Books

Breezy life skills manual

How to Talk to Anyone — 92 Little Tricks by Leil Lowndes; Tata McGraw-Hill; Price: Rs.195; 341 pp

The new society fashioned by post-independence India’s know-all socialist central planners and Left intellectuals — like the country’s Olympiad athletes — is a distant also-ran in the global race for national development. Although the page 3 set may be unaware, in terms of positive attributes such as per capita income, adult literacy, housing stock, access to healthcare, drinking water, sanitation, average teacher-pupil ratio, police and judicial efficiency, shining India lags way down the list of contemporary great societies.

However in terms of negative characteristics such as income inequality, administrative corruption, judicial backlog and sheer bad manners of its fast-expanding middle class, the sovereign, socialist, secular and sanctimonious Republic of India is a global front-runner, if not way ahead of the field. Following the somewhat successful economic liberalisation and deregulation initiative of July 1991 which has firmly placed professedly socialist India on the capitalist road, the tide of outward bound tourists from the country has swollen to double the inward flow of foreign visitors into India. And within the travel trade it’s well-known that hoteliers and restaurateurs abroad blanch in terror at the prospect of hosting packs of invariably ill-mannered package tourists from the subcontinent who leave chaos and devastation in their wake.

Although the nation’s parliamentarians seem blissfully unaware, manners — or the lack thereof in contemporary Indian society — has emerged as a staple subject of conversation in middle class India, in which there is much finger pointing and fault finding. Somewhat belatedly the media has also become aware of this great national failing. Recently with characteristic simplification, the best-selling Reader’s Digest identified citizens of Mumbai — India’s commercial capital — as the rudest people on planet earth. Even more recently (October 5) the Berlin-based voluntary organisation Transparency International, which measures the prevalence of administrative and business corruption in countries around the world, rated India as the world’s # 1 for the ‘export’ of corruption. And at bottom, corruption is no more than bad business manners.

That’s why within a small cerebral minority in Indian industry and academia, the subject of improving manners of the populace is assuming incremental importance. HRD (human resource development) managers within more intelligent corporates are allocating steadily incremental time to inculcating basic good manners and life skills in managers and employees. Moreover within a society in which customers are still regarded a nuisance, self-styled life skills trainers are sprouting by the dozen. That’s also why the 1936 American bestseller, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (sales: 115 million copies and counting) was reviewed recently (EW April ’06) on this very page.

However according to US-based Leil Lowndes, described as "an internationally acclaimed communications expert who coaches top executives of Fortune 500 companies" and author of several life skills bestsellers including How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You and How to be a People Magnet, Carnegie was "great for the twentieth century, but this is the twenty-first". Moreover while he advised people what to do, he didn’t tell how to do it. "The world is a very different place than it was in 1936, and we need a new formula for success. To find it, I observed the superstars of today. I explored the techniques used by top salespeople to close the sale, speakers to convince, sex symbols to seduce and athletes to win. I found concrete blocks to the elusive qualities that led to their success," writes Lowndes in the introduction to How to Talk to Anyone — 92 Little Tricks, first published in 2003, and now in its ninth 2006 reprint.

The outcome of her research and application thereof is a marvellously perceptive and instructive manual which is an invaluable guide for every businessman, professional and lay person intent on clambering atop the success bandwagon and truly serious about winning friends and influencing people. Of course 92 Little Tricks is essentially written for aspirational Americans for whom winning friends and customers is very serious business. That’s why even though people around the world love to hate US governments, most of them find it impossible not to be charmed by American businessmen, even tourists. Only the thoroughly prejudiced would deny that although a greedy people of unlimited wants, Americans in general tend to exhibit a winning collective charm. That’s why their movies, television and consumer brands are popular worldwide.

This compelling page turner is divided into nine evocatively titled parts or chapters (‘How to intrigue everyone without saying a word’; ‘How to know what to say after you say "hi"’; ‘How to talk like a VIP’; ‘How to differentiate the power of praise from the folly of flattery’; ‘How to direct dial their hearts’ etc). Within each generic chapter the author details six-ten tried and tested winning ‘techniques’ adding up to the 92 ‘tricks’ which if properly practised will have business moguls ("big hitters") and everyone else, eating out of your hand.

Constraints of space don’t permit listing even the major life skills techniques detailed in this breezily written handbook. Suffice it to say that the ambitious and upwardly mobile will find most of them — except the ones which are culture specific to western societies — very useful. Particularly recommended to the multiplying tribe of Indian socialites are certain proprieties which stress the importance of proper introductions, and advising guests to learn to introduce themselves to break the ice at dinners and soirees where hosts (erroneously) believe that lavishing free food and drink is the sum total of their duties.

In sum, this is a cheerfully written life skills manual which is recommended reading for every socially sensitive individual. Especially in contemporary India whose loutish, shoving and pushing middle class is losing friends and putting off millions of people in the rapidly emerging global marketplace.

Epic biker’s odyssey

Into the Den of the Bear and the Lair of the Dragon on a Motorcycle by Werner Bausenhart; Legas, Canada; Price: Rs.900; 203 pp

Post-liberalisation India’s romance with automotive two-wheelers shows no sign of tapering off. Annual countrywide sales of motor bikes have risen from 430,000 in 1991-92 to 7 million in 2005-06 (79.19 percent of all automobile transportation sales). A hot new generation bursting with machismo, is clambering atop zippy bikes (scooters are passé) and revving up on the country’s new multi-laned highways towards cross-country destinations, ranging from the freezing heights of the Himalayas to the golden beaches of the Indian Ocean.

Although cross-country biking is new to India, men and mobikes taking off to far-flung destinations is old hat for intrepids and free-spirits in less hospitable climates. One such adventurer is Dr. Werner Bausenhart, a former professor of German language and literature at the University of Ottawa, who during the past decade has biked across the Americas and travelled down the west coast of Africa.

"Motorcycle adventure travel is mainly a man-thing, although lately a few women seem to have been bitten by the bug as well. It is a disease without a cure. The symptoms are well known, but not well understood, particularly by the female half of the population. We, the sufferers, need space; no, more than that: we need the vista of wide open spaces. We need adventure as a fish needs water. We need a bit of danger in our lives to add zest to an otherwise prosaic existence," writes Bausenhart, the author of this ambitious excursion across two of the largest countries in the world — Russia (the eponymous den of the bear) and China (the dragon’s lair).

Refreshingly Bausenhart’s thrilling adventure narrated in this book began after his retirement from Ottawa University which he served faithfully for 27 years — proof there’s a lot of life after retirement.

The Russian leg of the 31,686 km journey on a BMW R 100 GS PD began in London and ended in Vladivostok via Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, and Khabarocsky, and return was via Beijing, Kashgar, Islamabad, Tehran, Ankara, and Istanbul — an eight month long odyssey.

Liberally peppered with route maps, monochrome photographs and illustrations, this book is an easy and entertaining read. Conversations with a multitude of locals, fellow travellers on the road and policemen and inevitable haggling with border officials provide useful information on local cultures and practices of each country. "Although the highway to Minsk was excellent, I did not make much time, since at every little town I was stopped by their traffic police, only to admire my motorcycle and to make conversation. This I loved. This was the very purpose of my journey, to meet the locals. In Minsk I was chased by a city cop on a motorcycle for no apparent reason. He pulled me over at a traffic light, and with a smile pointed out at his motorcycle: it was a BMW, the same type and year as mine, but in police livery. The two of us went through an instant ritual of male bonding, a ritual that was to be repeated again and again throughout the trip. After all boys will be boys, no matter what nationality and where they may meet," writes the author.

Like Bausenhart’s earlier books 8 Around the Americas on a Motorcycle and Africa Against the Clock on a Motorcycle, this comprehensive travel diary would particularly interest the multiplying tribe of new-age Indian bikers — most of whom entertain ideas of hitting the highways full throttle. A series of vignettes and a tour d’ horizon of societies and cultures en route, mark the meandering jaunt.

Indeed as one struggles through lengthy paragraphs, it’s arguable that the unique selling proposition of this travelogue is the valuable advice it contains on required documentation, bike maintenance, road and riding conditions and how they affect the motorcyclist, sea crossings by air/ sea freight and basic security precautions. A concluding appendix of hard data provides details of exact distances between towns, camping sites and most importantly, includes the author’s rating of hotels in which he lodged.

On the down side the book could have done with professional editing, production, and colour — instead of black and white — photographs. Nevertheless for the growing tribe of subcontinental bikers, Bausenhart’s recitation of an epic odyssey is certain to prove inspirational. It demonstrates that anyone with the ability to win friends and influence people can do likewise. All it takes is a bike, a bit of money, and lots of time.

Srinidhi Raghavendra