Married But Available

I recently read the book "Married but available" by Abhijit Bhaduri (Publisher: Harper Collins), which is a sequel to "Mediocre but arrogant" by the same author. It's a fictional story about a management graduate who after passing out from one of the top B-school (The first books is about the love and life at B-school), is taking his first step into the corporate world. The author takes us through the initial career progression of Abbey – the male protagonist – his experiences, failures and his learning. On a parallel track the author talks about the personal life of Abbey and how he balances it with his professional commitments, the clash between two and its impact. The characters in the book are too real to ignore, someone whom we might have met somewhere, with whom we can relate to, and all this ensures that you are glued to the book till the last page.

"Married but available" takes us through the first ten years of Abbey's life, where he moves from level of personnel manager of a small manufacturing company to being appointed as a member of the board of one of the top MNC. He marries a girl of his choice – a friend from his college days, but fails in living up a happily married life. He finds many new friends and learns "Corporate culture" so that he can be well accepted in the heard. He makes mistakes but overcomes his failures to complete one of the toughest assignments of his career – merger of two companies and associated retrenchment of workers in a fair and innovative manner. The writer also takes us through some of the uncomfortable realities of professional life – peer pressure and work place politics and how the protagonist finds his way through them.

Some of the characters which deserve a special mention (my personal favourites) are – NSR (N S Ramadorai), Rascal rusty (This character has found its way through the first book to this) and Captain Sobti. Also memorable are the events – some funny and some inspiring – which will always come to my mind, whenever there is a mention of "Married but available". Rascal rusty's gyaan sessions to Abbey specially the one where he enlighten Abbey about various innovative products ideas is surely the funniest part of the book. The dilemma which Abbey faces at the time of firing NSR is another emotional high point of the story.

Though the story is purely fictional, but it has an underlying message which is loud and clear – The initial years of our career is the most crucial and memorable part of our life, when we decide what we will be and how we will be. It is during this period when we try to shape ourselves to the realities of corporate world, meet people whom we don't like but still have to stand by them because they are your bosses, we settle in our personal lives and try to strike a balance between our personal and professional world.

Do not forget to read the acknowledgement where Abhijit (Bhaduri) talks about the possible sequel to his series of "MBA". I am definitely waiting for the next MBA, what about you?