Master of Boxing Arts

In good times or bad, there���s always a demand for a Master���s in Business Administration (MBA). In times of economic boom, the media keeps harping on how the average salary for an MBA entering the job market keeps going up, year after year. In times of slowdown or recession, career counsellors point out that an MBA could add value to one���s earning potential and the job market will improve in the two years it takes for the student to complete the course. And so, whether in developed economies like the US and the UK or in the big emerging markets like India, students prefer to hibernate in an MBA course during a slowdown. The name of the game is to utilise the slowdown to enhance earning potential before entering the job market.

The demand for an MBA seat reached a new high or low in Karnataka on August 28. That was the day when the director of the Vokkaligara Sangha, which runs a chain of educational institutions, entered the office of the association president to demand a seat in the MBA course for the son of a friend. Whereupon, according to a report in The Times of India, an argument ensued and the director left the chamber with an injured head. The director, Prof Nagaraj, alleged the association president had hurled a paperweight at him. Association president Kenchappa Gowda claimed there was a round of fisticuffs and that Prof Nagaraj had hit his head on a window latch. Karnataka���s Vokkaligas are a distinguished community which has given not just CMs to the state but also a PM for the country in Deve Gowda. But this joust between the Vokkaligara Sangha���s president and director or the hurling of a paperweight at someone���s head are both somewhat unprecedented. An MBA in Karnataka could now be expanded to mean a Master���s in Boxing Arts!