She.......Read....

She may be the face I can't forget 
The trace of pleasure or regret 
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay

She may be the song the summer sings 
May be the chill the autumn brings 
May be a hundred different things 
Within the measure of the day. 

She may be the beauty or the beast 
May be the famine or the feast 
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell 

She may be the mirror of my dream 
The smile reflected in a stream 
She may not be what she may seem 
Inside her shell 

She, who always seems so happy in a crowd 
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud 
No one's allowed to see them when they cry 

She may be the love that cannot hope to last 
May come to me from shadows of the past 
That I'll remember till the day I die 

She may be the reason I survive 
The why and wherefore I'm alive 
The one I'll care for through the rough and ready years 
Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears 
And make them all my souvenirs 
For where she goes, I've got to be 
The meaning of my life is...she

Whoa, ohhhh...She

Amazing lyrics arent they?...........:)

GD/PI!Part 3-IIM Lucknow.....

Days move by so quickly..........yet another GD PI process taking me back to HMATC in dadar as IIML came calling.....now this is a college famous for its notoriously close batch profile when compared to an IIMB....i was talking to a senior here yesterday who told me that out of the current batch of 320,they have just 38 freshers!!

Anyway this was the first GD/PI that i had in the afternoon slot......i reached the venue around 1.10 for the GD which was supposed to start at 2....i had 9 members(2 were absent) in my interview panel which was supposed to take place under the supervision of panel-4......out of the 11,i was the only one who was a fresher.....i hoped that wud be a differentiating factor.....anyway another amazing thing here...........no offence meant but i always thought that girls found it kinda easy getting calls coz there are really so few of them with great percentiles.........well here i met one of those 'few'.....someone with a 99.97 and i was like girl you go and sit in the interview and they will take you......

Anyway we started with our essay round where our topic was-'Helping hands are better than praying lips'......i dont know how they wanted us to interpret the topic but i had a very personal interpretation for it which neither my co members nor the panel seemed to get........a 20 minute 300 word limit essay and i thought i was very true with what i started with......the GD topic was supposed to be the same one......the GD having a 20 minute time limit and the topic being what it was there was no fish market anywhere throughout the interview.....i made a 5 or 6 entries and i would rate my performance a 3 on 5......

The interview process started and i was the 4th one to be called in.........the previous 3 had had interviews lasting up to 7 to 10 minutes at the max......i went in from the wrong door first of all(???) and then the interview started-

P1-you were supposed to come in from the other door....

me-sorry sir.....

P2-anyway now you have made the effort of coming all the way for this door so dont worry.....so tell us about yourself.........your schooling,college,hobbies etc.....

me-sir i being an army officers son have been to a lot of places......i did my 10th from army school jaipur and my 12th from b.v.b.vidyashram jaipur......my interests would be following sports like tennis and cricket,solving I.Q. tests,talking to people as in mentoring and a dabbling interest in numerology(wrong turn).....

P1 pounces on it-numerology........so where did you learn about it?

me-sir the internet

P2-but internet is all rubbish....

me-???

P1 from out of nowhere-you had low marks in your 12th maths(81 sadly)........and you have 99.5 in CAT?

me-sir they are very different types of maths......CAT is quantitative,12th qualitative.....

P2-talks some more about numerology........my answers were satisfactory upto him saying where did numerology originate?

me-sir no idea but my guess would be india(???)

P2-you had a subject on civil engg in your engg.....do you remember anything?

me-sir some of the experiments that we had......

P2-do you remember what is concrete?

me-???

P2-formula for cement?

me-???(formula)

P2-what are these I.Q. tests all about?

me-sir i am a member of the international high I.Q. society.....top 2% people of the world......blah blah.......

P2-but the I.Q. is just a number.....what do you do with it?

me-chup......

P1-so what else do you do in your spare time?

me-sir basically surf the net.....like reading about stuff....

P1-so what are your views on the current political system in india?

me-talk against regional parties...blah blah.....

P2-any other interests......

me-sir i talked about tennis and cricket i have been following them for 15 years now....Pete Sampras is my role model....

P2-do you still play tennis?

me-yes sir(please have a look at my file)....

P2-where are your work ex docs?

P1-he is a fresher....

me(wondering what he has been reading in my file).....

P1 and P2-ok that will be all.....

me-thanks for your time sir......

Overall my interview was longer than others but i dont think i did well........overall i would give myself a 2 on 5 in the essay,3 in the GD and 2.5 at max on the PI......looking at the fresher/work ex ratio i dont have high hopes.....anyway whates gone is gone........next interview-XLRI on the 5th of March......

Ahmedabad!!

In my previous post i talked about my PI experience at IIM Ahmedabad......i forgot to talk about Ahmedabad as a city......

I had my interview call on the 16th of feb........so i planned to start for the place on the 14th........as there is no direct train from pune to ahmedabad(not one that i am aware of anyway) my dad and i decided to catch the gujarat mail from mumbai on the 14th night......we reached mumbai around 7 in the evening..........took a taxi from dadar to mumbai central..........the train was to start at 9.50 in the night......after we had our dinner we went and occupied are seats(1 actually the other being  'RAC')......that day i learnt how our dear railway minister Mr. Lalu Prasad has read a railway 'revolution'.........allotting the same seat to 4 people under the name of RAC is a good way to make a start..........:).....anyway thankfully one guy didnt show up and both of us got seats........it wud have been a long night otherwise......

Morning came and brought along with it the city of Ahmedabad........i got down at the station and there was something in the air........that something gave a feeling.........a feeling that made me feel that this is where i wanna be for the next 2 years of my life.........a feeling that sucked urself into it and that made u crave for uself to be a part of it......

An army vehicle had come to escort us to the place where we were gonna put up for the next 2 days-The EME mess........the specific area of this place was Hanuman Camp at Shahibaug......it was a wonderful place to say and we were taken care of very well there for the whole of the 2 days.........

The 16th came and the time arrived to go to Vastrapur where the IIM is located.......seeing the place finally sort of overwhelms u..........it feels like this is where i wanted to be when i started out with my prep........and now i know why........though the campus is smaller than most of the other IIMs it still strikes u........and that is mostly coz of the culture of the place.........the values that it exudes......

I am sad about two things really.....one that i did not carry a camera......and didnt even remember to take some snaps with my mobile......second i did not catch a glimpse of the whole campus..........i left as soon as my interview got over........now i think that i should have tried to explore the back part of the campus which has been newly built......hopefully i will get an opportunity to do all that in 4 months..........wishful thinking i know but a dream does not hurt does it now?:)......

After the interview finished we decided to visit the Akshardham temple located in Gandhinagar which is another wonderful city.........it is beautifully structured and planned..........laid out in sectors it reminded me of another wonderful city i have had the pleasure of visiting-Chandigarh........we did reach the temple finally after asking for directions from a lot of people(none of whom spoke hindi btw) only to find that it was closed on mondays.........whatever we got to see from the outside was amazing......they have become very vigilant of the place after the terrorist attack..........it had huge walls all around it and it was a huge compound anyway........

Anyway it was a wonderful experience to go to Ahmedabad and i must say that i have fallen in love with the city.....hopefully the city gives me a chance to experience it for 2 more years coz frankly this is where i wanna be.........:)

GD/PI!Part 2-IIM Ahmedabad......

The big one came next........my IIMA interview was scheduled for the 16th of Feb at the IIM Ahmedabad campus itself........first off this was the first time i was visiting ahmedabad and i must say i loved it as a city.........it so gave me the feeling that i wanted to spend the next 2 years of my life here......the time for the interview was 8.45 AM........i again reached around an hour early......this time there was someone already present and we struck up a nice conversation......the people came in gradully and finally we had 24 people in 3 panels.....my name this time was the first to be called out which clearly meant that i was to have my interview the earliest......

The IIMA PI process has an essay instead of a GD........we went into the room where we were to write the essays and the topic given was-'professional management is a mere rhetoric in family run businesses'.........we were given 10 minutes to complete the essay........i think i wrote a good essay overall although i was left with the summary when the time ended........

I was called in for the interview.....it just happened like 2 days back so i pretty much remember whatever i was asked......there were again 2 people in the panel and this time both were guys......we will call them P1 and P2.........here is the interview as i recall it-

P2-So tell us something about yourself......
me-Stressed on being an army officers son hoping theyll ask some questions on it but they didnt.....

P1-So u have mentioned that u had a an years gap in ur studies so were u preparing for something......oh u have mentioned IIT...right so unfortunately you did not make it
me-Yes sir.....

P1-So are you placed somewhere?
me-Yes sir........Accenture.....

P1-But obviously you are interested in MBA........What are your MBA plans?
me-Sir i basically look to work in the retail sector and for that i want to join an FMCG or a research firm in my summers.....i saw that AC Nielsen is one of the recruiters for IIMA.....so i am pretty interested to join them......

P1-Ok.....but why AC Nielsen?
me-Sir i have always been good at analytics and research.....

P1-How do u say that?u have any experience?
me-Well on a micro level sir........i have one of my certificates saying that i created aptitude tests for a firm which they are using in their selection process......

P2-seems impressed.....ok.....So why retail?
me-Sir basically coz of two reasons.....i think it will be beneficial to me and....cut short

P1-Beneficial as in......
me-Try to explain about profit margins and stuff........

P2-But why do u look at profit margins?ok so u want to start a chain of ur own?
me-Yes sir 7-8 years down the line......

P1-So what differentiators do u look for in ur chain.....
me-Sir there are basically 2 categories of people who buy something........lets take the example of a mobile phone.....theres a category which just looks at price and then one which looks at features......cut short again......

P1 to P2-ask him some questions on comp......

P2 asks me about my project......i fumble a bit and he finally lets it go......

P2-so what is your fav subject in comp?
me-sir databases......

P2-So do you know about normalisation?why do we do it.....
me-Explained him well.....gave him an example too.....

P2-Seemed satisfied.....do u know about cascaded delete?
me-???......no sir but i do know what delete is.......

P2 and P1 laugh....
P2-Ofcourse u know what delete is......

P2-So have u done something other than relational databases?
me-Sir i read about tuple databases....

P2-What is a tuple......
me- Realized that a tuple db is a relational db only......so sir i have mostly done relational dbs only......although i did have distributed and parallel dbs in my last sem......

P2-so what is the difference between parallel and distributed?
me-explained........he seemed satisfied.....

P2-So what sort of ops can be parallelized?
me-Sir functions like join,sort,select etc.......

P2-ok....

P1-So u have tennis as a hobby.......do u have a certificate for it?
me-yes sir........it was a intercollege event......

P1-Ok......u have certificates for quiz and gds too......what is this gd?
me(dint u used to have it in ur selection process like 2 years back)-sir discussing topics basically.....like the essay topic today.....

P1-ok one of the hobbies u have mentioned is numerology....
me-yes sir....

P1-why do u believe in it being an science guy?
me-sir it works perfectly with me......

P1-is that how scientific laws are verified?
me-no sir........u probably look at a larger sample space.........mine is pretty small....talked some more about numerology
and the 5 nos there........

P1-i still didnt get why u believe in something so unscientific......
me-sir i love working with numbers basically.....

P2-u give 2 nos from every person and ill tell u that he has two eyes,two ears and one nose......so i can predict too...
me-well sir i talk about personality traits......

P1-i guess that will be enough......thank u u can leave......
me-thanks for ur time sir......

Overall i believe it was a pretty chilled out interview but IIMA is the last among all the places one can be sure about admission........So lets watch and hope for the best..........:)

Next stop-IIM Lucknow.........26 Feb........See you then.....

GD/PI!Part 1-IIM Kozhikode....

I started the GD/PI season with IIMK on the 9th of feb........the time for the start of the process was 9 am.........the venue-Hospitality Management Applied Training Centre at Dadar........I reached at around 8 in the morning and was the first one to reach......we were asked to wait in the room designated 'the senate'........this place was beautiful........the room inside was full of newspapers of the day......being the first one there i was quick to pick up one paper and started reading........people started trickling in slowly......in all there were around 30 of us when they finally began........

My name was announced in the 2nd GD panel......we were to head off straight for the GD room.........we were seated and a small piece of paper was handed over to us.....the topic was-a case study based on some one by the name of jayanti........she works in the bpo industry......she is called by the name Jane now by all her colleagues........also she celebrates 4th july as her independence day(???)........we were to discuss if the IT industry has eroded a whole generation of indian youth of 'indianness'......the discussion was to last 15 minutes although i dont think it did.......the guy next to me began and it was a bad start i think.........he didnt even define the topic and went ahead......i let him speak for about 10 seconds when i took it up........i gave the GD(or atleast tried to) give the GD a structure.........overall it was a good discussion where most people spoke........

when it finished we were asked to wait for our chance at the interviews........i was no4 in my panel......when we were waiting the whole of my group congratulated me on my GD performance......this gave me a lot of confidence as being appreciated by fellow participants should mean that i would be appreciated by the panel as well......

Anyway my no for the interview came and i was called in........now i dont remember the exact questions at the interview coz its been over a week now but i will try and recall the gist of it.........i think they also applauded my GD performance coz as soon as i entered they tried to stress me by saying that i looked older than my age..........anyway i didnt say anything but smiled........there was a guy and a lady in the 2 member panel........the guy basically asked me acads based questions where my performance was mediocre........the lady was more interested in economics and HR questions like why MBA?........i think my performance was satisfactory there..........there were no questions on the filled form that i had submitted,none on my hobbies and interests........

anyway at the end of it if i were to rate my performance i would give myself a 4/5 on the GD........the interview though was average and i will only give myself a 2.5 on 5 here........so overall i think the interview could have been much better if i had done a little better in the questions based on acads........

my interview lasted around 20 minutes......and i was done with the whole process by 11......overall it was a very enjoyable experience especially the GD part.........there is no point in guessing one's chances at these interviews so i wont even try........i will just hope for the best.........:)

The IIMs Call!!!Part-4

So finally the test date came......the 16th of november........i always thought that it will be the day of redemption......i reached the test centre at around 9 for the test was to start at 10.30.....but we were asked to be present atleast 1 hour in advance..........my IMS centre was very near to this place so i went there and collected wishes from all my teachers and friends......always remember the carry as many good wishes as you can......always gives one confidence........apart from that i was wearing what i refer to as my lucky dress........i am no great believer in superstitions but this is one that i just cant avoid........i felt very confident and that was the purpose......

Anyway the bell rang and we were distributed the sheets........one look at the instructions and i was shocked........40 questions in some section in a 90 question paper?i was sure this would be the english section and i was proved right.........anyway i had confidence from some good va performances in the past few tests and i was not perturbed.........

i always followed this strategy in mocks of starting with the DI section coz i believe that it can give you the maximum momentum........if you can get 3 or 4 questions correct in quick time at the beginning you will see your confidence level shooting up.....this time i searched the whole paper and i saw that english had 20 questions on verbal ability.......i had plans to solve all of them as they dont consume a lot of time and my comprehension performance in mocks was not strong......

So i started with the english section and attempted 4 or 5 questions here..........then i moved on to the maths section and solved some here........i had had kind of a slow start to the test and decided to move on to DI quickly to get back on track.......contrary to the views of some people i actually liked this section a lot in this years paper......

In the end i dont know how those two and a half hours vanished so quickly........out of the 90 questions i had attempted 71....the break up was 20 in maths,21 in DI and 30 in english......i came back to my coaching centre after the test for discussions.....some other students were called in too and we discussed various questions.......i saw that i had done reasonably well in DI and maths.........the english answers like always were a little ambiguous so i thought that i would check the keys later.......

I was shocked to see the keys in the evening......out of the 30 questions that i had attempted in english i was only getting 15 right......but i had very strong belief in 2 of the answers which i had ticked and for which every coaching insti had a different answer than mine........I thought i had messed up my chances.....barely looking at calls from 2 IIMs at the max.........not the result i was hoping for......

Anyway 8th Jan came quickly........the result was coming out the next day i.e. the 9th......the IIMs came out with their keys in the evening and i was elated to fing that 4 questions in the english section had different answers than what the instis had published in their keys........i got 3 of them right and 1 wrong to give me an overall benefit of 2 questions and 10 marks........

When i finally saw the result later that night i had got 55 in maths(15 correct,5 wrong),64 in DI(17 correct,4 wrong),55 in english(17 correct,13 wrong).........an overall score of 174 out of 356......out of the 71 questions i got 49 correct and 22 wrong...an overall percentile of 99.93.........along with the scores the results said that i had calls from IIM ahmedabad,calcutta,lucknow,indore and kozhikode.....and that was sweet......i celebrated a lot with family and friends for the next few days.........

In between i had also appeared for 2 other major MBA exams in XAT and FMS........the results for these two exams came out on the 19th of jan and the 4th of feb respectively......I got a mediocre 99.44 in XAT but the good thing was that XLRI did give me a call in the course that i had applied for..........FMS called me for the GD/PI stage of both the courses i had applied to.........

So all in all it was a great exam season and i had success in every exam that i gave.........coming after the tragedy that i had with the previous national level exam i had taken in the form of IIT this was a big relief......and it was vindication for me......:)

I will come out with my GD/Pi experiences in the posts after this.........so watch out......

The IIMs Call!!!Part-3

The Test series came about with the first test on May 18........As i was associated with IMS i chose their test series and i do not complain.........:).........my test series started on a bittersweet note when i got a 99.95 %ile overall but missed the cutoff for the english section getting just 21 out a possible 100 there........Atleast i got to know what i had to do in the next 6 months.........

There was a long break between the first and the second tests.......i totally messed up the 2nd one and got a mediocre percentile there missing the english cutoff again......finally i redeemed myself with a good performance in the 3rd one as i obtained my first national rank of 18......the 4th one was a disaster.........i mean that literally as i managed a score of 3.5(yes) out of 100 in english........

The tests kept coming and going and i could see no visible improvement in my performance....i started getting ranks regularly but was lacking the spark that i wanted........no rank in the top 10.......also i had never got a 99+ percentile in english......something changed with the 10th test on........i guess the official gmat guide was a big help........my english scores drastically changed......i would recommend that book to everyone who can lay his hand on it......

Anyway the last 2 tests were very good......i ended up with a 99.92 and a 11th rank in the 15th one........and an even better 99.99 with a 3rd rank in the last one......that was the impetus i was looking for......

i remember when i was preparing for IIT one of my favourite teachers ever used to talk about the importance of momentum before a major exam.....he used to give us the example of the 2003 cricket world cup final.....talked about  that famous(or infamous) first over that zaheer khan bowled where he was extra generous with wides and no balls.....and gave australia the perfect start to the match.........

That momentum believe me is very important and it can come from anywhere.........go watch a movie that you really enjoy.....solve some problems that make you happy........talk to people who make you happy......or simply do your last exams well.........:)

The IIMs call!!!Part-2

Ok so here i go with my 'journey' again........I started in july 2007........pretty early i know but i had nothing better to do......Joined IMS and took their preliminary test.....Got a score of 164 out of 300 in that test and i knew i was actually good at this..........I joined regular classes from next week on and we started with 'refresher classes' in the beginning........looking at the whole process now i think the first 2 or 3 months were the most important one........I had the support of an amazing faculty and it was a lot of fun going to classes......

The other thing which i think was very important was my love for solving problems which was kinda inborn..........i built up this concept of scrounging up questions from various places and create a little something i called 'questions for the day'.........i looked at mocks from the previous year,posts on internet sites(pagalguy for one was very helpful) and depending on what i wanted to do that day selected few for everyday........simaltaneously i was attending module classes which were strictly average......

Then another huge confidence booster was a test based on CAT-07 which was called 'CATRAILER'......I got very close to 100 %ile there and that was an ego boost.....:)......anyway at this point i think I'll stop.........I'll come to the test series in my next post........

To be continued........

The IIMs call!!!Part-1.....

I am visiting my own blog after a long time.........Frankly i didnt wanna come back until i would have something really tangible to talk about.....At this point i think i do and so here i am........This is gonna be a series of blogs about my CAT experience and i am gonna hopefully regularly update it with my GD/Pi experiences........

I did not know 1 and a half years ago where exactly was i going with my life........I have always been a 'planner' but for the last 2 years i was just drifting along........The pain of not being at an institute which i thought was worth me(:)) was killing me......And i just let myself be........Then finally i got a hold of myself.........Actually it was mostly my family who guided me.........This feeling of being nowhere and doing nothing just overwhelmed me.........

I finally decided what i had to do........A lot of introspection taught me that i wanted to do something for myself..........I wanted to be something and create something for myself.........And finally i came to the notion that i wanted to carve a niche in the field of retail......And what better place than the IIMs to guide me?

And so i started with with my CAT prep.........I suddenly found out that i was pretty good at this process and was underestimating myself......I finally grew serious and joined IMS for further guarantee of success......I knew if i put my heart and soul into it that i would do pretty well......And that was big enough motivation.........

To be continued......:)