My date with 'K'

Hi...

Wondering why K? why not B??..all queries accepted. I will certainly come up with my B interview experience but I thought to share K's because in any interview things don't turn out like this and I bet you will enjoy reading it.

Arena details:

By 'K' I am referring to IIM Kozhikode. My interview was scheduled on 27th of march after a gap 3 days after A,C,L interviews.The process included a 15 min essay,15 min GD followed by a 20-25 minz PI.

I was pretty confident of clearing this interview because of the fact that K gives a lot of emphasis on academics. Therefore,I was relaxed as compared to other interviewees. Come on!! one would be relaxed after facing interview process of the elite IIMs. I was unaware of the fact that this confidence had reached its ignition temperature and could any time result into a superior version(over confidence :P).
That would be enough for trailer.Lets begin the movie.
Starring in & as 'Shubham Jaiswal'
Villains:-2 professors of IIM K .

Sharp at 9,we were divided into groups of 8 and were made captive in a Hotel room which was decorated for board meeting.Villain 1 gave an introductory speech about the process and then announced the essay topic "One must be unconventional in his thinking as this thinking will become conventional in future" along-with a disclaimer that none should try to pen down even a single alphabet after 15 minutes.I had chipped in few examples of Copernicus and Galileo stating their theories which were ahead in time and then concluded it comparing with the present scenario.Overall, a coherent one.I would rate it 3 on a scale of 5.

At 9:30 we all were sitting around the round table ready to take a final call on bombarding pakistan ;-).GD was a case based one regarding privatization in agricultural sector.After, a flying start in essay ,I wanted to lead the discussion and score a brownie point but alas!! I couldn't. So,I wanted to enter as soon as the 1st person finished.Till now my confi level had crossed all boundaries and cut short the first person when he said that the contribution of agricultural sector in GDP was around 40-50%. What??? I corrected him saying it was 15 %.Overall,GD was a decent one and I had made around 5-6 entries with 4 new ideas.I was ecstatic.

I was the 2nd person to be interviewed and we were waiting in the lounge.The person whom I had cut short came and said me 'Friend! I had said 14-15%' . "WTF?" I was shocked and alarmed and was in a state of extreme distress.Horrible thoughts were pouring in and I was called in for the interview.

V1- villain 1 ; V2 - villain 2; S-me the 'hero':P

S-May I come in Sir!
V1-Sure!shut the door and come fast!!!
(Interviewers were really far away from the door)
S-Good Morning SIRs

V1-GM! shubham ! Take your seat and tell me have you heard of LISTENING SKILLS.
(baap re baap!!! lag gayee....)
S-Thank you sir.And yes I know it .I am extremely sorry .I had misinterpreted the information and heard it wrong.It is completely my mistake.My friend just corrected me outside.I am sorry Sir.

V1-Were you listening him or you were thinking.
S- I was listening him but I heard it wrong.I am sorry sir.
(This continued for 5 more minutes and I was at the receiving end and was just saying sorry)
And all this time V2 was looking at me as if he would pounce at me anytime like a tiger and tear me into parts.

V1- Ok! lets leave this.After scoring such high marks in you school,why you are not into a good college.
S-Sir,KIIT is one of the best institutes in eastern india(LOL!!!).
(V2 shocked but was still churning his teeth)

V1-(clarifying) I mean why not into IITs or NITs.
S- I couldn't clear chemistry in IIT and was not getting comp sci in any of the NITs.

V1-How can chemistry be weak.After all,it's easiest of all.
S-I was more interested in physics and maths.And I liked solving more of them.
(V2 was behaving as if I am an uninvited interviewee looking here and there)

V1-(looking at V2) how could one be weak at chemistry?Tomorrow if you dont like something you will disregard it?

[kyun pareshan kar rahe ho yaar!!! Abhi tak main GD nahi bhula hun :-( ]
S- Sir,I hadn't avoided chemistry.(Gave some Gyan about my 12th marks and IIT marks explaining that it was just not sufficient for cut off).and I ended of saying 'I am still weak in chemistry'.

V1-OK! lets leave this too!
(Looks at V2 and says him to ask ques.But V2 behaved as if I was the most stupid person he had ever seen and was not even interested in my face.May be it reminded him of his daughter's boy friend who had eloped with her and I was praying kuch to puch le plz... )

V1-OK! let me ask! What is the difference between Computer science and Information Technology
S-Told him that technology is more of application and in Comp sci, we deal more into the computer architecture and theories alongwith giving example of compiler design paper.
[LOL! only this paper differed in our curricula from IT]

[V1 was not at all satisfied and V2 was ready to bang my head or else he would have jumped out of the window]

V1- (angrily) Tell me something related to Hardware.
S- Sir,Hardware study in basically done in various networking course like CCNA.

V1-(wipes his head)Ok ! lets leave this too!!(Again he persuaded V2 to ask ques but V2 denied and I was crying inside for my mistake of GD).
V1- So teach me something in computer science.
S- (started teaching Data structures whole-heartedly to impress them)
V1-Tell me a real life example of Stack.
S- Calculator.
V1- NO !!! real life

S-(ab real life me calculator nahi hota hai to kahan hota hai.)Gave an example of speed post centre saying that they collect all goods and go on piling and in evening they sort it from top.Thus, LIFO.
[Answered as if it was KIIT sem exam and proved a theory using any vague concepts]

V1- food storage units??
S- yes sir! they could be when you pile a sack over other and then remove from top but then you need to empty those sacks which are going to rot first.
[now what was the need to explain this?? In any food storage unit how would you remove the bottom sacks among thousands of sacks over and around it.]

V1-ok continue teaching(sarcastically).
S-[gave gyan till linked list & was into trees]

V1-I got Bored!!!You may leave.
S-[What??Do you think I am here performing salsa for you?you ***censored****].
S-Sir,any other subject like DBMS,OS etc.

V1-No!! you may leave.....(v2 probably ecstatic at this moment)
S- Sir,extremely sorry for my GD mistake.You could ask me on my hobbies etc.
V1- see shubham, we can give only 20 minz to a student and we cannot sit with you whole day.You may leave now!!
S- sorry sir..and Thank you.
[V2 hadn't even uttered an alphabet in the interview]


And our hero of this movie walked dejectedly out of the room, just to know that V2 was not saying anything to anyone.However,I had no hope of converting it after a horrible experience.

Results:- CONVERTED.
Even I am shocked my friends.Probably,I had accepted my mistake without any reasoning and was answering looking at both professors irrespective of the fact that V2 was horrifying.

Journey from KIIT to The Place to B!!!

Hi friends,

Surprised to see me blogging ?I don’t think you should be surprised ,after all tweeting and blogging have become the most prioritized activity of all biggies needless to say more often it results in hot shot controversies. So do you think controversies are good? If your answer is negative then do spare a thought on ‘how would the media industry of India run’. Have pity on them and support controversies .However, I am not here for making controversial statements. I just want to pen down some of my thoughts and gratitude in these final moments of our college life .

Let me rewind 4 years of my life to 2006 when I was writing my +2 boards’ alongwith various engineering entrance examination and wanted to make it to ‘mecca of engineering’. But alas! I couldn’t. Don’t you all agree to the fact that our most cherished desire doesn’t come true? Anyways, I had made it to one of the college which was considered very good by my sister.(Note:-she was doing her engineering from Orissa).So, It was decided by my parents that I was going over there. I had objected but finally I had made my mind to get admitted in that college due to STEVE JOBS. What???? Yes! You heard it right buddies. I thought that when JOBS could attain such heights without being a graduate then just think what I could achieve as I would be a graduate doesn’t matter if it’s not IIT. So, decision was made and I came to KIIT (KING of all IITs ) as quoted by our chancellor on orientation day.

There goes a famous saying “Whatever happens, it is for good “and certainly these 4 years were great. Got to meet with a pool of persons each unique in his/her characteristics. I must accept that while joining KIIT, I had thought that probably I would be the best student over there but alas! I was 110% wrong. This gave me a chance to learn from them and atleast try to match their standard. Meanwhile, In my first year I was more concentrated in traveling and visiting places. By the end of 1^st year , I had almost visited all places in and around Bhubaneswar. Thanks to Nachi bhai(a 4^th year guy).

First year flew away very quickly and then came the senior era. I switched over to computer science branch although I didn’t want to but again it was my family decision and I had to. But this too happened for my good. I should accept the fact that CSE guys were more diverse and talented when compared to my IT mates (No hard feelings). Second year was real fun and I made friendship with some of the best souls of our campus. Although there was a rough patch in which I missed some of my good friend and I still regret for it. And this was the time when I met Ranjeet pratap singh , a very helpfull lad who talked a lot( people had named him bhokal ),he was the one who talked about MBA,IIM and other related stuffs. He used to say that ‘That is the place where even the so-called-talented-IITians toil to get into’. This statement charged me a bit to accomplish the undone. However, I am a very lazy guy who gets charged initially at a rapid rate and then gets discharged too at the same rate (contact Ansh for more details).

Time passed on and we were in our pre-final year and placements became the talk of the college with the ghost of recession looming over global economy, all hopes of companies like Microsoft visiting for campus placements shattered. I had to take a decision and made my mind that I would be going for an MBA. I still remember that day very well when I went to BMR (Ranjeet @ PagalGuy) and asked about various MBA instis…which included IIMs,IITs,JBIMS,NITIE(top 20). It was mid of july and he said me that one needs 99.XX percentile to be on safe side to get a call with all sectionals above 90. My adrenalin rushed into my blood and I had made a plan to prepare.

Days passed on and I started to prepare along with Sambit Rath and Shruti. Soon, season of mock came and you would salute my so-called-serious decision of doing MBA by knowing the fact that Sambit and I had solved the first mock paper together in exam and just managed 96%ile. Mocks passed on and I varied between 99(just once ) and 80%ile. I had dropped the thought of doing MBA (IIMs a long back ago) when I saw my CS mates securing consistently in 99 region. But it was Sambit Rath, a Very fun loving creature who used to boost my confidence after a bad mock quoting about some guy Who had cleared IIM but had never scored above 90 in mocks.(I still doubt a bit but the way he used to present, it used to boost my confidence). Talking to BMR on various issues(my problems related to CAT) helped me a lot. The way he used to suggest remedial measures, he instilled a lot of confidence in me and I thought I could bell the cat. However in my terms, F*** the cat. For the benefit of all our class mate this member of PG DreamTeam came up with various communities and blogs exclusively for us, this made me visit PG and learn various things from there. I really owe you big time SIR.

Finally, on the D-day, I rode on lady luck and was able to achieve the feat which even I hadn’t imagined.A perfect BLACKIS. I was certainly on seventh heaven after a disastrous performance in XAT(92%ile, 59.36 in VA).However, I felt a bit bad because some of my friends who deserved it a lot more than me were marred by Prometric. Just after a day ,I had to leave for Goa as the trip was planned out already and I wanted to go. 10 days of sheer fun!!!! And when I returned I saw interview letter of IIM A C L all three on 23^rd march itself. The top most management institutes of India had scheduled the interview and they expected the same person to be present at 3 different locations at the same time.(A challenge to Prometric, guess who is better?*pun intended*). No points for guessing that BMR was again the person to be contacted in such suffocating scenarios. And so started the interview season, I will write about all my seven dates in next posts. Thus began the wait for results.

The wait was killing and It started on a bad note with C rejecting me. It was expected after the 6 min interview. I was still hopeful for A,I and had lost hope for B,K,L completely (wouldn’t have joined S). But on 26^th all my hopes shattered as A had rejected me after saying very good in the interview. 27^th was really a tough day and I was talking to anitesh about creating history 7 calls and 7 rejects. On 28^th result of B was declared (at 9 am) and I didn’t see it till 11 am thinking of a reject but guess what.. I was in.I will be in a “Place to be!!!”. Evening brought a sweet surprise with L too calling me in their prime list.Rest of the results are awaited !!!!

So friends, this was my journey of KIIT which has played a very important role in shaping my life. A special thanks to BMR,Sambit and Shruti for helping me to achieve this feat and to all my class mates who have played their part. I guess you might have got bored after reading such a long note but I had already told you I got 59.36 in VA in XAT. So, I guess you will consider the fact and will pardon me. We hardly have 10 days left before our Bachelors end. Therefore, party hard guys and gals and certainly it was a Journey to remember for each and every one of us.

KIIT Rocks!!!!

Signing out !!!
Shubh
(class of 2010,KIIT )