A Tribute to Sam Bahadur

I know some time back I said that this page is just gonna be my personal blog and other stuff (read my take on current affairs etc) would be posted on another blog, but this is personal.

As most of you must have heard by now Field Marshal Sam J. Manekshaw is no more in this world. At 94 years of age, this isnt really shocking but what does surprise me is how can someone so energetic, so enthusiastic or so full of verve ever lie still as he is today. If you have ever listened to any of his interviews or speeches you would know what I am talking about.

Even though every news channel would be alive with these reports today but let me tell you some instances which define Sam Maneckshaw for me.

I can never forget a speech he delivered at the passing out parade of the IMA a few years back. He was in his late eighties back then, and the way he delivered his address, it was simply out of this world. He told those officers Don’t ever loose a war because when you come back home after loosing a war even your wife wouldn’t respect you.

He had a lot of respect and admiration for the bravery of Gorkha soldiers as immortalised in this quote of his

"If a man ever tells you that he is not afraid of dying, then either he is lying or he is a Gurkha."

Another incident which Sam Bahadur loved to recall was how Yahya Khan the dictator of Pakistan had cheated him. It so happened that Yahya Khan bought Sam's motorcycle two days before independence for Rs. 1000 and promised to send the money from Pakistan later, which he never did. Sam Bahadur loved to joke that he took Bangladesh away from Pakistan in return of that money.

He was conferred the title of Field Marshal in return for his services to the army and the nation. Today India has lost a jewel in its crown, one of its bravest sons.

Rest in Peace, Sam Bahadur.

Maintenance Blog

Hello everyone,

Sorry to have kept you guys waiting for Life @ VIT posts (is anyone??)

Anyways I am terribly sorry but due to some pressing commitments I am unable to write much at this moment (because of the Pre Session Assignment from FMS).

But this is just a postponement not a cancellation.

I will try to come up with the posts as soon as I can.


Meanwhile just 12 days for the session to start at FMS, so I will try to write about Life @ FMS if possible.

Allah Haafiz.

A New Hope-6 (Why FMS??)

Well this question was put to me a lot of times after all written results were out. Between XLRI, FMS and MDI what was my preference.

And without any hesitation my answer was always the same

XLRI

FMS

MDI

But it all changed the day I went to FMS for my interview. To be honest I don’t know what changed it. It definitely wasn’t the infrastructure, I mean FMS hasn’t got the most attractive of buildings not even close to it.

Probably that was it. That old red building with this quaint feel to it. The whole North Campus area, with KMC directly opposite to FMS. Flanked by Delhi School of Economics on one side and Hansraj on the other. With Hindu and Stephens in the neighbourhood.

I don’t know what exactly happened but sitting on that cane chair outside the interview room I knew this is the place I want to be for the next two years of my life (quite filmy, na!!)

I still went through the routine of asking more learned and experienced people about their advice but I was just looking for reasons to support my choice than anything else.

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Today as I finish this saga of CAT Tales, Life after CAT and A New Hope, I would like to take this opportunity to thank myself on your behalf for the wonderful work that I have done in coming out with this blog. I know you don’t have words to express your gratitude towards me, but its Ok, I understand.

Jokes apart, writing this blog has been a wonderful experience (I am sure reading it wasn’t so wonderful). When I first started writing it I never knew so many people would be reading it (had I known I would have added Adsense).

So this is it. We finally come to the end of my journey to a B-school. For those of you who have been jobless enough to read this ;) , there is more exciting stuff to come. As you must have read in the Teaser there is another series in the pipeline about Life @ VIT.

For those of you who were not there with me read it for an account of fun filled four years (my perspective entirely) and for those who were there read it to find out what kind of light you are being portrayed in .

Adios, Amigos!!!!

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Keep visiting this space to read about Life @ VIT

LIFE @ VIT - Teaser

Why am I writing about life @ VIT??

Is it because I am trying to give some competition to Chetan Bhagat? (highly unlikely!!)

Or is it just that I am cashing in on the recent India Today rankings (VIT was ranked 10th all over India)?

Well to be really honest I don’t know why I am writing this. Probably because I spent four very important years of my life there. Probably because I really enjoyed my time there. Probably I am feeling nostalgic having left the hostel after four years. Or probably I am sitting idle at home and have nothing else to do.

Whatever the reason, here is another series of blog posts : this one dedicated to four of the best years of my life, the amazing people who made it all the more wonderful and my alma mater, VIT.

(subuk subuk , wah kya emotional angle dala hai )

In order to insure myself against the ire of friends and others who will figure in these posts here are a few disclaimers/disclosures/declarations/confessions.

Most of the incidents/conversations/events mentioned in these posts are true up to the best of my knowledge, belief and memory (which to be honest is not great), however my perspective might cloud some of these. In that case there is nothing you can do [:P] except call me names in the comment box (which I am sure many of you would resort to).

This is not going to be a generalized account of how life is like in VIT. Rather it is a very personalized account of my (and my friends') life in VIT. Opinions may vary from person to person.

This is going to be a free flowing series. Chronology will not be a binding factor while recounting events. You might get to read something that happened in the fourth year first and after that something that happened in the first year.

Enough of being diplomatic, want to see some dirty laundry, then this is the place.

Keep logging in !!

A New Hope-5 (XLRI result)

Well after a few days of lazing around at home it was time to go back to the hostel. I had a morning flight from Delhi to Chennai on 26th. So I went to Delhi on 25 and stayed at my uncle's place. As all of us were just sitting and chatting I got a message from Daddu (Jayant), it read

"Bhai XL ka kya hua? Result out!!"

Those with good retaining power will realise that he was the one who told me about the XL written result as well. Infact I noticed this after writing this post.

Well I didn’t feel much anxiety. I just logged on to the internet and opened the XLRI website. As I finally reached the result page, I entered my roll no in a hurry. And then there was this message on the screen.

"Sorry the candidate with this roll number hasn’t qualified".

Before I could feel or react my cousin who was sitting beside me said

"Oh ho bevkoof!!! Itni zaldi kis baat ki hai, ye keyboard kharab hai. Try the num pad."

Then I looked at the screen and realized that a few of the keystrokes had failed to register.

Anyways I entered my roll number again, this time more slowly, carefully and using the Num Pad.

And the screen now read

"Congratulations!! You have secured admission into the BM program 2008-2010 of XLRI"

And that was it. I didn’t feel very different after it. There wasn’t much jubilation or anything. I just called up Daddu (Jayant) to tell him about the result and that was it.

More to come in the next post…..Keep reading…. Fight illiteracy ;)

A New Hope -4 (FMS Result)

Finally the day arrived; 20thMarch 2008. FMS has a history of releasing results the same evening that they have their last interviews. But nobody knew exactly at what time was it going to happen.

By the way I was home at that time. I had decided to spend some time there after the interviews.

I was logged on to Pagalguy where other restless souls like me were trying to get an idea about the results. Anyways rumors kept floating around.

When the result is ready, the list is first put up at FMS noticeboard and then it is put up on the net. After an agonizingly long wait, somebody posted that the result has been put up on the FMS notice board. That was the time when I felt the most helpless in my life. I knew the results had been announced but there was no way I could know my result at least for the next ten minutes.

And then somebody posted on Pagalguy that she had got a mail from FMS regarding her selection. At that time I felt it was all over, I had not got a mail so that was it. And then my internet connection got disconnected ( I am not making it up, it really happened). The next 30-45 seconds before I reconnected cant be described in words.

And when I finally did get reconnected, as I was trying to navigate to the latest post on PG, I noticed that I had a new mail in my mailbox. There it was!!! A mail from the FMS Admissions announcing that

"You have been provisionally empanelled for MBA (Full Time) program".

I didn’t knew what it meant but you certainly don’t reject someone with these many words.

And my joy knew no bounds.

I don’t know whether I had felt this happy ever in my life before.

Anyways the next few days went answering congratulatory calls and then I started giving serious thought which college I would ultimately join if I were to get an admit from XLRI.

Of course there was still the chance that XLRI people could spare me all this brainstorming by rejecting me!!!

Read Why FMS in the upcoming posts.

A New Hope -3 (FMS Interview)

I reached FMS pretty early, infact the people there were also running a bit late. Anyways met a guy from Time Chennai GD preparation classes. Finally after a wait of about one and a half hour we were called for our GD.

When we entered the Interview/Discussion room there were three professors in the panel. One was the Dean himself Prof. J.K. Mitra. After we took our places he congratulated us for having cleared the written part of the exam. Then he gave a brief overview of the GD and the Interview process. He also told us about the much dreaded Extempore. After that he asked for a volunteer to pick up a chit for the GD topic. A girl went forward and the topic on the chit was

"Nobody studies for an MBA, everybody studies for a job".

Somebody has a sense of humor!!!!

Something really weird happened in this GD. I didn’t speak for the first 3-4 minutes. I don’t know why, probably because I just wanted to see how the group would act, or I wasn’t sure what I wanted to talk about. Anyways when I did speak I tried to present a new angle to the topic (doesn’t everybody).

Here I must add that the discussion was quite civilized, probably the topic had a lot to do with it. Everybody allowed everybody else to speak and present their points in a peaceful manner. Infact there was this 3-4 seconds pause during the discussion (trust me, 4 seconds in the middle of a discussion is very long time)

Anyways after some time a female prof announced that we had one more minute left to discuss.

That was when everybody started to speak at once. It would have been better to stay out of that conundrum, but then some point came to my mind and I interrupted another participant (with proper courtesy) and made my point.

And then we were told to wait outside while we were called for the interviews one by one. This time I was the third last person to be called for the interview.

Meanwhile, sitting outside the interview hall (it can in no way be called a room) we got to hear how did the people who went in early fared.

A girl who had mentioned about organizing fashion shows in her college in her resume was asked to name two fashion magazines and now for the most shocking part, she couldn’t. While we were joking around I told her even I could name 2 fashion magazines :- Vogue and Maxim. When I mentioned Maxim the girl sitting next to me rolled her eyes and said "Maxim is not a fashion magazine". Time for a sheepish smile.

Another interviewee was asked to speak on "White Buffalo" for a minute for her extempore.

Finally the seventh guy went in for his interview (I was eighth) and that’s when I started feeling tensed. To be honest I had not felt tense in any of my interviews before. Infact I was surprised during my XL interview that I was so cool. Again MDI was a stress interview but I didn’t feel it. But here in FMS I was feeling tense even before the interview had started (it cant be good!!!)

Now the guy before me came out and as I was standing there and waiting for the bell to ring (so that I could go in) I thought this was the worst kind of torture anybody could be subjected to!!

The bell rang and I entered the interview hall. The interview hall had this long table behind which sat the Dean and this female professor. I will refer to the dean as P1 and the female professor as P2.

Once I had taken my seat, the interview started.

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P1 : so were u here last year??

M : no sir I am a fresher

P1 :I see , you are a fresher

P1 : so u r from VIT, anybody else from VIT here??

M : I am not sure Sir, but somebody told me there was a guy from our college here some time back, but he must have graduated by now.

P1 : ok, ur extempore topic is "sole of shoe"

M: (gulp) aye aye sir, blabbered something .....when I saw P2 resetting the stop clock I stopped

P1 goes through my profile and says Oh u have won prizes in extempore, we should have given u a more difficult topic

I just smiled. (kahe mazaak uda rahe ho sir, waise hi kuch khas nahi bola)

anyways at this point a third prof(P3) enters and takes his place

p1: so dont u have a hobby or something??(what made him say that)

m: I do sir, defence aviation, quizzing and …….

P3 : ok amit, so what is Comanche?

M : (aila plane, yehi to apun ko aata hai).....told him its an attack chopper and on and on and on.

P3 : what is special about comanche

M : launched into my answer...after some seconds thought I should stop....took a pause since nobody

interrupted listed some more.....told him about inverted flying…

P3 : ok what about a plane which flies very fast and very high and stealthy too?

M : (i am loving it, bata dia...thodi extra info bhi daal di …) told him that probably he was talking about SR-71.

P1 : what about f-16?

M : (bahut bhadiya hai sir....aur thoda bola....) explained basic characteristics

P1 : what about its stealth characterisitcs?

M : (nah sir, woh thoda alag hai) Told him it wasn’t designed with stealth in mind.

P1 : ok, which sector would u like to go to after mba?

M : defence aviation, sir

P1 : Which company in particular??

M : lockheed martin, sir(jo muh me aaya bol diya, whats wrong with me!!)

P1 : ok, does it come to the campus , I dont think so!!

M : (abhi nahi aati to kya hua, mai hoonga to aa jayegi , gave gyaan about opening up of defence scene in india)

P2 :- ok, do u track financial markets??

M : (thoda bahut)little bit

P2 : where did the sensex close yesterday?

M : around 15400, (pause for a moment) 15357 to be precise (this again was in feb, tab se dekho kaha pahuch gaya hai sensex, India Shining!!!)

p2: nice but it was 15387

time for a sheepish smile

p1:thank u, u can go now

m: jaisi aapki aagya

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Ok, now my take on the interview. Obviously my first reaction after the interview was that I had done ok. Not very good, but not bad either. There were questions on fighter aircrafts which I could answer confidently and accurately and could also show off my immense gyaan in the field ;-)

But I wasn’t very happy with my performance in the Extempore. I had not stopped midway or something but I could have put better content (20/20 hindsight).

Anyways that was it, all my three interviews were now done and all I could do now was just wait for the results (besides visiting temples and praying).

Read about the results in the next few posts (you actually know about them, but jab itna jhela to do aur padhne me kya chala jayega!!!)

I have been asked this question zillion times before. And every time someone did I had an answer which I just rewound and played.

Read it as I repeat it for the last time, Why FMS over XLRI?? In the following posts….

The Terrorist

Hi ALL,

This is a short story which I wrote some time back. Just read this and if you have any comments please feel free to write them. So here goes the story

He woke up all drenched in sweat and his first reaction was to look around him in order to find out where he was. A quick glance around, and he knew exactly where he was and most importantly why. The nightmares seemed to be coming back. A few months back he was happy for the fact that the nightmares were no longer haunting him. He felt as if he had overcome his grief. But why all these nightmares today, when he was to accomplish his most important mission, till date.

He looked to his left and saw Mushtaak guarding his position. After all this was what they had been trained for, this was what they had yearned all their “enlightened” lives for. The commander’s orders were short and precise. They were supposed to “set” the road only after the last vehicle to ply on that road had left and that was at 11:30 the previous night. Now it was close to 4 in the morning and there were still 3 hours between them and their mission. Since sleep was now the last thing that he could do Kamraan’s mind raced back to recapture the events of the last week.

A week back, he like all his brethren was living in the “safe house” in Anantnag waiting for further instructions from the commander. When he woke up that fateful morning he found unusual activity in the house. He caught up with Mushtaak and asked him the reason for that activity in the house. Mushtaak had been his only friend despite the startling dissimilarities in their ages. While Kamraan was 39 Mushtaak was only 25. They had been together for the better part of the last 24 months whether that be during the orientation camp in Muzaffarabad in Azaad Kashmir or the time spent in the training camp on the outskirts of the city. Mushtaak told him that though he did not know much but from what he could gather it seemed that some important assignment was coming up and people from Azaad Kashmir will be visiting the commander soon to discuss the details.

They arrived at around 3 that afternoon. There were three of them and from the deference with which the commander treated them, Kamraan could make out that they were important people and something big was going to happen soon, yes soon. No pleasantries were exchanged, only firm handshakes. Once the refreshments had been served, the commander escorted them to one of the inner rooms of the house and locked the room from inside and only opened once in the next two hours when the commander called out the names of Kamraan and Mushtaak and instructed them to enter the room and closed it behind them.

He introduced the three gentlemen to Kamraan and Mushtaak who only nodded their heads and no attempt was made by neither the commander nor the three men to introduce them to Kamraan and Mushtaak. The commander did most of the talking while the three men listened casually. The commander informed Kamraan and Mushtaak that the most important moment of their lives has arrived, the one they had received all their training for. The freedom movement had suffered a few setbacks during the past months ever since the new IG of police had taken charge. But they would bounce back, as the will of the people could not be curbed for long, the commander informed them. The IG would have to pay the price for standing in the way of their independence, the commander told them. And God willing they would succeed. By this time Kamraan was thinking why the commander was telling him all this and what did he have to do with all this. As if reading his mind the commander said that it had been decided by the higher ups that the IG had to be killed and he had been asked to assign two of his top men for the job, and he had chosen him and Mushtaak for the job. The news hit Kamraan like a bullet, though he had never been hit by a real one at least till now. Mushtaak was elated and bent down to kiss the hand of the commander and Kamraan had no choice, but to follow suit. For the remaining part of their meeting the commander talked about the plan and said that he and Mushtaak would immediately start keeping an eye on the IG’s home and would study his security detail and would look for some loopholes in it.

It was 4 in the evening and two days after the little briefing by the commander that he saw her and could not move for the next few minutes. She had the most beautiful face that God could create for a human being . In fact it was a crime to compare her with humans, Kamraan thought, she was an angel. If Kashmir was the paradise on earth she was its angel. There she was all of 11 or 12 years, being wheeled around in her wheelchair around the garden by her father, IG Vishesh Sharma.

It was from that night onward that the nightmares came back. Those of the mosque burning and that of a little girl engulfed by flames and shouting “Help me Abbu Help me”. Then there were two other women besides her and one of them said to her“Don’t worry Alina your Abbu will surely come to save us”. And then two monsters came dressed up in combat uniforms and took all three of them away while he kept watching from his cage with his hands and legs chained and all that he could do was to cry and plead with those monsters but they would not listen and took them away. His whole family, his mother, his wife Rukhsana and his daughter of 10, Alina.

The day had been Eid and they were getting ready to go to the mosque to offer prayers. All of them were dressed in their best clothes, his mother, his wife, he himself but the thunder was stolen by his daughter Alina looking gorgeous and graceful in her white dress which he had bought as a present for her. Just as they were about to reach the mosque Kamraan recalled that he had forgot to bring his purse and had no money and since they had plans to go shopping after the prayer and there was still time left for the prayer to start he decided to rush back home and get the purse. He told his family to go inside the mosque but little Alina asked “Abbu can I come with you I feel scared without you” at which he laughed and replied “ You are a strong girl, Alina and who will take care of your Ammi and grandma if you leave them” Reluctantly Alina agreed to stay back. He was leaving his home after taking his purse that he first heard the sound of blast and the firing that followed it. People in some other part of the world often confuse the sound of bomb blast with that of crackers and that of bullets being fired with bursting of tyres, but not here in Kashmir, here people knew when a bomb exploded or a bullet was fired. So, on hearing the explosion he rushed to the mosque but could not reach there as he was stopped midway by the security forces who had cordoned off the area. He was helpless he was watching the mosque burn in front of him, his entire family inside it and he could not do anything. To his dismay the security people were the least bit interested in the safety of the people trapped inside the mosque and were more concerned about finding the terrorists and ensuring the safety of their own injured people.

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The house of IG, Vishesh Sharma was one of the most secure places in the entire valley. It was almost a fortress, Kamraan told the commander, whose security could not be breached. So there was no way of killing the IG inside his house. It had to be done outside. Almost all of it was true but what Kamraan didn’t tell the commander was the fact that he was not willing to kill the IG inside for the fear of harming his daughter who reminded him of Alina. So it was decided to lay a trap for the IG when he left his home on Saturday to inspect the nearby towns and villages. It was decided that an IED would be fixed on the road and as soon as the IG’s car reached it would be detonated and that would be the end of IG Vishesh Sharma. Since Mushtaak had received training in setting up IED’s he was assigned the task of laying the explosive. It was imperative to identify the vehicle in which the IG was travelling and in order to make sure that no mistake was made in this regard the commander assigned the task of triggering the explosive to Kamraan. He was supposed to identify the vehicle in which the IG was traveling on the basis of his surveillance and trigger the explosion which would put an end to the unholy schemes of the IG.

Vishesh Sharma was 45 and was leading a happy and peaceful life with his wife and 12 year old daughter Astha in Bhubaneshwar when he received his transfer orders for Jammu and Kashmir. Initially he was reluctant to go there but had agreed to go there once Astha expressed her willingness to visit Kashmir. Astha was born with a healthy body and mind and was a very cheerful kid and was loved a lot by her parents Vishesh and Gunjan Sharma. It was at the age of eight that Astha while getting off her school bus was run down by the rear wheel of the bus when a truck hit the bus from the back. From then onwards their lives changed completely. Astha was crippled from waist down and was confined to bed and needed someone to move her around in her wheelchair and could not live her life properly after that. But she was a strong willed child and tried her best to make it less traumatic for her parents. On their part her parents tried to make it as comfortable for her as they could and tried to fulfill each and every wish of hers.

“Wake up Kamraan” shouted Mushtaak. “Yes” replied Kamraan. “You better be ready its 6 already and the IG’s cavalcade would be here in about an hour. I have already set up the IED and the trigger is lying there behind that tree under the leaves. We don’t want to blow up this chance do we! Kamraan said” You don’t worry. Allah willing we will succeed”.

Vishesh Sharma was getting ready for his weekly visit to the nearby towns which had become his schedule ever since he had been posted here. As he was putting on his cap and his service revolver Astha came into the room wheeled by the maid servant who was told to leave politely by Astha. Astha said “Dad, where are you going?”. “I am going to the nearby cities for inspection, honey I will be back by evening”, Vishesh replied. “Don’t go, daddy please don’t go”. “Why honey, its important, I have to go but I promise to be back before dinner”. With that he kissed her on the cheek and left the room.

As soon as he saw the IG coming Syed opened the door of the bulletproof car. He saluted the IG and Vishesh entered the car and ordered the driver to start. The cavalcade consisted of a pilot vehicle, two police vans with 10 commandos in each, the IG’s bulletproof ambassador and the rear was brought up by another van in which Syed was sitting along with 4 other constables.

As soon as he saw the cavalcade approaching Yusuf signaled to Kamraan who was sitting behind the tree with the trigger in his hand. He saw the pilot vehicle crossing the point where the IED was set up. Following it were the two police vans and when the ambassador carrying the IG came Kamraan though fully aware that the IG’s car was bulletproof dropped the trigger and started firing indiscriminately at the cavalcade. Other terrorists thinking that the IED had failed to trigger joined Kamraan in firing at the cavalcade. The commandos though a bit taken aback by the sudden firing immediately regrouped and took up positions behind the vehicles and the IG’s car was taken to a safe spot some distance away and was guarded by the team of constables.

Vishesh sat in his car listening to the shots being fired in the background. As much as he wanted to be at the scene of action he knew enough about the security procedures and therefore stayed in the car. About 25 minutes later a commando came to his car to inform him that 4 of the 5 terrorists involved in the attack had been killed and one had escaped the scene and a massive combing operation was underway to locate him.

Vishesh left his car to see the bodies of the terrorists. When he went to the body of the fourth terrorist after seeing the first three, he found something in the palm. When he bent down in order to see what it was he found that it was the photograph of a young girl of about the same age as Astha. He said a silent prayer for the dead terrorist lying in front of him and headed back to home to meet his daughter Astha.

A New Hope-2 (MDI GD and interview)

My MDI interview was on 13th in Bangalore. I left for Bangalore on 12th. As I told a friend of mine earlier, a train journey to Bangalore (from Vellore) should be made criminal. The view is breathtaking. Even though it was my second time, you cant help but get amazed.

Anyways Baldy (Vaidyanathan) helped me find a decent hotel. The interview was at 2.30 the next day. The next day I reached the venue, IIM Bangalore. Sripriya was there as well, but she was in a different panel. First we had the GD.

There were twelve of us in the group. As we were standing around that round table waiting for everyone to take their places, I happened to glance at my side and what do I see!!!! The same Quants teacher (from TIME, the one who was in the same examination hall as me) was here as well. We simply smiled at each other.

A Professor from MDI gave us the rules. Told us not to BS around with the topic and speak only relevant points.

The topic for the GD was "Is India developing or neglecting"?? And I thought there was more to come, but no that was it.

well the GD turned into a fish market what with everybody trying to put in everything that they had read about the budget into the discussion. I didn’t speak a lot. I made some 3 or 4 entries with some points which I thought were valid but on the whole tried to stay clear of the fish market.

After the GD I came out and chatted with others including my Quant teacher at TIME. I was the second last person to be called for the interview and by then I had chatted with almost everybody present there. In fact when there was nobody else around I chatted with an elderly gentleman who was there to accompany his son to the interview.

when I went in there was just one prof (p1) sitting (out of a panel of two)

p1: (started grilling me on points related to my GD)

I had talked about we looking at the wrong indicators for growth. The Sensex though important isnt the right indicator for measuring growth and specially inclusive growth of the country. Even the people at the top level were more concerned with Sensex rather than farmer suicides.

P1: Which ministry is responsible for agriculture?

(I immediately realised that he was going to attack the points I made in the GD, so I tried to take a safe position)

M: Sir, there are more than one, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Fertilizers and Finance Minister is also concerned with certain aspects….

P1: Interrupts and says what did we tell you at the beginning, No Bullshitting us

By God, this one was turning to be a stress interview

P1: Ok, let me start again, What is your name

M: Amit Tyagi, Sir.

P1: Ok, so I asked your name and you just told me your name and no stuff about East India company coming to India and blah blah

This isnt going good

P1: Ok, again Which ministry is primarily responsible for agriculture?

M: Sir, Ministry of Agriculture

P1: Who is the minister

M: Mr. Sharad Pawar

Now he started talking about how Mr. Chidambaram has no say in agricultural affairs and he cant step into anybody else's domain and stuff like that.

After that he started asking questions related to my father's workplace

P1 : who is the present CMD?

M : told

P1 : who was the one before him?

M : right answer again

P1 : ok, who is the head of treasury?

M : (u must be kidding me), I thought even he doesnt know so said I don’t know but it must be the ED

now the second prof(p2) entered

P1 : ok u are interested in defence aviation, tell me names of two aviaton giants??

M : Boeing and Airbus.

P1 : why was one of them in news recently?

M : No Idea

P1 : socho

M : Don’t know sir

P2 : guess karlo

They were trying to stress me here

M : Sir with the rules that we have been told I had rather not. *

This is what u call pairo pe kulhadi marna.

Why cant I keep my ego in check….

P2 : do u want some time

M : that wont help sir because I cant recall

P2 : ok, so what planes were used in second world war

M : Told him Spitfires, Hurricanes, Me 109s, Me 110s.

P2 : there was this incident in 71 war which was very famous, do u recall

M : what incident sir, can u throw more light on it??

P2 : dont remember ok what planes did we use in 71

M : told him Mig 21, Hunters etc etc

All this while p1 trying all stress tricks in the book, slumped in his chair, fanning himself with the file

P2 : what about pakistan?

m: F-86 sabres

P2 said something...wasnt able to get him

P2 : ok what is VTOL

M : Vertical Take Off and Landing, Sir. These type of aircrafts are used for operations on aircraft carriers, like the Harrier jumpjet.

P2 now went to aircraft carriers , discussed a few things about them, question on pearl harbor which I did not know

P2 : so u come from Vellore, what is famous about Vellore

M :Told him that CMC is probably what Vellore is known for and then there is the Golden Temple, and also VIT is getting quite popular these days (cheeky)

P2 : Is it so, I mean do u really think that if I ask anybody up North about VIT and they will know about it??

M : Yes i do, (tabhi to maine bola)

P2 : I have been to Vellore , never heard of this golden temple you are talking about.

M : Its pretty famous sir, you might have missed it since it is relatively new.

I had mentioned public speaking activities in extra curriculars.

P2 said something about declamation and posture

and then it was over

goodbyes and smiles

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All in all I will call it a bad interview. Though I could answer most of the questions (not counting the rhetorical ones), but an interview isnt just about answering questions, its about that certain chemistry you set up with the guy interviewing you. And in my case that was not visible anywhere. Infact it seemed that I rubbed P1 the wrong way, or probably he just wanted it that way in order to put me under stress.

Smart ass answers like the one about the rules and not guessing (refer to the one with *) should be avoided at all costs.

Anyways, after my MDI interview I reached my hotel and after my dinner thought I had sleep early. I had a flight at 5.50 in the morning. Luckily I slept off soon after lying down in bed, but woke up after one and a half hour. I saw the time it was 11 in the night. I lay in bed for the next one hour trying to sleep and trust me when I tell you that it was the most frustrating one hour of my life. I was afraid that if I didn’t sleep I will feel sleepy the whole of next day and when I feel sleepy I get irritable and that cant be good in a GD and interview!!!

That’s when I finally decided to get up and do something. I took out my laptop and watched two episodes of 'Band of Brothers' (that HBO series). It got over around 2. Still no sleep. I switched on the TV, nothing interesting. And while browsing through the channels I came across a dart throwing world championship being telecast on some sports channel. I watched that for over an hour ( I was that frustrated) and then it was time to get ready to leave for the airport.

The flight was smooth, I slept some (which was good). Dad was there at the airport. I went to my Tauji's place. Spent some time there and then got ready for the interview. And then left for North Campus. Even after having lived in Delhi for about 5 years I had never been to North Campus before.

Read about my first visit to the North Campus for what was one of the most important interviews of my life in the next post.