Just put down this awesomely funny rendition of 1-year-long-mid-life-mid-career break at IIMA. Prashant, from the pioneering batch of PGPX takes an equilibrised look at the going-ons in the corridors and classrooms of the hot bed of management education that IIMA is. (Note the author's disclaim- this is a work of fiction.)
Having withstood this place and programme two years after Prashant (that makes me an 'X3'), I could relate to the flaps in the ebb and flow of PGPX year that he recounts. I must admit I was following this book before the launch, but somehow lost track of it. I picked it up, on a friend's (another X3, the 'Bandit') reminder, while out for ConneXion 2010 . Being on campus, reliving the times again over a long weekend, had already stirred up memories of my travails from 30 to 18 months ago. On top of this 'Second Degree' came as a 'Red Bull for memories'.
From a 'can't be true, am I here?' to 'what the.., am I already leaving?' the PGPX year passes by in a jiffy, much like a vaccine shot you dreaded as a kid. But, life is fun and life is topsy-turvy at PGPX (not in the same order, though). A deep dive in to the making of aN X-ian is what this book is all about. Prashant has handled the narration in a very touching manner, candidly exploring the joys, fears and dilemmas that every student (including his/her spouse) at PGPX faces.
Every year a little world lands in the New Campus- men, women, little boys and girls, toddlers and their fathers & mothers with their bikes, cars and cradles and sometimes even their maids and babysitters. Every batch has its own set of characters in the play of PGPX that gets produced every year. Like an improvisation (a comedy only to a sadist outsider) plots and sub-plots vary in flavour a little, but the storyline is the same. In several ways, each X-ian is a Prashant and shares his struggles as a student. Prashant the author, though, really knows how to make you laugh.
The book is bound to pleasantly shock those who are aspiring PGPX and at the same time wake from stupor those (the PGPX-ians) who have gone back to the relatively slower life that post-IIMA life invariably becomes.
For PGPX Alumni the familiarity and the "familiailty" this book invokes makes it all the more of a souvenir to keep along side other memorabilia they carry with them. When I got through PGPX admissions, in order to mentally prepare myself for what I was to endure, I read Snapshots from Hell . If you are considering IIMA PGPX, Second Degree is your own customised and in-your-face 'Snapshots from Hell'. Read it.
