• in our country expecting parents go to temples to pray for fair skinned child
• we are the biggest market in the world for fairness creams
• our matrimonial advertisements say “…wanted fair skinned homely girl for Engineer/MBA, 6 figure salary earning boy’

What is Racism?

According to Wikipedia (and yes, there is nothing down market about quoting Wikipedia), Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups (emphasis mine) justify discrimination.  So basically, if you and I belong to different racial groups, and I discriminate against you for having different facial features, skin color and other different physical (or behavioral, maybe) characteristics, then I am racist.  So, when Caucasian people (let’s just call them whites)  in North America enslave people of another racial descent  (who happen to have a different skin color) so, yes, they were racist.

Coming back to the Indian context, and the question, Are Indians Racist? Let’s just talk about the reasons that people give to support their argument,  again.   They say, Indians are racist, because of the widespread use of fairness creams, because parents want their daughters (and sons too) to be fair, because fair skin complexion is touted as a positive quality in matrimonial advertisements.  OK, all that is true, and maybe that is bordering on discrimination against dark complexioned people also, but can that be called racism?  Are we discriminating against two different races of people based on their skin color.

Now please allow me to give you a brief lesson on ethnic groups of India.  Basically, there are three major types of us, Aryans (or your friendly neighborhood profanity yelling North Indians), Dravidians (or your Sambar-Sadam eating South Indians), Mongloids (people from North-East, and if I use the C word, THAT will be racist).  Since this is not a doctoral research paper on ethnic make-up of India, I will spare you further details.

So, if I were to discriminate against people from the North-East on the basis of their facial features, I will be racist, and the same probably goes for skin color for people from down south.

But coming back to the fairness cream and matrimonial adverts issue, I think using the term racism is just borrowing the word/term in a totally different (and irrelevant) context.  I mean differentiating on color would be called racism in North America or Europe but not when teenage girls (and their parents) fuel the sales of FMCG cos by buying fairness creams.  And nowhere, I am implying that it is a healthy trend.  What I am saying is that, it is wrong to call it racism.

Call it ‘Colorism’ (don’t know if such a word/term exists, and if it does, what it means) but it is definitely not Racism.  So next time, when a person at the supermarket picks up that fairness cream for her daughter, or a celebrity cries herself hoarse for a magazine having ‘lightened’ her skin color, take a moment, think about this article, before you start yelling RACIST in your head.

And without any hesitation my answer was always the same

XLRI

FMS

MDI

But it all changed the day I went to FMS for my interview. To be honest I don’t know what changed it. It definitely wasn’t the infrastructure, I mean FMS hasn’t got the most attractive of buildings not even close to it.

Probably that was it. That old red building with this quaint feel to it. The whole North Campus area, with KMC directly opposite to FMS. Flanked by Delhi School of Economics on one side and Hansraj on the other. With Hindu and Stephens in the neighbourhood.

I don’t know what exactly happened but sitting on that cane chair outside the interview room I knew this is the place I want to be for the next two years of my life (quite filmy, na!!)

I still went through the routine of asking more learned and experienced people about their advice but I was just looking for reasons to support my choice than anything else.

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Today as I finish this saga of CAT Tales, Life after CAT and A New Hope, I would like to take this opportunity to thank myself on your behalf for the wonderful work that I have done in coming out with this blog. I know you don’t have words to express your gratitude towards me, but its Ok, I understand.

Jokes apart, writing this blog has been a wonderful experience (I am sure reading it wasn’t so wonderful). When I first started writing it I never knew so many people would be reading it (had I known I would have added Adsense).

So this is it. We finally come to the end of my journey to a B-school. For those of you who have been jobless enough to read this , there is more exciting stuff to come. As you must have read in the Teaser there is another series in the pipeline about Life @ VIT.

For those of you who were not there with me read it for an account of fun filled four years (my perspective entirely) and for those who were there read it to find out what kind of light you are being portrayed in .

Adios, Amigos!!!!

Promotional Message Follows

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Keep visiting this space to read about Life @ VIT

“Bhai XL ka kya hua? Result out!!”

Those with good retaining power will realise that he was the one who told me about the XL written result as well. Infact I noticed this after writing this post.

Well I didn’t feel much anxiety. I just logged on to the internet and opened the XLRI website. As I finally reached the result page, I entered my roll no in a hurry. And then there was this message on the screen.

“Sorry the candidate with this roll number hasn’t qualified”.

Before I could feel or react my cousin who was sitting beside me said

“Oh ho bevkoof!!! Itni zaldi kis baat ki hai, ye keyboard kharab hai. Try the num pad.”

Then I looked at the screen and realized that a few of the keystrokes had failed to register.

Anyways I entered my roll number again, this time more slowly, carefully and using the Num Pad.

And the screen now read

“Congratulations!! You have secured admission into the BM program 2008-2010 of XLRI”

And that was it. I didn’t feel very different after it. There wasn’t much jubilation or anything. I just called up Daddu (Jayant) to tell him about the result and that was it.

More to come in the next post…..Keep reading…. Fight illiteracy

By the way I was home at that time. I had decided to spend some time there after the interviews.

I was logged on to Pagalguy where other restless souls like me were trying to get an idea about the results. Anyways rumors kept floating around.

When the result is ready, the list is first put up at FMS noticeboard and then it is put up on the net. After an agonizingly long wait, somebody posted that the result has been put up on the FMS notice board. That was the time when I felt the most helpless in my life. I knew the results had been announced but there was no way I could know my result at least for the next ten minutes.

And then somebody posted on Pagalguy that she had got a mail from FMS regarding her selection. At that time I felt it was all over, I had not got a mail so that was it. And then my internet connection got disconnected ( I am not making it up, it really happened). The next 30-45 seconds before I reconnected cant be described in words.

And when I finally did get reconnected, as I was trying to navigate to the latest post on PG, I noticed that I had a new mail in my mailbox. There it was!!! A mail from the FMS Admissions announcing that

“You have been provisionally empanelled for MBA (Full Time) program”.

I didn’t knew what it meant but you certainly don’t reject someone with these many words.

And my joy knew no bounds.

I don’t know whether I had felt this happy ever in my life before.

Anyways the next few days went answering congratulatory calls and then I started giving serious thought which college I would ultimately join if I were to get an admit from XLRI.

Of course there was still the chance that XLRI people could spare me all this brainstorming by rejecting me!!!

Read Why FMS in the upcoming posts.

When we entered the Interview/Discussion room there were three professors in the panel. One was the Dean himself Prof. J.K. Mitra. After we took our places he congratulated us for having cleared the written part of the exam. Then he gave a brief overview of the GD and the Interview process. He also told us about the much dreaded Extempore. After that he asked for a volunteer to pick up a chit for the GD topic. A girl went forward and the topic on the chit was

“Nobody studies for an MBA, everybody studies for a job”.

Somebody has a sense of humor!!!!

Something really weird happened in this GD. I didn’t speak for the first 3-4 minutes. I don’t know why, probably because I just wanted to see how the group would act, or I wasn’t sure what I wanted to talk about. Anyways when I did speak I tried to present a new angle to the topic (doesn’t everybody).

Here I must add that the discussion was quite civilized, probably the topic had a lot to do with it. Everybody allowed everybody else to speak and present their points in a peaceful manner. Infact there was this 3-4 seconds pause during the discussion (trust me, 4 seconds in the middle of a discussion is very long time)

Anyways after some time a female prof announced that we had one more minute left to discuss.

That was when everybody started to speak at once. It would have been better to stay out of that conundrum, but then some point came to my mind and I interrupted another participant (with proper courtesy) and made my point.

And then we were told to wait outside while we were called for the interviews one by one. This time I was the third last person to be called for the interview.

Meanwhile, sitting outside the interview hall (it can in no way be called a room) we got to hear how did the people who went in early fared.

A girl who had mentioned about organizing fashion shows in her college in her resume was asked to name two fashion magazines and now for the most shocking part, she couldn’t. While we were joking around I told her even I could name 2 fashion magazines :- Vogue and Maxim. When I mentioned Maxim the girl sitting next to me rolled her eyes and said “Maxim is not a fashion magazine”. Time for a sheepish smile.

Another interviewee was asked to speak on “White Buffalo” for a minute for her extempore.

Finally the seventh guy went in for his interview (I was eighth) and that’s when I started feeling tensed. To be honest I had not felt tense in any of my interviews before. Infact I was surprised during my XL interview that I was so cool. Again MDI was a stress interview but I didn’t feel it. But here in FMS I was feeling tense even before the interview had started (it cant be good!!!)

Now the guy before me came out and as I was standing there and waiting for the bell to ring (so that I could go in) I thought this was the worst kind of torture anybody could be subjected to!!

The bell rang and I entered the interview hall. The interview hall had this long table behind which sat the Dean and this female professor. I will refer to the dean as P1 and the female professor as P2.

Once I had taken my seat, the interview started.

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P1 : so were u here last year??

M : no sir I am a fresher

P1 :I see , you are a fresher

P1 : so u r from VIT, anybody else from VIT here??

M : I am not sure Sir, but somebody told me there was a guy from our college here some time back, but he must have graduated by now.

P1 : ok, ur extempore topic is “sole of shoe”

M: (gulp) aye aye sir, blabbered something …..when I saw P2 resetting the stop clock I stopped

P1 goes through my profile and says Oh u have won prizes in extempore, we should have given u a more difficult topic

I just smiled. (kahe mazaak uda rahe ho sir, waise hi kuch khas nahi bola)

anyways at this point a third prof(P3) enters and takes his place

p1: so dont u have a hobby or something??(what made him say that)

m: I do sir, defence aviation, quizzing and …….

P3 : ok amit, so what is Comanche?

M : (aila plane, yehi to apun ko aata hai)…..told him its an attack chopper and on and on and on.

P3 : what is special about comanche

M : launched into my answer…after some seconds thought I should stop….took a pause since nobody

interrupted listed some more…..told him about inverted flying…

P3 : ok what about a plane which flies very fast and very high and stealthy too?

M : (i am loving it, bata dia…thodi extra info bhi daal di …) told him that probably he was talking about SR-71.

P1 : what about f-16?

M : (bahut bhadiya hai sir….aur thoda bola….) explained basic characteristics

P1 : what about its stealth characterisitcs?

M : (nah sir, woh thoda alag hai) Told him it wasn’t designed with stealth in mind.

P1 : ok, which sector would u like to go to after mba?

M : defence aviation, sir

P1 : Which company in particular??

M : lockheed martin, sir(jo muh me aaya bol diya, whats wrong with me!!)

P1 : ok, does it come to the campus , I dont think so!!

M : (abhi nahi aati to kya hua, mai hoonga to aa jayegi , gave gyaan about opening up of defence scene in india)

P2 :- ok, do u track financial markets??

M : (thoda bahut)little bit

P2 : where did the sensex close yesterday?

M : around 15400, (pause for a moment) 15357 to be precise (this again was in feb, tab se dekho kaha pahuch gaya hai sensex, India Shining!!!)

p2: nice but it was 15387

time for a sheepish smile

p1:thank u, u can go now

m: jaisi aapki aagya

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Ok, now my take on the interview. Obviously my first reaction after the interview was that I had done ok. Not very good, but not bad either. There were questions on fighter aircrafts which I could answer confidently and accurately and could also show off my immense gyaan in the field

But I wasn’t very happy with my performance in the Extempore. I had not stopped midway or something but I could have put better content (20/20 hindsight).

Anyways that was it, all my three interviews were now done and all I could do now was just wait for the results (besides visiting temples and praying).

Read about the results in the next few posts (you actually know about them, but jab itna jhela to do aur padhne me kya chala jayega!!!)

I have been asked this question zillion times before. And every time someone did I had an answer which I just rewound and played.

Read it as I repeat it for the last time, Why FMS over XLRI?? In the following posts….

This is a short story which I wrote some time back. Just read this and if you have any comments please feel free to write them. So here goes the story

He woke up all drenched in sweat and his first reaction was to look around him in order to find out where he was. A quick glance around, and he knew exactly where he was and most importantly why. The nightmares seemed to be coming back. A few months back he was happy for the fact that the nightmares were no longer haunting him. He felt as if he had overcome his grief. But why all these nightmares today, when he was to accomplish his most important mission, till date.

He looked to his left and saw Mushtaak guarding his position. After all this was what they had been trained for, this was what they had yearned all their “enlightened” lives for. The commander’s orders were short and precise. They were supposed to “set” the road only after the last vehicle to ply on that road had left and that was at 11:30 the previous night. Now it was close to 4 in the morning and there were still 3 hours between them and their mission. Since sleep was now the last thing that he could do Kamraan’s mind raced back to recapture the events of the last week.

A week back, he like all his brethren was living in the “safe house” in Anantnag waiting for further instructions from the commander. When he woke up that fateful morning he found unusual activity in the house. He caught up with Mushtaak and asked him the reason for that activity in the house. Mushtaak had been his only friend despite the startling dissimilarities in their ages. While Kamraan was 39 Mushtaak was only 25. They had been together for the better part of the last 24 months whether that be during the orientation camp in Muzaffarabad in Azaad Kashmir or the time spent in the training camp on the outskirts of the city. Mushtaak told him that though he did not know much but from what he could gather it seemed that some important assignment was coming up and people from Azaad Kashmir will be visiting the commander soon to discuss the details.

They arrived at around 3 that afternoon. There were three of them and from the deference with which the commander treated them, Kamraan could make out that they were important people and something big was going to happen soon, yes soon. No pleasantries were exchanged, only firm handshakes. Once the refreshments had been served, the commander escorted them to one of the inner rooms of the house and locked the room from inside and only opened once in the next two hours when the commander called out the names of Kamraan and Mushtaak and instructed them to enter the room and closed it behind them.

He introduced the three gentlemen to Kamraan and Mushtaak who only nodded their heads and no attempt was made by neither the commander nor the three men to introduce them to Kamraan and Mushtaak. The commander did most of the talking while the three men listened casually. The commander informed Kamraan and Mushtaak that the most important moment of their lives has arrived, the one they had received all their training for. The freedom movement had suffered a few setbacks during the past months ever since the new IG of police had taken charge. But they would bounce back, as the will of the people could not be curbed for long, the commander informed them. The IG would have to pay the price for standing in the way of their independence, the commander told them. And God willing they would succeed. By this time Kamraan was thinking why the commander was telling him all this and what did he have to do with all this. As if reading his mind the commander said that it had been decided by the higher ups that the IG had to be killed and he had been asked to assign two of his top men for the job, and he had chosen him and Mushtaak for the job. The news hit Kamraan like a bullet, though he had never been hit by a real one at least till now. Mushtaak was elated and bent down to kiss the hand of the commander and Kamraan had no choice, but to follow suit. For the remaining part of their meeting the commander talked about the plan and said that he and Mushtaak would immediately start keeping an eye on the IG’s home and would study his security detail and would look for some loopholes in it.

It was 4 in the evening and two days after the little briefing by the commander that he saw her and could not move for the next few minutes. She had the most beautiful face that God could create for a human being . In fact it was a crime to compare her with humans, Kamraan thought, she was an angel. If Kashmir was the paradise on earth she was its angel. There she was all of 11 or 12 years, being wheeled around in her wheelchair around the garden by her father, IG Vishesh Sharma.

It was from that night onward that the nightmares came back. Those of the mosque burning and that of a little girl engulfed by flames and shouting “Help me Abbu Help me”. Then there were two other women besides her and one of them said to her“Don’t worry Alina your Abbu will surely come to save us”. And then two monsters came dressed up in combat uniforms and took all three of them away while he kept watching from his cage with his hands and legs chained and all that he could do was to cry and plead with those monsters but they would not listen and took them away. His whole family, his mother, his wife Rukhsana and his daughter of 10, Alina.

The day had been Eid and they were getting ready to go to the mosque to offer prayers. All of them were dressed in their best clothes, his mother, his wife, he himself but the thunder was stolen by his daughter Alina looking gorgeous and graceful in her white dress which he had bought as a present for her. Just as they were about to reach the mosque Kamraan recalled that he had forgot to bring his purse and had no money and since they had plans to go shopping after the prayer and there was still time left for the prayer to start he decided to rush back home and get the purse. He told his family to go inside the mosque but little Alina asked “Abbu can I come with you I feel scared without you” at which he laughed and replied “ You are a strong girl, Alina and who will take care of your Ammi and grandma if you leave them” Reluctantly Alina agreed to stay back. He was leaving his home after taking his purse that he first heard the sound of blast and the firing that followed it. People in some other part of the world often confuse the sound of bomb blast with that of crackers and that of bullets being fired with bursting of tyres, but not here in Kashmir, here people knew when a bomb exploded or a bullet was fired. So, on hearing the explosion he rushed to the mosque but could not reach there as he was stopped midway by the security forces who had cordoned off the area. He was helpless he was watching the mosque burn in front of him, his entire family inside it and he could not do anything. To his dismay the security people were the least bit interested in the safety of the people trapped inside the mosque and were more concerned about finding the terrorists and ensuring the safety of their own injured people.

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The house of IG, Vishesh Sharma was one of the most secure places in the entire valley. It was almost a fortress, Kamraan told the commander, whose security could not be breached. So there was no way of killing the IG inside his house. It had to be done outside. Almost all of it was true but what Kamraan didn’t tell the commander was the fact that he was not willing to kill the IG inside for the fear of harming his daughter who reminded him of Alina. So it was decided to lay a trap for the IG when he left his home on Saturday to inspect the nearby towns and villages. It was decided that an IED would be fixed on the road and as soon as the IG’s car reached it would be detonated and that would be the end of IG Vishesh Sharma. Since Mushtaak had received training in setting up IED’s he was assigned the task of laying the explosive. It was imperative to identify the vehicle in which the IG was travelling and in order to make sure that no mistake was made in this regard the commander assigned the task of triggering the explosive to Kamraan. He was supposed to identify the vehicle in which the IG was traveling on the basis of his surveillance and trigger the explosion which would put an end to the unholy schemes of the IG.

Vishesh Sharma was 45 and was leading a happy and peaceful life with his wife and 12 year old daughter Astha in Bhubaneshwar when he received his transfer orders for Jammu and Kashmir. Initially he was reluctant to go there but had agreed to go there once Astha expressed her willingness to visit Kashmir. Astha was born with a healthy body and mind and was a very cheerful kid and was loved a lot by her parents Vishesh and Gunjan Sharma. It was at the age of eight that Astha while getting off her school bus was run down by the rear wheel of the bus when a truck hit the bus from the back. From then onwards their lives changed completely. Astha was crippled from waist down and was confined to bed and needed someone to move her around in her wheelchair and could not live her life properly after that. But she was a strong willed child and tried her best to make it less traumatic for her parents. On their part her parents tried to make it as comfortable for her as they could and tried to fulfill each and every wish of hers.

“Wake up Kamraan” shouted Mushtaak. “Yes” replied Kamraan. “You better be ready its 6 already and the IG’s cavalcade would be here in about an hour. I have already set up the IED and the trigger is lying there behind that tree under the leaves. We don’t want to blow up this chance do we! Kamraan said” You don’t worry. Allah willing we will succeed”.

Vishesh Sharma was getting ready for his weekly visit to the nearby towns which had become his schedule ever since he had been posted here. As he was putting on his cap and his service revolver Astha came into the room wheeled by the maid servant who was told to leave politely by Astha. Astha said “Dad, where are you going?”. “I am going to the nearby cities for inspection, honey I will be back by evening”, Vishesh replied. “Don’t go, daddy please don’t go”. “Why honey, its important, I have to go but I promise to be back before dinner”. With that he kissed her on the cheek and left the room.

As soon as he saw the IG coming Syed opened the door of the bulletproof car. He saluted the IG and Vishesh entered the car and ordered the driver to start. The cavalcade consisted of a pilot vehicle, two police vans with 10 commandos in each, the IG’s bulletproof ambassador and the rear was brought up by another van in which Syed was sitting along with 4 other constables.

As soon as he saw the cavalcade approaching Yusuf signaled to Kamraan who was sitting behind the tree with the trigger in his hand. He saw the pilot vehicle crossing the point where the IED was set up. Following it were the two police vans and when the ambassador carrying the IG came Kamraan though fully aware that the IG’s car was bulletproof dropped the trigger and started firing indiscriminately at the cavalcade. Other terrorists thinking that the IED had failed to trigger joined Kamraan in firing at the cavalcade. The commandos though a bit taken aback by the sudden firing immediately regrouped and took up positions behind the vehicles and the IG’s car was taken to a safe spot some distance away and was guarded by the team of constables.

Vishesh sat in his car listening to the shots being fired in the background. As much as he wanted to be at the scene of action he knew enough about the security procedures and therefore stayed in the car. About 25 minutes later a commando came to his car to inform him that 4 of the 5 terrorists involved in the attack had been killed and one had escaped the scene and a massive combing operation was underway to locate him.

Anyways Baldy (Vaidyanathan) helped me find a decent hotel. The interview was at 2.30 the next day. The next day I reached the venue, IIM Bangalore. Sripriya was there as well, but she was in a different panel. First we had the GD.

There were twelve of us in the group. As we were standing around that round table waiting for everyone to take their places, I happened to glance at my side and what do I see!!!! The same Quants teacher (from TIME, the one who was in the same examination hall as me) was here as well. We simply smiled at each other.

A Professor from MDI gave us the rules. Told us not to BS around with the topic and speak only relevant points.

The topic for the GD was “Is India developing or neglecting”?? And I thought there was more to come, but no that was it.

well the GD turned into a fish market what with everybody trying to put in everything that they had read about the budget into the discussion. I didn’t speak a lot. I made some 3 or 4 entries with some points which I thought were valid but on the whole tried to stay clear of the fish market.

After the GD I came out and chatted with others including my Quant teacher at TIME. I was the second last person to be called for the interview and by then I had chatted with almost everybody present there. In fact when there was nobody else around I chatted with an elderly gentleman who was there to accompany his son to the interview.

when I went in there was just one prof (p1) sitting (out of a panel of two)

p1: (started grilling me on points related to my GD)

I had talked about we looking at the wrong indicators for growth. The Sensex though important isnt the right indicator for measuring growth and specially inclusive growth of the country. Even the people at the top level were more concerned with Sensex rather than farmer suicides.

P1: Which ministry is responsible for agriculture?

(I immediately realised that he was going to attack the points I made in the GD, so I tried to take a safe position)

M: Sir, there are more than one, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Fertilizers and Finance Minister is also concerned with certain aspects….

P1: Interrupts and says what did we tell you at the beginning, No Bullshitting us

By God, this one was turning to be a stress interview

P1: Ok, let me start again, What is your name

M: Amit Tyagi, Sir.

P1: Ok, so I asked your name and you just told me your name and no stuff about East India company coming to India and blah blah

This isnt going good

P1: Ok, again Which ministry is primarily responsible for agriculture?

M: Sir, Ministry of Agriculture

P1: Who is the minister

M: Mr. Sharad Pawar

Now he started talking about how Mr. Chidambaram has no say in agricultural affairs and he cant step into anybody else’s domain and stuff like that.

After that he started asking questions related to my father’s workplace

P1 : who is the present CMD?

M : told

P1 : who was the one before him?

M : right answer again

P1 : ok, who is the head of treasury?

M : (u must be kidding me), I thought even he doesnt know so said I don’t know but it must be the ED

now the second prof(p2) entered

P1 : ok u are interested in defence aviation, tell me names of two aviaton giants??

M : Boeing and Airbus.

P1 : why was one of them in news recently?

M : No Idea

P1 : socho

M : Don’t know sir

P2 : guess karlo

They were trying to stress me here

M : Sir with the rules that we have been told I had rather not. *

This is what u call pairo pe kulhadi marna.

Why cant I keep my ego in check….

P2 : do u want some time

M : that wont help sir because I cant recall

P2 : ok, so what planes were used in second world war

M : Told him Spitfires, Hurricanes, Me 109s, Me 110s.

P2 : there was this incident in 71 war which was very famous, do u recall

M : what incident sir, can u throw more light on it??

P2 : dont remember ok what planes did we use in 71

M : told him Mig 21, Hunters etc etc

All this while p1 trying all stress tricks in the book, slumped in his chair, fanning himself with the file

P2 : what about pakistan?

m: F-86 sabres

P2 said something…wasnt able to get him

P2 : ok what is VTOL

M : Vertical Take Off and Landing, Sir. These type of aircrafts are used for operations on aircraft carriers, like the Harrier jumpjet.

P2 now went to aircraft carriers , discussed a few things about them, question on pearl harbor which I did not know

P2 : so u come from Vellore, what is famous about Vellore

M :Told him that CMC is probably what Vellore is known for and then there is the Golden Temple, and also VIT is getting quite popular these days (cheeky)

P2 : Is it so, I mean do u really think that if I ask anybody up North about VIT and they will know about it??

M : Yes i do, (tabhi to maine bola)

P2 : I have been to Vellore , never heard of this golden temple you are talking about.

M : Its pretty famous sir, you might have missed it since it is relatively new.

I had mentioned public speaking activities in extra curriculars.

P2 said something about declamation and posture

and then it was over

goodbyes and smiles

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All in all I will call it a bad interview. Though I could answer most of the questions (not counting the rhetorical ones), but an interview isnt just about answering questions, its about that certain chemistry you set up with the guy interviewing you. And in my case that was not visible anywhere. Infact it seemed that I rubbed P1 the wrong way, or probably he just wanted it that way in order to put me under stress.

Smart ass answers like the one about the rules and not guessing (refer to the one with *) should be avoided at all costs.

Anyways, after my MDI interview I reached my hotel and after my dinner thought I had sleep early. I had a flight at 5.50 in the morning. Luckily I slept off soon after lying down in bed, but woke up after one and a half hour. I saw the time it was 11 in the night. I lay in bed for the next one hour trying to sleep and trust me when I tell you that it was the most frustrating one hour of my life. I was afraid that if I didn’t sleep I will feel sleepy the whole of next day and when I feel sleepy I get irritable and that cant be good in a GD and interview!!!

That’s when I finally decided to get up and do something. I took out my laptop and watched two episodes of ‘Band of Brothers’ (that HBO series). It got over around 2. Still no sleep. I switched on the TV, nothing interesting. And while browsing through the channels I came across a dart throwing world championship being telecast on some sports channel. I watched that for over an hour ( I was that frustrated) and then it was time to get ready to leave for the airport.

The flight was smooth, I slept some (which was good). Dad was there at the airport. I went to my Tauji’s place. Spent some time there and then got ready for the interview. And then left for North Campus. Even after having lived in Delhi for about 5 years I had never been to North Campus before.

Read about my first visit to the North Campus for what was one of the most important interviews of my life in the next post.

My XL interview was scheduled for 10 March at LIBA,Chennai. I went to Chennai a day before and stayed in a hotel. The next day I reached the venue pretty early (about 90 minutes before the interview). Actually XL guys love to keep it short. Normally their interviews don’t stretch beyond 20 minutes, and many a times they finish off (quite literally) people quite early.

Anyways I reached LIBA. There were quite a few other candidates, though most of them were there for the PMIR process which has a GD as well as an interview. Three of them were there for the BM interview.

I just sat there chatting with the others, waiting for my turn. The guy who was supposed to face the firing squad before me was in the interview room for about 20 minutes or so. As soon as he came back everybody crowded around him in order to know how it went. I purposefully kept my distance.

After a few seconds an old gentleman arrived outside the waiting room and called out my name. I stepped out of the room and we began the long walk to the interview room (just building up the drama, the walk was no more than 45 seconds).

I was intentionally walking slowly and a step behind that old gentleman out of respect. And then without any warning my interview started.

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I will refer to this old gentleman as OG.

OG cleared his throat and said “So what did the other guy say? What questions did we ask him?”

I had overheard what he had said and so replied “Well, Sir he told us that you people asked him questions on evolution”.

OG smiles and adds “So what did he say, have we lost our tails yet!!”

Just then we entered the room. There were two other middle aged gentleman in the room M1 and M2. OG repeats our conversation to the others and everybody laughed. Everybody took their seats and I was asked to sit as well.

I handed over my file (the one with all the certificates) and my resumes. They took the file and returned the resumes. OG said “Don’t worry, we have more than enough material with us, we don’t need this”.

OG:- So Amit you came all the way down from Delhi to Vellore for your engineering, why not DCE or any other college close to Delhi.

I: Told them that I was getting Polymer in DCE and wasn’t very much interested in that so …..

OG:- You left Polymer!!! Do you know what is the scope for Polymer these days??

I: I do sir, but I was more interested in Electronics and Communication, so….

At this point I was really worried that they might start asking me stuff about my academics which I wasn’t very confident about.

OG:- Ok, so besides ECE what else do you do? I mean extra curricular activities and such…

I: Sir, I love public speaking. I have participated in various debating competitions…..

At this point OG cuts me short, and says

OG:-”Are these competitions about speaking sensibly or just talking senselessly”

I:- Well sir depends on the type of competition. In debate you have to make valid points whereas in competitions like Block & Tackle and Shipwreck its more about presence of mind.

M2:- Ok, Amit I am going to give you a topic now and I want you to speak on the topic for 2 minutes, alright?

I said fine.

M2:- Your topic is “Amit Tyagi doesn’t talk sense all the time that he speaks”

I smiled and repeated the topic just to make sure that I didn’t have it wrong. He nodded in affirmative.

I started speaking on the topic and kept speaking smoothly (as far as I can tell) and tried to make it light hearted. Very soon they were smiling and I kept on talking thinking that they would stop me once my 2 minutes were up.

Probably they expected me to stop after sometime and not make it through the whole duration, but I did and then they asked me to stop.

Now, OG-> Ok, Amit do you know what is ITBPF? What is its purpose?

I:- Told them that it is the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force and it is there to guard India’s border with Tibet.

OG-You know when was it formed and why?

I- Told him that it was formed after the 1962 war because a need was felt for upgrading the security apparatus.

OG-You know what CRPF stands for? And without waiting for my answer he continued” I once asked a CRPF guy this and he said ‘Chalte Raho Pyare Force”

Smiles all around.

OG- He asked me for a solution to the problem faced by the CRPF guys owing to this constant shifting from one place to another and we discussed it for some time.

OG- Ok, what do you know leather industry in India? You have any idea where it is located in India?

(Leather industry!!! Where did this come from??)

I- Sir, I am not sure but I think Kanpur.

OG- It was there in Kanpur but then it was shut down. Can you tell me why?

I- Religious Reasons?? But then it struck me and told them it was shut down for environmental reasons.

OG asked what a tannery was and I thought how could he ask him such a simple question surely there must be a catch to it. I told him what a tannery was and waited for him to follow it up. But he just let it go.

Now the baton was passed to M1.

M1- Do you know about crocodiles? Where are they found in India?

Before I could answer, the old gentleman said he is not asking about the T-Shirts. Again smiles all around.

I- Told him that I didn’t know much about crocs. But still if I were to take a guess I would say they are found in backwaters of Kerala.

He just shook his head in negative.

I said then probably Sunderbans.

Bingo!! That was the right answer.

M1- Do you know what is Law of Torts?

Luckily for me I had read John Grisham’s King of Torts.

Told him whatever I knew and also added that I had read it all in a novel. Everybody started smiling and he asked him about the ending of the novel.

Now the baton was passed to M2.

M2- What is Trojan Horse?

Told him about the Greek gift.

He seemed impressed. Asked me about the virus. Could not give a very satisfactory answer here.

Then he asked me what standard deviation was ? Told him the correct answer and also gave a relation with the stock market.

Then he asked me what does a standard deviation of 1.4 means? And I being the idiot that I am totally messed it up.

And that was it, my interview was over. As I was signing the sheet OG asked me how I was going to go back to Vellore and how far Vellore was and how long it took to reach there.

After that I wished them and walked out of the interview.

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If you had ask me how I felt after the interview, I would have said that it was an enriching experience. More than an interview it was an interesting conversation that I had with those learned gentlemen. And to be honest I really enjoyed it. Other than that question on Standard Deviation I thought the whole thing went well.

But then you cant send guess the professors. And there wasn’t a lot of time to think about it as well. I had another two interviews in the next four days.

One evening when I asked my roommate if he was done using the Reliance phone so that I could check whether the FMS result was out or not? He said checking daily is not going to make a difference, they will release it when they feel like. I said fine I wont check it tonight.

The next morning Dad called after breakfast and we had a routine conversation. Ten minutes after that call he called again and I was wondering what was so important. He told me that the FMS result has been declared. He asked me my roll number so that he could check the result and let me know. I hesitated, the thing is I never like anybody else seeing my result before me (the college results are a different matter altogether), but he insisted so I told him the roll number.

And I logged on myself, and voila!!! I had cleared FMS as well. They wanted to see me for the GD and interview process.

Meanwhile MDI had also released their list for GD and interview and they had decided to call me as well.

My interview calls were as follows

XLRI (BM)-> 10th March (Chennai)

MDI (PGPM)-> 13th March (Bangalore)

FMS (MBA-FT) -> 14th March (Delhi)

I tried getting the dates for MDI shifted but approached them a bit late so it couldn’t be done. I decided to give my MDI interview in Bangalore on 13 which was in the afternoon and then catch a flight to Delhi on 14th morning and appear for my FMS interview.

Looks like Life after CAT wasn’t all that bad. As another series comes to an end, we approach the climax of this tale (I bet Arabian Nights was shorter and not to mention far more interesting).

Read about the Interviews, results and more gyaan in the next series “A New Hope“. I hope George (Lucas) wont sue me for this.

Ekta, you reading this??

Most of the people interviewing us in TIME were IIM alumnus and really really brainy people. Probably some of the smartest people I have met in my entire life and that includes that person in the mirror who I see daily. I had a total of three Personal Interview Sessions and I will recount one of them so as to give you an idea about the Mis.

My first interview was taken by two guys probably in their early to mid thirties. While one of them did most of the talking, nevertheless whenever the other guy asked questions they were equally incisive.

I will give you a conversation type account of this interview.

They already had a copy of my resume and also details regarding the calls that I had from various B-Schools.

I went in and wished them good morning. They responded warmly and asked me take a seat.

I will refer to the interviewers as M1 and M2.

3rd Degree

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M2 (with a smile)- Before we start asking any questions tell us something about yourself

I:- Gave them brief info about my family, talked about my school life, and then college life, talked about the various activities I was involved in college.

M1:- Oh so you are interested in Hindi Literature (I had told them that I was involved with the Hindi Literary Association in college), tell me something about the writing style of Premchand.

I:- (I was lucky that I had read one of Premchand’s novel-Godaan) Told them how Premchand’s characters are very close to real life, how they are not defined in black and white and all have shades of gray and stuff like that.

M1 looked impressed.

And now M2 took complete control of the interrogation.

M2: So you have done your B.Tech from VIT in Electronics & Communication. Tell me why did you take up Electronics.

I: Told him how much interested I was in Defence Aviation and since there were not many options available to do Aeronautical Engineering this was the closest I could get to my field of interest.

M2:- Oh so you are interested in Defence Aviation

M2:- Ok, Amit tell us how does an airplane flies and please keep it simple because we don’t have much knowledge in this field (with a smile on his face).

As I found out later besides being an IIM alumnus he was also an aeronautical engineer from IIT.

I:- Told them about the forces acting on an airplane; Lift, Drag, Gravity etc. wind flowing under the wings and above the wings, low pressure and high pressure zones and other things.

He said, ” have you read the Bernoulli’s theorem”. I replied in affirmative. “Can you tell us using the Bernoulli’s equation how does a plane work”. Wrote down the Bernoulli’s equation for them and then explained the working of airplane through it.

At this point he said can you draw a diagram. I drew an aerofoil for them and explained everything using the diagram.

I thought this should be enough to convince him.

M2:- Oh this is getting too technical for us people (looked at the other guy and smiled). I want you to explain as you will to a layman about the working of an airplane. Lets just say you have to explain it to my 5 year old child who doesn’t know what is lift, drag and other things.

I tried to explain again without using as many technical terms as I did the first time. He didn’t look completely convinced but didn’t pursue it any more.

M2: Ok, Amit you are studying to become an engineer and you are interested in Defence Aviation. Don’t you think that by selecting you we would be taking away a bright young engineer (you must be kidding me!!!) from this country.

I: Absolutely not, Sir. As you can everywhere in the industry and especially in the DRDO there is a lack of managers with technical knowledge and that is why we have so many projects running behind schedule and stuff. Therefore there is a need for managers who have technical knowledge……. And went on and on with more gyaan.

M2: Oh so you mean to say that in DRDO we have projects running behind schedule. Do you think those people really do any original work. I mean don’t they just copy Russian designs.

I: Told them this was not exactly the case. DRDO had worked on some projects with high percentage of indigenous technology. Said that there was a steep learning curve with these kind of things and sometimes you have to borrow technology from other countries so as not to let the armed forces down.

M2: Next he wanted to know about Main Battle Tank of India, the Russian technology behind, the shortcomings of the design and in what respects the M1A Abrahams of USA were better.

I: Told them whatever I knew about tanks which wasn’t much. But he looked pretty happy with the answer.

M2: Next he wanted to know about some business terms like the difference between Pvt. Ltd., Pte. Ltd. And stuff like that

I: Answered what I could about they being conventions used in different countries.

M2: Next he wanted to talk about the automobile industry, what place was the hub of automobile industry in USA, the Big Three, the top automobile company in the world, how long has it been at the top and what was their philosophy.

I could not give very accurate answers to the automobile industry part, but managed to save some face.

Next he was all inquisitive about the recent (this happened in Feb) IPO of Reliance. He wanted facts and figures.

While I could tell him the facts, I didn’t have much clue about the figures.

Next he came to the work culture in various countries. Why were the Germans considered so industrious and the Japanese too. And why the current perception of the Indians.

The end part of the interview was even more exciting. He started talking about Reservation and my views on it. I tried to be very diplomatic about it. But he took the offensive and started talking very passionately against reservation. He said probably some people don’t deserve to reach the very top. He mentioned genetic studies and stuff, but I stuck to my point that it is the responsibility of the society to help in the upliftment of its downtrodden and neglected.

At this point he seemed willing to end the ordeal for me. Turned to the other guy and asked him if he had anymore questions.

M1 asked me some questions related to electronics, which luckily I could answer.

M1:- Amit, with all these allegations against missionaries regarding conversions and we (XLRI) being a missionary run institution, how do you feel about that?

I: Told them that I had studied in missionary run institutions before and I knew the reality behind these allegations and therefore had no such problems.

And that was it, the interview was over. It lasted for about an hour and twenty minutes (against an allotted time of 30-45 minutes). Yes that long!! At that end I was just waiting to run out of that room.

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Now it was time for their feedback.

They thought that I had done decently well, handled incisive questioning on my hobby pretty well.

They felt that my technical knowledge seemed sound (you must be kidding me!!!) but I needed to work on business related news.

Moreover they observed that I had a tendency to jump at questions. Told me to take it easy and wait for a second before answering the questions.

Well that was the first MI for you. Now you must have realised that I was right when I said that in an interview you can be asked about anything under the sun.

Mock was fine, but to find out how the actual ones went, stay tuned!!