Zubin Driver, national creative director, The cell, TV 18 Group, is putting together a book of short stories. He tells Nidhi Jain that the book is extremely close to his heart.

What made you write this book?
I am a writer, and have written a number of plays while I was a part of NCPA and Prithvi theatre group .I always wanted to have a short way of looking and going through a book.

Book and Character
The book is a compilation of short characters. It's all about what happens in peoples' minds, their thought processes and dreams. There are characters, no-characters, dream characters and also post modern kind of characters. In total, it's a compilation of 35 short stories, 2-3 of them are shorter than a page.

It highlights the darker side. They are not at all happy stories since I have grown up observing suffering around me like watching people going through graphs, chronicling relationships. I have personally gone through a cultural transition .Middle class life is tough when it comes to making ends meet. And I've also seen lots of fractured relationships.

Crux of the book
It's an examination of physical and mental struggle.

Cover page
I have decided that it's going to be a painting because I love them. They are evokable, since we have to make an effort to interpret them and finally we get engaged in them.

Book that captured attention
The plague.

Subhajyoti Ray, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, has already penned two books and is getting ready for a third. And no, it's not the virtual world that his pen traverses but the historical one. 'Historian Subho' takes Nidhi Jain on a journey back through time.

What made you write this book?
My first book was Transformation of Bengal Frontier. Spanning a period between 1750 and 1940, this book analysis the socioeconomic changes brought about by colonial rule in a frontier area of Bengal, Jalpaiguri.

It started as a chore as it was my PhD topic and the project grew on me and I became so fond of it that at the end of the day I thought I had written a second PhD. I didn't want it to confine it to a library shelf as a PhD thesis. I went out of my way to get it published. When one is working on a PhD it's like a baby and the final delivery is when the book comes out.

The second book was more interesting, it was co-authored with Sharmila, my colleague at CII, and is called India Building Partnership for CII. The institution was founded in 1985.

Book and Character
I am a historian, interested more in things of the past than present. I wanted to write a corporate history with a different feel of the process and perspective at CII.

Crux of the book
First, it questions certain beliefs, prejudices regarding the agrarian labour industry in the country. It looks at the national movement, management control of labour, agrarian relations.

What's next on your agenda?
Translating a book, an autobiography by a Bengali author. It's a fascinating account of 50-60 years of his life. How he left his home in Uttar Pradesh, lived in Calcutta, then Mumbai, before the First World War.

It will give you more insights into Mumbai than many other books written on the city.

My father was very well read. He was a self made man, a real karma yogi who used to seek inspiration from books. As a child, I remember being inspired by him to read all kinds of books. l used to mostly stick to spiritual books. And being afflicted with polio on my right leg I couldn't get much into sports and so grew to be an indoor person. So, naturally I progressed towards reading and read Dan Brown, Robert Hudlum and Arthur Halley.
Then, since I was spiritually inclined I read all the religious scriptures including the Bhagwad Geeta and the Bible. I used to also read books written by Swami Vivekananda and Osho Rajneesh. Reading these books always gives me a lot of programming ideas for out channel.

Somehow, reading the Bhagwad Geeta is always very enriching. It teaches you to rise above relationships and tells you `you've got to do what you've got to do. Work is worship and that is something which will get you closer to God. And decisions ethically taken will lead you onto grow richer. Somehow, the Geeta always offers a different outlook on things at different times. And depending on the situation it sort of adds on different meanings and a perspective to things in life.

I dislike management jargon
I don't quite like management books. And there are so many of them in the market now-a-days. There are some books which suggest professional people management strategies which are individualistic and not family oriented. But then family oriented companies are still ruling the roost. So, I feel each company should work towards its own style of functioning and evolve accordingly.

I own hundreds of books most of them I've inherited. The titles range from fiction, non fiction, Finance and Law I do keep buying books, these days it does prove to be a slightly expensive hobby but it's well worth. Finding time for reading is always very difficult. I read while travelling on flights, in the car or on holidays.

I have produced a coffee table book called India 24 Hours. It was published in India and abroad by Mapin and Harper Collins respectively some years back. A beautiful book which got me a lot of recognition and was a thrilling experience. We had a team of photographers who travelled to various destinations in the country. We also shot video footage with it. Later on Harper Collins published it abroad and called it a A day in the life of India.

I've recently started penning a book called 'How not to become a pauper' seeing there are so many books on How to become a millionaire. But how does one stay a millionaire is a bigger challenge. Writing the book is actually serious fun.

"As a child, I loved reading Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton. When I joined college, I started with Mills & Boons but the books didn't really fascinate me. As a matter of fact, I found them to be trash. So, I switched over to Sidney Sheldon and never regretted it.

Those were the days when I had all the time in the world and I could settle down with a book anywhere, anytime. Now, my priority is marriage, motherhood and of course work which leaves me very little leisure time. However, I try to catch up on my reading, either in between shoots or while going through files in office or sometimes even before going to sleep.Holidays are the best time to catch up on my reading, but then I would rather spend some time with my family.
In fiction, I like to read mushy stuff and so pick up novels written by Sandra Brown and Danielle Steel. I am not really cut out for hardcore stuff, and authors like John Grisham don't excite me. Science fiction or spiritual books are again not for me. I like to read only self-help books which sort of give me some direction in life.My favourite books
I have just finished reading Focus by Jack Canfield. The book is all about focusing on a goal. The author emphasises that `goal achieving is a process.' Nothing should come in between one's focused efforts and the goal one has set for oneself. It might take one years to reach our goals, but one has to continue to fight failure and not give up or lose focus.
This book has really inspired me a lot. It has helped me focus on my goal of having more television shows. Eventually, my goal is to make a feature film that would get me international acclaim.

I try to read books which help me with new ideas and that doesn't necessarily mean books in English. Sometime back, I read a Gujarati novel Maare pan ek ghar hoi by Varsha Adalja, based on which we made the serial Mujhe Dor Koi Khinche. I also read Trijo Kinaro by Harkishan Mehta. I love reading all his books. I wish, I had the time to read Hindi and Marathi literature which is equally rich.

Another book which has helped me in my profession is, How to win friends and Influence people by Dale Carnegie. This book was recommended to me by my father-in-law Pranlal Mehta. It was nothing less than a Bible for him. He used to say, 'You must read this book, otherwise you will never be a successful producer. And truly the book has helped me handle people effectively as a producer. In the self- help series, I have also enjoyed reading Success Principles by Norman Vincent Peale."

Finally a book on one of the most underplayed subjects in recent times- Customer Relationship Management. Creating Customer Delight: The How and Why of CRM authored by Rakesh Seth and Kirti Seth covers a plethora of subjects which are significantly crucial to the success of any organisation. The trigger points used in the book are market competition, wider consumer choice, fragmentation of the media along with the advent of the new media; technological advances and newer concepts like personalised customer management.

The book first looks at today's business environment where the customer is no more an underdog with choice restrictions, but the entity in command who can dictate the business decisions and marketing strategies.

The first chapter, The Growing Need for CRM puts into perspective today's highly competitive market environment, thanks to retail explosion and liberalisation. The theory of competition-centric marketing and the underlying customer relationship techniques are explained by analysing classic campaigns such as the cola wars, when the Pepsi and Coke marketing responses were determined by each other.The authors make it a point to talk about the importance of existing customers as companies tend to ignore the customer once the deal is over and think about only a prospect customer while planning the next steps. The sub-section analyses the significant role played by word-of-mouth publicity, a free-of-cost one, coming from a satisfied and loyal customer in a product's success in the market.

The Seths have something for the media as well. The second chapter, Taking an Integrated Approach details the significance of the present media segmentation to the business industry from a CRM point of view. Given the current fragmentation of the media the need of the hour is an integrated media approach. Then there is the emergence of new four Ps - Positioning, Passion, People and Personality to power the new strategy.

In the present scenario where Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is on a roll, CRM in Call Centres would sound very topical. Here, the authors try to break the myth that carelines are just for complaints. The argument is that - "Ideally, a careline should be set up not only to handle complaints but also to provide assistance in using the product."

But the book is not devoid of some debatable comments. Consider, the introductory statement - `Successful CRM is what successful enterprise is all about. Every other discipline is secondary, be it marketing, finance, sales or IT.' One also gets a feeling that to explain the basic concepts of CRM the author has spent a lot of space as compared to the other important topics like database management and marketing strategies.

Overall, interlaced with interesting anecdotes and case studies from the real corporate world, the book depicts the core subject in a very convincing and easy-to-gather manner.

About the Author - Ammu Joseph is an independent journalist based in Bangalore, India. She writes extensively on issues relating to gender, human development and the media. Previous publications include Storylines: Conversations with women writers, Just Between Us: Women speak about their writing (with four co-authors), Terror, Counter-Terror:Women Speak Out, and Whose News? The Media and Women's Issues.

Making News:Women in Journalism brings together the personal stories and professional assessments of more than 200 women, including familiar names such as Bachi Karkaria, Kalpana Sharma, Malini Parthasarathy, Mrinal Pande, Shobhaa De and Tavleen Singh. Capturing the experiences, opinions and distinct attitudes of a wide range of female journalists in print media, this book offers key insights into their views on their profession in general, as well as their perceptions of their own individual roles.

Ammu Joseph, a long-time media consultant and observer, analyses the various ways in which gender and gender-related issues affect women in journalism, and presents a frank and forthright picture of the ups and downs of this fascinating field. She traces the history of women's involvement in the mainstream media and probes the diverse perspectives of women working in different parts of the country, in various languages, in both small towns and big cities - some just starting out in their careers and others who are already well established.

Their voices reflect a gamut of complex issues - from sexual harassment at the workplace to marginalization and discrimination in a largely male-dominated profession. The book is also gives a synoptic view of the dilemmas which confront women in the media It also combines solid data and analytical depth with some brilliant researched book on women in the media in India. The author casts a damning spotlight on newsrooms in the world's most populous democracy that mirrors the reality across the globe.

In recent years substantial numbers of women have opted for, and achieved great success in journalism. However, as an occupation it has not received intensive scrutiny from within the profession, by women journalists themselves. Making News delves into the ground realities, as well as the exciting possibilities of a career in print media.