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Mr. Ketan Bhagat is a debut novelist and
occupationally the regional sales manager for Oracle,Mumbai.
Mr. Bhagat is 35 years old, born and brought up inDelhi and a
typical Punjabi. He is settled in Mumbai.
He has travelled to different places like Malaysia,
Australia and New Zealand for work, before finallymoving back to
India. His book
Complete/Convenient has been drawn from his own
experiences. His brother is Chetan Bhagat, Indias
bestselling author.
NRI life isnt like a Karan Joharmovie. There are a lot of
adjustments and sacrifices that one
makes says Mr. Ketan Bhagat in an unusual candid session in
CII.
Complete/Convenient is about a young IT professional, who is
doing what he loves, gets
married to the love of his life and gets a transfer to Sydney.
There he realizes that while everyone
back home sees NRI life as glamorous, it actually involves a lot
of sacrifices. The story isfiction but the incidents in the book
are based on my experiences or those of people I know,
explained Mr. Bhagat, This book is easy for people to relate to
because not many people write
about what happens after the happily ever after.
In his session at CII he also talked about A Journey of
Excellence & Integrity. Mr. Bhagat
said India today has come to a pivotal point; the journey
forward has to be taken care of, as weshall bear the fruits of what
we sow now.
A few trends that have taken over Indian mindset lately and its
over growing of these trendsthat is drifting people away from
integrity and excellence said Mr. Bhagat.
Trend #1: Marketing is everything!
You are running your own show but sadly everyone has become a
salesman. We are living in anage of commercialism and marketing.
Each one of us has become salesman. We are constantly
selling and not innovating said Mr. Bhagat. The focus has
shifted to numbers, everything is just
a number.
The trick is simple invest in product rather than just selling;
everything that sells is not truth.Extraordinary effort on selling
often lessens quality and product innovation loses focus.
The mantra is: not to make excellent sales of sub-standard
products but to make excellent
products and watch sales happen.
He quoted great authors, painters whose work has given them fame
recognition because theymade something that was unmatchable. You
dont see apple salesman coming to your door
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selling I phone, they have created a niche with their product
and they making sales, same is for a
BMW.
# Trend 2: Only success matters? What about values?
In a recent survey conducted among college goers, on what they
wanted to do/become? Almost
everyone had only one ambition, to be successful.
Their definition of success circled around three adjectives
money, fame and glamour. Youoften hear people say, I want to be
famous, by hook or crook.
Bollywood movies now project Cons and Dons, as hero. This is
someway preaching that its
okay to cheat the only thing that matters is you have earn money
to have the luxuries of life;nothing else matters.
What happened to the theory of values? Is money the only thing?
Is that how we want our world
to be? Are we swayed by pride? We need to go back to our roots.
As there is no short cut tosuccess, but only hard work said Mr.
Bhagat.
# Trend 3: Frustration with ones self, relationships,
circumstances and country.
Whether its the social media outburst or us being swayed by
Americans, theres a wannab-ism
seeping into Indians. Everyone wants to look glamorous and just
perfect. Though theres nothing
wrong in keeping fit and giving attention to health but when one
gets obsessive about it, its nothealthy.
The divorce rates in India are on a peak. Our relationships are
becoming hollow. Its an alarm
that needs to be addressed before its too late. We are all
disappointed by the way governmentworks, everyday you are cribbing
about this or that having gone wrong. And going out of the
country seems the only possible solution (frustrated with the
country).
The truth is bitter, one may or may not want to believe it but
its true we have shifted our focus
to results.
Result oriented is not a wrong approach, but this often leads to
drifting away from product
innovation. After all the content matters the most, its not just
the cover photo.
Bhagavad Gita preached focus only on efforts (karma) while not
to bother about results. Perhaps
its time to go back to our roots! Perhaps its time to shift
gears; focus on
It truly is about the journey, and the second we stop pining for
the future and learn to appreciatethe process that we truly begin
to live.
