Arbit Choudhury’s creator Shubham Choudhury’s interview was featured in Tango, a B-school magazine published by Congnizant Technology Solutions in August, 2010. Notably, Arbit comics are regularly published in each edition of Tango.

Arbit Choudhury and quotes from its creators were featured as part of an article on web-comics, published in Crest edition of The Times of India on June 26, 2010.

Arbit featured in the B-schools edition of Business World magazine (dated Oct 3, 2005).

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Arbit Choudhury in Indian Express – Wag the Mag

Arbit Choudhury featured in an article college magazines and newsletters, in the Indian Express, Jan 27th, 2005 edition. The article can be read here.

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Arbit Choudhury in “Times of India/ Education Times”

MOOLAH GAMES!

The following article on Arbit Choudhury appeared in Bombay Times, Oct 21st, 2004 edition

BUSINESS GAMES ARE LIKE A BITE OF REALITY, SAYS NISHA PRABHAKARAN AS SHE MAKES HER WAY AROUND B-SCHOOL FEST PRERANA 2004

WHILE professional courses continue to garner importance in the competitive world of education, scope of exploring newer vistas has widened considerably. B schools are encouraging students to take fests more seriously and business games are fast gaining prominence.

This trend was reiterated at Prerana 2004, the B-school fest held at National Institute of Industrial Engineering, last week. The event saw a huge turnout of students from across India including the various IIMs, XLRI (Jamshedpur), Faculty of Management Studies (Delhi), SP Jain Institute (Mumbai), NMIMS (Mumbai) etc.

Traditional favourites included the business meet, summer project contest, business quiz, virtual battleground and strategy game Srijan. This year’s new additions included Red Herrings, an event that tested the business acumen of aspiring managers. Bazaar, a game in the Red Herrings section, was a huge hit. “Bazaar looks at how much you know about the core concepts of marketing and management with regard to production, sale, pricing and the supply-demand equation. It is more of a mathematical game where a company gave us a case study to work on. Our job was to look at the problem, analyse it and provide a solution. Such simulated games make you think on your feet,” elaborates Abhishek Gupta who created the game with Abhishek Bansal at NITIE.

“These games provide a window to the practical world and also test how you work as a team. When you are in a team, you argue, co-ordinate, make adjustments and work towards the benefit of your team. All these contribute towards enhancing our skills, judging our strengths and shortcomings,” state Mahesh Joshi and Kapil Iyer from IIM (Kolkata).

Nandini Dawar and Ruchi Tushir from FMS (Delhi) echo: “Such games give an opportunity to analyse the market. You can check whether what you learn comes to your rescue in real life scenarios.”

Business games contribute a great deal to the learning process and have gained importance, as corporate organisations too want to pitch in and get closer to students.

Another unique feature at Prerana 2004 were the summer project contests in all six dimensions of management – marketing, human resources, supply chain management, finance, general management and systems.

With big names from the corporate world attending the event, students got a chance to interact and get first hand feedback. Biju Dominic, vicepresident, Mudra, who judged the Summer project contests, says, “These games are indicative of where the students stand. Otherwise, when you join a company you tend to feel lost and are unaware of the market scenario. These games deal with real life situations and give students a chance to work on live cases. It is more of networking than just a competition, which is integral in the corporate world. No wonder then, that students take these games seriously.”

For Dominic, judging these games is an excellent opportunity to get a feel of the next set of talent and capabilities. “This way, we can interact, reciprocate and contribute,” he quips.

Another unique feature of the event was the online business games called ‘Mastishk’. The number of hits at the website crossed 7,500 with an average of 800 to 1000 hits per day. The Mastishk website has being accessed from over 20 countries. Mastishk has also launched India’s first ever Bschool comic character – “Arbit Choudhury”, conceived and conceptualized specially for the event. All in all, a great learning curve for students from across India.

Vision – To create World’s First B School Comic Character

Stage I – Creating the Character

a) Decide on who should the lead character represent. As the strip was meant for B-school junta and the management fraternity, the lead character was suitably conceptualized as a B-school student.

b) Decide the name of the strip/character. After several sleepless nights and thoughtful days, and sieving thro’ countless options, the character was christened as “Arbit Choudhury”

c) Design the character sketch. The complete character sketch including the likes, dislikes, aims, aspirations, habits, behavior, talents were defined. The final character sketch was as follows-

“Arpit Choudhury is a typical 2nd Year MBA student of a leading B-school in India. His life revolves around all the daily chores of an MBA education; quizzes, tests, assignments, presentations, competitions, case studies, net-surfing, chatting, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V are as much part of his daily routine as food, drinks, friends and girl-friends.

Sleep is a word not present in his Dictionary. As any other management grad., he dreams big, and farts bigger. He often juggles with the concepts of strategy, logistics, marketing, finance etc. and tries (in vain) to apply these in real life situations.

He has come to believe that: “Management is an Art… And Art is a 4 letter word with the ‘F’ silent !’”…. His wisecracks frequently have everyone rolling in mirth. Perturbed by his penchant for blurting business balderdash, his friends jokingly call him “ARBIT Choudhury”

d) Design the appearance. After the character sketch came the real visual character “sketch”. The look of the character; his face-cut, his hair-style, his facial expression, his style, his clothing were designed.

Some initial sketches of Arbit. . .

Stage II – Comic Character to Comic Strip – Idea Generation

a) Think of original ideas. Days and Nights were spent pondering over humor in common B-school situations, application of management funda in real life and so on.

b) Take ideas from the environments. Ideas were taken from friends and classmates and from everyday situations and happenings in and around the campus life and management world.

c) Test ideas on Humor scale. Ideas generated were presented to a test audience, for their feedback. They were asked to give ratings to each idea as per their suitability for the comic strip and humour content.

Stage III – The Making of the Comic Strip – The Art Work

a) Visualize the setting. Common B-school environs were visualized… canteen, library, class, stairs and so on.

b) Draw draft with pencil.

c) Refine Draft. The draft sketch was checked for proportions and aesthetics.

d) Finalize Draft. After all refinements, the draft was finalized by bordering with pen. At this stage, the strip looked something like this-

Stage IV: The Special Effects – Adding Colours

a) Scan drawing.

b) Decide the colour combinations.

c) Fill colours digitally.

After this, the image looked somewhat like this-

d) The standardized Title Bar is then adjusted in the space designated for it in the top portion of the strip.

e) Finally, fill in the dialogues. Thus, an edition of the Comic Strip gets created.

f) Occasionally use real backgrounds. At times, Arbit and his friends are superimposed on real backgrounds to create an impression of them been present in the real world.

The Result: The World’s First Ever B School Comic Character created.

In September 2007, Arbit Choudhury was awarded the prestigious Manthan Award under the e-Entertainment category, for its contribution to developing the concept of micro-distribution. The Manthan Award is an initiative by Digital Empowerment Foundation , India as the National initiative of World Summit Award, to select and promote the best practices in e-Content and Creativity in India.

In June 2006, the concept of Arbit Choudhury as the World’s 1st B-school (MBA) Comic Character, selected as one of few bright creative ideas in the “Creative Future of India” Programme, out of more than 1000 contestants. The programme was organized by British Council in collaboration with IIM Bangalore. The creative maturity of the concept of the World’s 1st B-school comic character was highly appreciated by an international expert panel.

On February 15th 2006, Arbit Choudhury was included in the “Did You Know” section of Wikipedia, and was recognized as the “World’s 1st MBA Comic Character”.

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Arbit Choudhury rated 2nd best in Change Management, next only to Dilbert

On November 29th 2009, Popular website www.brighthub.com rated Arbit Choudhury as the 2nd best in Change Management, preceded only by Dilbert.

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Print Media Recognitions

On June 15th, 2007, Arbit Choudhury was featured as part of a special article on web-comics, published in Chennai edition of Indian Express.

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On October 3rd, 2005, Arbit Choudhury featured in the B-schools edition of Business World magazine.

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On October 18th 2005, Arbit Choudhury appeared on the front pages of Bombay and Kolkata Times (Times of India).

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On September 5th 2010, Arbit Choudhury featured prominently in an article on web-comics, published in the Sunday Times edition of Times of India.

On February 16th, 2011 an article on webcomics and Comic Con featuring Arbit Choudhury and a quote from Shubham Choudhury, appeared in the Mint and livemint.com – a joint publication of Wall Street Journal and Hindustan Times.

Print Media | Online Media

We received Birthday wishes and Ideas for Birthday Celebrations from several Arbit Fans every year around 5th of September. Here are a select few that have touched our hearts.

1. arbit’s b’day is a great occasion for business networking – so his b’day celebrations should have registration (pre-registration, on the spot registration, 10% discount on three or more delegates from the same b-school or organisation). Also, a return gift of an Arbit Choudhury T-shirt “I was there!”. All visitors will need to drop in their visiting cards in a bowl kept outside. there will be a lucky draw at the end and the winner gets a prize.

2. A virtual Cake in flash animation – which when cut will reveal a tangle of words….crawling like worms – and all these words are mba-jargon like synergy, core competency, value added, shareholder returns etc

3. An arbit choudhury book! (btw, this a serious one – why don’t u get a book published – keep it below 100 bucks and i am sure u will get a good market in b-schools – if u get it published – don’t forget me!)

Hey That’s nice to know that its already September & its birthday again. What I feel about celebrating his birthday is – You should draw a comic which includes all the characters which got created over the past few months & make them attend the cake cutting celebrations of Arbit. Let each one of them talk about what they feel about Arbit or something similar. Wish Arbit a grand happy birthday. Look forward to see many more comic strips

This is a celebration not only for Arbit’s creation but more so for the creators achievement anniversary. It is a time to feel proud of your achievements and make resolutions and plans to carry it further. Arbit can surely grow to various media, multiple channels. How about B-School contests / celebrations / events that revolve around Arbit? Like the Maggi Quiz contests we used to have in school – you remember?

Heartiest Congratulations to Hemant and Shubham !!! May Arbit grow a lot many years along with you too. Very Happy Bday to Arbit and Congratulations on completion of two years of Arbit Successfully.

Just came to the conclusion that Arbit has become 4 years older along with me.
I have also grown and probably the creators too. both personally and professionally.

way to go.
all the best wishes… Arbit…

Happy birthday, and hope this is just one of many many such birthdays. I’m a great fan of Arbit and his team. Both you guys have done an awesome job. I always knew NITIE for her intelligent people, but you’ve brought the creative side of her persona to the fore. Hats off to you, Shubham and Hemant. And Arbit, I love you.

P.S. : Hey Surbhi … Maya is already jealous of You )

Arbit Choudhury Special Visitors Celebrations is one such effort. It started as “Arbit 10K Hits Contest” to track the 10,000th visitor, and subsequently widened into an ongoing “Special Visitor Celebration”. It is our way of appreciating and involving Arbit fans in Arbit Milestones

To participate, all you have to do is visit the Arbit Choudhury website www.arbitmba.com today and if the hit counter shows any special no. like 10701, 11011, 17971 etc. (palindromes etc.), send us a screen shot of the same along with your details (name, institute / company, something more about you). You will win yourself a permanent place on the Arbit Choudhury website.

Presenting the Hall of Fame, Our Special Visitors and Other Noteworthy Visitors so far ….
(Psst: We are waiting to add your name to this list … )

Our Special Visitors

Arbit Choudhury’s fan base criss-crosses the entire spectrum of corporate and social strata. CEOs to freshers, NRIs to house wifes, working professionals to MBA aspirants, B-school professors to PSU executives, we have received fan mails from every class of the society. Arbit’s fan mails have even come from countries like Cyprus, Oman, South Korea, Switzerland, UAE, Singapore, USA and UK.

You will be happy to know it was distributed to our class by a professor.
- Purnima Jagtiani

I live in Abu Dhabi with my husband and kid. In our social and professional circle I am qite known for my wits and sense of humour. And I truly appriciate good humour and this is the reason I am writing to you….
- Jaya Sarkar
Abu Dhabi

PGDIM- Class of 2009, NITIE

Dear Arbit,

Congratulations ! on your birth! Getting born is really a great experience, I am sure your dad-couple has gone through a lot of laboured pains…
I am sure you will mature into a full fledged character like Laxman’s common man if your parents (two fathers, no mother!) put in more efforts. Cartoon characters become great not for the artwork; they become great for what they embody or what they signify. I am a fellow artist myself in another area, kind of drawn from the same crows(Oops! that ’s’ at the end was supposed to be a ‘d’) as your dad-couple… My league is slightly different, but all of us are essentially the same, trying to see if black (humor) can make life look better if used on the dull – lifeless colors which generally come as a package deal called life.

If you want to grow healthy and strong, you need the following things:
1. Presently, you are comprehensible to only the yuppie urban crows(oops, Sorry again, read that as crowd please). Nobody said that yuppie urban reps cannot relate to the larger issues we have in the world.
2. The larger you become, the more your life & longevity. You have to make yourself understandable to a larger audience. I feel the growth path has to be carefully planned, otherwise things will spin out of control. The way I see you growing is : MBA Crowd to Urban Youth of all economic strata to All Youth (youth related issues) and then apanage character (get married, have kids, all the stages of life)which has a national color and at last a humanitarian issues guy. But all this without loosing your humor edge… Remember Mahabharat ( and even Shakespear’s plays ) are relevant today ONLY because the issues they discuss are still relevant today. The packaging of these stories would look ridiculous today, [can't imagine anyone bringing a Mace or Bow-Arrows to work today and still be called sane, or even wearing the pumpkin pants of the bard's time], but a viewer sees through these (Anger, Lust, Greed, Jealousy, etc….). So, if you wish to transcend this pop-corn level into something immortal, aim to be someone who can speak the ‘human’ language. Otherwise the laurels you get today will wither out in no time. Examples : Pu. La. Deshpande (Marathi) & P.G.Wodehouse (English), two of the world’s greatest humorists of their times are not comprehensible to the ‘today’ generation, simply because their humour was strongly rooted in the world in which the authors existed: viz, middle class Marathi people and Edwardian rich inheritors of royal wealth. Even a character as great as Jeeves is slightly off the mark today as his skills of mixing the perfect drink & tying the perfect knot’ are out of place today. When the world changed, they simply lost their bearings! Kind of great navigators with old maps!

3. Wind up: Well after that sermon, let me summarize. I do not see anything wrong, incomplete or incorrect in your present aavtaar! You ARE great, today! But to rest on these miniscule laurels would be gross under kill for the talent of your co-dads. Soon, some girls will fall for them and make them fall enough to get married, then do the usual things and have kids and seek a secure job, and then some where down the line, after twenty years, they will show these sketches to their kids for drawing practice when they will realize that their first-born was lost somewhere in life\’s humdrum, never to be found again.

I would be very pleased to see you outgrow your yuppie image and become larger than life. Your dads will have to put in a great amount of thinking and research + their own life’s experiences (and this will take time, do not hurry guys, you go and get the jobs and get married in the meantime!) to make you stronger.
With the appeal of Lakshman’s common man on the wane, there happens to be some space vacant at the top.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHY YOU SHOULD NOT OCCUPY THAT SLOT!

Love”,

- Atul Kherde

Manish Saluja, also joined the core team of Team Arbit to help with maintenance of the website and handle the nuances of the web platforms upon which Arbit relied. He along with Shubham started building a repository of witty jokes to cater to the ever increasing Arbit Fan following.

The rise of Arbit Choudhury symbolizes the coming of age of Web-comics and Internet marketing. After its launch during MastishK’04, Arbit Choudhury was continued as a web-comic with the latest comic strips being released and distributed through the Arbit Choudhury Yahoo Group and Website.

The panel plays a critical role in screening of Arbit Ideas and helps us bring the best Arbit humor to fans all over the world.

Members of PIE:- Abhishek Khetan, Manish Saluja, Payal Chandna, Tom David, Shruti Satyan and we have some under-cover members too

Arijit Ghosal- For first suggesting the name “Arbit”
Atul Bhasin- For repeatedly granting his HP scanner for all the Arbit work
Alex Joseph, Ashita Mittal, Karen Newnes, Neelesh Mundra, Milind Tapaswi, Sabyasachi Ghosh, V Anand Krishnan – For providing creative inputs in the early days helping us shape Arbit

We also thank all our MBA batchmates – Class of 2005, NITIE, for the support and encouragement they gave to our endeavor

The Arbit Choudhury Team is a keen supporter of the AIDS awareness campaign.

On World AIDS Day every year, we release a special comic strip dedicated to spreading awareness about AIDS.