Bookwatch
BY ANITA JOSHUA
INDIA: "Past-forward"
Tomorrow's India: Another Tryst With Destiny, edited by B. G. Verghese, Viking, Rs. 595.
HOW well has India kept its "tryst with destiny"? This is the question that prominent Stephanians try to answer in Tomorrow's India: Another Tryst With Destiny, that has been put together by B.G. Verghese to mark the 125th anniversary of St. Stephen's College.
Among the 24 Stephanians who have contributed to this commemorative collection are some "Who's Who" of India: Former External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh, Union Ministers Kapil Sibal and Mani Shankar Aiyar, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
While there is a degree of pride in what India has achieved since Independence, all acknowledge that more could have been done. The Government's voice is echoed in the writings of the two Union Ministers and Mr. Natwar Singh — who wrote his piece "New Dimensions of Foreign Policy" when still in office — while civil society gets a say through Bunker Roy and Harsh Mander.
But this book is not just about governance, politics and civil society, which often present a bleak picture. There is also a celebration of Indian English writing by publisher Ravi Dayal and Bollywood by Mukul Kesavan. Even sports — where India, barring the odd exception, has not performed too well in the world arena — finds a place here through Ranjit Bhatia, who represented the country at the Rome Olympics.
Phrase that pays
Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall-of-Fame Career in Advertising, Phil Dusenberry, Portfolio Books, Rs. 425.
THE phrase that pays and, more importantly, sticks in the mind of the consumer: That's the quintessential ad line. And, the winner is the one that becomes part of every day lexicon, which made fridge and Xerox — essentially brand names — the generic terms of the industry they represent.
Phil Dusenberry — the man behind long-running advertising slogans like GE's "We Bring Good Things To Life" and HBO's "It's Not TV, It's HBO" — chronicles his 40 long years in the industry that has now put him in the Advertising Hall of Fame in Then We Set His Hair on Fire.
Written in a style that makes the slog hours look good, Dusenberry's memoir takes the reader into the backrooms of the industry where catchy phrases are dished out a dime a dozen in a bid to find the clincher. That, according to the ad-legend — who has to his credit accounts like GE, HBO, Pepsi, Gillette and FedEx and was responsible for U.S. President Ronald Regan's re-election campaign in 1984 — is the insight.
In fact, his book is a toast to the insight. "One big insight is worth a thousand good ideas. An idea can lead to one clever commercial. But a true insight can define a brand for years to come and turn an entire industry upside down'. As a case in point, he cites the GE theme line "We bring good things to life" which endured for 24 years from 1979 to 2003 during which time the company moved from its core area of manufacturing electrical equipment to the financial marketplace (GE Capital) and broadcasting (NBC)!
From hunter to protector
Jim Corbett: The Hunter-Conservationist, Reeta Dutta Gupta, Rupa, Rs. 195.
IRONICAL but true. India's first national park is named after a gora sahib — Jim Corbett. Initially called Hailey National Park, the park was stripped of its colonial identity and given an Indian name, Ramganga, in 1955 before the Government two years later decided to name it after the "gora sadhu" of Kumaon despite a debate about his links with the Kenya-based Safariland hunting company.
But then, turnaround was Corbett's middle-name. Beginning as a hunter, he signed off as protector of the hunted. Naturalist Ramesh Bedi writes about him: "At the tender age of about ten, he found himself addicted to shikar (hunting): he had shot his first leopard, and would just pick up his gun and train it on any wild beast he encountered in the jungle."
But, by the mid-1930s, Corbett gave up hunting as a sport with the killing of the Bachelor of Powalgarh — a prized target of many hunters. Thereafter, he became an ardent conservationist and hunted only man-eaters; that, too, on the pleas of harassed villagers.
These and several other nuggets of information about Corbett's life are available in Reeta Dutta Gupta's book that forms part of Rupa's Chitravali series — a set of biographies dedicated to the legendary figures of India.
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