Review: The Biography of a Failed Venture by Prashant Desai

D:FY, where art thou?

I had never heard of the brand called D:FY. Maybe because I was not in India when it was launched. Or maybe because I had no interest in sports shoe brands and running shoes back then. Or, as Prashant himself mentioned, “multi sport” shoes. This was the first time I came across a term called “multi sport”. Whenever I have searched for shoes on Amazon or Google, it is for “sports shoes”, or “running shoes”, or “vegan shoes”, or “football shoes” (just for the looks and not for playing) or “hiking shoes”. I have never searched for “multi sport” shoes. What does it even mean? Can I play football and cricket and tennis and go for running as well in the same shoe? And go for hiking as well? And this is one of the many reasons Prashant lists for the failure of marketing of his brand D:FY on Amazon.

I had never heard of Prashant before I picked up this book. He has accomplished what many of us can’t even think about. He was worked with the likes of Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and many others. This is an honest, down-to-earth, no holds barred book about how he rose from an average studen to a nationwide rank holder in multiple accounting exams, and then become a stock picker (amongst other roles) at various firms and finally settled in Mumbai. He made multiple of crores but his hunger for more money led him to launch D:FY sports shoe brand, with the thinking being that there is nothing in India in the range of around 4000/- rupees for the average Indian buyer.

He writes in detail about how he went about pitching it to various people and investors across the board, got shoe designers from US to work for his shoes, got vendors from China, met the marketing agencies, and the Amazon and Flipkart/Myntra heads for a marketing deal, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh S. for a stake, and so on and so forth.

Reading this book, one wonders about the amount of effort and sleepless nights an entrepreneur has to spend working on his business. The unforeseen challenges that seem to attack from all sides, and the checks and balances of luck often deserting you at the wrong time. We mostly hear of entrepreneurs on how they have secured Series A, B, C funding, how their valuations are in billions of dollars, how MAU and DAU metrics are in their favor for a sellout, but never do we hear from an entrepreneur who failed. Because they don’t want to share their sob story.

Prashant has been woefully and delightfully honest (and often brutally so) in this book about his own experiences and his learnings during this entrepreneurial journey. He lost more than 30 crore rupees of his personal wealth during the 2-3 years of D:FY and this book should be read by everyone who only looks at the successes of Zerodha, Nykaa, PayTM, Flipkart and others. For every venture that succeeds, I am sure there are hundreds of others which fail and never take off.

A highly recommended book for all general readers; there is not a single dull moment in this book!

Review: Regrets, None by Dolly Thakore

No regrets, none at all. Or is it?

I first saw Dolly Thakore, in person, at NCPA in 2012 during TATA Lit Fest at NCPA, Mumbai. She was, it seemed like, in midst of a conversation with Anil Dharker, the main organizer of the festival or conversing with Girish Karnad (I can’t recall exactly, been almost 10 years you see!). She had her trademark red bindi on her forehead and a sturdy physique. I, in my 20s then, could not muster the courage to say ‘hello’. I just gawked at both of them in sort-of-an-awe from a safe distance for some time.

Dolly has been quite candid and honest about her life experiences of all kinds in this autobiography. She writes of her Christian, north Indian upbringing in a large, joint family, and the naughtiness of youthful, convent-schools. And the chance she got later to fly to UK many years later in the media industry, though back then it wasn’t as large an ‘industry’ as it is today. She writes lovingly about all the quirky characters she met, her first marriage, her settling down in Mumbai, then going through a divorce, and then getting into a relationship with a very well married Alyque Padamsee. She unabashedly writes of the trials and tribulations of being the ‘other’ woman, and how later another ‘other’ woman (Sharon Prabhakar) steals away Alyque Padamsee.

This book was decades in the making, as Dolly writes, and finally took lot of prodding and perseverance from her close friends to complete it. Dolly also makes clear her political views where she mentions how Advani’s views and that of BJP do not go down well with her.

A good read for someone who is interested in Dolly’s life and the countless interesting people she had in her life as either family, friends, or partners.

The title, however, “regrets, none” does have blemishes, because at times it does feel like Dolly is nostalgic or even has some regrets about the way she was treated in most of her relationships. You can see how Alyque, the doyen of Mumbai elite, was a brute when it came to treating women respectfully.

Review: The Lover Boy of Bahawalpur by Rahul Pandita

“Lover Boy”

Rahul Pandita is someone you can trust as a journalist. His previous books were on the Maoist insurgency in India (which, essentially, is tribals fighting for their own lands against an usurping State), also called Naxalism.

To call Umar Farooq a “lover boy” is a stretch of imagination: he neither has the looks nor the persona. But appearances belie true colours. This Umar (aka Idrees bhai) was the ‘mastermind’ behind the Pulwama attacks. He already was involved with multiple girls in Kashmir, and hence the monicker “lover boy”.

Pandita’s book is quite detailed in how it deals with history of Kashmir, especially the 80s and 90s, which saw increased cross-border support for terrorism from Pakistan and different groups fighting amongst themsleves in Kashmir for dominance and legitimacy. The book gives a detailed account of how intelligence operatives develop their sources in a troubled region like Kashmir, and what all entails finding clues to solve a case. It’s a cat-and-mouse game.

Pandita also proves another important point, which the blind left-wing bigots have not been able to accept: the link of Afzal Guru with the Parliament attacks.

I would recommend this book for various reasons: the inside sources the author has developed and the information that is presented in the book; the operations of intelligence operatives and how they crack a case; the risks the intelligence community takes to take on these terrorists; the operational details of various counter-attacks and neutralizing operations conducted in Kashmir by Indian forces; the riveting details of the 2019 Pulwama attack and the ‘luck by chance’ that lead to the unearthing the people behind it.

A well written book which focuses on the essentials: the language is not flowery or sophisticated, but who needs these when there is a bearded, fat, ‘lover boy’, eh?