Book Review: The Boss Is Not Your Friend" by Vijay Nair

The Month of June hopefully greets us with showers. Phew, country seemed to be simmering in the boilers!! Clouds do have mercy, ya!

Huffing and speaking in between gulps of glucose water, I say, readers and followers and the chanced upon visitors, stay tuned in to "A journey called..." ! The interest is in REVIEWING BOOKS I WILL BE READING. Book worms can drop in and get to know about books they simply should read through, every week, what are they about and where to grab a copy of their own. As for this week, in collaboration with Blogadda- the chit chat bloggers' haven, as I call it, I present to you the business humor- “THE BOSS IS NOT YOUR FRIEND” by VIJAY NAIR.

             “THE BOSS IS NOT YOUR FRIEND” by VIJAY NAIR

Publisher: Hachette India
Pp: 210
Cover Price Rs.295
Genre: Business/Humour

The Boss is NOT Your Friend- is not like your self-help books that preach and preach, without actually giving you the ways to go beyond or about all those preachy saints and put actions to the words. The book emulates exactly what the title suggests. The corporate ladder might have developed its own segregations, dividing the world in two broad segments- the boss and the managers. Though Vijar Nair, seldom touches upon hold the team below the managers should tackle the blows from the client as well as the huffing and puffing top order, he presently turns the mood of the book into a psycho-analytical test sheet, without showing direct intentions of preying into the readers’ mind.

Thus when the organizational coach and consultant takes off with “Corporations are evil,”- the reader might quietly nod and set his or her bruised heart attuned for the next couple of hours. They would end up calling the book a page turner nevertheless. The reason behind- Nair, keeps aside the mellow tone, he strikes his tirade in all possible directions to make the beaten down managers realize, that he is not a baba- hovering in air and distributing his accumulated gyan to his joined hands and closed eyed disciplines. He is here to provide the less trodden upon survival tricks. Smartly enough, the book carries the understandable tag line “a handbook for Indian managers to survive all things organizational”.

Nair adds on his own insights. He recalls his chance encounters with Russi Mody- the believed idol of Jamshedpur and the ideal example of making the earliest creations of traditional corporate assertions- but with a smile on his face. If boss is to be recognized as a power wielding machine, then the ones who wheel above them in cold chambers and solemn conferences are their prefect predecessors.

You don’t need to dive deep into the in between pages, skip the first few thought provoking paragraphs and then go all the way to the last few pages to get a feel of the book. This tongue in the cheek ideal teacher says it all through the cover design. Indeed the caricature with a mustache boss Fatso punching into a Larry like half dead black eyed being- mirrors many of those who would stop by and pick the book from the stands. If they are book shopping with their “friendly boss”- they might would shutter an excuse prior to departure and grab one in a dash. Nair’s thoughts, explanations will help the home team score, even if initially they might steal side glances, warp this bomb shell artifact in unattractive covers and read it in utter secrecy.

The Boss is NOT Your Friend is not just a creepy ghost, ready to teach you how to blow up your heads- not Raavan slaying tactics is enough either. It is role-playing guide- but too much of harshness don’t reality bring out the human part of life does it! If we are adorn the track suits and the collar at the same time- it will take just a few strokes of the Fate-pen to write the word doom across our forehead. As I was reading through, I felt, Nair did succeed to create a sad show for the Boss, by teaching the mechanism of banging and braving up individuals at the hierarchy. I would have gone too far in believing the writer might have got his own pinching, egging and harrowing experiences to pour out in the book, had he not added the last touché- “who are you kidding with”- as if to say-“buddy, BBQ might be greeting you now and then- but “the Buddha professes dignified strides down the hair line middle path, so do I”. It’s all the maya of the world and escaping the circle of life is not your cup of tea- thus wear the smile, tilt your head in submission each time you sense the shadow of the Boss, he will show you the way to salvation.

My ratings: 3/5

 

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