Review:
If its not for Reshmy Pillai's (of thetalespensieve.com) new giveaway system, I wouldn't have come across this book ever. So all the courtesy goes to Pillai (thats what I prefer to call her). I would like to thank her for believing me worthy enough to read, understand, enjoy, jugde and put front a honest review of the book.
Krishna Kranthi, as far as I could reckon, lives in Hyderabad. I came across very few - almost zero - authors from Hyderabad. Being from Hyderabad and aspiring to be an author myself, it came as a shocker that a Hyderabadi authored a book and I didn't even come to know of it. (If it wasn't by Pillai, I wouldn't have come across this book ever. Let alone checking the information about the author.) At least for this sheer aspect, I want to write a full-fledged review that flatters
both the book and the author alike. Praising every tiny detail and encourage few people to go pick this book up.
But I can't. Considering the prime rule of BooksReviewWala's Reviewing Rule of providing a Honest and Unbiased view of the book, here I go with the review.
Plot (from the jacket):
Like many, Revant has dreamt of getting that fancy and highly regarded MBA degree. After working hard, finally he gets an admission to one of the top Indian B-schools. His excitement is short lived as the overwhelming pressure and the vague definitions of management boggle him down, He gets frustrated with the eople around him who see MBA as a purpose of earning higher ssalary and getting superior designations and indulging in unneeded arrogance. He thinks this is not what he wanted to learn out of his MBA.
But inside story of MBA graduates, the book helps one realize that real purpose of a MBA degree is not confined to money, blazer, arrogance but it is more than that.
About the author (also, from the jacket):
Krishna Kranthi is a management professional from Hyderabad. He has pusued his studies from CBIT, worked with Infosys, Amazon before pursuing his MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai. In his own words, he describes himself as "Eccentric, Honest, Optimist and Passionate". This is his first novel. [www.krishnakranthi.com, hello@krishnakranthi.com]
My take on this book:
This letter was enclosed in the courier in which I received this book. First of all I was disappointed that there was no mention of my name in the book. Perhaps, it was same copy that was send to other reviewers, too, I thought. Then I wondered, the author at least could have autographed the book. This question has been disturbing me since some time. If I was going to receive a review of the book, why is it not autographed by the author? I don't see there is much effort needed to sign the first page of the book. After all, I am asking to autograph each and every page.
The NGO message:
At the most bottom side of the back cover, just below the price of the book is printed, there is a message. It read,
A part of your money from this purchase goes to the NGO - Vigyan Ashram in form of educational scholarship to the Students
That was pretty inspiring. Maybe some kind heart would pick this book for the very reason of that message.
Cover design:
It is one of the most unattractive cover design I've come across. It is pretty dull and the first impression one gets of this book is, A boring book about education, studies and MBA. I am certain a closer look at what is written on the cover is not spared either.
Also the the background pattern of the front cover disappears on the back cover. The background of the back cover is simple white and pretty boring.
Apart from these the cover design is witty. It depicts a name card written on it, Revant, M.B.A. not Mean, Blunt, Arrogant. That is another abbreviation of MBA from this book.
After reading this book, I think the cover design was apt for the material side the cover. Boring.
Title:
I think to some part title is witty. MBA is not about Money, Blazer, Arrogance (an witty abbreviation of MBA). Also, to some extent, it is apt to the story.
Apart from this, I think, the line is pretty cheesy.
Story, narration and other aspects:
Author's language was one simple one. Though, he tried using many complicated words, it was simpler to the core. But I think he should have avoided using those complicated jargon. Definitions were given as if they were in a text book. Yeah, I felt like I was reading text books at many points of time.
Another irritating detail about the story is that of the conversations. Each line of conversation is considered from each person, save for in rare cases. But in this book, there were various instances where two lines of conversations were said by the same person. This is very irritating because every time it was essential to read the whole line to understand who said that line. It was very time-taking and irritating.
The second irritating aspect was there were many exceptionally dumb statements. Let me mention one here from the book,
"One more thing, the breaks are also meant to be used to finish assignments
given during the class," we smiled as she (the professor) said that.
I don't think there would be any student in the entire face of this planet who would smile at that. Come on, Krishna, please make some sense. There were many other instances like this which we forcing me to put this book down. It took all the energy I could muster to complete this book.
Though the text on the back cover shouts that this is a fiction, I am certain it is non-fiction. Of course, various scenes where Foreign girls, or Indian girl for that matter, wooing around Revant, the protagonist, seemed far fetched.
Story was good. Actually there were two parts of the story which really seemed to interest me. The NGO part and the Europe trip due to student exchange program. But the whole concept of detailing the education system and the management lessons the author learnt in Europe made it boring enough. I didn't in my wildest dream guessed that such an exciting part of the story could be written so monotonously.
On GoodReads, in the description of this book, I came across a line - Educational and Entertaining. Educational, of course it was. But entertaining, I would have give that a second thought.
Overall, the book was no for fiction-seekers. Maybe people who are interested in more education than entertainment would like it. Maybe, author could have put some effort in developing the plot to add some entertainment to the story. Even the narration should be developed to not sound it like a text book.
Recommendations:
I would like to recommend it to no one, unless they are management lovers; seeking for educational insight into the MBA education narrated with dry humor.
Title : MBS is not about Money, Blazer, Arrogance
Author : Krishna Kranthi
ISBN (editoin I've read) : 9789350675007
Rating : 2 out of 5
Read between : 05-06-2013 to 06-06-2013
Reviewed for: Reshmy Pillai (thetalespensieve.com)
Pages : 158
MRP : Rs. 150
No comments:
Post a Comment