Good corporate satire is much like stumbling on a one-page report or a no-calls-after-6 pm policy. Everyone speaks of it, is convinced of its importance and yet few have ever seen it. Naomi Datta’s How to Be a Likeable Bigot, however, is real. Like balm after a long day at work, it provides a lot of chuckles. If you’re able to laugh through the pain of relating to the subject matter and walk away without falling into the cubbyhole of introspective angst or guilt then this book is a winner; the perfect antidote to replying to email chains in rainbow-coloured font.
The prime goal here is to not make you stand out; to survive through deliberate obscurity and by proactively sidelining yourself. The chapter titles could very well be a list of listicles gone viral. In true self-help parody style, Datta adds pictures, sorry ‘visual aids and mnemonics’ at the end of each chapter. These summarize chapters, present activity flows and give step-by-step instructions. She begins with the low hanging fruit of business satire - email and work WhatsApp groups. One sees flashes of Dilbertesque genius in her commentary on EOD being a time paradox; the veiled threat that is, ‘Happy to take this offline’; the young intern just killing time before leaving for Yale and abbreviating “Top Priority” to TP. The Meeting Room Booking Team is another masterstroke -- an evolutionary mechanism waiting to happen. Datta’s take on avoiding LinkedIn Premium is both pragmatic and its link to self-esteem is imaginative and hilarious.
Good satire requires just the right amount of anger and bitterness. Overdo it and you have a raging rant that’s no fun to read. Datta manages this fine line well. Her takes on Miss India contestants with goals of Bollywood debuts and conning the world into funding your holiday are refreshing and display just the right amount of contempt for the gullible. The quality of the author’s satire is in direct proportion to the horror of the truth it exposes. She hits home with mommy WhatsApp groups and how important it is to be social online to ensure your child does not grow up alone and maladjusted. She wittily chronicles how a vapid society overshares their mundaneness; the irony of being alive at a time when words have lost their meaning especially in hashtag form, and how a knowledge of Rumi translates into online traffic. In her inimitable style, she grapples with the big questions and presents words to live by. Datta says changing such a world will kill you or, at the very least, give you ulcers. Espousing the larger cause has no nutritional value and rebellion only results in acidity. She points out that the emperor has no clothes and neither do his people. Nobody is safe especially cubicle dwellers, fitness zealots, Twitter instigators, Facebook pot stirrers and Instagram filter abusers. Datta manages to put them all under her magnifying lens and roasts them well.
{{/usCountry}}Good satire requires just the right amount of anger and bitterness. Overdo it and you have a raging rant that’s no fun to read. Datta manages this fine line well. Her takes on Miss India contestants with goals of Bollywood debuts and conning the world into funding your holiday are refreshing and display just the right amount of contempt for the gullible. The quality of the author’s satire is in direct proportion to the horror of the truth it exposes. She hits home with mommy WhatsApp groups and how important it is to be social online to ensure your child does not grow up alone and maladjusted. She wittily chronicles how a vapid society overshares their mundaneness; the irony of being alive at a time when words have lost their meaning especially in hashtag form, and how a knowledge of Rumi translates into online traffic. In her inimitable style, she grapples with the big questions and presents words to live by. Datta says changing such a world will kill you or, at the very least, give you ulcers. Espousing the larger cause has no nutritional value and rebellion only results in acidity. She points out that the emperor has no clothes and neither do his people. Nobody is safe especially cubicle dwellers, fitness zealots, Twitter instigators, Facebook pot stirrers and Instagram filter abusers. Datta manages to put them all under her magnifying lens and roasts them well.
{{/usCountry}}To say this book is only a tool for humor does it a grave disservice. An inadvertent byproduct of Datta’s irony is pretty good advice. One learns how to leverage social media and build a good CV. There’s some surprisingly good parenting advice and an insightful deconstruction of the academic bigot. Datta champions the critic’s place in society, and is against the public intellectual being replaced by the thought leader. She is fearless in taking on the icons of this particular world view, such as the ‘Spirit of Mumbai.’ In a prescient move especially given our current times, Datta allays the fears that those without a humorous bone in their bodies or an appreciation of satire might take this book to heart as a manual. She builds her safeguards against the weaponizing of her words. This is such a smart move that the little self-pat on page 108 is well deserved. Much like the life coach pundits, this book is the mere starting point of Datta’s empire. In a sort of meta-satire, she describes the spinoffs that are truly going to make her the money. The Think X talk series and sessions are absolute zingers. Anita’s power move in telling her carbs, “You don’t eat me, I eat you.” is pure comedic gold.
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The chinks in Datta’s armour are few and feature towards the end of the book. Her sulk about liberals in India is akin to the proverbial exorbitant bar bill at the end of a fun drinks session. It is a downer. The entire news editor chapter can be summed up as an Arnab meme. The bits about PC culture destroying humour, tokenism, listicles taking over, and things women are good at, are old and easy potshots. It feels like Datta is playing to the gallery. In these bits, the banter is sparse, the humour seems forced and the prose is preachy.
On the whole, though, How to Be a Likeable Bigot is a refreshing read. It is well researched, the humor is on point, and Datta’s comedic sweep is vast. Read this book for the author’s takes on how privilege is like an aloo and why enjoy-nothing is the motto of the woke generation. Read it for the numerous quotable lines which will ensure you are the centre of any party. And if you are a working professional make this your bible.
Percy Bharucha is a freelance writer and illustrator with two biweekly comics, The Adult Manual and Cats Over Coffee. Instagram: @percybharucha