SECOND DEGREE (One Crazy Year at IIM-A) by Prashant John. After having read and expressed my painful feelings on the book The Two States by Chetan Bhagat about two months back, I found this new book giving a big relief to one and all. Chetan had painted the two premier institutes IIT-D and IIM-A in a very bad taste; hence I suggested that the book could have better titled as THE TWO TASTES.
Second Degree is about life in that giant sprawling pressure-cooker called the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. It is published by Ekalavya Education Foundation, Ahmedabad, India in 2009. It is a must read for all those who wanted to join MBA in India's best of the B-Schools. Foreword to this book is written by none other than Rashmi Bansal, who is herself an alumnus of IIM-A and author of the ever popular book titled "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish", listing out the profiles of 25 IIM-A grads who opted out of placements and turned Entrepreneurs setting up many successful enterprises. It is all about Prashant pursuing his one year Post Graduate Program for Executives (PGPX) introduced by IIM-A in the year 2006.
It is such a wonderful coincidence that I am writing this blog on a day when a report appears in the Economy page of Business Line daily of 18th July, with a caption "IIM-A executive programme pass-outs hired for top positions". IIM-A's PGPX news. It is amazing to read that these sixty six graduates of the 4th batch (2009-10) have been offered positions such as CEO, ED, Senior VP, VP, GM and Practice Partner by the campus recruiters. The average salary offered was Rs. 26.1 lakhs - 29.5 per cent higher than what was offered last year. The batch had an average work experience of 10 years with 80 per cent having spent an average of five years working abroad and most were placed in the traditional consulting and general management roles.
Prashant, in his typical special style narrates his one-year long experiences spread over 28 Chapters in this book. He shares his experiences in and out of the class room as also his encounters with the Profs at IIMA. In the beginning of the book, he lists out the lingo in the campus under the heading "The Lingo Buster" to familiarise the reader with the flip side of academics and students life in the hostels too. These include Fachhas (freshers), Tuchhas (Second Year students), Lucchas (PGPX batch), Muggon, WMD, Quiz, CP (Class Participation), CGPA, Quant Jocks/Studs, IM/Dbab, TANSTAAFL, and RA/TA.
What a contrast in the two books from the same alma mater? More in my next blog report.
No comments:
Post a Comment