GD/PIexperience at IIM shillong

GD:
Topic: case study, this manager guy has a supplier who has been delivering high quality goods at low cost, the supplier cant afford the rates anymore and the supplier requests the managet to accept his hiked cost or else he has to shut down his company. The manager has been asked to cut down costs from his companys side too and supplier decision is made based on lowest bid, so if price is hiked it goes to sum other supplier.. now what shuld manager do??

PI:Panel Members Intro: tthree snr proffs from IIM A..
Questions: (P refers to panel, m refers to me. )
P:you are from Chennai, why have you come all the way to shillong for your interview??
m:so that i could take a look at the campus , find out more about shillong
P: (cutting me short) : so you dont trust us?? you want to come all the way to see for yourself. m: its always best to know evrything before taking a decision
p: will you live with your husband before marriage?
m: ???? i beg ur pardon sir...
P : will you live with your husband before marriage??
m: ( what crap!! i didnt know how to react lol! ) My culture doesnt permit me to do so sir.
p: So isnt this like that??
m: not really sir, before getting married, we look at the grooms photo
p: (laughing) you had the campus photo on the website
m: and then we talk to the groom and the people around him and find out about his character, whereas in this case there were no previous batches to talk to...
p: you have pagalguy
m: in this case, there is not much info there too sir
p: ( all were laughing) so after coming what did you find out about shillong
m: Its a beautiful place to live in sir and all the msiconceptions are not really true
p: what are the conceptions and what are the misconception about north east?
m: Its quite surprising how little i know about the north east so i may not be in a position to list out all the conceptions but i can say that nature is at its unravished best, unhintered by man (blah blah) misconceptions- there are a lot about how its not a safe place to live in owing to the terrorism..
p: name the 8 states in the eastm I named 6, they themselves named the other 2 , damn i 4got sikkim and tripura, just that moment it slips out)
p: Now you are the interviewer, I am the student, what are the last 3 questions you will ask me?m: Do you have other IIm calls, then wuld u take up shillong, Why mba and How far do u think an mba at shillong wuld be beneficial
p: now answer those ( looked at other 2 and laughed)
m: err.. i have no other iim calls..
p: other institutes??
m: i got through IMT and SPJain
p: Got through? are the results out?
m: yes sir, IMt a week before and SPJain just yesterday.
p: ok why IIm s then?
m: IIm brand blah blah
p: ok next questionm by this time i had even 4gotten what the other 2 questions were) err.. mba..because.. (all the rhetoric about theory, practicality, faculty experience, peer group blah blah)
p: ok you spoke about ethics in the GD, how can you when u are not ethical yourself
m(realised this was meant to be stress, so i wasnt stressed, smiled and went on) Im sorry sir, to my knowledge my conduct has always been ethical
p: no you didnt follow the instructions i gave for the GD. Repeat the instructions i gave.
m: to my knowledge i did so sir. anyhow, ( i repeated everything)
P : so i said first 5 minutes you can look at the case study, then you are supposed to discuss, but you kept looking at the case study then and there ( a stern look)
m: (smiling) sir there was no instruction saying we shouldnt look at the case study during the discussion, by all means what i did wasnt wrong.
p: ( nodded brightly in acknowldegment, i went very happy at this instant) show me your certificate file (they pointed at newspaper cliipings with picture of my dance, write up was in tamil and telugu so they asked me what it was, was talking about my national award and they probed a bit into what award, by whom etc)
you studied Maths right?
m: for cat, yes sir
P: ha ha . im sure you even studied in BE. y= ax sqr + bx+ c. Plot this.
m: i dont have a pencil (they gave me) I guess its a parabola sir, ( blank look from them so after a few seconds i said i couldnt)
p: you gave up cts, why?
m: blah blah on better work ex
p: what do u do in your current job as relationship manager?
m: blah blah: you were a BE, this has no relevance, so u wasted 4 years??
m: not really, BE i studied is outdated, it is just a platform to enhance logical and application skills, as in doing BE is tougher than finishing an arts degree, it gave me a perspective, developed my ability to think and apply . Besides im not from IIT to regret that i wasted govts money.
p ( nodded in agreement, i was happy again) who is ur role model?
m: biocon ceo - kiran majumdar sha
p: she didnt have an mba, why dont u be like her?
m: some thing i said about a spark and ambition blah blah
p: you're from Tamilnadu, who do u support AMMa or ANNA??
m: i would rather take a non political stand here sir.
p: ( laughed )
m: they both have their pros and cons which should be weighed
p: what are the cons of amma??
m: she tends to be quite audacious and impulsive, she could be more graceful while accusing her opponents
p: tell me, i never understand u tamils, year after year you again vote for these pppl, the whole country looks in awe
m: that is something even i dont understand sir
p (laughed) always taking the safer stand huh?
m: well actually i voted for lok paritran sir.
p: ok thankyou you may leave
m: thankyou sirs.
p: one minute, even for the GD, you went out to bring your pen, even now to draw the graph you borrowed the pencil is this some style of yours, not carrying pens??i'll note it against you.
m: smiled helplessly .
OTHER DETAILS:
I met the placement head, a very nice lady ( didnt ask her name). She was placement incharge for IIM A all along, now she and her husband, a prof, have been put inc harge of IIMs . they came on Jan 28 and have been living there ever since. she kept talking to all of us during out inetrview wait and i got some info from her.
# 12 faculty from IIM A have been transferred to shillong. 12 faculty for 60 students.
#the campus is actually the summer palace of Orissa king, been borrowed temporarily.
#the ppl of shillong are all very neat, decent, well behaved and speak english
#She kept saying shillong is an excellent place to live
# she arranged a security to show me around the place. Here arethe snaps.
# Since she has numerous placement contacts, she said getting us placed would be no prob at all. however i asked her why L, I, K was still not doing well as A, B ,C, she said thats why we're doing everything on our parts to ensure that shillong takes off well, and stressed that student co-operations is also very important for this
# she said she usually moves well with srudents, finds out their strenghts and weakness and places them accordingly, in a job which suits them and a job which theyll bound to enjoy.
# the whole campus is already WIFI enabled
# Furnishing is yet to be done, she said itll be done in a month or so
# the site for the new permanent campus is 200 acres and it is 15km away from central shillong. currently, the campus is very much in the central part. she said, if needed, it can be built in 8 months, as in the case of IIM A, but she said, it may take 2- 3 years too.
# she said it gets very cold in Dec, so she is thinking of starting the course a little ahead so that she can give a week off in Dec. Besides she pointed out that since ppl from south will also be taking up, one or 2 days holidays like other IIMs will not be sufficient to travel from shillong, she was planning on giving us a week off in dec.
# she asked us to be prepared for the worst as it will be terribly terribly hectic. 20 hours of study per day.
# she finally told my mother "send your daughter here, ill take good care of her" lol

CATCH -22 at College!

It was one of those days when we realised we had gottten to college by mistake and we realised we had to get out of it in order to preserve our sanity.(There were just too many days like that, this day was special bcoz ALL of us felt that together) We had made the best plans for a perfect movie and an eat out- which is again not easy ,but it was a special day and so we reached a consensus.Braving the hot sun despite the fact that it deprives us of our 'complexions' we sprightly walked up to the entrance (The walk to the entrance takes about 23 minutes, count the heat too to get a feel) only to discover that the gate was closed. GATE CLOSED?? AT SSN?? Walking out of SSN gates was never a big deal at all!We were perplexed. After the initial few moments of astonishment,we realised it was a hard fact and we had to face it- the gates are closed. We all burst into a rage of fury and disappointment before our inherent management skills made us realise soon enough that the situation, though diffficult as it may seem, just has to be managed. So we framed our plans.
plan #1- Sweet talk the watchman. We tried. But it failed.Maybe he had a bitter married life
plan #2- Seduce the watchman, but that failed too as, come on, no one wanted to seduce the WATCHMAN....
plan #3- Bribe the watchman.. again a failure because we could not decide the right amount.
plan #4- A group of MBA students had their HOD's sign on an 'out' pass. We begged them to add our names. They were filthy people and said there wasnt enough space in the paper to fit in all our names.
We then aborted all other plans and jumped right into action. "Hey watchman, what should we do to make you open the gate?". The prick said "get ur HOD's sign in an outpass".
"Thats all?? Give me a pen and I could give his sign rite now".. Ouch.. Someone had stepped on my foot.. We had to go back to the department .. luckily an auto came by and Dana, Gaja and I went to the dept..and asked everyone from the librarian to Leo sir. No one knew what an outpass was. We realised the catch -22 of the whole situation, u needed an outpass to leave, and no one could give u an outpass. Incredible!
Determined as we were, we walked upto the admin block..told the principal's p.a.that our friend had an accident and four of us had to go out to see her. We filled in the names as Priya, Preethi, Vaishnavi, Kalyani and got the princi's sign...We jubilantly took the auto to the entrance and squeezed in 5 more names-Selvi, Thamizachi, Rasathi, Rukmini and Jyothika... We alloted names to everybody just in case the watchman got suspicious..We tried to sound natural with the names and called each other with the pseudonyms.. Although it was messed up a bit as Dana forgot her name and Abhidha and Dana responded in unison when I called out for"Rasathi"! The watchman didn't get suspicious, although he did raise his eyebrows at 'Jyothika'..We took the same auto to Kelambakkam (the nearest abode of humanity to our college)... and who should we find there , SS dash. (for those who do not know- he handles power electronics.. err.. I think thats the name of the subject!) SS Dash smoking away happily. He instanty dropped it at our sight and got lost in the crowds...I definitely miss college!!!

The "mix-up" Mis-Adventure!

"If you're that bored, why don't you come with me to the insti, you can pick a few movies from the LAN, and I could write it for you" said Deepak.
The IIT LAN!!! Store house of whatever you want. Name it, you get it.
"Quite a tempting offer indeed, yes let's leave".
Only as I crossed GC, did the question dawn upon me, "Err, how can I possibly enter your hostel?" Deepak instantly said "Oh girls are always inside. Infact they recently caught a girl who was living in a guy's room for 3 months. They were joint drug addicts. The guy used to smuggle food for her and the girl used to smuggle drugs for him"
"Ohh...Shady story, what happened then?"
"Then, the hostel rules changed a bit. Only IIT girls can enter the hostel"
"What?? Deepak, do you possibly realise that I'm not an IITian?"
"oh, didn't I tell you? You are Ajanta Naik, room no 236, Sharavati"
"What crap? change of identity? no way, what if I get into trouble?"
"how can you get into trouble? I'm the one who studies here and even I don't care."
Somehow I wasn't convinced. If I remember right, I had a feeling as though I had swallowed Bertie Botts Vomit Flavoured Beans. My intimidation grew to its crescendo as I saw the six foot watchman with the guests' entry register. I picked up the pen and I stood there for what I think was an eternity wondering what to write. Deepak snatched the pen and quickly filled my name. My real name.No questions asked. I struggled to keep up with his pace as he climbed the stairs. "Are you crazy, you wrote my name".
" Nothing matters here".
As I reached the first floor, a greater realisation dawned upon me. I'm inside a boys hostel. Yuck! Why the hell is it that I never think through an issue?? What if the other people inside think I'm a "three-month-staying-drug-addict"? Or worse, what if one of those unassuming guys, who think about nothing else than their grades, simply walk outside their rooms, not expecting a girl?? Just concentrate on the LAN and everything should be fine, breathe deeply, cool it!
No guys on the corridor.Phew. The door had a neat article stuck on it- titled "why Mangal Singh likes the b****". It was about why Deepak likes his bike. A euphemistic title indeed. I didn't even bother to check out the lan,I quickly borrowed a few of his Cds- (Man who copied, Devil's advocate and Match point were the best!Not to mention "what women want"!) and fled the place. The whole deal didn't take more than 7 minutes. 6.22 to 6.29 pm!
A few weeks later, when he fell sick, I visited him . It wasn't all that intimidating this time. I cooly signed by name in the register.
Not long afterwards, Me and Deepak were delivering a guest lecture at Birla Planetarium. It was a joint lecture on Time Travelling (thanks to the LAN). As we plugged my lap top in, it simply refused to connect with the lcd. We spoke to the director of the planetarium, (Mr.Iyamperumal- A very very nice,humble,sensible, interesting and young person- was hard to believe he worked for the govt). He agreed to have the nanotechnology lecture before ours. We instantly rushed to the insti to get Deepak's lap top. As he parked his bike outside the hostel, we were engrossed in discussing how late we would be for our lecture that we didn't notice a security guard calling for us. Deepak signed my name in the guest register. The guard came running to me and said "ID card". What?? Deepak instantly replied something about me having left my card in my hostel. The guard instantly looked at me and asked me my name. I stood rooted to the spot thinking hard on what I'm supposed to reply.
"Ajanta Naik, room no 236, sharavati" Deepak said.
He had written Charanya in the register. I felt so foolish. And stupid. And sheepish. And embarassed. And pissed.I was confused too.It was difficult feeling so much at the same time. While I was busy trying hard to focus on one feeling , Deepak instantly ran upstairs to get the lap top. Meanwhile the guard dialled the intercom to sharavati. He was talking in hindi and I wished for once that I had paid attention in my lower language class. Deepak re-appeared in a jiffy with his lap top and the guard caught hold of him "room 236 has no Ajanta". Deepak cooly said "ok" and walked to his bike. What was I supposed to do? The guard started questioning him vehemently. Deepak showed his ID. The guard took down some details and they had a long conversation in Hindi. Not again. I just understood the last part. The security said something about complaining to the Dean, and Deepak graciously accepted saying that he can complain whatever, whenever- Except that he had to leave urgently and the dean can always wait. As we left the campus I screamed "You had written my name in the register. What crap. What if I get into trouble.. And for all this, the room no was wrong" . Deepak only said "The guard can't read English. By the way, I just remembered. 236 is Shanu's room. 246 is Ajanta's room. Sorry about the mix up......"

Rantings about Reviews

Intellectual apprehensions are seldom lauded. Forget apprehensions. Even works.What is there in one which makes one look beyond the obvious reality and dare to fathom the untredded paths? Whether it is a spark which originates in the enigma of their intertwined neurons or that which is plagiarised from an unidentified work, can never be realised.
But the stark reality which makes one groan at times is that people with pre- estabilished dominance, even if they do the latter, are always looked up with a sense of awe. On a larger scale, any publisher or reviewer who intends to push up a mediocre author is simply required to put up a pretence, a rare review, and the world will follow. Take Nissim Ezekiel for instance. His "For Kalpana" and "Night of the scorpion" would always be described by me as an insult to the literary world. "Fountainhead" is quite an over rated book too. I do like Jane Austen, yes, but read one book of hers and the rest will follow suit.
On the other hand, certain serious intellectual works are lost primarily because they lack a commendable influence.
There is also another case. Certain authors have the ignominous ability of writing with so much of undesired panache that they intended meaning is seldom conveyed. But again, they're met with applause simply because people interpret- misinterpret- re-interpret and so on to such an extent that nobody ever knows who actually understood the piece- including the author of course. This attribute of a mystery shrouding the work makes it invincible. Not that i'm talking about Monalisa.
But I guess that is how the world functions- universal appreciation is the best known recognition. This happens mostly by playing to the tune of the masses rather than standing raised on a platform of intellectual arrogance. Somehow, I still dont understand Objectivism or Howard Roark.

ODE TO MY TULIP

I wander alone thro the mighty hills,
breaking silence of the stills,
shaking boughs of humble trees
the gentle feeling fails to cease

In a small garden besides a town,
a tulip stood in a purple gown,
among a tuft of greenish grass,
with a royal crown of golden brass.

She swiftly nods her slender head
whenever her path I tread
with a gleaming smile she welcomes me
For what I was and what i'll be

Everyday to the garden I went,
spreading her fragrance and her scent,
with a heart as pure as a dove,
with the tulip, I fell in love

"Shall we dance" once I said,
Sprightly she did nod her head
In the moonlight we pusued the art
For a romantic waltz of our heart

I slowly kissed her violet cheek
This pleasant moment I did seek
Her violet head for a seconds few,
Seemed to morph to a pinkish hue.

Slowly, autumn went and winter came,
And a mighty storm I became,
who can stand against the will of time,
we're but actors who act and mime.

I took the form of a turbulent storm,
not having a heart, only thoughts of harm,
To my loved tulip I sang the dirge,
with a force that unsurpassed a surge.

Now I'm back to a gentle breeze,
But the hurt of heart will never ease,
for, my loved tulip, I couldn't save,
with a lonely song, I visit her grave.
- A Solitary Breeze

The Best Proposal Poetry Ever!

This piece of poetry was written during one intelligent controllers class. While most of us were playing hollywood or knots and crosses on the table, just one gal listened on. We thought she did so because she was in love with the proff. So we (Me, Gaja and amirtha of course) wanted to encourage her in that endeavor and wrote the poem as though the proff would have written it for her. The best part was - we didn't strike or re-write or think for a long time-the flow simply came!

If I am the door, u're the knob
Without u I would sob
If I am the fan u're the blade.
I will give u a ring of jade
If i'm the headache u're the aspirin
U're as hot as actress sherin
If I'm neural, u're fuzzy
U're beautiful looks make me dizzy
If I'm sheldon, u're sidney
For u i'd give my heart, lungs and kidney
If I'm vadivel, u are mokka
I'll wait for u till u go bokka
So before I die please say yes
With this letter I enclose a kiss!!!!


We actually took a print out of this, and left it on her table the next day. It took us 3 long hours to convince the poor girl that the boys weren't playing a prank on her!

Poor Pluto!!

Poor Pluto!!

Just last night I went to bed with a lingering feeling of satisfaction that everything around me was happening fine- my clock was ticking right, my bills were paid, the moon was shining bright in the reflected light, the earth was revolving on track, and so were the other planets.
I was appalled the next morning when the paper woke me up with the startling headlines- PLUTO IS NOT A PLANET. How could this be done?? The bluish shades of the planet set against the opulent black silhouette punctuated by those shimmering star clusters escalated me to my never grow land- a place where the sophisticated rockets can barely touch.
Ever since I was three- I loved the planet- I shared a sense of oneness with it- we both were tiny- and we both were last (yeah, in class, I was). And who wouldn’t love the Disney character Pluto?
As a matter of fact, I passed my science paper in 6th standard because of the question “which planet is the farthest from the sun?” my answer was Pluto. Now that my answer is wrong, does it mean I still haven’t passed my 6th standard?? Then how could I have passed my 10th or 12th?? How on earth can I get my B.E degree now??
Pluto fitted onomatopoeically into being a planet. It offered a comfortable alliteration when one said ‘pluto- the planet’. The loss of an alliteration to the literary world is actually meagre when compared to the damage it has done to astrology- all along the staunch believers thought that 9 planets controlled their lives (instead of themselves).they’d be deeply depressed now that 8 planets have to do the enormous task of controlling life at earth, quite a bit of work pressure if you’d ask me.
How would you feel if after all these years if someone who has been observing you through a telescope millions of light years away suddenly comes up to you and says “hey Mr, our extensive reports reveal that you are not human”. It was 70 years for poor Pluto. Loss of identity is certainly not easy to digest.
Some people are actually quite relieved that there are only 8 planets now- because they feel the primary school students have only 8 names to memorise . Maybe it isn’t as easy as that. Now text books need to have an additional paragraph on how there were 9 planets and how Pluto was suddenly pulled out of its post because of such and such a discovery by such an such a scientist.
So much for the transcience of life-even a planet which was once a planet is no more a planet! What are we but miniscule humans in this ever pervading universe which is expanding even as I’m transforming my thoughts into words right now. Although, it is ironical that it is only because of humans that a planet has lost its status today. Guess from now on, My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Me Nine. Doesn’t make much sense does it? Just as much sense as pulling away the post from my poor Pluto!