A dog eat dog-food world Kindle Edition

"Satire" is a much misused format by humorists with the jokes targetting under-privileged/oppressed sections of the society, rather than the opposite. As I read elsewhere, satire is a weapon of the powerless and not the powerful, because if it IS indeed used by the powerful, then it is no less than vulgar.

And sometimes, as in the case of "A Dog Eat Dog-food World", satire is that tongue-in-cheek intelligent set of one liners that trigger silent chuckles, evenly spread throughout the book, without getting into overt exaggerations that have no head or tail. Without digressing any further, let me present to you this hilarious corporate satire penned by Suresh C., that tells you a tale about a pseudo-history in a world similar to ours.

Spike Fortune is outrageously rich and has no idea what to do with the wealth that never seems to subside. The thought that he'd be forever trapped in this wealthy rigmarole gives him anxiety attacks, that make him paranoid and a typical nightmare for the doctors. On one such occassion, when he calls his doctor for the anxiety attack caused by boredom, his doctor suggests a way of spending all his money - setting up a business. Spike employs his nephew Jerry to find out a suitable idea for business and Jerry, after getting terribly beaten due to some truly horrific chain of events, suggests a business of dog foods. Thus starts the creation of a pseudo history that will result in a total societal makeover. How does that happen? You got to read the story for that. I'd just leave it here.

Suresh has managed the ability to get the readers to snicker with some hilarious sarcastic jibes, while not once moving away from the corporate part of the story. The characters are extremely relatable if you have ever worked in a corporate or even otherwise. The barbs are on the lines of Dilbert and XKCD (I have read a few punches from these and the books are on my wishlist). The rival in the form of Tom Rich, his advisor Jasper, Spike's market research person Tyke - these are all exactly the people we see while at work. The story takes us through the entire cycle from the business idea, to market research, to advertising, to jargons and negative marketing and later to product differentiation and market extension. You may even find traces of some subtle political references here and there. 

I will go on to say that this Jerome K. Jeromish little book can be a wonderful companion of yours on your commute to or fro from work or if you are homemaker, you can quickly munch it between your chores.

Just a pro tip, do not, I repeat, DO NOT read it just before you are about to attend a very heavy-duty corporate meeting. You will keep seeing the faces of the characters in every face present there, you will keep hearing the author's hilarious jibes amidst all the seemingly serious talks and 70% of the meeting will end up with you inside the washroom for the fear of being caught giggling to self. 

Some lines which might give you a preview into the book - 

"How is it that all people around you know more about the best way to lead your life than you do yourself?"

"If God HAD to create stubborn mules, why did He have to make them look like humans?"

"He realized that even rank idiocy could sound like distilled wisdom if dressed up in learned language." 

"Put two people together to do a job and they are too busy shooting down the other person's ideas to get ahead with the job."

"Cats, though, are a shade less likely to feature as indefatigable saviours of distressed mankind. Face them with a drowning man and they would feel the irrepressible need to wash their faces."

If you want a quick, light, laughter-inducing read, go for this one. 

The Prologue of A Dog Eat Dog-food World begins with an ambiguous, philosophical, offbeat write-up by the author describing what makes history.

And I was hooked.
His analysis and arguments are the kind that make you think, 'Very interesting. I am surprised I never thought of it this way'.

Then he clarifies that the book is a pseudo-history. It had me googling the word.

As the book starts, we are introduced to the world of Spike Fortune, an eccentric rich man whose sole source of worry is how to spend his money. He is obsessed about spending all his money in his lifetime. And he has a lot of money.

The events that follow has him starting a dog-food business, and the fun begins.

A Dog Eat Dog-food World is a laugh riot.

We live in a pretentious, materialistic world. But it's so boring, unimpressive, and ineffective to just say that.

So, C. Suresh tells us a pseudo-history explaining one of the aspects of how this weird society of ours came to be. A society where, among other insensible things, a dog should eat only dog-food.

Does that sound senseless? Well, you could say it is. But, surprisingly enough, it is not.

The author mocks the world of Spike Fortune and his competitor, Tom Rich. Their world though is a mirror to the society that we live in.
Read between the lines, shake your head at the bitter truths around you, enjoy how the author plays with words, ponder over his explanations...

As Spike find his way through the maze of managing a business, what we get are management lessons.

Everything from the first project report (that no one reads) to Scientific Market Research has found a place in this pseudo-history.

I am not a management student. I don't know or understand the management laws. And I loved reading this. I can just begin to imagine how hilarious, and surprisingly poignant, it would be for one who does.

There are books you love to discuss and share and quote. A Dog Eat Dog-food World is one such book.

As I was reading this book, I thought of the pseudo-history in Rudyard Kipling's How the Camel got his hump; of the satire of PG Wodehouse; of the humour of TV Serial Khichdi... each of these I enjoy tremendously.

Just as I enjoyed reading about the Cats and Dogs of the world of C.Suresh's book.

There are profound lessons in not only humility and simplicity but also in management, business, relationships, ... in the words of this fun story.

Detailed review with quotes from the book on my blog - nimiarora.com

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.