Book Review

This book review was contributed by Archana J. Sharda. Archana heads the Delhi operations of Blue Lotus.

Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch

It all started when two girls from the placement cell of IIPM came over to my office to present their case. Afterwards, when they were leaving, they presented me with a book. It was titled "Count your chickens before they hatch", authored by Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri. Now it’s a typically Indian trait to try out anything that’s for free and I am no different. So at the very first opportunity, I began reading the book.

The first page talks about media appreciation for Arindam’s ideas, workshops and seminars. I felt this ought to have come in the last page. In fact, the content on the first few pages almost comes across as boastful.

After six pages of this came the making of CYCBTH, including a paragraph on the making of the cover page. It reminded me of that episode on the making of ’Kabhie Alvida na Kehna’. No guys, I am not going off on a tangent. But it was so much like Karan Johar trying to sell his film before its release by parading his star cast - from Rani to Shahrukh, from Abhishek to Zinta, to Amitabh ’Sexy Sam’ Bachchan in an infantile role – and projecting the exotic foreign locations where his film was shot. Inspite of it all, we all know how the movie fared at the box office.

Finally, the actual book takes off... usual management spiel like, "If you think you can, you are right. Just be passionate about what you think". Now you can’t really be all skeptical about a book. There must be something worthwhile in it. Why else would it be in print otherwise? I’ll admit that there are a few topics in the book - the ‘ASK’ principle, for instance – that are worth a read. Only I had already encountered it before during my MBA classes at IMT, and so it wasn’t anything new or refreshing. Instances from the lives of successful people like Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford and J.F. Kennedy, intended to inspire the readers, are overshadowed by lengthy accounts of the author’s personal experiences. I found myself yawning at this point. All this self-indulgence and self-propagation was really stifling whatever little interest I had been able to generate. In my mind, I was beginning to question the very purpose of the book.

I wanted to go on and read about theory I – management, which I’ve been made to believe are based on learnings from the Bhagwad Gita. But I was so strongly biased against Mr. Chaudhuri by then that I had to keep the book aside, half-read. This, therefore, will have to remain an incomplete review.

Honestly, the content isn’t all that bad for a motivational spiel. In fact, it may come in handy for team leaders at Blue Lotus. Young greenhorns may also benefit from it. But what didn’t go down well with me was the author’s tendency to keep the spotlight focused on himself. Though there are some decent ideas and examples, he hasn’t been able to lend it a proper structure and flow. Really, if this book hadn’t appeared in print, I hardly think it would have made a difference.