A Visit to Tihar

It has been a while since I wrote on this blog. Things would have remained that way I guess, but a worldwide pandemic has finally forced me to break through the dreary dilemmas of law and publish here again.

I want to recount an experience when I was attending chambers of an Advocate and learning the ropes of the legal profession from him. 

"Attending chambers" sounds like a gathering of aristocratic dynasts, wearing three piece suits, pipe in hand, discussing the high falutin' matters of the day while laughing at ribald jokes. It is a curious way of expressing the rigor of a demanding profession - a profession in which words are powerful and have psychological and material impact. Concepts, on the other hand, exist in the abstract till they are more determinedly fleshed out. 

"Advocacy", as one of such concepts, exists somewhere at the back of one's mind and does not register in its full sense on one's conciousness because dealing with the machinery of law enforcement becomes a rigorous routine rather than being a novel one off experience. Perhaps those with an outsider's view of the law have a better understanding of the gravity of matters at stake rather than a young entrant at the bar. For him, it is just survival through sheer scrunching - moulding one's character, sharpening one's rhetorical and legal skill and becoming one with the legal fraternity, matter after another matter.

 

Still, there are some moments even for a young lawyer, where he steps back, and realizes the importance of the job that he is discharging. He realizes that there are matters of life and liberty at stake, and what seems to be a never ending academic exercise, actually reverberates powerfully outside the creaky courtrooms and into the individual lives of the litigants. 

And so it was for me, when among the usual humdrum of legal rigor, I was suddenly dispatched to Tihar Jail to get a Vakalatnama signed from two inmates (A Vakalatnama establishes a lawyer-client relationship after it is duly executed and filed in the court).

I will not bore you, dear reader, with the details of how to reach the jail, how much time it takes from the court, which route one should take etc etc. Suffice it to say that in due course of time I found myself standing before the entrance of the jail and entered it. 

Advocates have more leeway than others while visiting prisoners, but they too have to adhere to fixed timings for prison visit. I entered with half an hour remaining on the clock and heaved a sigh of relief. Entered my credentials in the visitor's register under the watchful gaze of the policeman seated there and finally came to the road that lead to the prisons.

Yes. You read that right. There is actually a road that leads to the prisons. What if prisoners unite and try to break and flee the jail? Who doesn't love freedom and a breath of fresh air? Ask the people who came out of self isolation after 2 weeks of quarantine how it felt. "Relaxed" they would probably reply. What if prisoners decided to "relax"? En masse? 

So you have roads. Long, winding ones. Not because the authorities want to make sure that the fleeing inmates at least get enough cardio before they face the rat race of the big bad world outside, but because there are watch towers at frequent intervals on the sides of these roads so that they can keep a watch on the people coming inside and going outside. The inmate that I had business with, was lodged inside Jail No. 8. And that was a long walk. 

When the walk ended, I came to the place with iron clad gates with a small passage to enter. There were high walls above the entrance. Barbed wire above the walls. There were watch towers inside this entrance with multiple sentries moving about on their posts. And because we Indians have an obsession with "killing two birds with one stone" mentality, the prominent sign on the gate wasn't the Jail numbers (they were less prominent) but a cheerful signboard announcing "Tihar Textiles" complete with its ISO Certification Number. 

Now, the thing with iron clad gates is, you have to knock them hard for the people inside to hear you. And if you have ever tried knocking them with your bare knuckles, you would know that knuckles hurt a lot without making the kind of sound you would expect. Perhaps that is why the English phrase "cracked his knuckles" rings so true. Knuckles really do crack under pressure and the only sound they make is of their own cracking. 

Anyway, the powers that be had shown mercy and had provided circular "knockers" (if I may call them that) for outsiders to come and use for the purpose of knocking the iron clad gates and making the kind of sound which, in ordinary course, is enough to knock even the most lethargic sentry off his feet. And so I took advantage of this state sanctioned opportunity to knock away. 

Twice.

Thrice.

Four times.

Then I stopped. 2 minutes later, the door slowly opened and a policeman looked at me with the curious contempt reserved for young lawyers. I gave him the Vakalatnama, along with a letter addressed to the Deputy Superintendent, Tihar Jail about the details of the inmate I had business with along with my Bar Council ID and barely had time to mumble "Vakalatnama attest karwana hai" before he shut the gate back on my face. 

Now the wait started. I was standing there in sweltering heat wearing black coat and black trousers without a place to even sit. I shuffled my feet and wiped the sweat off my brow. Within 5 minutes, a couple of other lawyers joined me as they too had come for attestation of vakalatnamas on behalf of their clients. We made small talk after they handed over the documents and joined me to wait for their turn.

Soon, we heard a police van approaching the gate. It came close to the entrance of the jail and then the driver, through a series of deft manoeuvres made the rear of the van face the jail entrance.

Watching us advocates from inside the van were prison inmates. Maybe they were undertrials. Maybe they were convicted. Maybe they had a court date. Maybe. But their gaze had a sort of longing for the freedom that they saw us enjoying. What was this freedom? It was the freedom to choose to be at Tihar Jail rather than to be sent to it forcibly. It was the freedom of choice.

The iron clad gates opened, and not just through the small passage through which I saw the policeman, but they opened wide. Inside, I saw, was a sort of a high ceilinged hall for the prisoners to be inspected, counted and then dispatched to their holding cells. A number of policemen sat in this hall, watching every move of every inmate, making sure nothing funny happened. I soaked in the visual details.

Once all the inmates were offloaded and counted and accounted for, the gates shut back again and the van made its way away from us. We went back to waiting for our names to be called out. Some 10 minutes later, my name was called out and I was handed back my documents. The Vakalatnama had the thumbprint of my client and the signature and seal of the Deputy Superintendent, Tihar Jail.

To be frank, I was hoping to meet my client. My senior hadn't told me that getting the Vakalatnama attested wouldn't involve me meeting the client and so I was under the impression that once my name would be called out, I would be allowed to enter the prison and meet my client. These turned out to be wishful fantasies of a young and inexperienced lawyer. 

I understood that once you are inside that prison, the routine act of meeting face to face also becomes a luxury allowed within the confines of constitutionally regulated framework. Maybe, the freedom that ordinary citizens take for granted, is the freedom lawyers fight for. Maybe, that freedom was much more than mere freedom of choice - it was the freedom to be. Maybe, I had my first lesson in the impact of advocacy in the real world.

I had plenty to think about on my walk back to the exit.      

A Meeting with Madam PM, Australia – October 17,2012

[Text of the Report previously available on Youth Ki Awaaz, and now being put here for records purposes]

On Tuesday, the 9th of October, Australia’s Prime Minister Ms. Julia Gillard, the first female Prime Minister and the first Female Leader of Australia’s ruling Labour Party, stood up in the house of representatives and blasted the Leader of Opposition into pieces by delivering an epic speech on Sexism and Misogyny in Australia and the Leader of Opposition’s double standards on the issue. The speech went viral on the social networking sites and Ms. Gillard was hailed as the first head of state anywhere in the world to have put the issue of gender sensitivity in a very clear perspective. Back here in India, I sat back and saw the way in which she launched the attack, awed by the content of her words and even more by her composure while delivering the speech.

It was in this context that I was overjoyed to receive an invitation from Youth Forum on Foreign Policy in my capacity at Youth Ki Awaaz to be a part of one of the very few people who would have a chance to interact with Ms. Gillard, when she visited India a week later. On 16th, I walked in the Australian High Commission in New Delhi to meet the woman who had overnight become an inspirational figure for countless women across the globe.

Here is the report on the interaction between the Australian Prime Minister and a group of young people representing various organizations and forums.

The Australian High Commission in New Delhi organized an interaction with the Australian Prime Minister Ms. Julia Gillard on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012. The interaction was attended by various people representing a wide spectrum of youth leadership in the country. The interaction was moderated by well known Television Personality and the anchor of popular chat show ‘The Devil’s Advocate’, Mr. Karan Thapar.

Beginning the interaction, Ms. Gillard said that she was visiting India to inaugurate the Oz Festival, the biggest Australian Cultural Festival in India which will span for four months and would tour 18 cities. She said that the message of the festival was to show that face of contemporary Australia to the Indians and showcase her country’s diversity. She said that she was extremely proud of being the premier of a multicultural nation and that the immigrants from various parts of the world added to the “tapestry of modern Australia“. She also touched upon the issue of Racism in Australia, which had hogged headlines in the past two years due to the selected attacks on Indians in her country. She said that both Australia and India had a large population of the youth and that the future of engagement between these two countries was going to be defined by the young people of both the nations. She also said that youth in both the countries can contribute to the emerging world order as the economic interests of India and Australia will continue to converge in the future. She added that the ideas and opinions of the youth did make a difference to the leaders across the world. It was therefore necessary that groups of young people, apart from being organized and being visible, should also come up with practical suggestions that the leaders could implement.

On being asked about the strategic challenges facing the region, the Australian Prime Minister replied that both the country’s region was one with the most middle class consumers. She said that the leaders across the globe have begun realizing this fact as the global economic weight has been gradually shifting to Asia and Asia Pacific. She said that ultimately, all the countries in this region would be responsible for shaping the strategic reality of the region.

On the issue of the sale of Uranium to India, Ms. Gillard said that it would take time for both the countries to negotiate a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. She also added that her party’s decision to sell Uranium to India, reversing a 40 year old policy, was not based on any strategic calculations.

Replying to a query on how women in both the countries can be a part of mainstream political dialogue, Ms, Gillard replied that both the countries were at the midpoint of change in politics for women. She said that she was optimistic about this change and that she was sure that soon it would be routine for the people in both the countries to see half the parliament occupied by women members, the election of a female Prime Minister and the increased induction of women ministers in the cabinet. She expressed hope that soon both the countries would get to a stage where their political dialogues were gender blind.

Upon being asked about the United State’s increasing role in the region and the advantages and risks associated with it, the visiting Prime Minister replied Australia had a long term alliance with the United States. She said that the United States has been engaged in the region and that it was a “force of stability“. She added that her government was of the view that it was important for countries in the region to develop and nurture a relationship of peace and accumulate habits of cooperation.

Ms. Gillard was also asked about Australia’s relationship with China and how was her government looking forward to balance that relationship in the context of its relations with India, to which she replied that Australia had a strong and deep engagement with China. She said that her country wanted to see the rise of China optimistically and that relationship between different countries was not a blind sum game. She opined that China’s growth did not translate into the contraction of India’s market and that the region was emerging into the age where there will exist a dominance of multiple nations. She added that it was important for both India and China to build a mutually beneficial relationship for peaceful co-existence in the region.

On the issue of maritime security, Ms. Gillard repeated that it was important for countries across the region to foster a habit of cooperation and that issue regarding maritime security and conduct needed to be governed by the rule of the international law.

Answering a query on the Millennium Development Goals and their effectiveness and impact, Ms. Gillard said that the MDGs have been remarkable catalysers to world’s efforts in eradicating global poverty, lowering maternal mortality etc. She said that it was important for the nations to not lose hope after 2015 and push for achieving these goals even after their time frame has ended.

Concluding the session by elaborating on her relationship with Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Government of India, she said that it was not her mandate to lecture other countries on their domestic politics. She said that it was important that in order to maintain economic growth, a country also ushers in economic reforms. She added that it was a difficult task for politicians around the world to implement economic reforms and change the status quo.

Post Script: After the formal interaction, I had a chance to interact one on one with the premier where I briefed her about the work of Youth Ki Awaaz. She congratulated the entire team on their efforts saying that Youth Organizations like ours were needed in order to spread awareness and increase advocacy of critical issues. I also asked her about the efficacy of mechanisms which reserve a given number of seats for women in the country’s Parliament by referring to the practice in her own country, where, instead of bringing about a law to this effect, her party has been internally reserving 35% of “winnable seats” for the women candidates. She answered by saying that different countries had their own different way of functioning. Drawing my attention to Papua New Guinea where a vote to this effect had recently failed, she said that it was for the countries themselves to find out which way would work the best in increasing female participation in mainstream political discourse of their respective countries.

An Open Letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh: Why Bash the Chinks?

First Published in Youth Ki Awaaz on May 6, 2012

Respected Sir,

Yes I used the ‘C’ word. It’s not for ‘coup’ or ‘corruption’ as you may suppose (or may be led to suppose), but it’s the single most common cultural slur used across the nation: chinki. If we have to get rid of this slur, we should not hide it in the closets of our minds or the backrooms of our vocabulary, but bring it out in the open just as we cannot win the fight against HIV or caste for that matter by abstaining from saying ‘HIV’ or ‘Caste’.

I am writing you this letter in order to highlight the sense and extent of alienation and suffering that has been instilled in the minds of the people coming from the North Eastern part of our country, especially those whose facial features do not match the facial features of a person coming from mainland India. Yes, chinkis they are – chinkis with pride, respect, a profound love for their culture and their land. But why are they made to pay a price for looking like what they do? Let me state at the outset that I have no answers. I am only going to ask you questions about things that your government or your party’s government should have done long ago, but failed to do.

I could have addressed this letter to someone else. Maybe UPA chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who allegedly calls the shots in your government or Delhi Chief Minister Mrs. Sheila Dikshit who has for the past several years taken no steps at all in order to arrest this sense of discrimination among the North East students even and especially in the country’s capital. However, I have chosen to write to you because you happen to represent Assam in the country’s upper house of the parliament, a state, which happens to be in the North East.

Sir, 65% of our country’s population is under 35 years of age. Yet, if I may ask you, how many among those 65% not belonging to the North East can name the seven sisters and their capitals? How many of them, the so called nationalists and patriots, can even trace a north eastern state correctly on the country’s map? If my experience is anything to go by, except for some of the ardent students of geography, none, not even one, can do so. And right now, even as they read this letter, they are busy fumbling through the country’s map in order to memorize the seven sisters.

I do not intend to point fingers at anyone. Actually, I do not have that many fingers to point if I am asked who is responsible for this situation. However, the recent protest at Jantar Mantar against the killing of Richard Loitam, an architecture student studying in Bangalore and the suicide of Dana Sangma, the niece of the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, in her hostel room due to the discrimination she faced in her college speaks volumes about the extent to which the situation has deteriorated (I can bet those cultural nationalists can’t even name the Chief Minister of Meghalaya).

Nowhere could have a 119 day blockade of a constituent state gone unnoticed except in a country like India. The Indian state skips a heartbeat every time there is a demand for secession from the Indian Union by a state from the North East. And these demands are justified. Who would like to remain in a country where the government treats the residents of a particular state as ‘guests’? Who would like to remain in a country where you are discriminated against day in and day out?

As a recent article by our columnist Purnett Moirnagtham pointed out, the administration of this country takes care in giving the students from the North East a good headache by making them memorize all about the mainland India and making them learn Hindi – a language completely alien to them. Yet the people from the mainland do not know much about their North Eastern counterparts. I have been asked on occasion whether Bihu was the name of a bird and have been completely stumped on other occasions on being asked the capital of Imphal. What does one answer in these situations? What does one answer when she/he is asked whether she/he is from China?

As a student, my experience with my north eastern counterparts has been enriching and educating to say the least. But how does one deal with those culturally insensitive people who do not at all wish to interact with them by saying “they all look alike!” As a nation which goes ballistic when an incident of racism occurs against “Indians” abroad, how do we tackle this gigantic magnitude of racism that we ourselves perpetuate at home? According to a statistic, 78 out of 100 people in Delhi face racism. If the extent of discrimination is so high in the country’s capital, what does one say about the country as a whole?

Respected Sir, we are a country which takes pride in its cultural diversity. Yet, nowhere in the country is culture as diverse as in the North East. I haven’t personally visited that part of our country, yet even the description of Bihu makes me want to dance, even a syllable of Assamese makes me want to learn it and even the mention of Bhoot Jolokia makes me rush for a glass of water. Yet, for most of the “Indians”, north east remains a place where “they” eat dogs. This deliberate cultivation of the cultural other has happened over a period of time, and exponentially during the time when you have been in power.

I appeal to you to urgently take measures in order to stop the discrimination against the seven sisters by their testosterone pumping counterparts in the mainland. Unless serious steps are taken for the correction of the same starting from speedy delivery of justice for the families of Dana and Richard, I, personally, and the people of North East collectively, would continue to blame your government and especially you, for failing to improve this situation.

Yours

Anshul Kumar Pandey

 

Aspiration, Poverty, Drugs, And A Home For The Homeless [Society And The Misfits]

First Published in Youth Ki Awaaz on December 23, 2011 

It’s a wonderful contrast. On the one side of where am standing, is Delhi’s famous ring road, where cars are whizzing by at breakneck speed, driven by people whose life has been following a similar pace. On the other side of where am standing is the Yamuna, on the banks of which, people whose life’s journey has come to a full stop are being cremated. I am actually standing in a park adjacent to Nigambodh Ghat located at Kashmere Gate, where temporary as well as permanent shelters have been erected to house those who have been left behind in this rat race to become successful in life and have taken refuge in the illusions spawned by the pleasures of semi-consciousness induced through drugs.

Contrary to popular perception, peace and tranquility is elusive for a person coming to this park, as the consciousness is haunted by the figures of people who, although awake, barely know who they are, where they are and what are they doing where they happen to be. They look at you with hope, hoping desperately to find their long lost friend, relative or well wisher until this hope turns into confusion, triggered by a conflict between imagination and reality and finally into disappointment. This realization is bitter, the truth behind it even more unpleasant, and hence to escape the clutches of this damning reality, these homeless seek shelter in the world of their own making, the world of imagination and fantasy built upon the foundation of countless bottles of liquor, choking puffs of smoke and unquantifiable amount of tobacco, smack and heroine.

In a society obsessed with its own sense of self righteousness and conceptions of virtue, these misfits aren’t even given treatment at par with other humans, and are left to cope, stumbling and staggering, in this whole wide world full of road blocks, on their own. Every winter, numerous of these homeless destitute leave this material world to live in their fantasies forever. Hence, it fell upon the courts to chide the government to realize its duty towards these homeless and erect shelters for them so that they could find relief from the biting cold of the winter and escape the clutches of a merciless and painful death.

I, through an NGO named Aman Biradari, which is run by Social worker and NCPRI member Harsh Mander, went to see some of these permanent and temporary shelters opened by the NGO and the government of Delhi. The people that I found there not only left a deep impact on me, but some of their philosophical insights were so deep that one could only scratch their head to determine the reasons that compelled these people to end up in the shelters for homeless.

Sunil is from Lakhi Sarai in Bihar. I find him sleeping under a tree, away from the comforts of the permanent shelter situated just 5 steps away. I stand near him and wait for some moments during which he stirs, perhaps acknowledging the presence of someone nearby and finally opens his eye to stare at me in wonder. I ask him for a short chit-chat and he readily agrees.

“I came here hoping to earn lakhs and crores” he says “but now I just want to save enough to buy a ticket to go back home”. His voice has a tinge of realization and repentance. “I want to accept all the wrongs that I have committed and ask forgiveness for them and want to serve my parents for the rest of my life.”

“I came to Delhi in 2001, along with an uncle of mine. We took up work in a factory in Gurgaon. However, after 3 months, the contractor who employed us, fled with all our money leaving us with nothing. My uncle wanted to stay there and find some other work, but I felt dejected. I left him and came here in Delhi to look for work. I did many odd and petty jobs for meager sums of money. At one time, I was pulling a hand cart in Chawri Bazar. But Money was hard to come by. Even after working this much, I barely earned enough to feed myself three times a day.”

“I fell in the company of bad people. They misguided me and cheated me. I was a novice in this game and hence I got cheated. I have no money now.”

“I have a family back home. I have two elder brothers and three elder sisters. I am the youngest of us all. I also have a wife but no children. All of us used to work on our farms or earn wages through some labor work. But I wanted to earn lakhs and crores. Farm work did not satisfy me as my eyes were on the glitter and buzz of big cities like Delhi. Now I am repenting.”

“Yes, I take drugs. I used to take smack and heroine, used to spend a lot on cigarettes, bidis and have consumed a lot of liquor. But now I take only bhang and tobacco.” He shows me a packet of ‘SWAGAT’ brand of tobacco that he chews. “It is my favorite brand” he adds with a smile.

I ask him about the harshness of the winter in Delhi. He pauses, and then looks at me and says “My life has turned into a cold winter. This winter is nothing in front of it.”

But all the drug addicts aren’t as forthcoming as Sunil, about their past. I spot a man sitting on a stone near one of the temporary shelters erected by the MCD. With long hair and an even longer beard, this man reminds me of the impoverished character of Adrian Brody in THE PIANIST. However, this man is neither a Nazi, nor a Jew, although like both of them, he seems to be fighting a war – a war against the ignominy heaped upon him by the docile denizens of the society.

He is visibly disoriented, perhaps drunk, and when I approach him, he gazes at me for a long time to mark out my features to ascertain whether I am a human being or an animal. I ask him several questions, but he answers only in monosyllables – yes, no or sometimes just a curious look coupled with a shrug.

Finally, I ask him whether he takes any kind of drugs. He shakes his head vigorously, as if to emphasize that he neither takes any nor has touched any kind of drug in his whole life. Yet, he seems to be unable to explain his presence in a camp for homeless drug addicts.

I leave him gazing at the Yamuna, where the relatives of someone who has just been cremated are dispersing his/her ashes, and perhaps wondering whether there would be someone to cremate him when he dies, let alone disperse his ashes.

But unlike the bearded man sitting in seclusion and gazing at Yamuna, some people are just not concerned about death. “It will come when it has to come”; says Hira Lal, aged 48.

“I hail from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. I used to have a family, but it has been 15 years since I left them. I don’t think anyone will recognize me now.”

For an ordinary little kid, Hira Lal may be the perfect depiction of all things with a devilish hue. With a distorted face, he also has a bright red eye – the brightness of which seems to have been aggravated not by lack of sleep – which is his favorite pastime – but by some kind of flu which went unnoticed and consequently, undiagnosed.

“I had a wife. But she died soon after the marriage due to measles. I could not save her and left home in disappointment.”

“Money is hard to come by. I also do not try much to earn it. On some days, when someone comes looking for some labor, I earn a hundred or two hundred bucks. On other days, I just sleep here and pass my time.”

“I take tobacco if that qualifies as a drug.”

Asked about the climate, Mr.Lal admits that the temperature has increased in the past couple of days, but “the winter is nothing compared to what it used to be 10 years ago.”

This winter, the Delhi government raced against time to cover up its ineffectiveness in covering up these homeless migrants who are forced to sleep in the open due to the lack of cover over their head. Several media reports in leading national dailies and television channels admonished the government for not carrying out what should have been its primary duty. The irony of the whole narrative does not seem to be the relative destitution of the homeless drug addicts, but the paranoia appended with them by the society, which is terrorized even at the thought of providing some space for these people in a ‘prime location’ near Kashmere Gate. For many, these homeless only represent the ‘daily nonsense’ that creeps into the capital every day.

However, for many like Sunil and Hira Lal, NGOs like Aman Biradari, who have been putting up temporary and permanent shelters along with the government in many areas which include central Delhi, are a ray of hope, the last step in the ladder for their survival. This does not mean that these people are sitting away, eating merrily and living joyously at the expense of the taxpayer and the donators, rather, these people are repulsed at the idea of having to accept the ‘generosity’ of the society for their survival.

One only hopes that with the passage of cold and harsh winter and the arrival of spring, the sun also shines brightly in the dark cells of these people’s lives and provides them with more opportunities to prosper and grow.

Book Review - Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini

What are the reasons behind our decision to say ‘yes’ to a request? Are we making that decision out of our own free will or are there some hidden ‘compliance tactics’ at play? When and how do such compliance tactics work and how can we say ‘no’ to safeguard our own best interests?

These are some of the themes explored by Marketing and Psychology professor Dr. Robert B. Cialdini in his bestselling page turner of a book “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion”.

I will admit it – once I started reading the book, I was hooked. Every time Dr. Cialdini introduced a new compliance tactic and brilliantly explained how it worked, I couldn’t help but curse myself if I had been a victim of such a trick in the past. Of course, I used to think, how can I be such an idiot?

From political shakedowns such as the Watergate Scandal, the Korean War, Jonestown Mass Suicides etc. to simple psychological experiments conducted on every day tom, dick and harry exposing our automatic obedience to authority, ‘Influence’ is full of revealing research studies that gives the reader a glimpse of how Influence is wielded by its most adept practitioners in real life situations.

My only complaint with the book would be the fact that while it introduces the reader to many new fascinating social phenomenon such as Social Proof, Psychological Reactance and the importance of self-image in fulfilling a commitment, it merely verbalizes other phenomenon which one has been practicing intuitively. I use the word ‘merely’ with much caution.

Take for example the Rejection-then-Retreat technique:

“Suppose you want me to agree to a certain request. One way to increase your chances would be to first make a larger request of me, one that I will most likely turn down. Then, after I have refused, you would make the smaller request that you were interested in all along. Provided that you’ve structured your requests skilfully, I should view your 2nd request as a concession to me and should feel inclined to respond with a concession of my own – compliance with your 2nd request.”

As someone who has participated in many negotiation scenarios, this is a no-brainer for me, you don’t blurt out what you want at the very start – it is no longer a negotiation then. Having said that, the different examples in which this technique is used do add value to its verbalization. Still, I wish Dr. Cialdini would have reserved that space for a better phenomenon.

If I had to pin-point the one feature that makes the book worth reading, then I would unhesitatingly point to the ‘How to Say No’ parts given at the end of each chapter. What makes the book valuable is not that it has incredibly detailed research on the most persuasive compliance tactics being used out there, but that it also includes counter-strategies.

I hate to be cheated. Dr. Cialdini shares my hate. That’s why, I suppose, he wrote this book. Read it and you won’t help but feel a little cleverer than before.