It’s mediocre - and arrogant says Minu Jain

It’s mediocre - and arrogant
By Minu Jain, Indo-Asian News Service
Book: ‘Mediocre But Arrogant’; Author: Abhijit Bhaduri; Publisher: Indialog
What can one say of this trite slice of life from campus life except that its title is so ironically true — it’s mediocre and its protagonist not just arrogant but also self-indulgent and insular.
Any walk down memory lane should evoke a nostalgic smile for the way we once were. ‘Mediocre But Arrogant’ instead makes you wince in horror as the author takes a fond look back at Abbey’s life as he moves from the protected confines of Delhi University to the Management Institute of Jamshedpur, MIJ in short of course.
For the Delhi reader, Bhaduri draws a familiar, much loved world of the railway colony in S.P Marg, college fests, foggy winter nights, U specials, Chinese food at Moets and life at the Shri Ram College of Commerce. How much would a non-Delhi reader identify with it, I wonder.
Abbey is a typical self-absorbed DU student embarking into a brave new world at MIJ. The problem is that perspective that should have come with time as he recounts his rites of passage, through his student days to becoming a ‘head honcho of HR of a reputed firm’, seems to be sorely lacking.
This is a book about Abbey’s days as a student, his relationships and the process of evolving into an adult stepping into the corporate world. It all seems so much of ‘read that already’ that interest begins to flag right in the beginning.
The mess food is bad, everybody has a nickname — Rusty, Joy, Chatto and Haathi and, of course, Abbey himself — Daddu’s dhaba is an alternative to hostel meals, there are 40 boys to eight girls… now where have you heard all that before?
Much of the problem I suspect is with Abbey himself and Bhaduri’s inability to make the reader identify with him. Abbey is a ‘mediocre’ friend, but goes through relationships with women with blinkers. It’s difficult to have patience with a protagonist who is so, so blasé about himself and others.
There’s Priya, the good ole pal who he had taken for granted always until she finds a boyfriend of her own. There’s Ayesha with whom he has sporadic relationship. And then there’s Keya, his true love who decides to call it quits after Abbey returns from a training stint in Bombay.
Abbey, who doesn’t immediately call her on returning to MIJ, wonders why he is so depressed until it dawns on him that he has not met Keya. When she calls off the affair, he asks himself why she walked away - did she want marriage, was she jealous that he had a good time in Bombay and then it flashes she might be upset because he was seen coming out of Ayesha’s room that last day.
But there is little regret that he had slept with somebody else. ‘What was wrong with this woman (Keya)? She had no business walking off like that. The least she could have done was explained things to me. It was so damn unfair…’
Ditto with male friend, Kapil whose ‘unconditional friendship’ he so longs for. Abbey meets Kapil at his Delhi home only to ask about Priya. Once he realises that Kapil has no news about Priya, the interest quickly wanes. ‘I was disappointed, but I had to be polite and listen to Kapil tell me about his own life and his plans.’
Strangely, it is only at this meeting that Abbey realises that Kapil’s father had died in a train accident and he stays with his uncle.
It is difficult to like a book when you don’t like the protagonist.
Besides, there are entire passages of truly clumsy writing. Sample this: ‘She was the prettiest babe in our class. A hot-hoochi-mama for sure. She had a healthy pair of lungs that constantly peeped out from her shirt, which had two buttons tantalizingly open most of the time.’
Bhaduri says at the outset: ‘This story is not autobiographical. Abbey is not Abhijit.’
Thank god for that!

A Novel Pastime - Rashmi Bansal in Business World

Where do you see yourself five years from now? That’s a standard question every B-school applicant is prepared for. “Writing a novel” is not the standard or acceptable answer. But that is exactly what a bunch of graduates from premier B-schools are doing. By day, they are investment bankers and brand managers. By night, they toil away at their keyboards, tapping into their own experiences to spin out slice-of-life stories that appeal to ‘People Like Us’.
Abhijit Bhaduri’s debut novel Mediocre But Arrogant, the first of a trilogy, will be launched this July

IIM Ahmedabad graduate Chetan Bhagat relived his IIT days in Five Point Someone. Swati Kaushal’s stints at Nestle and Nokia provided rich fodder for Piece Of Cake, a light-hearted tale set in corporate India. And that’s just the beginning. July 2005 sees the launch of Mediocre But Arrogant, a story of love and life in the fictitious Management Institute of Jamshedpur (MIJ). No prizes for guessing author Abhijit Bhaduri’s alma mater - it’s XLRI

Says Bhaduri: “Anyone who has gone through a business school or lived in a hostel will be able to identify with the characters in the novel.” In fact, Mediocre But Arrogant (MBA) is the first of a trilogy. The second book will follow the protagonist into the corporate world, and the third one sees him fulfil his ‘dreams’. Writing these books itself has been just that for Bhaduri, who otherwise works as part of the global HR team at Colgate-Palmolive in New York (See ‘In B-school, As In Life’).A novel is a labour of love. Like a good pot of coffee, it takes time and patience to brew. Says Bhagat: “The idea had been floating in my head for over eight years. But much of the process took place over a three-year period.” The process meant waking up an hour early and writing - day after day and sometimes late into night. After nine drafts and a complete rewrite later - Five Point Someone was born. Then came the really ‘hard part’ of finding a publisher.

“Everyone, except Rupa, rejected it. They found the topic, title, language - everything too unusual,” recalls Bhagat. With 100,000 copies having flown off the shelves in less than a year, both author and publisher are now having the last laugh. Smart pricing has played its part in Five Point Someone’s success. At a youth-friendly Rs 95, the book has achieved cult sales. For Rupa, the book is a worthy successor to The Inscrutable Americans, one of its best sellers for over a decade.

For Swati Kaushal, writing Piece Of Cake was a one-and-a-half year project. “I had a very clear idea of the office bits, but only as disparate scenes,” says the IIM Calcutta graduate, who now lives in Minneapolis, US. Certainly, the descriptions of the ‘advertising meeting in the fourth floor conference’ room and life in the ‘northern region sales office’ are the book’s most entertaining, insightful bits.The central character, heavily inspired by Bridget Jones, is 29-year-old Minal Sharma - the archetypal MBA trying to ‘have it all’. Says Kaushal: “In the Indian context, despite all the recent permissiveness one reads about, I feel women still agonise over marriage, career, family expectations and trying to make it all work out.” Though reviews have been mixed, the light-n-bright read seems to have found enough takers. Penguin is going in for a second reprint just two months after its initial release.

If Piece Of Cake is chick lit for the 20-somethings, Deeptha Khanna’s Vinita Sharma, The Year I turned 16 is going to be its teen counterpart. The book, set for release by Puffin in 2006, is the ‘diary of a wonderful young girl who is a teenager in present-day India’. Khanna, an IIM Bangalore graduate and brand manager with P&G, Singapore, says she met hundreds of teens in the course of her consumer work. And what struck her was that most of the impressions about teenagers are so one-dimensional.

“I remembered how I was as a teen - idealistic, impressionable, hormonal (!) and decided I wanted to write a book that reflected the real Indian teenager. I did justice to more aspects of their lives than just the clothes they wear and the music they listen to.” Khanna’s heroine is sassy without being ‘yo’. The book follows Vinita through a chaotic year in her young life - deep friendships, heartbreaks, me vs my parents conflicts and the eternal quest for identity. Contemporary issues like Internet porn and the DPS MMS sex clip are also woven in.Mainak Dhar’s first foray into published fiction was Flashpoint, a novel based on a fictional India-Pakistan war. The IIM-A graduate, who is currently associate marketing director at P&G, Singapore, had earlier co-authored two books on economics - a subject he studied at Delhi University. “I think I’m still at an early stage in really discovering myself as a writer,” says Dhar. “I would like to see myself taking a full-time plunge into writing unlike today where I have a full-time corporate job. Writing is a passion I indulge in my spare time.”
MBAs turning to writing is actually not surprising because many Indian B-school graduates are simply exceptionally bright individuals who followed the easiest path available to them. An IIM or XLRI campus is invariably host to a pool of versatile talents. And for these young people who could have been artists, musicians or filmmakers, treading the road to respect and riches has been less fraught with risk.

Interestingly, all these MBA-turned-authors are currently based abroad. Perhaps they have more ’spare time’ there? Both Kaushal and Khanna are, in fact, currently on sabbaticals from work. “You cannot write about something unless you put sufficient distance between it and yourself,” muses Kaushal. “Since Piece Of Cake drew so heavily from personal experiences in the corporate world (though it’s by no means a memoir) I don’t think I could have written it while I was still working.” Dhar, however, feels the solitude that comes with living abroad leads to introspection. Hence, the self expression. Post Flashpoint, he has written a collection of poetry, Face In The Mirror, which was published in early 2004. Khanna is also on to her next book - a set of 12 short stories for children titled Chari Thatha’s Nature Stories. Kaushal’s second book goes a “little deeper” and focusses on a 15-year-old girl.Meanwhile, Five Point Someone is being made into a film. Movie rights to the novel were snapped up by Ten Films in June 2004. Thirty-something director Ritesh Sinha, a former advertising man, who says he relates completely with the book, promises “not to ruin the gripping story with song and dance sequences”. For one MBA-turned-novelist at least, that’s a dream debut - with a fairytale ending.

No 2 on the Deccan Herald Bestseller List on Nov 5-2006

3. The Alchemy of Desire; Tarun J Tejpal, Rs 295

4. 7 Ancient Wonders; Matthew Reilly, Rs 295

5. A Million Little Pieces; James Frey, Rs 331

6. To Kill a Mocking Bird; Harper Lee, Rs 264

Non-Fiction

1. The Monk who sold his Ferrari; Robin S Sharma, Rs 175

2. Winners never cheat; Jon M Huntsman, Rs 199

3. Icons; Steve Jobs, Rs 385

4. A Call to Honour; Jaswant Singh, Rs 495

5. The Google Story; David A Vise, Rs 295

Courtesy: Crossword Book Store

Abhishek Kumar from Radio Mirchi writes

Hi ! Abhijit,

Read yr book, thoroughly enjoyed it !!! It took me through a range of emotions. Infact, the other day I was telling one of friends that this book is so relatble that even if someone called “Abhishekatoo sitting in Timbaktoo” reads this book he will be able to relate to it. I guess that`s wat is so beautiful about your book. It transcends all geographical, cultural, social & economic barriers.

Having read the book felt me scoring 2/10 in QT during my MBA was’nt that bad (just joking) !!!

What really made me think was the last page wherein protagonist reads the letter given by Prof.Hathaway. All this while I wondered if an MBA made any difference to my career (read as life) . After reading the last page I realize that the impact does not really have to be very apparent, it can be at a subliminal level as well !!!
I HV BEEN TRYING TO WRITE THIS SINCE BEGINING, BUT WAS A LITTLE APPREHENSIVE. THINK MUST WRITE IT NOW

Why do’nt you plan a sequel to this book called “Shallow But Aggressive”. A book which will delve on:-

1) What happened to Abbey when he enters Shallow but Aggressive world called as corporate. What are his initial experiences ?
2) What are Abbey`s feelings when he finds Ayeshas all around him. Does his longing for Priyas increase ?
3) How does Abbey deals with not one but hundreds of Ghopher around him?
4) Does he want another Rusty to come & help him or he grows up to become Rusty or may be better
5) Very important, did Keya come to Delhi ? Did she meet Abbey? Her side of story etc ????
6) Does he get amused to see shallowness all around him ?

Guess, there are so many more questions which can be addressed. Please, do not think of me as a cynic or someone who is against this corporate world or culture. Was jus thinking that there is’nt any book which deals with the human side of corporate world. This book can be very funny & emotional & for few a guide to learn & adjust to the norms of this “Shallow but Aggressive” world

Regards
Abhishek Kumar
abhiran5@gmail.com