Earning the Laundry Stripes

Manreet sodhi's "earning the laundry stripes' can be described as 'unchhe dukan, pheeka pakwan' a hindi phrase literllay translted as "big cry. little wool". I was particularly disappointed with the book because it was my first book based on Indian Management schools and graduates. Though as an MBA aspirant we used to think that cracking the exam was the hardest part, but reality is very different as is described in this book.
This book as it chronicles the life of a management graduate 'Noor Bhalla', passing out from IIMC and then being the first woman to join the sales at HLL, much like the real life of its author, fails to strike the right notes.

There are many loopholes like why we never get to know about the Kalpana's MBA college when writer herself puts in very elaborately that in MBA hierarchy your status is judged by the college you are from. Apart from these small details, the most irritating thing I found about this book was its inane juxtaposing of serious issues with corny ones. Surely we don't need the details of the sex and stiffness of her male friends member in the same breath as Gujarat carnage. I think these new writers must learn a thing or two from Chetan Bhagat and why his '5 point something' was such a big hit. Answers are not that difficult to find and certainly not for an engineer and MBA ( at this point, I make it clear that I am an engineer and MBA myself). The subject, language and narrative of Chetan Bhagat's debut novel was very topical to the campus and the sensibilities of youth and it dared not to cross those limits. And here I thought Ms Sodhi knew a thing or two about target audience.

Only thing that remains back with you is her anecdotes from the corporate world which becomes little too cliched at times. And her description of rural India is condescending to say the least. Though at the end of the novel, author suddenly has this epiphany the she had a choice to make in her life and who she is today is a result of that. She makes no bones about making fun of people who eat, speak and pronounce differently than hers.

This book is too contrived and too cliched for any one who has ever been to a good B-School. B-School grads are not that clueless as Ms Sodhi paints us to be. And I hope that she bears this fact in her mind when she sets out to write her next book.