Here we are..I am finally ready to unleash my thoughts upon the public..don't really know how ready they are for it though!

So do I really have those many thoughts? ;)

Okk, serious now..below follows an account of all my GD PIs..will help some, entertain some and the remaining are most welcome to give it a miss!

So here goes!

Stop # 1 - Kozhikode:

It was on the 21st of Feb (Ohh man, I am gonna remember these dates for the rest of my life! A friend of mine always refers to them as 'trysts'! )..so it was the 21st of Feb and I had parked myself just across the road from Dadar Catering College, where most of these trysts take place; by which I mean that I was staying with relatives just opposite DCC..

The thing was to begin at 9:30 in the morning..I slept early..woke up early..read the newpaper..got my documents in order and chal diye..zindagi ko gale se lagaane ;)

I reached there..small stuffy waiting room..a couple of people I knew..the ubiquitous Somaiya person..and the equally omni-present Infoscion! After making small talk for some minutes..I realized that I did not have my Degree certificate with me!! O man..meri toh haalat kharab ho gayi:) But fortunately the guys sitting out there collecting those documents turned out to be quite flexible and accepted my final year marksheets instead..Phew!

In some time, a couple of guys came out of two adjoining doors (we were to be divided into two panels..of about 10 each..could have been 9..not too sure)..and started to call out our names..we went inside the rooms and sat..

There were two men..at the time, I don't remember taking a very good look at them..I was too busy getting my posture and body language correct ;) LOL!

They handed out slips of paper to us..the topic for the GD..something about whether we believed in the Malthusian law that population itself is not the problem, but lack of proper distribution of resources, organisation etc is what we should be looking at..something to that effect..

We started..the GD was quite peaceful..there were three girls in my group, including myself..we all got enough oppurtunities to speak..

ASIDE: My entire preparation for the GD..apart from reading up some stuff, had been to tell myself repeatedly that it is NOT a DOG-EAT-DOG jungle out there..but just another discussion..this put things slightly in perspective and prevented me from getting all hyper about not being amongst the first two-three to speak..I was never in much of a hurry to speak..a modest and low-key approach was what I was gunning for..

So the GD was quite decent..and we all trooped out..

Now the wait for the Interview..I fortunately did not have to wait too long..I was called in second..

Now somehow..I was not scared or anything, I was just excited..so in I went..

ASIDE: My entire preparation for the interviews had been, but of course, the reading up..but mainly the introspection..I did not want to lie, fool or pull stunts..I wanted to be sincere and honest..as far as possible..and when I went in, I knew I had all the answers that really mattered..

The two men - one was a darkish man..with a luxuriant moustache and the other a very amiable looking and grandfatherly guy..I sat down (after duly remembering to ask 'May I sit down please'! Gawd! )..and the first question that was thrown at me - 'What is the difference between Fourier and Laplace'!!

Holy shit!! Fourier and Laplace! Laplace and Fourier!! Now we all know how much dedication and sincerity had gone into doing all those soporific DSP experiments back in college..I hope I have the sympathies of the junta reading this when I say I could not remember one single thing about either Fourier or Laplace!!

So anyway..I smiled and said 'I do not remember much about Fourier or Laplace but let me just think'! Guy A smiled..he was actually the one asking all the techie questions..he tried to prod me - 'Tell me which is done when'..I thought..I drew a blank..I then went on to say..'I know how to do it, but I cannot tell you why it is done!'..they both smiled very knowingly, and I was like 'Shreya, yeh kyaa bol diyaa!'..then they asked me 'Have you heard of this term called Entropy?' Now I had but could not recall where..So I told them just that..they said 'What about Information Theory? You remember that?' I sort of did, but not exactly! I remembered there was this theorem called Shannon's Theorem but beyond that the memory refused to jog..

It was back to the smile then..

After this, things got a little better..they asked me about my work..and I waxed eloquent on that..they tried to slip in a couple of trick questions there too..Guy A seemed to know quite some stuff..

Then they asked me about Infosys..whether I knew anything about the fracas between NRN and D Gowda, what my stand on it was..blah blah..

Then to some general knowledge Qs..I made a couple of blunders here..the IT sector's share in the GDP-me said-not sure..they said-guess..me said-err..17?! They burst out laughing! Me laughed too! Later on, to my chagrin, I learnt it was somewhere around 4.5%!!

But anyway..life goes on..next stop..they asked me to talk about Globalisation for two minutes! Two minutes!! O man! I could have gone on endlessly on Globalisation! So I spoke..I managed to put in some interesting trivia..they seemed happy..I have realized that when the interviewers are happy with you, they sort of look at you with a dazed expression..sort of like, hmm..so she knew that one..hmm..we had not expected that! LOL!

Ohh..did I forget to mention that food was flying fast and furious all this while? There were these attendents bringing in all sorts of stuff at regular intervals from all directions! Dadar Catering College yaar!

They asked me a couple of things from my form..something about weaknesses..I gave a convincing answer..I mean, sounded good to me..so must have been!

Okk..so after that..since my form said something about me wanting to be an entrepreneur (who doesn't in these interviews!)..they asked me to name some women entreprenuers..I did..Kiran M Shaw, Sulajja Motwani, Anu Aga..they came back with - 'Most of the women have inherited their empires from their husbands or fathers. So do you think that women in India cannot make good entrepreneurs!!'

Bas!! Mere andar ki garmi jaag utthi..I got somewhat passionate about how women earlier had not probably been self-made because of differing circumstances, and the environment, oppurtunities, but today's woman definitely has it in her to do all that she wants to do, I gave the example of the Lijjat Papad woman..they asked me whether I would be the next one and me said ' Yes sir, I definitely want to be' with what I thought was a 'steely glint' in my eye and a determined thump of the fist! LOL!

Well, I must have done something right, because I got through! :)

All in all, the tone of the interview was very relaxed..they made me feel comfortable, they seemed like real nice people:)..even when I made mistakes, they seemed to laugh indulgingly..so after it got over, although I was painfully aware of all the mistakes I had made, I had a good feeling about it..I was happy with what I had done there..my expressions and my attitude..so overall it seemed like a pretty decent experience!

And that is all I have to say about that!