Campus Life in Book Pages from The Telegraph - Friday August 5-2005

Campus life in book pagesOUR CORRESPONDENTAbhijit Bhaduri signs on his book after its release at the XLRI auditorium. Jamshedpur, Aug. 4: How much similarity is there between Abbey the protagonist of Mediocre But Arrogant and the author?Abhijit Bhaduri insists that they were born on the same day, lived in a railway colony and studied in Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi. “But hey! There’s where the similarity ends. I am not Abbey. He is very practical but I take life as it comes,” comes the reply from Bhaduri.The suave and enigmatic head honcho of a leading MNC in the US, is back at his alma mater, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), to release his book Mediocre But Arrogant. Bhaduri calls his book a story about love and life in a business schools.The story of the protagonist Abbey and his friends at the institute is filled with humour and had the audience in splits when Bhaduri read out excerpts from the book, anecdotes about Abbey’s roommate Pappu and his encounter with Ganauri the washerman.Bhaduri reminded the audience that the book is not about XLRI in particular but its about how life is perhaps in any premier college.“Every character and incident is generic we all might have met them at some point of life or other ,” said Bhaduri.The book was formally released by B.L. Raina, managing director Tinplate company of India Ltd and president National Alumni Association XLRI. It was a nostalgic moment for everybody as well as the author as he spoke about the days spent at XLRI and his association with Tata Steel in the initial years of his career. The book is lined up for release in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Bhaduri is already writing the second part of this triology and is also in talks with producers in Mumbai to either make a movie or television serial based on the book.