A Northern Kentucky University professor and social scientist has published a new book, Voices from Behind the Mask, which delivers 100 answers (“voices”) from a random survey of 500+ people from across the USA.
Voices that are sad. And sour. And Sweet. And soulful.
Read their raw emotions. Listen to their newfound wisdom. Decide which ones echo your own feelings; which ones irate you; which ones make you rethink your own life.
“As the post-COVID world reopens and we enter the “new normal” world,” author and teacher Banwari (Ban) Mittal says, “we should use this experience to at least ask the question, how should I rearrange my life to make it more fulfilling? The book will help you answer that question for yourself.”
The book is available digitally on October 15 on Amazon and in print November 1.
Along the way read five essays that challenge your current thinking. Don’t worry, the prose is light, friendly, and conversational. You are welcome to disagree. But you are not free to dismiss them. They speak to the angst you are feeling these days. To the polarization that is pitting us on opposite sides. One American against another. Tearing our nation apart.
Against that backdrop, Mittal offers a 10-point manifesto: A pathway to taming the pandemic, one citizen at a time. To helping the world reopen sooner. To understanding a multitude of viewpoints. To keeping our conversations civil.
The book will also serve as a historical record of how we felt in the midst of the pandemic — A close view of the human emotions drama, besides the suffering from the pandemic.
Banwari Mittal
Buy it for yourself. Then keep it for those still too young to know what is happening.
In 186 pages of 4-color in paperback and digital formats (both on Amazon), in a layout that is easy-on-the-eye coffee-table book style, you cannot dismiss the lessons to be learned.
From the back cover: No matter how irrational our ideologies, beliefs, and behaviors may look to each other, we share one common heritage: One nation. A modern, rational, and democratic nation. We can keep it so only if we do not fight a war among ourselves.
Banwari (“Ban”) Mittal is a social scientist with a Ph.D. in consumer psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. For over two decades, he has talked to several hundred consumers, developing an understanding of the psychology of their shopping and consumption behavior. His book, Consumer Behavior: Human Pursuit of Happiness in the World of Goods (Open Mentis, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2021), is arguably his magnum opus on human behavior in the marketplace.
He has also authored ValueSpace: Winning the Battle for Market Leadership (McGraw Hill, 2001), Consumer Psychology: A Modernistic Explanation (2021), 50 faces of Happy (2020), and My Uber Story (2020).
Currently, he is a professor of consumer psychology and marketing at Northern Kentucky University and lives in Cincinnati. In conversations, he happily blends the Eastern life philosophy with the vibe of Western modernity. His current passion is talking to strangers and being a curious listener.
