 "Ruchir Sharma")
Ruchir Sharma seems to have a distinct distaste for restaurants in five-star hotels. When I ask him for a venue where I could invite him to lunch with Business Standard, he says - with what I thought was a poorly concealed yawn - that I could pick any hotel. I sense his discomfort and ask him if he would like to have a few restaurant options outside five-star hotels. He jumps at the idea and quickly opts for Guppy By Ai, a restaurant that claims to offer Japanese food. That of course does not suggest that Sharma loves East Asian food or is a good judge of restaurants in New Delhi. As I learn later, it was more a reflection of his desire to get out of a five-star hotel ambience and have a bite in an eatery without the trappings of a big hotel.
The reason why we are meeting over lunch is Sharma's second book, The Rise and Fall of Nations, is out in less than five years of his first book, Breakout Nations. By all available indications, his latest book (much bigger than the first one, he says later with a grin) is doing well, having already made it to the coveted New York Times Best Sellers list in the non-fiction category. Sharma is in New Delhi as part of a globe-trotting mission to promote his book - a job that he doesn't enjoy a wee bit, but he seems to be going through the motions because of his commitment to the publishers.
"No chopsticks for me," he announces with a smile and a flourish that makes it sound as if this was a rare qualification. I quickly seek refuge in Sharma's cool confidence and declare likewise. Sharma is already late. I suggest that we get the ordering out of our way. Sharma, an investment banker for more than two decades (currently he is head of emerging markets and chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley Investment Management), is a vegetarian and orders a plate of asparagus tempura roll as a starter and tofu sashimi with curry rice for the main course. I decide to be a vegetarian for the starter and settle for what Sharma orders, but go for teriyaki chicken for the main course. "No drinks for me," says Sharma, who now looks quite tired of all that he is going through in the wake of the launch of his book.
What is more difficult - writing the book or promoting it - I ask. Sharma pauses a little and says in a matter-of-fact way that writing the book, of course, takes a lot of time, energy and research, but the schedule after the book is launched is as taxing as organising a wedding. "The launch of a book is as elaborate an affair as the release of a movie," Sharma adds.
After some promotion in New York (there are no book launches in the US), he is now in New Delhi, after which he would go to Singapore, Hong Kong and then to London. A hectic schedule, but Sharma admits this is par for the course in today's publishing schedule. In the process, he has picked up some nuggets of valuable tips from the publishing world -book sales are more influenced by the number of times your book and the author's face are flashed on the television screen in a prime-time show than any number of good reviews or interviews. I now realise what steep hurdles my lunch with Sharma had faced.
The tone of Sharma's latest book is different from the one he wrote in 2012, I suggest as the starters begin to arrive at our table. Sharma says the two books are completely different -the first one was very predictive, the one now is based on research aimed at zeroing in on 10 broad rules that can be behind the making or unmaking of a nation. Is that why he went wrong on making some predictions in Breakout Nations, like naming Turkey and Nigeria, both of which are in deep trouble now? Sharma says those are the risks you take when you predict - nobody knew then how the oil would behave, but adds by way of defence that Turkey, though, is not that badly off. But the 10 broad rules that he has zeroed in on to define the progress and decline of countries should stand the test of time, he says.
The food that was served on the table does not seem to interest Sharma. The main course has arrived. Tofu sashimi looks enticing, but Sharma's mind is somewhere else, it seems. Going beyond the 10 rules, what strikes him the most about the world these days, I ask. Sharma takes no time in giving a one-word answer: Anti-incumbency. He explains how the big theme is not necessarily anti-globalisation, but how regimes are faced with the challenges of anti-incumbency. What about India? "India has done quite well by my matrix," Sharma says, though, he adds that rising inequality is a cause for concern and Prime Minister Narendra Modi could certainly have moved faster on reforms.
Sharma seems to be a writer with abstemious habits. The tofu sashimi has been disposed of in quick time and he does not need a second helping. I am far from finished with my teriyaki chicken. Changing the subject, I ask him how the book-writing bug bit him. Sharma becomes nostalgic. Even while he was in college, he would write occasional articles on the state of the markets and the economy in Indian business newspapers. His first job with Prime Securities was only for a couple of years. His next employer was Morgan Stanley, with whom he has stayed on for more than two decades. And that job offer probably came to him largely because of the many articles he used to write.
I am not yet over with my chicken and ask him if his job of offering investment advice restrains his ability to make candid observations about the countries and markets in his articles or books. Isn't there a conflict? Sharma smiles and says there has been no conflict so far and his employers have no complaints. So, when is his next book coming? No answer from Sharma, except that he explains what differentiates a newspaper article from an essay in a journal or a book. Writing a newspaper piece is like a one-night stand, an essay is an affair and a book is a marriage, Sharma says quoting one of his associates. Sharma has been a regular contributor of articles to leading international newspapers and is now on to books. And what do you do with the money that you get from books? "I do not keep with myself any money that I earn from my articles or books. They all go to charity," Sharma says without any flourish.
Two more calls have already flashed on Sharma's mobile phone kept in silent mode. He picks it up and assures the caller that he would soon be through. I realise it must be another TV interview coming up for him. I ask him if he would like to go for dessert. He declines and as we get up, I realise Sharma is not only tall, but has an athletic figure, too. He explains that he goes for regular runs. And as he hops into his sedan, it becomes clear that his athletic physique looks no less impressive than the adroitness with which he marshals his arguments in his book.
