Antara Bose of The Telegraph says, "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)."
Q: What is it about the B-schools that makes it a good backdrop for a story?A: An author must write about things that have a ring of authenticity. I went to a B-School and the story is therefore set in a surrounding that I am familiar with. The dilemmas of B School life make for an interesting combination for B-Schools.
Married But Available follows the life of the protagonist Abbey through the first ten years of his life as a Human Resources professional. The first ten years are arguably the most action packed years of one's life when most people get raises, get their promotions or change jobs, some get married, have kids, get divorced, fall in love and out of it and confront existential dilemmas. This novel looks at the first ten years of Abbey's professional life after his MBA.
Is this story autobiographical? Is there someone called Rascal Rusty? Did you actually live in the Railway Colony of SP Marg, New Delhi? Why did you choose Jamshedpur as the city in which to base the Business School in? Who does Abbey love - is it Keya, Priya or Ayesha? If you want to ask some more questions, just go ahead and add them to the comment section below and I will answer them. - Abhijit Bhaduri
Sometimes one stumbles across an old review or list while surfing. Here's what I saw from The Hindu newspaper. This is really 27th August 2005. So pretty much just after the launch of Mediocre But Arrogant, it featured in The Hindu newspaper's bestseller list. This is precious.
It is official. I am going with HarperCollins. The publishing giant HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation. Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world. In India they have been in business since 2002 as a joint venture with the India Today group.
I have often been asked if there is a Hindi Translation of Mediocre But Arrogant around the corner. I am looking for someone who can translate the story into Hindi or other Indian languages. Google has this cool feature of transliteration. A little painful at times, but certainly workable. Here is my attempt at translating the first two paras of the book. Tell me what you think of it.
David Rasquinha is an avid reader and reviewer of books. Starting off with his first review dated 14 Dec 1999 when he wrote about A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin, since then has written 118 book reviews and 1463 votes who find his reviews useful.
About him - as disclosed on the Amazon profile:
"I am from India, temporarily based in the USA. A banker by profession, I am fond of classical music and reading, amateur astronomy. I suppose my grounding in hard nosed economics and banking made me gravitate to science fiction and fantasy. I love reading about different worlds and more importantly, different world-views, seeing how characters interact. To me the most fascinating part of sci-fi is not the bells and whistles of technology but rather the effects of this technological change on society and human psychology."
Here is his take on M-B-A. Full disclosure: David Rasquinha and I were batchmates at XLRI, Jamshedpur, India. Over to you David.
