The Firm v/s Gaurav Sabnis

A few months ago, three hundred students sacrificed admits to Ivy League b-schools like Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago and Stanford. Because they had just realised their life's dream and ambition. They were heading to India... to study in the world's numero uno institute. They were all armed with admits to the IIPM. Yeah, that's right. Didn't you hear that India had finally arrived? And all because of one man...

The above could as well be found on the back cover of Arindam Choudhury's next book. The sad part is our folks would buy the argument. But hey, not any longer. India's army of bloggers is ready and raring to go.

With a publicity stunt that includes the punch line "Dare to think beyond the IIMs?", this self-proclaimed "institution" has proved that it is no more than a bunch of goons who cannot handle criticism, by taking on Gaurav Sabnis, in more ways than one. As Rashmi Bansal points out:

A series of 'blogs' (3 created two days ago and 7 created one day ago) have sprouted up, extolling the virtues of studying at IIPM. They are named:

• IIPM Infrastructure
• IIPM Rankings
• IIPM Rankings 'The Real Truth'
• Great Lecture by Sir Geoffrey Owen at IIPM
• Placements IIPM
• Summer Placement in Planman
• IIPM is ahead of its time
• IIPM's Publication and Research
• Real Gaurav Sabnis

The last of these, as can be guessed, claims to be the real thing. However, given the long and time-honoured (read dubious) record of IIPM, such things aren't very surprising, eh? This kind of institutional splogging shows them in very bad light (which they already are in). What kind of institute would they be, and how can anyone entrust their future with these people? Is this part of Mr. Arbit, er... Arindam Choudhury's great Indian dream? A few hundred blogs in praise of his two-bit institute, that cannot stand up to one bit of criticism?

Our support might not count for much. But for whatever it amounts to, let us side with Gaurav... the real one!

And as always, to Hell with splogs!

P.S.: Kaps has put up a list of blogs with similar reactions. I'm (shamelessly) copying that list here. Harini Calamur, Press Talk, Varun's Thoughtful Chaos, Srini, The Arbit Council, DesiPundit, Anshul, Charu, Patrix, Muthuvel, Thalassa Mikra, Jagan, Vatsan, Mridula, Jo