A book is again the centre of controversies. As part of their course for the final semester , B.Com.(Hons) students of Delhi University are reading a chapter on ‘Email Etiquettes’ in their book ‘Basic Business Communication’ published by ‘S Chand and Company’. Under the heading ‘Keep Your Mail Brief’ , Prof CB Gupta , the author and a former head of the commerce department at the Shri Ram College of Commerce has written “Email messages should be like skirts-short enough to be interesting and long enough to cover all the vital points. If the email message is long , it night not be read at all or read to casually.”
These lines have been a consistent part of the book since 2005 but it has now come in limelight as a third year B.Com.(Hons) student of Kamala Nehru College showed her discontent . According to her,”It’s a glaring example of how a university can legitimise casual sexism via a prescribed textbook. I fail to understand why such an esteemed author would even think of writing or approving such a sentence in his book,” as told to DNA.
In his defence, Prof CB Gupta told PTI that it was not his original idea but taken from a foreign author and traced it to Winston Churchill, who used it many times. Though he said it was not written with intention of hurting the sentiments and he would remember the mentioned content from the next edition. Although this is one of the many examples of sexism seen in the Indian textbooks.
