Locked in Doubt: Chapter 8
8
June 25, 2023
MLS Publishing House
Manisha trembled with excitement as she prepared for the first publicity event of her new venture — MLS Publishing House.
Over the last few weeks, she had worked day and night to find the right business partners, negotiate terms, raise funding and ideate. She had been at her scrappy best — lurking around crowded places trying to find anyone in a suit who looked like a good source of business advice. She had travelled from college to college trying to lure temporary interns into handling logistical issues for the so-called ‘next big thing in literature’. She used public transport, and much to the ire of the conductor, pestered every passenger for a validation of her idea, regardless of whether the passenger was in her target market or not. And it was in one of many such bus journeys that Manisha finally found some luck.
“I think that’s a rad idea,” said her co-passenger, who introduced himself as Kishore Vasudev. He was slightly tanned and sported a carefully groomed beard. His thick black hair was combed downwards and stopped just above his eyebrows. His short-sleeved t-shirt showed off his biceps, and Manisha had a hard time thinking business just then. “In fact, you know what? I’ve just sold my startup and am trying to wash my hands free off it,” said Kishore.
“Really?” asked Manisha in a concerned tone, but with a hint of excitement as well. “Did it fail?”
“Nah, not really,” said Kishore. “In fact, this is the first of my ventures that’s actually making money. It’s just that I’m… losing interest in this. It’s a company which makes trendy designs for mugs, keychains and a whole host of other objects which add infinitesimal value to a person’s life.” He smiled dispassionately at his own quip.
“Oh, don’t say that,” said Manisha. “Every idea is special in its own way. How many startups did you have before this?”
“Well, seven or eight. I can’t really keep count,” said Kishore. He looked out of the window, as if hiding his grieving face from the pretty woman he was talking to. Without looking at her, he continued, “You know, my dad is a proper tycoon. He heads projects in energy, manufacturing, technology and all the other things that actually matter. I refused to work for any of his businesses. You have no idea how suffocating it would be to have your father be your boss.”
“I think I understand,” said Manisha gently. While she didn’t have any tycoons back home, she knew what it was like to be suffocated, having been brought up in a conservative household. Her first sixteen years had been micromanaged by her parents, before she rebelled and ran away. She came back soon enough, but her relationship with her parents had felt strained ever since. She fought with them again to let her stay at a hostel in Progress University, and they finally relented, after instructing the “young, smart, responsible Sanath” to keep an eye on her. The physical distance between Manisha and her parents turned out to be the perfect remedy, as the time apart healed all the wounds. Manisha became less rebellious and her parents became more trusting. Their relationship blossomed, until Manisha got inspired to start her own venture right out of college. They were now back at loggerheads with each other.
But at that moment, her heart went out to the man who was trying so hard to live up to his billing as a rich offspring. “Maybe it’s his innate desire to be different, that is prompting him to sub-consciously work on lower-impact ventures. And maybe the low impact is then causing him guilt,” thought Manisha. She opened her mouth in an attempt to comfort him, but Kishore began speaking again, “I’ve always come across as a confident person even in my failures, but that is only because I have the connections and the money which my father worked hard to acquire. And people think I’m that stereotypical rich guy who has been born in the lap of luxury. But what they don’t understand, is that I’m philosophically aligned with the have-nots. I believe in being thrifty, working hard and being a good person, above all else.
“But people agree to listen to me or do business with me, only because they think I’ll be creative and aggressive in my spending, with money being in abundance. And hence, I shamelessly use my connections and power to get things done, both in my professional and personal life. I know I would have a lot more self-respect if I didn’t have these luxuries, but I’ve got to do what the business needs, don’t I?” Kishore sighed and looked out of the window again.
“I’d just like you to know that I’m not judging you,” said Manisha, and immediately wondered if that was going to make him more self-conscious.
But Kishore just smiled and said, “Thanks. I tend to ramble sometimes in the presence of good listeners.”
“No problem,” she replied, smiling back.
“Oh, what were we talking about before this?” asked Kishore, frowning, as he strained his mind to remember.
Manisha took a couple of seconds to recall. “Uh, it was about my idea. The publishing house thing?”
“Oh, that’s right!” said Kishore sitting up straight. His face magically turned amiable and excited again. “I’d love to be a part of it. And from my recently concluded rant, you’d realize that I can get you in touch with any kind of person you want — editors, designers, coders, travellers — heck, even politicians. I’d finally be doing this for a better purpose. And yeah, we’d probably be better off looking for external funding at this stage if we want to scale quickly. I can find you some of those guys too.”
Manisha, even amidst her excitement and fondness for this man, itched to interview him further. What if he lost interest in this, like the seven other start-ups he had been a part of? What role would he want in the management of this venture? And was there a larger reason as to why he was so keen?
But Manisha figured that she’d have to be an idiot to scrutinize such an unexpected opportunity, after having toiled for weeks. “That would be brilliant, Kishore!” she simply said, as the two of them hugged while the conductor looked on disapprovingly. “Welcome aboard!”
*****
“Ms. Manisha Guna, what would you say is the key value proposition that your publishing house offers?” asked the interviewer, Ms. Tanya Paul, a popular anchor of a national news network. Kishore had managed to find media contacts to help drum up publicity for MLS publishing house.
Manisha smiled warmly, as if expecting the question. “Our main focus is to bring the voices of marginalized people out into the open.”
“Could you elaborate?”
“Yes. By marginalized, we refer to any person or community whose stories have not been heard by enough people. It could be a tribal in a rainforest, or a janitor in an investment banking firm. You might have heard Chimamanda Adichie in her popular TED talk, “The danger of a single story”. My key takeaway from that talk, was that we should expose ourselves to a lot more types of literature from as many geographies as possible, so that we don’t fall into the trap of stereotypes.”
“Interesting,” said Tanya. “And your plan is to make it easier for people to expose themselves to cultures by promoting the work of marginalized writers?”
“Yes and no,” said Manisha. “I’d like to make it clear that we will not be operating on a slush pile of incoming submissions. We aim to be proactive, to mine stories out of these cultures and make writers out of these people. We plan to send people on field research, much like a corporate employer would do.”
“Is that because many marginalized people may not be confident as writers, but have interesting histories that literature buffs can thrive on?”
“Exactly. Not everyone has had access to the same level of education and comfort, and if their stories are not told, we can only expect the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer.”
“So do you see yourself inspiring a societal change in the long run?”
“Well, Tanya, I don’t want to get ahead of myself at this stage. But, of course I would want to change the world! That’s the ultimate pinnacle of a startup, isn’t it? The pinnacle of life, I would say.”
“That’s very impressive,” said the anchor, smiling. “But Manisha, if I may ask a technical question — you are going to make written works out of their raw stories. Isn’t this the same thing as a writer travelling to a place to research the characters and the setting, and then writing a book based on these experiences? In that case, wouldn’t it be simpler to call yourself a community of writers rather than a publishing house?”
“Not exactly,” said Manisha. “I mentioned that we make writers out of these people. We believe in social responsibility which includes literacy for all. So, here’s how it will work — once our field agents find a marginalized person of whom a story can be derived, we provide that person with the education and support to begin writing. True, from a business perspective, it might take a longer for the book to reach the market this way. But what we get in return is a loyal ambassador for our company. Plus, the education is provided by the company which houses diverse ideas and backgrounds. As a result, the story that emerges will be told in a way that is relatable to urban, affluent readers as well.”
“And that would breed empathy and hopefully drive social change, perfect. But Manisha, do you think this is scalable? For educating each such writer, won’t you need a large workforce?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention. The education is not provided by humans. We have a group of rock-solid engineers who have been working hard to create bots that will give these writers any kind of guidance. Once we onboard a writer for a project, we provide him or her with a device which he can talk to, message queries and also submit writing snippets for automated scoring based on a number of parameters. So this would ensure that we can scale. I’m prepared to face our share of challenges, but it’s going to be a fun ride.”
“Thank you, Manisha, for enlightening us. We hope to see your company make a difference.”
“My pleasure, Tanya,” concluded Manisha. She had a broad smile but shivered inside. Her student loans seemed to be mounting in stature with every passing day, and there were easier, less soul-satisfying ways to make money quickly. Her family had still not warmed up to her idea, or to her closeness with Kishore. She needed to make this venture a runaway success.
End of preview…
