me since I am so emotionally invested as a writer. Here book writing is way better because by the time the book comes out and actually makes an impact in a year or two, you are a very different person. Also, once the book is read and the reaction comes, I cannot change the book as per the feedback by the readers.
    Do you doubt yourself at times?
    There are times when I am afflicted with crippling self-doubt because honestly I had not expected that my first book would be published and would become a best seller. You see the difference between the kind of books I read and write is huge. I got published at 21 when I was reading books that were leagues and leagues ahead of my book. Then when people say that they have read and liked my books, I start wondering if they have read the really ‘good’ books.
    Had you not tasted success in such a young age, would you have continued writing?
    I have would have continued writing in some form or the other. Before I started writing books, I had a very successful blog. Lot of my blogger friends advised me to write. Had the book not worked, I would have continued writing and would have found another way of leveraging my writing.

    This article by Shailaza Singh appeared in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on February 21st, 2023. You can also check out the video of the interview on https://youtu.be/h-DJ8jcLJ8Q

  • A Doctor With His Eyes Wide Open

    It is often said that when a student is ready, the teacher appears and when he is truly ready, the teacher disappears. Dr. Pavan Shorey’s life has been a roller coaster of a myriad of emotions which he has learned to deal with. He believes meeting his guru helped him to gain a new lease of life.

    Dr. Pavan Shorey

    The well-known author Louise Hay says that the professions that we choose are more than our bread and butter. They also represent and help us to find our purpose in our lives. Dr. Pavan Shorey, who is actually a poet and a writer at heart, chose to become an ophthalmologist, a doctor of the eyes. He has helped millions to see the world but little did he know that finding a guru would also help him to see the world with new eyes.

    ‘In our initial meetings, my guru told me that though the tragedy has happened but life has to go on. He told me to wait for time to heal me and in the meanwhile do my karma of looking after my parents and my son. He wasn’t one of those saffron clad gurus with ashrams. In fact, he was a householder. He never asked his followers for any money or any materialistic thing. In fact that is one mark of a true guru. He will never ask you for any money or anything materialistic. Every evening we would meet in his house in Jaipur. There were 10-15 of us who were regular attendees. He had a lot of followers in different countries too. We would start our sessions with a meditation. After that, there were discourses which were mostly about the questions that his disciples asked. In the end of the session, we would recite the Hanuman Chalisa.’

    The Valley of Flowers

    So, what made him write ‘Conversations on a Park Bench’ and ‘The Mountain Deer’?

    ‘I was associated with my guru for about ten to fifteen years. He had helped me to overcome my grief and see the world in a different way. Though he passed away in 2018, even when he was around, I always wondered why can’t there be a book with his teachings in it? When I sat down to write ‘Conversations on a Park Bench’, in 2012, I had initially thought of writing about a lady who is groped by her boss and experiences vishadh and wonders about the purpose of her entire existence. But then, I thought of taking my story and fictionalizing it.’

    How long did it take for him to write the two books? ‘I finished ‘Conversations on a Park Bench’ within a year. My friend Nihal was incredulous when I told him that I had written the book in a year. According to him, a book takes years of research and writing. However, I took four years to write my second book ‘The Mountain Deer’.

    But why didn’t he think of writing an autobiography? ‘I don’t believe that I am that important. I had read somewhere that the great author Khushwant Singh had once told Amrita Pritam that the story of her life was so inconsequential and tiny that it could be written on the back of a revenue stamp. I too am of the same opinion. Moreover, I believe when you write fiction, you have the liberty to create conflict to keep the narrative flowing. A personal story is quite boring because you just keep listing your achievements and failures.’

    So, are there some instances in the book where fiction meets real life? ‘Yes, in fact many. But there is one incident that I can never forget. In my book ‘Conversations on a Park Bench’, there is a chapter titled ‘Who Am I’ where the protagonist Vivek is going to a meeting with his colleague Prashant. He waits for him in the parking lot of the building where he sees the watchman sitting with his wife. Their small daughter (who is toddler) is playing nearby. Prashant comes down and they get into the car. Just then, Prashant’s phone rings and he starts reversing the car while talking on the phone. As he backs the car, they hear a thump sound. They get out of the car to find that the watchman’s small daughter has been crushed under the car. Vivek is shaken by the incident but he sees that his friend is so materialistic that he has no qualms about what he has done. He strikes a deal with the watchman and the doctor who was in charge of the case and wriggles out of the situation by paying both of them some money. When the watchman protests, he tells him that the child was a girl and had she lived he would have had to pay a lot of money for dowry and her marriage. So, this amount is good enough for him. Later he boosts to Vivek about how he used his ‘marketing skills’ to get out of the situation. Vivek feels revulsed and it is then that he questions himself about his life and who he really is. This chapter was based on a real incident. There was a man who brought the body of a small child to the hospital and I could see that the poor mother of the child sitting and crying helplessly. My friend got out of the situation by giving her a mere 30,000 rupees. Tears came into my eyes when I saw the plight of this couple and I was revulsed and repulsed by the whole thing. How can someone be so callous and cruel?’

    ‘There is another incident in the book that has been inspired from real life. In the book, after his wife Radhika’s death, Vivek’s father-in-law asks him to return the flat which was a wedding gift to the couple. Vivek feels bad but his guru advises him to become detached with such materialistic things and return the flat. This again happened with a friend of mine. When his wife died leaving behind his infant son, his in-laws took away the baby on the pretext that he will not be able to take care of the baby. They held the baby to ransom and demanded his wife’s provident fund money, jewellery, car etc. My friend was distraught and asked Guruji for advice. Guruji promptly asked him to return everything and get his son back.’

    In both his books, death has been the turning point in the story. Being a doctor, how does death affect him?
    ‘As a result of years of medical training, doctors develop a clinical detachment from death. Though in my speciality deaths are quite unheard of, yet I too have developed a detachment from death. This is not taught; it is just something that is passed on from seniors to juniors. But then, years of studying spirituality have also taught me that even when the body dies, there is something that remains alive. I remember an incident that I have also mentioned in my book where I had gone to meet a friend’s wife in the hospital. She had 80 percent burns as a result of a gas cylinder that had burst in her home. In such a scenario there are almost nil chances of survival and the doctors cannot do anything except give palliative pain killers to the patient. When I entered the room, she was lying in covered frame. She asked me who I was and when I said it was me, Pavan, she recognised me. It was then I realized that though the body had almost gone, there was something in her that was still recognizing and responding to me. She passed away after a couple of days.’

    From a bystander’s point of view, Dr. Shorey’s life has been quite a journey. So, doesn’t he feel lonely? ‘No, I don’t. I have my practice where I see my patients. My son who is 37 years old is married and we keep meeting every now and then. I spend a lot of time with my friend Nihal and his family. Apart from this, I regularly go on treks to the mountains. I have trekked to the Valley of Flowers, the Great Lakes of Kashmir and many other such places. When I am at home, I like to spend time gardening. I love to see my flowers grow and bloom. I like reading and listening to the works of Meena Kumari, Sahir Ludhianvi, Neeraj and many other famous poets. I love the bhajans of Mira Bai. But my all-time inspiration remains Robert Frost. I also keep writing new stories and poems. In fact, I have recently written a new poem that talks about my life at 60 something.’

    I am still a young 60 something

    I used to walk a kilometre in 10 minutes,
    Now I do it in fifteen.
    I get a little breathless, a little tired,
    But I am still fit like a teen.
    I am still a young 60 something.

    I get a muscle pull in my bums,
    Or a sharp pain in the back.
    Docs say it is aging,
    I say I am fit to lift a wheat sack.
    I am still a young 60 something.

    I get up from the bed,
    The whole world reels around me.
    My friends say cervical spondylosis,
    But I can easily bend over backwards for all to see.
    I am still a young 60 something.

    I get up twice at night to pee.
    My friends say it is prostate,
    I have too many fluids at night,
    Guys, you have this negative trait.
    I am still a young 60 something.

    I see a beautiful woman,
    My heart skips a beat.
    Where the mind goes, the body doesn’t follow,
    All fantasies take a retreat.
    I am an old 60 something.

    Please join us on the 15th of January, 4 p.m. for an exclusive interaction with Dr. Pavan Shorey where he will be talking about his books, trekking, life and much more at Sudharma, Chameliwala Market, Opposite GPO, MI Road, Jaipur.

    This article by Shailaza Singh appeared in Rashtradoot Newspaper’s Arbit Section on 15 January 2023.

  • The Unseen Jaipur through the Lens

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    The Unseen Jaipur through the Lens

    One lazy Sunday morning, about ten people found themselves walking through the streets of the walled city of Jaipur. It was an eclectic mix of some teenagers, professionals in age groups ranging from 30s to 50s. Some held very serious looking cameras while the others were clicking pictures with their mobile phones. It was the second and the final day of the visual story telling workshop which was being conducted by Tabeenah Anjum Qureshi, a seasoned journalist and photographer with Outlook India. Though the older people tried to play it cool, they couldn’t help getting infected by the raw enthusiasm of the teenagers who kept clicking with their phones and cameras. The resulting photographs revealed unseen but beautiful facets of Jaipur, those which could only be discovered by an untrained eye.