so 8th march was my d day.

there were 3 profs in panel and batch size per panel was 8. but one guy in my batch didnt appear (yeah yeah, ppl do miss iim a interviews). there were few friends of his and they were telling me that this guy got full waiver in MS from a decent university, so he dropped the plan for MBA. *thank God for small mercies*

Lets start with GD. it was a case study and it blew. pathetic would be an understatement and i was completly dejected by the time it ended. but may be it was good for me. i knew i have nothing to loose, as i'm already out of contention for the seat, and this subconcious thought help me do better in interview. but i still cant believe that GD could have been this pathetic.

lets switch to interview now, which i feel was ok. but i could not have done better than this, actually i didnt know anything more than this :P

P2: hello anshul, please hand me your certificates.
A*gives them his folder*
P2: so anshul, did you have tea? :)
A: thank you, I don’t drink tea.
A1: you don’t?
A*smiles*: no sir, i don’t like it.
P2: oh, that is strange.
A: yes sir, I’m not against it hardcore, but prefer not to have it.
P3: so do you drink whiskey?
A: no sir, I don’t take alcohol as well.
P3*devilishly*: oh you said hardcore, so i thought u drink hard.
A*what a pathetic pj*
P2: so what do you drink?
A: I drink milk, lassi and fresh lime, and occasionally cold drink.
P2: hmm, you are a good boy. But you know tea is good for health. it very good for blood and removes laziness.
A: yes sir, i have heard it purifies blood and act as detoxifying agent. And with regular lemon tea, skin glows.
P2: yes, but as soon as u add milk to it, all of it is gone. Tea is good only without milk.
A*whatever**smiles*
P2: yeah, you are a chemical engineer na. So can you tell me two things which are good, but if you mix them product is harmful?
A*hmmmm*: I guess hydrogen and chlorine. But hydrochloric acid is not good. Not that its bad, but it can be harmful.
P2: chlorine in itself is harmful.
A: oh, then may be hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur combine to make sulfuric acid*grins*
P2: *laughs*
P1: take biscuits please, or you don’t eat biscuits as well.
A*grins*: no sir, I eat biscuits.
*takes one good day*

P1: so anshul, what do you want me to ask from you, chemical engg or software?
A*grins*: sir, I’ll prefer software.
P1*laughs*: then I’m going to start with chemical engineering.
A*laughs with him*: as you wish sir.
P1: so what is market risk?
A: sir, I have worked on market risk software solution, but I don’t have much idea about it. But I can try it.
A: blah blah
P1: now you don’t want me to go in details of portfolio management?*grins*
A*smiles*: no sir.
P1*smiles*: ok, so this project MR-STAR of DB with which you were working, what was it about?
A: blah blah
P1: so you were into development?
A: yes sir.
P1: hmm, so you are chemical engineer. Let’s see, you are given a job in Pharma Company to design a database for them, for their various products, specifying contents, moisture content, assay.*he gave me whole funda of pharmacy, which I have never heard of. My god, I can’t believe how anyone can know so much. I started smiling* so what all tables will you define tables?
A:*I cracked this question, made a brilliant architecture*
P1*smiles*: so what is a relational database?
A: blah blah
P1: so tell me name of few databases?
A: oracle, my sql, ms sql, Sybase
P1: you missed access.
A: oh yes sir, access of course.
P1: which one have you worked with?
A: only oracle.
P1: ok. So tell me difference between mass transfer and mechanical operations?
A: blah blah
P1: let’s take one beaker of water, and add salt to it. It will dissolve, right? Can u draw me the curve of rate of solution vs. time?
A: hmm, sir I’m not very sure but it should be a reverse exponential curve, taking time on x axis.
P1: and why so?
A: sir, initially the conc. of salt will be zero in water, so conc. diff will be high and so higher mass transfer. But slowly as concentration of salt in water will increase, driving force that is conc. Difference will reduce and so will the rate.
P1: hmm, ok. So will this curve ever meet x axis?
A: I guess not sir.
P2: now consider a case, when I’m continuously adding more and more salt. Now what will happen?
A: sir, I don’t think it will make any difference.
P1: so what will happen at time infinity? Will it meet?
A*ponders*: hmmm no sir.
P1: have you heard of super-saturated solution?
A*oh my god*: sorry sir, it will meet x axis and not on time infinity but long before that. It will depend upon solubility of solute in solvent, temperature and many other factors.
P1*smiles*: and what about in other case?
A: it will depend upon amount added, after a particular amount, solute will stop dissolving and rest all will settle down as precipitate.
P1: so have you heard of super-saturated solution?
A: yes sir. Blah blah
P1: what will happen if its sugar in place of salt?
A: nothing will change sir, just solubility is different for sugar and salt, so only shape of curve will change but not its nature*smiles*
P3: in your weaknesses you have written that sometimes you get so engrossed in work of your liking that you tend to forget your other responsibilities
A: yes sir
P3: so while playing computer games, you ignored your studies?
A: not exactly sir
P3: but you get so involved that you don’t know what is going on around you?
A: yes sir, sometimes I won’t even realize that my friend came into my room.
P3: can you tell me some other incident when you get so involved where you compromised your studies?
A*since cgpa is not good, no point arguing that I never compromised*: sir, during illumination competition, I was involved in huge magnitude. It the kind of work I like to do and in sync with my skills.*please ask me question on illu*. I was heavily involved for about a month during all four years of my stay and at that time I fell I have compromised with my studies. But I feel that helped me in many other fronts. I learnt various other intangible skills like how to work in team, how to take decisions, how to manage resources, how to motivate people and I feel I’m a much better person now.
P3: now you said your hobby is analyzing movies
A*yo baby !!*: yes sir!! *smiles*
P3: ok, latest movie I saw was "GURU". Can you analyze that movie for me?
P3*turn to other panelists*: have you seen that movie?
P1: yes, I have *smiles*
P2:*nodded*
P3: anshul please go ahead.
A: sir, I feel the strongest point of the movie was its story. It was written brilliantly and was well executed too. Its amazing how one can portray almost lifespan of a person in such a short time and still able to tell what he wants. It helped maniratnam to direct a movie for which he himself has written the script and screenplay. This way he can execute his vision properly without any conflict of interests and opinions. He directed it brilliantly, and the movie was very gripping. Pace was good, but still I feel the length of the movie was not acceptable. It was way too long. And camera work I didn’t like much. For a director of maniratnam’s caliber I was expecting a better job with more close-ups.
Movie could have been shorten by not picturising few songs. I can’t see rationale behind that twins songs.
P3: as a matter of fact, do you think any song is necessary?
A: no sir, I’m not in a favor of songs in movie. At least not in favor of increment the length of movie half an hour that way.
P3: why do they out songs?
A: sir, mostly because it appeal to the masses here.
P3: what do you think?
A: sir I feel many a times lyrics of the song add to intensity of the shot. Let’s say a romantic song will help people understand song the deep feeling of love of couples for each other. Like the song “tere bina” portrayed exactly that.
P3: but don’t you think directors anyways do that in the scenes. And also they are providing visual aid to a story.
A: sir, I agree but songs are more appealing. They have rhythm and they can shape up the mood in a much better way than any shot. But I personally feel for that running around the tree and dancing is not the only way. I feel they should play the song in the background and vary the volume accordingly. If there are some dialogues then the volume should come down to almost mute level, while it can be raised again later. It will reduce the length of the movie significantly.
P3: ok. Anything else you wish to say about the movie.
A: sir I was moved by the acting of abhishek bachchan. He was superb.
P3: can you elaborate
A: sir, the intensity in his eyes was brilliant. I feel this was his best roles till date and this was his best performance till date. He delivered exactly what was expected out of him. He had that sign of passion and confidence in his body language. In particular I like the scene in which he encounters the businessman in the market. He was superb. I liked the way he picked up gujrati accent.
P3: you speak gujrati?
A: no sir.
P3: then how do you know that his accent was good?
A: sir, I don’t know if it was authentic or not, but he felt comfortable with it. I have seen many movies in which people pick up accent but perform below par. I feel that he had done a great deal of homework.
P3: what about aishwarya?
A: sir, I feel she was ok. She was looking very graceful. I should appreciate makeup artist for that.
P3: hmmm.
P3* turns to other panelists*: you want to ask something else?
P1: it’s ok.
P2: it’s ok
P3: thanks you anshul
A: thank you sir
P2: please collect your certificates and yeah*smiles* please have some toffees.
A*takes on melody :D*: thank you sir !! :)

so this was it. remember all this i faced when i have slept only for 10 hours in last 72 hours. yeah yeah champions league and office were taking its toll on me. and the fact that i was going to face A's interview was giving me nightmares and i had spent a lots of sleepless-rolling-on-the-bed nights.

please keep your fingers crossed :D

Labels: I, Memoirs