XLRI alumnus Abhijit Bhaduri is ready with his second book that will hit the stores sometime in September.

Abhijit’s first book Mediocre But Arrogant (2005) was a bestseller and he may hit the jackpot again with Married But Available (2008).

The book is a sequel to the first one, that ended with the main protagonist, Abbey, and his mates in management studies getting placements. Abbey gets through the firm, Balwanpur Industries.

The sequel starts with an alumni meet of students of a premier management school, where Abbey talks of his life at Balwanpur Industries.

Married But Available deals with the trails and tribulations of the first 10 years of Abbey’s corporate life, where he is left struggling between his personal agendas and professional issues. Abbey’s situation is doubly hard as he is the first MBA from a premier institute to work in the fictitous Balwanpur Industries.

A graduate in economics from Delhi University, Abhijit came to XLRI to study personnel management in industrial relations in 1984.

“Lately, there have been many books published by B-school pass outs. Most deal with campus experiences. I thought of taking it a step further and writing about the corporate world beyond the classroom. Writing and sharing experiences is my hobby and I love doing it,” said the Gurgaon-based author to The Telegraph over the phone.

Bhaduri’s books also prove that you can take the student out of the course, but not course out of the student. The abbreviation of both his books happen to be “MBA”, proving that he has not forgotten his “cherished days” in Jamshedpur.

“Jamshedpur has its own charm. Apart from my institution, I like Jubilee Park, Dalma lake where I used to hang out a lot,” he signs off.

She sings Bhojpuri folk songs in Akashvani, Jamshedpur. Her efforts to bring poor children to the social mainstream have won kudos from several quarters. She also teaches.

Meet 54-year-old Jyotsna Asthana, a teacher of Jhanda Singh Middle School (JSMS) in Mango, who will be felicitated at a function in New Delhi on September 5 for her contribution to education.

Asthana, who is currently on deputation at Sakchi sub-divisional jail for teaching undertrials and convicts, received the award confirmation letter today. “I am really glad. I thank those who encouraged me in the field of education,” Asthana told The Telegraph.

Asthana is satisfied with what she’s doing at the jail. “I started teaching in jail in 2003. Initially, the inmates wondered how a middle school teacher would prepare them for school finals. But my patience has paid off. Now, they take their studies seriously.”

Asthana came to Jamshedpur from Bihar after marrying S.K. Asthana, now a retired government officer. Asthana said she was indebted to her father, N.B. Verma, an advocate, who inspired her to become a social worker.

Imtiaz Ali, the long-haired, dreamy-eyed director who rocked audiences with his Jab We Met last year, has something in common with Madhavan, Simone Singh, Priyanka Chopra and Tanushree Dutta. Yeah, they’re all serious eye-candy. But that apart, they all come from a city where Bollywood is considered more than a little infra dig.

Jamshedpur, a gleaming engineering oasis in the jungle of Bihar (now Jharkand), is a place where youngsters are traditionally bred to be managers and engineers courtesy leading institutes like NIT and XLRI. This is the town that Jamshetji Tata built, whose spotless roads denizens claim you can eat off (we’d take that with a pinch of salt). Most people here work for Tata affiliates TISCO and TELCO, and everyone knows everyone else. Jamshedpur has the highest per capita income in the country and is the only town whose municipality is governed by a corporate house. And then with all this, it has a serious flaw: it nurtures excellence and creativity and then presses the eject button.

The strange imbalance between an excellent school education and the absence of good colleges forces Jamshedpur’s denizens to sever the umbilical cord with their birthplace in their late teens. Imtiaz Ali’s passion for theatre drove him to Delhi; Madhavan walked the beaten path by taking a degree in engineering but veered to cinema. Simone Singh flew the nest early because her parents moved. “It was an idyllic existence that allowed you the leisure to look out the window and dream a lot,” she smiles. “My husband laughs because I still recall the flavour of the meatballs and hamburgers I ate at Beldih Club in my childhood.”

Imtiaz points out that Jamshedpur is a small place that offers an enriched lifestyle (three golf courses, six swimming pools, billiards centres) and spawns talent but is walled in by a culture that does not allow for much interaction with the outside world. Summer Of 2007’s screenwriter Bijesh Jayarajan, the newest Bollywoodian to emerge from Jamshedpur, feels the Tatas have taken care of everything except perhaps ambition. “There are few opportunities for progress,” he says.

Madhavan explains the indifference to films here: though the “imperial culture” of the city is “in a class of its own”, this translates into few cinema halls “so a career in films is not a highly rated option”. Simone recalls that Beldih screened only English films; Tanushree remembers watching just four films during her growing years—Henna, Hum Aapke Hain Koun,Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Virasat. “Seeing films was not encouraged at all,” she says. “Only when my parents were away was I able to watch English films on TV. Later, once we moved to Pune, I mustered the courage to tell them that I wanted to join the glamour industry.” Having bred their parenting skills in a place like Jamshedpur, they were “shell-shocked”. Little wonder then that Tanushree is a rare Miss India contestant to emerge from this town. Imtiaz believes he is the first Hindi film director from Jamshedpur.
In Mumbai, the tribe comprising former schoolmates and basketball rivals meet occasionally, carrying forward a childhood bond forged over inter-school basketball games and “bird-watching”. They appreciate one another’s achievements whole-heartedly—the pitched rivalry between the highbrow Loyola students and the down-to-earth DBMS (Dabba Bartan Manjhnewala School, as the uncharitable joke goes) has evidently blurred in the struggle to make it outside Jamshedpur.

For a town that has no natives, for they all migrate after retirement, its once-denizens harbour a fierce loyalty, talking of ‘Jampot’ with much warmth and affection. Interestingly, Imtiaz, Madhavan, Tanushree, Simone and Bijesh are all polite to a fault, even in their phone messages. Tanushree laughs and describes it as an effect of the “hellishly strict” schools in the town.

This upbringing has inspired confidence in Imtiaz who says he holds no prejudice in life save one. “If two equally qualified people came to work for me and one was from Jamshedpur, I would choose him over the other,” he says. “Simply because I know he will be hard-working and will know how to talk to people.”

If Supratim Dutta’s family is to be believed, it was only the 23-year-old’s incredible will power and trust in the almighty that helped him survive the ordeal of being impaled with a five-feet-long iron angle. But the young IT specialist’s troubles are not fully over yet, say doctors.

Seven of his vital organs suffered serious damage in the accident and it will be a few months before he can lead a normal life again. “He is a fighter. Right after the accident, with the angle still inside him, he called his friends and us for help. He did not lose consciousness even once. It was all because of his strong will and urge to live. Tolerating such severe pain for almost two hours is extraordinary. Though the doctors are doing everything to ensure his full recovery, he is still under observation. They are not clear how much time it will take for him to get back to normal,” said Supratim’s father, Sukumar Dutta.

After his surgery, despite being in acute pain, Supratim tried to cheer his family by cracking jokes and inquiring about the media coverage of his accident. “Even when we were all crying, he was laughing. The way he is recovering is commendable. He is a young guy who always worked towards his goals but never forgot to enjoy himself. After the surgery when a doctor asked him how he was feeling, he said, ‘I just have a sore throat,’” said Supratim’s cousin Sandeep Kumar.

Sukumar recalled the time he moved to Delhi from Jamshedpur with his son in 2002. “We came to Delhi in 2002. My wife and daughter joined us in 2004. Though I always knew that my son was brilliant, confident and courageous, his maturity and iron-will is unbelievable,” said the proud father.

Added Sandeep: “For the last few days he has been smiling despite his agony. He is the most loved among his friends, family and colleagues. Recently, while talking to me, he told me about his plans to change jobs and further his career. Though he had resigned from HCL, the company has been very supportive and is paying for his treatment.” But money is not the only thing Supratim needs right now. “We are trying not to remind him about the accident. We all are now waiting for him to recover and cherish the new life he has got,” said Sukumar.

I was just reading a question from one of my colleague (who is a software engineer) about Joining MBA. Its a question every techie wants to know the answer.Now what after 2-3 year of service? where he stands? still he is just a coder or he needs to grow and wants to be a Manager. If he will do the MBA, his career will take a turn? he may grow to Managerial position? how beneficial is doing MBA in making the Pay Lucrative, all this question started haunting you.

I am posting one of the Article appeared in “the smarttechie magazine in May 2006 issue, which was well researched and try to give answers of some of your questions:

There are still a few things left that Google can’t search, software can’t solve and mortals don’t understand. One such mystical thing is the perfect career. When it comes to something as important as your career, there is plenty of advice on offer and yet, there really is no sure shot at success. We at The SmartTechie have often wondered if management training was one way to ensure a good career?

Do techies need a Master in Business Administration (M.B.A) degree? Who better to answer that question than the gurus themselves…the people who have done the same thing you did, a little ahead of your time and went on to do wonders in the IT industry—the same industry that you probably work for.

Our findings were stunning: More than 80 percent of the bigwig techies or the gurus managing Indian and multinational IT companies do not have an M.B.A. Just one percent of the total IT jobs for engineers require M.B.A. And finally yet futuristically, with IT companies starting to offer product to Indian market, the MBA trend will snowball.

However objective and eye-rolling the data is, there is truly a sense of subjectivity lost in the entire process. And that’s exactly what Jack Welch of GE and Louis Gerstner of IBM called the Getting Executed (GE) factor. When it comes to success in business, an M.B.A degree might be optional. But a GE attitude is mandatory. Any successful techie, or for that matter a successful human being, is not without it. So, there we go picking thoughts on how much of an M.B.A is optional and, how much is real or GE based.