Booked!!!

Last week was intellectually fulfilling. I read 2 books--first being, Scenes from an Executive's Life by Anurag Mathur and The IITians by Sandipan Deb.
Let me first dwell on the first one!It was truly typical exercepts from an Executive's life.The same old office politics, which all of us have gone through or heard about! The same old mistakes people commit! The same old consequences of promiscuous rendezvous!But it all made for an interesting reading.
I want to write more about the second book so I leave you here with the review of the first one to go ahead and explore for yourself. Because that is what I did!
I had read about this new book called The IITians and I thought, now that Five Point Someone (another one about IIT but a fiction) has become so popular, the market would be flooded with all sorts of details and statistics of IITs! But then I chanced upon this book in my college library. I had not intended to read it earlier because I thought such books would make sense only to the IITians! But then somehow I picked the book and after a few chapters was hooked to it! I would not be as dramatic as saying that it changed my life! But when I think in terms of Pre-The IITians and Post-The IITians, it has definitely made me more aware about several things related to the most coveted and respected professional brand we have--The IITs!
I came to know about so many IITians and the way they are affecting our lives and the lives of the people around them and across the globe!
Over the years we have been talking about Brain Drain. I came to know more about it--the Whys and Whats!Earlier I did not understand anything much on this issue. But now I understand much of it! I was impressed by the grassroots level work done by several IITians and was filled with awe by the enormity of achievements that so many of the IITians carry!Even to general people like us it is of some pride to connect ourselves in some way with some IITian! My friend studies at IIT Delhi. We are hardly in touch but I do mention this to my newly formed friends at some point of time! IIT also fills me with some awe. I feel that those who go to IIT must be people of some other planet, extremely intelligent and outstanding, and yeah, with a lot of out-of-box aptitude ( I am a management student afterall)!
I never dreamt of going to IITs! And thank god for that! Because those who do, sweat it out for atleast 4-5 years these days, in such extremely competitive environment! I am the creative sort! Thinking about machines and motors, make me sick...but I admire all those who do wonders with these things.
I was really impressed by the work done by Prof. Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras. And also of 'The Toymaker'( I forgot the name!)that the book had a chapter on.
I had this argument yesterday with some of my friends who clearly were irritated of seeing me hooked to this book day in and day out! The issue was why people crib so much about IITians not doing enough!What they are doing at grassroots level, even other engineers could also do, then why people raise eyebrows on only what the IITians have not done!
I would continue with The IITians in my next posting.
Till then, enjoy!!!