Blogging in Kafkaland
Posted by gargi on 08 Oct 2005 | Tagged as: India
Fellow (or should that be felli) blogger, Rashmi Bansal has been blogging for quite sometime on Youth Curry. As editor & Publisher of Jam she has a fairly incisive view on issues that impact the youth of today.
The issues that she does comment on regularly include education and insitutes of higher education that claim to provide an edge. In her cross hairs - at various points in time have been Amity, Rai, IIPM and the ilk. Essentially private institutes which seem to have neither accountabiltiy nor responsibility, and seem to have extremely deep pockets for full page ads and prime time spots in leading media vehicles. If they had been ‘public sector’ types the obvious question would have been - where does so much money come from. Everytime I see one of these full time ads - i remember an institution called Wintech, which promised everyone the earth, the moon, the stars, and then collapsed leaving a lot of unpaid bills and a lot of broken dreams.
Anyway, to come back to the point - Rashmi has got on the bad side of those who run
And in other news - Gaurav Sabnis has got a legal notice from IIPM for writing this.
He has also been libelled on various blog sites. What next - goons standing outside everyone’s homes with hockey sticks?
Methinks that the bunch are taking their failed movie - Rok Sake to Rok lo - a bit too seriously.
other bloggers taking this up Sambhar Mafia, Walk with me, Press Talk, Charu, Desipundit, Anshul, Patrix ,
I will try and keep updating this list. And i am sure that Indian blogdom is going to come out in full support of Rashmi & Gaurav.
Sphere: Related ContentRelated Reading
26 Comments »
on 08 Oct 2005 at 7:20 pm 1.Handa said …
well.. shit happens. and i wld like to say the same thing once again. may be rashmi is a lesbian… may be she got thrown out of iim a… but how does tht make IIPM a better college than it is. i fail to see the connection.
on 08 Oct 2005 at 9:02 pm 2.gargi said …
there is no connection. those who slander her, do so in the hope that it will divert from the issue.
frankly, if you produced students who argued like this then “tumhe chullu bhar paani mein doob marna chahiye”
their inability to rationally defend their view probably does more to confirm Rashmi’s writings than defend their institution.
I won’t hire people who behave like this - would you?
on 08 Oct 2005 at 9:04 pm 3.Akshay said …
I just read the comment page at Youth Curry. Some very Hasty comments.
on 08 Oct 2005 at 9:15 pm 4.Kaps said …
Thanks for taking up this issue. I have also posted on the same. Hoping that the Blogosphere will rally behind Gaurav and Rashmi and ensure that such scamsters are exposed.
on 08 Oct 2005 at 10:25 pm 5.gargi said …
akshay - hasty is an understatement.
this is innuendo, falsehood, and outright lies.
hasty is when you write teh insetead of the
kaps - i think that all these so called “fans” who defend their idols need to get a reality check
on 08 Oct 2005 at 11:27 pm 6.Akshay said …
Actually I meant Nasty, sorry for the misspelling
on 08 Oct 2005 at 11:56 pm 7.Srini said …
A regular blogger’s eye, (or even a blog reader’s eye) can easily tell that these slander-blogs have mushroomed as a knee jerk reaction to the expose by JAM. Something similar to Sun TV’s reaction and comments to the Park hotel issue in Chennai.The IIPM empty vessel is making so much noise and throwing muck around, but Bloggers are springwalls - the muck will only come back to IIPM and its campaigners. Nowhere,in their replies, do I see a believable defense against the points raised by JAM Magazine’s operation.
And, you must visit their website! It is one institute living on crutches - they need other established brands to support themselves. Pity.
on 09 Oct 2005 at 7:06 am 8.Charu said …
yes Harini, more than Rashmi’s post, the nature of the comments on her post speak for the quality lof students and the institute she writes about…
on 09 Oct 2005 at 7:46 am 9.A Time To Reflect » Blog Archive » Hatch your chickens and abuse bloggers said …
[...] Please keep this issue alive and lend your support to Rashmi and Gaurav. Other bloggers who have already written about this : Harini, Kaps, Anshul, Press Talk, Walk with me [...]
on 09 Oct 2005 at 8:35 am 10.DesiPundit » IIPM Blog Wars Redux said …
[...] I, on behalf of DesiPundit, am blacklisting IIPM and their chamcha blogs (no links offered here). Kaps has issued a call to join the fight against IIPM. Harini, Srini, Charu, and Anshul have heeded the call. PressTalk exposes the false ranking claims by IIPM, The Arbit Council has a funny take on the exhorbitant consultancy fees demanded by IIPM director, Arindham C. [...]
on 09 Oct 2005 at 9:06 am 11.gargi said …
akshay no issue. but it is quite amazing what one alphabet can make
Srini - it is completely ok to defend their ground. but this kind of obscenity makes you wonder about what or whom they are defending. sounds like one of the sidekick villain in Hindi films
Charu, tan vinaay tnaai sudum
on 09 Oct 2005 at 12:44 pm 12.Mridula said …
IIPM is doing more damage to its image by such childish attacks than their full page ads.
on 09 Oct 2005 at 3:58 pm 13.Srini said …
Gargi,
I agree
Their emotional and obscene defense goes to show that there is no logic in anything they are doing about the issue. This whole story could very well be a classic B School case study. What will you (the MBAs) if you institute is attacked ? And if this is how the top brass at IIPM reacts, I dont need to know how the rest will react. But,at the same time, I am sure there are many students who will agree with (and were waiting for) a expose like this!
Srini
on 10 Oct 2005 at 11:08 am 14.Selective Amnesia » IIPM and its bunch of fake, lewd bloggers said …
[...] If it were any less serious, I would have had a hearty laugh at IIPM’s response. But dude! Leaving obscene and lewd comments on somebody’s blog is not cool! Definitely off-limits. Don’t they teach you that at school? The blog-o-sphere is rankled. And pretty bad. Understandably so! Bloggers Charu, Kaps, Patrix, Harini and others have taken up the cudgels. And we will fight. Fight hard. And fair, which is not something IIPM understands. [...]
on 10 Oct 2005 at 9:09 pm 15.Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » India: Defending Freedom of Speech said …
[...] A lot of Indian blogs have been echoing this call for support. The latest development has been that Gaurav Sabnis has quit his job with IBM. He says - …I have resigned from IBM. The decision is entirely my own and I was not asked by IBM to resign, nor was I pressured in any manner by any executive from IBM. I took the decision in view of some really bizarre threats that were apparently made by IIPM to IBM… [...]
on 11 Oct 2005 at 3:00 pm 16.Amit Kishore said …
What’s the big deal about what Rashmi wrote? It has been an open secret what IIPM has been upto all these years. She has just brought it out in the open.
I know quite a few students of IIPM personally who have told me what Rashmi has written many months back. Frankly, most of the ex-IIPM students I know are pretty shady with the exceptions of a few who are not shady ‘coz of their own character not ‘coz of Arindam Choudhary.
And I couldn’t agree more on your point of the kind of students IIPM is turning out. I mean imagine if they were Corp Comm Managers or working in PR companies and they were to handle a sticky situation like this. If this is the kind of reaction they have then I don’t know how long they can hang on to their jobs.
on 14 Oct 2005 at 8:49 pm 17.Mall Road » Blog Archive » The art of writing legal notices said …
[...] Update 1: Others joining the issue: Harini, Srini, Charu, Anshul, Amrit, Muthuvel, Thalassa Mikra, Jagan, Vijay Krishna, Vatsan, Jo, Varna, Swaroop CH, Shivam, Ash, Abi, Jujitsu, Uma, Shub, Rajan, Havoc, Abhishek, Chandrachoodan, Kaushik, Alpha-Q, Mandar, Kaushal, Chenthil, Anthony, Bonatellis, Apurv, Scudie, Sriyansa, Miss J, Neha, Tablepost, Chitthacharcha, Saket, Dhananjay, Sriram, The Comic Project, Gawker, Nilu, Ian, Jabberwock, Niket, Ravikiran, Hitchiker, Vinaya. [Got this list via Desipundit and will keep updating it.] [...]
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Just a month back, his life too was as cozy as theirs was! His family had gone on a vacation to Kashmir! And just when they were about to leave Uri, the earth quake struck! Everyone of his family was lost in it! He went to Delhi by an Army van. None of his relatives were ready to accomodate him. With no one to support him, whatever little wealth his family had, was split among the relatives! Finally, it was decided that he should stop his studies & get back to Delhi to work in his Uncle’s kiraana dukhan!
So he is, in the station, on the way to Trivandrum,with his tattered clothes & torn suitcase, that he has been wearing since last week. He would go to the Sainik school in Trivandram and get back his belongings to join the prestigious job in his Uncle’s petty shop!
Suddenly, something struck him! He hit the girl who did not give him the seat, snatched her gold chain, jumped out of the train and ran like a mad fellow, until he was stopped by….
on 26 Oct 2005 at 7:49 am 19.Mihir Sambhus said …
Really stupid of IIPM to pursue this matter to this extent! Hope Gaurav good luck!
My supporting entry at http://www.desihub.com/blog/page/mihir/20051013#indian_blogosphere_heating_up
on 17 Nov 2005 at 4:59 pm 20.Sumit said …
IIPM publishes such big full page adv….but has anyone tried to read what is written at the bottom of the ads in small letters,,,,,,Very few ppl who have carefully read this must have observed that IIPM is not recognised by any educational body of India,,,,,
Can mr arindam choudhury throw some light on this, pls????
on 18 Dec 2005 at 5:05 pm 21.ponytail said …
http://indianinstituteofponytailmanagement.blogspot.com
on 12 Jan 2006 at 4:07 am 22.Sambhar Mafia - Cooked To Kill!: October 2005 said …
[...] Gaurav Sabnis and Rashmi Bansal have been targeted by IIPM and it’s so called students and alumni. Gaurav has received a legal notice from IIPM and Rashmi has been the victim of malicious accusations and some extremely distasteful personal comments.The fake blogs, which have started talking ill about Gaurav and Rashmi, have just sprung up in the last few days and don’t have more than a single post in their blog. It is almost certain that these fake blogs have been started by the same person(s) (using different user names). What Gaurav and Rashmi have attempted to do is to examine whether the tall claims (about placements, faculty and infrastructure) made by IIPM are really true or not. If IIPM really believes that they have the best-in-class facilities it is better that the placements and infrastructure do the talking. Such direct brutal attacks on established bloggers will do more harm than good. Any blog bashing exercise by IIPM will definitely backfire at them as more people will realize the true nature of IIPM. Such offensive comments are only going to increase the hatred among the public in general and the student community in particular. The actions by IIPM and the baseless comments/accusations by the IIPM students definitely show that they have never come across terms like discipline and ethics during the course of their MBA.The MSM in India is unlikely to take up such issues as they are dependent on advertising revenue from these institutes. If you feel strongly about this issue, I urge you to take this up and post it in some form or ther other so that such fake blogs and the institutes are nailed down. Let’s join hands to fight against this menace. Let them not underestimate the power of the Blogosphere. The Blog readers are a well-informed lot and they are in the best position to decide which side is right. They have been following Gaurav’s blog and Rashmi’s blog for sometime and they will definitely vouch for the credibility of these two bloggers.Update 1: JAM MAG has also received a legal notice from IIPMUpdate 2: Patrix of Nerve Endings Firing Away wants to absolve the ‘real’ students from the IIPM controversy (those behind the fake blogs will not be spared)Update 3: Gaurav Sabnis explains his stand. Hats off to Gaurav for his determination and resolve to stand up for the truth.Update 4: Global Voices Online makes a call for Freedom of SpeechUpdate 5: Amit Varma of India Uncut sums up the developmentsUpdate 6: Michael Higgins has an insightful post on the importance of Reputation as a Business Asset (especially in the field of education)Update 7: Leading international blog Instapundit picks up the story (InstaPundit follow-up article Part 2). Some more reactions from Jeff Ooi of Malaysia and Think Jose.Update 8: Anna of Sepia Mutiny hits out at IIPM. Sepia Mutiny also has a follow-up article titled “Boycotts and IIPM”.Update 9: IIPM is the now the most searched term on Technorati (Global Blog Search). Varun has a snapshot here.Update 10: This issue is now being discussed actively in all forms of online media (email forwards, egroups, discussion boards, mailing lists etc). Abhishek Thakore explains how the democratic people-owned media (Blogosphere) and its web of networks can influence more people than traditional print (ToI) adsUpdate 11: DesiPundit has comprehensive coverageUpdate 12: To track the developments through various Blog Search engines visit Technorati, Google Blog Search and Ice RocketUpdate 13: Abi of Nanopolitan wants employers (corporates) to verify some of the information mentioned in the IIPM Placement Statistics.Update 14: Techmag throws some light on the legal validity of the notice that Gaurav Sabnis received. Sudhish informs us that the so called legal notices may just be threats.Update 15: “IIPM doesn’t just owe Gaurav an apology; it owes him his life back”, says Nilanjana (Part 1 and Part 2)Update 16: Patrix explains the intentions of the Blogosphere in an Open Letter to IIPMUpdate 17: Dhaaba discusses the IIPM issue over a glass of lassi (A laugh riot). Great Bong plans to start Indian Institute of International Dreamers (I3D). His post indicates that he has grandiose plans.Update 18: Indian MSM picks up the story - Hindustan Times, Mumbai Mirror, Daily Pioneer, NDTVUpdate 19: Gaurav’s Prof criticizes IIPM. Prof Madhukar Shukla also condemns IIPM.Update 20: Kiruba designs some “Support Buttons” for us to show our support for Gaurav and Rashmi.Update 21: Puneet accuses IIPM of spamming Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines. He also has screenshots to prove his claimUpdate 22: Arzan probes about IIPM’s Toronto connection and Belgian alliance. Curious Gawker also manages to throw some light on the web of alliances surrounding IMI.Update 23: The Committee to Protect Bloggers pledges support.Update 24: An Online Petition has been created to protest against IIPM. Please sign the petition. Pls help in spreading the word about this petition.Other reactions in the Blogosphere (this list will be updated frequently): Harini Calamur, Press Talk, Varun’s Thoughtful Chaos, Srini, The Arbit Council, DesiPundit, Anshul, Charu, Patrix, Muthuvel, Thalassa Mikra, Jagan, Vijay Krishna, Vatsan, Mridula, Jo, Amrit Hallan, Ash, Shivam Vij, Swaroop, Jujitsu Mode, Uma, Abi, Toufeeq Hussain, Shub, Ranj, Shivam, Abhishek, Rajan, Havoc, Kaushik, Chandru, Alpha-Q, Mandar, Kaushal, Chenthil, Tony, Bonatellis, Apurv Pandit, Scudie, Press Talk - K, Sriyansa, Miss J, Neha, TablePost.Com, Chitthacharcha (Hindi), Sujatha, Hitchiker, Sowmya, Saket, Varun (Part 2), Press Talk (Part 2), Vijay Krishna (Part 2), Dhananjay, Sriram, The Comic Project, Curious Gawker, Jai Arjun Singh, Secular Right India, Jaya Jha, Navin, Sudhish Kamath, Ravikiran, Vinaya, Niket, George Thomas, Ajay Bhat, Jinal, Om Malik, Kitabkhana, Jagan (Part 2), Ranjan Kant, BigBlogLog, Kamesh, Transmogrifier, Chernoff, Varun (Part 3), Hitanshu, Srikar, Rajkumar, Almost Useless, Falstaff, Sunil Laxman, Mercatus, Arzan, Nitin Pai, Veer Jain, Nupur Dave, Nirav, Jitendra Mohan, Mayank, Varnam, Soumyadip, Uma MD, Vishal, TTG, Chandru (Part 2), Angry Grad Student, Anantha Narayan, Pradyot, Amit Chaudhry, Sandesh, Dilip D’Souza, Chenthil (Part 2), MMK, Salman’s Shirt, Bharat, Nikhil, Kaushik, Aditya Kuber, Icarus Prakash (Tamil), Infinite Circle, Ketan, Durga, Kamlesh Singh, Pankaj, Harish Kumar, Aparna, Ashish, Swarnasrikrishnan, Rachel, Shel Israel, Rahul, Kaushik and Bidisha, Srijith, Anand, I-Sight, Logical Thinking, Sakshi, Shivam Vij (Part 2), Gururajan, Dhananjay (Part 2), Bhagya, Kunal, Sandeep, Ramanand, Satish Vijaykumar, Ashwin BS, Flying Death, Vayanasala (Malayalam), Shivangi, Govar, Harini (Part 2), Shreyas Ghuge, Prufrock, Amit Chaudhry (Part 2), The Unknown Indian, Prasoon, Killer Bunty, Suhail Kazi, Elne, Abhishek, Ravi, Aishwarya, Ram Viswanathan, Curious Gawker (Part 2), Wanderstruck, Leela, Vishwanathan, The Bat, Scribbler (Part 2), Vaibhav, Weblogsky, Divya, Sujith, Jroller, Madhoo, Sowmya (Part 2), Shoefiend, Varun (Part 4), Ash (Part 2), Ravikiran (Part 2), Veena, Salt Water Blues, Hyperorg, Ashutosh, India Blogs, Karthik, Arnold D’Souza, DesiTrain, Suds, Vijay Krishna (Part 3), Saurabh, Senthil, Arzan (Part 2), Uma (Part 2), Urmea, Kingsley, Sad Old Bong, Anshul, Rajesh, Lubu, Ravikumar, Neha (Part 2), Varun (Part 4), Anti, Instant Kaapi, Lazy Geek, Minorscale, Ferrari Prabhu, Emma, Kishore, Chenthil (Part 3), Aekta, Kashyapapeya Technorati Tag: IIPM [...]
on 17 Jan 2006 at 2:47 pm 23.IIPM Watchdog: IIPM - The real truth about them! said …
[...] Harini 1, 2, & 3, Srini, Charu, Anshul, Amrit 1 & 2, Muthuvel, Thalassa Mikra, Jagan 1 & 2, Vijay Krishna 1, 2, & 3, Vatsan, Jo, Varna, Swaroop CH, Shivam 1 & 2, Ash 1 & 2, Abi, Jujitsu, Uma 1 & 2, Shub, Rajan, Havoc, Abhishek, Chandrachoodan 1 & 2, Kaushik, Alpha-Q, Mandar, Kaushal, Chenthil 1 & 2, Anthony, Bonatellis, Apurv, Scudie, Sriyansa, Miss J, Neha, Tablepost, Chitthacharcha, Saket, Dhananjay 1 & 2, Sriram 1 & 2, The Comic Project, Gawker, Nilu, Ian, Jabberwock, Niket, Ravikiran, Hitchiker, Vinaya, George, Ajay, Navin, Jinal, Rajkumar, Sudhish, Kitabkhana, Sunil, Falstaff, Arzan, Nitin, Sameer, Srikar, Mayank, Jitendra, Secular-Right India, Ranjan, BigBlogLog, Kamesh, Chernoff, Hitanshu, Almost Useless, Jaya Jha, TTG, Naveen, Sujatha, Veer, Nupur, Varnam, Soumyadip, Uma MD, Vishal Angry Grad Student, Pradyot, Amit Choudhary, Sandesh, MMK, Salman’s Shirt, Bharat, Nikhil K, Kaushik, Aditya, Icarus (Tamil), Infinite Circle, Ketan, Durga, Kamlesh, Pankaj, Harish, Ashish, Swarnasrikrishnan, Rahul, Kaushik-Bidisha, Srijith, Anand, I-sight, Logical Thinking, Sakshi J, Gururajan, Bhagya, Kunal, Sandeep 1 & 2, Ramanand, Satish V, Ashwin, Flying Death, Vayanasala (Malayalam), Shivangi, Govar, Shreyas, Prufrock, Unknown Indian, Prasoon, Killer Bunty, Suhail, Elne, Abhishek, Ravi, Aishwarya, Leela, The Bat, Aditya P, Rajesh B, Arnold, J.Alfred Prufrock, Kingsley, Saurabh, Ashutosh, Nilanjana 1 & 2, Shanti, Ram V, Wanderstruck, Vishwanathan, Scribbler, Vaibhav, Divya, Debashish, Sowmya 1 & 2, Shoefiend, Veena, Salwater Blues, India Blogs, DesiTrain 1, 2, & 3, Suds, Urmea, Senthil, Anshul, Lubu, Vikram, Nishi, Ravikumar, Buchu, Chandoo, Aditya A, Vatsan M, Vinayak, Manoj, aNTi, Bhaskar, Fursatiya (Hindi), Ramnish, Nirav, Tifoc, Hemanth, KM, Karthik, Aadisht, Gaurav B, Protea Spice, Transmogrifier 1, 2, & 3, Pablo Ares, Tushar, Raghunandan, Preetam P, Prabhu, Arbit Council 1, 2, & 3, Nikhil O, Emma, Desi Nole, Dinesh, Usha, Salil, Anat, Chetan, Anil, Neha M, Kuffir, Ze Rambler, Null Bit, Lakshmi, Hariprasad, @Jroller, EspiritNoir, Samy, Aekta, Gokula Krishnan, Kasthuri, Surya, Ankita, Hirak, Prithvi, Odyssey, Rithwik, Tanmay, Kirti, RK, Kiruba, MumbaiGirl Online, Mehul, Vishnupriya, Samit B, Laura, Hemangini, Sumeet, Kiran, Deepthi, Seshu, Chakra, Sandeep, Bharat, Drumster, Atanu, Invincible, Kanti, Parmanu, Freaks Inc, Arpit, Sib, Twilight Fairy, Megha, Rajesh A, Taz Snow, Rohan K, Pune Bloggers, Prakash, Nijas, Sharad, Achan, Manpreet, USC Trojan, ~J~, Jottingz, Ramses, Tushar B, Wise Donkey, Praveen, The Hissing Saint, Kanishka, Clorange, SV, Prasenjeet, Blog Mela Portal, Shrikanth, Sibyl, and counting…have heeded the call. Add URLs of your posts in the comments; I’ll be glad to add them to the list. [...]
on 11 Jan 2008 at 7:59 pm 24.Thank you, Mr. Chaudhuri! at VKpedia said …
[...] is a list of blogs, each of which should immediately post a Thank you message to Mr. Chaudhuri Harini Calamur, Press Talk, Varun’s Thoughtful Chaos, Srini, The Arbit Council, DesiPundit, Anshul, Charu, [...]
on 15 Feb 2008 at 8:10 am 25.India Uncut: A question of principles said …
[...] Patrix challenges IIPM to sue him; Abi has an interesting suggestion on how to take this forward. Harini, Charu, Amrit, Thallassa, Ravages and many others have pitched in. (Bloggers in America are also [...]
on 23 Feb 2008 at 1:47 am 26.Mall Road: The art of writing legal notices said …
[...] 1: Others joining the issue: Harini, Srini, Charu, Anshul, Amrit, Muthuvel, Thalassa Mikra, Jagan, Vijay Krishna, Vatsan, Jo, Varna, [...]