“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sail.”
—William A. Ward
That grilling interview-Part 1
I have attended nearly 10 interviews for admission into B-schools, in the last 2 months. The selection process for each oh them first required shortlisting done on the basis of an MBA entrance, in which I scored above 90 percentile and that was decent enough to fetch me interview calls for at least 10 schools. The interview call consists of a Group discussion(GD)+Written essay+Personal Interview(PI).
This process was never going to be easy as one needs to have a good knowledge of current affairs to clear the GD, above average writing skills for the essay and most importantly, confident enough to clear the PI. Moreover, all of the institutes that I had applied to appear among the top 20 institutes in at least one ranking, so a tough selection procedure is followed by these.
One of these interviews will hold special importance to me. I was grilled on a lot of subjects and I had never expected so many unexpected questions in a single interview. I was grilled on almost everything I said, but I tried to remain calm and confident. I thought I shall share this experience with you all, and moreover, I can look at this post in future to assure myself that I have faced something so tough in the past.
The selection process that I am talking about is of IMI- Delhi. 1200 people had been shortlisted for the course that I had applied. Final selection would not exceed 60 which happens to be the total no. of available seats. This as going to be tough, highly competitive, but hat really bugged me was the fact that this institute had selected only 45 candidates last year, saying that they did not find anything special among rest of the people and they could not compromise with their quality just for the sake of filling 60 seats in total.
The selection process started with a written essay of 250-300 words (time limit 15 minutes). This was followed by a personality test in which we had to answer some general questions that would help the evaluators in determining some of our personality traits.
Next was the interview round. Students were divided into certain batches and each batch was assigned a panel which would interview them. I was the last person in my panel. It was 11 in the morning when I saw my name at the bottom of the PI list and I had already spent 5 hours at the interview venue. I went for documents verification, took a nap and then had my lunch. My watch read 1 P.M.
Now I had nothing to do, so I started interacting with other candidates. I talked to them about the questions that were being asked in the PI and tried to compile them at one place, but all in vain for no conclusion could be drawn from them. There was no specific pattern and it seemed what one answered for the first question lead to a series of more questions. We patiently tried to wait for our chance. I met a senior from my college who had a work-experience of 3 years. His stories only gave me more reasons to do MBA as a fresher. I tried to approach a hot chick there but she was already done with her PI and was in a hurry to leave the venue. My turn finally came up at 3:30 PM. Here starts the description of my PI in detail:
Three interviewers- P1(an HR faculty), P2 (Finace HOD), P3 (an industry expert). P3 was bald and all of them looked to be in their mid-forties. I enter the room expecting the first question to be ‘tell us about yourself!’
P1(smilingly): So you had to wait a lot, the last person. Are you annoyed?
Me: Yes sir, but thankfully, one person before me didn’t turn up and that saved my 45 minutes. Annoyed? Not at all, I just made some good friends outside. Moreover, you people have been interviewing us right from the morning, you have been busy all the time, it does not give the people like me who are just ‘waiting’ to be annoyed.
P1(no change of expression): Hmmmmmm…
P3: Tell me here are you from? What is famous about your place.
Me: My native is Jharkhand. My state is famous for Dhoni.
P3 starts laughing. P1 and P2 join him.
P3: Hahaha… not minerals, not forests, not about steel plants, but you say Dhoni.
Me: Sir that would have been my answer had asked what’s good about my state! If you repeat your question then I will still give the same answer, because that’s ho people from other stated recognize my state, that’s how my friends reacted hen I told them that I am from Jharkhand.
P3: Fine, I have already answered the good things. Tell me few bad things about your state.
Me: Poor literacy, poor infrastructure, most importantly, the political instability. There have been 8 different chief ministers of my state in the last 12 years and currently there is a President rule with no chief minister.
P3 looks convinced but doesn’t say anything.
P1: You have applied to the HR course. Tell me what interests you about HR?
Me: I love challenges. I believe that an HR professional handles the toughest job, since he has to handle people. The definition of management itself says getting things done with the help of people. This makes people the most important asset of any organization!
P1: You are a fresher. Tell me what you know about HR?
Me: (I had researched a lot on this. Told them everything that I knew).
P1: I agree with what you have said, but tell me how can you learn to manage people without having any work experience?
Me: I don’t have any work experience, but I have a ‘Life experience’. In the last 3-4 years I have desperately tried to learn ne things, failed a lot and yet never gave up. Now I have learnt most of those things. If you talk of learning then that’s the reason why I have applied to your college. I am sure I can match up with others or even outperform them with my dedication. I have made a few commitments in my life. I wake up early every morning, sweat myself in the gym, get outside my comfort zone by doing those extra Push-ups. The same discipline with which I do that one extra Push-up, the same discipline with which I push myself for trying a complex note on the guitar, that same discipline applies to all other aspects of my life.
P1: Hmmmmmmm…
Me(thinking, wtf! I just said such strong lines and all he has to say is Hmmm…!)
P2: We will give you an extempore topic now. Think for 1 min, stand and speak without stopping for 3-4 minutes). The topic is ‘ Is HR as a profession underrated’?
Me: Spoke for 3-4 minutes.
P3: What are the things that interest you?
Me: Fitness activities and playing guitar interest me a lot. I am also interested in reading and writing Philosophy.
P3: What’s the use of Philosophy? It’s just another genre, just like fiction!
…………………… TO BE CONTINUED!
Bhagawad Gita post #2 – The background
In order to understand this post please go through my previous post.
Bhisma: Bhisma was the uncle of Pandavas as well as the Kauravas. He is well known for his oath of life-long celebacy. It was Bhisma who had proposed Gandhari’s marriage with the blind Dhritarashtra. He was a very respected figure in the family.
Shakuni: Shakuni was Duryodhana’s maternal uncle ( and Gandhari’s brother). He was very intelligent but very devious too. He saw Bhisma’s proposal as demeaning. He wanted to destroy Bhisma’s clan. Gandhari ( Dhritarashtra’s wife) was married to a goat initially on the Sooth Sayers advice. Dhritarashtra was unaware of this fact. When he got to know this after his marriage, he imprisoned all the members of Gandhari’s family. Shakuni was the youngest brother of Gandhari, among her 100 other brothers. They all were sparsely fed in the prison, only one speck of rice per person for a day. The family thought that by giving all the rice to Shakuni at least one of them could survive and he could live on to take his revenge.
He got himself very close to the volatile Duryodhana. He expressed his discontentment at Bhsima’s decision to chose the eldest Pandava (Yudhisthira) as the next successor to the throne. He said that his nephew Duryodhana should have been chosen. Shakuni is believed to be the mastermind behind the Mahabharata war.
Shakuni is often depicted as a man dressed in black clothes, sporting a white beard, wearing a half-kireetam, rubbing dice in his hands often and limping slightly while walking.
He was an evil genius who was shrewd to see through things and confident of his skills to undo the opponents. Though his designs to destroy the Pandavas failed one by one, he was still unshaken in his faith to destroy the lineage of Bhisma. He played on the virtues of the Pandavas themselves, to bring problems of serious nature. His main objective was to instigate Duryodhana against the Pandavas. He knew that only a battle between the two could destroy Dhritarashtra’s kingdom so that his revenge could be complete.
Shakuni was a renowned gambler. He always played with a loaded dice and hence enjoyed good fortune in the game. He asked Duryodhana to invite Yudhisthira for a game of gamble, put him to shame and win his kingdom from the game. When Yudhisthira got the proposal he could not refuse to play as being a true Kshatriya he could not refuse to accept a challenge. Inside his heart, he didn’t want to play the game.
The problem with NO EXPECTATIONS
You can’t lead your entire life with the motto ”No expectations!” If you don’t expect anything then you may be at a danger by going near a snake since you are not expecting it to attack you. The key is to be aware of your nature and of everything that surrounds you. Without any expectation you may miss the ‘anticipation’ part. While one must enjoy the presence of good things surrounding them., some of the things are bad by nature and there is a need to avoid those things.
Here’s an old fable that I came across:
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the
scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The
frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion
says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream,
the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of
paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown,
but has just enough time to gasp “Why?”
Replies the scorpion: “Its my nature…”
Bhagavad Gita Post #1 – The background
Nearly 5000 years ago, in the Dwapara Yuga, there were two brothers- Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Dhritarashtra was the elder brother and had congenital blindness. The throne was therefore given to the younger brother, Pandu. Pandu had 5 children- Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva with Yudhisthira being the eldest. Since they were five in numver they were together called as the Pandavas. Pandu died at a young age. The throne was now given to Dhritarashtra. The Pandavas were very small in age when their father died. After their father’s death, they all were raised in the Dhritarashtra’s palace. Dhritarashtra had 100 sons, called as the Kauravas. The eldest of them was Duryodhana. Both the Kauravas and the Pandavas received their military training from Guru Dronacharya (also called Guru Drona).
Arjuna was his favorite student. Drona was greatly impressed by his dedication and natural talent. Arjuna was considered to be the finest archer among them.
Right from the beginning, the Kauravas used to feel jealous of the Pandavas. Duryodhana was especially jealous of Arjuna because of his talent in archery. When all the children were grown up, Duryodhana wanted the Pandavas out of his father’s kingdom.
Draupadi: Draupadi wa sthe daughter of King Draupada. She has been described to be extraordinarily beautiful. Her father kept a swayamvara to find the suitable person for her marriage. The princes vying for Draupadi’s hand had to shoot five arrows at a revolving target, while looking only at its reflection in a bowl. Drupada was confident that only Arjuna could accomplish this task. Arriving with his brothers disguised as Brahmins (priests), Arjuna successfully tackled the target, which other kings and prince were unable to accomplish. Arjuna married Draupadi after this incident. Kunti (Pandava’s mother) often advised her sons that they share everything they have (or obtain through Bhiksha, i.e. alms) equally amongst themselves. Upon returning home with Draupadi, on purpose, Yudhisthira addresses his mother first “Look mother, what we have brought. Kunti, unmindful of what Yudhisthira was referring to, unassumingly asked her son to share whatever it is with his brothers. Thus, in order to obey their mother’s order all five accepted Draupadi as their wife.
Krishna: Krishna was Pandavas’ cousin. He is considered to be the 8th Avatar of the Hindu god, Vishnu. Krishna was a very good negotiator and exhibited high amount of diplomacy during such negotiations.
P.S. This post is about the brief introduction of characters and the background in which Gita is set. It is important to understand the characters and the context in order to understand the meaning hidden behind those Slokas mentioned in the book. I will make few more posts regarding what led to emergence of those Slokas, with some more description about these characters!
#India - Young Love, old moralities #moralpolicing #ageofconsent #adolescentsex
Kamayani Bali Mahabal | March 23, 2013, Times Crest
The whole debate around the age of consent is clouded by foolish misconceptions, some of them legal and many of them cultural.
Do Baba Ramdev and others know what the implications of reducing the age of consent are? They have been crying themselves hoarse that the move will lead to a rise in the incidents of rape.
An excellent article that adopts a rational look towards the age of consent!
Do me a favor??
Hello friends! I have finally created the anonymous facebook page that will contain stuff related to blog. I request you all to go and join the page and if possible, then promote it by sharing it with your friends. I want my voice to be heard by a lot of people. The reason behind not revealing my original name and staying anonymous is a genuine one. If you are anonymous and write something, then people are interested only in your writing. Compare this to a person posting things and people making their judgement based on their perception about the person. I want discussions only related to what is written there and not about me.
Here’s the link, please go and like this page and if possible then ask your friends too 
. I love you all and it is only my blog family that I can trust upon for launching my facebook page!
