Movies, Masti, Magic - Part II

It bit me – the movie bug…

Believe me…I saw some 15 movies in the last 20 days or so…it all started with a harmless conversation when somebody told me to watch three Audrey Hepburn movies and I thought to myself – “Yeah! I am gonna do this! All my life I have been waiting for someone to come and tell me to watch a movie that kindles that spark of interest in me! N here it is!”

So I set about downloading those movies…now our LAN is a pirate’s paradise and before long, I was watching them. I had a couple of major submissions along with end-term exams then – but nothing was to come in my way! Not that I didn’t do justice to those commitments – I did more than enough – but that is another story…

Let’s get on with this one…

Audrey H set the ball rolling…she was cute, more than that – I finally knew what all these people looked like – Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Bette Davis and the rest of the gang of yore…now my dear reader (assuming I have any) - if you are expressing wonderment at the fact that I didn’t already know them, let me tell you that Yours truly has not seen too many movies…I usually consider watching movies a waste of time…I only watch movies which are highly recommended by reliable sources!

So then I went on a spree of watchin classics…I couldn’t get enough of them! I even watched a couple of musicals! N then a friend of mine started ribbing me about my new-found love for the classics and my illiteracy regarding movies in general…so I decided to continue watching and watching all sorts…

Now this post is not about this movie-buff lifestyle of mine – it is about this one movie – Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind…it has made some sorta impact one me…

For the uninitiated – it is about this couple – poles apart – they have a sort of fight and the woman who is extremely impulsive employs the services of a memory-erasure clinic to erase all memories of the man. The man, on finding out, in a fit of anger, proceeds to do the same – only half-way through the procedure, he starts realizing that he has actually spent a lot of good times with her and he does not want to go through with it.

The movie is beautifully made – the past and present and interwoven amazingly well…

The concept got me thinking - erasing memories – I am sure we all have certain memories we want to forget…but to forget altogether that the person or people involved with those memories ever existed – well…not such a great idea…

We are what we are because of the experiences we have had, because of the people we have met and to erase them would be like to feel something every time you see that Titan showroom but not know why you feel that way.

What I also like about the movie immensely – she tells him in his mind inside a memory – Meet me in Montague – and he actually goes there on an inexplicable (to him at that point) impulse to Montague the next day. She is there and they see each other…and she talks to him and both feel some stirring…

A similar thing happens with another person in the movie…she continues to feel an irresistible fascination for somebody she had an affair with and had the memory of whom erased…

Wonders that our minds work…it is so fascinating what our minds make us do – utterly inexplicable stuff…

You know - when people say – choose between what the heart says and what the mind says – I do not understand what they mean…there can be no emotions without the mind - the mind is, in fact, the seat of emotions as opposed to the heart – which is an over-glorified organ (a very important one at that – I have heart disease in the family, I better be respectful towards it ;)) In other words, feeling is just another way of thinking…

On a tangent, I have this thought sometimes in my mind – Whom we get together with, is most times, dependent on circumstances – somebody we happen to meet when we are in that particularly fragile frame of mind; or who we end up spending the entire party talking to, when nobody else you know turns up…well, that is kinda crummy, isnt it? I know that given the circumstances, the fact that two people have to connect is also important – but sometimes, don’t the circs dictate whether you connect or not? Not totally, but to a certain extent?

Maybe, one could have got along much better with somebody else, but the opportunity never presented itself…

On another tangent - lately, I have started feeling that I expect too much from life…I should get down to earth and get real.

Scorched..

Long time since I blogged…there has been so much going on lately - one always means to, but never finds the time to…something else is always more important...

…and that is how we deprive ourselves of the simple pleasures of life…

But I am no one to talk about the simple pleasures of life...not after I have become this creature I have become..

I guess the symptoms were always there - always good at multitasking, involved with two dozen things at the same time...but there are limits to multitasking too, so many-a-time screwing up because of my desperate urge to do this, that and the other!

Then came summers - at HLL…it was a hot blazing Indian summer day when I walked into 'Levers House' in Mumbai...having no idea about the fact that I would vindicate myself at that place..

I met KK there...my boss - and the gamut of emotions that I have gone through because of him - I think he is one of the sharpest men I know - so quick on the uptake, so clear and logical, he cuts you into pieces if you so much as fumble once, and ohh so busy! He would not have any time for me - I would have to chase him like I have NEVER chased anybody in my entire life…I would sit outside for hours while he would finish his phone conversation just so that I could talk with him for 10 minutes! It would rarely anger me, more than that, I would get a feeling of being incompetent – because KK does not give his time easily to people he does not consider worth his time – and from that feeling rose the overwhelming urge to prove myself..

Roundabout that time, I started reading ‘Atlas Shrugged’ – long overdue – and it blew me – I wanted to be Dagny...I wanted to command that kind of respect for being as competent as she was, I wanted to feel that kind of passion for what I was doing..

N so I worked, I worked so hard like I have never worked in my life...I worked so smart like I have never worked in my life…cutting out the inefficiencies completely...if people think life@IIM is tough, they don’t know what they are talking about..

I went and visited shops in Northern and Western India, in the scorching heat...shop after shop, observing and chatting up shopper after shopper...looking, observing, listening, noting, inferring, improvising…touched base in Mumbai, did research, made plans – only to have them shot down by KK..

He would ask all the right questions and catch me at all my shaky points…he was rude, some said – even I said so at times – but he was the kind of person who does not tolerate fools or foolishness...and that kinda authority comes with the absolute confidence of knowing that you are doing a good job…and I wanted to be that person..

I did everything that I could have done...took feedback diligently, went and met people, landed up at advertising houses without appointments and managed to get my work done…people have always told me I am pushy...but I took that to an art form..

I started planning for my market research then – and man, was it a nightmare! So many people to contact, so many permissions to take, I was working like a maniac and was not even sure of it would get done...but I made it work...My market research finally went on air – in Mumbai and Delhi...I went crazy...I was working 13 hours those days – conceptualizing, executing, supervising..

I fell sick…

N then mid-term appraisal happened and KK told me this – ‘I have failed as a tutor with you because you are good at everything, I am unable to identify an area of improvement for you’! I felt like I was on air...

N so you see, that was the story of my summers more or less…yeah, there were a few drunken parties and a Bollywood party as well, some interesting dinners and some criticism from KK towards the end (he again caught my Achilles heel)…but predominantly, it was about moving towards that place I have always wanted to reach – operation with minimum leakage and infinite efficiency!

Was it fun? I don’t think so – I learned a lot...skills and competencies as PM would put it...I am much more confident now and I definitely know how to get my work done...but it has made me into this kinda person who cannot sit still for one moment...someone who wants to extract every bit of productivity from life…someone who cannot enjoy the simple pleasures of life..

The Tragic Indian

Deviating a little from the past few threads, this post is about the literary scene in India as seen through my eyes – I still have a lot to see and so please forgive the oversights, if any.

I have recently been reading this book called Ladies Coupe, it is by an Indian author – you may have heard her name – Anita Nair.

The special thing about this book is that, it is just like all other books authored by Indians. It is melancholy. If there were colors I would assign to the world seen through my eyes, while reading it, it would be shades of grey, with a tinge of ochre. The book is about these women who spend their lives playing the daughter, the sister, the wife and mother and finally realize that they need to find their own identity in order to be complete.

I hate the sound of ochre.

There have been others – Jhumpa Lahiri interpreting maladies or walking us through the travails of Gogol; Salman Rushdie equating the hopes, aspirations and downfall of a country with the hopes, aspirations and downfall of a kid born at Midnight; Anurag Mathur apparently describing the desperation of an Indian adolescent to get laid in the US of A, but actually trying to depress us by insinuating that we Indians are too garish, hypocritical and are perceived to be funny the world over; Meera Syal explains ably that Life isn’t, in fact, all haahaaheehee and Indian women, be they in any corner of the world, are doomed to unsatisfactory existences; and then there is Dominique Lappiere who manages to be suitably morose describing the City of Joy – and he ain’t even Indian (Although to be fair to him, the theme is about the flame of hope burning amidst all that misery, but the misery is so vividly described that one doesn’t get to the flame of hope part)! And how can we forget Munshi Premchand, whose tales were mired in hopelessness and destitution.

Do not get me wrong – I think Indian writers are brilliant, they write lucidly, they capture details that actually make you think – since all those lives they talk about are in someway yours. The insights that Premchand brings into a simple tale of misery and starvation does affect you in some manner; the absolutely fantastic language and construction that Salman Rushdie uses leaves you stunned and Indian women – well, we all know what a hard time society gives our women and that is what these stories depict – our society.

What I am wondering about is – Is the Indian author so burdened by his own cultural dilemmas, his existential traumas – especially relevant in the new world, saddened by his own perceptions about kith and kin, his observations about everything I-N-D-I-A-N that his books are dipped in the sort of sauce that comes with resignation?

There were a few rare ones like Satyajit Ray, in the days of yore who would churn out Feludas and some like Sudha Murthy and RK Narayan now, who use everyday incidents to depict various shades of human life - all with a glint of humor. There are those like Ruskin Bond who say it with nature and although his tales are as poignant as they get, they are speckled with old-world villas with bougainvillea and winding blue roads under the water-color skies - the stuff of nirvana. And then of course, there is the Shobha De!

Looking at the bigger picture - What makes most of these Indian authors so sensitive? Why is their world-view so tragic?

Of Bullshit and other kinds of manure

Continuing with my series on life@B-school, here’s a thought: What if there was something about you, you thought was a good thing, and then you had this big realization that you were quite OC - Obsessive-Compulsive for the uninitiated, about it?

Let me tell you a story –Once upon a time (yeah right, I like fairy tales!) there was a little girl whose father told her to look after his boss’s garden. The boss had a beautiful garden, the kind that refreshes your weary soul – exotic flowers, gentle breeze – the works. Now her father told her – ‘Moon (that’s what he used to called her), take good care of this garden, it’s your responsibility’. Moon would observe her father very keenly and she would see that he went to the market everyday with candles to sell and would sell them to the best of his abilities. He was not the maker of the candles. The candles were produced in a factory not far off and he was paid a fixed salary irrespective of the number of candles he sold. And yet! There was no candle seller as good as Moon’s father! He would work the whole day, sell twice the number of candles that the other candle sellers could and after coming back, he would sit and think up new ways of selling more candles, or ways to make the candles better (based on feedback from the customer – he had his marketing research bang on!)! So anyway, Moon knew from a very early age that one must take pride in one’s work and do it with an enthusiasm that shines though, even if it does not get the big bucks home, it gets you that awesome feeling that very few people in this world have experienced – the absolute conviction that nobody else could have done it better than you!

So Moon started to tend this garden, she would inspect it every morning; make a list of all the things that needed to be done to it; make plans about how the garden could be made even more beautiful and weed free; and together with a couple of boys, labor away at it. Soon it went from being just a job to a consuming passion. She set tasks for self, which were sometimes a little ambitious considering her school-work and other pursuits, but found the time to do them. She set high standards for herself and expected those two boys to do the same. But it takes all kinds – and the boys turned out to be the type who would not work unless it was absolutely necessary, unless somebody was at their throat pushing them to work or unless they hoped to derive something positive, in the form of monetary reward or recognition from it.

Moon started to harbor feelings of resentment towards them. She would tend to be irritable as soon as their names were mentioned or one of their excuses to evade work came to light. She spent many a frustrated moment trying to implement the best course of action for the garden, but met with failure due to lack of assistance. She even cursed the seasons, when came the time for the trees to shed and the flowers to sleep, she hated that look for the garden – her garden.

Her father noticed all of this and sat her down one day. He said ‘Moon, work with all your might, but know that there will be times when your colleagues will slacken off and you will have to use all the tricks in the book to extract their pound of flesh; or fire them if it comes to that. But do not fester this resentment. You cannot go and reason with the rains to fall down on your garden because it needs it badly! When met with circumstances like that, you can either fret and fume, or go grab the hose and water your garden (and wet your colleagues who are standing by and watching - in the process hoping they catch a cold)!’

Yeah, I know the story was corny as hell :) So where were we - OCing, yeah, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and you don’t wanna go that way, baby. This ain’t a race against time, or anyone else, it is, in the end, all about your own self. This place brings out the worst in you and throws it into your face, you have no choice but to confront it, and therein lies redemption - and that’s why I love my life here...

Taking stock..

It has just been eight months into this course, and I already feel like a misfit for the ‘other world’.

We the people…We are not like other specimens of the species, there are marked differences, and some of them are as follows:

 At around 2:30 in the morning, when we are at our relaxed best, we remember some of our friends and family, whom we have not strung two sentences with in quite some time. We then proceed to call them up, only to be met with
o The phone ringing incessantly – no response (And you tell me that I don’t call ya! You don’t pick up the phone when I do!)
o A groggy voice, laden with sleep, pouring invectives down at us, for waking them up at that apparent ungodly hour (Gosh! What sorta lifeless morons go to sleep before 3!!?)
o Yeah, that’s about it.
 We have an assignment submission, a ‘5 percent’ quiz to prepare for the next day, one project group meeting, one club meeting and a case to read and we think the day is ‘light’.
 For us, every minute does count – we have a major submission exactly one week from now and we think – Wow! That’s a lot of time! I could probably write a thesis on the topic, travel the whole of India and come back to submit the thesis, in one week (if Jules Verne can travel the world in 80 days – we can do one better)!
 CNN is on campus, so is Channel [V] – but we don’t have time for them. We are at the high end of the demand chain, due to the Life Cycle theory of expected ‘footage’.
 We epitomize the concept of ‘Work hard, party harder’. After an L^2, the collective alcohol content coursing through our bodies can serve as the alternative fuel for all the nation’s 2 million cars.
 The Great B-school Placement Process – it makes men out of boys. It is the kinda hammer that shatters glass, but forges steel. Everything about it – the concept, the preparations, the process, the way the operations are managed (It is like a mission being planned- days in advance, the anointed few hold mega meetings complete with floor plans, walkies, et al), the ability to continue to believe in yourself inspite of being disappointed, the ability to remain unscathed inspite of being ‘plucked’ early, the ability to bear injustices and retain perspective – all parts of an exercise that leaves a mark.
 We speak in bullet points ;)

Inspite of all of this, life here is not so bad. The quantity of time you spend ‘chilling’ is in direct proportion to how ‘chilled out’ a person you yourself are.

And on a serious note, when one thinks of all that one has already learnt, the mind boggles – a place like this makes you discerning about who you should befriend, and who you should keep one-arm distance from; it cuts out the inefficiencies from your life and you are operating at maximum capacity – you learn that this figure is flexible, in direct relation to how strong your will power is and you learn how much to bend before the crack comes; it makes you acknowledge the fact that there is brilliance in many of us – it’s just a question of what you do with it, where you go with it; and most importantly, you learn how to face your own deficiencies and overcome them, instead of merely glossing over them, like you had been uptil now.

Finally, it fills you with hope – after going through the grind for these two years, life outside has gotta be better, right? Well, I, for one, know that it will be better. Not because it will be less hectic, or easier in any way. Most definitely not. But because I will be better equipped to deal with it. Two years here - is like being molded by fire.

Of economics and other oddities..

I recently read this article which said that economists nowadays define progress, not as how well-off the people of a particular country have become, but by how much happier they have become..

Health has been replaced by 'Wellness' and surveys pertaining to one's state of emotional well-being - every couple of years, is the norm in that great weird, whim ridden country - the US of A!

Weird stuff is happening even on the political front in America, a Democrat Senator's being in hospital could result into a serious tipping of the scales..if he kicks the bucket, the marginal victory in the house of the Senate for the Democrats will also breathe its last..

On the one hand, the country boasts of nudist colonies and same sex marriages, while on the other, some of the Episcopal Churches break away because they do not endorse either a gay man, or a woman (straight or gay) to get ordained. God, if he exists, must lie in these contradictions..

Enough of all this boring stuff..I have been suffering from a writer's block all this while, but it is more of laziness actually. I know very well that given a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen), words will flow like booze at IIM B and the rest, as they say, shall be history.

The reason why I have picked up the gauntlet today is to talk about this particular trend that has been part of my life from it's earliest..my association with people that nobody else wants to associate with..

In other words - weirdos, outcasts, the-much-hated and the so-called whackazoids find their way into my circle of friends..

(I strongly believe I am not hurting any sentiments out here. The people who have been referred to, are all too well aware of how the populace views them and they choose to not care. That is what makes them special in my eyes and draws me towards them. I consider such eccentricities to be their USP.)

These people intrigue me - what makes them tick, what makes the others hate them..are questions that I seek to answer - subconsciously..on a superficial level, I just like to talk to these people..and as early as I can remember, my dialogues with my friends seem to be peppered with phrases like "He is not really all that bad" or "We are really wrong about that person" etc etc..

(From this paragraph, it might seem like I talk to these guys because I am curious or because I pity them. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Pity is the last thing I feel for people who have the strength of character to be different. Like I said, they intrigue me, and I feel attracted towards them because they are not following the herd - be it in thought, speech or action..)

What is life, if not an exploration of the oddities and the eccentricites? Public opinion is the worst measure of a man's true worth and this thought is weird, coz if everybody did believe it, it wouldnt be true anymore :)

I hope I continue to meet many more of these outliers - they make life much more interesting and delighful..they have their own agendas, their individual 'Schools of thought' and way-side paths to tread upon..I too harbour these delusions about myself..on the road less travelled..that's where I want to be..

Magical Dawn

Sleep comes easy here..I have been known to sleep frozen in positions mid-activity..so any day the almighty administration spares us the torture of sitting through lectures (which are getting quite fun, btw..I shall elaborate on them in another post)..is Holi, Eid, Diwali and Christmas to boot, for us deprived souls!

Cut to yesterday night..couldn't sleep before 4:45 AM as usual..some arbit internet surfing after grappling with a Corp Fin project for three hours and finally, the eyes cannot stay open any longer..I hit the sack..but wait, there's a subtle difference..I have decided to wake up early..inspite of there being no 'compelling logic' to do so!

Will I be able to do it? It is no minimum feat..ordinarily, I cannot wake up without somebody calling me up..I sleep like the dead, when I do sleep..nobody is gonna wake me up tomorrow, everybody wants to sleep till late..the alarm? Haah!! The alarm does not get 'footage' from me anymore..

With that thought in mind, I go to sleep..

Zoom to today..Miracle of miracles!! The alarm did manage to wake me up!! 7:30 AM..awesome!! I wake up..I am happy, excited, the world seems like a beautiful place..I go down for breakfast..on the way, wake one of my friends up and drag him down to breakfast too..u see, breakfast is one of the best things about IIM Bangalore..

I have the most leisurely breakfast..peppered with stimulating conversation :) I head out for a walk and appreciate the morning hour..dewy flowers, cloudy skies, cycles, mini vans etc making a bee line for the mess to deliver the day's supplies..some professors and their wives on their daily morning walks..heavenly!

Most of all, I savor the feeling that I have the entire day before me..there are quite a few commitments..but the thought of having 'stolen' so much time for myself, is putting me on an unbelievable high..

After breakfast, I easily spent one of the happiest hours of my life here at IIM Bangalore..I cranked up the music..tuned up my vocal cords and guess wat? Never mind, you will never be able to guess.."I cleaned my room"!! I dusted the mattresses, broke the cobwebs, put up some more pictures on the walls, did jhaadoo and stopped short of pochha ;)

With my room shining spick and span..my dil went hmmmm..and I decided then and there, no more late mornings for me..

Early to bed naa sahi..at least early to rise..hopefully it will make me half as healthy, wealthy and wise ;)

BGS

I have come here to learn. This is not hypocrisy and I will not say that marks donot matter. I feel as good as the next person when I do well and conversely as lousy when I donot (which btw, happens more often)! But that is not why I am here.

I have always believed in the larger picture..and marks donot really have a place there..sure, in 10th and 12th, they were all-important, in order to get someplace one wanted to (and then too, one would definitely have the edge if one learned along with getting good grades, which I mostly did not)..but now that I have got where I wanted to (an MBA for me is just a practical manifestation of what I wanted to do all along..interact with brilliant minds, learn from them, have the best teachers and peer group, get a platform to go out there and achieve all that I want to and learn, learn, learn!)..there is much more to it..

This post is about one of the most enjoyable leactures I had the fortune of attending in my first term..BGS..Business, Government and Society..this was enjoyable because of two reasons..firstly the course content..this course is all about interpreting and analyzing past events - like cultural and economic revolutions, wars, change in governments, changes in policies of nations, how they affect the common man, how various events down history have changed the course of nations - some people would say..a truly 'globe' subject (btw, globe in the IIM B context means something totally abstract)..but I would say - it was heavenly!! To actually go to a place and listen to stuff about the second world war, its implications, the political landscape of India just after independance and how it transformed down the ages..triggers one to think, explore..question..and the second reason..was the professor..

He was an outlier alright..a man with a great presence..a somewhat intimidating presence initially..loud booming voice, long snowy hair, but most of all, no pretensions at civility for the sake of it..he would tell you point blank that your reasoning had 'no compelling logic' and that 'you people are going to become clones of each other in some time'..he would race around the room, challenging us to refute him and once we did, he would brazenly tell us that he was not interested in 'opinions', but only in 'insights'..we have had great debates in his lectures..and outside his lectures..he was in some ways very head strong in his views and if someone differed from him, he would give a patient hearing (the opinions Vs insights thing was just an initial ploy to make us think and not come up with mere platitudes, he started to really listen to us pretty soon into the course), but after hearing, he would mostly not agree with whatever we were saying..but I have often felt that his reasonings were more or less right, he is extremely well-read and has a wealth of experience behind him..there has to be a valid reason for him feeling a certain way..he has given me new perspective on a lot of things and I might not agree with him on all counts, but at least, he listened to me and he made me think..

The only course where we had to analyze the differences between India and China, from an investor's point of view and submit a graded assignment on the same..I loved it!! I loved doing the analysis, I learned so much..I actually, myself, sat and wrote a 15 page report on India and China..without using the fascinating 'Ctrl Cs\Ctrl Vs'!! I was so proud of my report, although maybe some years from now, it shall seem infantile to me..it was something I put my heart and soul into!

He was a compassionate soul, although that aspect of him was difficult to detect, through all the rebukes, his curt remarks, his contrary opinions, he really did care..he took us seriously, our concerns, our nervousness before exams, our welfare..he wasn't just teaching a course, he was actually trying to improve us, to impart some of his experience, his wisdom to us..he gave us certain gems from time to time..

He had his shortcomings too, ofcourse, I do not know whether he stuck to the course outline as dictated by the course requirement, I do not know what we are going to be tested upon in our final exams..but these are small prices to pay, I think..

To all the people out there who are willing to open their minds to perspectives, to abstracts, to the areas between the whites and the blacks..people who are raring to explore.. to go beyond the boundaries of societal conventions - in mind, body and spirit..

Life is all about evolution..if you are the same at 40 what you are at 20, you have wasted 20 years of your life..and a CGPA of 3.9 is not the bullet point that you can put on the resume of your life..

Life..

It has been quite some time since I blogged..I have come a long way, life as I knew it has changed completely..

I have been at IIM Bangalore for more than a couple of months..I have learnt a lot of things and unlearnt some things..it's anybody's guess which was more difficult..

The life here is unbelievable..the pressure exists because people exist who can take it..I will not trivialize it by talking about it..we all know about the spate of quizzes and tests etc..

The people..now that's key..so many talented, intelligent, complicated people bottled up at such close quarters..people who have it all, and nobody will be surprised to see them transform into super-successful hot-shots some years down the line..the differentiating factor is that we all know each other, we can all tell you what a person's strengths are, where he lacks, and where he pretends to lack..

Short-term has a whole different meaning..life in a B school is like a microcosm of life outside..a nebula, dense and concentrated..a miniature capsule of life..it has every emotion - doubt, fear, envy, greed, hunger, agony, ecstasy, love, hate, passion, indifference..all within an area of 12 hostel blocks..

People hide, but are also ironically open about their feelings..people are super-competitive, and sometimes also go out of their way to help you..there are all kinds, and opinions about them change in an inkling..

I have learnt that I am nothing, I have unlearnt that I donot need anybody..I have learnt the true meaning of being down but not out - never out..I have learnt that I have it..inspite of the bad grades, the self-doubts and fears..I have confidence..these two years are going to teach me a lot..and I donot mean Quant and FinAcc..the girl who walks out of these grey walls is going to be very different from the girl who had stepped in..that fateful day in June..I have already vanquished some of my 'inner demons'..I feel like a better person already..

I have re-invented myself..the crux has evolved, not changed, but the outer layer has taken on dimensions that were not there before..any change is welcome..evolution is always good..

On the whole, the experience has been fantabulous and interesting beyond imagination and nothing could even come close..the best of times..the worst of times..

MOVIES MASTI MAGIC..


I have recently been watching a lot of movies..somehow they have been coming my way..a volvo trip resulted in me begging for some Aspirin since I was subjected to three back-to-back movies..which included a couple by Emraan H..so you can imagine ;)

I watched Shabd sometime back on TV..and simultaneously 'Sex and the City' was also on..so I was flipping channels..and it made me think..

Shabd..has this couple..Sanjay D and Aishwarya R..henceforth referred to as SD and AR..SD is a writer and recently he has been suffering some blocks..AR is a professor in a college..

Since SD is going thru a phase where he is feeling creatively challenged..he tries probing his wife's life for ideas..and he questions her about her beliefs, her joys, her sorrows..her dreams, etc..It turns out that AR is happy and quite content with the life she has..she considers herself to be a very ordinary girl and has no great expectations of life..she has never done anything that she should not have and is not aware of any longing to do anything beyond the ordinary and mundane..she follows conventions..she believes that accepting even a 'Rose' from any man other than her husband (in the context of her being a college prof, 'Rose Day' is being referred to, I guess) is wrong and she believes herself to be completely in love with him..

Cut to 'Sex and the City'..Carrie is unhappy because the man she has been dating..somebody she is very attracted to..someone with who she has great chemistry and compatibilty etc..is not that good in bed..in fact..she describes her first sexual experience with him as 'Silent'..she is extremely disturbed by that fact and wants to work at it..make it better..spice it up..etc etc..normal 'Sex n the City' talk ensues and she does adopt some measures to heat up the action a lil ;)

What made me think was..here is AR..she is obviously not very liberated..she is living with the notion that she has the best life..and she does not want to know any better..the fact remains that she is happy..and there's Carrie..modern woman to the T..very aware of her personal needs, desires and unapologetic about them..but again we cannot escape the fact that she is unhappy..

So my point is..do we expect too much outta life and is that why we are mostly unhappy?

RANDOM MUSINGS OF A LUNATIC

People Part..

Yes..it's the rule of life..people meet and people part..I am very very good at picking up from where we had left..not all that good at never letting go tho..

I like it when a new life starts and everything's new..right from the smell in the air to the local language..the people u really care about never really leave..they might not be around in the same way or with the same frequency..but they are very much there..

I want to keep moving for the rest of my life..I don't think much of settling down..I want to keep seeing new places and meeting new people..The thot of there being some sorta routine in my life is not a pleasant one..

But I have to do that someday? That is what people, and let's face it, my common sense tells me..and lately I have realized that even the thot of some permanency in life need not be such a bad thing..one can keep exploring, growing, learning till the day one dies, in the consistent presence of some like-minded people..who give one the space to realize these dreams and vanquish one's inner demons..

But I have made this promise to myself..I will not settle down till when I absolutely want to myself..I do not believe in compromise...life is too short for that kinda stuff..

I do not blame my parents for being worried sometimes..because I have given them some indication..but they will understand, I am sure..and this is not some genocide I am talking about..it's just about living life my own way..and that's not too much to ask..is it?

A CONTRADICTION


So I am at home now..Infy is done and over with..N I miss office..

I miss the sense of having someplace to go to..and not just any place..a place where some people pay some other people 26.5 dollars for my presence!! LOL!!

I miss the campus and the cubicle, but u know..most of all..I miss the people..some which were part of my life just on the fringes..the people who I met on the bus but nowhere else..the people who sat somewhere around me and exchanged some sporadic smiles with me..the people I met in the washroom from time to time and had those all-too-famous washroom conversations with..the people I met in the canteen at the same time that I used to have lunch..and u get the drift..I miss that life..

But like most other things in life..I miss it because it was there for just the perfect duration of time..and I am glad it's over..

Cntd..

So there I was waiting outside the Interview room..everybody who came out said that the panelists were very chilled out..not bad..I could do with some chillin ;)

Just before me, there was this guy who had been quite aggressive in the GD..wen he came out, he gave a somewhat different report, he said that the panelists had completely grilled him and this, believe me, is something like what they asked him:

Panelist: Do you have a girlfriend?
Guy: No, sir..
Panelist: I don't wonder why, since you don't let the girls talk!!

LOL!! That guy was a not so happy!! Anyway, I was next..so in I went..

The three men asked me to sit down..let me describe them..one was a complete rock-star..he has long hair..wasn't young..but looked like the kinds who loves to have fun..the second was this man from the industry..pretty jovial and kind looking..typical bengali dude..and the third loked a lil strict..

I was asked about my work, and then my career goals..the man from the industry asked me whether I would be able to balance my home and my career..I started to asnwer..but I was interrupted by the Rock-Star dude(henceforth referred to as RS)..below is an extract from the conversation:

RS: Hey, I have noticed that you only ask the girls this question, huh? Why is that man?
Ind-guy(IG): No no, nothing like that..
RS: The previous girl also you asked the same question! And you don't ask the any of the boys this question! Why the bias?
IG: It's like this, I have seen a lot of divorces happening in my company because of women being so career oriented that they do not have enuff time for their families..tat is y..

N so on it went..those guys were chatting with each other bindaas..

The third guy, who looked a lil strict was asking me lotsa techie questions, some of which I could not answer..I would have been able to, had I given it some more thought..but I suppose, I got a lil flustered..

But one of the questions he asked me, got the RS guy to tell him:

RS: Hey, what man, you asking her such questions! How will she know? This was way before her time!! She's too young to know this!! LOL!!

They asked me a lot of general knowledge questions, some of which I could answer and some I could not..they were basically very conversational..they enquired about how I was planning to get back to Pune..how I was planning to fund my MBA..what my CAT score was..etc..

The conversation was just flowing..there was no structure..and I was getting the feeling that something was not quite right, as in, that they were just pulling my leg by being so friendly!! :)

Anyway..so it ended..I did not know what to think..Aldo,they had been very nice..I did not have the feeling that I had done well..There were just a couple of questions that I had answered to my satisfaction, the remaining were, frankly speaking, not upto the mark..for example, when they asked me about the first Nobel Laureate from India, all I could think of was Sir C.V Raman..the answer was Rabindranath Tagore and then they went on to ask me about how many Indians had won the Nobel prize, and Amartya Sen did not come to mind!! There were some more of these things..so all in all, I was not 'firing on all cylinders' that day!!

The day had been quite a series of ups and down..I lived quite a lot in that one day..and like life..it was not all good but one hell of an experience!! :D

P.S: I did not make it to C..probably because of my GD, or the interview, or the fact that my Quant percentile was some 92.xx and I have heard that is less as far as C is concerned..it probably was a combination of all of these..

Let us continue!!

After Lucknow, it was IIM C...it was on the 13th of March..aldo, I am not superstitous by nature, I do not like the number 13 too much:) Still, that I suppose, was the last thing on mind that day!

The interview was again at 2..at DCC (Dadar Catering College)..I followed my usual routine of waking up at 8, reading newspaper, getting together documents, forms, etc..

I reached the place well in time..and met a few people I knew..

Was called in for the GD..and lo and behold ;) There were 11 people in my group which included three girls..now 11 people is not such a good idea..

N I was a teeny bit nervous coz it was Calcutta!

There were three people on the Panel..two professors and one from the Industry..they came and called out our names..then gave us the GD topic..

It was..'Only the tax-paying population of the country should be allowed to vote'..I quickly jotted down some points..and waited for them to throw the GD open..

I usually do not compose what I will say or how I will say it..I just sort of make a general list of points and then decide to play it by ear..can't say it's the best possible tactic..a lot of people who compose some sort of a cracker opening statement or something will obviously have an edge..but somehow, I can never think of a 'cracker' opening statement! I always bank on good soft skills..a fair amount of knowledge..sans the facts and figures (I have always been terrible at remembering the exact numbers)..and listening skills..

So I was sitting there and waiting for the GD to start, thinking, yeah, it will be cool, we will have a nice discussion, like all the other GDs I have been in..I couldn't have been more wrong!!

The guy signalled for us to start and immediately to my left..the girl sitting shot forth with her opening..she had a nice loud voice..the kind that carries..and she was sounding like she was not gonna take any kinda interruption too well..and she verily demonstrated that..none of the guys could also cut her in..she was just too good, for the time that she spoke..which was not all that much..but I knew she had made a good impression..

The other guys caught on..they jumped into the fray with equal energy..loud voices..vehement opinions..frenzied gestures..et al..

Poor old me just kept trying to break into the GD..but evertime I would open my mouth..someone would start speaking..in the beginning..I refrained from cutting in..as is my policy..which I have already mentioned earlier..after a while, it dawned on me, beta..abhi nahi bola, toh kabhi nahi bol paoge..yeh log aasaani se chupp nahi hone waale :) So I tried to cut in..I tried some 5 times..could manage to cut in some couple of times :D

It was as close to the proverbial 'fish-market' as it could have got ;)

The third girl was extremely soft spoken..she realized very early that she is not going to get a chance to break in, she had probably faced a similar situation before..so she, instead, did a very smart thing..she noted down everything..coz people who do not speak much are usually asked to summarize!

Well, we were all asked to summarize, but it was in ascending order of peoples' talking-time..so she was the first one to be asked to speak..I was the second :) I do not even remember what I reeled off..I should have planned it out better..should have given that thought instead of sitting and getting agitated about not being able to get enough air-time :)

So you see, the GD sucked! :)

But hold your horses, there was more to come!

After the GD got over, we all trooped out and sat and spoke with each other, discussing it and stuff..the interviews started..a couple of people came out and told us that the panel was extremely chilled out and that they were almost conversing with the candidates..

I realized that my turn would come a lot later since I was the 'last but one' person, out of a group of eleven..and that would mean waiting till around 6 o clock..

At around 3:30, I happened to glance at the form of one of the people sitting there and a shiver went down my spine..I saw it stamped..I inquired..did we have to get the form attested? Turns out we did!

O my god!! I had an interview in some time and my form, which was supposed to be attested and stamped by a 'gazetted' officer, was nowhere near being that!

Where would I find a gazetted officer (G.O) at such short notice?

I debated for approximately 10 seconds about whether to come clean in front of the panelists, but then decided against it..already my GD hadnt gone well..I didn't need them to know what a grade 'A' ass I was too! :)

I decided to dig out some G.O from somewhere..there had to be one in Dadar!!

I thanked my lucky starts that my interview was so late and ran out of DCC..I went to one of the nearest paan shops and asked a customer standing there, whether he knew of a G.O somewhere in the locality..he told me about the BMC ward office..

Gleam of hope!! It also struck me that my Junior College - Ruparel was some little distance away and if nothing else worked, I would try getting it signed by my college principal (aldo I had never met him/her in my entire life, did not even know where he/she sat, or whether he would be around that day..but it was an alternative)..

I caught a cab (the situation reminds me of Taxi no 11, coz it was a race against time that I was running and the cab played a pretty important part :D)..so I caught the cab and asked him to take me to the ward office..once I reached there, I went in and inquired from some people about a G.O, any G.O! They told me that there wldnt be any G.Os there and I could perhaps try in some other office nearby..I nevertheless, asked a couple more officers and they told me the same thing..so I took off for the other Samiti office..I don't remember what its name was..but it was on the ground floor of the same building..

So there I went..the lady I asked directed me to another man in the same office..I went flying to that man's cubicle and I was told that he would not be coming in that day! I related my predicament to some people outside his cube and one of the ladies told me to try at the office of the Janshakti Congress Samiti (or something similar) along the road!! She even gave me the name of the G.O there..

I ran out and asked my cabbie to take me a lil further..I jumped out of the cab when I located the office and went in..there was this room where a man was sitting playing with a cat..I asked him about the G.O that the woman had told me about..he turned out to be very helpful..he told me to sit down and calmly informed me that the man in demand had gone home to have lunch!!

O man!! How many more hurdles!! :) On being asked when he would be back, this guy told me that I could go to his house and get my stuff attested!! He lived nearby, apparently! He gave me his home number and I called him up..he asked me to tapko at his house..

So I gathered some seals and left, after taking directions of course..me and my cabbie found the place..I found his apartment and rang the bell..this woman opened..the man in question made an appearance..he was extremely helpful..he took some 10 minutes though getting his pens and seals ready..and I was getting very impatient..but finally, it got done..

I had the all-important ATTESTED interview form with me..I thanked him profusely..he was very nice about it..and left!

To the cabbie: 'Back to DCC!!' :D

I reached back and I cldnt help feeling that I had handled it pretty well:) It was just around 4:30 and I still had some four people to go before me..moreover, I was extremely happy and grateful to all the people who had helped me get it done..

So there I was, outside the interview room, exhausted but very happy, adrenaline rush can do wonders sometimes..

to be contd..

THE SUSH AURA

There is something about Sushmita Sen that I really like.

Everytime I come across any of her interviews, I am struck by how well that woman talks! She projects such a 'strong-woman' aura that I am, frankly, very inspired at the end of all my encounters with her..

She lives her life the way she wants to..with supreme confidence and fearlessness..and that is the most desirable quality a woman, or anyone for that matter, can ever have..

Kudos to her..

HIGHWAY TO HELL!!

We are all in the grip of this whole reservations thing..I recently read an interview that Arjun Singh had with Karan Thapar..and it makes my blood boil.

This guy A.S knows absolutely nothing..he is unaware or so he pretends, of some very basic information, that as HRD Minister, should have been at his fingertips..for example, he does not know the percentage of OBCs in our population..and the worst thing is that he does not care..the one line that he keeps throwing is 'The Parliament is infallible'!

He has no idea what reforms, measures are going to be taken to ensure that the general population does not suffer, all he says is 'There are ways, which are being examined..I am not free to talk about them'!

It is an absolute farce..we all know that India, progress, reforms are the last things on his mind..all the greedy old buzzard wants is power, money and looks like he is going to get away with it..

Even after all the protesting that we did..such a wave of sentiment against this policy..these people get away with it.

He categorically denies that there is any logic in ensuring that the people who have got reservations once, don't pass it on to their children..he out-n-out rejects all the figures that are presented to him..his excuse 'The kind of figures that have been brought out, in my perception, do not reflect the realities. Realities are something much more'..

Makes me think, are we a nation of impotent people?

Before I move on to my next tryst, on Public Demand, here is a brief account of my preparation for the interviews:

I will start from when I came to know that I had calls..

I started attending those IMS workshops..there was this person called Raj Iyer there, most of the IMS students will know him..he is an IIM C alumnus and has done a lot of stuff..service, entreprenuership and is currently into counselling B-school aspirants..I am sure there are other things he does/has done that I don't know about..btw, this is not an advertisement for IMS!! :)

So this man along with some other staff, plus the workshop that I have talked about earlier, gave us some fundas about GDs and PIs..very basic stuff..but stuff that was important..

More importantly, these sessions gave us a lot of interaction and hands-on experience of being in GDs and with people that you didn't know..the group was different for every GD, and so, was excellent practice!

As far as reading up goes, I have always been aware of current affairs..I do not think being aware of each and every detail about every bit of news is what is important. Also it is not important to have knowledge like 'GDPs of every country in Asia' or the 'Length, breadth, population, staple diet etc' of every country in India..you get the drift..all this is data, not information, and definitely not knowledge! All this information can be brought to you at the click of a mouse, why do you need managers for it!! :D (Some people are of the opinion, that managers, as they exist today, are wholly unnecessary..but let's hold that for now)!

What one does need is the ability to form opinions about most things that are going on..the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff..N we all know, considering all the news channels that are 'a dime a dozen', that there is A LOT of chaff!!

So I did some intelligent reading up, magazines like Business World, India Today, The Week, The Economic Times, etc..anything of interest that I could find basically..I also did a lot of reading up Online..

A couple of workshops I attended cleared out my fundas of Finance, the Budget (not that I am a pundit now, far from it, but it got me started)..so I then followed up on that..took an interest in the Budget for the first time ever..learnt to actually think and read up on and about stuff like the 'nucleur deal', how it will help us (btw, I think this nucleur deal is just a whole lot of hog-wash..we have better sources of alternative energy, more financially viable and less dangerous, also more freely available..some people are of the same opinion..ull can read up on stuff like the benefits of nucleur energy etc online..an eye-opener')!

I did a lot of introspection..in fact, there was no other choice I had, considering that the forms had such disgusting questions:) Forced me to think about myself with a vengeance like never before!

Engineering subjects! Yeah, I was really apprehensive about this one, I didn't remember anything from those days..me decided to pick up a few subjects, some that I liked and might be asked about, some of my core subjects, etc and do some minimal brushing up..

So I picked up the TVV (Television and Video) textbook (Gulati for all those who earned their stripes as telecom engineers too)..and read the first chapter..I was satisfied with that much..aldo in the interview, they might ask me some stuff that even Gulati might have a tuff time answering;)..I was satisfied that I knew some basic stuff about the subject..they cannot expect me to know more than that after two years after it's been mugged and regurgitated;)

I read a lil bit of OFC..again first chapter and that's where it stopped because I could not locate any other books:) I went through my Final Year project though, such as it was!

So that was it, my preparation for the GDs and PIs..all in all, I can safely say that those were good times!

Time we got on with the interviews..At this rate, I will never finish and my audience (such as it is) will be deprived of my pearls of wisdom ;)

Stop #3: Lucknow!

This was on the 11th of March..again at Dadar Catering College. I arrived there nice and early for the 2 o' clock thing..I met a girl I knew from IMS..it was her first interview, she was kinda nervous..I was as cool as ever..LOL!

There was this other dame from Tata Motors who upon learning that I was working in Infy, proclaimed that the reason so many Infy people get calls is because Infy dsnt give enuff work to us!:) I beg to differ..I think its simple mathematics..there are more of us of this age-group in Infy than other companies..so it stands to reason that more of us get calls..see, simple! :)

I was actually quite relaxed for this interview, it was the afternoon, I had woken up at a comfortable time and read all the newspapers possible and still had lots of time left to just chill..

So anyway, we were called in for the GD..we had some 8-9 people in our group..the panel consisted of one man and one stern-looking woman!

They asked us to first write an essay on the GD topic and then discuss it..sheets were given to us..the topic was 'Peace and Harmony cannot exist without the threat of violence'! Wow! Never really given that any thought!

It took me five seconds to decide which side of the arguement to be on..some stuff like 'No good without evil..they are two sides of the same coin..' etc floated into my head..I got down to write..

The discussion turned out to be great..so many points of view came up! Threat of violence in the context of national harmony, communal tensions, international relations..people brought up instances from history..the world wars, the subsequent cold war..most of us seemed to agree with the fact that 'Peace and harmony could not exist without the threat of non-violence'..there were a few who were trying to argue otherwise..the discussion did get a little loud at some points, but there was this guy who had this extremely pleasant and conciliatory attitude..he always somehow managed to soothen some of the tempers which got a bit ruffled with his sound points and friendly attitude..

My contribution to the GD was strictly ok..I delivered well, my tone was good, people were agreeing with me, I was listening and building up..but I felt that I sorely lacked content..I did not come up with too many innovative interesting points of view:) The 'body language and soft skills' part of it was bang-on..

Anyway..later outide we got talking..the girl from TM and the friendly guy..it turned out the FG had already had a year at Symbi and was looking for a change, we were discussing his answer to the inevitable question 'Why do u want to change'..and he said that aldo the placements at Symbi were excellent, the teaching was not upto the mark and he needed more..good fun, meeting such people..

I was called in for the interview - third methinks..the lady looked extremely strict! I sat down..the man asked me some stuff abt my work..the lady asked me something about the different delivery mechanisms of communication:) I was like on fire! I spoke at length about the different ways in which signals can be communicated and she then asked me about the advs/disadvs..Ha!! I bombarded her with information about signal strength and power and repeatability and bandwidth and what-not..it was pretty clear that she was not following all of it..but it seemd to have taken the wind outta her sails for some time:)

But she had an ace up her sleeve..she told me 'Yes, you know the technology, now tell us about a way in which you will use this technology to change the lives of people, say, the people in the villages of India'! I thought for a second, some recent article I had read swam into my mind..and I started talking about how broadband should be taken to the villages..how teachers should make use of the Internet, how the kids should be taught to use it and how it would also help the craftsmen, the farmers and the labourers, blah blah..she cut me short there with

She: 'Have you ever been to a village?'
Me: 'Not really, but I have been to places almost like..'
Cut short again..
She: 'Do you even know how they live? They do not have water, food, etc..and you say that setting up a computer in each village is going to solve all their problems?'
Me: 'Err..yeah, ur right..'
She: 'Come up with a plan, using your technology, how will you change the lives of these people?'
Me: 'Can I take some time to think?'
She: 'Sure, take as much time as you want.'

I thought very hard for some 10 seconds..then slowly an idea started to form itself..

I started to speak about setting up a system in which the villagers could take their grievances to a body of people who would be responsible for a group of villages, the villagers would contact them for whatever problems they might have, a road, a school, new teachers, more wells, or to provide feedback..basically, to get the whole country wired in this manner so that every village has some accountable body to go to..and their finances, the administration, the communication between them, could all be managed by technology..

Now when I think back, my answer was not extremely revolutionary or anything..but it seemed to go down well..the lady relaxed visibily..from a tigress all out to devour me, she became this cute kittenish thing ;) LOL!

The man, who looked extremely good-natured, told me that such a system had been tried out in Andhra P and had probably succeeded..they both seemed happy with me!! They asked me some other chindi questions which I answered to my satisfaction..

After that, the lady asked me to name the first Prez of India..methinks she didnt expect me to know..coz she looked like she was at a loss for words when I answered correctly!! Then she went on to ask me to name all the presidents of India in the correct order! I did not know..N frankly speaking, I had a feeling that I was already through and they were looking for some closure..

Aside: I strongly believe that an interview never gets over until and unless the interviewee says: 'I DO NOT KNOW'! LOL!!

Thus ended my third interview..I was very happy with this one..I knew somehow that I would get through and I did..

I have always been good at academics..have done moderately well at vivas..but all of that is no big deal..anybody who studies and is moderately intelligent can do it..but these interviews have taught me much more than that..the fact that I can handle questions - answers to which I have never thought of before..that I can keep a cool head and make some sense has instilled a lot of confidence..

I am sure there are many out there who have this kinda confidence already, they have it through their daily interactions with people and with superiors and stuff..not me, my learning curve has been vertical as far as these interviews are concerned :)

Let's do a bit of a flashback today..recently saw Kill Bill 2, so am in some sort of a 'Quentin Tarantino-ish' mood;) Aldo, talking about myself in the same breath as him is almost blasphemous..if his movies are anything to go by, the guy's a friggin' genious!!

So, we zoom past the last few months, to the time that the CAT results had just come out..IMS announced some workshop in Mumbai..two days, from sunrise to after sunset..rigorous rounds of GDs and PIs..

There was junta there from all over the West-Zone..MBA aspirants crawling all over Wellingkar's like ants! :) Must have been close to 400 people!

Well, the first day was all GDs, the second some seminars and a couple of PIs..the GDs were to be of different types..Factual, Abstract, Controversial and Case Study!

We all know what Factual and Controversial is, a lil bit of gyaan about the other two-

Abstract - Here, the sky is the limit! You can be asked to discuss anything on earth..most of the times they give you an extremely esoteric sounding statement and throw the GD open..

Some examples:
# Pink pajamas at the Red Fort!
# Golden boys and girls, like chimney sweepers must eventually come to dust..
# . - yeah, tats right! A Dot, fullstop, purnaviraam..now discuss that!
# Which first - Chicken or egg?

So, you see, this sort of a GD usually had people racking their brains to come up with the craziest stuff..stretch your imagination to its break-point and somehow connect the most abstract thing to stuff like 'India's ecomony, GDP growth, China, Nucluer power, fuel' etc! No kidding!! People used to come up with these fundoo comparisions!

Case Study - Here they give us a situation. .Could be related to business, ethics, relationships, whatever..but the main characters are in the throes of some major dilemmas! They have to make some difficult choices or think of a way to extricate themselves from whatever jam they have landed in..be it, a CEO of an organisation and his employees shirking work, or a doctor who has to make a choice bteween his career and ethics! Can turn out to be miniature masala potboilers at times;)

I was given terrible feedback for three out of four of those GDs..

GD # 1 - I had this 'altercation' with some guy..he wasnt letting me talk..almost told him to shut it:) Then the whole thing went into this huge mess..I started laughing coz I just cldnt understand why people were in such a hurry to talk!
Feedback - 'Had I been on the panel, I would have asked Shreya to leave immediately'..btw, the 'Panel' were these IIM students who had taken out the time to come and criticize us..they were doing a pretty good job too, methinks;)

GD # 2 - This was controversial - in the feedback, I was told that I should learn to listen to the other people, to quote - 'from your attitude, it seemed like you were treating the others just as mannequins, try to listen to them and remember they are people too!' Gawd!! Wat-ever!

GD # 3 - Abstract - I was told that nothing I had said had made any sort of impression on them. The panel could, in fact, while giving their feedback, not recall anything that I had said!! There goes my 'Love me, hate me, but can't ignore me' excuse out of the window! LOL!

GD # 4 - The Case Study - Here I was in my element;) I did it all right. The thing was ur typical 'fish-market', but I managed to get my stuff across and finally this - something that shone out like a beacon over the muck that the day had been - 'If I had to choose one person from this group, it would be the lady there'! :) No prizes for guessing who the 'lady' was! :)

The second day was even worse!

We were asked to fill up a couple of forms..stuff like strengths and weaknesses, career goals, etc, ur regular pre-interview form..based on these forms, the panelists would conduct a mock-PI for us..these forms were to be filled up by us in all sincerity and taken to the Interviews! Me, being the smart-ass that I always aim to be, treated the form like some piece of shit..I filled them lying in bed at 1 o' clock at night (to be fair, inevitable circumstances had led to me being extremely tired and not in the mood to fill out forms)..so I did a very lousy job..my thinking was that they (the panelists) would discuss the form with us, like IMS staff usually do, and not model the whole thing on a real PI, down to the whole stress-test thing! My mistake, it was supposed to be a MOCK-PI!!

So, you can guess that my interviews sucked! They tore me apart, both times, I was told that I was arrogant and did not listen and my answers on the form were not very convincing..and all this was coming from my badly filled out forms. .It seems they had formed an unfavorable opinion of me by just glancing at the forms..and I cannot blame them..some of my sentences were not even complete!

So, all in all, I had a terrible time! And I must have been one of the few people to have had it so rough, as mostly everybody else came out with decent feedbacks..

But at the end of it all, I knew 'What not to do' ;)

That is when I did some more introspection and realized that there was no point in trying too hard at the GDs..just listen and follow the flow of the conversation..as for PIs..the golden rule here would be - FILL up the damn sodding form well..like your life depended on it!

So let's continue..

Stop # 2: SP Jain

This was one of the most exhaustive interviews I had..The pressure was comparitively less, so I kind of really enjoyed the first stage..yeah, there were two stages of interviews..

Let me begin at the beginning..

It was a warm sunny day on the 25th of February:) I reached SPJ at around 7:45 in the morning, the process was supposed to start at 8..We were made to sit in an auditorium.. and as people trickled in, the audi got packed..I knew a lot of people here too..met an old JC friend..these interviews turned out to be proper 'adda' spots man!

One interesting thing about the composition of people here: There were quite a few non-engineers..of course, engineers were in the majority, but there were more non-engineers here than I have heard of, or met at other interviews..

There is this thing about SPJ, I have it from reliable sources that most things are student-managed..so you would be managing the finances of the institute, or be a part of the administration, or helping out with the recruitment, depending on whatever your interests might be..

So we had these three-four students managing stuff like getting you to register, calling out your names for the interviews, announcing whether you got through the first round or not..escorting you to the interview panels even!

But since there were so many of us, the entire registration process took quite some time, and even after that one did not know when one would be called in for the interview..One thing I should mention here is that SPJ has 'Group Interviews'..a concept that works out well sometimes, as in, they are not out to butcher just you..aur bhi bakre hain halaal karne ko;) So you can take a breather between two questions..but on the flipside, you have to be assertive and if you have a good point to make (since most of the questions asked are thrown at the group), you have to worry about somebody else putting it across before you do!

My group was called in pretty early..I had seven people in my group..one other Somaiya-ite and one other Infoscion apart from me included! LOL! We were escorted by this guy who told us that our panel was pretty chilled out and we need not get nervous..

So in we went.."Into the jaws of death, rode the.."

Okk, I am done dramatizing..so in we went..our panel had two men..plus the guy who had escorted us in! Yes! The students even sit on the panel at SPJ!

We sat down, did our introductions..

Hey btw, did I happen to mention that the world, especially India had just come out of hibernation the day I had my interview?! By which I mean, that the Railway Budget had come out and three long pending and extremely important court cases had been resolved just the day before! We were busy lapping up the newspapers outside in the audi knowing fully well that Lalu's 'Gareeb Raths' would be the hot topic of discussion!

N we weren't disappointed..the interview lasted for over an hour and all sorts of topics under the sun were discussed..The Railway Budget in great detail..mostly the professor on the panel wanted us to think about why the Railway Budget was creating such a furore, considering that due to cheaper air-fares, the Railways seemed to be going out of style! We spoke about how there was still a huge customer base for the railways..esp to and from places which do not have airports, blah blah..

Then the tone shifted to values, ethics, what is wrong in the world of today, the India of today, corruption, taxes, the role of parents in shaping their children into succesful and ethical people, the role of schools, the BRIC report, how many years it would take for India to achieve what it wants to, the IT sector, qualities a good manager should have.. etcetra..O man, as you can see..it was a very interesting interview!

I was told later on by a fellow 'participant' (Long back when the CAT results had just come out, somebody had compared the entire GD-PI process to a 'Reality Show'!) that I had got super passionate and was extremely assertive during the interview..mind you, he did not say 'aggressive'! :)

Well, my take on the interview (you are your best judge..most of the times, we all know how well or badly we've done..it's only that we do not want to admit it..even to ourselves sometimes)..so my take on this interview was - I had done well..somehow, I managed to get in at all the right times, and the views that I had come out with had seemed to go down pretty well..

We came out and were made to sit for some time before we were told our results..I had got through the first round..the second round was to start after a break of a couple of hours..I went to lunch in a nearby restaurant with some friends I had met there..

The second round started..I was in the first group to be called!! There were 6 people in my group..we were taken to this auditorium and made to sit outside it for sometime..we got acquainted..two non-engineers..the rest all engineers-working..three out of them in Software..

We were called inside then..the audi was this huge dark place..like a movie theatre..hardly any lights were on..the interviewers were sitting in the front row seats..there were some four of them..and a couple of students besides..we were taken to the stage where chairs had been put for us..these chairs were covered with white cloth..and the spotlight was turned on, pointing, you guessed it right, on us..

The reason why I have described this whole thing in such (excrutiating?) detail is because I want the reader to get an idea of the apprehension we were feeling..the whole thing looked like we were being set up for some 'tamaashaa':)

The introductions were again done..we were made to speak a bit about ourselves..I hate this part..I never know what to include..how much to leave out..what aspects to touch upon..I said some stuff about my schooling, college..extremely superficial stuff..some people spoke about their strengths and weaknesses, beliefs..that made me feel that I could have done a much better job..

After that, they started a GD..The topic was ' India's stand on Iran'..It was a good GD..I made good contributions..one of the guys held some very anti-american views..his comments sparked another GD..they asked us to talk about 'America using arm-twisting measures to meet their economic ends'..I was terrible in this GD..I hardly made any contributions! Left a bad taste in my mouth!

Then they started asking individual questions..I was asked just one question..what values has Infosys imparted to you! I started in a somewhat shaky manner..but once I got into the flow..I must have sounded like a Miss Universe contestant..making a huge deal of the values, professional ethics and the importance of customer satisfaction and delight that I have learnt from Infosys! LOL!

They seemed to lose interest in my answer by the time I finished!:) I was extremely disheartened by that..considering that they asked some other people a lot of questions..grilled them no end and received (what seemed to me) satisfactory answers..I was feeling quite miserable at being asked just one question!

Thus ended the second stage also..while walking out from that place..I did not think I would get through..

But I did..

We had been told that the first interview also carried some weightage..it was not just an elimination round..so you see, that must have sailed me through..because the second one was nothing to write home about!

So, here we are, at the end of another interview..

At this point, I was thinking that no matter what happens..I would take a lot back from these interviews..the whole process got me started on a lot of subjects which I had not known much about before..like finance, economy, the budget, how it affects us..it made me think about a lot of aspects about myself that I had not thought about before..and it brought me in contact with a lot of people..brilliant people, people who knew so much more than I knew..

So, I knew that this whole 'Reality Show' would be a great learning experience!