@Rashmi Bansal - Nothing Happened to IIM Calcutta
One of the popular posts on the internet about IIM Calcutta is this one by Rashmi Bansal. Now Rashmi is the founder of JAM magazine, that is more than decent in terms of its quality. Also she was implicated in the IIPM-JAM Controversy along with Gaurav a good friend of mine. Hence I considered her opinion with more attention that I would normally.
Unfortunately though, the post itself is quite damning. If you were thinking about coming to IIM Calcutta, no matter how strong your convictions you would be forced to rethink. I did too.
Now that I’ve been year for almost 6 months, I decided to revisit the article and see how true it is. Unfortunately, the image she portrays is incorrect and misleading. There are a lot major defects in our system, yes. But not the ones that she points out to. Not all anyway.
Let us consider the points that she makes.
1. The natural beauty of the campus
It is a well known fact that the campus is really beautiful. Its a bird sanctuary, a haven for photographers etc. Rashmi grants us that. I concur totally in her views. This place is quite awesome that way.
2. Infrastructure
Rashmi says that
“The whole atmosphere is friendly, not intimidating.[…] a sense of this being a larger than life institution(IIMA) remained. That sense is missing at IIM C.”
Last time I checked “intimidating” was bad. It makes sense to have an intimidating backdrop if you were NDA and code of conduct, discipline was what you needed from your students. I don’t see how an “intimidating” backdrop can help you in a business course. In fact business is all about being entrepreneurial and self-starting and perhaps even creative. Not regimental and disciplined.
3. Laidback academic culture
Rashmi points out that our academic culture here is laid back. We have a 75% attendance requirement. She contrasts this at IIMA where “weeks feel like ‘Survivor’ episodes”. And again she counter-intuitively states that the former is worse.
In my opinion an enforced rule which forces you to sit through a class makes you much worse off that a system which allows you some leeway. The time you spend taking an Operations course you have no interest in, could be better utilized doing something you like. I’d take an academic lifestyle where I choose what I do with my time, rather than living under some enforced rule. We did not have the 75% rule either a few years back, and it flummoxes me as to why it was introduced in the first place.
I think it’s a major advantage that our first year is NOT a grind. Thankfully, you don’t need to “survive” your first year at IIMC.
4. World Class Amenities
I must concede that we do not have amenities like we should. The admin. is in full construction mode to fix that, as I type. But more importantly it’s not as bad as she paints it out to be.
Now I’m a pretty finicky sort of guy. I like my space and I like my luxuries. And I get all the basic necessities here. I don’t think that “you can barely fit in one bed, and study table.” in our rooms. They are much bigger. I get piping hot water for bath, have a telephone in my room to order anything I want from the night canteens on campus and there are washing machines in my hostel.(though I’ve never used it because I get my clothes washed by the dhobi who washes and irons clothes via room delivery) In short – sure I would’ve like an air conditioner, banquet meals and carpeted floors! But that does not mean that what I have is inadequate by any measure.
Rashmi has tried to be reason why IIMC’s rankings have dropped over the years. And I think she has done so honestly. However she the examples and the points that she makes are invalid and inaccurate. In my opinion, the real reasons lie in matters as external as our location to the fact that we don’t give a rat’s ass about our PR. Maybe I’ll try to analyse those issues one day.
However this explanation was in order to set the record straight.
December 24th, 2008 / 1 Comment / Tags: JAM, rashmi bansal, IIMC, IIMA / Trackback