Ajay Chacko
Head, Marketing, CNBC-TV18


"My father is a writer. And his collection of books is what I was exposed to from my early years. Besides what he used to write, I also read virtually all the books he had in his library! The books in his library were really different from what my peers used to read in school! So, while my friends grew up on Hardy Boys and Famous five, I was trying to understand The Outsider by Albert Camus. Reading this particular book at a young age definitely made a great difference to my life and thinking. I would definitely recommend it to everyone I know.

I like a lot of fiction, particularly from different literary traditions - from Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Albert Camus and Gunter Grass. I do try and catch up with some of the classics as much as possible, but somehow because of my work schedule it takes a lot of time to finish a book! I particularly like some Latin American authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Time is a big problem. A bigger problem is ones' state of mind.One has too many choices and pulls to be able to sit back and read. Also, finding time to read can be particularly challenging when you have a young kid. Yet, I still try and take some time out to catch up on my reading.

My favourite books
I recently finished re-reading, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I find this Latin American authors' writing truly 'gripping'. And the fact that the cultural root it emanates from is so very different from the predictable stuff that comes out of European or American authors. Marquez is perhaps the world's best storyteller!

If I had to name my all-time favourite they would be One Hundred Years of Solitude and Ulysses by James Joyce..

I dislike
I don't like reading marketing, advertising, and self help or motivational books. Just to cite an example, I find authors like Edward De Bono quite boring and stretched though some of his ideas may be exciting. Somehow, I haven't been able to pull myself to read that genre of books; call them self help books or plain management and marketing jargon.

(As told to Chikita Kukreja)



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