shayad yaheen se ho
Posted on May 17, 2012
Filed Under Blog, Career Launcher, Satya Speaks | Leave a Comment
It is already 15 days now. Time flies. Shayadyaheen se ho, my first ever book on anything got released on April 27, 2012. She is a book of poetry in Urdu or Rekhta or Hindustani. Call the language anything. And most beautiful, she is. Is she not ? Looks and reads beautiful too. To me, at least.
All I know is that it is a fascinating dream that has come true. I recall a moment that is almost a decade old. I remember picking up a book at R-Mall at Mulund, Mumbai on a Sunday evening. A book put together by MeghnaGulzar on her father. That Gulzar sahib used to gift her with a poem on her birthday stayed with me much long after I finished the book. I remember the moment when I wished that it could be true for my life. This was the time when Anandita (our daughter) was just a few months old. This wish came true sometime in the year 2010 when I penned a poem for Nandu.
This moment came rushing back to me on the day of launch. That’s how moments are. Some are so powerful that they converse with the sub-conscious mind and find their own way of making the impossible possible. As you and I know, the sub-conscious mind does not understand logic, resources, limitations, challenges. She only knows what she wants accomplished. The rest are taken care of. I am glad this moment of mine knocked at the door of the sub-conscious mind and not her intellectual cousin, the conscious mind. Hopefully, I will have a few more such moments as the remaining part of life unfolds.
Life is in such a rush that I am finding time to reflect on this beautiful day after this-long-a-time. Sounds funny for a Urdu poet. Don’t we think that Urdu poetry and leisure are Siamese twins ? Continuing with my reflections of the day, it was definitely one of the most beautiful evenings of my life. An unbelievable dream coming true and so quickly. Logically speaking, a book might have been on entrepreneurship or education and written in English. But, logic has had very unfair treatment from me all her life. I think she has a place but a limited one. I think she is an over-rated companion. I am far more enamoured of companions such as dreams, passion, jigar, goal, etc,.
This day will be most memorable for me long into the future because my parents could make it for the evening. I could give them a place of pride on the dais. I also could bring my cricketing Guru, BishanBedi as well as my only guru after I entered my adulthood, KK (prof K K Mehta). The impact of these four individuals on my life is unexplainable. It was nice seeing Bishan and my father meet after about 25 years. We had met together when I was a 14 or 15 year old young cricket enthusiast when we went to Bishan’shome (A-1/45, Panchsheel Enclave) in 1985 and Anju (MrsBedi) gifting me a pen along with some Diwali sweets. Isn’t life a summation of just a few moments like that ?
The presence of Anandita’s dance Guru, GeetaChandranadded more dimensions including but not limited to depth and elegance.
A poet is cruelty personified :
A poet captures a beautiful moment or experience and wordsmiths it most beautifully and yet confines it to a book. Shall we say ‘imprisons’ his or her ‘ehsaasaat’ ? It needs music to liberate poetry and bring the sleeping beauty back to life. Quite inevitably then, Sahir or Majrooh or C Narayana Reddy or Gulzar needed Naushad or Khayyam or Viswanath or Pancham to pour life into their works. I have known the works of Ghalib or Faiz or Tyagaraja or Tagore or Kabir through music than by reading their literary works. Not many can name much of Shahryar’s works except for his songs in UmraoJaanetc,.HarivanshraiBachchan is known for Madhushala (Manna Dey Sung). Do we need more evidence ?
My R D Burman :
As luck would have it, I found Mahesh ‘Pichi’ Prabhakar though the credit of finding us should go to him. Mahesh is an accomplished Music arranger / director with over 35 years of experience. Mahesh’ presence at IWS Gurgaon enabled a conversation or two and I was delighted at his idea of including a musical album along with the book. Given my usual, high appetite for experimentation, we got going and spent a couple of Sundays exchanging thoughts and ideas. Soon, We met a few accomplished singers for discussions and finally, Mahesh settled for Vidhi Sharma and Jitender Singh Jamwal. While I had no competence to contribute to this process, I did learn a few things which will stand me in good stead for the next project. I also learnt the deep and long-standing relationships that Mahesh had in the world of music. Quite literally, for Mahesh every single accomplished music person was either known directly or just a degree away.
Vidhi, an extremely talented and deeply committed singer, was the first to jump into the project. BTW, Vidhi’s most recent presence as a playback singer was in Paan Singh Tomar. A few sittings happened where Mahesh and Vidhi would collaborate and go on for a few hours at our place on a weekend. Gently but surely, each song began to take shape. It was awe-inspiring to a musically challenged me when they would have a dialogue on what raga to choose for which song.
There was a nazm here or a ghazal there where one raga glides away to become another and yet another before the nazm finishes (Nazm – Qillata rang). It was a feast on a few Sundays. Vidhiwould record the evolving song on her mobile, play it many times over and come back with her feedback and they would finetune it further. When you listen to the finished musical CD, you would savour the fruits of every minute of the kind of devotion that went into the project. The contributions by Jitu, as a male singer and Ram, as the sound engineer have been no less.
I have no doubt in saying that I am even more proud about the musical CD than the book because it helps the poet in a very selfish way – in reaching out a lot more, physically as well as emotionally. If I were to have my way, I will go all the way to enable every single piece of poetry reach her destination of meeting with music.
Let’s see how it goes. I am yet to emerge out of this beautiful zone. I don’t want to, actually. Tennis continues. CL Educate continues like never before. This more-ness in life is what makes the current phase very meaningful.
Taalimo sanaat, shauq e harftanhaekumrakitalaashhai,
Muasir, hairanhunyehmukhtalifkarobartereeksaathchale the
Each one of these – education, business or poetry – is a life’s pursuit in itself
I am surprised, Muasir, that you manage to deal with them concurrently
(fromghazal, ‘Hum tum mile the’, page # 72 and song #7 in the music CD)
Some links pertaining to the birth of ‘Muasir’ :
http://www.facebook.com/events/374163672625125/
The Statesman :
APN News :
Allah karamkarle on youtube
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DiQRkxJ4JJEo&h=KAQGGUcL_
Sreeni’s blog with the event covered photographically :
http://www.facebook.com/events/374163672625125/
Satya ‘Muasir’
Ab toh Khwabon men milenge - Shahryaar - a tribute
Posted on February 17, 2012
Filed Under Blog, Career Launcher, Tributes | 11 Comments
Ab toh Khwabon men milenge
(Shahryar aur Main)
In a way, I am revealing a reasonably well-guarded secret. The context just demands my stepping out of my own brief. So, here I go.
Humayun and I stepped out of his home in Aligarh. As we walked towards the car parking area in the housing society, he heaved a sigh of relief and said – “Satya, you don’t know how relieved I am at this moment”. I had thought, until then, that I must have been the only one tense in the drawing room in his residence. Out of curiosity and genuine surprise, I asked him – ‘Why were YOU tense ?”
Humayun said - “you don’t know my father well enough. He does not suffer fools and almost always speaks his mind. He does not mince words and calls a spade a spade. I am surprised at how appreciative he was to you today. I was worried about his response”. Humayun was describing his father – the legendary Hindustani poet, Professor Akhlaq Mohammed Khan ‘Shahryar’.
The context of this conversation was my personal visit to Shahryar Sahib’s residence in Aligarh for my session of ‘Islah’. ‘Islah’ is the process of showing one’s own poetry / writings to a senior or a mentor in the literary traditions of poetry writing.
Shahryar Sahib has been among my all time favourites and clearly the most admired in the poets of our generation. While his popular acclaim comes from the poetry that got picked by young and talented movie makers in late 70s and 80s, a vast ocean of his works is there to be savoured by anyone who loves poetry.
Sometime ago, I had gotten in touch with Humayun through Anupam, a common friend who had known Humayun for over a decade and also known me as an ardent admirer of Shahryar Sahib for long. Whenever there is some news about Shahryar sahib, I would invariably receive an sms update from Anupam.
Post the introduction, Humayun invited me over to meet Shahryar Sahib when he was visiting Delhi. I had the wonderful opportunity of sitting at his feet, listening to his thoughts and even attending the ‘Jyanpeeth’ ceremony last year. However, I had a deeper desire. I wanted him to grant me solo audience so that I could read him my own collection of nazms and Ghazals.
While I began writing a couple of years ago, I have not recited my poems to anyone. Uma is perhaps the only one who suffers it, reluctantly or helplessly. A ‘Madrasi-Entrepreneur’ writing in Urdu! Sounds funny, almost. I was determined to take it to the touchstone of urdu Shayari for some reality check. And, that is none other than Shahryar sahib in this era, as per my own understanding.
Humayun has been a great support for me throughout this journey and we coordinated my trip to Aligarh to coincide with his next visit home from Dubai (where Humayun works). Sadly, by this time Shahryar sahib was already in the second stage of his illness and when I met him he was only half his usual self that I had seen earlier including at the ‘Shankar-Shaad Mushaira’ in Delhi the previous year.
On the appointed Sunday, I drove from Delhi to Aligarh and found my way to Shahryar Sahib home at 0930 am to begin our day with a breakfast. I don’t think any test or interview or a VC presentation or numerous board meetings would compare to the anxiety that I carried that day into that modest home in the newer part of Aligarh where Shahryar Sahib lived.
Humayun, as usual, was at his warm and friendly best. We had our breakfast and some nice ice-breaking conversations among the three of us – Shahryar sahib, Humayun and myself. We settled in their drawing room when Shahryar Sahib said – ‘Chaliye, aap itne door aayen hain toh kuch suna dijiye’. My heart stopped !!
The previous night, I had gone through the entire printout of about 50 nazms/ghazals. I wanted to prioritise and sequence them in the order in which I would recite should the great man grant me audience, actually. I had 50 orange slips hanging out of my spiral binding of poems with markings reading 1, 2, 3… 11, 27, and so on. Nidhi had been of great help to me in putting all this together though she did not know Urdu script and yet was organizing my file of print outs to be carried to Shahryar Sahib even as I was busy running around on my official work.
This was an important task. I was wanting to make sure that Shahryar sahib does not throw me out of his home after the first two lines of recitation. So, I was betting on picking what I thought would pass his quality standards. I was wanting to be sure of the risk that I was taking. I had marked ‘Kuch toh hoon, Shayad’ as my #1! ‘Qillat e rang’, as #2, ‘Teri Tabish’ as #3. And, so on.
Inspite of all the homework, I found myself very short on courage. I was honest enough to admit how I was feeling and said - ‘Sir, Meri Himmat nahi ho rahi hai’. He was empathy personified and he said ‘chaliye, ek chai pehley ho jaye’. It was just to put me at ease.
In the next half an hour, matters went from bad to worse. Every other minute, some one or the other would come in from the neighbourhood or the extended family or a friend and settle down for a short / long conversation. Soon, I realized that there are going to be at least 3-4 very well learned people from AMU, the Urdu department, well-known poet/friend who would be part of my audience in addition to Shahryar Sahib. I was kicking myself for not reading the poems earlier itself !
Anyway, the moment came eventually. I mustered all my mental strength and recited my poetry for the first time and that too to my ‘Guru’ and quite clearly the tallest poet of our generation (in my estimation) even as five other gentlemen were looking at me with a mix of sympathy and suspense. Humayun, as it turned out later, was not just a witness but a tense one at that.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Kuch toh hoon, Shaayad
Main ek apaar samandar hoon
Jiski gehraiyon say main khud aparichit hoon
Sehar ka surkh ufaq hoon kabhi
Jiski bisaat say main khud la-waaqif hoon
Mujhsay meri taroof na pooch
Main kal koi aur tha, aaj koi aur hoon
Jism ka shahar wahi raha shaayad
Bashinday badalte rahay har kuch arsay ke baad
‘Main’ ki talaash mein main khud hoon
Jab ki mujhko bhi yeh ehsaas hai kay
Yeh talaash be-maani hai shaayad
Filhal, yeh Shanaas mere liye kaafi hai kay
Kuch toh hoon, kuch toh hoon
Kuch toh hoon, Shaayad
—————————————————————————————————————————
Glossary :
Aparichit = unfamiliar; Sehar = Dawn; Surkh Ufaq = Red horizon;
Bisaat = expanse; Taroof = Introduction; Bashinday = Inhabitants
Shanaas = Awareness
—————————————————————————————————————————-
As I finished, there was a deafening silence in the room. It was killing for me. The pregnancy of it, however, made me feel better and a little better as a few moments passed. Silence speaks, as you know. Soon, the master spoke too.
And what I heard over the next few moments will remain among the most treasured words of my life. The world hadn’t collapsed, after all. I was not just alive but feeling better. I was not thrown out but actually felt embraced. In fact, many people spoke after the “guru” spoke. And I lived to share a few more thereafter.
Over the next few hours, we had an opportunity to listen to a few by him (from his memory) and relevant to the context in discussion. Many more happened by other eminent / learned men in the room and so on. Lunch happened. The afternoon tea happened. Lots of conversations happened. I just sat there and soaked in every moment. Some of the pearls that I gathered are worth sharing at the expense of this piece getting too long. But, Do I Care !
Shahryar sahib’s observations included some of the following :
When he heard the word “aparichit” (‘stranger’ or ‘unfamiliar’, in the first line) in my poem, he loved it. It was pure Hindi word coming in a Urdu piece. He said – ‘Dekhiye, shaayar toh shaayar hota hai. Yun hi likhiye aur Hindi, Sanskrit, English aur Urdu mein farq na dekhen. Apne aap ko kavi ya shaayar hi dekhiyegaa. Urdu shaayar ya Hindi kavi nahi. One of my intuitively held views got an affirmation from someone who mattered to me.
He spoke extensively about the ‘Ganga-Jamni Tehzeeb’. Lamenting at the sorry state of Urdu in Pakistan, he asked rhetorically – “gamle (flower pot) mein kya aam ka pedh bada ho sakta hai ?” and went on to elaborate his analysis of it.
He also warned me. “filmon ki taraf rukh na karen, yun hi. Achche likhenge toh woh khud ba-khud aap ke paas aayenge. Shaayar koi dukaan nahi chalata hai nazmon ki”. He shared stories in his feeble and weak voice about how Muzaffar Ali picked his poetry as he was from Aligarh and had known Shahryar Sahib from his college days. It was nice listening to those little stories and anecdotes.
Humayun and a couple of other people including his cousin and the house attendant were attending to his needs all through the day – food, medicine, resting time, etc,. As the clock struck 5pm or so, I thought it right to take leave as I had to drive back to Delhi.
Towards the close, I made a request to him to allow me to come and do the final reading of my writings before I bring out my book. His ‘Pesh e lafz’ (foreword) was my desire and I shared that with some trepidation. In his feeble yet enthusiastic / supportive manner, Shahryar sahib said – “Zaroor. Aap kaam poora karkey, mujhe ek copy bhej dijiye. He paused for a moment and gave his last advise as I was picking up my stuff – “Bus aap likhte rahiye. Kisi ko dikhane ki koi zaroorat bhi nahi hai”.
As I stepped out and walked along towards the parking, the much relieved Humayun shared his relief at a pleasant first sitting that he had facilitated between the self-appointed ‘Shagird’ (disciple) and the ‘Ustad’.
As my car raced towards Delhi on the Yamuna Expressway, my mind too was racing about the work that lay ahead of me. It was evident that Shahryar sahib was not doing too well, physically. He had been fighting cancer and all his flowing hair had gone. He was very weak though the intensity and the energy of the man was there. I knew I had very little time if I were to realize the dream of bringing out my book in his presence and with his blessings.
Amidst sporadic updates through a phone call to him or an email exchange with Humayun, I was trying to put my book to bed by doing some work whenever I took flights across the country.
Last week, I called Shahryar Sahib’s mobile to take a bit of an update as Humayun’s mobile was going responseless. Shahryar Sahib did not pick the phone. Someone else did. It was Humayun’s voice – ‘Hey man, where did you vanish ? Not heard from you for a while’. I asked him – ‘ How is dad ?’ Humayun said – “Not good”. Shortly, Humayun said in a hurry, “Satya, the Doctor has just arrived. I will call you back”.
That evening, I was checking with Nidhi if the final print out is ready. I was giving instructions to her as my car drove past the toll-counter at the Delhi-Gurgaon border. “Nidhi – Please buy a good file in which we could send the entire print out to Shahryar Sahib”. I reached home in another 20 minutes or so and just I was stepping into my home, an sms came from Anupam – “Shahryar Sahib passes away”.
God beat me to it. Whenever my book sees the light of the day, a foreword by Shahryar Sahib will be missing from that piece of work. May be, I will do one when I go upstairs and will hold him to the promise that he did not keep here. However, I hope our conversations will continue even in his absence. To pick his own line –
“Mera wada hai ki saari zindagi
Tujhsay main milta rahoonga khwab mein”
Satya ‘Muasir’
GK Publications now a part of CL Educate
Posted on November 29, 2011
Filed Under Blog | 1 Comment
GK Publications now a part of CL Educate
In our march towards establishing a stronger presence in the newer and fast growing segments within the test-prep industry, I am happy to share with you the integration of GK Publications into CL Educate. As you are aware, we are betting strongly on Civils, GATE and PSU exams for the coming 2-3 years.
GK Publications was established in 1994 and since then has been a leading publisher of formula books, guides, test papers and question banks for professional examinations like GATE, IES, IAS, various, Public Sector Undertaking examinations, CAT, etc. The management team comprises of Rakesh Mittal and Poonam Mittal supported by a team of about 50 employees. The company has an active and highly qualified advisory board which oversees its content development. Most of the content is owned by the management and a large chunk of the content development team is outsourced.
One of the highlights of GKP is the high competence of Rakesh and Poonam. Our own Phi-Lab and GKP stand to gain immensely due to the high synergies and CL too stands to gain from the experience of these two seasoned entrepreneurs from the world of publishing.
Some basic facts of GK are as follows:
- Content - 100,000+ pages of IP / content
- 500+ titles in print, primarily in areas of Engg, PSU Entrance, Civil services (IES/ IAS), Banks, MBA, Others
- 150+ distributor network, 750+ dealer network and 165+ training centers (max concentration of network in west and South Zones which contribute c. 33% of the revenue each)
Some qualitative observations relevant to the exercise:
1. Sector Outlook:
- Proposed transitions at the policies by MoHRD, could throw up newer opportunities for testprep players willing to re-invent themselves constantly and stay in step with the environment.
- Growing of e-learning opportunity given the increased technology outreach and higher acceptance levels. This could result in lesser number of paper books being demanded. Also, as more and more entrance exams go online, the preferred mode of learning/ test prep would be through electronic media.
- Competition continues in the form of small regional players, coaching classes, second hand books market and photocopying.
2. It is to be seen how well the content can be migrated to the e-learning space and value-added services mounted on top.
Building Synergy with the CL Test Prep business ?
G K Publication currently sells around 600,000 titles every year to about 200,000 students. Most of the students who buy the books of G K Publication are ready targets for the test prep value added services from the CL portfolio. Even if we are able to offer some kind of Value Added services to about 20 p.c. of the above students, it would dramatically enhance CL’s reach and student penetration, adding significantly to CL’s both top and bottom line. Also, some of their core selling products like GATE, Bank PO & Clerical examinations and PSU entrance examinations, are likely to be focus areas in the coming years from CL’s perspective.
Conclusion:
This acquisition seems to a great opportunity for CL to backward integrate and strengthen its already robust content pool. GKP brings on board several book titles that would supplement CL’s test prep material and also, help in venturing into new verticals like PSU entrances, Defence entrances, etc.
Satya Narayanan R
Test Prep ka King Kaun?
Posted on November 18, 2011
Filed Under Satya Speaks | 2 Comments
Test Prep ka King Kaun ?
There are many ways of saying the same thing. Let me try four different ways of saying a thing before sharing a prophecy and a story.
One : Some body had defined ‘luck’ as the ability to survive for 20 years and stay prepared for that elusive thing called ‘luck’ tohappen to you.
Two :AllamaIqbal wrote –
“Girenge shah-sawaar hi maidan e jung men
Wohkyagirengejoghuntnonkaybalchalen”
(only those who are on horse-backs in the battle field are likely to fall, not those who are on their fours)
Way-three :The warrior king, Mohammed Ghazni was so clear and focused on making his conquest of India that he kept trying in spite of repeated failures. He is said to have succeeded in his 17thattempt !
Way-Four :
BhikuMhatre shouts a question loud into the sunset standing on a sea-side rock – “Mumbai ka Don Kaun?”. The movie, incidentally, was ‘Satya’ !J
Now, The prophecy :
The test-prep industry will be a play of just about two to three players delivering programs across all segments in another four to five years. Even if I cannot offer a prophecy, I am allowed to think loud. Only those brands that have the best of both worlds - old and new - will survive and thrive. The goodness of ‘trust’, ‘credibility’ from the old world. At the same time, the risk-taking, openness and innovation of the new world are equally critical.
The number of players with these rare attributes are very, very few.
The Story, now :
CL ties up with Brilliant Tutorials as a platform partner for the entire sweep of the country to the North of Vindhyas covering over 20 states. We will represent Brilliant Tutorial as a brand and company in the market place. In other words, CL is the platform on which BT will grow, beginning Jan 2012.
A few words about Brilliant Tutorials :
BT is an almost 40 year old brand that is revered by generations of competitive exam takers. If you take IIT alone, over 30,000 IIT alumni have been grateful and delighted alumni of ‘Brilliants’ ! Is there anyone who comes anywhere close to that ? According to BT academic head, over 70 percent of the doctors too in the country are BT alumni from the past three or more decades. The story is similar across all the segments that BT has participated in over the past decades.
Why does it make sense for CL ?
While CL has done path-breaking stuff in the MBA and LST prep, our success in engineering and medical preps is rather modest. We always realized the fact that these are important segments to crack to be called the ‘king of test-prep’!
We have been pegging away at the engineering test-prep at the grassroots even as we kept trying for some ‘out of the box’ break-through. It is only appropriate that I acknowledge the valuable role played by our own Engineering army generals for the past few years including Arindam, Shivku, Sharad, Jitin, Suman, Deepak, Vivek and many more.
The ‘out of the box’ break-through seems to have come our way now.
What does this agreement entail on the ground ?
CL platform comprising her centres, people, management, technology, HRetc,. would be brought to bear upon Brilliants’ growth. Our strategy would be a mix of retail centers like we already do or in the form of integrated programs inside a school. Brilliants’ material, academic practices, faculty, over 1000 hours of video learnings(‘on-demand’ library) will be available to us in addition to the credibility and the results’ track record of this wonderful brand built painstakingly by a family of academicians from Chennai.
What is special about Brilliants ?
Over the past 15 years, we have seen many a JEE-prep players implode. We have seen the opportunity of hiring or acquiring key assets from those vulnerable players many times over. However, a close scrutiny always told us something not-so-sweet about the opportunity. On each occasion, there was something fishy or un-holy or less-than-acceptable hygiene about the entity or the offer. We always observed the ‘tamasha’ being played out by various players with little interest!
Brilliant tutorials is a real holy brand in that context. Notwithstanding the not-so-great management by the some past leaders of BT in the North Indian markets, Brilliants continues to stand for the age-old virtues of student welfare, ethical business practices, and so on. We would be willing to travel a long distance to make ‘Brilliants’ a partner for CL’s growth !
The Business news ?
When CL picks up the operating platform role shortly, we will have become the largest IIT-JEE player in this part of the country, arguably. The combined student strength of engineering students (from CL and Brilliants put-together) would be over 10,000 students spread across 22 cities! Not Bad, MrGhazni!
What does the future hold as an opportunity ?
IITJEE prep is set to go part-aptitude in 2013!
Aptitude ka king kaun ?
- CL
IIT-JEE ka king kaun ?
– BT
The coming together of CL and Brilliantbrings the most potent combination to go and conquer the engineering and medical space in the coming years. We will continue to make MrGhazni proud and would leave no stone unturned to go after the exciting opportunity. Can we aim to make our IITJEE numbers bigger than our CAT numbers ? Your choice could make all the difference. Of course, you have to ‘be prepared’ to get lucky!
Stay tuned! More to come!
Satya
Hindu Business Line
Posted on June 16, 2011
Filed Under Blog | 1 Comment
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