Another of those hosannas to the alma mater? Yes, but one that takes potshots at the system that sees IIM graduates as heroes of India?s success story. Joker in the Pack by the two IIM passouts, Ritesh Sharma and Neeraj Pahlajani, falls in the category of campus literature. It is finding avid readers who can identify with the angst of the ordinary Indian student who dares to dream big.
It?s the story of Shekhar Verma, who after graduating in information technology from a non-descript college in Delhi decides to take the IIM route to success as defined by ?salaries that would lead to a lifestyle far removed from the middle class existence I had hitherto known?. But dreaming big and actually landing a big job are two different things, as our hero gets to know soon, when he reaches the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and finds himself among 200 toppers, all fighting for that ultimate job.
At another level, it is also the awakening of this lazy young man, as he gets to know his strengths ? a fighter who refuses to call it quits. At the same time, he also realises that he has become part of the rat race, with grades and bullet points on his resume taking over his life. ?I didn?t know if I was happy anymore. I felt like I was always thinking about ?achieving? and ?winning? and running around doing things I didn?t actually want to do,? he says.
The book in a colourful way brings out the drama around the placement process in B-schools, which the authors equate to a mandi, where how well you sell your wares determines life?s course. The canny categorisation of IIM students into Northie Lafanders, Sambhar Mafia, Fighters, the Geniuses and the Page 3s is something that many a sociologist would agree with and says much about the ?wholesomeness? of the IIM dream.
An attempt at satire, the narrative has the natural flavour of college lingo, interspersed with expletives (too much?), especially in the conversations of Shekhar and his batchmates. What this book however is silent upon, is the student-faculty interaction, but that calls for another story.