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.