BENGALURU : Harsh Dhand, founder and CEO of Rentsher, an online rental marketplace talks about his disregard for terrible writers and his desire to meet both fictional and non fictional characters from books.
Excerpts:
Your favourite book of all time and why? Could you quote a passage?
I have been a great fan of the controversial but engaging writer Salman Rushdie and read all his books, I am infact waiting for his next releases. One of his earlier works, Midnight‘s Children is a favourite. The way the lines between fiction and reality are crossed over and intermingled is quite captivating for me. A specific passage resembles Gita like Philosophy which I quite like:
“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’m gone which would not have happened if I had not come.”
Your favourite fictional character and why?
Saleem Sinai of Midnight’s Children was born on the stroke of the midnight hour in 1947, and his life parallels the evolution of India over the next four decades, which is something I would not forget.
Few lines you got from a book, which you would never forget?
The first business book that inspired me and also led me to do an MBA, was the autobiography of Lee Iacocca. Two lines I remember from the book, which influences the way I work, are:
“In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with the other two.”
As owner of a people focused business at RentSher, this quote helps guide as we grow.
The second is on work-life balance: “I have seen many executives who have said with pride to me – Boy, I worked so hard last year that I did not even take a vacation.” To Iacocca, such thinking is foolish, and he says that if you can take responsibility for an $80 million project, then you should be able to plan some time for fun and balance in your life.”
One book you would want a first edition of and why?
Godfather – if it was written again for a contemporary world!
Which author would you like to have tea with and what would you talk about?
Sheryl Sandberg has quite a view on today’s businesses and how to grow them in the right manner. It would be good to chat with her especially on the growth of sustainable re-commerce economy.
One advice you would give to your favourite author, and one you would give to terrible writers.
Some of the Indian authors like Salman Rushdie and Khushwant Singh started quite well with spectacular research led books, but gradually they lost it to fame. I think Chetan Bhagat would count in my list of terrible writers, some of his books are quite shallow. He needs to know that as an author who is read by millions, there is a responsibility to improve the society, rather than degrade it even further.
Which books would you take with you on a solo holiday?
Never thought of that, but I think God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is quite engaging and requires full attention to grasp.
Your one guilty-pleasure read?
None really!
One fictional character you go to when you need a friend?
In the earthly world, ‘Vito Corleone, Godfather!’ (Anyone would want that!)
In the mythical world, ‘Krishna’ to guide through the worldly maze.
What is one quality of a book you wish people would have?
Books talk to you when you want them to! That’s a desirable quality I wish people have; more so in business today, where I see people speaking more and not when desired or expected!
One book you wish was never written, and why?
I believe books like Half Girlfriend and some of the more recent books by Chetan Bhagat, are some books we can live without!
One thing you cannot tolerate when you are reading?
While I can have general hum-drum, music and people talking; perhaps a crying kid would not let me relax with a book.
Your favourite reading nook?
I have had several, but I really like natural places – Public Gardens in Chandigarh, Ulsoor Lake slant (when it was there) in Bengaluru and the tea plantation resort in Coorg are what I remember as favourites.
Do you remember to keep bookmarks?
I mostly try and remember chapter numbers and points in the book that help me keep a tab on the story. Page folds on personal books also helps.