Aaah..The Bliss of a Nawabi interview

So finally the D-Day had arrived. The day of my first IIM interview and not a better date to start it. Feb 14th, the Valentines day. My interview was at 2 in the afternoon and since i hadn't seen the venue i left home at 1 PM. But i think i had under estimated the traffic on a Valentines Day afternoon. By the time i reached Brigade road, where the venue was it was 1:30 PM. So i hurriedly parked my bike on Church street and went hunting for one Hotel Monarch. The ppl over there on Brigades were staring at me as if i am an ET from Mars who has landed there to take over the earth. I can't blame them. I think thats what i would have done if i was in their place and i see someone in the middle of the day in a Hep place like Brigades, attired in a formal Shirt and a Pant, with a tie to accompany it. Luckily I found the Hotel quickly enuf to escape from all the stares. To my amazement, i found that I had visited Hotel Monarch many times... it houses the Pizza Hut and Barista which i have frequented many times earlier too.

Went in to find a room of around 40 ppl, including me waiting for the interview. I also found a few ppl who i had met in my coaching center and a few Pagals from the online forum PagalGuys (Yeah... a wierd title for a forum... but that is what most of the CAT aspirants are ... including urs truly). I was busy talking to them for abt 10 mins and then was busy trying to make myself more presentable.

Exactly at 2 PM, a professor came down and started reading out the names and distributing us into the various panels (4 to be precise. 10 ppl in each). I was in Panel 4 and had 9 ppl in our panel. One had either rescheduled his interview or thought that it was not worth enuf to attend.

After separating us into different panels, we were escorted to the third floor of the Hotel for the Group Discussion. We were let into our respective rooms. The room was a proper hotel room, with the Beds missing. We were made to sit in a U-Shaped format in the seats alloted to us. Then one of the professors explained the procedure. We would be given a topic and 10 minutes to write a 150 word essay on it. Then it would be collected back and we would start the discussion which would be for 15 minutes. He collected our Application forms and then gave the GD Topic.

The professor who dictated the topic had a weird accent and at first i had written the topic wrong and it made no sense to me. Then i looked into the guy next to me and got the correct topic.
The topic of the GD was " To be a successful as a team each team member has to be accountable for his expertise"

A perfect Globe topic. Wrote a few globe statements about team work...blah blah.... and finished the essay. After 10 minutes they collected the essays and asked us to start the GD. It was a peaceful GD, with no one cutting in when someone else is speaking. After 5 minutes...we went out of points and everyone started giving examples and paraphrasing the same sentences. I came in some 5-6 times in the GD. 2 original points and an example and 3 Paraphrased sentences ( Had to show my presence and had no points.. So paraphrased my earlier points). They stopped the GD after around 12-13 minutes and asked us to wait downstairs and would be called for interview in the same order. So I would be 7th in for the interview.

We went down and started chatting with ppl again. I found out the one girl in another panel, whom i had met in TIME classes is actually 3 years my junior from College. Same branch as me too. We were all sitting there and chatting about how khadoos the topic was and how the panelists too were bored. Then the interviews started and the ppl who were coming down after the interview told that the interviews were pretty cool. A hotel guy was coming down every 15 minutes and was calling out the numbers of the next member in the panel and was escorting us up. So finally at 3:45 PM my number was called and i was led up. Funnily, when i was being led up i had the feeling of Bali ka Bakra being led to its gallows .

There were still two ppl from my panel up there, who were to be interviewed. So i had to wait till 4:15 PM to be called in for my interview. The interview went on a bit like this.

The two professors who were there for our GD was there to take my interview. One professor was pretty young and kept smiling all the time (S). The other professor looked pretty much like Arun Lal (AL) and he was the one with a weird accent.

I entered ... Good Evening and all...

AL : Arun, can we have ur record.
M : Sure Sir.
AL takes it and passes it on to S. AL is looking at my Data Form
AL: So Arun, tell us abt urself.
M : Blah..Blah.. Blah...Bl..
AL: (Cuts me in the middle) So are u happy with ur job??
M : (Ab yeh kahan se aagaya) Yes Sir. I am happy with my job
AL: Then why do u want to leave this job and come and do a MBA??
M : (Aahhh... To yeh baat hein) Gave in my mugged up answer to be an entrepreneur.
AL: If u r serious on entrpreneurnship, there are institutes Like Entrepreneurship Development Institute. Why don't u join there?? (AL was really struggling to pronounce the word entrepreneurship )
M : Blah..Blah..Blahh... abt learning all aspects of management...blah blah blah
AL: That they teach in EDI too.
M : (Arre is he taking a interview or advertising EDI???) More blah blah blah...long term ambition of entrepreneurship.. Short term want to work as a consultant.
AL: Once u start working as Consultant u won't go back to entrepreneurship.
M: No sir... i will. It is my dream. Also told him something abt me being from a middle calss family and me needing to work for sometime before starting an entrepreneurship to have a fall back option.
AL : You keep on mentioning middle-class...what do u mean by that???
Me: Sir, we are not so well off as the rich guys...So we are middle class
AL: U mean monetarily
Me: Yes Sir
AL: So tell me what have u done till now to show that u r interested in entrepreneurship.
M: Sir, Involved in organizing cultural festival in college....
AL: (Cuts me in)... That is not entrepreneurship. Show me one thing which u have started or initiated
M : Sorry Sir, till now i haven't had opportunities to do so.
AL: So what type of entrepreneurship are u planning on??
M : Me from software...so software based.
AL : Do u know what is the success rate of entrepreneurships... that too in software industry?? It is very small.
M: Yes Sir. I know it is very small.
AL: Then why do u want to do that??U have a good paying job. Why do u want to leave it and start entrepreneurship?? Isn't it a gamble??
M: Sir, it is a challenge and i love challenges.
AL: So have u read abt entrepreneurs lifestyle...their success stories, how they have come up to be successful. More than that have u read abt the lifestyles of entrepreneurs who have failed and why they failed?? PPl who are interested go up and read such stuffs
M : (Arre... why did i dig my own grave ). Sir i have read abt Narayan Murthy.
AL : So what is the principle of Narayan Murthy and Infosys.
M : Sir, Main principle is Hard work. More emphasis on that in infosys. Thats what was emphasised on me when i worked there.
AL: So what is the principle of HP (My current work place)
M : Blah BLah Blah.
AL : So no stress on Hardwork??
M : Not much sir. Main emphasis is on proper delivery on correct time
AL : Is that the reason u left Infosys?? Are u afraid of hardwork??
M : (With smile on my face. Inhe kaisa pata chala). No sir...
AL : (Cuts me in) Coz if u join IIMS u can hardly sleep for 3-4 hrs a day. It is mainly hardwork there.
M : I know sir. It was not because i hate hardwork that i left Infy. Better offer...blah blah blah

S was till now busy going thru my certificates. After that he had finished and sat there smiling at me when i was answering questions. He takes over now.

S: So have u read the book abt Google Way??
M : No sir.. I am searching for the book
S: So what are ur hobbies??
M : (Yes Yes....Finally) Blah Blah Blah... Tried luring them towards football. Also told Computer Games
S : Have u heard of PS3??
M : Yes Sir.
S : Name some games manufacturer.
M : (Yes ... My area) EA Sprorts...Blah blah blah
S: Lemme rephrase the question. Name 3 major games console manufacturer
M : Playstation....
S : Playstation is a console... who is the manufacturer???
M : Sony Sir, and Microsoft X-Box .... 3rd i forgot
S : Have u heard abt nintendo
M : Yes Sir
S : So do u read newspaper??
M : Yes Sir
S: Which news paper do u read??
M : TOI, Hindu
S: No ET??
M : Sir i go thru it. Don't read in detail
S: Last week some indian company took over some foreign company. Which is it??
M : Birla..took over Novelis
S: Another one
M : Tata
S : Which company?
M : Told

S and AL look at each other. Thank u.
M : Thank u sir.

I walked out. It was an almost typical Lucknawi interview, with trying to stress, less of acads and more of HR related stuffs. I had a nice feeling out there.