Why MBA fad?

I have much too tried to paraphrase a good content in an interesting way with a few inputs from my side.:)
Why MBA is almost a nonsensical question mandated to be answered in any MBA PI. You have shelled 1100 bucks in all likelihood not for the sake of any hobby(leave my old age case, which is a one-off one). In lieu of it, one could have bought a designer watch to practice better time management. The small town girls might crib. "My dad told me to do so". Bhai, mere to papa kahte rah gaye bada naam karega...
Maybe, if one is not good at tech makes one feel deluded at times to think that not being good at tech, naturally qualifies one to be good at management.
Verily speaking, "ROI(return of investment) after a good MBA degree maybe good"
The average salary in best of IIMs is 12 lacs CTC, which isn’t that great coz after 2 yrs in a good company (and a switch), your salary can be 6 lacs (obviously you have to excel in your work for that, but don’t expect MBA and thereafter to be a cakewalk) . Forget the cool 6 plus lakhs you spent on the studies. The flip side can be that ROI in the share market, Fixed Deposits, Post Offices, Mutual Funds et al and in any business can be dicey. It goes without saying that this is an objective analysis and can come from a pauper too like me.:)
"Everyone seems to be doing MBA ....So I also jumped in the fray."
In a rat race, the rat always wins so what if it remains a rat forever. What would you call this - peer pressure, or crab mentality? But before you snicker and laugh at the rest of the world who does this (and you don’t), just pause to remember your admission into college.
Why did you put Computers as your no. 1 choice? Did you actually like the field? How much experience did you have in the field? How many of you chose it, even though you didn’t have any real affection towards it? IT is in a bit of trouble nowadays in times of economic tsunamis and Satyam is a case in point. But there are the likes of Microsoft and our India Infy too that are still profitable notwithstanding the recessionary woes. So there can be a sense of déjà vu in that or do you want an encore? Your wish!
Jokes apart,(wherever there are wisecracks), if you ask ‘Why MBA?’, you can retort, ‘Why not?’…
See with any academic background people join Bschools for different reasons. The ones you have quoted are the main ones and so people often make their choice based on these parameters. This particular course is not an end in itself. Its a means to a greater end. I know people who have appeared for Civil Services, opened NGO's, and went back to their persuasion of arts and theater after MBA. The relevance of the course perhaps lies in the fact that the course opens you to an alternative opinion. For example the kind of courses that you will engage in will provide you with so many perspectives that probably you 'll realize that any ordinary course may not give you this kind of a learning curve.
This is not to say that one should undermine other courses at the cost of MBA. But one should be sure of the reasons why one wants to pursue the course. So you may want a great pay package or a killer profile but in case you could customize the learning experience to your need, select courses which may help you do something later in life and encash on every opportunity that you get to learn, the next question may be ,"Why not MBA?"
It’s all a question of where you see yourself say 5-10 years from now (although that thought is a rarity). If you are an educationist to the core, you would probably be quite happy to be working on the academic side of things and you can make a great career that way as well, but if you want any of the following things then an MBA probably makes sense -

(1) A career move to an entirely different domain say finance or consulting.....it could be done the without an MBA as well but then the struggle is a lot harder

(2) A fast forward button for your career.....in the corporate world degree holders from top b-schools are given positions of responsibility and authority very quickly considered to those without an MBA irrespective of
any amount of 'managerial' acumen you may show.

(3) Money.....lots of it ...at the end of the day there's no denying the fact that this plays a very important role besides your work...In fact for many it's the sole reason for many who pursue an MBA.....the hard fact is
that those who do the actual work get paid far less than those who 'manage'them.

Dudes are not duds. They realize that the only thing that matters in life is to achieve something that you actually desire (that sounds sooooooooooo cliché). So they try and be honest with themselves. Ask yourself whether you enjoyed solving mathematical challenges (functions, P &C, number systems etc etc)… sorry arithmophobic blokes, I couldn’t remember any other subject this month… Ask yourself whether your dreams and hopes about engineering (before you joined it) had anything to do with science (and not about engineers getting good jobs). Most of you might not be technically inclined, and that’s absolutely fine (it reduces competition for many).
Now ask yourself whether the MBA is what you really want. Does finance, economics, accounts, HR excite you? Do you feel positive thinking about them? Or do you have a plan for yourself in which a good MBA degree might help.
Next, review your own personality and inclinations. Do you prefer being the workman as long as you have the freedom to choose your tools and your work, or do you love playing supervisor?
If you feel inclined or biased towards any of the above two sides, congratulations. You will do well in life, skip the rest of this article. For the rest, you better start exploring yourself. Life's too short anyways. By the time you realize what you want from it, it might have slipped away. If you want to do an MBA, best of luck, I sincerely wish you to do well. Prepare hard (You know that already… why doesn’t anyone ask me to shut up?). Prepare smart (now what’s that?) Critically review yourself, and water the roots. Work on improving speaking, reading and writing skills if that’s where you lack. blah blah blah.... I think most good institutes would be doing this so for purposes of brevity, I’ll leave it for them to continue). And you can do stuff like SRK aka Mohan Bhargava in Swades. There is a scope of rural management too in the years too as the city infrastructure will soon burst at its seams and conservative villages might be the Hobson’s choice. Do not regret then if life has come full circle, if it happens.
To cap it up...
Whether it’s a tech field or an MBA.
The rat race for money won’t ever end, even when you become Bill Gates.
The only things that will make you feel satisfied and happy are your family, and the sense of achievement that your work gives you.
Howard Roark is perchance better left fictitious and any resemblance with that character might portend potential disaster in the offing. With due respect to 'Objectivism' and Ayn Rand...