Mediocre But Arrogant - The Story of a B School...
How often does it happen that you read a book and identify with its setup...its plot..and you start to see its characters in the people around you ? Not very, would be my guess..well..Mediocre But Arrogant was one such book where this did happen...and is still happening on a basis that is frequent enough to make me write this...
While Chetan Bhagat's five point someone was a kind of insider's view of life at an IIT - with broad echoes across all engineering college campuses ( a pet theory, since it was pretty much so in my case !) - M.B.A is the extension of a similar concept, applied to a B School. Only in this case, the author claims that he is not similar to the character, and the work is mainly fiction, not autobiographical... I dunno...I think I have a pet theory for this too...its like...when you start writing..you think you have an idea of what you are going to do..and more importantly, how you are going to do it...but somewhere down the line..probably near the halfway line..you are no longer the one who is writing the book ( blog in my case)...the book makes you write itself...and you always feel good about the end product because it has come from the heart...so perhaps, this has been the case here too....and has resulted in the form of a superb take on life in a B School..with its degree's initials signifying what its graduates are like in real life...
M B A is set in a fictitious Management Institute of Jamshedpur..a thinly disguised XLRI ( the author's Alma Mater) and its protagonist is a guy who happens to be called Abbey. The book describes Abbey's wide and varied adventures, his batchmates, with their peculiar set of characteristics ( these are the ones that don't leave me..I see them in my batchmates too)...his constant feeling of being mediocre, but arrogant at the same time..and his sense of directionlessness ( I hope I didn't invent this word !!) - how he feels that MBA is merely a stamp - a "thappa" - that one needs in order to be able to command ridiculous salaries and fancy designations - issues which remain as alive and kicking as they were in good ole 1982. It also describes his experiences at his summer job, the joys and heartbreaks of the placement process...something that I will be part of in 6 months...and..like Abbey..I still don't know why I am here...
I know the book is trying to say something to me...but I have not been able to figure out what....
Go ahead and read it guys...and let me know what you think...
