“Reading helps us learn empathy.”
Sankaran Jeyaraman, a newly minted member of the go-to-market (GTM) team at Freshworks, does not consider himself to be a ‘bookworm’. The moniker paints a picture of voracious readers sitting around coffee tables — an elusive club where he aspires to enter someday. And yet, he confesses, rather bashfully, that he would spend countless hours as a child pouring over weatherworn copies of R.K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days, the Amar Chithra Katha illustrated mythology series, Benjamin Tabart’s The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk, and the enchanting mysteries in the Middle Eastern folktale, One Thousand and One Nights.
Sankaran is an account manager for Inside Sales for small and medium sized businesses. In an email interview for Freshworks Book Circle, he lets us leaf through his reading habits and preferences (“Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling over Agatha Christie”), and the kinds of books that have impacted his life.
What kinds of books do you usually read?
I read all kinds of books, really. I don’t have any particular preference although I would easily choose Khaled Hosseini’s Kite Runner over Robert T. Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad.
What are you currently reading?
I’m reading a quick page-turner right now called Zero to One by the legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel.
I would say this book is a digression from my usual choices. In the beginning of the book, Peter asks for an important truth that very few of us agree with. He believes that the answer to this question lies in a prediction for the future. He also draws from his own experience of scaling startups like PayPal and Facebook, which makes the book more insightful.
What draws you to a particular genre of books?
For me, it mostly depends on what I am going through in life. It’s difficult to stick to a type but I am fond of the overarching themes of nostalgia and melancholia in a work. It’s why I am drawn to the likes of Haruki Murakami, Arundhati Roy, and Khalid Hosseini.
Do you prefer physical books to e-books? What about audiobooks?
I like physical books. I like trailing my fingers over their margins. There’s something romantic about ‘traditional’ books that way.
I don’t disagree that e-books and audio books can be more practical than physical books but they have never appealed to me personally. It feels better to connect to something tangible.
Can you name some books that have had the most impact on you?
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy. This book is very close to my heart. Roy has a way with words that paints pictures of melancholia and the human condition, including the plight of minorities. The novel iterates that “all morality is someone’s opinion,” which touched me deeply.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. I still believe this is Roy’s best work till date. The novel introduced me to the world of magic realism. She creates a language of her own, which can be said for few people.
Reading this book is like going to war with yourself. The stories talk about love, and “the laws laid down about who should be loved, and how, and how much.”
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. This novel is an easy read when it comes to language but packs a punch in terms of ideas. It revolves around a man who refuses to conform to society and sets on a solitary journey through America to find himself. At the end of the book, the protagonist Christopher McCandless realizes that happiness is real only when shared.
Do you think the habit of reading can help one in one’s profession?
Reading helps improve vocabulary and communication skills in general, which is a huge confidence-booster. It also helps us learn the meaning of empathy, of putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes.
What’s next on your reading list?
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Cover design: Saikat Das
Delighted by what you read? Freshworks Book Circle is an ongoing series featuring interesting Freshworkers and the books they love or draw inspirations from, and their learnings from the written wor(l)d.
