Sukriti Tankha
It is the unusual name that drew me towards the book – The Good Indian Guide to Surviving A Lala Company. But another reason is a couple of older relatives have worked in different such companies and I often heard them sharing anecdotes of their offices – some hilarious, but some downright bugging. Sometimes I really wondered if those were true incidents or made-up ones. So when I got a chance to read this Lala Company, I more than welcomed it. Having read it, I really can empathise with those, my uncles!
The book is a straight-forward account of the happenings in a Lala Company i.e a business run by a family in our country. Not just this, author Rajiv Gupta also tells his readers the ways and means to cope when you are employed in such a company.
Divided into chapters based on the important stakeholders of a family-run business in India, it clearly details the power each one holds – the lalaji, the munimji, the chamcha, the professionals, the heirs etc. The book also reminds me of old Hindi movies, which were often woven around these characters.
Lala Company is a hilarious take on family businesses – the funny cartoons that come along make it all the more interesting. It makes you smile and laugh but it also makes you wonder how people in authority can be so mean as to not think twice before spoiling someone’s career. Why don’t they ever think that their action will surely have a reaction in future, may be not in near future but surely and definitely sometime on a future date. Karma, you see!
Honestly, some situations did look to me as not factual – perhaps the author exaggerated, to have the necessary drama – artistic liberty. Pardonable. But, one has to give credit to the author for presenting toxic situations in humourous manner. Now, this is an art that the author seems to be adept at. What I like is the ‘wisdom nuggets’ that follow each situation, which take into account the situation is wholesome manner.
The book is a must-read for all working people, whether or not working at a Lala Company. For, such situations in work-life can occur in other companies as well, even MNCs! One never know. I am sure the behaviours talked about in the book are not peculiar to Lala Company, for they are human behaviours and humans are essentially same everywhere. So, your boss at a corporate office you are working may be a combination of Bauji and Munimji – for he weaves the authority and also decides your incentives. The chamchas, we all know, are omnipresent; heirs you can take to be most-favoured employee in your corporate office.
In fact, even those who want to turn into entrepreneurs can take a lesson or two on what kind of people to keep in their coterie.
So you see, while this book is written as a guide on how to survive in a Lala Company, in actual sense it guides you on how you survive in your work place, whatever or wherever it is. Like I said, people are same everywhere, and so are their behaviour patterns.
