A story of contradictions

Ronald of senior placecom says that no one should do anything that harms the reputation of the college at this juncture, keeping in mind the placements. There might be frustrations but to take it out on a public forum or outside the college community really does not serve any purpose...it can only be a negative and is not really going to change anything because things don't happen that way.

Allwyn of PagalGuy fame says that all those people who had been regulars at PagalGuy (a forum for MBA aspirants) have changed drastically since they joined their respective business schools. The loyalty towards their school often overshadows their own character and as such, these people tend to over glorify/under present the facts to keep their school in good stead.

Does Ronald's request to the batch of 2006 on the eve of their vacations, a case in point from Allwyn's perspective? Can his statement be (mis)construed to believe that he wants us to change our basic character and behave as per the character of the community? Is he asking us to put community before self? Even if he is (for argument's sake), is he wrong in expecting us to do this? Does Allwyn's remark that people lose their individuality once they go to a business school hold any salt? Even if it does (for argument's sake), is it any better to put self before community in all cases.

Ronald recently wrote a blog post about how it has become fashionable to treat business schools as only entry and exit portals and nothing else. All that goes in between is not learning but just means to achieve an end...an end that they call the placements. I gathered from the tone of the post that he does not really like the way things are going on (I may have been wrong). Most of us, like him, believe that there should be more to an MBA than it just being a medium to increase your salary (or as in the case of freshers, get a good salary to start with). But then again, like him, most of us know that this is not the way things happen and actually, whatever any surveys may say, the basic, one and only criterion used to evaluate a business school is its placements statistics...how many job offers per student...how much is the highest salary offered...how many foreign offers...how many offers from the areas like consultancy, finance and so on...how many big names on the recruiters' list...how many days does it take to get a batch placed...

So many questions and who know the answers to all these...no, not the BW-Cosmode people, not even the AIMA people...it is the people in the top positions in the market who make or break B-schools in India. Let's go to this campus...let's take these many students...let's only take people suiting this profile...let's look at the institute first...let's look at the faculty first...let's look at the batch profile first...so many factors go into their decisions that even a minor spark is enough to start the fire. What can this minor spark be is open to subjective evaluation by these decision makers. They may decide to come or not come to a campus based on not only objective parameters, but can also consider a lot of other factors that really go into the making of an institute (especially a B-school).

This is where Ron and Allwyn come...both of them are saying almost the same thing but in entirely opposing ways. Allwyn talks about the character of students and it obviously follows that cowardly sissies who have to think twice before standing by their opinion hold as much a chance of building an institute as Kishan Kumar did of becoming a super hero (now don't ask me who Kishan Kumar is). But then again, how can you expect companies to avoid watching the dirty linen being washed in public and assuming that they do watch, how can you expect them to ignore the dirt completely when they make their subjective evaluation of the institute?

What is the answer, then? Should we or should we not? It is a question that can not really be answered for others...or so I feel. As far as I go, I earnestly believe that it is not what is communicated that matters but the way it is communicated, which is more important. If the intent of a communication is to malign the institute or its spirit, even a carefully worded, two line hint may spoil the efforts of so many others who have worked hard for the institute. However, if the intention is right, I am sure that even a full page letter to the editor in the Times of India's gossip section (if at all letters to the editor are published there) will not do any harm. But the next question comes...who decides what the intent is...isn't that again a subjective parameter open to misinterpretation? It certainly is...and that is why all the brouhaha about the entire secrecy thing.

But the point goes deeper...it is not just about not communicating even when you want to...it is more about creating boundaries around you and not letting one hand know what the other is up to. This is what defeats the pupose because despite the security that we enjoy within the walls of our respective institutes, it is ultimately the person within each one of us that we have to be answerable to. This is where the words of a Ronald may not pay as well as the apparently solid idea of an Allwyn. If we neglect that person within in order to attain our ends (the exit point from a B-school, with a good pay package in hand and a rosy career in mind), we are certainly taking a step backward.

Realistically speaking, however, there will be a zillion other ocassions in personal and professional life where we will be forced to do even worse. Perhaps, the argument of an Allwyn might not be able to surpass the practical judgement of a Ronald. It all depends, therefore, on what stage you are in and how much are you willing to give up and how...a decision that differs from person to person...from situation to situation.

In my case, I have been writing stuff about things that go on in this institute without too may inhibitions. Not that I have been reckless and irresponsible towards the community, but I have also tried to be true to myself and record a balanced picture for me to view when I pass along this moment of my history some years down the line. More than that, I have hardly found anything so drastically wrong in IIMK that demands a sensational disclosure, in the real sense of the term. Most of the things that I have been writing about have mostly been related to people and their reactions to situations and the community has still not had an offering from my frustrated pen...or better still, my pen has not been frustrated enough to build up smoke where there's not been much fire. However, I am sure that if and when it happens, I am going to record my frustrations in all faith and objectivity and whether that makes any difference to anything or anyone else or not, I believe that I will, at least, continue to have no qualms in looking at the mirror.