Pratik Bharat Palor has academic degrees of Chartered Accountancy and Company Secretary. He is known to be a thorough gentleman and an animated personality, and has been a role model of mannerism for the people around him. Be it home or office or community or an absolutely new place, Pratik knows how to conduct himself and secure the best of relations with people. His excellent academic, professional and literary career only adds to his humbleness and never shadows his humility. He has recently come out with the book 80-quettes: Conduct is the Key, which through a narrative structure of a mother-daughter conversation, presents guidelines for appropriate social conduct.

I chat with him about his book 80-quettes, what inspired him to write this book, book recommendations, and much more.

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself!

I am blessed to have excelled in both the academic and creative fields. I have got a national Gold Medal in CA and a national 7^th Rank in CS, besides being the author of nine books in different genres, and have featured in the India Book of Records 2019. I always write to convey a positive and meaningful message, rather than for sheer entertainment or self-gratification.

If you could only describe your book 80-quettes: Conduct is the Key in one sentence, what would it be?

It’s a ready reckoner of human behaviour, for all age groups.

Now tell us a little more about the book! What can readers expect?

In the book, Jigyasa, the teenage daughter is asking several questions to her mother Veda, about how to conduct herself in the best possible ways with different people, at different places and while being in different personal positions. Veda’s answers are there in the form of chapters where one gets to know the why’s and how’s of best possible conduct.

What inspired you to write this book?

I have met a lot of people who haven’t experienced a lot of situations of being in a particular place and facing different kinds of people, which makes them nervous about how to conduct themselves. Or, there are those who are making several mistakes while being in these combinations. And to make it worse, they don’t have someone who can comprehensively guide them around this. That’s where the idea of this book emerged from.

What research did you have to do for this book?

Since this book is not in the scientific, technical or data genre, it didn’t need research but experience and honesty. It needed a lot of personal and social observations to bring about all possible ways in which a person needs to present oneself.

What is the message that you want readers to take away from this book?

Behaviour is all about being receptive, responsive and respectful of what the other person is thinking, expecting, and perceiving about you. Interpersonal skills are an art of being aware of and agile in one’s emotions.

How have you been coping with the current pandemic and what will be the new normal for you post it?

I have almost stopped planning or forecasting, and have started living in the present more than ever before. I have become better in using technology, like many others around me. I have learnt a lot of new skills online and that’s what everyone should focus on.

Lastly, are you currently reading anything and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

I regularly read and I do book reviews also, which are there on my IG page @pustak_darpan. I would like to recommend a number of my favourite books to the readers:

1. Sanskrit Non-Translatables: The Importance of Sanskritizing English by Rajiv Malhotra and Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji

2. Vitamin Zindagi by Lalit Kumar (in Hindi)

3. Sunrise Beyond The Dead End by Anushree Painuly

4. Yashasvi Bharat by Mohan Bhagwat (in Hindi)

5. The One Minute Apology: A Powerful Way to Make Things Better by Ken Blanchard and Margret McBride

The book ‘80-quettes: Conduct is the Key’ is available online and at your nearest bookstore.