The Inner Voice

Summers at IIMB - as I saw it

2009-02-14T02:11:00.001+05:30

“I declare the placement process to be closed”, it was magical when Prof. Mukherjee announced this. IIMB managed to place the entire batch in just 4.5 days.
Day ‘ -4’. I am preparing with all I could for my only “Day 0” call.
Day ‘-2’, I appear for the first telephonic interview.
Day ‘-1’, I appear for the final telephonic interview….and the wait for the “Result” starts.
Day 0: The day almost 2/3rd of the batch is waiting for. All the much desired Consults and I Banks visit the campus. The news from other IIMs was not positive, but IIMB remains an exception. The companies were already stunned by the resumes and commented that the resumes of IIMB put even the foreign B-Schools to shame. Day 0 proved to be all good; of course we can’t compare with last year.
For me, I was waiting for the Result throughout the day but to no avail. Meanwhile, many friends got placed in great I Banks and Consults. Some volunteered to help the placement process while rest preferred to provide support to their friends.
This was all I had written the next day the placements got over. Probably I meant something very important in the last line, probably not.

Anyways.

I experienced every possible emotion I could imagine in those four days. There were times of hope and the next moment an utter dejection. The problem is not with the companies or the process, the problem lies with the expectations, which don’t always meet.
If one doesn’t get placed on Day 0, the chances of dragging to Day 2/3/4 are all equal. All those 3 days I kept waiting for the result of Result which I thought will be a positive one. Sadly, I never got to know the Result. However, I got an average offer from a Financial Engineering co., which I thought was pretty decent as it involved traveling to Singapore and Switzerland/Malaysia. Incidentally, the result of Result was out after I had signed out from the process, so I never got to know whether I successfully convinced the Swede.
To say it was a great experience to learn sounds a bit clichéd. However, been through this, it was very tough to handle. As more and more people get the offers, one is bound to feel impatient. I discovered many unknown people may help you when you least expect them to. On the contrary, as I experienced, many of my thought-to-be friends didn’t talk to me even once in those 4 days. Life, as they say, is like that only. Some things you have to do alone, you may get some support if you lucky enough. At that instant I remembered what my friend from IITD who went to IIMC once said: “The kind of friendship developed in IITs is not possible in IIMs”. He may have ignored the time factor, but I, for some reason, couldn’t reject the possibility.
All in all, a very tiring process, with a flurry of extreme emotions.
I was glad – it ended on a reasonably happy note.

Long long time.....

2008-11-07T20:39:00.001+05:30

hmm....this place, IIMB as we call it.......i almost lost my emerging hobby :P
I will try to be a bit more regular from now on.

Naive realism

2007-08-09T12:46:00.000+05:30

Beneath the reality, there lies a reality,
A reality which thrives to be discovered,
"I am the one",it says quietly.
But the voice gets subdued by the loud apparent reality,
It’s confusing! It’s confusing even to the inner reality,
Probably she doesn’t want the fame,
There is no other reason to be so quiet!
She knows she is the soul,
She tries to defend her position by being quiet,
This explains the unconditional love for the being.
Alas! Still no one is interested in her.
Not even the beholder!
After all, who has the time to go deep!
And the interested ones are also confused,
The world is moving very fast!
The reality is being ignored,
And so is the life!
It’s a pity that the pretensions outsmart the purity,
And the truth has become a myth!

Dreams

2007-01-15T23:29:00.000+05:30

Dreams never lie,
No, they never.
Inscribed with a certain sense of realization,
They rarely outsmart us.
Without saying a word they put up a challenge,
Then it depends.
Then you are awake,
And you become the God!

IIT is not SO popular!

2006-07-24T16:28:00.000+05:30

Following are the two funny experiences I had in last 2 years regarding “iit being SO popular”. I have intentionally kept them in hindi so the funny part doesn’t get lost. No offence intended:

1. Me (M), Uncle (U)

I was returning from Bikaner to Delhi. An old man shared the usually lone compartment with me. This is an interesting piece from that conversation which lasted for 10 mins.

M: Namaste Uncle

U : Namaste beta. Kya karte ho?

M: Uncle, main engineering kar raha hoon Delhi se.

U: Achcha Engineering (made an unimpressive gesture)
Kahaan se?

M: Uncle, IIT-Delhi se.

U: (seems unko mujhpe daya aa rahi thi) achcha…IIT se….beta tumhe Polytechnic college mein admission nahi mila?

Before I said anything….

U: Achcha 12th mein % kam reh gaye honge.

I had no courage to explain him the difference.

U: Koi baat nahi beta.niraash mat ho.
Waise Engineering kis field mein kar rahe ho? Civil?

M: Nahi uncle, Its Biochem engg.

U : ohh..beta rank peeche aayi hogi.

M: BLANK....

Me (M), Autowala (A)
I was in Jaipur, in his auto.

A: Bhaisaab, kya karte ho? Naukri hai ya nahi?

M : Hai uncle.

A: Meri baat maano, aajkal bahut achche offers mil rahe hain call centres mein.apni naukri chodo, future kaafi achcha hoj aayega aapka.call centre join karo.

M: Aisa kya hai?

A: Dekho pay scale ZABARDAST hai.
12-13k/pm mil jaayenge.

M: Achcha

A: Ek coaching kar lo, 60k lagenge…phir tumhaari call centre mein job achche se lag jaayegi. Tum karte kya ho?

M: uncle, iit se passout ho raha hoon, analyst ki job hai.

A: koi nahi, jo ho gaya, so ho gaya..ab aage career ka dhyaan rakho.

M: Thanks uncle, aap nahi hote to pata nahi kya hota!

Then, I took his contact number so that I could contact him later for the call centre numbers! Then I called him 10 days later. He said he is very satisfied that he made somebody’s career!

Moshu-Iti

2006-06-08T20:48:00.000+05:30

Interesting Coincidence : Moshu-Iti

Irrational numbers in real life!

2006-05-26T20:47:00.000+05:30

√17. Can we relate this number to something known? When 17 people(profs) of a deptt. are so irrational, words don’t come naturally in the final MTP presentation. Some students have a habit of hating some profs…..but for the remaining students, is their any other option available in the end!

The Inner Voice

2006-04-28T12:23:00.000+05:30

I can never forget that conversation. That has given me another purpose for my life. I was returning to my home after a movie show. I was sharing an auto rickshaw with two people from a nearby village. I heard the first guy telling the other that his son is admitted to a hospital for some treatment I don’t remember. Suddenly, the first guy took some two or three Rs.100 notes out of a small dirty packet. Looked like this was all he had. He told the other guy that he was looking for some Rs.5000 for lab check-up using big instruments. He was feeling helpless.
My reaction was obvious. I forgot what happened in the movie. Even I was feeling helpless at that moment. I was thinking of thousands of similar cases in India.
The majority in India lives in villages. They don’t have sufficient money even to eat twice a day! How on earth can they afford such costly medical check-ups? If our country has got the technology (imported may be), we should have some measures to make it accessible to poor. We should make sure that a farmer doesn’t have to sell his land (if he’s got one!) just because his son has got ill. It’s not their fault if they are poor.
As N.D.Walsch says in Conversations With God, “ Let each soul walk its own path”. I know I can’t and shouldn’t change the way they want to live. But we, who are now in a position to make some positive changes in the world, should try to make their life a little better in one way or the other. I think I have been fortunate enough as I got all the resources. But not everyone gets even the bare minimum. So, whose responsibility is this to take care of lesser granted people??? Should we be ignorant and keep telling to ourselves that someone else will do something for them OR should we take some responsibility and at least make sure that they are alive!
I want a free of cost medical treatment for poor. And this tops the list of my very few long term goals. I don’t know when my dream will come true, but I am sure it will some day!

Jor se bolo JAI MATA DI

2006-04-19T10:38:00.000+05:30

My recent trip to Vaishnodevi was more of a thought provoking trip; of course there was some religious intent as well. While climbing THE hill, I observed lots of disciples from all over the country. I was literally dumbstruck to see such a huge crowd even after considering the fact that it was the vacation time.
It was a good experience on a personal level. I enjoyed the scenery and the feeling to be in the clouds! Worked hard to climb initially-took 3.5 h to go up and scintillating 1.75 h while coming down. I was just wondering how people can trust mules with their lives. It’s so dangerous! After doing all the hard work, when you reach THE place, you are not allowed to be there for more than a second. It’s so frustrating! But then you don’t utter a word as you are supposed to behave humanely.
I heard one thing all along the journey- “Jor se bolo JAI MATA DI”. People were literally going crazy over these three magical words. People, at least half of them don’t follow God functionally, don’t take responsibility for their actions and never miss an opportunity to bully others. Is this the way MATA tells their disciples to lead? People make themselves proud of visiting Vaishnodevi every year. But how many of them actually take the lesson back home? Is visiting the place good enough? No. Its not! Now the question is why do we have to wear masks? We either believe in something or we don’t! And if we do, why don’t we follow that with our full heart? Similarly, if we don’t believe in something, why do we have to do that? Just to show others? Or we all know in our hearts about what is wrong and what is right. It’s all so confusing.Now the biggest irony is that most of the people are in between the state of believing and being ignorant. So, they can’t decide which way to go and finally end up doing something which their own self doesn’t believe in. This leads to low self belief and even lesser satisfaction level.And until there is no satisfaction, there is no scope for a perfect happiness!

Not to B...

2006-04-18T02:07:00.000+05:30

"No, not there", says IIMB. So then, all the dreams shattered in 2 secs, the heartbeat slowed down and it was a new experience indeed. My extempore topic in FMS seemed to be the universal truth. I could not speak much on “Once is not enough” in FMS; even today I don’t have many words.
But I know it doesn’t have long term implications. Looking at it from an optimistic angle, it’s good that IIMB rejected me. Or should I say its a blessing in disguise! MBA is even better with work-ex in the relevant field, which happens to be the case with me.
But it feels sad to be rejected. Its worse when you don’t know the reason. But then, we can’t and shouldn’t get everything at the first go as it defeats the whole purpose of life!
This inci(acci)dent has made me realize that there’s more to life than just desperately wishing to get into IIM.Life is good and I believe that everything happens for some good reason. So, not to B is not that bad afterall!