IIM Lucknow Interview

Here goes the story of IIM Lucknow, City of Nawabs Interview.

Today, I am fortunate enough to not to get robbed by Bangalore autowala. Mr.G, is celebrating Shivarathri holiday and dropped me to the venue. During the transit, Mr.G introduced his unique idea of what is sub-conscious brain to me(A brain less chicken). The first thing that came to my mind when I entered the hotel for interview was, this must be hotel run by some IIM alumni who is giving some rebate to IIM faculty. I came to this conclusion as the entire hotel was filled with IIM interviews. IIM A,C,L,Rohtak are happening at the same time. Some of the faculty even went a step ahead and brought their kids so that they can directly go to Kerala from here and have fun on beach side after ripping us front,back,cross-sectional and diagonal.

I went to third floor where I am supposed to be ripped off.After some time, we were called into some room where ten chairs were arranged in U fashion with my position along with two others facing the faculty. There are two profs. Both are 50+(at least as per their looks) and one is silent and other is taking care of everything from conducting GD to verifying certificates. Lets call him Mr.Enthu. Other is a calm guy who never spoke during entire GD and even in some interviews he was silent(As per the people who had interview before me). Lets call him Mr.Cool. Now enthu came and checked all possible documents related to CAT and took the forms from us.

GD topic was "Taboos and Traditions are nothing but a cultural baggage".  First of all, I don't know what is taboo. I know this raises a question in your mind that, how the hell did I got selected for IIM L.  Go and ask Promteric for an answer. So I managed write three paragraphs in 15 minutes without touching taboo. I was almost clue less at the end what to write. GOD understood my misery and made enthu say, "Please stop writing". Now we have to discuss this for 15mins more. I was waiting for some one to start, to get what is really a taboo. Hell, nobody spoke what is a taboo in the entire GD except using it some times. Contrary to my Shiilong Experience,, this is not a FISH market. I got the chance to speak only after some geniuses, discussed topics ranging from what is baggage, what is tradition and JEWS 666.(I don't know what the heck it is). Finally I got a chance, thanks to guy sitting next me, for giving  that opportunity. I went ahead and spoke for 1 minute on what I feel Tradition and giving example of wearing a saree in Indian marriages. I managed to speak 3 times and 4th time i got the chance, I asked one of my fellow mate for his opinion[He didn't get a chance till now, though he tried to speak couple of times]. Finally we ended up discussion after one of the members concluding it.

I was the 7th person to be called for the Interview.Before Interview I roamed in Infantry road to get a decent hotel to have my lunch. Finally I landed up in a hotel called The gateway of Taj Restaurant. If I have to a caption for that hotel, it will be "Simply roadway to Hell". Food was barely OK. I came back and had my chance of getting raped by panelists.

Interview:

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Enthu: Narayana, Please come.Have a Seat.

Me:    Thank You Sir.

Enthu: So do you want us to consider you for PGP-ABM also?[This was because prior to me all the candidates said that they don't want to go for ABM option..ABM-agri business management]

Me:    [Oh. yeah]  Yes Sir.[I managed to search companies which come for Placements in pagalguy. So was confident about it].

Enthu:  O.K. So do you have any exposure to rural areas?

Me:      No.

Enthu: Then what motivated you to apply to this course?

Me:     [I know you will ask this question] Sir, even today, most of the Indian population depends on agri related business. If I can work there, I feel that I am working at root level of the society.

Enthu:  That will be case with everyone working there. What is so special about you?

Me:     Sir, it is one of the factors which motivated me?

Enthu:  So what are the other factors?

Me:    Sir, during my child hood , A.P. State government came with a concept called Raithu Bazar(farmer Bazar), where farmers can directly sell their products thus avoiding the middlemen. Because of this price of potatoes reduced from Rs 10 to Rs 8.[For the fact, I have never been to Raithu bazar and I am damn sure that kilo potatoes won't be Rs.10 at that time. But yeah, since I have said that, I will be sticking to it]

Enthu: [Looks like he bought my concept]

Enthu:   Have you ever stayed in rural areas or worked there?

Me:      [Why are you asking different question for same answer????] No Sir.But as part of one my project at BITS,Pilani , I went to near by village and collected data about elevations of different points. [ This very thought demotivated me. The prof who wanted this data shouted at me couple of times(even a get out) because  I was not able to get complete data]. And we used this data to come up with a water management scheme[ Damn, I forgot to mention catchy term which we used to say for this donkey work, "Rain Water Harvesting"] [This answer is like submitting myself to prof. What followed next is  a massacre]

Enthu: So is it some thing related to Drift irrigation.

Me:    [Without even knowing what is drift irrigation] No Sir.

Enthu: So what is Drift irrigation?

Me:    [ Trapped like a pigeon in pigeon hole principle] Sir, it is mainly useful in Hill areas[ Really?Say something..don't care about whether it is true or not]

Enthu:  So what is the difference between normal irrigation ]drift irrigation.

Me: [The word "Drift"] Sir, drift irrigation will be used to pump water from one area to other where water is not available.[ Except last sentence, every other thing is a blunder]

Enthu: [ You are the idiotic person I have seen in my life] OK. So tell me how will you design a over head water tank for a ssmall town?

Me:    [ Google interview question] Sir, what is the population of town.

Enthu:  Assume 500.

Me:     Sir, if we assume 15 litres of water for bathing, 3 litres for utensil cleaning per peson, 2 litre for drinking water..and Sir do we need to design this for irrigation also?[What a clever question? Mr. Trinadh, have you ever seen a over head water tank being used for irrigation purposes???]

Enthu: [1 2 3 4..bandh karo ye atyachar] Assume all that to be some some value.

Me:     Sir assuminhg x, it will be 500x per day. I will go for a buffer of 1 day stock., since there may be disruptions of water supply and we don't want that to affect[Screw] people of the town. So we get the volume. So V=(Pi)*r*r*h, so get the radius and height.

Enthu: Now design the motor to lift the water and supply this ater to entire city?

Me:     [ My dear enthu, do you need to submitsome proposal like this or what? Why are making me design whatever you have to do] Sir, I am not quite sure of the electric motors used there.

Enthu: You don't have this in your civil course.

Me: No Sir.

Enthu: Strange!!Ok how do you measure how water is flowing in pipe?Do you knwo anything about it?

Me:    Sir, it is measured through flow rate(Q) which is V/A. So if we want the volume, it will be V=QA.

At this point, enthu was almost done and gave a look to Mr. calm to become mr.Hot on me.

Cool: You have good academics in Civil, you know these concepts in a well versed way, so why did you go to IT field?

Me:  Sir, I am equally well in Compuer science fundamentals.

Cool: But why did you choose IT field, you could have been a good civil engineer.

Me: [Really??/Great yaar] Sir, I am good in Compsci also and I thought number of opportunities will be more.

Cool:  But they laid off you. What are the reasons for layoff.

Me:    Sir, before the layoff I got many appreciations[ This is 100% false statement, Appreciation is one thing that is mutually exclusive with D E Shaw]. Sir, their asset base reduced and went into troubles because of Rhodes Island issue. So have to go for staff count reduction.

Cool:  But[Interrupted by Enthu saying that it will happen in companies. Mr. Enthu you are my savior, you saved me during pre-GD y calling "time -up" and now here you are saving me for second time]

Cool:  OK, so tell me where do you see yourself in 10 years.

Me:     [ Hurray..this is my first line in WHY MBA?] Sir, in 10 years down the line, I want to see myself in a position where I will be playing a key role in a path breaking idea.

Cool:   OK, so tell me some ideas which interested you.

Me:     Sir tata docomo with one second pulse rate. They started it and every one in the industry followed it. Air Deccan, they came up with cheap flight programme which made even normal people(the so called cattle class of Shashi tharoor) travel in Air.

Cool:   Any other ideas?

Me: Sir Akshaya Patra Foundation.

Cool: [became super active as if some one is giving free meal to him for 30 days in 5 star hotel] So tell me about akshaya patra foundation.

Me: Sir, it was started with 1500 people..and today..[I was being cut by cool]

Cool: So where did you read about this?

Me:  Sir, in wikipedia.

 Cool now became Hot as if Jimmy wales is the arch rival.

Hot: Why didn't read a book about it? Wikipedia may not give complete information.

Me: Sir, it will give me an idea of project, and I can always dig into references if I want details.

Hot:  Ok, have you heard about any other ideas..

Me: Sir, there was an NGO[Action.ready..Cut  again]

Hot:  So having seen many ideas, do you have any specific idea.

Me: Sir, I don't have complete idea, but i have a vague picture of some thing.

Hot: Yes, please go ahead.

Me:  Sir, I have an idea like, a corporate will take ownership of some village/locality,develop facilities there and charge from people of that locality..like toll gates ..

Hot:  Tata, have this idea  from last 50 year..anything new..

Me: Sir, it is different as in we will be kind of maintaining private panchayat which is accountable to Government thus people..

Hot: Ok, any other ideas..

Me:  [ If I have so many ideas, why the bloody hell I will be here.. I would have been some where giving gyan to people how cool my idea was] Sir, currently I don't have many ideas, but I think I will develop them though years in MBA and later..[I really doubt this..it would be great if I don't loose my mind..GOD knows about new ideas]

Hot now became cool.

Cool: Trinadh, I will suggest you to read this book, "Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid" by C.K.Prahlad.

Me:    Sure Sir[ that I will not even look for it in google]

Cool:   I was expecting you to name that book, that is why I told wikipedia will not give you complete information..

Me:   Sorry Sir.[I promise you that after I finish my interviews, I will not look at them at all]

Looks at enthu, if he has something to ask.Enthu says no.

Enthu: Take some toffee.

Thank you Sir.Thank you sir[For ripping me in all possible directions]

There ends the blood bath.

I gave toffee to Vamshi,  as I was not in mood to have some sweet, after the sour interview.Thanks to Vamshi,Ashish and Pankaj, I spent my 2hrs of waiting fruitfully without being lonely. After the Interview, I made a complete round of Chinnaswamy Stadium, (Ireland vs England was happening at the same time] to get a bus to my place.