I keep getting queries, with alarming regularity, on the state of affairs at the school where I’m doing my MBA. And i usually try to answer them as objectively (if such a concept ever existed ;) ) as i can. While some are genuine queries, what does put me off though is the attitude of some of the people who believe that anything one says about such schools, in general, is compromised!! While I can understand the fact that some people do take issues such as placements et al very seriously (not that i dont ;) ), however trying to evaluate an educational experience through such a narrow lens is, in a large number of cases, gonna give misleading results.

Having said that, I’ve been asked by a lot of people about my experience @ IBS. so here goes a few words of what I could make out an year at a B-school :)
The initial few days @ IBS have been an eye-opener of galactic proportions.Fact that expectations were a bit on the lower side being a given, what really surprised me was the crowd. Having experienced the admissions process myself, I had discounted a lot of factors that could be expected in a B-school student. But, neverthless, somethings just did not gel. Here were some people who could barely converse; forget them speaking in english, am talking of someone’s ability to hold a conversation together!! I had taken such things for a given in my engg days, but to find that in a B-school, and one that is in a city was something that I found highly unacceptable. If not for anything else, atleast to prove the adage that MBA is all local gyaan and global fart, one needs to talk!! Next came the all important thing called CP in most schools and which isn’t really given a formal structure here. Boy o boy, that was something that sent me into fits of laughter. You could find people going all out to get noticed, both among other students as well as the profs. To most, a b-school was about “exhibiting” their “managerial” skills…whoa!! what an oxymoron ;) And here I was, trying to find a set of people with whom I could “gel”. Add the fact that anything that is tech was an anathema. My initial intro session also made sure that people thought twice before even approaching me….nah, did not do any strip dance…just gave a coupla lines on my interests (spanning /. , gmag et al)!! A few of our forumites prolly know a few things about my life back then. Not that such stuff was a major putoff or anything; it helped put a lot of things in perspective….

Now that I’ve used that holy grail of words, perspective, lemme initiate some of ye uninititated souls into the order of the “MBA”. A cardinal principle in these parts of the woods (i.e. the “MBAs in the making” clan) is, No sentence is complete unless you use some B-school lingo so you sound likeone of those know-all types that can give i-banks a run for their money from their equity market analyses. And same goes for other markets too ;) And like in any demographic spread, we have the haves and have-nots in this case too; with the have-nots desperately trying to move into the haves club. And mind ye, access to the haves club can do wonders to your acceptance levels!! In literal terms, the effect is very close to that credit card advert that depicts all open doors. Why am I telling you all these?? well, so that you have a better “perspective” when reading through this blog. And in case you are not able to understand any specific instance of a word’s usage, then rejoice pal. You are on your baby steps to becoming a “manager” ;)