No , its not a trip to some fantastic place or a farway island or anything remotely resembling such stuff. The journey was essentially a simple one deviod of any gr8 incidents and was a simple auto trip from my house in B'lore to the Private Bus terminus. But it showed/highlighted the biggest flaw in me : I postpone things till last minute and dont do any planning. I was supposed to catch a bus @ 9 (as per ticket) and go home for looong weekend. But here i was watchin some interesting stuff on TV , discussing some nonsense which i dont even recall now with my roommate till 8:15 , then i went and packed my bags for the journey home and at 8:30 i step out of my house. Then slowly i open the ticket and lookep up the time and instead of the normal 10:00 , Departure time : 9:00 PM was staring at me ! and here i was just stepping out of my home at 8:30 , the place was 8km away and with Bangalore traffic it could take a real long time !
Luck seemed to be on my side as i spied on an auto as soon as i stepped into the street (normal days it cud take anythin b/w 10-15 to get an auto) and the guy agreed to come to the busstand. He was a middle aged guy and immediately started conversation with me in Kannada , my Kannda vocab being very very limited and the guy speaking nonstop , i stopped pretending to listen after a while and just supplied the "Yeah , Yeah" , occasionally to give him an impressiont that he had a compassionate audience willing to listen to his crubs against govt , fellow motorists and a few others whom i cudnt make out!
After a while I felt it wud be prudent to request him to go quicker as time was running out for me. "No way" repsonded the guy , "its impossible to make it by 9" he told me (in Kannda ofcourse) , he gave some explaintaion for it , which unfortunately i cudnt understand but got the bit about 4 signals standing in between me and my bus @ 9 .
My hopes slowly began to drain out of my as i started cursing myself for being so careless and irresponsible (i stop here as i the person all this being directed to is me) and swore that i will keep this a lesson and will defintely blog it as lesson to remember for myself . by now i was sure that i wud miss the bus ...
Then i started reminiscing about all the close shaves with buses and trains i have had , invariably something will happen which will delay me while i was in college and i wud be running and just ctaching the bus /train when it was moving most of the times ! Though always i wud promise myself that this kind of thing wil never happen. then one day i missed a train and after that i always used to be on the platform 30 min before ! i had been kinda following that for last 3-4 yrs but of late my old self had been resurfacing , and here i was sweatin , worried and tensed waiting for green light to flash at the first signal , with 3 more ahead...
Then suddenly it happened , things started swinging my way the autowala started driving fast (somewhat fast) and suddenly lady luck seemed to be firmly on my side as we somehow cleared all the signals without spending anytime waiting at 9:00 sharp i was at the bus terminus and cud see the my Bus still parked.
With an immense sign of relief and after thanking all the Gods i cud remember at that instant and the auto guy also for his part, i collected my luggage and glanced at the meter which stood at Rs 45.50
Feelin kinda happy at having made it inspite of not so fast auto ride , i gave the auto walla 50 bucks. "70 Rs" he announced , i was clearly shocked , "for what?" i asked , "Bhaiyya , meter is only 45 ".
The explaination he gave was a real gem
point 1:
"If not for me , you wud have missed the bus and wud have lost a lot of money, so i saved you money rite , cant u give extra"
Point 2:
"i drove fast for u" , i refuted that (cudnt control my laughter !) then he bettered that explaination with this one :
"But I helped you, I took the shortest route ,so that u cud reach faster and on time"
Now this really was startling ,the guy had admitted that he had planned to swindle me by taking a longer route and hence earn more money but now has not done it and was demanding money for being good !
Amazing logic... havent heard such a shocker for while , imagine a robber goin to a bank and negotiating for a few lakhs which he had planned to steal , but saved effort for everyone concerned by not doin it really ! ok im streching it too far , but this seemed a bit similar to that. Along with things like be responsible ,punctual , plan in advace , added 'avoid autos' also in things to remember for future !
ofcourse i dint pay him anything extra , but this trend of auto drivers demanding more than meter was not unusual , i guess i have enuf of such incidents for a seperate blog.
Now coming back to my original story , I rushed to the ticket counter and flashed my ticket , guy had a look at it and calmly announced "the bus is 10, there is a sofa here ,you can sit and wait here" !!!
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Reserve or Deserve ?
Since its the hottest topic now with online petitions , sms polls and ppl on newschannels , sundry experts n just about everyone having their own expert view about it , So as a probable affected party ( thanks to my seemingly infinte attempts bell the CAT) i thought i'll also chip in with my 2 cents on reservation tangle .
For me the move to reserve close to 50% of seats in central univs n IITs n IIMs looks like an election eve 'bramastra' which annihilates all oppostion , but unlike normal promises, the ones we are pretty much used to and are conveniently forgotten and confined to bin after the elections are over, this seems to be more real n different and a dangerous and potent ace from HRD minister and by all means looks like 'Mandal Returns' a dreaded sequel to the original which created such a huge turmoil and though was hailed as a tool of social re-engineering which was designed to uplift a lot of careers but ultimately helped only some politicians uplift their political careers ! This along with the 'reservation in private sector' talk which has been going on for quite some time seems a lot more real suddenly and once they get converted to reality will surely alter the entire education and job scene.
We have been seeing a lot of online petitions , opinion polls , sms polls and interviews of common ppl from all over country and expert views and all seem to be agast and the general opinion would seem to suggest that there is a huge groundswell against such a move.
But how wrong we are ! the fact is that vast majority of the ppl who are voicing their concern onand lamenting the fact that merit is losing out to othe considerations are the ones who are affected by these. so there reaction is but natural.
Also the truth is that though India seems to be shining with Sensex zooming every other day and sectors like IT , manuacturing etc. gettin better n better by day the effect has made a lot of us pretty well to do. But the no:of ppl reping the rewards of this growth is far lesser
the downtrodden masses continue to remain so , education has not reached everyone
so the obivious step should be to ensure proper school education for the backward communties.
But thats real hard to implement and doesnt create headlines like throwing open half of the seats of India's most prestigious institutes like IITs n IIMs to backward communties.
But will they really benefit from these freebies is a really debatable. With someone pointing out what will happen if the companies which come for recruitment insist on knowing if you are a merit candidate or reservation guy , So the Question "Reserve or Deserve" in effect nullifies whatever the quota law was supposed to achieve for the ppl from backward communities!
Some ppl have hit back at such arguements saying give em a chance and see. Yes its true n sad that due to caste system lots of ppl had to suffer and remain outside the realm of development simply because of their birth. Its imperative that such discrimination has to be stopped and such ppl given chances and their fair share under the sun , but this certainly is not the way. Education from Primary onwards , spl coaching for less privileged and limited time bound resevations seem to be better soln to me esp in the light of statisctics like 50% of SC?ST students dont study beyond age of 10. So it is not rocket science to figure out where the system is going wrong , provding good infrascture and good teachers to Govt schools looks like the obvious soln.Im sure if we do a proper impartial analysis of this we can come up with many such initiatives which will benefit everyone instead of just accelerating brain drain by driving so called 'elite' students to foreign universites.
By this move only thing they will achieve is more divisionof society based on caste instead of eliminating caste system coz caste instead of losing its relevance as it rightly should these days have become passports to a secure future. There is always the danger of backlash from forward community students denied a fair chance in their own country and the rich might go abroad or use money power to get ahead but what about the poor they will simply fall behind jus like the backward communities did in previous centuries. Soon we may face a scenario where there will be need to provide reservations for forward community ! In short we are just repeating the mistakes of past and will be entering a vicious cycle.During a deabate on TV a few weeks back when ppl where fighting on merits of reservation , one of the panelists an IIM-A alumnus pointed out that we are still fighting over inc our share in the cake , when we should actually be looking at increasing the size of the cake !!!
I have seen many ppl in my student life who have got their seat in college because of reservations , but still did study hard (much harder than me i believe ! ) and put there best effort to make sure they succeded in life making using of the oppurtunity , but there were lots of others who never made that effort secure with the knowledge that their community ppl need only the barest min marks and govt jobs are always within reach as the competetion from their own communties is lot lesser. There were others who were from well off familes (the so called creamy layer), but still used reservation , when there were poor students from upper/not so backward castes who inspite of scoring marks were not able to secure admissions.
That looks like reverse discrimination to me . To stop an inequality you create another !
After 50 years of it not achieveing the desired result , ppl (politicians) are still clamouring for reservations and another surprising and heartening fact is the increasing no: of ppl who though coming under reservation , prefering not to take it and get their seats by merit. I was glad to have a few friends like that who refused crutches called 'reservation' and preferred to stand on their legs and fight with the rest. Gradually as more and more ppl get empowered , soon in not so distant past we will be hopefully be rid of quota system.
Oops ! wrong place ... Im dreaming about Utopia !!!
For me the move to reserve close to 50% of seats in central univs n IITs n IIMs looks like an election eve 'bramastra' which annihilates all oppostion , but unlike normal promises, the ones we are pretty much used to and are conveniently forgotten and confined to bin after the elections are over, this seems to be more real n different and a dangerous and potent ace from HRD minister and by all means looks like 'Mandal Returns' a dreaded sequel to the original which created such a huge turmoil and though was hailed as a tool of social re-engineering which was designed to uplift a lot of careers but ultimately helped only some politicians uplift their political careers ! This along with the 'reservation in private sector' talk which has been going on for quite some time seems a lot more real suddenly and once they get converted to reality will surely alter the entire education and job scene.
We have been seeing a lot of online petitions , opinion polls , sms polls and interviews of common ppl from all over country and expert views and all seem to be agast and the general opinion would seem to suggest that there is a huge groundswell against such a move.
But how wrong we are ! the fact is that vast majority of the ppl who are voicing their concern onand lamenting the fact that merit is losing out to othe considerations are the ones who are affected by these. so there reaction is but natural.
Also the truth is that though India seems to be shining with Sensex zooming every other day and sectors like IT , manuacturing etc. gettin better n better by day the effect has made a lot of us pretty well to do. But the no:of ppl reping the rewards of this growth is far lesser
the downtrodden masses continue to remain so , education has not reached everyone
so the obivious step should be to ensure proper school education for the backward communties.
But thats real hard to implement and doesnt create headlines like throwing open half of the seats of India's most prestigious institutes like IITs n IIMs to backward communties.
But will they really benefit from these freebies is a really debatable. With someone pointing out what will happen if the companies which come for recruitment insist on knowing if you are a merit candidate or reservation guy , So the Question "Reserve or Deserve" in effect nullifies whatever the quota law was supposed to achieve for the ppl from backward communities!
Some ppl have hit back at such arguements saying give em a chance and see. Yes its true n sad that due to caste system lots of ppl had to suffer and remain outside the realm of development simply because of their birth. Its imperative that such discrimination has to be stopped and such ppl given chances and their fair share under the sun , but this certainly is not the way. Education from Primary onwards , spl coaching for less privileged and limited time bound resevations seem to be better soln to me esp in the light of statisctics like 50% of SC?ST students dont study beyond age of 10. So it is not rocket science to figure out where the system is going wrong , provding good infrascture and good teachers to Govt schools looks like the obvious soln.Im sure if we do a proper impartial analysis of this we can come up with many such initiatives which will benefit everyone instead of just accelerating brain drain by driving so called 'elite' students to foreign universites.
By this move only thing they will achieve is more divisionof society based on caste instead of eliminating caste system coz caste instead of losing its relevance as it rightly should these days have become passports to a secure future. There is always the danger of backlash from forward community students denied a fair chance in their own country and the rich might go abroad or use money power to get ahead but what about the poor they will simply fall behind jus like the backward communities did in previous centuries. Soon we may face a scenario where there will be need to provide reservations for forward community ! In short we are just repeating the mistakes of past and will be entering a vicious cycle.During a deabate on TV a few weeks back when ppl where fighting on merits of reservation , one of the panelists an IIM-A alumnus pointed out that we are still fighting over inc our share in the cake , when we should actually be looking at increasing the size of the cake !!!
I have seen many ppl in my student life who have got their seat in college because of reservations , but still did study hard (much harder than me i believe ! ) and put there best effort to make sure they succeded in life making using of the oppurtunity , but there were lots of others who never made that effort secure with the knowledge that their community ppl need only the barest min marks and govt jobs are always within reach as the competetion from their own communties is lot lesser. There were others who were from well off familes (the so called creamy layer), but still used reservation , when there were poor students from upper/not so backward castes who inspite of scoring marks were not able to secure admissions.
That looks like reverse discrimination to me . To stop an inequality you create another !
After 50 years of it not achieveing the desired result , ppl (politicians) are still clamouring for reservations and another surprising and heartening fact is the increasing no: of ppl who though coming under reservation , prefering not to take it and get their seats by merit. I was glad to have a few friends like that who refused crutches called 'reservation' and preferred to stand on their legs and fight with the rest. Gradually as more and more ppl get empowered , soon in not so distant past we will be hopefully be rid of quota system.
Oops ! wrong place ... Im dreaming about Utopia !!!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
QLFC
No , it is not an insurance scheme or pension plan or Mutual fund offering or anything of that sort. QLFC expands to Quarter Life Crisis (added an F in between for Financial crisis / the crisis involving the more obvious 'F' word ;-) , wherever it is applicable along with the rest of the problems) , a term which is generating a lot of attention of late. Its something most of us can identify with and are actually going through.
a quick search on wikipedia gave me as the characteristics of QLFC :
* confusion of identity
* insecurity regarding the near future
* insecurity regarding present accomplishments
* re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
* disappointment with one's job
* nostalgia for college life
* tendency to hold stronger opinions
* boredom with social interactions
* financially-rooted stress
* loneliness
odds are that most of us have most of these !!!
Welcome to the quarter-life crisis.
What do I really want to do with my life?
is the question which we just dont have clue about and is the one we are supposed to ask ourselves n come up with a convincing answer during this stage of life
why are we so clueless , confused n frustrated ...
Is it becoz we have so many opportunities or so much freedom and so many choices ?
To an outsider , it looks like our gen has everything n we shuldnt be having any reason to crib
but then we know things are not all that rosy
It does not matter how well you are doing, when someone is doing a lot better than you.
seems to be the biggest problem !
whenver i get a feeling (mind u only a feeling , that too momentarily) that im doing well in life n earning decently , i get to hear about how much a friend or a friend's friend or his friend .... is earning n 'pop' that feelin disappears !
Come to think of it salary/money is just one of the worries , there are countless other factors which all add up to quite a potent combination and has a real unsettling effect on some.
Lots of ppl handle this in diff ways...
a few do' talk' about handling this by optin out of rat race and sorting out priorities in life , gettin their focus back on , rediscovering that urge n joy n what not , only to land up in office with same frown on the face monday after monday.
in short nobody seems happy , maybe its cool not to be happy
or maybe "grass is greener on the other side"
To be contd...
a quick search on wikipedia gave me as the characteristics of QLFC :
* confusion of identity
* insecurity regarding the near future
* insecurity regarding present accomplishments
* re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
* disappointment with one's job
* nostalgia for college life
* tendency to hold stronger opinions
* boredom with social interactions
* financially-rooted stress
* loneliness
odds are that most of us have most of these !!!
Welcome to the quarter-life crisis.
What do I really want to do with my life?
is the question which we just dont have clue about and is the one we are supposed to ask ourselves n come up with a convincing answer during this stage of life
why are we so clueless , confused n frustrated ...
Is it becoz we have so many opportunities or so much freedom and so many choices ?
To an outsider , it looks like our gen has everything n we shuldnt be having any reason to crib
but then we know things are not all that rosy
It does not matter how well you are doing, when someone is doing a lot better than you.
seems to be the biggest problem !
whenver i get a feeling (mind u only a feeling , that too momentarily) that im doing well in life n earning decently , i get to hear about how much a friend or a friend's friend or his friend .... is earning n 'pop' that feelin disappears !
Come to think of it salary/money is just one of the worries , there are countless other factors which all add up to quite a potent combination and has a real unsettling effect on some.
Lots of ppl handle this in diff ways...
a few do' talk' about handling this by optin out of rat race and sorting out priorities in life , gettin their focus back on , rediscovering that urge n joy n what not , only to land up in office with same frown on the face monday after monday.
in short nobody seems happy , maybe its cool not to be happy
or maybe "grass is greener on the other side"
To be contd...
Thursday, March 09, 2006
WMD
Bush has been around here a few days back ,but this one is not about him or Iraq or anything remotely connected to it .
I have this fascination for unusual titles for very usual stuff , so this is just one more to the list !
WMD - stands for 'WoMens Day'
if (you are a woman)
{
By spelling it as WoMen , i mean even in name you have somethig more than Men !
}
else
{
i dont have to explain , we all know !
}
ok i was just kidding , the same insensitive way we ususally do when dealin with gender diff ...
its just my way of saying though WoMen are spl and i acknowledge their rightful place in the scheme of things, But in noway im able to leave out the fact that Men are equally important
most of us externally agree that in short both r equals and need each other and what not ...
But honestly deep inside i feel we never let ourselves beleive even for a sec that women can be better...
Ok coming back to serious stuff
Life I believe is a series of amazing and absurdly unusual yet perfectly logical coincidences.
By a sheer coincidence i happened to chance upon a blogevent on WoMens Day which made me realise how things actually are for Women and how badly men are treating them !
I knew things were bad , but never realised how really it is , when we (men) see PYTs (pretty young things) we never realise the kind of struggle and fight they have to put up in their day to day life to deal with inequalities.
A visit here : BlankNoiseProject
will get u an idea of what im talking about
Finally before i forget a very Happy Womens day to all u ladies !
I have this fascination for unusual titles for very usual stuff , so this is just one more to the list !
WMD - stands for 'WoMens Day'
if (you are a woman)
{
By spelling it as WoMen , i mean even in name you have somethig more than Men !
}
else
{
i dont have to explain , we all know !
}
ok i was just kidding , the same insensitive way we ususally do when dealin with gender diff ...
its just my way of saying though WoMen are spl and i acknowledge their rightful place in the scheme of things, But in noway im able to leave out the fact that Men are equally important
most of us externally agree that in short both r equals and need each other and what not ...
But honestly deep inside i feel we never let ourselves beleive even for a sec that women can be better...
Ok coming back to serious stuff
Life I believe is a series of amazing and absurdly unusual yet perfectly logical coincidences.
By a sheer coincidence i happened to chance upon a blogevent on WoMens Day which made me realise how things actually are for Women and how badly men are treating them !
I knew things were bad , but never realised how really it is , when we (men) see PYTs (pretty young things) we never realise the kind of struggle and fight they have to put up in their day to day life to deal with inequalities.
A visit here : BlankNoiseProject
will get u an idea of what im talking about
Finally before i forget a very Happy Womens day to all u ladies !
Saturday, March 04, 2006
India One
Like Majority of folks living in a state in India other than the ones where their near and dear live , the announcement of Re.1 per min Std call rate dubbed 'India One' made by the Telecom minister brought great hopes n joy to me.
But till now the one India or India one plans announced by Airtel n Reliance will make us end up spending more than a Rupee for a min if you factor hidden costs. So still its a long way from real 'India One'.
But thats not the point i want to make , Im talking about the same term 'India One' but from another angle. It all began while preparing for numerous interviews where you get asked such scary questions about yourself like "Who are you" ( now what do u say when a guy asks u such a Q ), Tell me about yourself in 1 min ( C'mon , what do i say ?) I was always in a fix as to what do i say , Im Tamilian from kerala or Im a Malayalee from TN !...
One thing led to another and the combination of boredom and ingeniousness led to this idea as my solution to the problems facing the country !
Lanuguage and parochialism are the major problems , i concluded, which if overcome will make our country a better place to live.
This is easier said than done , after jogging my grey matter with this thought found out a ridiculously easy solution , India One !
This is one plan which will go a long way in achieving the national intergration which ppl keep harping about.
the plan (which have named as India One') as i said before is ridiculously simple , but only hitch is that its time consuming ,ie ,will take a lot of generations once it gets rolling and mite cause a lot fo social turmoil initially but as ppl slowly realise the brilliant ending it will achieve the opposition will surely come down.
I expect a lot of political parties to support it in the long run as its a 'secular' plan ! But the bigger problem is participants to take the plan forward. Taking about the plan , the plan is to unify India through generations and finally acheive at a aperson who will be a true Indian.
Im both Malayalee n Tamilian plus currently settled in Karnataka , so as the first step i have flung the net in search of Telugu and/or Kannadiga girl so that out of our alliance will emerge a true blue South Indian !
the kid can proudly answer any interviewer,auto rickshaw guy or any nosy parker's Questions like Who are you ? with Ans: South Indian ;
where are you from ? S.India ! ok the effect is not like "Indian" as old man Kamal Hassan says in the Tamil movie of the same name (Movie called Hindustani in Hindi)when posed with a similar Q ! But soon this effect will spread and my successor 2-3 generations later for all you know could be the one who will be the first to give the Answer : "Indian".
But so far the idea has not clicked coz , given a choice between a normal kid and a multilingual yet possibly demented one (like me !) , the girls seem to prefer the former !
On a serious note , last few years we have seen things like linguistic barriers , caste , religion and all have stopped being any sort of barrier to ppl uniting in love . Love has been able to surpass all these barriers and new races are created , soon (maybe 20-30) years later my presently ridiculous looking idea of India one mite actually be a common place occurance
Go India go !
But till now the one India or India one plans announced by Airtel n Reliance will make us end up spending more than a Rupee for a min if you factor hidden costs. So still its a long way from real 'India One'.
But thats not the point i want to make , Im talking about the same term 'India One' but from another angle. It all began while preparing for numerous interviews where you get asked such scary questions about yourself like "Who are you" ( now what do u say when a guy asks u such a Q ), Tell me about yourself in 1 min ( C'mon , what do i say ?) I was always in a fix as to what do i say , Im Tamilian from kerala or Im a Malayalee from TN !...
One thing led to another and the combination of boredom and ingeniousness led to this idea as my solution to the problems facing the country !
Lanuguage and parochialism are the major problems , i concluded, which if overcome will make our country a better place to live.
This is easier said than done , after jogging my grey matter with this thought found out a ridiculously easy solution , India One !
This is one plan which will go a long way in achieving the national intergration which ppl keep harping about.
the plan (which have named as India One') as i said before is ridiculously simple , but only hitch is that its time consuming ,ie ,will take a lot of generations once it gets rolling and mite cause a lot fo social turmoil initially but as ppl slowly realise the brilliant ending it will achieve the opposition will surely come down.
I expect a lot of political parties to support it in the long run as its a 'secular' plan ! But the bigger problem is participants to take the plan forward. Taking about the plan , the plan is to unify India through generations and finally acheive at a aperson who will be a true Indian.
Im both Malayalee n Tamilian plus currently settled in Karnataka , so as the first step i have flung the net in search of Telugu and/or Kannadiga girl so that out of our alliance will emerge a true blue South Indian !
the kid can proudly answer any interviewer,auto rickshaw guy or any nosy parker's Questions like Who are you ? with Ans: South Indian ;
where are you from ? S.India ! ok the effect is not like "Indian" as old man Kamal Hassan says in the Tamil movie of the same name (Movie called Hindustani in Hindi)when posed with a similar Q ! But soon this effect will spread and my successor 2-3 generations later for all you know could be the one who will be the first to give the Answer : "Indian".
But so far the idea has not clicked coz , given a choice between a normal kid and a multilingual yet possibly demented one (like me !) , the girls seem to prefer the former !
On a serious note , last few years we have seen things like linguistic barriers , caste , religion and all have stopped being any sort of barrier to ppl uniting in love . Love has been able to surpass all these barriers and new races are created , soon (maybe 20-30) years later my presently ridiculous looking idea of India one mite actually be a common place occurance
Go India go !
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Close encounters of 'K' kind
(Warning : its really long ,not by accident but by design so that u r not tempted to read on just like that ...)
Writing CAT had been like a hobby for me , as i had been following the same routine for last 3 years ! But this time it was a pleasant surprise to find out that though my effort put in had been low compared to past , i had actually cleared it ! Just though...
So was rewarded with a single interview call (IIM-Kozhikode), something is better than nothing , i thought ! Since then lot of frens had wished my loads of luck and had shot me loads of questions ranging from what this whole stuff is to how to improve their scores and all. After that encounter (my interview) got over , i had to recount again and again to each n every friend of mine what happned on that day , so after a point i decided that i will properly capture the entire details , made it as detailed as possible with the obvious aim that because of its sheer size ppl will stop proceeding unless they are very interested &/or were askin me the details of the interview for courtesy sake. Incase someone was really interested , here goes my exp ...
...the D-day was on Feb 8th , the month of Jan was filled with practice interviews and Mock-Gds at my coaching centre , which was fun initially , met a lot of brilliant guys n gals.
Then before i knew it the D-day arrived pulled myself out of my dreary n boring world to step into a world full of oppurtunity challenges et all and i landed up @ 1 in the afternoon at IIM-Bangalore campus and was almost lost in the whole new world, then spied a few guys wearing tie , with confused expression on their faces and my hunch that they had also come to attend the interview turned out to be rite ! We all somehow found our way out of the maze of buildings and reached the correct building.
10 of us in panel , 3 guys from my company !!! 8/10 ppl with IT experience , whoa is this the 'mixture' that CAT throws up , I wondered.
Chatted in Hindi with a guy from Delhi , met a Mallu guy and struck up a quick conversation and then met a tamil guy and again chatted in Tamil with him , used English otherwise , had everyone confused about my origins !
Stepped into the room for GD , was called in last and had a very bad position on the table , the fag end !
Topic was given in the sheet of paper kept before us , we were asked to read it and when they ( 2 profs ) say start , we were to begin and discuss for 10 min on it.
It was rite out of the world , archiac English , it was Charles Dickens or rather an extract from one of his books , a small para , gist of it was that American society was going to dogs and young ones are the only hope to bring it out of decay.
All seemed confused and were making frantic notes , i too had scribbled lots of thoughts , but then realised that even i couldnt actually make out what i had written !
Then came the sound "Start" ... I tried to jump inot the fray , knew that whatever little stuff i had , lots of others too would have , so better dump it first , But found that 3 others had the same idea and all started and we all found it jarring and halted dead in our tracks . Then one guy suddenly quoted George Bernard Shaw and all fell silent , someone agreed wit the quote and the discussion started , i jumped into the fray with some points of my own and made a few entries here and there about America , Hollywood ,materialism and what not , but i was sitting in such a way that panel wud never see my face when i spoke and was always afraid that my points wud be credited to guy next to me , who also spoke on similar lines , except for 3 ppl all others spoke but lack of ideas showed.
Overall ok , not good by any means ,personally and also for group.
we were dismissed after 10 min before we kinda warmed up and were told to wait outside , till they call us one by one.
We all waited , me being last in the list had the longest wait , the guys who had their interviews first , were grilled by us waiting outside and at every 15 min , one interview got over and the next one was called and all others left one by one wishing me luck.
So armed with all those wishes , i bravely stepped in to face them ...
Two Profs (P1, P2) were there on the Panel and they warml wlcomed me and asked the Q i was expecting and had a ready Answer .
P1 :"Last person to be called in for interview ,Long wait rite ?".
I shot of my pre-prpared answer with humility and humour. That was the only part where i was in control !
P2 (with a smile):"which IIM will u choose and Why ?"
me:gave Beggers can't be choosers kinda response n told them that this is my only call and hope n pray that things go well and i make it.
P1 and P2 (earnestly): All the best
me , though a bit surprised , said thanks sir
then the grind started
P1:What is the probability of clearning interview and gettin a seat at IIM
me: rattled of the fact that there were 800 odd seats ( dont know know from where that no: stuck in my mind) and 3000 ppl approx , so 1:4
he didnt agree at all and had long debate about it and asked me to repeat my reasoning again and then asked for IIMK hat is tha chance , i said , i read somewhere that 1800 ppl were called for 180 seats , he looked surprised and siad that seems to be too high a figure ( i was relieved ! ) and asked me my source of info , i said newspapers. P1 and P2 exchanged surprised glances
P1: So what are your interests ( going through the personal data sheet I had filled and submitted) , oh reading , is it ? Why do everone read ? Ok What do u read
me: rattled off a the last book i had read ( was a book about China , hence had done my full homework on all possible Qs about China n all ) , explained about the book for a while , he didnt seem too interested !
P1: Other books ?
me: continued mentioning names of other books i had read in recent past , finally said "The Alchemist" and interviewer seemed interested and i added that the book was really inspiring
P1: oh is it , tell me the story
me: explained the gist of it
P1: No tell me the proper story , from start to end
me: ( i had read it 2yrs back) started hesitantly and tried to tell the story , found going too tough and started explaining the gist of it
P1: No , tell me the story if u have read the book
me: i had read it 2 yrs back and explained that t was what u derieved out of the book that was imp and explained what i got out of it
P1: other books
Me: mentioned some more and stopped
P1: So u write ? What do u write
me: used to blog , just personal stuff .. I have written a few short stories
P1: tell me
me: explaining the plot and judging from the guys looks , gave up midway and told him that the stor was interesting because of the humour and fun with words that i had employed and i cant narrate that so well.
P1: So u studied Electrical engg , what is it
me: explained what and all i had in the course
P1: (cutting me off) how long has the branch existed
me: (clueless)offer my guess
P1: no its older than that , so whats the most imp electrical invention used in industry
me: motor
P1: ya , so let me ask u something which noone has answered properly before ( hint of smile on his face)
me: sure sir
P1: So How will Motor evolve in next 20 or say 50 years later
me: thinkin n blurting a few nonsesnsical replies , suddenly utter something meaningful about my idea for a smart motor !
P1: (smiles), ok
P1: so what r ur other achievements , anything diff than others ? , oh u have written acting in skits , what did u do
me: explains
P1: act n show !
me: really sir ? it was not a one man stuff ( suddenly was getting reminded of ragging during college days ! )
P1:fine do it urself
I got up and performed one of those skits ...
P1:hey i had seen this during my college days also , what is this ! Ok i will tell u some situations in life , u act n show it
(this seemed straight out of my days as fresher in college ! )
I did whatever he asked me to do , halfway thru he asked e do u find this funny , u have a trouble hiding a smile of embarrassment ! and sked me to take my seat
P2 (was observing me all this while , now full of smiles): ok Electrical Engg
P2: What is Corona ?
me: Sir, it comes in High Voltage , causes some loss or something , but can't remember
P2:asked a couple of other gen Q me:tried explaining but gave up halfway through saying I was familiar with these during college days , but it has been 2.5 yrs since i graduated , Now im working in another domain altogether
P1 & P2 nodding
Still no Q about my Company , Work-ex , my domain at work which i was fully prepared
my attempts to draw them to it was just not working !
P2:Who is the collector of B'lore
Me: No idea .Sir
P2:Who is the CM of Karnataka ? and a couple of sundry Q n some Q about cricket
me:answer almost all of em coz they were very simple
P2:what brand is this mineralwater , ame other popular brands?
me:answers that Q
P2 shot a glance at P1 who nodded his head and they wished me all the best and P1 escorted me out
Leaving me even more confused as i tried to find my way out of the maze again to step back into the dreary n weary world outside !
Writing CAT had been like a hobby for me , as i had been following the same routine for last 3 years ! But this time it was a pleasant surprise to find out that though my effort put in had been low compared to past , i had actually cleared it ! Just though...
So was rewarded with a single interview call (IIM-Kozhikode), something is better than nothing , i thought ! Since then lot of frens had wished my loads of luck and had shot me loads of questions ranging from what this whole stuff is to how to improve their scores and all. After that encounter (my interview) got over , i had to recount again and again to each n every friend of mine what happned on that day , so after a point i decided that i will properly capture the entire details , made it as detailed as possible with the obvious aim that because of its sheer size ppl will stop proceeding unless they are very interested &/or were askin me the details of the interview for courtesy sake. Incase someone was really interested , here goes my exp ...
...the D-day was on Feb 8th , the month of Jan was filled with practice interviews and Mock-Gds at my coaching centre , which was fun initially , met a lot of brilliant guys n gals.
Then before i knew it the D-day arrived pulled myself out of my dreary n boring world to step into a world full of oppurtunity challenges et all and i landed up @ 1 in the afternoon at IIM-Bangalore campus and was almost lost in the whole new world, then spied a few guys wearing tie , with confused expression on their faces and my hunch that they had also come to attend the interview turned out to be rite ! We all somehow found our way out of the maze of buildings and reached the correct building.
10 of us in panel , 3 guys from my company !!! 8/10 ppl with IT experience , whoa is this the 'mixture' that CAT throws up , I wondered.
Chatted in Hindi with a guy from Delhi , met a Mallu guy and struck up a quick conversation and then met a tamil guy and again chatted in Tamil with him , used English otherwise , had everyone confused about my origins !
Stepped into the room for GD , was called in last and had a very bad position on the table , the fag end !
Topic was given in the sheet of paper kept before us , we were asked to read it and when they ( 2 profs ) say start , we were to begin and discuss for 10 min on it.
It was rite out of the world , archiac English , it was Charles Dickens or rather an extract from one of his books , a small para , gist of it was that American society was going to dogs and young ones are the only hope to bring it out of decay.
All seemed confused and were making frantic notes , i too had scribbled lots of thoughts , but then realised that even i couldnt actually make out what i had written !
Then came the sound "Start" ... I tried to jump inot the fray , knew that whatever little stuff i had , lots of others too would have , so better dump it first , But found that 3 others had the same idea and all started and we all found it jarring and halted dead in our tracks . Then one guy suddenly quoted George Bernard Shaw and all fell silent , someone agreed wit the quote and the discussion started , i jumped into the fray with some points of my own and made a few entries here and there about America , Hollywood ,materialism and what not , but i was sitting in such a way that panel wud never see my face when i spoke and was always afraid that my points wud be credited to guy next to me , who also spoke on similar lines , except for 3 ppl all others spoke but lack of ideas showed.
Overall ok , not good by any means ,personally and also for group.
we were dismissed after 10 min before we kinda warmed up and were told to wait outside , till they call us one by one.
We all waited , me being last in the list had the longest wait , the guys who had their interviews first , were grilled by us waiting outside and at every 15 min , one interview got over and the next one was called and all others left one by one wishing me luck.
So armed with all those wishes , i bravely stepped in to face them ...
Two Profs (P1, P2) were there on the Panel and they warml wlcomed me and asked the Q i was expecting and had a ready Answer .
P1 :"Last person to be called in for interview ,Long wait rite ?".
I shot of my pre-prpared answer with humility and humour. That was the only part where i was in control !
P2 (with a smile):"which IIM will u choose and Why ?"
me:gave Beggers can't be choosers kinda response n told them that this is my only call and hope n pray that things go well and i make it.
P1 and P2 (earnestly): All the best
me , though a bit surprised , said thanks sir
then the grind started
P1:What is the probability of clearning interview and gettin a seat at IIM
me: rattled of the fact that there were 800 odd seats ( dont know know from where that no: stuck in my mind) and 3000 ppl approx , so 1:4
he didnt agree at all and had long debate about it and asked me to repeat my reasoning again and then asked for IIMK hat is tha chance , i said , i read somewhere that 1800 ppl were called for 180 seats , he looked surprised and siad that seems to be too high a figure ( i was relieved ! ) and asked me my source of info , i said newspapers. P1 and P2 exchanged surprised glances
P1: So what are your interests ( going through the personal data sheet I had filled and submitted) , oh reading , is it ? Why do everone read ? Ok What do u read
me: rattled off a the last book i had read ( was a book about China , hence had done my full homework on all possible Qs about China n all ) , explained about the book for a while , he didnt seem too interested !
P1: Other books ?
me: continued mentioning names of other books i had read in recent past , finally said "The Alchemist" and interviewer seemed interested and i added that the book was really inspiring
P1: oh is it , tell me the story
me: explained the gist of it
P1: No tell me the proper story , from start to end
me: ( i had read it 2yrs back) started hesitantly and tried to tell the story , found going too tough and started explaining the gist of it
P1: No , tell me the story if u have read the book
me: i had read it 2 yrs back and explained that t was what u derieved out of the book that was imp and explained what i got out of it
P1: other books
Me: mentioned some more and stopped
P1: So u write ? What do u write
me: used to blog , just personal stuff .. I have written a few short stories
P1: tell me
me: explaining the plot and judging from the guys looks , gave up midway and told him that the stor was interesting because of the humour and fun with words that i had employed and i cant narrate that so well.
P1: So u studied Electrical engg , what is it
me: explained what and all i had in the course
P1: (cutting me off) how long has the branch existed
me: (clueless)offer my guess
P1: no its older than that , so whats the most imp electrical invention used in industry
me: motor
P1: ya , so let me ask u something which noone has answered properly before ( hint of smile on his face)
me: sure sir
P1: So How will Motor evolve in next 20 or say 50 years later
me: thinkin n blurting a few nonsesnsical replies , suddenly utter something meaningful about my idea for a smart motor !
P1: (smiles), ok
P1: so what r ur other achievements , anything diff than others ? , oh u have written acting in skits , what did u do
me: explains
P1: act n show !
me: really sir ? it was not a one man stuff ( suddenly was getting reminded of ragging during college days ! )
P1:fine do it urself
I got up and performed one of those skits ...
P1:hey i had seen this during my college days also , what is this ! Ok i will tell u some situations in life , u act n show it
(this seemed straight out of my days as fresher in college ! )
I did whatever he asked me to do , halfway thru he asked e do u find this funny , u have a trouble hiding a smile of embarrassment ! and sked me to take my seat
P2 (was observing me all this while , now full of smiles): ok Electrical Engg
P2: What is Corona ?
me: Sir, it comes in High Voltage , causes some loss or something , but can't remember
P2:asked a couple of other gen Q me:tried explaining but gave up halfway through saying I was familiar with these during college days , but it has been 2.5 yrs since i graduated , Now im working in another domain altogether
P1 & P2 nodding
Still no Q about my Company , Work-ex , my domain at work which i was fully prepared
my attempts to draw them to it was just not working !
P2:Who is the collector of B'lore
Me: No idea .Sir
P2:Who is the CM of Karnataka ? and a couple of sundry Q n some Q about cricket
me:answer almost all of em coz they were very simple
P2:what brand is this mineralwater , ame other popular brands?
me:answers that Q
P2 shot a glance at P1 who nodded his head and they wished me all the best and P1 escorted me out
Leaving me even more confused as i tried to find my way out of the maze again to step back into the dreary n weary world outside !
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Ennui !
My wallpaper says it all !
"Someone's boring me
and i think it is me"
hope it says more than enuf , dont know what to , im at cross roads in every aspect of life really ! one of these days surely need to decide something or other , gettin bored of just drifting along
Currently everything seems uninteresting or routine or i should say trite (i guess thats the best word)...
Don't know how n when i will get out of this .
xpect something to jolt me out of this sooon ...
"Someone's boring me
and i think it is me"
hope it says more than enuf , dont know what to , im at cross roads in every aspect of life really ! one of these days surely need to decide something or other , gettin bored of just drifting along
Currently everything seems uninteresting or routine or i should say trite (i guess thats the best word)...
Don't know how n when i will get out of this .
xpect something to jolt me out of this sooon ...
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