Here's the interview we held with Tamal Bandyopadhyay, author of A Bank for the Buck, the story of HDFC Bank:
How
long did you take to write this book?
I
did the research and interviewed people for over six months last year along
with my normal office work. At the next stage, I took two-month leave to write
the book. Actually, I could use about five weeks of the two months as I had
some prior commitments in terms of attending certain functions in India and
overseas and three weeks were spent on that. For five weeks I confined myself
into a room and worked sixteen hours a day. I Left Mumbai in search of privacy
and worked on the book in a friend’s empty house at another city.
How
difficult was working on the book along with your regular job?
It
wasn’t very difficult as the subject is not entirely new to me. But, yes,
writing a book is a different kind of discipline. I am used to write a
1000-word column a week. Naturally, writing a 13-chapter, 70,000-word book is a
very different ball game. It’s like asking a T-20 player to play a test match.
I wouldn’t call it difficult. It’s different and great fun.
Was
it a smooth run or did you find difficulties in sourcing certain information or
meeting people?
Whoever
I had approached either met me or spoke to me on phone. So, access was never a
problem. But after writing the book, cross-checking of certain facts was very
tough. The book covers past two decades since India opened up economy and
there were instances where people could not recollect names or designations of
others (and sometime of their own) accurately. But I can’t afford to go wrong.
So it was a painstaking exercise.
Could you give
us a few instances?
Oh,
there are many. For instance, there is a reference to Pakistani
cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s brother-in-law Francis Bruce
Pike. He set up Peregrine India. His wife India Jane Birley was
half-sister of Jemina Khan. It was not easy to get the exact details. Or, for
that matter, what was Nandan Nilekani’s designation at Infosys Ltd in 1994?
Even
identification of a tree at a textile mill compound under which the bankers
used to hold classes was very difficult. Ultimately, photographs of the tree
were taken and the Bombay Natural History Society was consulted for identifying
the tree.
I
had taken every care to present facts accurately and hope there’s no mistake.
Will
you write another book?
It
all depends on the subject – how exciting it is. I took up the project because
I was excited about the subject.
Your
journalistic experience must have come in handy in writing the book?
Yes,
to some extent. Writing per se is not an issue with me but the canvas of a book
is much larger than what we deal with on a daily basis in a business
newspaper. It’s different but definitely it helps if you’re a journalist.
What
qualities does one need to become a good business journalist?
An
overview of the economy, a feel for numbers, loads of commons sense and, above
all, respect for ethics.
Did
you study economics?
No.
I did my post-graduation in English literature from Calcutta University.
Isn’t
that a handicap?
I
see this as an advantage. This helps me to look at things from a different
perspective. As I have said, journalism – whether business reporting or
political reporting – is all about common sense. If you have that and you don’t
compromise on ethics, everything else falls in place. You can pick up the
domain knowledge on the job.
Where
did you start your career?
I
started with Times of India as a Trainee Journalist.
So,
a non-business journalist?
Yes.
I mainly worked with the Sunday weekend section. It was called Sunday Review
those days. I used to write book reviews and features.
Apart
from Mint, where else have you worked?
I
have worked with three other financial dailies – Business Standard, Financial
Express and Economic Times before joining Mint in 2006.
Is
it all work and no play? How do you relax?
I
cook when I find time, play with my dog. I also write poems in Bengali. I
love travelling, meeting people.
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