The experience with God's own IIM

Date : 17th Feb 2007

The date for my IIM Kozhikode interview. I was pretty much tensed the previous day as i knew these ppl are asking questions on 2nd and 3rd Sem maths like Laplace Transform, Fourier Series, Probability Distributions et al. One of my friend in US helped me out with basic statistics stuffs like Mean mode and variance. Thank U friend.

As my interview was at 9 AM and was in Brigades, i left home at around 8:15-8:20, reached there at around 8:35 AM. The waiting hall for this was a small dingy room, with a sloping stairs outside, which had its protrusion inside too. We were 30 ppl crammed in that tiny room. A hotel guy came into the room at around 9 AM and read out the names and divided us into different panels, collected our applications and left. (Yes profs from Gods own Campus doesn't give Dharshan till the time for ur GD has arrived). Finally at 9:10 AM, we were led into the room where our GD was to be held. There were 2 profs, P1 and P2. We were 9 ppl in the group as one guy had given this a miss.

They started the process. They gave all of us a piece of paper, on which a paragraph was written and this was supposed to be the topic on which we were supposed to discuss. We were given 2 mins to think and 10 mins to discuss. The article was something abt Govt shud not run business and leave the infrastructure development to Private players. This was the worst GD i had till now. The moment the GD started 3 ppl started talking and it was usually 3-4 ppl talking at the same time. I couldn't get in a single point till 7 minutes, then got in one point which was accepted by the group and then, i couldn't get in again till the end of GD.

We were again led into the same cramped up room and were asked to wait. I was a bit sad as my GD was horrible, but spent some quality time with the ppl there. Half the ppl there were from Hyderabad and most of them had Non- Comp Sc profile. Me and one more girl who works for Infy Hyderabad were the only ppl with CS background. We all spent some time discussing current affairs and GK. Then it was tech stuffs, with that girl asking me questions and trying to refresh my memory. I was the 9th person to be called for the interview and by the time they called me it was 1:15 PM again.

I went in and i heard the 2 profs discussing softly, "Yes we'll ask him about it" . I knew it was about my GD and i was actually prepared to give a 2 min talk on the topic if they ask for it.

P1 left me into the room and went out for a break. P2 was sitting and was looking at my application form. I went in and wished them. P2 asked me to take the seat and stared at me. Man, that look. It was really scary. It was almost as if it was going right into ur brain and reading ur mind.

P2: So How was ur GD??
Me: It was really bad Sir
P2: What happened??
Me: Sir i had points, but couldn't come in as it was usually noisy. I tried coming in but i couldn't. I didn't want to add to the chaos.
P2: So u have calls from Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow and Indore too??
Me: (Thinking... Isne toh ek ko chod diya. Koun sa??? Then suddenly gets that he left Kozhikode in which i am sitting) Yes Sir
P2: Have u finished any other interviews??
Me: Sir i have finished the interviews for Lucknow and Indore
P2: So how did it go??
Me: Sir it went pretty well sir. I could come in with points in the
P2: So can we say that u r a pretty decent person??
Me: Yes Sir, U can tell that ( Why not why not??? I am the most decent and eligible person on the face of this earth. I am world famous for decency in my room).
P1 had come in by this time
P1: So tell me something abt urself
Me: (Yes... I know this) Blah...Blah...Blah...
P1: (Cuts in) Tell me something abt ur work
Me: (If u wud have waited i cud have told it in my answer) ... Blah... Blah... Blah....
P1: So by HPUX u mean the Unix Servers??
Me: Yes Sir, HPUX == HP's flavour of UNIX
P1: Tell me some other flavours of UNIX?
Me: Sir IBM's AIX, Sun's Solaris 2
P1: Tell me the user's of ur servers in India?
Me: (Huh....God how come i didn't study this??? ) Sir .... Infosys uses our servers for its banking product.
P1: OK others???
Me: Sir, that is the only one i know in India (Woh bhi bahut mushkil se yaad aaya hain). I know Telecom Italia also uses our servers.
P1: So can we say that HP's servers are not doing well??
Me: (Abe... kya keh raha hain tu)..No Sir, we are competing with IBM for the first place.
P1: What abt Sun??
Me: Sir Sun is not competing for 1st place ( Major Globe).
P1: So who is first?? HP or IBM???
Me: Sir, it keeps varying. IBM puts in something and says HP doesn't have it and HP retaliates by putting in something which IBM doesn't have and say that IBM doesn't provide it. So it keeps varying (Din mein taare dikhane koshish kiya)
P2 comes in now
P2: So what are ur hobbies??
Me: Football, Computer games and listening to music
P2: What music do u listen to??
Me: Sir, Hindi film songs, old and new. English songs and sometimes classical too
P2: (Eyes Light up) Classical meaning Carnatic classical
Me: Yes Sir.
P2: What do u listen to??
Me: (Abe phas gaya) Sir mostly instrumental
P2: Who do u listen to?
Me: (Sinking in deeper). Sir Kannakudi Vaidyanathan
P2: Violinst??
Me: Yes Sir
P2: Why do u like him??
Me: Sir, I like the way he plays and also i love to see his facial expressions when he plays. He enjoys his music.
P2: Don't u think it is just showing off?? He just wants to show off since he doesn't know how to play
Me: (WHAT???? Pagal ho kya???) No Sir, I think he knows how to play and he doesn't show off. He just enjoys his music.
P2: Are u deep into music?? Are u trained??
Me: No Sir, I haven't learnt music
P2: So how can u tell that what he plays is correct when u haven't learnt music at all??
Me: Sir it was my opinion. I like his music and i think he plays good music.
P2: OK. So which other violinist have u heard??
Me: (Phas gaya)... Sir...
P2: Have u heard L. Jayaram???
ME: Yes Sir (Bach gaya)
P2: Have u heard L. Subramaniam???
Me: Yes SIr, i know abt him. But i haven't heard him play it
P2: So have u heard the title song of Malgudi Days??
Me: Yes Sir
P2: Who has directed the music for it?
Me: Sorry Sir, I dunno
P2: So what other instruments do u listen to??
Me: Sir U. Srinivas
P2: The Mandolin Player??
Me: Yes Sir
P2: Is it mandolin that he plays??
Me: Yes Sir
P2: 100%??
Me: Yes Sir, It is Mandolin
P2: How do u say it is mandolin?? Have u seen it??
Me: Yes Sir. I have seen him playing it and it is mandolin
P2: He says it is a mandolin, but that is actually a guitar
Me: No sir, it is not guitar, it is mandolin.
P2: No it is not mandolin. It is guitar
Me: No Sir. It is mandolin.
P2: Have u seen anyone else playing it??
Me: Yes Sir, I have seen one more person playing it.
P2: Was it the same??
Me: Yes Sir, it was similar instrument
P2: Even he may be playing guitar telling that it is a mandolin. He may be fooling every one.
Me: (Totally frustrated...Abe woh mandolin ho ya guitar...tere ko kya??? But with a huge smile on my face). No sir it is a Mandolin and i am sure of it.
P1: Have u seen a Mandolin in some museum??
Me: No sir i haven't seen it in a museum. But i have seen them playing it and it is Mandolin
P1 and P2 looks at each other and tells That's it Thank u
Me: Thank u sir. Me get up to go
P1: Be more active in GDs from now on
Me: Sure Sir.. Thank u sir