Walk Of My Life

The day after

2009-05-27T00:32:00.001+05:30

If you think you are here to do strategy only... think again...

The day after my first board meeting was way more hectic than I imagined it to be .... After sleeping eating work for a month, I expected personal life and normalcy to return ... But it seems the board got other plans for us... It was looking as if my 3 years, plan is put into 6 month time line ....The best part however was to get support of a PE guy.... whose ability to handle people and problems came into light today only. Though he being an MBA ...has definitely learned to gas but... being through managing many sinking businesses, he has got an ability to simultaneously handle nuisances and yet motivate them with top quality gas. ... Something that is definitely there to learn from him....

It seems the world of top level strategy is over for me. Its time to go back to drawing board to put on implementation timelines... However the best part of implementation is to see your ideas being converted into revenue figures and your improving experience curve in terms of people and problem management .... Hope the world of implementation remains as exciting as strategy was......

first board meeting

2009-05-26T00:45:00.002+05:30

Finally the day went by, where 8 innocent incubated souls were supposed to show their understanding of businesses and growth plans to the board; which comprises PE head and directors who were almost three times of ours age.... The idea was to strip our plan, basically us, in front of operating heads and board members... and get everyone's approval on the final thing...
so as to make it undeniable in next quarter meeting....

All said and done, I believe a friendly board understood our pain and gave us credit for the work we put in. Independent directors got more words to appreciate and motivate incubated souls like us.

The meeting venue was perfect to hold such an event. The meeting was at Taj, situated on a leased island at the shore of Arabian sea. The place got an aura in terms of location , decor and not to miss on price :P .

The meeting had more things to talk than only presentations. Like our interaction with an advertising agency on rebranding the company. The kind souls like ours got the power to talk openly about the names we like and dislike, and Well we did our part to make sure that we get the best name to talk about in future.

I believe the meeting was great not only in terms of exposure but also in terms of enjoying the power that we were sharing, at the moment, with other board members.

The fun didnt get over in those 7 hours of meeting. It just got started with drinks at the corner of Taj which opens into arabian sea. What amazed was that drunken bakars which followed after dinner, where we were involved with directors to rough up a HR head.

The day became an experience which cant be put on paper ....It just seem running 10 years ahead of my time....

IIMK campus versus IIMB campus

2008-04-22T03:56:00.000+05:30

I hate it my friend but I can't hold it further, especially when I am suffocated enough to wake up at 3AM in night. Lying here, I only wonders , what happened to Bangalore fresh air and from where does it gets huge stocks of mosquitoes.
Few months back, I got in awe with this campus while I was here for the sports meet . It was as great as mentioned by my friend i.e. amount of sports facilities and proximity to malls, pubs and discs.
My stay in Bangalore over last 2 weeks turned to be an eye openers. With all due respect to its students and almamater, I just ask whether sports facilities and pubs replace the bare minimum necessities of our day to day life. Rather in K we can hang out at better places at half the price, ex a buffet at Taj cost us half the price here.
I ponder over what I miss the most; and finds the following points to write about....
a) Nature: Even if I do not account for IIM-Kcampus natural beauty, the fresh air and greener campus stands over rocky, suffocating, mosquitoes filled campus of Bangalore
b) Nature of people: I salute the spirit of the people of Bangalore for their fucking attitude toward work and people from other states. Be it auto wallah or staff worker in IIMB, you just kept wondering you are in brink of being duped of money or service. In Kerala people are far more trustworthy and the staff workers perform more than what their duty calls for. The rooms and bathroom provided in IIMB remain uncleaned room and the admin give shit about the same.
c) Natural resource: Water and pollution remains a big problem. My fight for saving my body and hair from hard water and polluted atmosphere of Bangalore will be accounted as hardest ever battle I have fought over the year, which will be followed by my stay in Noida,UP.
d) Snacks canteen: Man I love what they serve in IIMB, be it hand made tea or great sandwiches, but this is all they have. The menu was so short that I heard every college grad crib about the same while having their snacks.
Well IIMK canteen is not only to boast about menu but also its position over the hill that provides mosquito free happier times during snacks time.
e) POLLUTION and TRAFFIC : Reaching discs, mall or office isn’t easy. If you are able to avoid autowallahs, travelling in Bangalore remains HELL. Even with an experience of Delhi of 2000 (highest pollution levels), I am having run for my health in these challenging situation.
Probably it isn’t remain only about IIMB and could have been worse have I been staying somewhere else in Bangalore. It could have been worst here if students of IIMB haven’t provided us access to sports facilities and internet. But when I talk about IIM’s expectation rises and everything boils down to comparison esp when you miss taken for granted things that were the part of your one year stay in other campus

PS: I know some of Bangalore guys wont agree to content above, but then the blog is not to prove it. Rather share it people going through same pain :)

New record of movies and wakeup time

2008-04-20T03:53:00.000+05:30

Today will be remembered as laziest day of my life. I watched movies to an extent of loosing its count. I had to go to my recent items list to find out what movies I saw. Adding to it was my long sleep...which made me wake up at 1600hrs.
It isnt that this kind of appetitie was build over the day. Working all over night (watching movies in day) and waking up at odd hours has become a part of life. IIMs seems to gift you life that helps you live over jetlags, untimely meals and sleepless nights. Whatever be the case ...its always a better experience to break old records especially when they give you content to blog about :)

In reminiscence...

2008-04-20T03:25:00.000+05:30

There are times you never forget, some for the craziest acts, some for good times and some for chemistry that won’t be recreated. My 3rd term break saw wonderful time and decisions procrastinated over the years. I met friends after long time and found that few things and few people remain unchanged, and that remains the best part when rest is under continual change. Talks were nostalgic so do the moments that were created. Everything seemed fine yet was not. This was substantiated by the other friend who sometimes seems to understands me more than what I believe he can. His improved understanding might be a reflection of his efforts to counsel other sex. During that time there were some revelations that should have come from the right source. But they did help in atleast one thing. i.e. taking the long awaited decision and bidding the adieu. As they say change is inevitable.... still wondering Why So ...

Power and politics

2008-01-23T19:05:00.000+05:30

Power and Politics, are used in highly negative context in India. This has created an environment where people avoid exercising power to avoid being associated with either of P&P. We restrict ouselves to such an extent that when need arises it becomes hard to exercise control. Todays' class was eye opener in lot of ways. Power and politics are not always negative. They form two sided sword which usually falls on its owner. Its not easy to exercise power especially in environmnt where someone is building relationships to achieve social security. Though people unknowingly use politics in day to day activities to attain power over the group of people. This may come from one's skills, perception, and communication with rest of group. You can see visible politics more often in companies where people manipulate others to walk up the ladder.

So what all is required in order to achieve success. As per one professor, you should say yes to politics, and if you cant then atleast be politically aware. Only after being atleast politically aware one can know what their peers are upto. Its difficult to control without power, which is a byproduct of one's concious efforts, and achieve success in Indian management scenario.

Towards a better state

2008-01-04T10:37:00.000+05:30

Reservation is an ideology with two faces, the head and the heart, which are contradicting themselves since the inception of the mankind. The head believes in logic; logic to have equality among people; logic of not dividing the society whereas the heart believes in touching the chords of human emotions. Heart talks about pain given by the emperors wearing SHAHI suits with only contrast to heartless politicians who wear KHADI. We have witnessed the struggle between the two faces over reservation for over a decade now and see it changing its face from battles on the streets to the battle in courts and hospitals. It is an admirable change towards a prudent and matured society. India's future looks much brighter with people who are not only questioning the intentions of bureaucrats but also are sympathetic towards those who findi it difficult to afford education. It is not a battle, as portrayed by politicians; it's a dream that youth have seen for the country. The dream that can be fulfilled only by moving beyond the dark cloud of ignorance by making people aware of false moves of upliftment like reservation and making them aware of their rights, their expectation from the state, their need for quality primary and secondary education and their right to vote. It is time to move towards better state by enlightening people to reduce barriers between the heart and the head.

How creative can you be to define an organization

2007-11-29T14:22:00.000+05:30

this question was asked in an assignment.....and following was my reply :)

I think of organization as a Pepsi Can. Pepsi tin Can symbolizes a creative organization which provides flexibility in difficult and changing times. Since Pepsi tin is similar throughout, an organization similar to it will have no differentiation among its employees in terms of status or position. Length of Pepsi tin like organization is small and will increase bonding among the employees, which will increase the exchange of ideas. In time of turbulence as water inside tin moves without harming the tin, and comes back to normal state when tin is put on hold; an organization like a Pepsi tin can move its people around, from one position to other without harming or damaging the health of organization and restores health in certain times. In case of tin, bubbles from carbonated water move up; the same way information from the employees will move up and improve the feedback system of the company. Tin like organization also represents that employee at every level share common goals, values and vision. The Can also represents the homogenous internal content to outside world, which helps in promoting the organization by attaching value to the Can.Pepsi tin also signifies that the leader is like a tin opening, where he comes in contact with every employee, receives all information in form of bubble and yet maintains and enjoys the highest authority. He is the only outlet of information from organization to outer world and he governs what information will come inside the organization.In Pepsi tin, owner of the tin decides the goals for which Pepsi can is purchased or built. He can sell it to earn more profits, use its contents for drinking, use Can/tin for pen stand or to keep flowers. In the same way, shareholder or owner of the organization decides the goal and future of the company.Pepsi as brand helps in creating perception of the taste of the content inside. In the same way, name of organization depicts value a customer will get from the organization internal policies, procedures and personals

and tht bring to end OrganizationBehavior2... let souls rest in peace now :)

Discussion time....

2007-11-25T05:50:00.000+05:30

Dedicating a day to discussions was somthing that differentiated the day from the rest . It all started with the roleplay on gender bias, inclusive of high level of class participation. Nobody wanted to give up their stand on this hot topic, and their biased views just added to the heat. Sooner it turned out into a battle of you and I. Girls had their bad experiences, so do guys but everybody wants to generalize things in their favor. One's lack of adaptability to group dynamics, consideration for special positions were considered a part gender bias. Anyways not starting the same again @%@*(*(_ , i think the problem was with the topic. It was no less than India -pakistan issue to get away so easily and it met the same fate that every Indo-pak peace talk have i.e....Time out and No solution. Well as every peace talk have repercusions, so had it. People kept discussing about topic, for hours and all discussions were followed by emails and role play analysis in the evening. Huh.. So when the day got over..I thought the gender bias is over now ...and went to NC wid friends to enjoy our lovely maggi. To my worse dream, its this group turn to discuss things out. What worse could have happened at 4AM ^@%%#, enjoyin maggi with yet another heated discusson. I was just wondering why every discussion like india-pak, gender bias leads to so much heat, I think the problem is with the students of B-school. They have more tendencies to speak then listen, esp when topic like this has too many viewpoints. So even if most parties are driving same point home, discussion do not reach a sensible conclusion. Anyways, in NC ...things were no better, voice levels were raised and Kampus was coming back to life in the early morning. So to end this discussion, I took off the seat to take Tea and move on to my room. As I was moving away from the group, I kept getting those faded voices still discussing about some role model, and I kept wondering ...did the discussion ended and they reach their room :)

B School ratings

2007-09-18T20:56:00.000+05:30

Here comes another rating and as usual it took everybody by surprise. Recently, B School ratings have become a tool to sell publications to lakhs of students appearing for MBA exams. Rating results amuse not only the students appearing for the B School but also the college officials, who find evaluation questionnaire incomprehensive. The evaluation misses out on the finer details like differentiating between Quality or Quantity of faculty, publications, industry exposure, job profiles offered and research. Comparing quality with quantity is like comparing apple to oranges. So what else they miss out on:

Culture: Though it is the most important factor that differentiates one college from other, it remains the most underestimated and misrated component by the rating agencies. Culture is formed by the management, faculty and students of the B-School. Colleges under the same management like 6-IIMs follow same guidelines and regulations. Faculty which is the face of management adds further value to culture by their knowledge and innovative teaching methodologies. Quality students add value to the institute by creating a competitive environment to keep everyone on the foot. No wonder IIMs offer rigor because of the culture developed by management, faculty and quality students from diverse fields. This rigor gives students an edge over their peers in years to come.

Placement: This is another most important factor of choosing the college nowadays but again the most misrepresented one. Placements figures are bloated by almost every college to help them create brand value. But in reality these figures are either manipulated using different statistical methods or bloated by including variable components. Rating agencies use these manipulated figures, number of companies to conclude their rating; missing out on details like different profiles offered by the same company. To judge any college in its placement, one should inquire for the kind of roles offered by the companies as these companies know more about the quality than any rating agency.

The whole idea of talking about these points is that on should reach to the students and colleges before making any decision. At the end of day every college has some unique value to offer which cannot be objectified in the ratings

The Namesake

2007-03-31T11:17:00.000+05:30

Today I planned to watch the movie "The Namesake". I had received good feedback about the movie and was riding high on expectation of having a great time. Alas!! It fell short of what I expected it to be. The movie described a journey of the protagonist and the emotional pain he went through. Mira Nair done a commendable job of mixing commercial stuff (inspiration, emotion and steamy scenes) so as to give worth to the money spend by people of different origins and tastes. An effort was made to put a 2 minute song as well, so as not to miss the bollywood touch.
The first half was spend on building the story and making sure that audience do learn bengali before leaving the theatre. The second half was better as it said more than what was shown on screen. The movie reflected the change in which the movies are now made, where one's understanding for the movie is proportional to flight of his imagination. Anyways the movie is as good as good you can understand it, so its a movie that is not made for everyone. Yeah one thing that I did after watching the movie, was to get onto the internet and search for Gogol...and not to my surprise....he does exist .... :)

IIMI experience

2007-03-27T17:24:00.000+05:30

Today was my last interview...so the whole mood was to buckle up and go for sky diving after that.

In case study profes put me onto the back foot by commenting about my sitting posture. Techy prof asked me whether I am comfortable and I told him that I am, but the remark was good enough to unsettle me. After that nothing went fine, I found hard to concentrate on case study, and thus didnt start the discussion. In the start few people described the problem which helped me to quote the problem in my own words. . (he he… piracy KA ZAMANA HAI)…. After entering the discussion I made interim summary and some valid points as the topic was about IT (...my field)

Now interview started with difference again, first we discussed about volleyball, then some general knowledge and then GK in electronics. Most of the time I knew what’s going on but didn’t remember the facts, so told them the same.

After this its tech turn….and here was the technocrat…who gave me a circuit to design using nand gates…ab main bechara ..5 saal pehle pada hua logic kaha se nikalta…I asked him whether to find for 0 or 1 , he told me to find out myself, so I started doing it ...initially by taking ‘1’ . But when he asked me how will you neutralize it , I felt it should be done by using ‘0’ so started doing it with ‘0’. Anyways answer to aaya nahi and I told him that I don’t know the exact method but did a lotta calculation related to it on paper, so he doesn’t think that I don’t know anything.

Techy: when did u did this thing?

ME: 5 years back, making sure that he gets an idea that I a m working. J

Techy : some ques on BJT

Me: after a minute , sir can you describe what you want to ask so that I can give you the solution

Techy: explained

Me: gave him a very basic solution

Techy: do u think this will work

Me: Sir its an ideal situation , we may require some resistances , so that we can make real time situation and I dodnt remember where to put it.

Techy : some ore ques on BJT , diode, zener, triode

Me: told 80% of what he asked..

Techy : which book did u use

ME: Sedra and Smith (best book for analog.....he he)

Don’t remember what were the rest of the content, but ya it ended with all the best and thank you .

MDI PGPM/PGPIM

2007-03-27T12:00:00.000+05:30

26th march 2007

Reached MDI at 9 ...and talked to few people there. After some time was put into group discussion… and was shocked by the group size of 14 being given 15 min only. As expected, 3 people started, showing their utter disrespect for each other. The same continued for my as well as others opinion. Meanwhile I did something right and I did something wrong…. Right was …I managed to write good amount of points on the sheet given for the same. Wrong was…I was not able to write my details in it as I thought they had asked to do it later after GD, but it was not the case. …. Anyways as per GD I was able to put forward few points at later stage to which group did listen.

Now the interview begin….. with P2 leaving in the beginning

P1… asked me how was your GD …

ME: I told him I wont rate it high

P1: why ? Do yo think it’s a fish market???

ME: It was not a fish market , rather on the brink of fish market (as they say be positive J ) . I was not able to make all of my points and there were fewer ears to hear and more mouths to speak (assuming two things …they read my points and they know that you cannot have a GD in a chaotic situation)

P1: are you going in a right direction

Me: Yes

P1: How?

ME : sir, . starred talking about how I have set my goals …and the way I am approaching things

P1: no no I mean to say are service sector growing in right way? If yes why?(ye professor direct question kyun nahi poochte or may be they do it to put you on the wrong foot)

ME : yes we are moving in a right direction. Service sectyor requires les amount of investment and policies are…

P1: cutting me in b/w asked something else

ME : sir now the money can be taken from the services sector as now its time to make growth more inclusive

P1 : cut me on something and I again tried to answer, and cutting were so abrupt that I don’t remember where the talk ended over services sector

P1: okk shall I talk about Economics

ME : sir you can ask, I will try to answer

P1: Something on GDP

ME : was answering , and was cut in between by him again…

Meanwhile P2 entered

P1 : asked something which I said in between the lines….

The process went on and on with both jolly professors were not letting me complete my point and kept laughing on whatever I was saying as if they have found a fool from somewhere. Then don bhai ko gussa aaya and i said

Me: Sir let me complete my point then we can get the whole thing linked

P1: Ok

ME: talked about all terms, inflation, GDP, monetization

Then P1 said give us an example by using these peanuts

ME: Sir as what I understood “ blah blah..” (SAB RAAPCHIK TAREEKE SE SAMJHA DIA…AUR P2 JO 100 RS KA NOTE NIKAL RAHE THE UNKE USS NOTE KO BHI INVOLVE KAR LIA,)

P2: Okk… have you seen 1 rs note

Me : yeah …sometime back

P2: showed me some thing on 100 rs note , is it there on rs 1 note

Me : I don’t know sir

P2: make a guess

Me: It may not be there as sum is rs 100 , not for rs1 … (I was wrong…he he)

P2: (KUCH AUR THODA BAHUT POOCHA)

Me: (BATA DIA )

P2: whats ur at score?

Me: bataya

P2: what all calls do u have ?

Me: AIK, MDI

P2: AIK?

Me: sorry sir its Ahmadabad, indore , khozikode

P2: how come these calls at this score

Me: I have a decent split

P1: then he has work ex (me wondering had they considered work ex I would have got call from Calcutta, nways didn’t retort to that)

P2: okk thank u

Me: thank you sir to both of them. (and Was bout to stand)

P1: You play volleyball as well? Who is the captain of Indian volleyball team?

Me : (By then every one was in jovial mood)… Sir I tried to find out but was not able to…

P2: well said….smilingly

So ended the MDI PGPM interview

------------------------------------------------

Well MDI PGPIM was more a formality so I made sure that I have fun before leaving...

In a GD we (5 ppl) were given 20 minutes to discuss some figures. I started the GD as well as , concluded the GD ,( was a complete opposite of what happened in the morning PGP GD, there were big time gaps to make ur points)

Anyways interview started , and as I felt that interviewers were not the professional, but their aura does signify their intellect. A lady and a gentle man in their retirement age were there and were giving a warm feeling with their attire..

Interview began with volleyball, went onto the family with talk about who bullies whom , me or my sis..as I said warm panel .. :)

Then panel realized they should talk business now, so they said, okk let come to main points… what is XYZ, why international MBA, why this , why that,

And as usual I tried to answer whatever I know

In the end they asked what call do u have?

Told them

Panel: If main course of MDI or IB of mdi , then what will u choose

ME: told them main course because it’s a generalized course , then IB course

A day before I was thinking that somebody will may notice my B'day on the interview day, well I think they were like any other human being , missing on the the small details (in the form) ...so a lesson from the interview....don't get bother about things you write on the the form.

IIM A interview

2007-03-19T16:56:00.000+05:30

19th March, 2007

Hmmm...finally the day is here to give interview for god of IIMs.. yeah.. IIMA. The day started with uncertainties like India losing to Bangladesh (is it that uncertain), and surya grahan in the morning.....(still wondering was that an omen to what happened with me 2day).

Reached before time and talked to people, some of them knew me as theyy have seen me earlier in IIMK interview. Anyways, Case was provided, where 5 minutes were given to read a full page case study and 15-20 min to discuss and 5 min to write a summary( in which i did a lot of cuttings).

Anyways it took more than 3 min to read the whole case. After that I had hardly any points to talk about, although some of the innovative ideas I gave later on. Initially chipped in at 3rd place and talked about somebody''s point only. The best things for me in GD were when I asked group to look into new direction and some of those pauses where grp listened to me as if listening ramayana.

Here comes the interview after that
Good professor, Neutral professor, HR lady.

GP: Gaurav .. Ur working in PS (pronouncing it wrongly)
Me: sir its (pronouncing correctly) with T silent.
GP: U have studied in JMI
ME : yeah
GP : which field
ME: E&C
GP : So what do u do...
ME : 3 min blah blah....
GP: so isnt there a tool to do it?
ME: No sir.
GP: so its a mechanical process?
ME: yeah.....(dekhlo apun mein aur mazzdur mein koi antar nahi hai)
GP: What else you do?
ME: (thinking they are talking abt time) sir we work and aftr office hours we have some game...
GP: No nO as if what else do u do in job
ME: (hey bhagwan agar project change karta to acha hota) sir I hav worked on a single proj only although I do som of managmnet...workkk
GP: what languages you have learnt
Me: RPG400, CL400, Interactive SQL, told them nothing much as if... (thinking...kyun nahi seekha)
GP: what is JD upto? are they developing new things?
ME: told everything...abt new tech, hw oracle has come into picture...and hw thy are supporting it

NP: India is being said largest democracy. whats the next
ME: not africa, china....
NP: ok is it africa?
ME: Dont know sir
NP: Ok what about china?
ME: its a communist country

meanwhile the HR Lady who went out initially, came back in...

NP: its a democracy...
ME: they are taking best out of everything but its not democracy...
NP: what about US
ME: Its a democracy
NP: what its population
ME: Its 1/3rd of India, so we are 1 billion, so it must be 30 million sorry 300 million..
NP: whats the difference b/w indian and US democracy
ME: Blah blah 3 min...sab samjha dia...
NP: hows president get selected ...if some common man want to go through it then what he should do....
ME : dont know sir
NP: how many party?
ME: bi party
NP: Name
ME : congress and democrat i think.... (bold dia galat...)
NP: some body from ur organisation was thr? which party
ME: yeah...but dnt know the party...

Now comes the killer...the HR....
HR: I will take from politics
ME: (wat the hell...how do thy know I hate history and politics....)
HR: what is the capital of South africa
ME: dont know
HR: some thing abt derivatives and principles?
ME: dont know
HR: what is the emblem
ME: I know
HR: tell
ME: (...is there something in written...that i shd tell...there used to be a pic)... gave up...i dont know as such..
HR: YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING?
ME: (...wat the hell..) I dont know much about history and politics...so I am not making any statements

HR: so you are afraid of taking risks
ME: (...just meet me outside...i will kill u to prove that i am not afraid....you have killed my interview......anyways..) this is not the case , its just that if i dont know something why to say something about it

HR: thank you
others: thank you
take your toffee

me : thanks.....

walk back as if assasinated by lady Osama bin laden..........I dont know whether she tried to stress me out.... but whatever it is...she killed the whole interview...and the level of discussion was not IIMA like...it seems they were extracting information to feed their databases
but ya the professors.. GP and NP ...both were like IIMA professor.... as they had that aura...

the treatment was different...the way they addressed all of us and congratulated us for being there...and telling its an achievement itself....
Well I think people were right when they says that IIMA guys are good and and beauty is that they know they are....

Nitie GD/PI

2007-03-15T12:50:00.000+05:30

14th March 2007, Wednesday
Its a 3rd MBA interview of my life (including IMT a successful interview 2 years back and IIM K on 26th Feb)....and has costed me a fortune as I have to book flight to and from Mumbai....
Reached Mumbai a day before and went to college for receiving my call letter, which I have not received at home. I met 2 people there, one was Anuj (2nd year) from delhi itself. He asked me to come the next day to get the letter. I was not happy with a way Nitie is going through its selection procedure, one because It has called so many people to Mumbai, instead of having atleast 4 centres and 2nd because many people didn't receive there call letter. Anyways the D day started this way....

Reached Nitie at 7:45 and was asked to sit in Audi. Nothing started till 8:30 and we were made to fall in love with classical music which was being played in the background.

Thereafter some presentations were made by students over Nitie courses presumingly that nobody had read the brochure.... well they were indeed right .... We were being moved from one place to other with our application typically as what happens in a government institution. In the middle of the process NITIE students did a good job by managing close to 160 people. They even put up a TV series "How i met your mother" on the projector in the Audi.

Then after 4 hours of wait, paperwork, sweat (mumbai was hot that day), and a queue (outside GD room), a group of 10 people entered a GD room having 5 panelist (surprised by no.).... They asked us to pick a topic, I went to their desk and read the topic. The topic was about airlines making quick profit. I started , concluded and made my point very clear during the process...

again a wait for interview started....and i kept growing restless with time.... movie in the audi was not helping either... In the process I interacted with other Nitie guys, Anuj , other guy (at the door of GD panel), 2 other girls (who were at the door of interview panel..) and I should admit that the people there were very helpful and were nicely coordinating the event. The girls told me that its a senior most panel and having fun with people. Got a interview call at 3:30.... and I entered the arena... there were 5 people and I was like what gonna be next....

3rd guy: tell me something about you (most expected ques as they didn't have any pre interview form)
Me: blah blah...
3rd guy seem to be impressed: what newspaper do you read
Me: Hindustan Times
3rd guy: Any business newspaper
Me: sometimes give a glance over Economic times
3rd: glance over...hmmm
1st guy...smilingly: You are from Jamia Millia Islamia
Me: (wats a reason to smile over that...anyways....me smilingly as well)...yeah
1st guy: How is the college: Sir good
1st guy: How do you rate in ranking
Me: Sir I have not been to other colleges to rank it, but I could not question the standards being set by IIT's so would rate it below that.
1st guy: Did you have any Management subject in college?
ME: NO
1st guy: What do you understand by Management?
Me: some gyan abt empowerment and related it to my work ex
1st: Do you think empowerment w/o authority makes sense?
Me: gone on explaining it again relating it to job, (although overdid it by adding an example which could have been avoided)
1st guy: you are from which company
ME: XYZ...
1st guy: writing it down as if wll put up a complain
4th guy: What all calls do you have
ME: IIM A,I,K and Nitie (skipping MDI)
4th guy: Thank you
Me: Thank you sir, looked at everybody and came out

On a whole ...felt good about the whole process, lets wait for the result..... and ya even though I had to wait a lot in the whole process and was not happy about few things ...Its been a great experience meeting students and profs of Nitie, who have managed the event very well and indicated why Nitie is one of top 10 colleges around....

God's Own IIM " IIMK " experience

2007-03-15T12:17:00.000+05:30

26th Feb 2007 , Monday

I waited years for experiencing IIM interviews. Its not just other day when you go out and dream of managing the managers sitting in front of you to judge you instead. Lets see how the day started....

I tried to go through all the notes that I made in last few months. I reached IMI at 1:15, and started interacting with people. Luckily I knew 2-3 of the people there. That helped me to chill out a bit. Every1 was wearing the suit ..& I think mine one was the best :) ….anyways b4 the GD we got 5 minutes, so I made sure to convey the message to the group that we need to have a good GD. GD topic was about “globalization helps movement of goods then why not people". Well almost every1 spoke w/o creating a fish market situation. It was started by a SRCC guy. He gave a poetic start. I think I was the 3rd person to start. I made some good points and was able to add some structure to GD. There were around 4 entries by me and was told by some1 that I was good…well ab main kya bolu….

Now came the god own IIM’s interview. 2 people, an old man (O) and a young man(Y) and Me (realized at home later that the time between 2 interview is utilized by them to read interviewee form, that’s why they took so much time before my interview…I had written a lot.)

Y : so Gaurav tell me about your self

Me: Sir I am working in XYZ as code analyst for last 1.5 years in ERP domain. Personally I

have a scientific temperament…. (suddenly interrupted by them)

Y: What do you mean by scientific temperament?

Me: Sir I try to go through whatever being assigned to me before making decision.

Y: What is XYZ into?

Me: Sir they are mainly into Cons & Apps. They are not in India as if now but are
thinking of growing into

Y: So are you working outside?

Me: Sorry sir

Y: repeat the ques

Me: sir I am working in India itself. Its their operations here. Now they are thinking of

growing their clientèle here

Y: So you play volleyball. Who is the captain of India team

M: sorry sir I don’t know.

Y : Do you know kapil dev is Indian volley captain

M: sorry sir I don’t know Kapil dev in volleyball but I know one kapil dev who led Indian cricket

team in 1983. and I enjoy playing volleyball and have played national.

Y : so you must have met kapil dev

M: Sir I have played at school level. It is played at different levels. Services, state, school….

Y : what are your parents into?

M: Sir they are in services. My father is working in bank

O(first time) : which bank?

M : PNB and mother in high court

Y: Where have you studied?

M : Jamia millia islamia

Y : do they have reservation, there were some issues on reservation for muslims

M : No sir, they have reservation for Jamia school where studs can be hindu or muslim.

Y : Well I think thr wer some concerns abt 50% reservation

M : sir I think it was in AMU not in JMI (thank god I was right)

Y : are they different univ.?

M : yes, amu is older univ and jmi is opened in 1920 as a nationalist movement. They are 2 differ entities

Y: you are in delhi for how long

M: born and brought up sir.

Y : Is delhi only bureaucratic city

M : sir there is much more to delhi than bureaucracy. Its beautiful, people are warm and accepts every1 then it has…monuments

Y: heritage

M : yes

Y: where you have been?

M(with a fear of not knowing abt monuments) …sir I have visited few places and as distances are small we go place as in for general outing, nothing specific.

Y : is delhi that short?

M: yes sir its 1500 km square

Y: you have done electronics , what is ICs…

M : around 100 transistors combined to form ICs. Today we are dealing into very large scale integration.

Y some ques on kind of chips

M : told

Y : some ques about silicon and doping

M: don’t know

Y: Some ques on electricity, Fan, tubelight motor, rotation, starter, speed control)

M: unsatisfactory answer to few of them

O: 2^nd entry from him ....do u know about rail budget:

M: sorry sir it wasn’t started when I left home

O: about UP

M: described completely

Y: who brought the law

M: Rajiv Gandhi

It ended, and they said all the best.

When I stand up, I asked anything to do with certificates

Old man: you have good smile

Y: what calls do u have

M: AKI

O: What is your take b/w K&I

M: it would be gr8 if I get both but my take will be K

O : you have a gr8 smile

M: thank you sir.....(smiling big time as if they are giving me admission right away)

Well I enjoyed the interview and kept smiling at intervals. I hope they take me

People told me it went upto 25-30 min…unlike 15-20 min norm…..lets hope for the best… ;)