filosofico typings

Something just kept me going...

2011-11-05T08:08:00.002+05:30

Had a super tiring day after a long long time. Slept at 5 in the morning - lots of small things kept me busy until then. Woke up in 6 hrs from then to attend a meeting near Embankment, London. What an amazing area that is! I can literally spend hours walking next to Thames, taking pictures, looking at pedestrians, or even just introspecting and 'philosophying'. The meeting went well, but went way beyond the scheduled time.

The delay made me rush for the next appointment - squash. The person I played with played at similar level as mine. This made the game competitive and obviously super tiring. By the time I finished, a friend called over to play badminton. That's exactly when I figured I need something to keep me going. Decided to try something new - drank Lucozade sport lite (lemon flavor). Drank that once, and figured it wasn't enough. So drank another.

Played 5 games of badminton - with a player who too played at similar level as mine. These games were probably the most tiring badminton games I've played in a long long time. Finished that, and then went on to drink another Lucozade sport lite. Loved it! Came back home, freshened up, changed, and went on to practise for LBS Diwali dance performance.

Am tired and exhausted now, and just want to have a quiet and calm sleep for the next 6-8 hours. Still wondering if it was the drink that kept me standing throughout these activities, was it the free time, or was it my enthusiasm towards extracurricular activities (racket games and dance). Whatever it was, something just kept me going throughout.

Those little moments of happiness

2011-10-23T03:06:00.004+05:30

Sometimes things really do give you a pleasant surprise. I recently met someone who brought to my attention that there's a ton of information available about me on Google. Obviously, I got worried, and wanted to find what they have up there. So I quickly went back home and searched for "Akansh Khurana". My linkedin profile, my blog, some random comments across websites, and my resume from almost 6-7 years old -- all of these things showed up. Honestly, my old resume (that I don't know how to remove from my college website) was the most embarassing of the lot. But overall, I was happy to have found so much about myself on Google. Having a web presence can sometimes make one feel happy - that's what I learnt from all the searching effort.

Well, I continued to scan through next few pages. On the third page (I think), I found something else too -- which I found even more interesting. I saw that Bain (on its recruiting website) displays my name as a Bain alum who is one of the students at the London Business School.

Until then, I never thought that systems are such well coordinated in the Bain system. Displaying the names on the website must be a part of the exit process - maintaing an exhaustive database of what Bain alumni are upto. Or may be Bain closely works with the core business schools it hires from. More than the fact that Bain systems and processes are well coordinated -- never thought that Bain actually promoted our names to prospective employees. Was a pleasant surprise!

What Steve Jobs can still teach us!

2011-10-18T06:05:00.000+05:30

Today’s world offers plethora of opportunities, a culture of immediacy and a highly competitive environment to work in. This has made most of us impatient, and has reduced our attention span. For those most of us, Steve Jobs is an ideal example. Steve’s focus, self-motivation and persistence helped him innovate and push the human race forward. And those three are the most important traits we all need in today’s world. These traits are not only foundations to achieving perfection in what we do and winning in the competitive environment, but also making a difference in the world around.

Technology on the roll

2011-10-01T05:52:00.003+05:30

I recently read about few different things and when I tried to connect the dots, I realized how amazing the world is going to be in near future. What is fundamental about these things, what really is an enabler is 'Technology'. I've now started to believe that technology, just as dreams, has no boundaries.

First, Facebook's Timeline allows users to tell the story of their lives chronologically with photos, videos, and music -- what an amazing way to keep track of our lives. Remember, if every user goes about creating this, it will mean a lot of information and data. Second, www.1000memories.com is trying something similar too. The idea of 1000memories is that every individual in this world - famous or infamous - has the right to keep a record of his/her life. Their idea is to create this record using pictures. Wow - more information and data. Third, I read about the potential room for growth in photography. It was incredible to find out that 10 percent of all photos ever taken were photographed in just the last year (check this: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/30/technology-advancing-art-photo-apps/). And with applications like Instagram and Path - I can't even imagine the upcoming world of photography, and amount of information and data. Fourth (and final for this post), I read about Zillabyte - a product of few ex-Googlers. These guys have figured the need to analyze and manage all the content that we've been talking about (and much more!).

All of this just makes me think of a ton of opportunities across the value chain of content - source of creation, actual creation, and management and analysis. The opportunities for entrepreneurs will always remain, always!

CWG side-effects

2010-11-10T09:49:00.004+05:30

This is perhaps one of the millions of posts that have already been written about CWG. But an incident early this morning made me consider awakening this dormant blog.

A door bell at 7 in the morning woke me up from my partial asleep state. I found this man standing at the door with a hope clearly visible in his eyes - a hope to get a job from me. I quickly recognized this man to be my car cleaner until almost two months ago. Although I have to admit that I had forgotten his name. Like many other laborers, this man too was made to leave Delhi at the time of CWG due to lack of identity details. As a result, he lost work from all the households who he served prior to CWG.

After a little conversation about his trip back home, I told him that I now have a replacement for his job and won't be able to employ him for cleaning my car anymore. That was followed with a moment of absolute silence. Although I did realize that he was trying to speak something, his heart filled with pain and his eyes filled with tears did not let him speak. Unsure on how to console, I told him that I shall let him know if there's any work for him in future.

The day started with a disappointing feeling of helplessness. Makes me think if someone is answerable for the loss of living of multiple such people.

Some damn thing

2008-11-10T00:24:00.004+05:30

Really want to write something down tonight -- more of an effort to go beyond one post after returning from my long 'non-writing' hibernation. Hopefully, I'd be successful tonight.

Was just wondering that there has to be a story or instance from everyday that is interesting, something that's likely not a daily routine, and is worth writing. And finally figured out a topic to write about, which is Cricket! ('Ours', not 'Theirs').

Bain India, for the first time, is entering a corporate cricket tournament and our first match is scheduled against Colt India. Next Sunday's (16th Nov '08) the match and we finally started practising today. Well, we hopefully will have atleast one more practise before the actual play. It was good to see how our team was finally discussing on who the bowlers are, who are the batsmen, who'd be the captain etc. I finally realized that I do have a spinner in me, a leg spinner. The ball doesn't spin as much as Shane Warne, but isn't too far off at the same time. And since I already have a batsmen in me, guess, I make an all-rounder now. (Well, in case you are wondering, am not going to make my score and performance from the matches public on this blog).

That's it for tonight I guess. Good luck to our team.

Time taken to write this post: 10-15 minutes

Wakeup

2008-11-05T12:43:00.003+05:30

Originally, there was just one thought behind this post, but suddenly as soon as I wrote the title, I realized that the subject actually has multiple meanings behind it for me.

Most importantly, it reflects that I need to "wake up" from a long 'non-writing' hibernation. Ofcourse, I've tried this a number of times earlier but then guess, the motivation doesn't last more than one post. No further comments on this, I am forced to believe in "Actions speak louder than words".

Secondly, for some reason, it reminds me of the college days. My every single password back then used to be "wakeup". Ofcourse the college days were quite lazy and I kept this as the password so that atleast everytime I key that in, I am reminded to get active. I know it's random, but whatever.

And lastly, the original thought: I went home for a week during the Diwali festival and being tension-free from all the work back in office, I slept for long hours, infact very long hours. My dad called me on one of the days and said that he has some experience to share, and this is what he said - "My son, there are two kinds of people in this world - masters/bosses and the slaves/servants. When masters sleep, they wake up from their sleep in time and are attentive with hundreds of immediate actions and directions ready for their slaves. They act responsibly and behave actively. But when slaves or the servants get up from their sleep, they always have just one lazy thought on mind of being a servant to their boss and having to follow their directions or working on the daily routine. And to be clear, I mean masters or slaves by behavior, more than just by designation. So decide, if you want to be a master in life or just a slave."

Between that day of my dad's thought and today, trust me, I've still been lazy, very lazy. I feel so much like a slave at the moment.

Time taken to write this post: 30 minutes

Elton John

2007-12-22T13:09:00.000+05:30

After procrastinating for long, this post is more of an attempt to revive an 'almost dead' blog than any other rationale behind the content in here.

I want to dedicate this post to Sir Elton Hercules John who set up my mood to finally post something on this 'not anymore' philosophical blog. Have been listening his songs for few hours now, and more I listen, more I get in love with some of his absolutely brilliant tracks. Never have I liked a singer as much as I like John, and I realize that from my craving to learn a piano right now. John, for the uninformed, is a great pianist and you can find him playing a piano in almost all his live performances. Btw, you tube has some great collection on his live videos (Yes, I've been watching those videos as well).

Infact, I just figured out a great new year resolution - learning piano. I already have a great singer in me, all I got to do is learn piano and I should be able to perform something similar to what John does.

All thanks to John for the motivation.

Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes

Opportunities

2007-02-13T23:08:00.000+05:30

How does it feel facing interviews or for that matter, how does it feel to even think about them? Scary thoughts, harder heartbeats are few immediate reactions. Interviews are to test for interviewee's compatibility with the firm/college/job/whatever. Failing is definitely heart-breaking and sad but what we should understand is that failing in interviews doesn't mean that we're incapable. All it means is that we're incompatible.

And I can say that because Bain's been kind enough to give me interviewing opportunities. Have conducted 5 interviews so far and I'd say that this experience of interviewing people has taught me far more than what giving 100 interviews would. Interviewing people is not an easy job. You need to be smarter than the interviewee to judge that the interviewee isn't making fool of you. Judging a person, and that too officially gives an amazing sense of you being responsible for things, important things.

Apart from the regular case interviews and market sizing stuff, one thing that I really focus upon during interviews is to check if the person is logical and if he/she has a good presence of mind. I personally like people who are good at common sense. And you definitely need that, be you in any field around the world. Cross-questioning to check the integrity of the person is important as well. I do that. Understanding person's interest in the profile, in the job is another very important issue I take care of.

In short, it's an awesome experience to interview people. I believe, it should make me feel more confident while facing interviews myself but then who knows, it's not that easy to be an interviewee afterall.

Time taken to write this post: 23 minutes

Increasing heartbeats

2007-01-20T07:15:00.000+05:30

What if the manager calls up the receptionist and conveys the message that he wants you to call him (manager) up? Scary thoughts. You hear from the reception that manager's trying to reach you and wants you to call up IMMEDIATELY.

It happened with me the other day. Thought that there definitely must have been something wrong at my end - some zero defect mistake in the deck, some logic mistake or may be he has some urgent work for me. The heartbeat went up. Finally, I did call him up and after a long ring, he answered saying - "Akansh, Can you call back in 10 minutes".

I called up again, this time he didn't answer the call at all. Even faster heartbeats. I gave another shot and yes he answered this time. His words were - "Akansh, I've called you up to take your miseries away, if any. We have decided to promote you to the senior analyst position and based on your performance, you truly deserve it".

Trust me, I haven't had a better feeling. Getting promoted in 7 months is phenomenal. Things have turned out good all this time and I really hope that they continue the same way. God Bless.

Time taken to write this post: 16 minutes

Getting difficult to answer

2007-01-16T15:00:00.000+05:30

It gets so damn difficult to answer questions like:

- Tell something that no one else knows about you
- Tell 3 things about you that depict your character
- What is that you like the most in life?
- Tell one situation in your life when you acted most wild
- Tell one situation in your life that you won't ever forget

I realize how bad I am at filling slam books. Need to work upon my life history a little bit and explore the inner self.

Time taken to write this post: 7 minutes

Surprizes

2007-01-16T00:05:00.000+05:30

At times, things happen just against what should have happened in normal circumstances. They're mostly disturbing is what I've been realzing or may be we seldom notice the happy days of our life. To accept the 'unexpected things' or in other terms failures, we mostly come up with the same optimistic answer - may be God has something better aside for us. And we start moving on. But on the other hand, why doesn't hard work fetch awards at the first chance? The thing is that it's not about just the hard work. There are few other things that one needs to take care of in addition to the normal actions/duties.

Getting demotivated and disappointed is definitely not an option or else things keep on getting worse. I've had some friends whom I feel sad for considering that they've almost lost the skills that they had just because few failures turned up in their lives.

Whatever!!

Time taken to write this post: 12 minutes

Waiting sucks

2006-11-02T10:14:00.000+05:30

It is terribly irritating when one needs to wait for something/somebody. Looking at cellphone more often if you missed a call, looking at watch more often only to find that it's not even been a minute before you last checked the time, checking emails every 5 minutes, logging on to messengers to see if there are any offliners, trying to think of other alternate ways which could be used to pass on information and if you've missed on that one too.

Everything's just an excuse to believe that the expectations haven't been shattered yet. But the bitter truth is that they have. Anyways, things are great. They really are.

Time taken to write this post: 4 minutes

It helps!! Finally bit relaxed

2006-11-02T00:48:00.000+05:30

It's been tough for the past few days. Things have been disturbing all the time - at work, at home, during drives, everywhere, anywhere, even on a shit pot.

But then, I found a way to let out my emotions. Picked up a diary, wrote few odd pages. Picked up the diary again the next day, wrote another page. Opened my blog reader and read through one of the blogs which has some real motivating posts (Atleast I find them motivating). Finally it helped. Got rid of a number of those irrelevant, disturbing thoughts. Stupid, how stupid of me to have been wasting time thinking of stuff.

When there are disturbing thoughts on one's mind, distractions are at their heights. Everything that one listens, watches or feels is tried to be co-related with those stupid emotions and thoughts and are in turn found to be irritating, only adding to those distractions. Everything looks shit then. Everything looks shit even at the moment. Time for another diary page I guess.

Time taken to write this post: 5 minutes

Real Estate Investments

2006-10-11T10:57:00.000+05:30

With express highways coming up, lots of new flyovers, with metro rail planned to reach Sushant Lok (an important residential area) in Gurgaon by 2010 and this high population growth, real estate prices are bound to skyrocket. Would it be really possible for a middle-class person to invest in real-estate then? But for that matter, is it easy to invest today. Nah!! The prices are already too high to be considered for investment unless one has a solid financial background from family. It's just not possible for a service class person with an average salary to purchase a flat here in Gurgaon. Average stands for 4-6 lacs pa.

I've been considering to buy a flat for past few months. The only possible way is to get some money from dad for the initial down payment/investment and pay the rest through EMIs which would take away more than half of my current salary. But then that's a safe investment indeed and would help with tax savings too.

The cheapest 2-room flat here in Gurgaon (given that the society is decent) is around 35 lacs and it goes over 70-80 lacs in some other societies. Note that this is for an unfurnished 2-room set. I only wonder how people buy all those luxurious flats costing over a crore.

Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes

Sad love songs

2006-10-09T11:10:00.000+05:30

Wanted to make 200th post on love. Aah!! Don't worry, everything's fine at his end.

There's this recent song from Khosla ka Ghosla - Interzaar Aitbaar Tumse Pyaar and a hundreds of others both desi and angrezi in the category (refer title). All of them are his favorites any day. Especially considering the fact that he's had some tough times with loved ones recently, he tends to like those songs even more. They're always there in a loop on the playlist.

To add on, Khosla ka Ghosla is an amazing movie and most of it was shot very near from where I stay in Gurgaon. "World Famous Property Dealers" shown at various times during the movie is my broker's office itself, one who helped me getting my PG. Khosla's house shown at the end of the movie is my broker's house except that they changed the color combinations a little. This broker got a huge money for all that. He's even got pictures clicked with Anupam Kher and Boman Irani. Was telling us (me and my friend) about his experiences with them. He found most of them really humble, especially the Khurana (Boman Irani). All Khuranas seem to be humble indeed.

Time taken to write this post: 13 minutes

Good night!!

2006-10-09T01:46:00.000+05:30

It's very rare that he really feels a need to write a post and when he does, it doesn't matter at all getting up from the bed, switching on the notebook at around 1:30 am at night and connecting net to open up blogger. All he needs at that moment is a silent listener for all the problems, to share all the things dumped deep inside the heart.

It's difficult to express how badly he hates people who give high priority to their sleep. No, not the people but probably their sleeping habits. He's had friends who just do not get up even if you break open their room doors, has had some others who shout back if someone dares to wake them up be it an urgency then, others who just don't want to help out when asleep be it for their best friends then. There've been some others who just don't realize that there are some other more important things as well.

Sleeping is definitely one of the key ways to re-energize yourself but how could one keep it as their highest priority is still confusing.

Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes

An experience with a 'big' guy

2006-10-04T18:23:00.000+05:30

Was traveling with General Manager (India) Sales, Fritolay this Monday evening. My sister happens to work in that company and thus we got a chance to travel with the 'big' guy from Ambala to Gurgaon, a 5 hr run. Though initially I was a little hesitant to talk to him, it turned out to be a great journey. He was not only polite, was really friendly too. Apart from the fun talk, we discussed a couple of knowledgeable things such as:

- Are Pepsi (parent co. of Fritolay) drinks safe?
- Pepsi vs. Coca Cola
- Fritolay's standing in Pepsi
... etc.

But overall, I conclude myself to be a stupid person. Had a chance to discuss things and gain knowledge but was talking fully faaltu fun things for most of the time - things like bollywood, traffic, buildings, sunsigns etc. So stupid of me.

Time taken to write this post: ~5 minutes

Fundu Managers

2006-10-04T00:10:00.000+05:30

Our managers have a unique way of talking, impressing people. When they talk, it's all logical and meaningful. I remember one of my colleagues making a small remark about the possible losses that a small nearby restaraunt made. This restaraunt didn't seem to be doing good according to my colleague. Within seconds, this manager at Bain calculated the complete market for the restaraunt estimating his revenue, profits and expenses.

It's not about consulting guys being overall better than others but in business they are. Actually, they got to be or else why would anyone hire them for building business strategies.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

How Cool

2006-10-03T10:06:00.000+05:30

After a relatively longer weekend, it's generally so boring to attend the office early in the morning. Engrossed in day dreams, when I reached the cafeteria for a water bottle, guess whom do I meet in there. A living motivation for hardwork. To rephrase, I bumped into one of the most senior partners at Bain, managing director of Bain India and one among the top 25 consultants across the world - Ashish Singh . Had to recollect all my senses immediately, wished him and asked him if had a nice festival celebration last evening. Now at that point of time, won't I be surprized to hear that he happened to visit a small town (bigger than a village, smaller than a district) on the eve of Dussehra which also happens to be the place where my paternal family spent most of their lives. He looked so excited when he said that he spent time with his family at their relative's place in Shahbad Markanda. Never did I imagine that such big-shot people could have heard of such small towns and not just that, could even visit those places during festivals.

This place, Shahbad isn't very far from my current hometown. Had I known of his visit earlier, would have definitely invited him over to our home. It would be amazing to have such people visit you during festivals.

Time taken to write this post: 30 minutes

How about a creative picture?

2006-09-26T10:23:00.000+05:30

Ok, so that's a picture showing how I've grown from an year old child to a 21-year old professional (though I don't look like one in that red shirt picture. Will update the above with a more professional picture sometime). Reason behind making this picture was to give a pictorial representation of a transition: "aey! motu" to "man! how did u do this. U've lost so much weight"

These ~21 years have been so wonderful. Definitely owe it to family, relatives, friends, special friends, colleagues, and others whom I've happened to know. Have had great experiences while a lot of them were bitter too. Most of these had something to learn from in them. What an amazing life it's been all this time. It's been going great and it would continue going the same way, is what I strongly believe because all it requires is a positive oulook towards life which I've been trying to develop and have been successful too to some extent. And as always, GOD bless.

All we do is dream, we don't dare to achieve them

2006-09-26T09:38:00.000+05:30

My office is located at a place where there are multi-storied corporate buildings all around. Thousands of employees are working in those buildings. Thanks to all these multinationals for generating such large employment. Most of the Indian growth is indeed coming from this globalization.

But then, there's this feel that pops in: So, you basically are just another chap in those thousands. Aren't you? What different are you doing for your career? All of them are working hard to make more money, get promotions and move higher on their heirarchy and so are you. What different do you have in you except that you're probably making a little more money from some of them around? Then on looking at those flats (most of the metropolitan working class lives in multistoried societies these days), a similar feeling comes in again: Just another flat in thousands of them, huh!!

At times, as many other enthusiastic youngsters, I "imagine" taking risks in life and starting-up something. A lot of youngsters write about it in their blogs, many others talk about it at some point of time or the other. How wonderful it all sounds to dream of being an entrepreneur. Aah!! But ultimately it boils down to the fact that it isn't easy: Only one out of thousands dare to take risk in life and out of those who do, very few get successful. Sounds so scary that we ultimately end up working in the same office just dreaming about starting-up something. Only one feel that still keeps me enthusiastic about it is that there's just one life boy. Do what you can in about another 40 odd years that you have.

Mostly fun all this time

2006-08-25T17:05:00.000+05:30

A lot of things happened all this time. Most of them for fun. Attended case events, office events, had fun on a long vacation at home (ah!! vacations make life so much easy and relaxed especially after those long working hours at office), saw movies, had gud food at gr8 restaraunts, worked on exciting cases, moved to the new office which adds a lot of things to an already long list of facilities that Bain provides. You know what, my new chair at office costs ~Rs 30K

Had an office offsite at Samode Palace near Jaipur. The whole office, about 60 people attended. Samode's actually a village which used to have a palace, now converted into a five star hotel or something. Am not sure though if it's rated a five star. I personally would rate it as a 4-star after looking at all the facilities etc. that they provided. The whole thing was planned for 2 days and one night. Ok!! All this was in view of the inauguration of the new Bain office in Gurgaon. The smaller old office is now gone. Some of the major attractions were special fireworks for Bain, unlimited champaigne, rajasthani dance arranged for the office, a warm red carpet welcome with beautiful girls showering flowers over all of us and luxurious arrangements for the night stay. Corporates spend a lot on their employees indeed. In case interested, visit http://photos.yahoo.com/akanshk and check the album named Bain Samode offsite.

Had a long 5 day vacation, including a leave that I took from the office on Monday, 16th of August. After working for about 3 complete months now, it was great at home all those days. Gr8 food, no work, everything was so perfect. Even met up with some old friends.

Saw KANK. After all those not-so-good reviews that I got, movie came out gr8. With actors like Amitabh, Shahrukh and now Abhishek, with directors like Karan Johar, movie's extremely entertaining. Most of the people who didn't find the movie worth-a-watch, probably didn't appreciate the story. Now I don't know if it's my personal liking for bollywood but I really liked the story too.

Have been working on a great insurance case - a lot of new learnings. The best part is that am individually staffed directly under a consultant. So, that makes it even more exciting with a whole lot of responsibilities which indirectly implies long working hours. Am surprized to see how consultants work. Most of them do not spend more than 8 hours at home. It's working hours rest of the time. And yes, I have started believing that a B-school does help them in someway. Considering the working hours, the kind of analysis required, being able to handle the stress (one of the important things at B-schools) helps.

But it wasn't just fun all this time. Have been getting frustrated over some things as well. I've made one of my biggest mistakes by taking a shared accomodation. It's just not possible to share a room with someone, be it a great friend. Might move in to some other place if things keep on getting worse (and I really see it getting worse).

Feelings

2006-07-05T19:21:00.000+05:30

They have the power of changing your decisions. The most dangerous are the emotional ones. They keep you away from taking intelligent and practical decisions in life. Have been taking a lot of foolish decisions all through. But, things definitely change with time - more mature decisions, more intelligent thoughts. At times, certain circumstances teach us a whole lot of things. Yes, they do. And it mostly happens when either of us or our near and dear ones suffer. Since it's usually very late by then, if delayed more, noone can really stop from disaster.

Some of the near and dear ones have been recently facing a lot of disturbing situations. And the reactions of each one of them who're suffering are a great source of learning in itself. Never realized that I too was unintensionally doing something similar or infact making someone else do that. We humans do make mistakes but if things are not brought back on the right track at the right time, trust me, we're making even bigger mistakes.

Then on the other track of feelings, there are certain over-practical people. We always have one or the other such stupid people around. Oh! did I just say stupid? So true. Why be a single personality in life? Why not be different for different set of people? Be emotional where situations demand that and at the same time be practical and take not-so-emotional and practical decisions where it doesn't really matter. But then that's not in the talent list of many people. So, other not-so-talented people understand it as being an actor, who's trying to be what he isn't. The point is, why not 'be' multiple personalities instead of just 'pretending' to be someone that we aren't.

Things may not be very clear from the above paragraph. But then I can't write certain personal things in here. And it's true that I feel so shocked to see certain people in life.

Time taken to write this page: ~20 minutes

Zero Defect

2006-06-27T20:30:00.002+05:30

This zero defect concept is so damn important. We seldom realize this during our student life that how important is perfection at work. We make mistakes, we take deadlines leniently, we take wrong proxies for a lot of calculations, we just don't deliver perfect results. But now, that is the highest priority in any company - delivering perfect work and correct results. One wrong calculation could put your company in bad books of the client and consultants can't afford to lose clients. With every one client gone, there are atleast another big set of them that start doubting their work. Similarly, with every one client added, theirs a big bunch that starts getting attracted towards consultants' work.

Recently worked upon a case wherein I made some wrong calculations (So, stupid of me). The senior replied back indicating exactly where I made a mistake. It was mere carelessness. Had to apologize to that head and promise for not making any such foolish mistakes again during my tenure at the company. Got so scared that day but at the same time it has definitely made me more careful at work. Never do I ever send my work without a re-check from then on.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

Seniority

2006-06-27T20:30:00.000+05:30

Heirarchy is one thing that freaks me out sometimes. At times, employees got to listen to their seniors even when they aren't really correct. At times, employees got to respect their seniors, sit back and not respond even when they're boiling inside. Not that these seniors could actually fire the employees, but their reviews definitely are a big decision in further promotions, salary hikes, awards in the company, and a lot of other things. It's actually just one single frustrating moment. If employees could control themselves then, things smoothen out and all the angry feelings go off.

Had a really bitter experience with one of the senior employees at the office. She had her cellphone kept near my laptop and was gone out for some work. Now that cellphone has been one of my favorites because of a really cool game in it. I picked it up and started playing. Suddenly she turned up from no where and started shouting saying that she's shocked seeing me play with her cellphone. I don't know about her, but I was indeed shocked at the way at which she spoke. Guess this is just a start. Will have to face a lot of more worse experiences during this corporate life. Hope that I am able to control myself and am able to act in exactly the right way then. GOD bless.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

New Laptops

2006-06-27T20:29:00.000+05:30

Today, corporates spend so much on their employees that they actually deserve to make their employees work their way. It got to come from both sides. They take care of us employees, we got to take care of their work and help them earn big profits so that they further take care of us. Our office has given away new laptops for everyone - IBM Thinkpad T60 series with 60 GB hard disk, 1.5 GB RAM, 1.87 Ghz P4. These laptops further have fingerprint detection system in them. Guess, its called biometry or something. A person can login just by touching on the laptop's mousepad. That may be a very old technology but I saw it for the first time in my life and trust, it looks really really cool.

Apart from that, they've been treating us now and then. Must have attended some 4-5 parties in the past one month. Recently had a breakfast at a five-star hotel. This is definitely one of the benefits of working in a big-shot MNC. Startups do give a lot of exposure and opportunities to learn but they definitely do not give that many benefits. Not that I would prefer working in a big-shot corporate more than working in a startup. Just that I didn't find my kinda work in any of the upcoming startups. Yes, I did look out for them during those IIIT days.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

Strange Decisions

2006-06-26T13:28:00.000+05:30

People take so many strange decisions that I find myself taking no risks in life at all. One of my very close friends got into Maruti udyog Ltd. Trust, it's a great company to be in for the mechanical engineers, which he was. He did join the job but then left it in just 2 days to drop an year and prepare for the civil services examination. Now, sitting idle for an year and preparing for an exam about which no one can be sure is not what I would have ever done. Infact personally, I don't even consider it as an intelligent decision. 12 months is a long time to sit back and prepare for something. After all these struggling years that we've left behind, it seems really tough for a person to take such a kind of decision. But then there are strange decisions and strange conflicting philosophies all around. Sometimes I wonder if these strange decisions are what help you achieve big things in life.

Time taken to write this post: ~8 minutes

Right or Wrong Dilemma

2006-06-22T09:52:00.000+05:30

At times it happens that things look so true, so right but still one doesn't wish to agree with them. In those times, one tries to find faults in there some way or the other. It's not just a controversy between right or wrong, it's a controversy between the mind and the heart. It's a difficult situation. Me finding it really tough might indicate that I have a weak will power or that there's insufficient self-control. But then, that doesn't change the fact. It's not valid to be angry at impractical things, unrealistic things but then that is what anger is. It makes you forget all the goodness around. All it knows is bringing mental and in extreme cases physical harm too.

Was a little angry and sad all night but then with time, it all gets settled down. One makes oneself understand about some bitter facts which have to be accepted some day or the other. Sooner the better. And moreover everyone has his/her way of living life and has complete right to do the same. This is India afterall. Life's cool and it should be lived with the same coolness. Why worry about future? Who's seen it anyway? Keep all those self-proclaimed baaba jis aside.

Time taken to write this post: ~12 minutes

A single moment

2006-06-21T20:04:00.000+05:30

People say this all the time. A single moment can change your life. A single second can bring a transition in your career. Just a second can destroy everything or fill someone with complete joy. There are a whole lot of such examples. Such things tell me that I've yet to see a lot of things in my life basically because never ever has anything happened that makes me realize the truthfulness behind these facts.

There were some moments that indeed motivated me from time to time, motivated me to work hard, to give in my best. Though, I've yet to achieve a lot of things. Haven't had any achievement so far that makes me feel good about myself, about which I could boast around like most people do. Ok, boasting about one's abilities may not be the right thing to do, nevertheless an achievement was what I was talking about. Hmm, enough of talking about myself. That is what an individual does afterall. Me, mine, myself.

Have been trying to get up with three alarms in the morning but am so full of laziness that I switch all of them off and get back to bed. Got a little late yesterday for the office too. Thank God, not everyone had turned up before I reached in there. It's even bad on my part that haven't been keeping my promises. A pending gift, pending list of phone calls to be made, pending replies on orkut, pending replies on mails, pending tasks to be done for friends and relatives.

Time taken to write this post: ~20 minutes

Make your importance felt??

2006-06-21T09:56:00.000+05:30

Is that what this world is all about, these people, these friends and strangers. Everyone around is ready to make his/her importance felt when comes an opportunity. Making others feel your presence is not what am talking about. That is suppossed to be a good thing and nobody would ever care about you if that is not done. But the sad part is that people these days make unjustified use of their position/rank be him a security guard or a professor, be him a sweeper or a doctor, be him a washerman or an executive. There are two points to be realized in here - first says that we all need others around all the time and that is what these others take privilege of. The other point says that people have started becoming so 'importance-hungry' that they're ready to go till any limits just to make others beg before them for mercy.

Yesterday, I took an exit from one of the two gates of the building where we have our office. Instead had to take the other gate. I must have moved just a few meters when I realized that. On returning back, the security guard started shouting at me saying that am not allowed to move in from that gate. I tried to explain that will have to go all way round a kilometer if he doesn't let me in but in vain. People are ready to shout at others, yes they are. People are ready to take an undue advantage of their positions. It may be his duty to not let people in from the exit gate but shouting doesn't count under his responsibilities for sure. Tired from work, I was in no mood of arguing with him and hence went ahead to travel an extra kilometer. Hardly matters.

Time taken to write this post: ~15 minutes

Art of Loving

2006-06-20T17:47:00.000+05:30

Was talking to one of my cousin grandfathers. He's currently 91. Long age hasn't lead to any kind of weakness in him. He ofcourse is very old to be active but he still does everything himself. Often goes out to chat with friends and attend religious functions. He's recently written some beautiful poems that reflects his love for GOD. "It's not easy to write all those kind of poems without a talent within" is what I said. His reply to that was - "Beta!! you don't need an artist in you for such things. All you need is a special kind of attachment, an affection, a deep sense of love and faith, a confidence of depending for everything on whomsoever you love. Love someone more than you've ever loved yourself, you'll start writing even better poems."

Have been loving someone for quite sometime now. Hope's alive that I might come out with beautiful poems some day. Trust, it's a great thing to have - an art of doing something without actually having an artist within. Search for that artist is on.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

Transition Required!!

2006-06-20T17:39:00.001+05:30

Yes!! Time has come for a major transition of this mindset. 21 years is a long time that I spent living in a business class family. Dad's a businessman (for the uninformed). It's easier for the business families to spend without budgets but it's not that easy for the working class and I can sense that myself from the past one month (of this job). Fixed pay requires an efficient budget. How long would it be possible to just keep on having fun? In the RDB language, we've made life act our way in all those college days. Life's started showing its colors now. Guess, things should be managed much before everything turns out to be a disaster.

Second pay cheque should be here in a day or 2. Company's got this wonderful system of giving off the pays 10 days in advance to the month end. It gives us a sufficient amount of time to plan expenditures. Have been thinking of working on something besides the regular job schedule but this damn procrastination has held me up. Need some internal strength.

Time taken to write this post: ~10 minutes

Get work done first!!

2006-06-15T13:21:00.000+05:30

Never ever pay an advance in life for anything if there's an option. You get bound to the service provider and there's not much that you could do then apart from shouting and screaming in case the service doesn't get you satisfaction.

Had to get a reliance recharge for Rs. 100/. I paid for that before actually getting the new increased balance. While the money got deducted from the shopkeeper's account, I didn't get any updates. Had to visit the shop so many times to settle things that am totally frustrated of getting any more future prepaid recharges. And that finally made me a buy a Hutch postpaid connection. So, for now I've kept two cell phones to get in touch with friends, colleagues and strangers. Contact me at: 09313825099 (Reliance) or 09811925099 (Hutch).

And did get an engineering gift from parents. What sweet parents I have to gift me with a Nokia 3250. Amazing cell with a 2 mpxl camera, a 512 MB memory card and an excellent sound quality. Hope that I don't lose this in a way that I lost Nokia 6600 long back.

Time taken to write this post: 12 minutes

Best of those cases

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

Though working in a consulting company doesn't give technical details of the businesses and is just about studying the business models and strategies, there are ways to get benefits from all those cases too. There are short term case studies which do not give one much information and at the same time, there are long term case studies which can give one a lot of in-depth knowledge of the business. Longer cases are mostly boring but are definitely more knowledgable.

Things didn't go that well in the office today. Could have done better work but probably the fact that longer cases (my current kinda case) are boring, made me lose on some information. Need to be more focussed and attentive in future.

Participated in the BCC soccer competition today. Various groups of 2-3 people (in office) had to select 2 teams and 1 player from the teams participating in the world cup. With each game and each goal that either of those 2 teams and the player (that we selected) win/score, the group keeps on getting points. There's a pot that the groups would win depending on the score at the end of the finals of the world cup. Since our group didn't get an early chance to choose the teams, we had to settle down with South Korea and Croatia. But luckily, we got a chance to select Ronaldinho (Brazil). Hope the guy scores a lot of goals for us. Good luck Brazil and ofcourse to S Korea and Croatia.

Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes

On dependencies and self-independence

2006-05-29T19:40:00.000+05:30

All these past 15 days, starting right from around 14th May'06, things have been going really well. But apart from the work and the company's experiences, it's all boring most of the time. There's no one to talk to, no one to roam around with. After getting back to my room, all I do is roam around in the market all alone, go over to an internet cafe or work in the room. But it's not that bad basically because that way one gets a lot of time to work, analyse things and most importantly get independent - managing everything and stuff. Solitude is a great experience in itself.

Started working on the first major case today. It was fun but at the end of the day there wasn't much output of all the inputs given. I only hope that things improve with time and that everything does come out fruitful.

Time taken to write this post: 8 minutes

Training's up..

2006-05-26T17:36:00.000+05:30

Huh!! Thought it would end up really well but guess, I lost on certain key things.

For the last two days, we were required to work on a live case. Had to collect a lot of data, find a lot of information, major players' share, their strategies and threats on the industry etc. We were finally required to present our work today afternoon. 3 fresh employees worked upon the task individually and I got to say that all of them worked upon really well and did an amazing job. While before entering the board room, I thought my work to be superb, things didn't really turn out that well. There were so many feedbacks from the panel members. There's lot to learn and work upon is what I understood from the exercise.

Time taken to write this post: 14 minutes

Training's on..

2006-05-24T09:01:00.000+05:30

Its just been 2 days that the training has begun but things have already started getting hectic. Guess, there's lot to work upon and that there's lot to learn in this ongoing week. Bain requires its employees to be skillful in a lot of things. It's so tiring by the night. Have heard that at times people here keep working from 9 in the morning till 11 pm at night. Sounds scary.

Apart from that, got the first pay cheque yesterday (for half a month). Ok!! have earned money in internship too but receiving this one was definitely more exciting. These people have an excellent concept of giving off the pay 10 days in advance to the month end. Sounds great.

Time taken to write this post: 11 minutes

Differentiation

2006-05-22T17:07:00.000+05:30

Jack Welch talks about differentiation and how it helps in running companies successfully, in his book named Winning. What he basically supports is this - differentiating people who are more efficient at work compared to those who are not. And that basically makes sense. Corporates these days have all kinds of bonuses to support his view and such policies actually motivate employees to work even harder.

It sounds perfect but only after the employee has proved himself/herself more efficient than others. Does it make sense in cases when people are hired for the same level/post and are offered different pay packages on the basis of their education or cultural background? If you consider someone better, give him different set of responsibilities and a different post but if on the other hand the responsibilities are same, initial pay packages too shouldn't differ. These are the kinds of politics played in corporates and we all gotta accept them. Guess, there isn't much that we can talk about.

Time taken to write this post: 9 minutes

Work Ethics and values

2006-05-19T09:09:00.000+05:30

With time, one gets to see a lot of things in the corporates. Values and ethics are something that these big shot companies focus a lot upon. At times, I feel as if these values must have played a major role in taking these companies to high levels. One thing that I've really liked about Bain in these past 4 days is that employees are never encouraged/allowed to lie for anything. Have realized that especially during instances when we had to extract information from various sources . It's always easier to get details by lying but the real ability of any employee is reflected when he speaks the truth and gets information extracted. We are asked to be truthful, be it any kind of situation.

This week's been great. People have been really helpful and friendly. Got an opportunity to work in a wonderful project under great people - a guy from US who's currently transfered to India, a senior analyst guy who once aspired to be in civil services (gave 3 attempts), an Indian girl who's been in Europe all her life right from birth upto last year. All of them have something within to learn from. If nothing else, I'd atleast get more fluent in English :-)

Time taken to write this post: 18 minutes

Strategic consultancy (SC) is fun

2006-05-18T09:15:00.000+05:30

For some, SC may just be sitting for long hours collecting information from net, chit-chatting with people and making documents. But for those who understand the real meaning of SC, it's about understanding the complete business model of an industry, studying its viability and sustainability, its competitors, the market and finally consolidating the researched and analyzed information along with the strategies (that one should follow for the business to grow) in the form of reports. These reports not only are beneficial for the major industry players, they are a big requirement for the newbies, the upcoming leaders.

The only disadvantage that I see in such a kind of work is that one doesn't get to understand the technicalities of any industry, its majorly about studying the business models. People say, knowing technicalities is a must to run a business successfully but may be understanding the business model should be given a higher priority especially when the technical side of your field doesn't interest you. In my case, software.

Time taken to write this post: 21 minutes

Corporate experience, the first day

2006-05-16T09:19:00.000+05:30

Finally got into the corporate world. Had a great experience the first day. This Bain office is so lively, is so much fun. People here are always cracking jokes, doing masti and working at the same time. It's a small office with around 20-25 people working and that is what basically makes the interaction easy.

Was given a great welcome with a presentation prepared on me. Trust me, internet's dangerous and I got to understand that from the presentation. It had a lot of those stupid and funny pics that I once got clicked for masti. Nevertheless, it was a great way of introduction and I personally enjoyed it. They provided me with a laptop (which as seniors say, we're allowed to take homes too after a few days of joining), a telephone with STD/ISD (which the employees are suppossed to use only for official matters) and was asked to do whatever I wished to for the first day. Though post-lunch, was associated with a small project under a senior - a case study in pharma. The timings here are kinda stringent from arnd 9 am to 6 pm and the dress is suppossed to be formals.

Employees here come from all backgrounds - IIT, BComs, MBAs and a lot of US-based people too. All of them are obviously intelligent, smart, brilliant and keep themselves in a great way. So for now, I got to work hard and reach higher levels.

Time taken to write this post: 19 minutes

Off to Gurgaon this morning

2006-05-14T01:41:00.000+05:30

A new phase of life is about to begin in a day. Another 30 odd hours and I'd be expected to be more professional, more mature and more responsible. A sense of fear fills me up when I think of the fact that a lot of people would start keeping expectations from me in this new phase and what if am not able to reach upto them. What if it gets difficult to survive in the changed environment? What if I take a lot of time to adjust? What if I misunderstand or misinterpret people or things? What if I couldn't mingle well with my colleagues? What if the decision of picking up a total different industry comes out wrong?

But then things got to move ahead and I got to understand the struggle required from now on. No more repeatitions of mistakes, no more 'let-go' things easily and no more carelessness. A lot needs to be done and a lot of things are to be achieved. Life doesn't come easy especially when everyone's competing for success day and night. One thing that I badly miss is the killing attitude. No more compromises or acceptance of failures 'easily'. Hope things turn out good and that I adjust well with new people and new situations. GOD bless.

Time taken to write this post: 13 minutes

Classifications of people

2006-05-06T09:29:00.000+05:30

Small people - They talk about others, others' belongings, others' possessions are generally full of J all the time
Average people - These people talk about themselves, their own belongings and could generally be considered as full of proud all the time
Great people - Great people talk about ideas, they give advices and work for the welfare of the society
Saints - They do not talk. They radiate positive energy with the impact of which, things work out to be correct

UnSuccessful people - Such people always wish to do things that give them comfort. A life free of tensions, a risk-free life
Successful people - Such people are ready to handly uncomfortable things too. A life with a perfect mixture of risks or tensions and comforts

Time taken to write this post: 8 minutes

Lifestyle Planning and Management

2006-05-02T00:14:00.000+05:30

Dr. Sushil Kansal, a very learned, experienced and renowned trainer and Head of English Department, SD College, Ambala Cantt delivered an interesting, lucid and informative talk on "LifeStyle Planning and Management" during one of the meetings at Rotary Club, Ambala Cantt. It goes as follows:

Human Progress is rapid and dramatic advances have taken place, which enables us to live at a fast pace where most things can take place or be arranged within a very short space of time. Such progress is beneficial and we are provided with a wide range of choices and opportunities every day. We can cram a lot into a short space of time, but this can lead to problems and ultimately we feel that there is insufficient time in the day to do everything that is on offer to us.

Our basic needs often take a back seat in the headlong pursuit into the maelstrom of modern life. The foundation stones of success are taken for granted and we fail to give them the time they deserve and require. In the short term, this is acceptable, but prolonged neglect can seriously affect our performance as we become ill, tired, de-motivated, depressed and quite simply burn out.

Lifestyle planning provides an opportunity to reflect upon the foundation stones of successful living and suggests methods, structures and options on how to ensure that they are given high priority that is required and are managed correctly. To manage and plan your lifestyle, you need to improve yourself in the following areas:

- Health Management
- Art of saying 'NO' without hurting
- Organizing Information
- Learning to de-clutter
- Home and Office Management
- Rising Children
- Understanding the effects of Smoking, Alcohol and other "Pick-me-ups"
- Understanding the roles of "Put-me-downs"
- Ventilation of your emotions
- Sleep
- Cultivating Hobbies

The balance of one's lifestyle is important not only because it ensures that you do the things that you want to do but also because it ensures that you are more successful in every other aspect. The end result is improved performance not only in business but also in the career of life.

If one area is neglected in the short term because of pressures and the usual necessities of life there is no great problem. If, however, one area is neglected in the headlong pursuit of the other then all will end in ultimate failure. How many people do you know that perform better when they have marital problems or who resent staying late at work because they were due to be out with friends for the evening?

The benefits are not short term - they are for the future and they need to be planned for, otherwise you will be carried along with the flow doing what everyone else does. There are very few people who would wish to have "He worked long hours" on their tombstone!

For those of you that think, "That's all very well in theory but how can it possibly be done in practice?" the answer is very simple. You can take control of your own future. Think of lifestyle planning as a product and implement it in the same way that you would for any other product: it is a product that will improve the bottom line.

We need a degree of pressure to motivate us to carry out our work and achieve success. It is only when the amount of pressure exceeds our ability, or perceived ability to cope, that we start to have problems. We might call this 'PRESSURE OVERLOAD'. Pressure overload can manifest itself many ways both physical and psychological. In the first instance, one must be able to recognize the symptoms of pressure overload and to do this we have to be extremely honest and avoid the macho approach: if it hurts - STOP

Ask yourself the question: "When did you last do something which you enjoyed and did it just because it was enjoyable?"

Because of the pace of modern life we often forget we have a right to enjoy ourselves, we make excuses that allow us to have a good time. We have a myriad of demands upon our time and we always put ourselves second. This can lead to resentment and a drop of enthusiasm to carry out tasks. It is imperative to give yourself time and develop personal interests in the same way as you would develop projects towards targets for other parties.

Initially changes in your lifestyle will be problematic and the benefits may not seem to be worth the effort. Lifestyle planning is about long-term effectiveness and success, the strategic view. Stick to your action plan, implement your changes and review their effectiveness.

Time taken to write this post: 45 minutes

Interview with Bain and Co

2006-04-30T22:13:00.000+05:30

Thought that may be it's a nice idea to post about the interview at Bain and Co. This is how it went:

Round 1

1) 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 2

1) 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 Business

1) 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

2006-04-29T13:30:00.000+05:30

- 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

2006-04-27T21:50:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-26T12:02:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-26T11:37:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-23T22:47:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-19T23:47:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-19T12:14:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-17T08:37:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-12T23:14:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-12T04:16:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-10T06:56:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-07T03:22:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-06T18:37:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-06T13:36:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-05T00:22:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-04T05:59:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-04T05:33:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-04T04:52:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-04T04:39:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-03T04:16:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-03T03:46:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-02T04:31:00.000+05:30

- 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

2006-04-02T04:25:00.000+05:30

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

2006-04-01T05:14:00.000+05:30

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 here

Time taken to write this post: 4 minutes

Unofficial Farewell Party

2006-04-01T05:06:00.000+05:30

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

Immature to Mature

2006-03-31T11:16:00.000+05:30

He has definitely come a long way from being quite an immature and impractical person in the first year to become a more practical human being in final year. Yes, there definitely has been a significant amount of change (for good). At times, he recalls some of those foolish instances himself, and at other times people around help him in recalling those instances. In both cases, he feels happy to have become more understanding and responsible now.

He still remembers those times when he used to believe almost everyone expecting them all to be good. Coming over to this place for engineering is indeed one of the best things that happened in his life. 4 years is a long time period. He's met thousands of people with diverse backgrounds, culture, attitudes and mind-set during all these years. And all of them, I repeat, all of them have taught him some great things - whom to believe, whom not to; whom to help, whom not to; whom to love, whom to hate; a lot of other things too. All these things indicate just one thing - It's not easy to live one's life the way he/she wants to. A lot of factors play a part in deciding his/her destiny.

Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes

A Trip to Kurnool

2006-03-30T13:05:00.000+05:30

As mentioned in the previous post, we went off on an official trip and got back from there just today. I got to say that it was really rememberable..

29th March'06

1:45 am - Started off from IIIT campus
2:15 am - Reached Mehdipatnam. Had to wait for another bus
3:30 am - Started off from Mehdipatnam
7:45 am - Reached Jogulamba temple at Alampur. One needs to have a special attitude to appreciate such historic temples. They are great but may be I don't enjoy them much. Within around 30 minutes, we started our departure towards the resort where we had to get all freshen up
9:30 am - Reached Punnami Tourist Complex. The dormitory was unbelievably nice. The toilets and baths were really clean and the arrangement was good too
12:00 noon or so - We reached Oravakallu where we had to have our breakfast. It must have been about an hour's journey from those dormitories. We were served Idli, Wada and Pongal
3:00 pm or so - We reached Belum Caves and I have to say that never ever have I sweated more than what I did in those caves. The temperature must have been around 40-45 degrees. May be ever more. Nevertheless, it was fun and adventurous walking about 2 kms in those caves
5:30 pm or so - We had our lunch (that was not edible at all) at Belum Caves itself. No chapaatis, all those curries had such a bad taste. Probably rice and curd was the only eatable thing out there
9:30 pm or so - We reached back to Oravakullu for dinner and campfire. Luckily we were served pooris then and food was eatable. It was great fun at campfire since the weather was really pleasant owing to that cool breeze. Some of us students were asked to give small speeches. We concluded by playing a game where each person spoke about his/her most memorable moment at IIIT. It was fun and things went really cool then

30th March'06

1:30 am or so - Departure from Oravakallu for IIIT
7:00 am - Reached IIIT campus

All in all it was fun except for the fact that we were travelling and sweating most of the time. And those remote areas didn't even have proper signals for mobile connections. The Oravakallu part at night was the most exciting. Thanks to Pranav for his efforts that the trip plan got implemented. He indeed acted responsibly at every stage during the trip.

UPDATE: Here are certain pics from the trip:

Time taken to write this post: 28 minutes

Off in 5 minutes

2006-03-29T01:14:00.000+05:30

2 Buses are right here. Another bus awaited due to more people getting interested in the batch trip. Yes, we're finally going over for an official trip, 50% of whose money has been contributed by IIIT. I just came over to get my cellphone charger. Thought of updating the blog as well. Details of the trip would come up on 30th March'06, the day of our return.

Time taken to write this post: 3 minutes

Testimonials - 3

2006-03-28T09:32:00.000+05:30

Ashish Lohia

Lohia's been a guide, a teacher and an adviser for every single thing in academics. Had he not been there, I wouldn't have been writing comments for our batch. I probably had been writing them for our juniors. I'm grateful for all his help and would love to be at his service, if at all he ever needs anything. His willingness to help our group has been outstanding. He wouldn't study for himself, rather sit for hours giving us lectures. And mind it, who were the students? It definitely wasn't easy to control us non-serious people. Nevertheless, he managed us quite well. And in that sense, he's been an amazing manager.

He, like few other personalities, is a person who could be successful in any line that he takes up. He would have been successful had he taken management as his career. He would have gotten into the best of those jobs had he been more serious about it. He's got into PHD at a great university. Though, he could have got better. The reason for this, as I believe, is his little carelessness during the third year. He worked amazingly for the first 2 years but somehow that willingness of being 'cool' overpowered him. Had his CGPA been more, he might have reached more heights. Nevertheless, that's not how you become successful. You become successful with that brain that you have above. And he's got lots of them. Believe me. I haven't seen a person who's fundas are more clear than his. Every single thought has such high clarity that I'm a big fan of him.

He's also a very very influential personality. As and when he speaks, people stop to listen his words. And they are mostly full of ideas. All in all, he's been a great person and great friend to be with. There hardly are thigns that I could suggest him to improve upon except may be that he should keep himself away from sex and all, out in US. Or atleast use secure means ;) Good luck buddy!! Way to go..

Suryakant Patidar

This guy is something. I somehow find in him a great friend. We had been in the same group for about a semester but then things changed and new groups were formed. Nevertheless, our friendship continued.

People at times call him a ditch man. I give those people a tag of being stupid and ignorant idiots. The point is that they themselves are weak at heart. One of the best qualities that a person could have is speaking his heart out. He's one of those amazing persons who are not even in the vicinity of being hypocrites. If he doesn't like you, he'd say that on face and that is what people called ditching. I call it his strength. Believe me, it is not easy to be that kinda person. It definitely isn't. It's not easy for one to tell people what he exactly feels about them. He makes it possible all the time.

Apart from that, he's got the best sense of humour that I've ever seen in anybody. All his jokes are worth laughing till you get those cramps in the stomach. You wanna have some good time, go look for Pati. His great smile makes in even more better. He laughs out without caring for anyone, without caring for anything. Not caring for small-small thigns is another thing that I like about him.

One thing that I somehow tend not to like in him is this - At times, he doesnt care for one's feelings. He'll have his own piece of fun but for others it may not be funny. Though, I haven't come across such situations quite often, they do happen sometime. In contrast, he's been really understanding and cooperative too. We, in particular, share a strong relationship, right from day 1, continuing til those disco days. How can I forget that time (Disco), when we used to cry together or atleast pretend doing that. Oh!! one other thing - he's drinking quite frequently these days. oye, stop doing that. It's good to drink sometimes, but do not make it a habit.

He's a good basketball player too who's helped our batch and our house (Prithvi) win lots of times. Then, he's quite hard-working. His come back from not-so-high cgpa was amazing. Now, he's got it increasing constantly. He's done some of the best projects in CVIT and he's very creative too. Deep inside, he's a really nice lover. I know that from his blog and from the chit-chats that we've had. All in all, he's a great person and he's one of my favorites in this place.

Time taken to write this post: 1 minute(^C,^V)

Parties on high

2006-03-26T05:05:00.000+05:30

With just 16 odd days left over, parties are on their full flow. I've been eating out for past 3 days and if this continues, I seriously am going to get the fat (that I did shed) back. As mentioned in the important list of things, I had to treat certain junior friends. Surprizingly, I ended up counting just the second year guys and treated them. Guess, alternate batches do have certain kind of similarty, atleast in IIIT Hyderabad.

Last night (25th March'06), we had an amazing piece of fun at Aditya Park Inn. This treat (different from the one above) was suppossed to be from a senior group of students to a junior set. 19 of us (mainly the D-grp) hosted a party for some 24 juniors. We got a banquet hall reserved for 43 of us and had food all arranged. It was fun chit-chatting to all those friends from junior batches. The best part happened towards the end. We clicked lots and lots of photographs and it was real fun. People got together for a photograph under all kinds of classifications - housewise, wingwise, groupwise, those who've taken projects under Dr. Venkaiaha, Dr. Kamal, Dr. RamaMurthy and some others, those who've ever developed messengers, parliament members, people who usually go over to play pool, those who play TT, those working in one department, those who've been more close etc etc.. One can get the feel of this amazing party that we had from those photographs. Thanks to Joy for his digital camera. One not-so-good part of the party was that it did cost really high. Nevertheless, it's only once throughout the BTech and that's when you're about to graduate and hence it isn't that bad.

Check the group photograph here:

Time taken to write this post: 18 minutes

Straight-forwardness?

2006-03-26T04:09:00.000+05:30

I've preferred it all through. I love people who speak their heart out and that's basically because I hate hypocrites. Being diplomatic is fine (I am) because that's only to make everyone around you happy. It only means that you speak your heart out in a way that people do not mind.

Towards the end of the BTech, we've started writing testimonials for each other. I try to write all good things first, followed by some kind of a suggestion / feedback that might help the person in long run. But, people somehow tend to hate that (This is in no way related to the previous post). I've written the best possible testimonials for certain people and most of them didn't give me a good feedback for that. There are all kinds of reactions. They like it more when a hypocrtic person writes all goody-goody, cosy-cosy testimonials, be it real or not but not when they get to know the actual things. I would always prefer to have 'real' (may be harsh) comments instead of those unreal but polite things because I believe that this is the last opportunity to make improvements in one-self. It's not easy and rewarding to make mistakes in those tough and competitive corporates.

Time taken to write this post: 16 minutes

Testimonials - 2

2006-03-23T13:16:00.000+05:30

With some not so good interpretations that one of my frnds, Rastogi (made here) from my testimonials for him, I gotta post that on this blog for me to save it forever.

Sagar Rastogi

He's one man who's really spread his knowledge domain in every damn field. A person of whom anyone would want to become a fan!! We call him the CEO, we call him shaggy, we call him the 'know-all' guy. He's an amazing person when I look at the dedication and focus that he's got. He's really sincere at his work and does all his tasks in time. I even remember taking assignments' solutions from him during those early years owing to his solving them within the deadline. His CAT scores proves it all. 6 calls are amazing indeed and I'm sure to find him in IIM-A / IIM-B in this following session. Good luck for that buddy!! You've done your part well. Now is the time for them to understand your capabilities and give u the admission.

He's a professional human being. His sense of practicality and mature relationships, proves it all. You don't give a shit about him, he wouldn't give it for you. Even if you give a shit about him, and you're not really worth getting his shit, he wouldn't give that to you. Lot of shit haan.. So, basically what I mean is that he knows how to get work done, he knows how to deal with various people. He knows how to tackle things. Now, this either comes from the great family background that he's come from or it comes from the place that he's lived in. In any case, it has made him a great personality to talk to and deal with. There aren't any foolish talks, there aren't any stupid and non-serious dealings.

But, that's not it. He's a great friend too. Though I hven't really come across instances to check if he'd be there for people in time of need. Nevertheless, he's helped me with various courses etc from time to time. He's been a prospective D-grp member and at times, he's all fun too. He's got such a beautiful smile always on his face that even seniors got annoyed with it in those early ragging days. I remember them all getting frustrated for not being able to make him stop smiling. And that's amazing you know. People have stopped getting happy in this tough world, and Rastogi's a great example for them.

Apart from that, he's got an amazing personality. What height, what stature, what build. Impressive and influential, I must say. Keep everything up buddy.. You have a long successful way to go.. Good luck!!

And certain other clarifications that I later made to him:

Prospective D-grp member means regarding drinking.. I am not a prospective D-grp member because i probably wont drink ever.. I wrote that in his testi considering how drunk he was the last time.. He obviously has a gr8 place in that grp that we all form. So, things shudnt be interpreted in a way that they aren't sed.

That ’shit’ thing was actally a complement.. That was a complement because I sed that for he being assertive.. (Would post my testi for pati soon which is on similar tracks of being assertive) Ofcourse, he's given me ’shit’ lots of times ;) and i didnt have nething to say that for our frndship..

'not worth it’ meant stupid people who not only like to waste their time, but waste other’s too.. “There aren’t any stupid and non-serious dealings” in the end of that paragraph shud have made it clear..

Time taken to write this post: 6 minutes

Aura Attraction

2006-03-23T13:01:00.000+05:30

I don't generally believe in these things.. ok!! To some extent I do. Afterall, I've taken all those reiky lessons.. Ya, so aura as dictionary says is a particular atmosphere or quality that seems to arise from and surround a person or thing.

Something strange happened last night and for that, I gotta give certain more points to aura. I was walking over to the main building (the academic block) of IIIT. A friend at that moment was coming over on his bike from the opposite direction. Since, it was quite dark and the bike lights were lit, I couldn't actually see who the guy was until he actually passed from along my side. But somehow, when we were jes inches apart, I felt like raising my hand (a sudden urge inside). And as and when he approached, I saw his hand already raised too.. And we did clap with those raised hands.. It later occured to me that it must haev been certain kind of attraction or a telepathy or something on similar tracks that made me do what he wanted to - raise the hand. Amazing indeed!!

Time taken to write this post: 9 minutes

Testimonials - 1

2006-03-21T05:44:00.000+05:30

Rajesh Kumar Pachar

There are certain people who touch your heart, who come so close in life that it's just not possible for one to forget them ever. He's one of them for me. Such people understand you when most needed. Rajesh is such a guy. He's a great personality in the sense that he's got that listening ability. When required, he'll always be there to console you. He's got that sense of understanding what a person wants and for that he makes a great friend.

An amazing quality that he possesses is 'hardworking'. It's not easy to find anyone with such a level of dedication and sincerity towards work. He takes up a task, and thinks of anything else only when it's done. He's got the 'do or die' attitude in him. He procrastinates as any normal human being but once he gets down to some serious work, you can't beat him up on that. He doesn't leave out things in between. He takes them to the finish and only then does he get relaxed.

Another thing that most people know about him is his habit of going over to Gym each day. Have you ever seen the fitness level that he's got. I have. He's a little short in height, but otherwise he's absolutely fit. His determination of being physically fit made him do some regular and serious work-out in these last 3 years. And the difference is actually visible.

Except this, he's one helluva emotional person. You could make him cry within seconds. Trust me on that one. All you gotta do is pull certain sensitive strings and he's all yours. Though he rarely lets out his secrets, I know he's got lots of them in there. You find him quiet, and you know that he's all sad.

He's one of those guys who'd make really good husbands. Trustworthy, loyal and fun-loving. Ok, except being an emotional person, he's got that funnny attitude too. Though, he's not got a very good sense of humour, he tries his best to crack certain jokes from time to time. But then, noone laughs at them. Does that stop him? Naa!! He doesn't give a shit abt whether ne one likes them or not. If he wants to be funny, he will.

One other and the most important thing that I'd tell you is this - it wouldn't have been possible without him. Trust me. Had he not been there, I wouldn't have been able to get my projects completed and thus the graduation. He's done most of them but never ever as a favour. Never has he ever looked down upon me for that. I've been a bad project partner but he never spoke that to me. I'd always be grateful for that.

He's an amazing guy. He's an amazing friend. He's an amazing human being. Wishing success dood!! For me, it just isn't possible to forget chhota.

Time taken to write this post: 2 minutes (CtrlC - CtrlV)

The end is near

2006-03-21T05:22:00.000+05:30

I remember reading such titles last year, same time, when seniors were all about to complete their BTech. It must have been a notalgic and exciting feel for them and with another 20 days to go for my eighth semester to get over, I get a similar feeling. It is in some sense emotional to leave a place that plays a major role to make one a better human being. And it is exciting to enter the new corporate and professional world. With every new start, new dreams are made and new goals set.

Shiben has hosted a yearbook for our batch this year, in a way that was hosted last year for seniors. The concept is that everyone gets to write comments for every other student in the batch and all of those comments would be available for all in the batch to read. There'll be an html file associated with every student where comments that are written for them are appended. I've started writing for those near and dear ones and it really feels great to think of those old good times that most of us have had. Since, I once wrote about my willingness to post my views on certain people, I'd copy those comments that I write for various people right here in the blog for it to be saved at a safe place.

Time taken to write this post 17 minutes

On drinking and smoking

2006-03-20T01:18:00.000+05:30

Owing to the 'not-so-good' taste that those alcoholic drinks have and 'not-really-interested-to-drink' attitude that I possess, the chances of me being a frequent drinker are automatically nullified. It's ok to drink a peg or 2 sometimes, for socializing is what I believe. I got all tun around this time last year on a party that was suppossed to be a farewell for our seniors and I plan to get tun sometime in the coming days before I leave this institute.

Cigar is one thing that I really eye upon. Never tried one but it definitely looks great and royal. Morover, owing to my taste for villainous looks, cigar gets some more points. Plans to buy one in recent future. Though, I don't plan to smoke any kind of tobacco after that one trial.

Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes

Appreciation

2006-03-19T04:19:00.000+05:30

What is that motivates people? 'Appreciations' and 'Rewards' definitely play the major role in that. Motives get over, interests and enthusiams are lost and things get dull if there aren't any rewards and inspiring words/appreciations for the work.

On musical night, we had IIIT's official band, Insomnia, performing for over an hour and there wasn't any crowd out in the ground. There weren't more than some 15 students banging their head in the ground that has a capacity of over 700-800 people. IIIT students seem to me as a boring lot. People aren't interested to move out of their rooms and check out the world around them. Participation is not what is required. Audience play a major role too. But guess, these students get all deaf at the time of their admissions. This low degree of enthusiasm is one of the most important reasons for Felicity being a 'lesser' success than it should be. Strange people!! Boring people!!

Time taken to write this post: 13 minutes

It all comes back on you

2006-03-18T04:19:00.000+05:30

I remember writing a post on similar lines long back. Ok!! check it out here

All this time, throughout the BTech, my dad was happy with the small number of 'A' grades that I got. Somehow, I didn't have the courage to tell him that most of those As that I got were in humanities courses. So, basically I played with the information :-). Now, when I tell him about my willingness to have complete fun in these left over days in BTech, he refuses asking me to work hard for the end semester exams. Now, how exactly do I explain him the concept of Humanities courses and the level of hard work that's needed in there. I tried convincing that there isn't much to study for the final end semester exams, but in vain. Shit!! Why did I hide the information at all. I can't even have permitted fun now.

Time taken to write this post: 12 minutes

The Value of an MBA

2006-03-17T22:47:00.000+05:30

Check out this. Wonderful thoughts that are informative in their own way. It really prepares me to work hard in job and plan my future goals (MBA etc) only with time and experience.

Time taken to write this post: 2 minutes

Interview with Inductis

2006-03-17T04:56:00.000+05:30

Things change, they end. And so did the on-campus recruitments. I started applying for offcampus then and finally got the first call from Inductis - a management consultancy firm that's towards the Data Mining in a sense that it analyzes data for its clients. I was called up for the post of Programmer Analyst. They hire only IITians as consultants.

The complete recruitment process was telephonic. In all, I had 4 rounds with an employee of higher designation each time. Was fun, it being my first telephonic interview. For now, the post-interview status is SELECTED. Following are the interview details:

Round 1 - with Mr. Prashant

1) 10th percentage and rank
2) 12th percentage and rank
3) Current GPA and rank

This is a kind of elimination round for people who do not cross a certain limit and for those who do not remain consistent with the resume that those people have.

Round 2 - with Mr. Anupam

1) Tell me about yourself
Ans: From academic qualifications to extra-curriculars, about parents and their profession, technical and social achievements, leadership skills to people skills, I covered everything.
2) Why Inductis?
Ans: Best place to be in for a long-term goal (4-5 years down the line) of doing an MBA, close to home, large number of Inductis Alumni get MBA admissions, compensation
3) Why not IBM?
Ans: Negation of the above points
4) Cross questioning at various points during the first question such as how do you manage the crowd when you compere on the stage (I told them that I've compered a couple of times)
5) A puzzle - You have 100 doors in a row that are all initially closed. you make 100 passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. the first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). the second time you only visit every 2nd door (door #2, #4, #6). the third time, every 3rd door (door #3, #6, #9), etc, until you only visit the 100th door. What state are the doors in after the last pass? which are open which are closed?
Ans: Solution: You can figure out that for any given door, say door #42, you will visit it for every divisor it has. so 42 has 1 & 42, 2 & 21, 3 & 14, 6 & 7. so on pass 1 i will open the door, pass 2 i will close it, pass 3 open, pass 6 close, pass 7 open, pass 14 close, pass 21 open, pass 42 close. for every pair of divisors the door will just end up back in its initial state. so you might think that every door will end up closed? well what about door #9. 9 has the divisors 1 & 9, 3 & 3. but 3 is repeated because 9 is a perfect square, so you will only visit door #9, on pass 1, 3, and 9... leaving it open at the end. only perfect square doors will be open at the end.

Round 3 - with Mr. Amit Das (IIMB guy)

1) HR questions very similar to above with more cross questioning which required better justification of all the skills that I portrayed.
2) A puzzle - You have 10 lions and 1 sheep on an island. A lion, if it eats the sheep would get converted to sheep and thus could be eaten up by another lion. Lions are intelligent and would eat the sheep only if they're sure of not getting eaten up by other lions on becoming sheep themselves. If this is the case, how many lions would be left in the end?
Ans: Solution - If in the worst case, there's only 1 lion left, it would eat up the sheep since it doesn't have to get worried about getting eaten up by any other lion. In case of 2 lions, none would eat up the sheep first since it is sured of getting eaten up by the left over lion as explained earlier. In case of 3 lions, one lion would definitely eat up the sheep since 2 lions do not eat the sheep as explained earlier. If the chain continues, lions wouldn't eat the sheep if they are even in number but one of them would eat up the sheep if they're odd in number. This could be understood as follows - there are 10 forces acting on the sheep and each of them in an equal and opposite way. They cancel out the effect of each other and thus do not eat the sheep. The state is in equilibrium.

Round 4 - with Director, Inductis Analytics Department

1) HR questions once again. A lot of them to check the consistency and other things
2) Estimation question - How many cars are there in Ambala (my native place)?
Ans: Solution:
- Estimate the population
- Remove the people who are below poverty line
- Calculate the number of families out of the remaining since it would be easier to average the number of cars over families. Assume that each family has 4 members on an average
- Divide the families into 4 categories - low income, lower middle-class, upper middle-class and rich class. Divide them such that it forms a pyramid with low income being the largest in number
- Assume the number of cars as 0 in low-income, 0.5 in low middle class families, 1.5 in upper-middle class families, 2.5 in rich class. This would give out the number for private cars
- Next, assume that there are 10 major taxi stands, each with 200 taxis. That makes 2000 as the number of taxis
- Next, assume that there are 10 major organizations who hire cabs etc for their employees. Each of them keeps 100 cars that makes it another 1000
- Total everything up to give a number

Main things that they looked for

1) Consistency across various interviews
2) Problem Solving skills
3) Extra-curricular participation. They were keen to know the interests etc
4) Orientation towards MBA
5) Kind of impression and knowledge that one has about the organization. Do go through the recruitment brochures that they have on their website
6) Communication skills, leadership abilities, ethics and integrity
7) How true is an individual? They asked me if I've heard of any Inductis puzzles and I did tell them about the ones that I read over the internet

Some links that might help for puzzles:
http://www.techinterview.org/
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/riddles/intro.shtml
http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/career-discussions/12028-help-puzzles-asked-inductis-interview.html

Time taken to write this post: over 1 hour

Interview with SSA Global

2006-03-16T01:33:00.000+05:30

For those who don't know - SSA Global is a company that develops ERP solutions and has acquired a company called BAAN recently. Baan, ironically, is still more famous than SSA Global. Ok!! SSA GLobal is the same company about which I wrote some not-so-good words here and here. Nevertheless, for now, I won't scribble any personal views since the post-interview status is SELECTED

As for the interview - the company wouldn't be interested much into your personal backgrounds, your communication skills (though it helps sometimes), your extra-curricular participations etc. Following up were the various questions that they asked. Since, there wasn't anything new that I came up with in my answers (all bookish stuff), and that they could be easily found in various resources, I'll write just the questions:

1) What is the difference between JSP, Servlets, CGI, PHP?
2) Define a database system
3) What is RDBMS and on what basis is it formed?
4) Tell certain Codd rules that are not followed in Mysql
5) Give certain differences between popular RDBMS such as Oracle and Mysql
6) How good am I in developing ER Diagrams?
7) What are views?
8) How do you update the views and where are the changes made once they are updated?
9) Given a practical situation such as managing inventory at a restaraunt, how would you design a database. Write tables, and give the primary, foreign keys for each. Give the relationships between each tables.
10)What is normalization? Describe the various types
11)Suppose there are certain items, each available in different standards and thus with variable prices. Write a query to find an average price of each item
12)What is indexing and it's use? Types of indexing? How exactly does it help?
13)How exactly is the database stored in memory? Where exactly is the data stored in the tree?
14)What are the key object oriented concepts?
15)What are the types of polymorphism?
16)Difference between interface and abstract classes
17)How and when are interfaces used
18)What department would I want to work for - ERP that requires working on Baan Tool, C++ or Linux something?

I ended up saying that I wish to understand the working on ERP since it's really demanding these days.

Time taken to write this post: 35 minutes

Protecting IIIT Hyderabad Girls Hostel

2006-03-14T04:47:00.000+05:30

What?? Are these women a part of the current security team? In times of need, even men aren't able to fight back, how exactly are the women expected to act/react then? It is good that the concerned authority got the security guards changed (to a 'more' reliable team) after the IISc firing. But, putting up female guards in girls hostel looks like a foolish step. If you necessarily wish to keep a woman there, keep atleast one man outside the hostel gates. How can the authority be so careless at this?

Not that those things happen all the time or even frequently for that matter. Not that the IIIT students would do any mischief. But the arrangements should be made so as to handle those kinda issues the very first time itself.

I happened to talk to one of those female guards and came to know that her name's Jhansi and I unintensionally laughed out thinking if that name's gonna protect the girls, something like Jhansi ki rani.. For now, God save them in times of trouble.

Time taken to write this post: 14 minutes

Stupid people

2006-03-14T04:19:00.000+05:30

There are lots of them and they act stupid all the time. I mean, what is the problem man!! Why make up an issue for small things, as trivial as posting something on a weblog? Isn't this suppossed to be my web space and am I not allowed to write/post what I wish to, unless ofcourse I write things that are against one's rights?

It's not for the first time, dammit, it happens all the times:
1) Posting comment on someone's blog
2) Putting down your thoughts on YOUR OWN weblog
3) Linking posts to someone else's blog
4) Giving biased thoughts on certain 'important' topics
5) Writing philosophical opinions
6) Tagging certain people
.... ALL THE TIME ....

Believe me or not, I don't care and neither do I want to be good enough to care for those idiotic matters.. In the last month that I have here in this institute, I'll do what I wish to.

Time taken to write this post: 11 minutes

Solitude - a solution to all worries

2006-03-12T03:20:00.000+05:30

It really is. Being solitary works unbelievably. Think of a time when you felt really low. Can't think of it? C'mon. Now, what actually helped then? I can't remember even a single such instance when I was tense and got back to normal mindset with the help of others around. For some, it's a great feeling to have others speak good words, sympathizing and feeling pity on their conditions. But what ultimately helps in recovering is collecting all your thoughts together yourself, getting a new inspiration from somwhere down there, and having decided to start all over again.

This is what I need when am sad:
1) No sympathizing statements
2) Humans-free surroundings
3) Music on with some sad tracks
4) Thoughts of a couple of those 'confidense-boosting' situations which must have happened to me in past
5) A piece of paper and a pen. These M$ notepads too work bigtime

and that's it I guess.

Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes

Sex Scandals

2006-03-12T02:46:00.000+05:30

A feeling of 'surprize', 'shame' and 'fear' pops up (in that order) when I read about all those sex scandals where school-going students are caught red-handed. Can you believe it, is the first thing that turns up on this little mind.

Surprize: An obvious expression that would turn up after reading those shocking sex scandals. Why don't you check some for yourself? 1 2
Shame: It's shameful to see the upcoming generation act that way. People have started becoming more hep, westernized and more funk, forgetting the backgrounds that they're from. Is that a fault with the parents is the question that blocks up everything in the end.
Fear: By and when it's our time to become parents, would the situation only worsen? I tend to get afraid thinking about the fact that the pace at which it's being carried forward, it'll all end up with a disaster.

Time taken to write this post: 10 minutes

Template Add-ons

2006-03-11T13:44:00.000+05:30

Besides the countdown to graduation that I added on the right hand side of this blog sometime back, there's another addition, that's called the cluster map. This feature puts up marks on the various countries over the world map from where the blog has been accessed and is updated daily. So, basically, more the number of red marks over there, more widely are the readers spread.

Time taken to write this post: 3 minutes

Need Help!!

2006-03-10T12:10:00.000+05:30

For all the techie people out there, a small help needed. I have a text file where in there's a list of all the feeds to whom I wish to subscribe. Since they're really large in number, I can't even think of subscribing one by one.

I currently use sharp reader. Is there any way that this text file could be converted to an opml file or any way such that a feed reader could read the text file, line by line and subscribe me to all of them?

Time taken to write this post: 5 minutes

Important things before leaving IIIT

2006-03-10T10:51:00.000+05:30

I remember Ironhide's similar post sometime last year, this time. For me, the list of things in queue are as follows:

1. Get a provisional degree
2. Get lots of certificates/written statements from professors of me being involved in all those extracurricular activities
3. Make sure I get my caution deposit
4. Meet some profs and tell them how much I've appreciated them all through
5. Tip the guards and the housekeeping guys
6. Gift certain professors and staff people for their sincere help
7. Tell some irritating obnoxious and stupid batch mates of mine to "go f&^% themselves"
8. Get the names of books that are a must read. Improving reading skills is one thing that I crave for
9. Collect CAT, GMAT material and other such study materials from friends who are able to convert their calls this time
10.Meet Chari@career_launcher to discuss more about the future goals
11.Collect as much free material as I can from career launcher
12.Donate certain things that I don't plan to carry along
13.Get my mattress back and sell it off to someone who's looking for one
14.Give a treat to some junior friends
15.Get a farewell treat from those junior friends
16.Buy a new 200/250 GB hard disk
17.Get a good hold on French and collect all those online courses that one of my friends has downloaded
18.Get lots of movies (especially Hindi), songs, softwares and 'Enjoy' stuff
19.Tell certain beauties of how long they've been in my crush list
20.Get my eye-sight checked and put on spectacles if I need them
21.Take contact ids, phone no.s, addresses of all those people whom I wish to keep contact with
22.Use all my contacts to get as many referrals as I can
23.Buy some of those books that I've noted down in point 7
24.Create a backup of this blog
25.Get the monetary accounts cleared with all my friends
26.Decide which camera and laptop to buy
27.Create an unknown and non-existing identity for myself
28.Talk to all those crushes of mine and that too in person. Already wrote that but it definetly deserves a second reminder
29.Find out the courier services if I need to carry lots of luggage back home
30.Smoke atleast once, that too a cigar
31.Drink for the third and the last time
32.See Golkonda,Salarjung,Faluknama,Snow World
33.Go-carting
34.Go to that Rajasthani place where we once planned to go
35.Go to sunrise point where seniors had been a regular visitor
36.Go to the secret lake where I haven't visited even once. Shame on me
37.Talk to those crushes
38.Write orkut testiomonials for lots of people
39.Get a slam book or an year book or something to keep some memories alive
40.Work out an effective system of staying in touch with people I want to stay in touch with
41.Work out an even more effective system to prevent those whom I don't wish to stay in touch with
42.Take down the birthdates of all those dear ones so that I have an alternate reminder to orkut
43.Think about contributing in cash/kind to Muskaan or to other such societies
44.Say sorry to all those people whom I haven't been good with
45.Eat the buffet at sheraton and viceroy atleast once
46.Think about an idea which helps people to remember our batch for a long time
47.Distribute all the useful stuff that I've collected all this time especially the placements' stuff
48.Give sincere advices to certain people, mainly juniors
49.Write about interviews, placements and success in my blog
50.Get grades for certain projects and complete FYP
51.Understand various ways of saving taxes
52.Change the sleeping habits and try watching the sunrise atleast 4 days a week
53.Make a note of all the embarassing and rememberable situations that I've faced during my B.Tech and that too without feeling guilty for any of those
54.Keep updating this post as and when I get to remember more important things
55.Reveal an already secret (almost) identity

Time taken to write this post: nearly 1 hour

Certain cruel realities

2006-03-10T02:20:00.000+05:30

To support my post on Guys are bastards , I've recently been finding lots of similar thoughts. It somehow sounds strange but things accidently come on your way if you're thinking too much about them which basically means that you tend to find arguments, posts, articles etc that support your view. And that's exactly being happening in this case.

Amit Varma, a journalist, writes a beautiful blog, named India Uncut . One of his recent posts talk about nearly the same issue of guys being bastards . And his writing skills definitely puts across the fact, the reality with more clarity. This post that he's written about the issue, consists of a link towards the end which says 'train to chennai' . This 'train to chennai' post in particular is so touching that I couldn't resist myself from reading the whole story twice. The fact about women being insecure in this cruel society makes me feel the need of being even more 'courageous' and 'decent'. 'Courageous', basically to be able to face such situations with my near and dear ones and take appropriate actions against the responsible and 'decent', to keep myself away from getting involved or even getting the thoughts of doing any such disastrous things.

Time taken to write this post: 17 minutes

Guys are bastards

2006-03-08T18:04:00.000+05:30

Long long back, sometime last year during this month itself, someone wrote this post dedicated to the battle of sexes. There were statements like men are bastards/dogs and some other more worse than these. I did fight against those allegations in the form of a big comment that was posted anonymously [the first comment there]. Being anonymous was one way of putting forward the actual meaning behind the comment without getting any bias thoughts that might come over due to my 'personal' image. Nevertheless, it's hardly an issue now.

But recently, I came across certain situations where these facts for men got proved in some way. Men are indeed bastards and I can say that from the kind of mentality that is being recently developed in me. But that's not just my fault. That's the fault of those hot babes, those bitches too. You go over to an elite restaraunt and see girls roaming around in clothes as good as being naked, I bet that your mentality would change as well.

The fact is that being from the darker sex, I know that men do look for women, men do develop high sexual thoughts, men do get attracted towards women now and then, they do look out for sexy figures, cute faces, big butts/busts and so men are bastards in that sense. But that is not the beginning of the story. Story begins from the point when women start attracting men for short-term and long-term benefits, it all starts when women wear those hep clothes just to look more sexy. So, the fact is that men do get attracted towards those women but that is only when women initiate. Women are only hyppocritic enough to raise such allegations against us.

Time taken to write this post: 20 minutes

Incomplete men, Incomplete women

2006-03-08T16:26:00.000+05:30

In contrast to my post on male chauvinism , the fact that men and women are so incomplete without each other got proved today.

I was talking to my mom on the cell phone. It must have been a 15 minutes call, I guess. During those short 15 minutes, dad called her up twice. During that first call, he asked her the length of a certain cloth to get a shirt stitched for himself and for the second time, the matter was as trivial as whether he needs a pair of shoes. Besides being so happy to see the strong bond of love that they share, I was surprized to see that men are so incomplete without women. I told mom about that thought immediately and she gave me this reply -

Beta, women and men are so incomplete without each other. They argue on useless things, they get their egos involved but at the same time, in reality, they are really dependent on each other. Consider this - Would any family ever invite a bachelor on socializing parties? They never would. At the same time, is any woman really secure without a man? No, they're not. We talk about women empowerment but in reality women are still insecure in this men-dominated society. There are certain situations where men can't survive without women, but there are equal or more number of situations where women depend on men.

I was fully satisfied with her answer and understood the ground reality of the strong relationship that men and women share. And btw, for all the ladies out there - Happy Women's Day

Time taken to write this post: 14 minutes

Countdown to Graduation

2006-03-06T12:59:00.000+05:30

Now, there's a clock indicating the countdown to my graduation on the right bar of this blog. This student at ISB is my source of inspiration for such a countdown feature. It looks cool, and is nostalgic, emotional and exciting at the same time. With the end of this semester on 13th of April, I'll probably complete my graduation. God Bless.

Time taken to write this post: 3 minutes

Male Chauvinism

2006-03-06T01:59:00.000+05:30

Women empowerment, though heard of all around, is still not existent in significant proportion. Men are still considered to be the head of the families; they are still considered to be the decision makers; they're still found to be leading in every sphere; they are still the earning hand and that'll continue to remain for a long time. In this men dominant society, women are given a lot of rights to match them up with men. Each day we hear of women reservations and most of them are earned by women's demands themselves. The statement might hurt but such reservations only reflect the inferiorism in them and nothing else.

In various clubs and societies, we find men taking up the memberships and women are given the status of dependents. On invitation cards, we always find the name of a husband written before that of his wife. These are some such day to day examples which even strenghen the point.

Long long back, I was given a status of being a 'Male Chauvinist Pig' by one of my really strong crushes. That was probably her indirect way of indicating the 'love' and 'respect' that she had for me. I didn't know the meaning then and thus couldn't argue back in any way. Nevertheless, the point which I wish to put forward is that there's nothing bad about women rising high in the society; they getting more respect and fame; they earning more than the men; they being the bosses. Nothing at all. But it is definitely conflicting when women fail to accept the truth of they still not being the head of the families, the decision makers. Families break up because of these small arguments. They break up because none of the partners compromise.

Today, I read a touching post here which basically strenghens the above point in some way or the other. The author is a journalist and maintains a really nice blog.

Note: This post is devoted to that crush of mine who might someday come across this post.

Time taken to write this post: 24 minutes

No locks allowed / required

2006-03-06T01:27:00.000+05:30

My dad's planning to visit a place very near to Shirdi [famous for Sai Baba]. This place, called Shingnapur has a well-known Shani temple. Shingnapur is located in Maharashtra and is often heard about for a very strange thing. As per the information, there aren't any locks required in that place. Infact, one wouldn't find even a single lock in the whole area. No locks on shops, no locks on houses, none of the cars are locked, not even the two-wheelers, nothing at all. Till far away, you wouldn't find a lock to buy. Not just that, the houses are built without doors. For privacy, curtains is all that can be used.

People there believe that Shani dev flattens out the tyres of any vehicle that's locked in that place. Some even believe that one who steals in there, goes blind and thus, no one dares to do that. It might sound really backward but such places do exist in our country. And none of these stories are cooked up btw. I can say that because one of my uncles has already visited that temple twice. I am waiting for my dad to visit the Shani temple and provide me with more 'reliable' information.

Check out the location information here

Time taken to write this post: 16 minutes