It is suddenly destination railways over fat packages on foreign soil for students of the executive programme at IIM-A. Such was the effect of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad lecture on them that most of them now harbour hopes of working with the railways or at least doing an internship with it in the near future.

The minister's visit had been the talking point in the city for the last few days and most of the students were curious to learn about the strategy used for the railways' turnaround from the inimitable Prasad.

Apparently, they weren't disappointed as the minister talked of the constraints the organisation faced at every step and the rationale he adopted to deal with them.

"The best part of the lecture was that the minister gave personal inputs all the time. He compared his railway experience to that of milking a cow and talked of how home truths and not complicated strategies were required to manage a complex organisation like the Railways," said Arvind Chandrashekhar, a student of executive MBA programme.

The students had prepared four presentations on: The Indian Railways at the crossroads in May 2004 --  What would the students have done if they were Lalu Prasad, and whether the past two years had really seen a turnaround?

What were the financial and non-financial determinants, what were the lessons from the implementation process and implications of the initiative of increasing the axle load and what were the overall strategies and processes driving the railways' performances in the past two years.

The presentations also focused on what needed to be done to make the new strategies sustainable and the lessons to be derived from Prasad's leadership.