Interview with Bain and Co
Thought that may be it's a nice idea to post about the interview at Bain and Co. This is how it went:
Round 11) Tell me about yourself
2) There's a project on my CV that's a part of Dr Raj Reddy's vision. I was asked to share the experience of meeting Dr. Raj Reddy and what all feedbacks did he give about the project, if any
3) I was told to explain a little about the System Thinking skills that I wrote on my CV
4) Was asked to share the experiences of organizing things like felicity, farewell and musical night
5) What is the first thing that Mr Hemant Rokesh (my FYP guide) would say about you if we call him up right now?
6) Why Bain when you could get a lot better technical companies to work for?
7) Why exactly do you believe that you're fit for this kind of a job?
8) Do you understand that you're moving out of technical stuff (coding etc)? Are you ready for that?
9) Suppose that a chair company wants to start over a manufacturing plant in India. What are the various aspects that it'll have to look in before actually going for the venture? [Had to consider supply side, demand side, customers' views, competitors, market, infrastructure, increasing demand, which part of the country would be more beneficial, estimate of the product cost]
10) What all aspects will brand like Ferrari have to consider if it plans to open a manufacturing plant in India and when it plans to launch it's latest product, it's latest car in India?
Round 21) Tell me about yourself. [It has to be consistent with the previous answer. They surely take points etc]
2) Why Bain and why not the other options that you already have? Give reasons for rejecting each one of the previous three offers
3) A lot of questions on extra-curricular activities
4) An Italian company is planning to open up a manufacturing plant for premium shirts (Rs 1400/ and above) in India. I was shown a chart that had all bar graphs made over it. Had to study that and give views as to whether the business is profitable
5) How much does a Hair Saloon earn per month. Give numbers and mention proper approximations and assumptions. After coming on the numbers, say if the business is profitable in future
Round 3 - A guy from London School of Business1) Tell me about yourself [Has to be consistent again]
2) Questions related to dad's business and why don't you wish to enter family business
3) Why Bain? Why not Inductis?
4) Name various consulting companies that you know. And what exactly do you understand when you say strategic consulting?
5) What do you know about work at Bain? Did you ask your senior [Ankit] about things that we work on in this center?
6) Name some domestic low-fair airlines that you know. How are they different from other economy airlines? If food (low-fair airlines do not offer them) etc is the only difference, how is it that these low-fair airlines manage to make profits by selling off the tickets at such a low rate. Is the business profitable?
7) Small talk on Bottom of Pyramid
8) Estimate the total earnings of a multiplex (with 5 screens) per year. What all are the sources of their earnings?
Time taken to write this post: 45 minutes
A Royal Treatment
- One of the seniors at this new organization is made my buddy who'd be the contact person in case of any doubts, queries or requirements
- I was called over to Gurgaon to have lunch with some of those senior people, interact with the current employees and get the offer letter.
- 3 people (My Buddy, His Team Leader and me) went over to China Club at Gurgaon. And can you believe the total expenses? It came out to a high total of Rs. 4300/ (and that's jes for 3 people) .. The treat was thrown by this team leader, a guy from New York, looks similar to Brad Pitt and talks amazingly.
- At lunch, we had fresh juice, shakes, fried rice, noodles, lobster, lamb, prawns, baked vegetable. Towards the end, we had a complementary Chinese Tea.
Things were amazing and people were really impressive - one of them from London School of Business, many others from various universities abroad, some of the IITians, a few others from commerce background too. I hope to see nice things coming up.
Time taken to write this post: 25 minutes
Things change, Feelings change
At times it happens that nothing seems to be going right. Nothing at all. He tries to find faults in every single thing then. And no one seems to be working or acting the way he wants. Nothing seems to be happening the way he wishes. Nothing goes perfect. Things keep on getting worse. Everyone seems to work in a way that is exactly opposite to the way that he wishes.
Then comes a result for an interview where personality, managerial abilities, leadership qualities were checked to the core. And he does get through. He's recruited in another company that's named Bain and Co. The position's Business Analyst, a position that he always wanted to be in. One result changed the day-long sad feelings, it changed everything. Excited, yes he is. Happy, yes he is. He, yes he is me.
Time taken to write this post: 9 minutes
Parental Love
At times, I get all doubtful of the fact as to whether that's love or whether that's just criticism. At times, I get all happy of the fact that I studied at a place that was so far away from my hometown. At times, I get all frustrated when parents keep on scolding for so trivial things. In those times, it takes time to believe and understand that it's nothing but their love.
I doubt if all parents keep their children this way and that those kids are disciplined, mature and understanding. Parents do scold and ultimately we get to believe that they were right. Why can't I stop getting frustrated at the first place itself (when they scold)? It takes time. All said, I love them.
Time taken to write this post: 11 minutes
Temptations
Sitting in front of a black screen, hitting some white, red, blue, green characters over it, using things like gcc and gdb and finally gettting right/wrong outputs. Trust me, that's not an easy thing to do. One needs a lot of patience and a zeal to work in that direction. But it still is tempting to work in IT companies basically because they're ready to pay their employees heavily.
I've already dumped an option of working with one such company that was ready to pay above 6 lacs pa basically because I consider the work at my current option more interesting. But then comes another option of working with an even better IT company that's ready to pay even more than what the previous firm offered. It gets so tempting at this age. Money is so tempting. It is really difficult to make a decision.
Time taken to write this post: 13 minutes
First Reunion Initiative
Finally, some of us school friends, 21 to be exact, had a get-together today. It was amazing to meet those ol' frnds. Everyone's changed for gud with drastic differences in some of them.. People are into all kinds of streams - Law, MBBS, MBA, Economics Hons, Defence, Event Management, Animation industry and Engineers ofcourse.. The word is wow.. Afterall, school frnds are the ones who land up with most diverse careers and they thus form the widest network.
We got together at a club in the evening, had lots of things to eat, arranged for a memento kind of a thing and had a lot of chit-chat.. Everyone was really excited to tell abt themselves and listen abt others as well. We clicked a lot of photographs (will be uploaded soon) and shared lots of ol' memories. I definitely am going to plan for more such reunions in future. It definitely turned out to be THE BEST party among all those that I had lately..
Time taken to write this post: 12 minutes
Everything is so different
People - They are more desi but definitely more dildaar kinda here in north compared to what I've seen in Hyderabad.
Beauty - The average beauty of girls is definitely higher here in and around Ambala.
Food - Wow!! The preparations here are delicious, whether you eat at a dhaba or at the costliest restaraunt. In Hyderabad, I've had the tastiest food at Angeethi. Ohris Tadka and Our Place would come next. FYI, this is in terms of the Indian Punjabi Food.
Expenses - Things are relatively cheap in Ambala, it being a smaller city compared to Hyderabad.
Fuel - Petrol and Diesel, both are at a much lower cost. Petrol is Rs 43/ here in Ambala while it is approx Rs 49/ in Hyderabad.
Hep and Modern - People are more hep out in Hyderabad compared to those in Ambala. As said before, people are more desi here.
Language - You at times are forced to speak in Hindi while there in Hyderabad, you are forced to speak in English.
Tech Savvy - People are not at all tech savvy here. To get in touch, I gotta take cell no.s while there at Hyderabad, email ids were so useful
And a lot of other things too. I am for some important reasons missing Hyderabad. Did I say jes missing? I hav to say that I am 'really' missing Hyderabad.
Time taken to write this post: 20 minutes
On Homework
With we becoming professionals in time to come, it's not only our duty, it also is our need to work on things perfectly. Considering what I plan for myself in future, there shall be a lot of client interaction, a lot of deals, transactions and negotiations. In those times, one got to have his part of work done. That's called the homework.
If one's not clear with the deal from his point of view, his requirements, his demands and his preferences, he wouldn't be able to convey that to the other end and thus would be in loss. So essentially, what I mean to say is that one needs to spend sometime thinking about every aspect on whatever action he/she takes. Things wouldn't workout successfully otherwise.
Time taken to write this post: 7 minutes
On Friendship
After leaving IIIT, it gives a wonderful feel to be nostalgic and write like posts. I was listening to Imran Khan's interview on this show called -
A rendezvous with Simi Garewal just a day before and he talked something on friendship. Wanted to post on similar note since then but now, I got to 'spend' on the internet connection at home and hence I avoid being online frequently.
It's about testing the friendship. The point is not to test on friends, especially with things like borrowing money. Once one starts building his/her future, he/she might need money for future ventures, for personal things or at times of bankruptcy. In those times, we expect friends to help and lend money. Do expect but do not ask for money yourself because if you do that, the friendship might come at stake. It's always better to separate out profession groups from friends.
Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes
Off to Home in sometime
Friends and Readers
This is a formal goodbye to one and all around. I'll be leaving for my home in a few hours. It was great to be in IIIT for last 4 years. There have been lots of learnings and wonderful experiences during that time. Also, considering the achievements that many of my batchmates have had, I really feel proud to be part of BTech 2k2. Though, I believe to get all occupied in time to come, I would try to be regular with the blogging habits.
Three cheers for IIIT and my batch in special.
Time taken to write this post: 4 minutes
Things I'd like to leave back at IIIT
1)
Emotions - Probably, being emotional is reflected from the name Akansh Khurana out here. But that is not the sole truth. May be, the image has to be changed
2)
Anger - Short-temper has to go away
3)
Ego - That's more inclined towards self-respect in my case. I get more angry when it comes on the self-respect. It's considered to be an ego problem for some
4)
That preaching nature - Enough of lecture baazi. Do not ever give advices when you are not asked to give them
5)
Traditional thinking - Got to be a little broadminded as mentioned
here too
6)
Chauvinism - Yes, that's another thing too
7)
Working without a killing attitude - Success isn't achieved without that killing instinct within
8)
Accepting the loss in competitions - I'll be successful the day I start hating the moments of loss. I tend to make myself understand and accept the non-victorious moments
9)
A Secret Identity - More and more IIITians are requested to contribute on
IIIT BUZZ because
this guy is me and I'll be gone from IIIT on Thursday morning
Time taken to write this post: 14 minutes
A realization
A particular thing is valued the most only until it is achieved. Once achieved or won, it loses its charm, its value in the eyes of the winner. Not that it's bad or is unfair on the part of the winner but what I basically mean to say is that at times, it happens that one really appreciates something and wants to continue appreciating or loving it with the same extent throughout one's life. In those times, it may be a good idea to not occupy or win that thing basically because otherwise, it might lose its shine. In other words, standing first in a ranklist would definitely be more attractive for the person who's never been there but really wishes to be compared to the person who's stood first a lot of times.
The graph could be something like this:
It indicates that after the winning point, the value certainly gets reduced (after may be a little delay) compared to when it's actually achieved. I am somehow feeling low.
Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes
20 great personalities
No, these 20 personalities aren't known across the world yet. But they are known well in the short domain of IIIT. With time, they would definitely rise high in whatever field they choose and will become
bade aadmi. And I can say that because we've all had quite a good interaction during the past 4 years and I know them well.
Monu - Limit of Hardwork
Aseem - Mature and sensible decisions
Sud - Intelligent and creative points
Mohnish - High aptitude level
Gaurav - Influential personality with good handling of situations
Mehta - Great negotiator
Rao - High aptitude level again
Kirti - Perfect blend of hardwork and intelligence
Shivam - Influential personality and creative ideas
Arpan - Very Business oriented personality [Cunning kinda]
Gayrav - Great ideas and focussed
Ruchir - Influential and great attitude
Rastogi - Flawless is the word (Perfect in all sense)
Nipun - Determined and hardworking
Upadhyay- Good ideas with business oriented personality
Khurana - No comments
Lohia - Intelligence with a cool attitude
Rajesh - Limits of determination and hardwork
Sumeet - Great ideas with right amount of hardwork
Satvik - Intelligence, Knowledge and High IQ
Left to right (Starting NW, Ending SE) according to above list:
Time taken to write this post: 24 minutes
Blogging Sense
The first post on this blog was made on 19th January'05. It's more than an year now. But that wasn't the start. I maintained a couple of those secret, personal and stupid blogs before that. Though, they're all gone now. There have been a lot of changes ever since I tried my hand at blogging from around July'04.
1) Love related posts -> Philosophical posts -> Day to day happenings in life
2) Boring and long posts -> Short and crisp posts
3) IIIT related posts -> More generalized posts
4) Lots of emoticons -> No emoticons
5) No comments -> Few comments at times
6) No. of hits in 1 digit -> No. of hits in 2 digits -> No. of hits in 3 digits
7) No search results for blog -> First link on google if you search 'Akansh Khurana'
8) Less frequent updates -> More frequent updates
9) Normal template -> Lots of additions (mainly on the right bar)
A lot of things really motivated me to write from time to time. And when most people stopped writing due to 'no comments' on their blogs, due to 'no special thoughts', or many other reasons, I feel happy to have continued posting.
Time taken to write this post: 11 minutes
Limits of Laziness
1) Got the notes xeroxed on the evening of 4th April'06
2) Started studying on 5th April'06 at around 1:30 pm in the afternoon
3) Slept at around 2:00 pm
4) Woke up at about 5:30 pm and had tea till 6:00 pm
5) Started studying again at around 6:30 pm and stopped around 8:00 pm
6) BC till 9:00 pm and dinner post that
7) Studied from around 10:00 pm to 12:00 midnite
8) Saw some movie for about an hour
9) Studied for another hour and slept
10) Woke up on examination day, 6th April'06 about 1.5 hrs before the exam.
11) Glanced through the material once
12) Went off to exam and effectively wrote only for about half the total time. Was relaxing and dreaming for the remaining half
Final Year is fun with no willingness to study and give the exams. I wish that the administration could make arrangements for not conducting any exams for the final year students.
Time taken to write this post: 5 minutes
Some tips and suggestions - International MBA
Happened to have a telephonic converstation with
Nishkala for more than about half-an-hour and thoroughly enjoyed each and every thing that we talked about. I basically gave her a call to enquire things related to GMAT and all. Trust me, it's really helpful to talk to great people. For those who don't know, her application has been accepted into Michigan MBA program and would be joining there in the coming session.
Just a few points that I might want to save in here for future reference:
1) Before joining a company, make sure that you get challenging work. It just wouldn't be helpful to have an experience in certain company without having a decent growth rate.
2) There'll be lots of people who would take up a path similar to what you plan to. Work in a company like Inductis for few years and then apply for an MBA. Make sure that you have a really good rapport with your immediate boss and that he recommends you more than anyone else around.
3) If you opt for a company that doesn't deal much in technology, as in you do not get much chance to improve your technical skills, you're leaving out a path of starting up a company, be an IT entrepreneur for sometime and apply for an MBA.
4) Assume that there are NO aids in MBA abroad before you apply for any university.
5) Having an experience of working abroad through onsite opportunities adds a lot of weightage to your profile.
6) You got to write atleast 4 essays on the following tracks - Long-term n Short-term goals, Leadership Experiences, Team-working experiences and In what ways would you contribute to the university that you apply for.
7) There are cases when at the time of recruitment, companies give undue preference to US residents over people from Indian background. But, nevertheless, that trend is changing and they do prefer people who've had experiences working abroad and our from the Indian background. So, basically, if you satisfy 5th point, you'll have an amazing chance.
8) At the cgpa and with the profile that I current have, getting into top 10 universities with just 3 years experience is next to impossible. Either work for more years or I might have to get satisfied with low-ranked universities.
9) At the time of application, you got to display your long-term goals and how you've been trying to achieve them all through right from the time of getting into the graduation college. Pretend to have some goals even if you don't have them.
10) It really helps to have some people known in the university that you apply for.
11) Extra-curricular participation helps a lot to highlight the profile.
12) If low cgpa is a problem, try taking up certain courses while in job and excel in them to prove that you have good quantative skills. According to them, GMAT and academic performance reflect quant skills and that's really important.
13) If you're from a background very different from that of a normal applicant, you might get an advantage. They really wish to maintain diversity in universities for students to have better interactions.
Thanks to Nishkala ma'm for all the tips and suggestions that she made.
Time taken to write this post: 32 minutes
Good ol' friends - Guys vs Gals
There's a yahoo group for our batch back at school where I did my 10th from. And trust me, it's on an expanding note these days. On an average, one new person joins the group every 2-3 days. Now, that's a good rate. There were more number of girls in that school - 33 girls:14 boys in one section is what I remember and owing to that there are more number of those ladies in the group. I've been talking to lots of those old friends these days and it feels really great to get in touch with them after such a long time.
With all things happening in life such as chatting to lots of those old friends and making new friends around, I've started realizing the fact that on an average, the
percentage of smart girls is definitely more than the percentage of smart guys. Now, that's only for the college going crowd. Most of the girls that I've talked to turned out to be really good while guys are still the same - theth desi kinda. I have this urge to write two names who've impressed me more than any of those old friends - Aditi Banerjee and Juhi Gulshan. They're just too good to talk to. And guess what, neither of them are engineers.
I'll define the keyword 'smart' above as someone who's impressive to talk to with good communication skills and good ideas up there, who's more understanding, one with good dressing sense and who knows how exactly to keep onself. There are lots of other things too but those mentioned are the major ones.
PS: And with that, 150th post gets completed
Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes
Interview with Veveo.Tv
It's a startup company that deals in the area of networks.
Veveo.Tv tries to stream video using newer techniques and methodologies. They have a development center at Bangalore and the work is supposed to be REALLY good. Added to that, they pay good bucks too. I've had one interview round with them till now, as some other students at IIIT, and the names of short-listed people are expected to be out soon. Before I get rejected and do not wish to write my experience then, I'll post the various questions that I was asked in the telephonic conversation.
1) If a struct contains a char and an int, what would be the size of the struct?
Ans: If char comes before int in that struct, size would be 8 bytes because of an extra padding of 3 bytes after 1 byte of char. If on the other hand, int lies before char, size shall be 5 bytes, as expected.
2) Read a file to count the unqiue words in there and tell the complexity of the algorithm.
Ans: It looked simple untill the interviewer asked me of the way to read that file. I said that I shall read words by tracking the white spaces. He asked me the buffer size that I shall use and I answered 80 considering that there are 80 chars in a line. He asked me to re-think and it finally struck to use re-alloc with some intial fixed buffer-size. After that, words are to be stored in a hashtable. There obiously is a need to maintain a linklist in there.
The worst-case complexity would be O(n^2) when all the words are stored in one linklist itself. That shal be the case when hash function is inappropriate.
3) Order for the function strcmp
Ans: O(n) where n is the no. of characters in smaller string.
4) What are the exact number of arithmetic operations required for multiplying 2 n*n matrices?
Ans: Order is n^3. Calculation of arithmetic operations is simple. I guess, it comes out to be (n^2)(2n-1)
5) There's a byte array of size 100 bytes. A char pointer p points at the beginning of that array. If you're given an integer i (between 0 and 799), write a one line code in C to set the ith bit to 1.
Ans: I'm not sure of the answer. Probably it is: p[i/8] = p[i/8] | 2^(7-i%8).. Kindly verify
6) What is a DFA? Give it's practical implementation. Draw a DFA for checking palindromes.
Ans: Palindromes cannot be represented using a DFA since it's got a constant memory and assuming that palindromes are of the form (w)(w^r), [where 'w' is a word and 'w^r' its reverse] we need to store 'w' somewhere to check it with its reverse.
7) What is big-endian and little-endian? How would you check if your system uses a little endian or a big endian representation?
Ans:
int num = 1;
if(*(char *)&num == 1)
{
printf("\nLittle-Endian\n");
}
else
{
printf("Big-Endian\n");
}
8) Write a program to check if the system stack grows upwards or downwards
Ans:
#include
#include
void stack(int *local1);
int main()
{
int local1;
stack(&local1);
exit(0);
}
void stack(int *local1)
{
int local2;
printf("\nAddress of first local : [%u]", local1);
printf("\nAddress of second local : [%u]", &local2);
if(local1 < &local2)
{
printf("\nStack is growing downwards.\n");
}
else
{
printf("\nStack is growing upwards.\n");
}
printf("\n\n");
}
They basically wanted strong C-programmers and hence didn't ask any networks related questions even after being a networks company. I couldn't answer 60% of the questions in the first go. Second thoughts worked better I guess. Thanks to Lohia for all the help.
Time taken to write this post: 28 minutes
Experience at IMAX
Yes, that was the first time that I visited IMAX today. Thanks to
Rajesh who kinda forced me to spend some bucks. Harry Potter didn't really have a lot of those 3D effects but nevertheless, the big screen did make it good to watch. Added to that, since the management there has special rates (jes Rs 100/) for the show these days, it was even better to have seen a movie at IMAX at the rate of that in a normal theater.
Considering that I'd be joining with Inductis at Gurgaon and that it'll be really expensive out there, one thing that I'll really miss about Hyderabad is these low-cost tickets for any cinema. Even the multiplexes' rates are too low to be considered prestigious and that is what basically makes it easy for us students to watch movies in there.
Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes
Amazing Parents
Our parents do a lot for most of us and that could be realized from the fact that we're reading this thing on internet that basically proves that we're much much better than a large number of other people around. Mom n dad are the only two human beings in this world who wud never ever think of anything that's harmful for us. There may be other people too for some but definitely that's not the case for most. I am not sure though, if we give them the due respect.
I planned to purchace a new hard disk today and finally did. Thanks to dad for the immediate action of putting money into the account. I called him up for that soon after I got ready. And it didn't take him more than say 15 minutes to get the work done. I received his call before even I left the campus and trust me, it was so wonderful to hear that he deposited a lot of cash in there. On thanking him for the same, he scolded me the same way as he did when i was a little lad. For him, me getting successful in all my endeavors would be a token of thanks to him. Love u mom n dad.
Mom-dad ke roop mein mere bhagwan:
Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes
Modern aka fashionable aka hep
For the past few days, I've been realizing that the world around is changing really really fast and am still there with very narrow-minded viewpoints. I sometimes feel that within the last 4 years, people have kinda moved ahead and am still the same. Now, that's not exactly the fault of IIIT basically because there are certain people out here who have all kinds of fun and could be considered stylish or fashionable. And FYI, the keywords in the title are not about drinking, smoking, doping. They're about broadening your viewpoints, act in a way that reflect that you do not really worry for the thoughts of people around, wear modern and trendy clothes, have fun in life etc.
I recently visited this place called HavMor on the ground floor of Ohris Banjara at around 1:30 am in the night. And I have to accept that my eyes were left all open after seeing the crowd out there. Most of the girls wore mini-skirts, guys had all funky clothes, most of them spoke really well and the best part was that they knew how exactly to have fun. Not that I want these things to happen in my life immediately but I atleast need to accept them and get more broad-minded with time. Currently, I not only consider myself traditional, I also consider myself to be really under-developed. May be, in time to come, I'd like to change a lot of things in my personality.
Another related word that comes up to my mind is 'glamour'. I've started realizing that glamour is ought to come with money and high-fi society. So, to be able to adapt yourself better in the world that one dreams of, a world of richness, one got to accept things like glamour and fashion.
Time taken to write this post: 14 minutes
Runway - 9
Finally, another thing finished off from the important
list of things. I wanted to visit this place, Runway-9, for so long now but something or the other always turned up to get the plan cancelled. It's basically a place for Go-Carting. There are other things (Table Tennis, Air Hockey, Pool, Snooker, Skating, Archery, Shooting, Rock Climbing) too but the main attraction is definitely carting since there aren't any other places in Hyderabad that provide that sport.
Way to Runway-9:
1) IIIT Hyderabad to Mehdipatnam using Bus no. 216 or 217
2) Mehdipatnam to Paradise using Bus no. 5K or 49M
3) Paradise to Runway-9 using an auto for around Rs 60/
Expenditure at Runway-9- Entry Fees is Rs 20/
- Go Carting is Rs 150/ for 4 laps and Rs 200/ for 6 laps
- Rock Climbing is for Rs 40/
- Skating, Archery, Shooting are all for Rs 25/
- Pool / Snooker is on the hourly basis that costs Rs 100/ be it any number of players to share that amount
It's a nice place to hang out with friends considering the *sexy* crowd that comes over. Me and one of my friends, Rishabh, had excellent time racing on the track. He hit the boundary at one time and that basically helped me to win. We plan to go sometime again too.
Update: Check the following pics:
Time taken to write this post: 11 minutes
My Farewell Speech
- Papa kehte hain as in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, or a speech like Amitabh Bachchan in Baghban. Search for a farewell speech using google.com or speaking just two words - Thank You. I was all confused with the various options that existed. Be it anything, I have this urge to speak on this occasion that's full of emotions and excitement. It is emotional because of the obvious reasons and is exciting for the other set of obvious reasons. I expect those reasons to come up by the end of this not-so-long-and-boring speech.
- Same time last year, I was standing here to bid farewell to our seniors. It was nostalgic then, it is nostalgic today. Today, the time has come for us to move out of this heavenly place. 4 years, 365 days, 24 hours a day: That's a big time period. We've spent a major and the most crucial time period of our lives in this institute. Now, we have changed shapes and sizes. We lost the teenager tag during these 4 years; we're now legally allowed to vote and drive vehicles. We've all become legally marriagable and I expect to find atleast 10% of my batch people getting married in another 3 years time. What say Manik? Today, I have this fear that people might start calling me uncle in another year or so.
- We all feel sad to leave this place but then that's the rule of life: we'll leave this place for some other new people to join in the next session; we'll leave this place to build our careers; to survive in the upcoming struggling world. A sense of fear comes up, fear of not being able to achieve the goals, fear of working hard to earn the living, fear of meeting ugly people. There's competition everywhere. Professional people, practical relationships. Where do we expect to find such relationships that we developed here in IIIT.
- Most of us were toppers in schools. But then came the reality of we being not so focused or even intelligent for that matter. When some students were sincere enough to study even after getting all independent, some others were sincere enough to have all fun.
- We got to meet people with diverse backgrounds, each one with a different mind-set. We developed strong bond of love with some people, not-so-strong with some others. We developed platonic relationships with the people of other sex, though women were really less in number. All this prepares us for understanding people when we enter the next important phase in our lives. All through the four years, we've made mistakes. We realized some and some others, we didn't. I expect to learn those in times to come.
- We saw a lot of developments during our session - Newer faculty members, extended hostels' construction, another ground, new library, class rooms. A lot of things came up. We hope that there's a consistent development all along in future too. It will not only reflect the growth of the institute, it would also make us feel proud of the college that we once studied in.
- Today, I'm remembered of the school farewell, four years earlier. I never thought of landing up so far away from my home but am finally here. It did pay off and today I feel myself to have become a better human being. And the major credit for that goes to the excellent faculty that we have, the institute's infrastructure, various strict and lenient rules and regulations.
- When we enter a new environment, we get a chance to change ourselves the way we want to. We meet new people and hence can build up new kind of relations with them. A person who’s got a tag of being book-worm during those school days, a person like me, successfully changed that image. Rather, excess of that affected the academic record in turn. Then a person, who’s got a tag of being over-emotional right here, could change that in the corporates because there isn't any place for emotions in the professional world.
- Coming onto some of those rememberable moments, how can one forget being called typical Andhra boys going over to US and demanding high dowry and the Delhi rascals? Those nick names, especially the ones picked up from the t-shirts; the provoking comments that our Dean, Dr. Govindrajulu used, added an element of excitement in those boring compilers and POPL lectures. Sir, I am sorry to confess the boring part. But you have indeed been one of the most loved and respected faculty members. A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR HIM.
- And "if you recall" those first-year lectures of Dr Kaul. Inspite of the laziness of getting up early mornings at 8:30 am, and added to that, we didn't have the attendance rule then, most of us still used to attend the lectures owing to the great teaching style that he had. His care and concern for the students fetched him great respect among us all. He's been a human being with strong will power. His determination of recovering in those days of illness is unbelievable.
- Then coming over to the staff, how could it have been possible without the help of Mr. Appaji? I remember people saying that Mr. Appaji is the one who's controlling the whole institute. You know what, bribing him could have helped one with grades' manipulation. But, his sincerity towards work deserves a mention. Had he not been cooperative from time to time, most of us would have been struggling hard with completing not so trivial tasks.
Then there are things that most of us would really miss:
- Terrabytes of shared movies and videos. A sincere thanks to all the downloaders
- Independence and a tension-free life that we enjoyed on our parents' earnings
- Those chit-chats till late at nights, those kheenchofying our friends trying to find something or the other that could be used to tease the person
- Sincere and reliable friends
- Those disciplinary actions on various students of our batch. How can some of us forget the ragging period? What say Gaurav and Suryakant? I still remember how we pretended to have been crying during the initial meetings though finally, the strict committee did make us cry in reality.
- At times, submitting not-so-perfect and incomplete projects with the expectation of getting good grades owing to the not-so-strict and understanding faculty members
- We received the best facilities and education and we did come out with the best results. B. Tech 2k2 has always been known as the grooviest batch in IIIT. I believe that our placements, MBA results, US admissions, multiple students staying back for MS reflect the same. The batch is diversified in a way that it should be. Today, I feel proud to be a part of this batch. I really am.
- Close to 15 people have got admits from various US universities
- Sharath Kumar with admits in couple of those ivy league universities
- 9 students got 39 calls from IIM with Satvik and Rastogi in top 20.
- Satvik with an all-time achievement of scoring 50 on 50 in English. You know what that score is. That is some serious score
- Good number of admits in other MBA colleges – XLRI, FMS and IIFT
And for the placements, my friend, Priyanshu Raj, who’s done an amazing job as the placement secretary, would give you the details.
I thank this institute for playing a major role in making us better human beings, the sincere faculty members who’ve been excellent guides, the staff members who were really cooperative from time to time. Apart from that, a special mention to the students who’re sitting right here and even those who are having fun back in their rooms. You’ve been great friends and a great set of juniors. Keep the IIIT flag flying? I would even like to thank the security guards who were sincere enough to ask us to wear helmets each time we drove the vehicles. Then the house-keeping people who helped us during various occasions – especially Amalgam, Felicity, Freshers, last Farewell, musical night etc. Thanks to everyone around.
Good luck to one and all.
Time taken to write this post: 1 minute
Official Farewell Function
Finally, the official farewell function got over last evening (1st April'06). Third years, especially Saaketh, Alankar, Himanshu and team organized the whole event really well. There were lots of hicups during the last farewell that we organized and I guess that things turned out to be better this time, especially for the dinner. We were served dinner cooked by ISB caterers for this farewell but I couldn't really convince the faculty members for that last year.
- Three speeches by me, Priyanshu and Ruchir (in that order). I spoke more as a class representative covering the various aspects - emotional, exciting, rememberable moments, various developments that we saw during our session, our achievements etc etc. Priyanshu had a track similar to mine though not that diversified. Ruchir's was on a totally different track. He basically spoke to highlight the various causes of low enthusiasm among IIIT students, problems with the system with certain suggestions to improve them.
- MTech guys gave 2 speeches and guess what, one guy started crying towards the end. May be that was touching for some people but I found it really stupid.
- Then, Dr. Govindrajulu gave an excellent but a little long speech. Those special mentions for me, Ruchir, Lohia, Gaurav, Tejo added a lot of humour in there basically because he really didn't have a very good set of words for us.
- Followed by that, we had a speech by Dr Abhijeet Mitra. He seemed to have been really impressed with Ruchir's speech and mentioned that a lot of times during his. Towards the end, he presented certificates to Satvik Upadhyay and Nirnimesh for their service to IIIT. Satvik took an initiative to start various literary events while Nirnimesh did an excellent job as System Administrator.
- Then Dr. Sangal gave a speech which I was in no mood to listen to.
- Followed by that we had the distribution of mementos and candle-light ceremony
- Then came the dinner followed by the Informal part.
Informal Part- Alankar and Himanshu hosted the show and started off with giving titles such as - best personality, macho man, best pair, main aisa kyun hun, aaj ka arjun, best gamer, awesome threesome and lot others
- Followed by that, they had fish pond round. For that they asked students to write questions for various students on chits and put them in a box. Now, those chits were chosen and the questions were asked from the respective students
- Then, there was this rapid-fire round where various people were called upon and were asked random questions which they had to answer with their first thought
- Finally, they had mimicry session with Kalyan being the performer
Overall, the event was good except for the fact that dinner wasn't worth Rs.90/ for sure and informal part was definitely not better than what our batch did last time.
Update: Following are certain pics from the function:
Time taken to write this post: 23 minutes
Big Bucks
ISB was in the news yesterday basically because their placements' results are about to be released in the following week. That news article in ET said that as many as 5 students have received offers above $200,000. Can you just imagine how much money that is? That is serious serious money. It is even expected that ISB would cross the all-time high of $225,000 offered at IIM-C in 2001. Check more on blogs of ISB students -
here and
hereTime taken to write this post: 4 minutes
Unofficial Farewell Party
After giving off a party to our juniors as mentioned
here, it was their turn now. The night of 31st March'06, our dear third year juniors bid us farewell in a great way whose management was just perfect. It was mainly a booze party (where I didn't take any of those hard drinks). A perfect place was chosen, katli ambience, and what an amazing arrangement. Thanks to all of them. Juices of various kinds, soft drinks and lots of snacks were arranged for the non-drinkers. Ofcourse, they were being used for drinkers too. All in all, it was great fun and we had a perfect night yesterday.
Update: Following are certain pics to give you a drunken feeling:
Time taken to write this post: 6 minutes
