Generosity in stories

November 09, 2026

Short stories are powerful but how do you make short of what was so powerful, deep, wide and insightful?

Even when general attention is down to micro seconds, I will not take a short cut here as short cuts tend to cut you short.

How can I compress 19 long pages of comprehensive notes I took from the Economic Times Masterclass on Brand and Business Storytelling conducted on 15th and 16th October 2026 in Mumbai by dearest well wisher and story monk Ameen Haque along with fireside chats he moderated with legends like Mr. Prahlad Kakkar, Mr. Shekhar Kapur and Mr. Prasoon Joshi as well as a session conducted by Mr. Harish Bhat?

Here is a recurring theme I experienced from beforehand and through the two days: Generosity.

Generosity in Ameen’s invitation for me;
The generous number of stories everyone shared;
Generosity in Mr. Kakkar’s presentation of the stories behind some of the iconic brand campaigns of his contemporaries like the late Mr. Piyush Pandey’s iconic Cadbury ad from the early 1990s and Amit Sharma’s classic Google ad of late 2013;
His continuing generosity to come back the next day to sit through Mr. Prasoon Joshi’s session despite his health and
The generosity of the late Mr. Darbari Seth in the story narrated by Mr. Harish Bhat on day 2.

A generous heart leads to inspiring stories.

Personally, I got to share my specific points of appreciation and thanks to Mr. Prahlad Kakkar and Mr. Shekhar Kapur for setting the benchmark with Masoom and then for encouraging the Prince Dance group - the winners of India’s Got Talent season 1 winners to tell their story during that season.

I could not reach upto Mr. Prasoon Joshi to thank him for sharing his process for coming up with gems like the songs from Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par.

But I met Mr. Bhat on the eve of his presentation and received his autograph on 3 copies of his latest book - “Doing the Right Thing: Learnings from Ratan Tata” - for my generous friend Manpreet; for the generous Mr. Guru Bhat and one for myself.

Mr. Bhat also shared with me the best lesson in generosity he learned in his life from his grandmother.

I have always been called an incorrigible natural story teller who cannot think but in stories. I have been told that I have a story for almost every occasion and theme! While that maybe an exaggeration of my well wishers but it’s close.

My well wisher Rajat Goel calls me a stories ka pitara!

My mind naturally thinks, designs and delivers in stories.

But then, being a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach I know that the Strength = Talent x Training.

And what better way to further develop one’s strength in story crafting and telling than to attend a powerful masterclass with the masters two of who also sang poems they composed!!

And of course, there are unintended advantages of being a front bencher for life.

In the end, I want to conclude from the moral of the first story that Ameen shared on day 1 - a story of Mr. Ratan Tata on way to Nashik with his team in a car that broke down - a story is not what you say but what you do.

A brand is not what you claim to be what people say they have experienced about you.

Your WOM has to be > your WOY.

And to this I would like to repeat the lines I wrote last week -