Life's a party

Children's publisher Parragon India's MD Vineet Sharma makes even work fun.

Life seems to be as much a party at Parragon as it must be for Disney characters in books published by the company. “Every year, employees from the company’s offices all over the world are flown to a city to party!” remarks the publishing house’s editor at its India office, quite gleefully, as I wait to meet the company’s managing director in India. Vineet Sharma is also a JV partner in the global publishing behemoth (one of its six regional MDs), but I realise soon enough that this interview is going to be less about business than about the business of having fun.

Framed behind Sharma’s desk is a panoramic shot of the Himalayas; on a side table, a bottle of Sula Sartori; and the electric tea-maker in the office comes not with usual Earl Grey sachets but with dip bags of some branded tulsi chai that one can only get “in the mountains”. It is an office equipped for fun.

When Sharma walks in, however, we talk a little business first. This year, the company has become the lead licensee for Disney in India and, apart from having added novelty features to their trademark pictorial books for the tots by way of “activity kits” stuck on to the covers — secret diaries with lock and key, butterfly stickers, Disney Fairies hairbands et al — it is also trying other marketing experiments. The children’s market, largely recession-proof, is a key focus. But while Parragon’s format — large pictures, slick production (done outside the country) and comparatively affordable pricing — works, in that the Asian and West Asian markets that Sharma heads account for almost 2,000 titles a year, what is conspicuous by its absence is India-centric content, both about and generated from India. Now, that may change. “We are still looking at the numbers,” Sharma says cautiously, but admits, “The Indian content is now developing in a more palatable format.”

“I went to see Roadside Romeo with my daughter and, otherwise, we would never have watched something in Hindi. But I realised that it was very, very good,” he says. So, while there is a sliver of possibility that we may read Disney toons finally in Hindi and other Indian languages (India is poised to be the largest co-edition market in the world), other India-centric content such as bilingual dictionaries, say, with Mickey Mouse characters, or encyclopaedias with, say, Hannah Montana, or even a travel title where Little Dragon visits a small school in the hills in India are likely.

While children may have fun with these, Sharma’s idea of it is a little different. A trek in the Himalayas is more like it. He is known to take a break every few months to do that, and is putting the finishing touches to his cottage in Ramgarh. But the most entertaining story that he narrates, by far, is the one to do with the visit of Parragon’s global CEO to talk hardcore business. “I asked him, ‘So you want to have a meeting?’” smiles Sharma, “‘Then come with me.’” With these words, he whisked the gentleman off on a trekking trip that lasted almost a week — at heights ranging from 5,000-14,000 feet, where even the MTNL network wouldn’t reach. “We talked of various things,” Sharma chuckles.

Twice a year, the Parragon India staff go on offsites to Corbett, where they attempt free-falls into the river. Often, when a staff member is reluctant or scared to let go, Sharma jumps off first, inspiring his colleagues to do the same. And he is a great rafting enthusiast too, assuring us that “If you don’t swallow water, even if you fall into swirling froth, you’ll always come up.”

A little less adventurous is bonding with employees over beer. Ostensibly, every time he is asked to discuss something, he says, “Let’s go for a beer,” though, we are warned, that may have changed with the doctors now recommending that he stick to wine.

There are other ways to win over colleagues. In Cologne to meet the German head of Parragon, Sharma once spent the entire day trying to find paneer, because he had offered to cook everyone an Indian meal. “I finally found it at a Sikh man’s shop,” he says, and rattles off his creations for that day: kadhai paneer, coriander chicken, dal and rice.

So, what about the famous Parragon parties? I remind him. “They are always around a theme. We had “November Rain” one year in Cologne, and a 1980s-style party in SoHo… you can see the pictures, I had long hair and was dressed like a rocker…”

This year, the staff may not be flown to a foreign destination for the annual bash — not because of the downturn, the company claims, but because “Now there are so many of us that it makes sense for us to party in our own countries.” But, as Sharma says, Parragon and parties go together because both are expressions of happiness.