What happens Behind that Wall...Part 2

I would start from where I left off in the last post where I mentioned about Operation courses. The topics covered in operations' subjects include solving network and flow problems which are not very uncommon in the logical reasoning section of written tests. These could be asked in written tests because no specific knowledge is required and pure logic would solve the purpose. So now you would fairly agree that there is some logic which governs what is asked in the written examination.

I haven't talked so far about the verbal section of written examination because its not governed by any specific subject or area. Different exams tests students on different type of questions but the common type in all sorts of tests is the reading comprehension section which I think is probably the most important thing required during and after MBA. The whole course is designed to be completed in just two years whereas the subjects covered make a big list. Thus one is required to read a lot of stuff including academic/theoretical things. I have separated out academic stuff just to specify that the other portion reading includes lot of cases which by their nature are not theoretical but still pose a challenge. Comprehension is tested in a big way here as on an average cases are longer than 20 pages and contain lots and lots of information much of which is not required most of the times. Therefore one needs to comprehend what is required and what is not, which I think is tested in RC's of exams. I think many people would agree that of late the questions other than RC's have focused on checking logic and comprehension, at least CAT has moved in that direction. By now I have discussed correlation between written exam and what happens in and after MBA.

Time to discuss about the second stage i.e. GD and PI. Well PI is something which is required to know the person and hence a way to judge whether the aspirant is actually ready to take on the challenges ahead. PI is probably more justifiable as compared to the GD's especially considering the chaos we generally create in a GD. I used to and I still hate GD's because they have been one of my weak areas and I have found many people who feel the same way just because results of that 20-120 min discussions are many times pretty arbitrary. However theoretically speaking GD's do test a important thing which is how one behaves in group. Testing this is important because one has to work in teams in the corporate world and that's precisely the reason during MBA their are plenty of group tasks to be done. So a group is situation is simply unavoidable in this field and that's why GD or GT make sense however the chaos created by desperation for a seat always leave a bad taste.

Whole selection process thus have some reason behind it. One more thing which is necessary to be told here is that the fact all my professors rate us highly but at the same time they expect a lot from us. Here at IIM's they believe we belong to the 'cream' of country so expect quick as well as thorough analysis. This belief is also one of the reason that duration of program is short. So subjects are taught pretty rapidly to cover maximum possible things.

I mentioned about the subjects belonging to the three core areas but there are many other which are equally relevant. Organization Behaviour is the subject which deals with aspects like organization structure, team behaviour, individual's behaviour, factors which motivate people etc. I find these subjects pretty interesting as I am able to relate most of the things with my work experience. Many things are sort of obvious in this subject but there are many things which we perceive in completely wrong way so its knowledge is a plus point. OB is followed by Human Resource Management which I expected will cover only behavioral aspects but it turned out to be pretty deep. It had decent level of mathematical application and lot of business logic. All in all, OB and HRM add a different flavor to the MBA education.

Another very interesting subject is Information Tech & Sys. We all know how IT has impacted our lives. IT is also not only an area which absorbs majority of engineering graduates but also a major recruiter in B-schools. These facts make it imperative to have ITS as subject. The subjects introduces us to SaaS (Software as a service), Open Source, Business modelling etc. This is perhaps the subject which shows us the true capability of a MS Excel, a tool which all of us know far less than its full potential.

Any firm can be affected by internal or external factors. For better understanding of all these factors we are taught Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. As the name suggests microeco discusses things related to internal factors i.e. things which firm can fully control and macroeco discusses things related to external factors. Understanding of Government actions/policies can be gained through macroeco. Another subject which is liked by many here is Indian Legal System as it introduces to Corporate Law, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Consumer Court etc. No one can run a business while neglecting the legal aspects, so it is not only interesting but essential to know the legal framework.

Another important thing to know here is that the structure and topics of each subject is updated regularly. Its not like what I experienced in my engineering i.e. outdated topics or things which are not at all used in practical world. Each professor put in lot of effort to keep things updated and try to relate things with recent happenings

In sum, MBA education is very interesting and is worth giving a try! Although B-schools are mainly considered 'placement agencies' they do have some relevant things going on the other side those walls.

What happens Behind that Wall...

I am writing a blog entry after a long time. I wanted to write earlier as well but somehow I managed to engage myself in all other activities except blogging. My last post was in May 2009 and was regarding preparation for CAT 2009. Well coincidently this one is also on the same lines. If you get an impression that I am obsessed with this whole process, then you won’t be completely wrong. The whole selection process is something on which I can talk for hours based on my experiences.

This time of the year all the aspirants have already experienced the first hurdle and some of the lucky ones start preparing themselves for the second stage. This article is directed towards those lucky ones. Through this article I want to help people to prepare themselves in slightly better manner. No it’s not going to be a gyan session on do’s and don’ts of GD/PI; I just want to show you the world waiting for you once you clear the second stage. When I was preparing for my GD/PI I always felt the need to know what happens behind the walls of a B-school. Many a times I criticized the written selection process, relevance of the different sections etc. but after experiencing the B-school life for around 7-8 months I can easily say that the whole process is pretty systematic/structured and logical. Each and every thing happens because of a reason.

To understand things let’s just do a fast forward and see what lies after two years of MBA education and then move backwards and hope that things would fall in place that way. MBA is often a stepping stone to reach a high responsibility position like CXO level. Of course typically some years of experience is required after MBA but there are many who assume such roles immediately after MBA(here I am talking of start-ups). So what does anyone needs to succeed or even operate at that CXO level? Let’s assume the start-up wishes to provide a new product. Here lies the need to decide upon what that product would be, who will buy that product, what all are the expectations of those buyers, how that product will satisfy those needs etc. answers to this set of questions can be obtained if we know what Marketing is all about. At that stage one can shortlist some ideas for products which would be further evaluated. For manufacturing any product we would require a location of manufacturing, equipments, material i.e. capital would be required. Now how to source that capital for each project, management of funds obtained, expected returns from any project all such things can be answered based on knowledge of Finance. The next step is to define the various processes like the assembling of product, its packaging, transportation from manufacturing plant to wholesalers, distributors etc. Efficiency of each and every process does impact the profit making capability of the firm so we just cannot ignore Operations.

Marketing, Finance and Operations are thus three core areas of business and they form the backbone of any MBA program. CXO level guy needs to have fair knowledge of all these areas because decision on anyone is highly interlinked with other two. These core areas can be divided into sections which are taught in MBA program as individual subjects over various terms of the course. For example I had three subjects of Finance over three terms; Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting and Corporate Finance. Financial accounting is where we are taught about the financial statements of a company. Financial statements give idea about financial health of a company and are good means of comparing different companies. Cost accounting teaches us how to keep track of the various costs which a firm incurs in making of product or providing a service. With complete understanding of costs involved one can find ways to reduce the same and hence increase the profits. Recession has made a term called “cost-cutting” highly popular; Cost accounting is precisely the direction where one needs to head in order to cut the cost. Lastly, Corporate Finance which is probably the most interesting of all finance courses, here we are taught to evaluate projects based on expected returns and budget constraints. There are many methods for such evaluation and vary in depths till which they go and their user friendliness. As far as I know it is this area where CFO level people work on, obviously the projects under their consideration would be of high importance. People at that level rarely do anything related to financial accounting however their decision are based on financial statements and their decision impact the status of financial statement. So knowledge of financial accounting is paramount and hence is the first financial course taught in b-schools. As anyone would expect finance require proficiency in maths. This proficiency is precisely what is tested in quant section of any written exam. Financial decisions involves interpreting information from various sources for example the three financial statements (FYI three financial statements are (a) Balance Sheet (b) Income Statement (c) Cash Flow statement). I think you would be able to guess the section which would test this ability; yes it is data interpretation section.

In the first year I had two Marketing courses (1) Marketing Management and (2) Marketing Research. The first course shows various facets of marketing like understanding the customers’ needs, knowing who your customers are, ways to reach the customer, creating your brand etc. Marketing Research focuses on the extracting the information which helps understand the customer and its requirement.

Operations was divided in two courses Operations Research and Operations Management. OR introduces to various mathematical and statistical techniques used to solve the problems of Operations Management which in turn includes things like task scheduling, inventory management, supply chain management etc.

To be continued…

I have not even made half of my point yet...

CAT 2009! What to do?

They say ‘knowledge increases by sharing’ so here I want to share my learning from the exam of CAT or for that matter any other entrance examinations. If my experience could help someone else get success, I would more than happy.
India is the second most populous country of the world so a tough competition is expected for any kind of seat and therefore best seats would be reachable only after surpassing the toughest of competitions. CAT is just one of those tough competitions. It took me four hard years to bell the CAT but they were also the years where I learnt a lot about things around me. I can divide the whole of my learning into 3 key areas and name the combination as ‘3P THEORY’. Let’s get into each of the P now.
First P is for Preparation/Practice: This forms the basis or the foundation over which whole of the battle would be fought. Preparation involves knowing the required stuff. In terms of CAT, knowledge of basic concepts of all the subjects, useful tips and tricks, shortcuts etc. is essential part of preparation. Let us discuss few key things subject wise.
For quant the syllabus is pretty defined so one only needs to devote sufficient time to each topic and practice questions over it regularly. The amount of practice required to get comfort level in any topic depends on the individual person. For some topics it may require more time than others or it may be the case that no matter how much practice is done in a particular topic, comfort level in that is never achieved. Knowledge of one’s comfort level for every topic is a must. For example in my particular case, Probability was not within my range. I practiced it quite a number of times but always used to get confused while solving problems. However recognizing a topic as one’s weak area is not the end of the road. If questions of any topic are divided into three levels of difficulty low, medium and high, then all the low difficulty level questions must be in one’s range even if the topic is among the weak areas. So it can be concluded that a certain minimum proficiency is required in all topics and to be fair it is achievable without much of a trouble. More and more practice is required to achieve more and more comfort. Sometimes for same questions different approaches are used. It is important to know these different approaches as they would not only help understand various concepts but also provide opportunity to save time. In my opinion getting good results of hard work done in quant is visible in minimum amount of time as compared to other subjects. Believe me it’s just a matter of putting in some effort and you will start clearing cutoffs in quant quite comfortably.

Although the other two subjects i.e. English and DI do not have any defined syllabus but the theory of more and more practice is equally applicable on them as well. Considering previous years papers we can get some sort of idea for the type of questions being asked in both the subjects. However there has bee few surprises as well in terms of type of questions e.g. in CAT 2005 there were vocabulary based questions asked in an indirect form, CAT 2006 had FIJs (Fact, Inference & Judgement) and no vocabulary questions but CAT 2007 again had vocab based questions which required to differentiate between two similar looking/sounding words. For a strong preparation one needs to practice all types of questions already known. RCs have been the constant factor though their sizes & forms have changed over the years. If someone is able to get hold of other type of questions of English which may be asked in other exams can also be useful. For example Bank/PO papers have simple looking grammatical questions and fill in the blanks. Practicing such questions perform two important functions. First it bring something new in front of you i.e. a surprise which CAT has always tried to give. Secondly basic concepts can be developed through simple questions which can be applied in CAT level questions. I did practiced few of such Bank/PO English questions and yes it was tough for me to have more than 75% accuracy even in those simple questions.

Few specific suggestions for English which I would like to give are:
1)Vocab: For building up vocab one of the hard way but the most effective way I followed was to maintain a Vocab Diary. In this diary I used to write the new word I have read in newspaper/magazine/flash card and its meaning on left page of diary and then write the sentence using the word on right page (in front of that word). I also used to write more than one sentence containing that word on the right page. One can also add synonym and antonym on the left page below the main word. I agree it is a tiresome way but it is quite effective.
2)RC: Like many engineers, I was not fond of reading books. To be frank I was averse to reading novels/books/newspapers and even after repeated suggestions by teachers could not develop enough enthusiasm towards reading. So for people like me I would suggest practicing RC a lot. I believe practicing 2-3 RC passages a day can overcome the lapses in reading habits to such an extent where RC score would contribute in clearing cut-offs.
3)Grammar: Many people suggest Wren & Martin for improving grammar but that is a thick book with too many rules and even more exceptions to those rules. I suggest ‘Manhattan SC(Sentence Correction) Guide. This book is highly popular among people giving GMAT.
It is not only short & concise but also simple to understand. It can be easily downloaded from Internet.

DI is mostly about analysis of data and use of some quick calculations at the same time. For quick calculations memorising tables, squares, cubes and reciprocal is a must. Although I was not able to memorise all the tables but I mugged up the rest and beyond doubt they helped me in doing faster calculations. Other than practicing the questions of study material or books, solving sudoku or other puzzles help a lot. Different type of puzzles/questions do help broaden analytical capabilities. By practicing more the idea is to increase the range of questions one can deal with and at the same time build expertise in known types of questions so that useful time can be saved in cracking those familiar questions during examination. Most of the preparation for DI will happen through the question sets asked in test series, so get hold of as many question sets as possible.

As they say in cricket, net sessions are important but nothing can better than match practice.
Therefore practicing mock tests is very much required. The reality about CAT is that if the same paper is to be solved without any time constraint an average student would at least solve 90% of questions successfully but within the time constraints it is difficult for a good student to even touch upon 60-65% of questions, forget about solving them correctly.
So each and every effort should be made to get the best out of one self in that stipulated amount of time and hence strategy followed there is extremely vital. Giving more and more mock tests would provide the opportunity to try out different strategies and find the most suitable one. Also one of the major initiatives that worked wonders for me was to maintain a diary where I did analysis of each mock test I used to give. In that analysis I used to write about questions which were conceptually new for me or questions which had more than one way reaching to solution. Also keep track of the mistakes committed in the test and the reason for that mistake. Being aware of the silly/not so silly mistakes committed in tests prevents there occurrence again.

The most acknowledged fact about CAT is its surprise factor, so to counter any surprise on the CAT day, mocks of different patterns are essential. This is a fact agreed by all coaching institute and therefore they always make it a point to give students surprise package in the test series. If possible practicing mocks from different institute is also helpful. Consider this, one may get accustomed to the size, style, fonts of papers from any particular institute and when given a different question paper one’s eyes may not feel very comfortable. This has been my own experience especially if I talk about XAT. The way questions were put in the question paper for XAT 06, 07 and 08 was completely different from the style of other exams. Usually the question numbers are printed in bold letters but in those particular XAT papers question numbers were written in same form as the question. So at times it was getting difficult to locate the beginning of question and possibility of overlooking any question was always there.
All in all practice more & more and wider & wider. One need’s to develop both width as well as depth.


With all the practice and preparation over it is time for 2nd P which Performance.
All preparation and practice done in the first phase would be waste if one is not able to perform at the right place. I think good Performance depends 30-40% on preparation and 60-70% on mental strength. Don’t be surprised by these skewed figures as this is perhaps the greatest lesson to be learnt from CAT. To hold one’s nerve in pressure situation has been the key for good performance in all fields of life. Talking in terms of CAT, the pressure on the C-Day would be huge. You will start getting good wishes from all corners of your world. Friends who may not have talked to you for few months would suddenly realize that they need to wish you luck for all important day by any means be it a phone call or be it a scrap on orkut.
Family members would get more religious and caring in those days. On that CAT day no matter how early you begin your journey to the CAT center you will always find plenty of aspirants already there on the center. Before entering into the center gate you will get good luck handshakes at least 2-3 times. All this is a tremendous build-up for the fantastic occasion called CAT. Situation is such that even the students who topped the test series consistently start feeling the heat. First blood will be drawn when you will get to know the paper pattern. Many loose the battle there itself. Some unexpected pattern or pattern you saw in nightmare the previous night(it is very hard to get sleep a night before CAT, mind is so conscious and raring to go that it defies the much needed sleep) can really disrupt all the preparations.
To remain calm in all this is as good as winning the battle. Therefore do not have any preset in mind or notions about the exam and be ready for strange surprises. The most important thing to remember is that whatever the paper might be, it is the same for all candidates.
All those who are concerned about online CAT 09 being conducted over a 10 day period, be rest assured that IIM’s are eager to get the best candidates out of all applicants so they will not like to differentiate among them by giving easier test to some and difficult test to others. Difficulty level would be same on all days and therefore for all candidates.

For performing well it is highly important to know one’s strength and weaknesses and tackle the test accordingly. Relatively strong or weak sections are first thing to be known. In my case QA & DI were equal and more strong than VA. Remember that these are just relatively strong or weak. In absolute terms it is important to have enough proficiency to clear cut-offs in all sections. Without this much proficiency it will not be wrong to say that IIM’s are distant possibility. Many people suggest to start off the test from your strong section and then move on to the weaker section. I used this methodology in whole of the test series I gave before CAT -07 and it worked fine but on the actual day, in the pressure cooker situation it failed miserably. I started with QA then moved on to DI and finally to VA. But because it was my weaker section and time was running out I lost all control and ruined that section and in turn the CAT. This year i.e. in CAT -08 I followed opposite strategy of doing first the weaker section i.e. VA, then DI and then QA and it worked wonders. After 110 mins of exam I had performed reasonably well in the first two sections but was left with just 35-40 mins for QA( was used to give 50 mins in test series). Since QA was in my comfort zone I sailed through 14 questions of which I got 13 correct. Bravo! Job done. So I think in crunch situation one can fall back on one’s strong area and can manage to get through but exposing weak area in tough condition will only open the floodgates. As all other strategy related things success of this ideology depends on individual to individual. So try it before using it in the finals.

Once working on a section always spend time in questions pertaining to areas of comfort. Never ever try to experiment there. If one has not been able to do questions of any topic during preparation nothing is gonna change in those 150 mins. So stick to your guns.
One of the crucial things for performance is maintaining tempo throughout those 150 min and especially in the last few mins. A lot of candidates put their guard down when nearing the finishing minutes but actually that is precisely the time where a 99 percentiler gets differentiated from a 96 percentiler. As mentioned earlier there is huge competition in this exam; at least 50-100 candidates fall upon a single figure of total marks. So one correct question(which gives 4 marks) in the last 30 seconds can improve rank by 300-400. This is a huge jump. Therefore fighting till the last millisecond irrespective of situation is worth it. Make or break is decided only in those last few minutes.

There are few more trivial things which one must take care of. For example the number of pencils one is carrying into examination hall, it never hurts to carry four sharp pencils for doing calculation etc. and two slightly blunt pencils to fill OMR (although this may not apply to online CAT, but don’t forget all other exams are still paper based tests). It will ensure you save some milliseconds on each question which in the end can give you extra minute or two to attack more questions. Another overlooked issue can be one’s dressing. CAT is definitely not the day to show off your trendy and latest wardrobe so wear what makes you comfortable. There is a special case for candidates giving XAT in Delhi. XAT happens in first week of Jan and past records show that XAT day coincides with the coldest day of winter season for that year. It payoffs to cover oneself up from those chilly winds, after all who would want to miss out on XAT just because of not wearing the warmest sweater he/she had. Do you?

All the above things put together will take care of Performance.

Last but by no means least, the third P is for Patience. This P comes into action when 1st and 2nd P do not get synchronize. CAT is a sort of exam where it does take a bit of time to get good performance after putting in good preparations. Individual grasping power and the role of luck cannot be overlooked. Sometimes no matter how much effort you put, things just don’t go your way. Patience is the key for such situation. Patience is a form of mental strength and so it does effect the performance directly. No matter how much pain you felt in your struggle, all of it will get vanish the day success touches your feet. I have experienced it. The final feeling in heart is simply amazing and that is all which will remain forever. Call it patience or perseverance it does pay-off in the end.

So that is my 3P THEORY. This is not any kind of publicity act or an attempt to show off it is purely and sincerely an effort to help anyone out there fighting out the battle. In the end all I would say if somehow these 3P’s fail to help you remember the fourth P i.e. Pankaj and that’s me. Since my phone number is going to get change soon I will only give here my email-id which is pankaj.chatrath@gmail.com. I have the experience of GMAT as well therefore I know that
Online CAT is not going to make any difference; rules of the game will remain same.


Snapshot of my results:
2005-06: CAT: 90.34%ile IIFT: No JMET: 1520 rank XAT :84%ile FMS :No
2006-07: CAT: 97,74%ile XAT: 89%ile FMS :No
2007-08: CAT: 96.54%ile IIFT: Yes JMET: 92 rank SNAP- SCMHRD NMAT 753 rank XAT: 97.78%ile FMS :No
2008-09: CAT:99.86%ile IIFT: Yes JMET: 84 rank NMAT 792 rank XAT: 99.86%ile FMS :No

Final status: Going to IIM Calcutta

Made a Mess Mr Careless

One full week has gone by so it’s the right time to pen down the second episode i.e. part-II of my being careless story. Here we go.
The next significant incident also happened during my gdpi process. It was kindness of God that got me good number of calls, so different experiences were bound to happen. I went to Mumbai for the gdpi process of IIT. Don’t know why they cant conduct it in Delhi itself when all other institutes can do it, maybe it’s the sibling rivalry i.e. IIT B vs IIT D. I reached there the night before my scheduled day. I think the preferable mode of transport in Mumbai for an outsider is Auto rickshaw because it takes a lot of courage to use the popular Mumbai local trains or good knowledge of the area to travel by BEST bus. Also the way those auto rickshaws operate in Mumbai looks very professional as compared to the Delhi guys. The biggest difference is that those auto-drivers are ready to go anywhere that too according to the meter, something which is a rarity in Delhi. The meter charges are based upon time and not distance can be the possible reason behind accepting metered bill. Also the camaraderie between city auto drivers is palpable; they are quick to locate their customer’s destination with help of each other. I also had good past experiences of travelling by auto in Mumbai therefore had trust in the system. I reached hostel from airport fairly quickly that night in around 30-35mins. The next day went fine for me; no major hiccups. Earlier I was bit worried whether I will get free early enough to board my return flight @2115 hrs but yet again God’s grace I got free 6 hrs prior to that. So I had plenty of time to enjoy with my friend there @ IIT B or to get myself mentally ready for the next interview of XLRI which was scheduled to happen in afternoon of very next day. XL call is one thing which I believe is even tougher than getting an IIM call. Very few lucky ones get that chance. I know this because of the agonizing pain which my friend suffered this year and also because of the sufferings last year. A slightest of mistake can snatch the call out of one’s clutches.
However I was pretty relaxed, there were no butterflies in my tummy once I got free that day, however “rats were holding there Olympic races in my stomach” as they say in our desi language. This actually brings me to another change which I have observed in my self over the last year. My appetite has increased quite a bit. If offered I am always willing to eat anything (of course edible) anytime. Even simple namkeens look mouth watering to me. However before any exam/interview all appetite becomes zero. I just can’t anything prior to any such process. Hence the ‘rat race’ was expected. I had few snacks from mess & canteen to fill quota of lunch @ around 5pm. Now it was a tricky situation for me, I planned to leave by 1900-1915 for airport. But I had few things going at the back of my mind. First, airport is only 35 mins away, at max 45-50 min; second, I won’t get anything to eat till 0000hrs i.e. time by which I reach my home once I leave the hostel. I don’t find the food items on board or @ airport worth the hole they would dig in my pocket, third and probably the craziest one that Mumbai – Delhi flights are bound to get late, they just can’t leave or arrive at the right time. It’s the perception I developed during last few times I travelled to Mumbai. Fourth I must spend some light moments with my friend as he was my caretaker all through out. I packed my bags by 1920 and was ready to leave but then thanks to all the above thoughts I decided to go to canteen with my buddy to have my dinner, that too when I had my lunch just 2 hrs back( I am turning out to be a stupid foodie). Sometimes when we loose our track our companions help us to get back on to it but not this time. My buddy was tired of the whole day’s work and was perhaps showing too much hospitality, so he never insisted me to leave early and eventually our dinner session lasted to 20-25mins. So it was 1945 by the time I started look for auto to airport. Had things went on smoothly and all my assumptions proved true I would have written this whole experience in part-I and not in part –II.
My trust over auto rickshaw system started to take beating. The first auto I called up was not willing to go to my destination and only agreed to leave me upto the gate of the city within the Mumbai city i.e. IIT gate. OK fair enough I needed to move on.
By the time I switched autos it was 2000hrs. The first thing I asked from the second auto driver was how much time it would take to reach airport he said close to 1 hour. I was terribly shocked!!! But I had no option other than pleading him to help me reach asap. Meanwhile he was a bit confused about which one is the domestic airport SantaCruz or Andheri. I had no clue what so ever but this basic information is expected from each and every auto driver; how would a tourist know the difference between Santa & Andheri. To deepen the crisis he was moving at such a pace that other autos were overtaking us from both left and right side. I was getting anxious and couldn’t decide what to do. I made few calls to confirm the domestic airport which was SantaCruz. Side by side I was urging the driver to drive fast but at the same time was worried that I don’t get him irritated by my behaviour as that would lead to further problems. I also asked him to drop me in between to take different auto if he is not sure of the way to airport. He was completely in his own world but reassured me that we will reach by 2050hrs and infact suggested me that there is a short cut which he can take but will drop me at some point in between from where another auto would be required. I didn’t know what to do so opted for short cut. The short cut obviously was quite different from the main roads in terms of construction and the surroundings. Those were agonizing moments for me, thoughts of missing my flight and making mess of my next interview were banging my head strongly. As expected he didn’t kept his promise, he dropped me at the backside of airport runway gate at 2050. Obviously it was not the gate from where a passenger would be allowed to enter. The next auto driver said it will take half an hour more to reach the main entrance gate. I was angry with myself like anything at that point of time. This third auto driver was the only one who showed the true mumbaikar spirit and matched my image of auto drivers of Mumbai. Finally I was at the airport by 2110, the only way I could have boarded my flight was if the flight had got delayed. But as I said earlier, miracles don’t happen every now and then. My craziest myth was shattered when I found on the TV display that flight was on time. I ran like crazy guy to the ticket counter only to hear that there is no chance now “flight doors are already closed and all your money has been forfeited”. All the filmy scenes where actors breached the security and ran till the runway and then managed to stop aeroplanes were coming to my mind. Its all complete rubbish, nothing of that sort is possible in reality.
Q: Next flight? A: tomorrow morning. It was dire situation for me. No flight that night, no refund of money thanks to all the crazy things happened in those last two hrs. What next? I started looking for other airlines’ flight to Delhi. Three airlines gave negative response, Preity Zinta’s Go Air said yes but in their next to next flight which would leave by 0010, flight charges Rs 5400+
With no options left I had to compromise on each & everything so handed over my Maestro card. “Sorry sir we don’t accept Maestro“ Got damn it! problems are not over yet. I was also told that seat would probably be available but they cant promise the same price after some time. There begins my ordeal to find ATMs. There was no ATM outside the airport, were there only inside it. I had to request guards to enter the airport. After giving me tough looks for few seconds they allowed me in.
The SBI atm was visible from the gate itself but it was not working at that time became evident only I reached close to it. Bad luck continues. Some how I found second atm, Canara this time. Request for withdrawal of 5000 bucks was rejected twice. Had no clue what’s wrong so tried a smaller amount, 4000 got lucky this time.
But along with the cash I already had it was not sufficient. So near yet so far. All my subsequent withdrawal requests were declined, I was flabbergasted. I was short of cash, card was not acceptable still had to board in that last flight at any cost.
An idea came to my mind to make payment to any other outlet e.g. CCD with my card in return of cash. I thought that it would be a tough ask but still tried my luck at CCD. To my surprise the manager there agreed gleefully. There was something in that night, nothing was going my way, now the CCD card machine was not working. I tried my luck at three other outlets to no avail. All of them simply refused however last one told me that there are three atms in the airport. The third one was at the arrival terminal. To move from departure terminal to arrival terminal I had to plead in front of one more guard. Finally reached the third one and fortunately got the required cash.
When I got back to the ticket counter the I was demanded 500 more than the earlier told price i.e. 5900+. After sufferings from so many things in just short span of time I knew that was going to happen so I had withdrawn some buffer cash as well.
Once I sat down after all this, I was losing my senses, how could I do this especially when I have such an important interview next day and another IIM interview the day after it ( I had a hat-trick of gdpis scheduled three in a row!) Undue loss of 6000 and the psychological blow were just too much. Reached home by 0300hrs but my tempo was pretty low whole of the next day. That reflected in my performance also and subsequently in my result. I couldn’t get thru XL. Had it been some other day I would have given different answers to the questions asked in interview but ‘jo hona hai wo to hona he hai’ Till date this incident is one of the major major blunders I have done. My carelessness made a complete mess of the proceedings.

God bless Mr. Careless

“Sincere, obedient, decent, disciplined, particular”…”careless, carefree, latecomer, irresponsible”. These adjectives seems to describe two complete different personalities.

What if they come in a single package. This is what I have observed over the last year. The first set represents the image I have carried over the years but the second is what I have discovered in myself in year gone by.

There were many instances but I would restrain my self to only the major ones.

It all started in April 08, after completing the graduation two years back we were finally looking forward to usually a once in a lifetime moment, the Convocation day. Yes some people do amass 2-3 degrees but still convo of one’s first degree is bound to be a little special. In our case the two year gap made it a bit more special, as it would be a day where all college friends would reunite and re-live good old days. We all know it is an occasion where one wears strange kind of gown and hat, receives degree from a respected personality wearing similar but more pompous form of that dress code and then finally throws that hat in air with utmost joy. All in all, a very important day and on such days people usually take lot of care i.e. planning everything beforehand, getting ready quickly, reaching the venue on time etc. Somehow I underestimated the slow, laidback administration of my college. We were supposed to be at college by 10 -1030 am but I planned to reach my friend’s place by 11am, no worries whatsoever that too when I didn’t have any idea what all formalities we were required to do. When the most responsible person of the group is taking it lightly what can you expect from others, “chill chill just chill…” was the mode. After some time we came to know that we need to deposit 700 bucks as a security for that gown so a ride to ATM became imperative. Finally we got there and came to know that earlier speculations were correct that our CM Shiela Dikshit is the Chief Guest on the special occasion.

Now that’s the only reason I can think of behind every administrative activity of our college happening on schedule. Got damn it! I should have figured this out earlier in my calculations. So by then we missed the most important registration based on which degrees will be brought from the administrative section to the convocation hall. We believed that there will be a way out & we would be able to register somehow by hook or crook but realistically miracles don’t happen so easily. The next blow: gowns went out of stock. Everybody else was busy in posing for their orkut pic: “me in gown@convo” and we were just totally confused. What to do? One more myth we had was that only scholars will be called on to stage for collecting their degrees from Principal & Chief Guest and rest all other students will be given degree by someone else and in some other manner. Proceedings started and our myth was shattered within few minutes. No degree, no gown & no photo with principal, we were staring down the barrel. That was a terrible feeling. I was cursing my self for being so careless, so irresponsible and letting down my friends too. They were facing all this only because of my carelessness.

Then God came to our rescue and everything unfolded dramatically. Our wait for the fresh stock of gowns proved fruitful. So we were ready to get in the convo hall and look for a chance. Wearing that gown made me feel atleast “on par” with my classmates but was still not sure how we would go on to stage without registration. First idea that struck was to simply wait for the end and then request special favour from principal with the help of our dear friend ‘Mr President’. When all the good & responsible students were done a bunch of late comers were called. As you would have expected we were a bit late to get registered on the list of late comers as that too was finished before we had reached college. Now came the tricky idea; we will somehow make our way in the queue of late comers & go to the stage with degree of someone else and pose for the photo. Simple isn’t it! By God’s grace the only time when the people announcing the names of administration got confused and messed up the order of calling was when I was about to climb up the stage. After all the obstacles, Yes, we finally made it! Best part happened on the stage itself The Principal himself asked me “is this your degree?” I confidently replied in the affirmative and then the professional photographer clicked the ‘Kodak Moment’. I consider that pic to be one of my best photos, what if I am holding someone else’s degree. Hardly matters!

Good luck in the end really made that Convo ultra special. It was a sort of rag to riches story; literally I got richer as I got back my long pending hostel security.

Though late in the evening party was spoiled by the loss of mobile phone of Mr Thakur but, I remember that day for the plethora of emotions I went through in the morning.

The other two occasions are quite recent. After struggling for four long years I managed to get the coveted IIM gdpi calls this season. These calls are something which more than 250000 students dream of. I don’t need to tell anything else to testify the importance of the call. I was supposed to fill up a form and take that along with me at the time of gdpi process. More than a month was available to fill that form but thanks to my newly found carelessness and laidback attitude I filled that form by 0000hrs i.e. just 12 hrs prior to the auspicious gdpi. So everything was set, and I was ready to take on my First IIM Group Discussion & Interview. Got to the venue before time and was pretty relaxed. Suddenly a thought came to my mind to just check up my form once again. Pulled that out, turned the pages, all fields filled, all questions answered, yup everything was set according to me. The guy standing besides me very politely said “you have missed one thing” pointing towards the Photograph area.

Oh! A chilled wave went through my body. For the last 3-4 years I have always carried my passport photographs in my wallet so my hands went straight to the wallet to search for one in it. Alas! Only a day ago I took that small envelope out of my wallet only to leave it there itself. The process was scheduled to begin in the next 5-10 mins. I was completely puzzled, what to do? I would only attribute it to grace of God that the venue was within 15 min drive from my home. Had it been any other venue I was gone. Called up my mom to asked her to come to my rescue with my pics. Situation was further dramatised by the fact that my mom’s mobile was having a peculiar problem at that time; calls could be attended but couldn’t be made because there was no display at all. Keys were pressed based only upon guesses. Somehow my we managed to communicate and mom reached the place where I wanted in pretty short time. It was a very filmy scene I got that envelope from mom on a road full of traffic but right in front of the renowned Sai Baba temple. Couldn’t ask for more signals to believe that some divine power was there to help me out on that day. Within seconds I was running (dressed up in formal Suit and shoes, its mighty tough) back to the building. Fortunately process was not started by then. My messiah who pointed missing part of form was also carrying glue stick with him. In all normal cases who would carry glue stick with him/her for an interview? but that guy did. I got sufficient time to relax. My performance in the process was free from the repercussions of the incident. Although I still haven’t receive the result for that day but I will always remember how God rescued me from my yet another careless mistake.

But one cant get lucky everytime. Part -II will tell about the lessons I have learnt the hard way.

..."korbo lorbo jeetbo ray...korbo lorbo jeetbo rayy..."

Some 9-1o years back, "42 in 1"' or "64 in 1" used to get me full excited (looks so surprising, till now only used to read such time frames now i am writing myself). I loved to spend hours in front of the idiot box and make small 'mario' or big 'MARIO' jump for every single shining coin or move that red small car speedily yet safely just to see the illusive 'superman' fly by or try to emulate sampras against the 'Level 5'. But then came the year of dreaded Boards. I was told that just sacrifice on them or atleast cut down upon them for sometime and then you will have whole time in the world to enjoy them, i too had no other option but to assume the enticing free time in future to be true. Game Over. Then started the long journey. i assumed that the my first hurdle was my only target, unfortunately, not to be. Soon after X, entrance preparation came calling and that was not all, XI & XII were a diff ball game than entrance. Riding experience with each leg in different boat started from there itself. I pushed hard while reassuring myself again and again that it's just a matter of time and things will soon change; time will come when there will be only one thing to ponder on.
And Yes, things did turned simpler, one of the portion was taken care of and now was the time to enter college. Nervousness , anxiety, curiosity, excitement all featured in the first few days.
New world, new people, new activities etc. all were enjoyable but as some intial years went by, another entrance came calling, the boat ride was underway yet again. This time things turned anything but simpler.
One of the boats now had a big hole so the ride was never going to be smooth (repair work is still on). Soon the other boat also reached its destined stoppage, only a bigger boat had the capacity to move ahead. The so called balancing act is required to pacify the shaky and wavy journey. I can still assume that it's just a matter of time and this period too will get over, but practicality says otherwise. Responsibilities and expectations are only going to increase from here on.
The repair work of that hole in the boat can be expected to get over soon which in turn will give enough stability to shift both the legs to a safer bigger ship. But probably the independent & calm ride in the ship wont last too long and it would just be a matter of time when another ship will get tied. So the balancing act will once again will be required. There seems to be no end to it, multitasking/balancing will be name of the GAME. Life will remain "2 in 1" or "3 in 1" or may be "4 in 1" who knows! So go on riding and keep on singing ..."korbo lorbo jeetbo ray...korbo lorbo jeetbo rayyyy..."

Long-Term Disappointment

Talk of the town for past few months, Ghajini, created too much hype and expectations. All thanks to wonderful music by A.R Rehman and the 5 foot someting MACHO Aamir Khan. The past few years has changed the way movies used to pull crowd. Along with short and skimpy clothes of actresses and other item girls, its turn for our heroes now to take off their shirts. A trend which was initiated by Salman carried forward by Hritik then SRK and now AK. Whatever may be the way the movie didnt meet the expectations, atleast my expectations.
Its a totally unrealistic kind of movie, the characters, the action,violence and the story. Barring some half hour its not an entertainer. AK is shown as Chairman of a big company, who has returned after an MBA from Harvard but writes his daily diary in Hindi, wow what great Indian values. Practically, I havent seen such thing. The movie itself shows him answer to press and address corporate meeting, obtain a breakthrough license to route all calls to Europe through his own telecom company. But for some unknown reasons his photograph never figures in any newspaper or TV channel, his identity always remain undercover for the actress. The heinous villain of the movie is a chairman of pharmaceutical company but throughout the movie the only impression he gives that he is head of some local mafia. Look of a corporate personality is completely missing. The action stunts were based on the fundamental laws of action prescribed by the great Rajnikant. AK also showed glimpses of Sunny, the Gadar paaji, when he through his shear muscle power pulls out a tap along with its plumbing in the beginning of story.
So far I have seen movie titles based on the name of lead roles, either of hero or of heroine but for the first time title is based on the villain of movie. Title is kept cryptic so that people couldnt figure out anything beforehand. Story also has left some loose ends open only for audience's guess. Although individual performances by actors are good but I feel this AK role would have better suited to Sunny or SShetty or someone else in the same cadre. The only time which is enjoyable in the movie is when Asin is around, but that to has its share of fairytale. She is looking as beautiful as a fairy and helping everybody around in the same angelic way.
All in all its an intense movie with an idea copied from hollywood movie Memento. But with its typical bollywood unrealisticness and misplaced songs movie fails to impress. The final impression after the movie is not of happiness or satisfaction but is of a tensed mind. So what's the point in watching something which instead of refreshing you leave you more tensed and puzzled. Story of a patient of short-term memory loss has only left a long term impression of disappointment.