Between sips and gulps

A chat with Kashish Kalra, co-author of “Vodka Shot and Beer Mug”, a gender-perspective look at today's work culture

Kashish Kalra, Satish Kumar Narula and Amarjit Kumar at the launch in New Delhi.

Cedar Books recently launched “Vodka Shot and Beer Mug”, a novel set against the background of present corporate work culture at Oxford Book Store recently. Authored by Kashish Kalra and Amarjit Rajkumar, the book was launched by Satish Kumar Narula, director, Noesis Consulting, and ex-chairman of the Airports Authority of India.

This is the authors' first attempt at writing. The book deals with the culture of MNCs and the struggles by people to stand out. The novel, at the same time, shows how people use various means to climb the ladder of success.

A conversation with Kashish Kalra:

What made you both come up with the idea of writing the such a unique novel?

A real argument that took place in a party is the actual idea to our thought process for writing the novel. That situation made both of us realise that it's a good thing to give our perception a few words. This book witnesses our past six years' experience, of what all we came across in this span while working in MNCs.

What does the title name of your book signify?

Well, “Vodka Shot and Beer Mug stands for gender. i.e., vodka shots standfor women and beer mugs for men. As we go through the novel we discover that in whole book the lady consumes the vodka and the man chooses beer while they are having this whole conversation.

How was the experience of writing the What experiences did you have while you were writing this novel. What is the research that went into it?

There isn't much research work needed for this book, as most of the instances were true and, as it's a fictional novel creativity is the essence. Amarjit, my co-author, played a major role in adding creativity and the designing of the book while the thoughts were mine. Though a few arguments did take place, they were easily resolved.

Why should people read the book?

People can relate to it very easily – those who have worked in the corporate field or even those who didn't. The professional life people share, the competition level, the things they do to climb the ladder of success... It has humour too and has also talked about various situations that working people come across.

Your book says that in work fields a specific gender doesn't exploit the other but the exploitation happens it's because of the power and position people they have. Your comment.

I completely agree. As the conversation started off I believed that it's the man who takes advantage of the woman, while he thought the contrary. But as the conversation progressed we concluded that it's not the gender but the power and position that matters.

It's an a unheard of phenomenon that there is collaboration of writing a novel.

What creative differences did you and Amarjit both come across?

Our perspectives never matched. We both had our little arguments, yet we respected each other's viewpoint, opinions and thoughts. We use to email every writing of ours to the other and the best part of working collaboratively was that we used to get feedback on it and accepted our mistakes when we faltered. We weren't judgemental and, therefore, jelled well.