“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller
If you could create a community for leaders, what would it be? For an avid reader like Mohit Gupta, the answer was simple – a community of leaders inspired by books. This led to the creation of City Book Leaders, a unique platform for leaders, writers and book lovers to talk, interact and connect over their love for books.
Founder and chief curator of City Book Leaders, Mohit Gupta’s journey is as fascinating as his philosophy behind creating a community for readers. A chemical engineering student, with smart entrepreneurial skills, Mohit decided to follow his passion after almost ten years of working in corporate finance.
In a tete-a-tete with Siddhi Gandhi, Mohit Gupta talks about his inspirations, forming a lifelong connection and why books will always be an evergreen medium of knowledge.
City Book Leaders is a unique knowledge exchange platform for leaders to come together and talk/review the books they have read. What drove you to start the community?
It all started with my love for books and connecting with others based on the discussions on the books. The concept of city leaders came to me accidentally while curating a festival in Delhi. The speakers at the festival talked about their perception of the city and I was intrigued by some of the stories they shared. Initially, the idea was to have a platform similar to TEDx, where leaders could come and talk about their journey and inspiration through the medium of books; to bring authors, readers and non-readers together to discuss what’s so amazing about a book everyone has read that changed his or her life.
Also, I have always believed in the power of reading and also sharing that knowledge, especially since the birth of my daughter. Her birth made me think of a question that I had read in a book, “What will your loved ones say about you after you die?” It got me thinking about how my daughter will remember me once I am gone? She may not talk about how much I earned or what car I drove. But she would talk about what I had done for others and for society.
This got me thinking deeper – on how she will grow and what kind of environment she will be in. And this got me interested in climate change as a subject. I got interested in renewable energy and found a brilliant book that talked about the conservation of energy. I decided to make a change for the better and left my corporate finance job.
Consultant, photographer, curator, content creator and founder of different ventures, you have played so many different roles in your career. Does your experience so far help you with the curation process for the events or get an insight on managing the flow of conversation to prevent digression from the topic of reading?
That’s a tough one. We are made up of what we have experienced in our lives. Many experiences do help a lot while thinking in various directions thus bringing people from varied backgrounds together. Books have helped me make lifelong connections. You will find me squeezing in some reading time even during a five-minute break. And I love giving books to people. Books are evergreen and will be there with you for a long period. They also allow me to connect with my friends, hold discussions and share ideas. Such discussions help fill the gaps in our perception, intrigue us and help us research further. Ultimately, it helps with the learning process.
I believe that my previous experiences have been handy while setting up, researching and curating talks for the platform. Research is an important component of any event. That, and time. The events are conducted for a stipulated amount of time. Completing the event in the given time frame is easy as long as you know what you are talking about.
I was decently entrepreneurial even before I started CBL. And I think I was lucky enough to meet some fascinating people while starting City Book Leaders. I am blessed to have some friends who believed in what I had in mind and kept on supporting me at every stage of it.
The events hosted by CBL are not limited to a certain genre or subject. There is something for every kind of reader. What kind of process do you go through to curate the events?
I look for what others need. Our biggest investor is our audience, who come with a trust that when an event is curated by CBL it will be different and will cater to their knowledge craving. Therefore, we look for all possible outcomes of a session and plan the themes accordingly. Books are written on every known subject; so for us, content is available in abundance.
We have very loyal partisanship, and our community is closely knit. It is not just the speakers, but also the audience that gets a platform to discuss books. There is a lot of peer-to-peer learning taking place through the events, the courses we offer and even the peer groups that formed over the journey of CBL.
As for the process, reading for me is akin to learning. Whether I am reading a novel, or newspaper or even a flyer, I am learning something. Sometimes, reading about certain subjects intrigues me and I may refer to other books to get more information, do more reading. Similarly, while curating an event, I read and research as much as possible – what perspectives can come out of this discussion, or what conversations can be engaged in with the readers.
Imagine a Vedic pundit next to a rocket scientist talking about two different subjects and finding a connection through a particular book – it could be related to science or their perception about the other person’s work, it could be anything. These common threads then turn into fascinating points of conversation. This entire process leaves me slightly more equipped for the future.
This is a question that needs to be asked, electronic or physical books?
My love is with physical books as that’s pure reading rest all falls in the category of screening to me. Mr Arun Maira (Chairman – HelpAge International, Author – Listening for Well-Being: Conversations with People Not Like Us, Former Chairman- BCG India, Former Member of India’s Planning Commission) explained to me a few years ago; while you read a book your all five senses are at play and thus it gives you a better immersion into the subject.
As a child, I used to read books published by Pustak Mahal. I loved reading Ripley’s Believe It or Not, The Unsolved Mysteries of the World, Pustak Mahal’s Vishwas Prasiddh series, etc. There were so many books to read while growing up. And when in college, Chetan Bhagat was a great motivator. I also used to read Business World during college, to look cool and show off!
You kept the community going even during the pandemic. According to you, does going virtual affect the feeling of community?
Our community grew much bigger during the pandemic. Earlier we were able to host limited open sessions but now it is very frequent giving us access to anyone and anywhere in the world. I made some amazing friends in this community without having met them in flesh to date. Nonetheless, there was some pivoting required while transitioning from offline to online sessions.
The offline sessions were not limited to conversations or speaking engagements. We always gave the audience an experience of all the five senses. It could be the colour of seats, valet parking, food and beverages, everything. In an online session though, all of this is not required. So, the conversations need to be even more engaging and should be jargon-free to give the audience a good experience even at their homes.
CBL also hosts podcasts apart from live discussions. Can you please shed some light on the differences in both mediums – selection of topics, discussion styles and skills needed for both?
The number of podcasts recorded by people has grown during the lockdown. Earlier, a very limited number of people were making them. The selection of topic or content for a podcast needs to be done in a different way. There is a whole different process to it. As the audience cannot see us, we need to modulate our voices or dramatise and emphasise words or sentences, so it does take a lot of preparation.
Podcasts are getting more traction now, thanks to the Alexa or Google Assistant. It is easier to listen to them while in a car or while commuting. But to engage the audience, they need to be done in a very interesting way. I personally believe that the content created should be small and easy to remember. If it is too long, the audience may not feel connected to it.
We at CBL have a 40 plus episode podcast as Story Bank which was created during the peak of the lockdown and it has some amazing and quirky stories of cities of India that we were reading during that time. We never interviewed anyone for the podcasts but created our own stories on cities. Many of the stories had incidents that not many people knew about.
Stories like the story of Rasagulla from Odisha, Sambhar is not South Indian, Kipling as a train contractor, Beetles in Rishikesh and many such amazing stories. We also give a reference to the books that have inspired these stories, making the podcast a holistic collection.
Again, the focus is on the audience. This medium serves anyone who loves stories and not just plain vanilla facts. Listening has been a Vedic skill (Shruti) which is our core of working too. And we get to spread happiness through the process.
What is one of the most memorable discussions that you’ve had the opportunity to conduct on the CBL platform? It could be something that was refreshing or changed your perspective completely or challenged your perceptions.
Yes, there was one such discussion with Subhrata Prakash for her book ‘D Word’ which she has written after surviving depression for 10 years. She is a noted IRS officer and her book was like an eye-opener on postpartum depression and what a female goes through after childbirth.
When I first got the book, I had no idea what it was about. I read the book as per the preparation for the session, while I was on a short flight from Delhi to Chandigarh. It took me three hours to read the book. I wept after reading it and apologised to my wife. It gave a perspective that a male would never have thought about.
I recollect that my wife also went through a similar experience, but I had no idea about how difficult it was for her. Women have to go through so many changes that I, as a man, would never understand. This book gave me a reason to research deep into human relationships and I have been gifting this book to many of the new parents and even friends who have become parents. And this was the basis of the conversation I had with Subhrata.
Similarly, every discussion I have had, I have learnt something new. The logic is that as long as you are open to learning, even a bank statement or a billboard poster can give you a lifelong lesson.
The about section on your LinkedIn profile says “Your network is your networth. Increase it with good deeds.” Can you please elaborate on this in the context of CBL?
I was inspired by this quote by Zig Ziglar (American author and motivational speaker) “You can get enough of what you want if you can give others enough of what they want.” You cannot increase your network without the service or intent and cannot be just a taker in every transaction you do. Giving is the best form of any business and I apply it to the core in life. Also, I am from Lucknow city where everything is ‘Pehle Aap’.
You were recently featured in the Startup Spotlight by LinkedIn Local. How does it feel to be recognised for something that you have been passionate about?
My my my. Preeti Chaudhary (Founder – LinkedIn Local India) is one amazing person and a true go-giver. I am always nervous to see my name anywhere in public as my biggest fear is ‘What if I become arrogant and the hubris gets into my head’. I just represented the community and it was not at all for me and will never be.
There is an amazing book by R. Gopalakrishnan called ‘Crash’. It talks about how successful people fail after they get power. It is a brilliant book, which tells us the importance of being grounded in life. Hence, my fear of becoming arrogant! For me, the validation comes from the audience, the discussions we have and continued reading and learning.
What we personally loved about CBL is the evident love for reading. In your own words, books are at the epicentre of all discussions and they help build some of the best human networks possible… Do you believe that we, as a people, are reading and discussing books enough?
We need to have more temples of such discussions in the form of libraries. With our product ‘readiO’, which is reading in offices, we are reaching out to many corporations and colleges to set up reading spaces with a lot of action-packed into them. We believe an effort of the scale of ‘Yoga’ to be done to bring back the glory of books, libraries and reading in our country.
Through readiO and readiSco (reading in schools and colleges), we are basically building micro-communities, and inculcating the habit of reading among people who may not necessarily be readers. If we are to host an event on AI, for example, in an organisation with 5000 employees, only 15 to 20 employees may show up. But, by setting up a library, we give the employees an opportunity to read what interests them. We specifically curate books as per the organisation’s needs.
How do we cultivate this love of reading in a generation that is obsessed with electronic gadgets, the latest trends and social media likes?
In the end, it’s all about the company. The kind of people we encircle ourselves will matter the most. The depression and loneliness are catching up and book clubs based on people’s specific interests are our way to give a lovely nice cosy place to hang out.
I face this challenge with my 8-year-old daughter too. What I do is give her a book on things that interest her. If she wants Lego, I ensure that she gets a book related to Lego along with the game. Recently my daughter told me that she is interested in football. So, I got her a book by Pelé. The point is, that even if she does not read the book in its entirety, she knows that she can get lots of information on her interest from it. Apart from this, we have zero screen time for two hours before we sleep and that’s a time we all read books in our own corners with lovely tracks in the background. Excess of anything is not humane but to err is also humane.
What are the important criteria one must keep in mind while starting their own platform for like-minded people to come together and interact?
For me, books have been a constant companion. And they have always come to me, whenever I needed them the most. When I was conceptualising a new idea for CBL, this book related to that concept automatically came to my mailbox. Someone had gifted it to me. And this has always happened. I was planning to learn Sanskrit, and someone sent me a book on Sanskrit. So, books have been something I could always fall back on. And I think that this is the case for every reader.
As a community leader, I would not want to restrict others from enjoying their books. I believe an open-door policy of the community is the best thing that a community leader should do – come anytime and go anytime. There should be simple rules but not military restrictions. In a nutshell, don’t be a control freak and give back to the people who have come and apply the principles of gratitude. You should read ‘The Art of Community’ by Charles Vogl. It perfectly describes what a community should be like. I have applied many of the teachings from the book for CBL, and I am happy with what I have so far.
City Book Leaders is focused on not just readers, readers are going to read and do not require persuading. We are focused on non-readers, encouraging them to read some more and give them a wholesome experience that will intrigue them and make them aware of the wonderful possibilities they can find through books.
Takeaways from the Interview
