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<div class='ite_mg_banner ads__container'><div class='it_mg_bnrBox'><div class='ite_bnr_cont'><div class='ite_cont_dtl'> <h4>Get <span class='bold_text'>37%</span> off on an annual Print +Digital subscription of India Today Magazine</h4><a href='https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsubscriptions.intoday.in%2Findiatoday%3Futm_source%3Dtop-web-banner ' class='ite_subscribe_btn origin_conscent_url' target='_blank'>SUBSCRIBE</a></div></div></div></div>

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<div class="itg-mosimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1998June%2Fgrooming1_082812015221.jpg" alt="" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img><p>"Zero! Zero! Zero!" Sputters Rattan Sehgal, a 42-year-old businessman father, when describing how much personality his teenage son has. It is a striking display of emotion. Sehgal may have sounded like a panicky swabbie alerting the bridge about incoming Japanese fighters, but an increasing number of anxious, ambitious parents like him are waking up to discover their children have as much panache as chopped liver.</p><p>This perceived malady is even more pronounced in the newly gentrified colonies and the low-income group flats of urban India. All of them now have a single quest: to tear away the tag that defines their children as "common". </p><p>They want an image change - some pizzazz, some savoir faire anything that makes them break out of that unimpressive, unpolished, reticent and doltish mould. "It is what I call the Hindi-medium disease," rants Sehgal. "This summer I will change it all."<br><br>Get a personality it's the new suburban mantra that seems to be ringing down every alley. And to cater to that demand, quick-fix institutes that target teenagers have started springing up in almost every locality. </p><p>Professor Higginses are crawling out of the woodwork. In Delhi alone, there seems to be 13 such institutions and it's also the trend in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. Courses offered range from "the art of conversation", "body language and style" and "everlasting first impression" to just plain and simple "attracting masses". </p><p>All this at affordable prices, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000. And if you are too embarrassed to be seen in these institutes, you can employ a personality doctor who comes home every day or, better still, sends you assignments in the mail. </p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p>It s quickly becoming a mindset-no more can anyone afford to be plain, boring and just Hindi-speaking. No. Today, every child needs to be a human dynamo, with an anglicised accent, a pleasing personality and a confidence level that would put Superman to shame. It isn't much to achieve and it can all be done in an easy time-frame just two-to-six weeks, maybe eight if there is a severe problem. Money upfront, of course.<br></p><table><tbody><tr><td><b>Kids need to break out of the unpolished, doltish mould.<br></b></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Take Real Macoy Inc. an institute that runs its business from a basement in Outram Lines near Delhi University. The young CEO, Ashish Kumar, is a live advertisement for his firm, a fast-talking (with a high nasal accent), grammar-twisting man with gel smooth mannerisms. "I cater to every aspect of the human psyche," he tells you. </p><p>The way he sees it, the key to success lies in getting noticed. "You have to stand out. Attract. Impress." Teenagers in his institute are encouraged to speak English in a British/American accent. Their homework: watch Sophiya on Channel V - not her body but her diction and that lovely accent. </p><p>He says everybody manages some kind of English, but heads turn when you speak with a foreign accent. The children who troop into his institute mostly have problems with self-esteem and confidence. Shy and withdrawn, they have trouble speaking out in a group. </p><p>Kumar and his staff make them talk to themselves all alone in a room and the conversation is recorded. It is then played back to the class, analysed and appreciated. Slowly, the teenagers learn that they can speak without being ridiculed or humiliated. "In the end, I put them into situations that force them to address a group for 10 minutes on any subject," claims Kumar.<br><br>But it isn't just about speaking out. These personality programmes are today being perceived as status symbols- a prerequisite to success for the educated but aspiring higher class. Says Mukta Mehra, who runs the Mehra Training Bureau in central Delhi: "My clients are mostly those who have run into wealth but find the finesse missing." </p><p>They find that money isn't enough to break into the most rarefied of social circles. There is something else far more vital: a Holy Grail called class. Mehra says a lot of these families suffer from extreme inhibitions and keep on self-introspecting. </p><p>"Wide-eyed housewives who see other live-wire kids pontificating on a variety of subjects ask me to transform their children too." It's as if, cuddenly, everything they are doing has the taint of a middle-class family they don't like the way their children talk, dress or act. </p><p>Mehra specialises in teaching kids etiquette and social manners. Anything goes: how to lay the dinner table at home, how to speak to women, how not to fill your plate as if there won't be another meal for a long time. Or just down-to-basics stuff like making sure you sniff your armpits before leaving home.<br></p><table><tbody><tr><td><b>The course are seen as way to climb the social leader.</b> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>For some children, much of their parents' ridicule, at times, has a devastating effect. Take Arjun Kashyap, who at 14 is attending one such personality grooming course. "My father thinks nothing of me," he explains. </p><p>From the failure to pronounce words correctly, his father saw other failures multiply failure to stand straight, inability to talk to others, failure to say please, failure in just about everything. Says Air Commodore (retd) Tilak Raj, who runs Sankalp, a centre for self-development: "Most of these kids really just need a guiding force in their lives." </p><p>Many of them belong to the latch-key generation, lazy and listless, who let themselves into their homes after school and watch TV till their parents return from work. Confidence levels sag and motivation is zilch. "All I need to do is give them a purpose," he adds. </p><p>In the first floor of his west Delhi house, he gives them different situations to analyse, different books to read, different roles to enact. All of it geared towards creating some lateral thinking. The idea is to make them more creative, so they can hold their own during conversations, jumping subjects with relative ease.<br><br>"It's really a matter of unlocking their minds-making them discover their own potential," says Brigadier (retd) S.K. Gulati, who runs the Excel Training Forum from a barsati in Delhi's Lajpat Nagar. Luckily, all the kids aren't like Kashyap. </p><p>Many of themtreat "personality courses" much like computer or language courses- skills that need to be picked up in this tough, get real, competitive world. "My parents didn't push me to do this, I figured all by myself that I needed to do it," explains 15-year-old Anand Aggarwal. So, what did his parents feel? "They just needed me to get out of their way this summer."<br></p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Jun 8, 1998</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div></div>

society-and-the-arts

Society & The Arts

<div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1998June%2Fgrooming1_082812015221.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div><p>"Zero! Zero! Zero!" Sputters Rattan Sehgal, a 42-year-old businessman father, when describing how much personality his teenage son has. It is a striking display of emotion. Sehgal may have sounded like a panicky swabbie alerting the bridge about incoming Japanese fighters, but an increasing number of anxious, ambitious parents like him are waking up to discover their children have as much panache as chopped liver.</p><p>This perceived malady is even more pronounced in the newly gentrified colonies and the low-income group flats of urban India. All of them now have a single quest: to tear away the tag that defines their children as "common". </p><p>They want an image change - some pizzazz, some savoir faire anything that makes them break out of that unimpressive, unpolished, reticent and doltish mould. "It is what I call the Hindi-medium disease," rants Sehgal. "This summer I will change it all."<br><br>Get a personality it's the new suburban mantra that seems to be ringing down every alley. And to cater to that demand, quick-fix institutes that target teenagers have started springing up in almost every locality. </p><p>Professor Higginses are crawling out of the woodwork. In Delhi alone, there seems to be 13 such institutions and it's also the trend in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. Courses offered range from "the art of conversation", "body language and style" and "everlasting first impression" to just plain and simple "attracting masses". </p><p>All this at affordable prices, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000. And if you are too embarrassed to be seen in these institutes, you can employ a personality doctor who comes home every day or, better still, sends you assignments in the mail. </p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p>It s quickly becoming a mindset-no more can anyone afford to be plain, boring and just Hindi-speaking. No. Today, every child needs to be a human dynamo, with an anglicised accent, a pleasing personality and a confidence level that would put Superman to shame. It isn't much to achieve and it can all be done in an easy time-frame just two-to-six weeks, maybe eight if there is a severe problem. Money upfront, of course.<br></p><table style="margin-left: 8px; background-color: rgb(229, 229, 229);" align="right" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" height="29" width="201"><tbody><tr><td scope="" style="" dir="" id="" align="" lang="" valign="top" xml:lang=""><b style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Kids need to break out of the unpolished, doltish mould.<br></b></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Take Real Macoy Inc. an institute that runs its business from a basement in Outram Lines near Delhi University. The young CEO, Ashish Kumar, is a live advertisement for his firm, a fast-talking (with a high nasal accent), grammar-twisting man with gel smooth mannerisms. "I cater to every aspect of the human psyche," he tells you. </p><p>The way he sees it, the key to success lies in getting noticed. "You have to stand out. Attract. Impress." Teenagers in his institute are encouraged to speak English in a British/American accent. Their homework: watch Sophiya on Channel V - not her body but her diction and that lovely accent. </p><p>He says everybody manages some kind of English, but heads turn when you speak with a foreign accent. The children who troop into his institute mostly have problems with self-esteem and confidence. Shy and withdrawn, they have trouble speaking out in a group. </p><p>Kumar and his staff make them talk to themselves all alone in a room and the conversation is recorded. It is then played back to the class, analysed and appreciated. Slowly, the teenagers learn that they can speak without being ridiculed or humiliated. "In the end, I put them into situations that force them to address a group for 10 minutes on any subject," claims Kumar.<br><br>But it isn't just about speaking out. These personality programmes are today being perceived as status symbols- a prerequisite to success for the educated but aspiring higher class. Says Mukta Mehra, who runs the Mehra Training Bureau in central Delhi: "My clients are mostly those who have run into wealth but find the finesse missing." </p><p>They find that money isn't enough to break into the most rarefied of social circles. There is something else far more vital: a Holy Grail called class. Mehra says a lot of these families suffer from extreme inhibitions and keep on self-introspecting. </p><p>"Wide-eyed housewives who see other live-wire kids pontificating on a variety of subjects ask me to transform their children too." It's as if, cuddenly, everything they are doing has the taint of a middle-class family they don't like the way their children talk, dress or act. </p><p>Mehra specialises in teaching kids etiquette and social manners. Anything goes: how to lay the dinner table at home, how to speak to women, how not to fill your plate as if there won't be another meal for a long time. Or just down-to-basics stuff like making sure you sniff your armpits before leaving home.<br></p><table style="margin-right: 8px; background-color: rgb(229, 229, 229);" align="left" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3" height="43" width="197"><tbody><tr><td scope="" style="" dir="" id="" align="" lang="" valign="top" xml:lang=""><b style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">The course are seen as way to climb the social leader.</b> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>For some children, much of their parents' ridicule, at times, has a devastating effect. Take Arjun Kashyap, who at 14 is attending one such personality grooming course. "My father thinks nothing of me," he explains. </p><p>From the failure to pronounce words correctly, his father saw other failures multiply failure to stand straight, inability to talk to others, failure to say please, failure in just about everything. Says Air Commodore (retd) Tilak Raj, who runs Sankalp, a centre for self-development: "Most of these kids really just need a guiding force in their lives." </p><p>Many of them belong to the latch-key generation, lazy and listless, who let themselves into their homes after school and watch TV till their parents return from work. Confidence levels sag and motivation is zilch. "All I need to do is give them a purpose," he adds. </p><p>In the first floor of his west Delhi house, he gives them different situations to analyse, different books to read, different roles to enact. All of it geared towards creating some lateral thinking. The idea is to make them more creative, so they can hold their own during conversations, jumping subjects with relative ease.<br><br>"It's really a matter of unlocking their minds-making them discover their own potential," says Brigadier (retd) S.K. Gulati, who runs the Excel Training Forum from a barsati in Delhi's Lajpat Nagar. Luckily, all the kids aren't like Kashyap. </p><p>Many of themtreat "personality courses" much like computer or language courses- skills that need to be picked up in this tough, get real, competitive world. "My parents didn't push me to do this, I figured all by myself that I needed to do it," explains 15-year-old Anand Aggarwal. So, what did his parents feel? "They just needed me to get out of their way this summer."<br></p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Jun 8, 1998</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div></div>

<p>Mannerisms, anglicised accents, self-confidence. Ambitious parents in newly gentrified India are sending their children to quick-fix schools for all this and more.</p>

India Today

Mannerisms, anglicised accents, self-confidence. Ambitious parents in newly gentrified India are sending their children to quick-fix schools for all this and more.

Get a personality this summer - India Today

Ambitious parents in newly gentrified India send their children to quick-fix schools

Get a personality this summer

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Ambitious parents in newly gentrified India send their children to quick-fix schools

Mannerisms, anglicised accents, self-confidence. Ambitious parents in newly gentrified India are sending their children to quick-fix schools for all this and more.

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