Bhag Bhag DK Bose.

[Statuary Warning: Institute or Any people are not responsible for any of the remarks made here. They are purely out of my mind.]

Its almost 6 days I am here.(IIM Bangalore). I observed lot of things and this is what came to my mind of all things which I observed. DO YOU THINK THIS IS a JOKE??? No.

1. Days in IIMB are much longer than 24 hours. If you think that is against Physics, go and study Physics again.
2. You don't have any control on when you are going to sleep. Nobody is jobless in campus and they will make you work enough so that you are not job less.
3. You cant have hours of time to get well fed and well watered.
4. Day time will be interesting. You will think that this is fun. But the real fun starts in the evening 6PM. If you were not afraid of darkness in your childhood, now you will. With evening fast approaching, you will remember the scenes in "I am Legend.
5. Most important thing, there is open culture. Trust me, even the bathrooms follow this rule by having a door height of 5".
6. And the most important thing(being from an engineering Background) , Boys and Girls hostels are mixed.But you will never ever find a girl in your hostel. You can find girls in all other hostels.
7. In he morning some one will say enjoy your life and in the night you will really really implement it.
8. After a week, you will realize one important thing. All the things which you were running behind, precisely rat-race, is a hoax.
9. From the moment you woke up you will be running behind n number of things and finally what you manage is "You are behaving in a totally unacceptable behavior".
10. Alumni will come and tell you "don't run behind grades" and profs will come and say, " study well". Having deprived from sleep for days, your brain will accept anything and everything any one has to say.
11. Your facebook account will have at least 50 more friends.

IIM Bangalore Interview

This is IT. This will be my final interview. That means I can see the World cup matches peacefully and I can unsubscribe from all the crap that is happening in the world and start following wealthy information in FB.Again thanks a ton to Mr G, for dropping me in time(literally) to the Interview. But this time, no gyan from G as IIM B is within 10 minutes of journey from my house.

I was taken by surprise to see half of the group are the ones who attended IIM Shillong interview. I seriously doubt if guys from Shillong did any hard work to prepare the list. Out of 9 people, 2 were absent.(For IIM B absent means that either they are faculty who wrote exam to know the questions or enthued people who want to screw other's percentiles). The process started at around 9:10.(This is the lonely IIM which started the process late.)

We were asked to sit in a room for essay component. For the first time in my life, I sat in the first row. The topic was "Indian films lack creativity and so fail to entrain people". I couldn't have asked for a better topic than movies or cricket. I wrote about creativity, plagiarism and throughout the essay I paid my thanks to Chakri(Telugu musician famous for his copy cat attitude) and Anu malik. I mentioned about followers of Rajini in Japan/fans of Shakrukh in Pakisthan and said that Indian films do entertain. Overall it was a decent attempt.

After the essay, I went to the canteen and had breakfast. This reminded me of good old college days. He served typical South Indian Pongal and a cup of hot water packaged and sold as Tea. I know I have to wait for a min of 2 hours. I played games and tried to kill the time desperately. Boss, finish off the things soon and I will fly like Shoiab Akhthar to my house to celebrate the end of interviews. One by one, count is reducing and one guy came out and told me that there is a Finance prof in the panel. This very thought of finance prof made me freak. Gone, he is going to kill me. Then I made my mind for 100's of Fukushima Da-ichi's which are going to explode after some time. To cool me they distributed Cool Drinks.(Atypical to other IIM's) Finally I was called in interview at around 12:30. This is how it went.

There are three profs. One of them resembled like a typical north Indian uncle who is in late 40's. He is Uncle for the rest of the topic. There is an old guy with French cut and his face is 95% like Vijay Mallya. He is Mallya for now. And finally there is a young chap, may be a techie turned alumni. He is techie because he is using  the poshest laptop of all three.

Techie: Welcome Narayana for the Interview.
Me:       Good after noon Sir.
Techie:  Good Afternoon and please have a seat.
Uncle:   So, Trinadh you did Civil Engineering.
Me:       Yes Sir, along with Information Systems. It is a 5 year course.
Uncle:    Oh, its a dual degree course.
Me:        (In Clouds) Yes Sir.(Thank GOD I need not explain the same old story of what is a dual degree).
Uncle:     So tell me about supply chain management..
Me:        (I couldn't hear it properly), Sorry Sir.
Uncle repeated the question.
Me: Sir, everything depends on demand and supply. We can have cases where demand out weighs supply or where supply is reduced while demand is constant.(Tried to pour as much knowledge as possible from OR Slides which I revised after my disastrous Rohtak Interview.)
Uncle: Do you have any idea of the figure?
Me: (Figure? Where?) No Sir.I don't know it quantitatively but I can describe it qualitatively.
Uncle: (Oh God, No stories at 12:30, I am already feeling hungry) Its Ok. What is your favorite subject in Civil Engineering?
Me: Transportation Engineering.
Uncle: Tell me how do you manage shortage..
Me:(What Shortage???) Sir, do I need to explain considering entire India or Can I explain taking Bangalore as an Example?
Uncle: Take Bangalore as an example and explain..
Me: (This is your chance to kill as much time as possible so that you won't get massacred by Finance Prof) Sir, in Bangalore raods are not wider and we have trees on both sides of it. So we cannot really go for road widening. But Bangalore has been seen as Indian Silicon valley from a long time. So people should have fore casted this traffic increase and might have prepared for it. But one thing I could really think of is going for an  elevated structure and expansion of Metro(Namma Metro) to more areas.
Uncle: But we do have fly overs..how many do you want?
Me:(As many to satisfy our honest politicians) Sir, most of the junctions we have only one layer of fly overs. If you see countries like China, Thailand have a bunch of layers of fly overs. For example, in Silk Board junction itself, we can go for a under ground bridge.
Uncle: Why not elevated structure?
Me: Sir, there is already one elevated structure. So if we go with one more fly over, we need to increase the column height and it will increase the cost.
Uncle: But you said we need to go for elevated fly overs before?[Me..clean bowled]
Me:(Take the essence) Sir, I supported layers of fly overs. And wherever possible we can use under pass constructions like the one near Jayadeva flyover.
Uncle seems to have bought my explanation or got bored with my bookish answers and signaled Mallya to take it to the next level.
Mallya:  So are you aware of any surveying stuff?
Me: Sir, we did a lab experiment as part of one of the course to estimate the traffic within a time period..and I was to about to explain before I was cut short..
Mallya: Did you do any chain surveying?
Me: yes Sir.
Mallya: Which theodolite did you use?
Me: Sir, I have been out of Civil field for almost 4 years also I didn't do any internship or worked for any civil firms, so I don't remember it Sir.
Mallya: You haven't seen any one with theodolite after your graduation?
Me: Sir mostly I lived in the places which are completely developed(This is 100% lie considering the fact that the place where I used to stay in Hyd was not even had a good hotel..forget about restaurant). So I couldn't get a chance to see them.
Mallya: At what time you go to office and what time you will come back?
me: (From where on earth, this question came after that surveying question) Sir generally I reach at 10:30(Most of the times i will be waking up by that time..not now days though..I miss You D E Shaw:( )and come back at 8:30( really?Do you think so?).
Mallya: Is it office hours or flexi timing?
Me: Flexi Timing.
mallya: What will you do after that?
Me: Sir, I will have my dinner..(acha..good beta..)..then I read blogs,watch movies and if there is some match that day which I missed I will watch highlights of it(why don't you mention your craziness about fantasy league..and discussions on your team performance..).
Mallya:(Eye brows raised)..So who do you think will win the match coming Wednesday?
Me: Sir, I think it is India. Because even statistics suggest that. Dhoni was the captain of T20 WC and there was a match which went to tie and we won that world cup..same happened in Champions league also..and it might happen this time..so we may win the world cup..Also Pakistan main strength is their bowling attack..and leading wicket taker shahid afridi is spinner..so is hafeez..and Indian players play Spin really well..also considering the form sehwag/Sachin are in..Gul shouldn't create much problem..Also our bowling which is of main concern is improved with inclusion of Ashwin..and we already have raina/Yuvraaj who can chip in with some wickets..(Thank you CRICINFO)...so I think India will win..
Mallya might have a bet with his colleagues that Indian will win..and he is happy that some one is talking in favor of his bet..Mean while it is techie who jumps into story...
Techie:  I have fair coin..I tossed it 9 times and every time head came up..what is the probability that it will come as heads tenth time?
Me: Since everything is independent events, probability will be in 1/2.
Techie: tell me what is that Sentiment Analysis which you do at your work..
me:(CONFIDENTIAL)..told him about it on how we mine the tweets..and use them to come up with emotion etc..
Techie: How do you handle Sarcasm..like me saying, Government of Karnataka is doing well..
Me: (Is that what you call a sarcasm..silly guy..)We can analyze the behavior of some person and we can come up with some analysis of that person..suppose if he tweets.. what an excellent show by England for SL-Eng one sided match, we can say that author uses sarcasm..and so we can use that info to mine them properly..
Techie: Ok, so where do you see yourself 5 years down the line..
Me: (I had written for 10 years in my SOP..so i will cut it into half for 5 years..).. Told him about my strategy of being part of some cool idea..
techie: Why do you think MBA degree is necessary for that?
Me: Sir, in my previous company and here, I have always interacted with Project management and I realized that only technical knowledge is not sufficient. management is the bridge which connects technology and its final users. They interact with clients and they know real life problems much better than me..so for all these knowledge I think I need to have a formal education and some experience..(isn't it the same wine in brand new bottle..same thing is there in SOP)..
Techie gave a signal to Uncle to finish off it quickly so that they can go for lunch..
Uncle: Where are you basically from?which part of AP?
Me: Sir, from Vizianagaram, north Andhra Pradesh.
Uncle: (Ok, so this is a buy 1 get 1 question for all those from AP).what is your stand on telangana..
Me: Sir, it should not be given as the protest is mainly an violent agitation and nodding to it means we support violence and it may lead to violence in other places where people are demanding separate state..
Uncle: Tell me logical stand..forget about the way...do you think they are doing it without a reason?
Me: Sir, basically when Nizam gave his kingdom to GOI, he asked for a reservation for the region..but most of the land belonged to landlords..and people to oppose it supported naxalism..so government spent much on curbing Naxalism..while other parts which are rich in natural resources..tried to develope..and they tried to set up factories in capital and so on..(Thank you Jimmy Wales for wikipedia..I promise to pay 10$ next time you come up on Wiki main page asking for donation)..so a financial stimulus package will be a good option..
Uncle: Ok..Thank You..
Techie: Thank You..
mallya(Buried in betting..)
Me: Thank You Sir.

This is IT, my final interview call filledf with on going Cricket fever.

IIM Rohtak Interview

Finally I managed to postpone my interview from Marach4th to March 5th for the new babies of IIM's i.e. Rohtak,Raipur and Trichy. Thanks to Mr.G, for dropping me in time with little bit gyan on how different people handle tension situations. I am supposed to reach venue at 11:30. I reached there at 11:45 and started filling the form right there. Finally entered registration area 5 mins late and lucky to avoid gyan by faculty. We were then taken to 3rd floor where we will have GD and PI. 

There were 3 profs in the panel. One, you can clearly guess that he is a tamil Brahmin.I will call him TamB. The second prof resembles typical government servant  of 80's. I will call him Killer for his killer looks. He can kill a person psychologically with his killer looks. The other guy is a smily. He will give a smile even though you say a blunder and make you feel comfortable though you know that actually you are in a deep trench.

TamB called the names and asked us to sit in a chairs in an U-fashion. 50% of the panel members bunked the interview. Needless to say it is a good GD since there were only 6 people. The topic is "Can common man get justice in India? Or should he approach panchayats?". We discussed about nature of cases to pending number of cases, how to reduce the cases and how to empower panchayats etc. Overall, this is the first GD which I felt like some discussion was happening instead some panchayat where people scream whatever they want. GD time was only 10 mins. So I felt like GD was over the next moment we started it.After GD was over , we were asked to wait outside for PI. I somehow managed to pass on time with a girl sitting next to me. I simply admire this virtue of girls where they laugh at every damn joke you crack though that is the dumbest joke you have ever tried[Except the case where the girl is your lover].First interview went for 20mins,next was for 15mins and next was for 10mins. Going by the trend I assumed it to be just a handshake for me. But it turned out to be other way. Finally I was called for interview.

Me:     May I come in Sir.

TamB: Mr. Narayana Trinadh Kotturu, Please come in.

Me:    [ I was on clouds, This is the first time some one called my name correctly.(May be because he is of same caste????)]

TamB: Are you feeling hungry?Take some toffees.

Me:     Sir, I had break fast at 10:30. So not much. [ I am very impressed with this guy. First time, someone is really considerate of the student. Love you,TamB.]

tamB:  Tell us about yourself, your parents,your sisters and brothers, your education, your hobbies and why MBA in short.

Me:     [ In Short??? telling all those things will itself take at least 15 mins..] Finally managed to say something in 2-3 mins..meanwhile his eyes lit up when I said my sister is a lawyer. [Now he might have understood why I was supporting the useless judiciary system of India, copy-pasted from British Constitution in GD]

Killer: [After flipping through my transcripts thrice] So Trinadh, do you remember anything from your civil engineering.[with a killer smile and look][Please add these killer looks and smile after every question of Mr.Killer.]

Me:   Sir, I remember the basics.

Killer: How many years have you studied civil courses.

Me: Explained him the bitsian system where we do core courses for one year and all other trades for remaining 3 years.

Killer: So pick up any subject which you think you remember something.

Me:    [Sir, I don't reme,mber anything. Should I tell hime structural analysis. NOOOOOOO..you are going to get doomed here..so lets pick something which is by your favorite prof] Sir, Transporation Engineering.[ Later I realized this made my life hell..as KIller is also from Transportation Engineering, I guess]

Killer:  [ This two words worked like a magic and made him feel like RajniKanth..coincidentally he is of almost same age]  So tell me what is CBR?

Me:   [what the hell is it?] Sir, I don't know.

Killer: [With 2x killerlooks and smile] What is transportation?

Me:   Anything which transfers people/materials.[I thought this is the dumbest definition of Transporation any Civil Engineer might have given..so thought of continuing it to some point] It is of four types.1. Railways,where civil engineers design tracks, track radius etc 2. Roadways, where we design two different roads,cement road and Tar road. 3. Naval ways, where we don't have much to do[ to which we don't give a damn] 4. Airways, where we design runway to be as frictionless as possible.

Killer: OK, So how do you estimate the traffic in a city like Delhi.

Me:     I will select few points in some busy roads, and will see how many vehicles are moving in each direction, how much time they are taking to cross the lenght, and use this information to forecast.

Killer:  Are you sure, is this the method.

Me:    Yes Sir, this is the method which we employed at Pilani. [ Pilani=Delhi, aha,,Trinadh, hats-off to your logical mind]. We have this as lab experiment.

Killer: [Understood that I don't know what I am speaking] Do you remember anything from Structural Analysis.

Me:   [If I remember that, I should have told that in the first place itself] Sir, I remember the basics.

Killer: What is indeterminate structure.

Me: [You, I am not able to determine what kind of person you are] [ After killing 5-10 secs] I have heard of this term, but I don't remember.

Killer: OK, you have done Geographical Information Systems, tell me one good use of it.

Me:     Sir, we used it for rain water harvesting in nearby village of Pilani.[ I still remember those days where I used to carry 2lacks worth of GPS instruments to outside the campus to a village, where they used to look at me like a geeky techie]. Sir we tried to construct tanks which are connected to big tank.

Killer:  For that , you don't need GIS. Simple relative levels will suffice.

Me:  [Exactly this was the question I asked my prof then, but I don't remember the answer he gave at that time] Sir, we can use GIS to determine the positions of resources. Also if wee have like multiple contsraints, we can overlap layers of all resources and can come up with ideal locations for the placements pumps etc.

Killer:[Understood that I am pumping the info][Meanwhile smily passed on my grade sheets to Killer. Kiler gave a serious look at my scores and wanted me to beat badly] So you have dome geodesy. What did you study there?

Me:  [ Are you planning to take me as a civil courses assistant???] Sir its almost 4 years since I left the field[My desperate attempt to switch the topic..before this Godzill can finish me] So I remember that we did counters, surveying etc.

Killer:  What is triangulation?

Me:    Sir, we use traingles to determine the area.[ Another dumb answer.But can't help it]

Killer:[Gave a look which conveyed how the hell did you pass out from BITS, with that score?.][He finally gave up the idea of interviewing me as it might badly affect his intellectual quotient]

TamB:  [All the while TamB is just enjoying my ignorance] Tell us something about your work.[ He wants to see me saying any other thing apart from 'I Dont Know']

Me:     Started that I am working on Analytical Reports ans Tweet Mining.

 Every prof gave a look as if I said I am supporting Kasab/A.Raja. I understood that they don't know what is Twitter and distributed three glasses of gyan to them on Twitter and my work.

Smily:  Do you remember anything from Optimisation?

Me:     Sir, in that course we studied about optimizing maximum function,minimum function.

Smily:  What, Optiizing..Max..imum.. function...

Me:     Sir, what I mean by that statement was we tried to optimize the values for maximum or minimum.

Smily:  Give me an example of optimization problem?You may use x,y,z etc..

Me: Sir a1x+b1y+c1=k;a2x+b2y+c2+k2[Then realized that these questions can be solved easily..so told some thing else]

a1x+b1y+c1z=k1,a2x+b2y+cc2z=k2, so we have two equations and three variables, so we need to assume one value and solve for maximum/minimum of others..[ I know this is wrong there itself]

Smily:  Do you remember anything from Operations Research.

Me: Sir, we studied about distributions.

Everyone jumped to their feet and said, W..H..A..T..?

Me:(Afraid) Sir we studied how to solve problems like petrol pump queuing etc using distributions.

Smily: What are those problems called?

Me:    [ How on earth people will remember the names of the problems..especially when you are surrounded by 3 peple who are trying toi kill you with their questions] Sir, I thinbk they fall under queue length problems.

Smily:  They are queuing problems. Ok, now I will ask you something to which you might be familiar, Graphs and Networks.

Me:[ This is the one course which I hated. Me and Pilli, used to attend this class only on Mondays..to see a Pharmacy girl doing lab experiments in adjacent room] I will try to answer Sir.

Smily: Assuming the road network as graph, tell me what are the nodes and edges.

Me:    [ Smily, you rock!!] Junctions will be nodes and connecting roads will be edges.

Smily: In the same analogy, incorporate directed and undirected edges.

Me: Directed-one way traffic, undirected-traffic is allowed to move in both directions

Smily:  So assuming you are starting from (I told him I staty in BTM) BTM layout, how ill you find the shortest route?

Me:      Sir I use Dijkstra's algo or bellman-ford algo.

Smily:  Explain me the algo.

Me: Sir, we start with initial node, and try to relax the node or We start with initial node and will try to find next node which is connected to this node with a minimum weighted edge.

Smily: What you call these kind of problems.

Me:    Sir, I think edge relaxation problems.[ You need to relax].

Smily: Don't you call them greedy problems?

Me: Yes Sir, they are indeed greedy[ Why I am so greedy not to use this term..come-on these the basics]

Smily gave a kind of look that he is done.

TamB: Tell me about your hobbies.

Me:     [Initially I forgot to tell him about my hobbies..TamB is holding this question from a long time] Sir Trekking,playing cricket and foosball.

TamB: What are the places you have visited during trekking?

Me: Sir, I went to Valley of Flowers, dalhousie,vaishno Devi, badrinath,Agumbe and last year i Visted some places near by my city.

TamB:  Who is the first person to reach the summit of Mount. Everest

Me:      Tenzing norgay.

TamB: recently there was some person claiming that he did it before him. Do you know his name?

Me:     [Is he your neighbor..or is it you?] No Sir, I don't have any idea.

TamB: Fine, Trinadh, we are done with your interview.

Me:    [peace restored] Thank you Sir,. can I some toffee?

TamB: Sure Sure. Take all of them, if you want.

Killer gave a disgusting look at me snatching away chocolates which he thought he would give to his grand children.

And thats how my Interview ended. A pure academic interview with a person who forgot his basics and trying to elope from academics. It clearly gave a slap on my face. A real  bad one which I deserve for my lack of preparation for the interview and casual attitude towards young guns of IIM.

    

        

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:

----------

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.

      

IIM Shillong Interview

Here goes my first interview this year. IIM Shillong, seventh of its kind to start, is known for its scenic campus. My interview was on 20th Feb in Institute of Hotel Management,Bangalore. I reached venue 30 mins in advance.Thanks to bangalore, auto wala I paid 100 rupees for mere 8 kilo meters.

When I reached there, there were already atleast 15 people buried inside news papers like Times of India, Hindu and Economic Times. I went there and sat in the last row. (I like being a last bench seater). After 15mins of waiting, a dude with looks like old age Ali baba came and took attendance. After 15mins more waiting, finally they called 9 people for GD inside a room and they assigned numbers to each one of us.

By the time, we entered the rooms there were 9 chairs with number plates and we went there and sat in the seats. Panel consisted of three members with an oldie(I am sure he is 60+) and two young chaps. One of them was bearing a wily smile all the time so I call him, Smily. There was one more guy who is serious enough to make you tense even at the happiest moment of your life. I will call him Pinky for his shirt color. So Pinky came and told that we have a case study in front of us and we have 10 mins to write what we understood about the case and 15 mins to discuss.

We were given a case where with the introduction of genes in pigs, we can make them digest phasphate and make their manure usable to agriculture. There are some people who are opposing this genetic transformation. Now as a member of Food commitee of the country Canada, you need to take a decision on whether to go ahead with the research on genetic transformation of pigs.

Barely I wrwote 10 sentences, Pinky told time is up and you need to start discussion. I thought I would start the discussion. Thanks to a lady on my team, before I can lift my head up from the paper and utter a word she passed 2-3 lines of gyan on the case. From this moment, GD became interesting with every one trying to make their point without worrying about if others are also speaking. This clearly gave me a picture of fresh fish market established inside an A/C room. There were couple of people who don't care of what is happening in the discussion, who is speaking. I thought I will start after this leading lady. Before I can say anything, there was already a race among three guys to become the second one to speak. Finally I got my chance after 3-4 guys fighting. I thought I will atleast give them a direction by laying out a plan and discussing around it. There was this guy who is eager to get the chance rather than listening to what I am saying. He again made the discussion a fish market. Being adaptive to the situation, i trioed to sell some of the fishes which I have for GD, I have tried hard to grab chance from fellow guys couple of times. Finally we ended the discussion when Pinky asked us to cut the crap. Mean while, i was observing oldie what he is thinking. He dropped of his glasses on table, and deeply immersed in the thought of how he can get his insurance money. We came out and I was socked when one of the guys said, it was nice discussion and every one was quiet. Mr.X, you seriously have a great chance of becoming a politician.

GD was over by 2:30PM and my interview started at around 5:30 PM. mean while, i was selling "All The best" biscuits outside the interview room. Had a great time laughing at politics, no of scams which we need to prepare and finally at our fishy GD.

I was called in at 5:30 and what followed is a mix of emotions. Read on....

Oldie: Please come in.

Me: Thank you Sir. [I went at stared at them for their permission to take the seat.]

Smiley: Have a seat.

Pinky: So what is your first name?

Me: [Damn I always get confused between what is first name and what is last name] I would like be called Trinadh Sir.

Pinky: So Mr.Trinadh, please us about yourself.

Me: [Cunning smile] Sir, do you want me to say it elaborately or a quicjk intro will do?

Pinky: [Puzzled at my response], a small one...

Me: Started with birth place,went to family,schooling,+2,extra curricular at school level,BITS Pilani, dual degree,Cisco,D E Shaw,Innovation labs and then hobbies.

Pinky: Why did you get laid off from D E Shaw?

Me: [Don't you have a better question to start my interview?grrrrrr...] Sir, D E Shaw went for staff count reduction for two reasons.

1. Asset base crunching.

2. Rhodes island story.

gave sosme gyan about locking period etc.

Pinky: So how they came up with the list?Is it simply pick some random sheets of papers from the basket?

Me: Sir, It was not random. They were trying to cut the staff where they thought they can simply stop further development either for saturation of features or for no-profit generating projects. Mine was one of the projects which was stabilised in features and gave them different features.[Was expecting to give them more gyan and make them divert to my job on which I talk for hours].

Pinky is smart enough not to get diverted.

Pinky: Ok, since you have some work experience, I will go with some general topics.

Me: [Thank GOD,(no acads..hurray..but sadly this didn't happen)]

Pinky: There was a report which is coming up on recession and all of its effects on various economics. Do you have any idea about it?

Me: No Sir. I am not aware of it.

Pinky: Do you know anything about planning commission.

Me: [Whaaaaaaat..how these questions are related?????????? :X :X] Sir, they generally are the ones which layout five year plans. Apart from their, major work I am not sure of the remaing things they do.

Pinky: have you heard about pay commission?

Me: [Seems like this guy wants some commission from someone] Yes Sir

Pinky: Tell us something about it and who are the beneficiaries of it?

Me: Sir, 6th pay commission suggested some changes to pay structure of Government employees, to bring them at par with job holders in private sectors. Also pay commission, revises pay from time to time.[Isn't that apparent from name of the commission..screw you Trinadh]

Pinky: Do you know any of the work norms that they have suggested?

Me: [I don't give a damn to 6th pay commission.Dude I am into IT..not a govt employee to know in and out of the report] No Sir.

Pinky: [needs more commission] Do you know anything about knowledge commission.

Me: [Is teher anything like that?] I am not aware of it, Sir.

Pinky: [God, why the hell I am interviewing this idiot who doesn't know evena single word about any of the commissions...lemme change the topic..] So Trinadh, this is a logical conclusion of your GD, what is your stand on genetically changed crops and animals?

Me: [Ahhhh..finally some thing i can crap about..] Sir, I completely support genetically modified crops/use of fertilizers. For example, take the situation before 1966..when Green revolution was not introduced..there were poeple opposing it at that time also..but we went ahead and implemented it..and today even though population rose many folds, we are able to have food security with the limited land..

Pinky: [Ok..this guy is gaing some confidence, let's kill it] What are the different genetically modified crops/animals do you know?

Me: [ Should I tell about KFC Chicken store..which I have got long time back..no..] Sir, BT Brinjal.

Pinky: [Hurray, trapped him..now let have some fun].. Do you which company manufactures BT Brinjal?

Me: No Sir.

Pinky: Tell me about some of the problems that we need to face because of this.

Me: [Now, let me introduce you to my new Avatar, The BluffMaster] Sir, last year I read in local news papaer that one of the places in My state(A.P), got very less crop because they implemented Bt Brinjal a year before that. So we need to investigate if farming BT brinjal, will affect any of the crops in future..

Pinky: [Seems like he bought my explanation] So do you know under which ministry this will come?

Me: [ I am a born idiot] Sir, logically it should come under Food and Agriculture.[Later came to know that recently environmmental ministry is dealing with these problems]

Pinky: [Keep you logic with yourself and just tell the answer] Are you sure?

Me: Yes Sir.

Pinky: Who is the minister for it?

Me: Sharad Pawar.[Thank you sharad, even though you failed at bringing onion prices down..you didnt let me down completely]

Mean while, smily who is busy till now gazing through my certificates, woke up.

Smily: Tell me your stand on the topic.

Me: [Good morning Smily. Didn't I say that before???] Sir, I second generitically modifid crops..[and i was about to give that green revolution funda again..before smily stops me]

Pinky: [Gives a kind of look that I am done..now its your turn to have fun]

Smily: Ok, Trinadh, tell me about ur project.

Me: [My project is something related to Twitter..for Confidential reason..I am not putting up the content here] Gave him sufficient info to convince him..

Now, oldie being felt left out,

Oldie: What is Twitter?

Me: [here comes my third avatar,Mr.Enthu] Sir, Twitter is a microblogging service[Does he know what is a blog btw??] We can update our status, give comments,reviews and talk about anything in 140 characters.For eg: I can tweet"I am at IIM Shillong interview" to let my friends know that I am here for an interview[To make them understand that I am getting screwed up badly three strangers]

Smily: Do you remember anything about Software Engineering.

Me: Sir, in that course I have read about water fall model,agile model[Really?] etc etc..[These are the only two things which I remember from that course which I hated to the core]

Smily: So tell me about water fall model and agile model and tell me about pros and cons of it.

Me: Thanks to my 2+years of exp, gave some gyan.

Smily: Now tell me some examples and convince me that they are suitable for the specific model.

Me: for water fall mkodel, Windows like developement where most of the requirements will be frozen[Sorry ,Microsft guys] and gmail for Agile model.

Smily: Do you how to estimate Cost of the project?

Me: [Gave some lame answer which even a kid will give] It depends on resources we have, features which wee need to implement,licenses which wee need toacquire(if reqd), hardware..(Smily cuts me..)

Smily: How do you estimate Time required?

Me: Critical Path method..this will give minimum amount of time required to complete the project..and was about to start explaining about precedence graph etc..

Smily: [Damn, lets ask something to screw him]..Do you know anything about CoCoMo model?

Me: [Sir, I know only Docomo] Sir, I have heard about it ..but not sure..

Smily: Ok, lets go ahead with your first degree, Civil Engineering, do you remember anything in it?Or completely forgot?

Me: [ Kill me now..] Sir, I remeber the basic..but not specifiactions and formulae..

Smily: OK, now look at the beam upwards and tell me what are materials (only imp ones) used in it..

Me: Sir, it will have concrete and steel..since concrete cannot take tensile stress, we need to put steel...

Smily: Ok, now if I have 2x2x10 beam, tell me how do you calculate amount of steel and concrete required..

Me: Gave my answer, first calculate tensile stress of beam, then calculate steel reqd based on type of steel used, then calculate compressive strength provided by steel and subtract this from total comp.strength to get amount of concrete..

(Thanks to my Civi profs.. I remember atleast fundas from Civil)

Smily: Ok, on Shore near the sand there was a kid playing and suddenly he disappeared..what might be the reason?

Me: [He might have thought of attending IIM Shillong interview] Sir, since sand is a loosely coupled soil, he might have sinked into it...(before coming up with this answer, I gave stupid reasons like water might have taken him away, there might be HALLOW space benath the place where he is standing..Trinadh, which planet are you from?Hallow space ?Come on......]

Smily: [Looks at oldie..and conveys that..Mr,Grand old man of India, its your turn to play]

Oldie: tell me about the dialemo?

Me: [Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? What is that..is it a sibling of dynamo..]

Oldie: Tell me aboutr ethical dilemma

Me: Distribute the same old wine in brand new bottle..

Oldie: What is dilemma in it?

Me: Sir, I have two options of whether to tell my new company about my layoff or not..but I thought I will tell them..and I was even ready to face more rounds if they want..

Oldie: [Nods his head in disapproval]....

Me: [ Come on..its not a cooked up story to give a masala taste..take the essence of it..]Gave a sad look..

Smily: Thank Trinadh. All The best. have a candy before you leave.

Me: [God has sent you today to save me..] Thank you sir.

There I come with my favorite candy(alpenliebe) in my mouth..after a series of strikes targeted at my brain..