Doing a series on how clients get ripped off! Each part is independent of the previous one. The first one was about Education. So continuing the education rip off.

First we spoke of the ‘urban’ boy / girl who is on a self rip off mode. Take the case of a carpenter whose daughter is the first graduate in the whole community. Poor thing! she does not know what to do.

She along with her father approach the educated man they know – he is a lawyer practicing in Kanpur (change it for any town without too much of corporate presence it does not matter). The lawyer does not have a clue of what is happening in corporate India, but reads a few magazines. He says doing an MBA is fine. She (let us call her Miss. Pavam). Miss Pavam has done her BSc. in Microbiology.

The father says ‘But I cannot afford to pay Rs. 9 lakhs for an MBA degree’. Father and daughter have no clue what an MBA degree can (or cannot) do for her. She sees a ‘coaching class’ which prepares people for the MBA entrance. She joins it. Fees Rs. 42,000. Father withdraws from National Savings Certificate (bless the government, it is a nice instrument – @#$% what the planners say).

3 weeks into the training a bank manager visits them. Just like that to meet them. 5 weeks into the training one institute based out of Pune (could be Gurgaon, Kolkatta, Mumbai, …) visits them and does a sale pitch.

‘Our college had a 100% placement last year. The average salary that our students got was Rs. 3.9 lakhs, and the companies which came are Hdfc bank, Icici bank, Kotak bank, India Bulls, Indiainfoline, Max New York life, ….and others. ‘

Ms. Pavam has fallen. The glossy pictures, the swimming pool, the amphitheater, all do their trick. She then realises that the fees is Rs. 7 lakhs. She is crestfallen.

The next day the bank manager and the owner of the classes do a joint presentation. A loan is available for Rs. 7 lakhs. Repayment starts after she gets a job. EMI is only Rs. 14,000 a month.

The owner explains – see you will get a salary of Rs. 33,000 per month, Rs. 3000 will be the rent. Rs. 14,000 emi – you can comfortably afford. Nice. House papers pledged loan got.

Cut to post degree trauma.

No good companies came to the campus. One company said will take you on an experimental basis. Will pay Rs. 8000 and will pay for Pavam’s cell phone. She is shocked. This will not pay for the EMI. Forget rent and food @ Bengaluru. Company makes her travel, but does not pay conveyance. Company makes her travel – pays for ticket does not pay for food.

Shattered, battered does not know what to do. Does rounds of consultants. Visiting faculty says ‘we have a hiring freeze’.

dejected, sad, lost in Bengaluru goes back to Kanpur. Mom worried – how to find an educated boy for marriage?, Dad worried about EMI.

Miss Pavam is watching 3 idiots on Sony TV.

How did this rip off happen? No education regulator? Would it have made a difference? Greed and Fear. Rule – both G and F rule over all other emotions.

Remember the Max New York Life ad?

‘Advice tho sabhi deten hain, aap kiski sunte hon?” – a brilliant question.