India - Pakistan Wagah Border ceremony

I got this video at Upright Videos. Boy! Do they have some cool collection?! Do listen to the BBC commmentary in the video. Funny that I should get this video now, when I just finished "Pundits From Pakistan" by Rahul Bhattarcharya. Rahul was touring with Indian cricket team to Pakistan in 2004 and he has captured his experiences in this book. But to say that this book is just about cricket is like saying Ramayana is about touring Sri Lanka. I can't say anything about the book which hasn't already been said. Just read it.

In the last chapter of the book, Rahul describes the Wagah border ceremony. While BBC commentary in the video describes it well, it lacks the subcontinental sentiments attached with the Wagah Border. Rahul taps it well. I'm producing excerpts from his book -

We found the spot on the sidelines. Chants rented the air. Pakistan Zindabad. Allah-hu-Akbar. A cheerleader who had almost knocked over Saad with his flag at the stadium was running up and down, waving his crescented cloth, urging masses on like the coach at tug-of-war.

Barely had we taken out spot than the crowds erupted into a delirious roar: a guard had begun marching towards a gate, some metres past the brick archway. Marching is a euphemism. He stomped so hard as if to create holes in the earth, a severely built man in immaculate uniform, a magnificent turban, boots of gleaming black, and wearing hate on his face as he had been told to. Even amid the chanting and hooting and clapping, the clamping down of the hobnailed boots could be made out.

The guard powered on till the gate, where he spread his hands like a performer, maintaining the hate on his face, and shaking his head vigiriusly in the manner one does after downing a Patiala Peg; high on induced hate. The hands were lowered to the sides in a series of theatrical gestures. Another guard followed, and another. Sometimes they went in tows and threes. As they reached the gate, one after the other, and played out their hate, the crowd was stirred to a frenzy. A depravity hung in the air.

A chronicle by a visiting westerner likend the ceremony to a European football game. This was ironic, instructive. Where Orwell had likened sport to war minus the shooting, here was wilfully calibrated war minus the shooting - shadow-boxing, in uniform, as the border - being likened to sport.

At last a pair of guards from either side shook hands, and the flags were gently lowered. This signified the closing of the border for the day. Both gates were slammed shut together, with immense force. There was a sudden, shocked silence, and in the silence of the moment, the metal rang in the ears. The silence continued for several seconds. The silence was a lot of things: a brief mourning, the acknowledgement of an attachment, of a shameful history; it was a symbolic reconciliation; I think it was, in large part, embarrassment at the preceding depravity.

Even now I shudder at the mesh of emotions at that scene at the border on March twenty-third. The faces of some wore a disturbed look. Some looked distraught. Some chanted. Some looked fragile, shattered, tears in eyes. Some looked plain entertained. Some, like Mr Ansari, were furious, furious with the jingoism the ceremony was designed to generate. Saad and I discussed things with passionate angst. It was a confusing time.

Highly recommended, the video and the book.

Hi-Five!

(Chatting in office during working hours. Typical day at office)

s.t: ok tell me this...
if u were to see 5 countries(india excluded) and then never get to see anything else, which countries wud these be?
Varun: egypt
south africa
new zealand
russia
aaaaand.....
brazil
Varun: you?
s.t: italy
french polynesian islands...
cambodia ... angkor wat in particular
peru
and the 4th place am not sure....btwn egypt and greece..
Varun: 5th?
s.t: most likely wud be greece

Looks like a tag to me! I tag Pankaj Jain, Himanshu, Vivek Kumar, Raj & Reshma.

Hostile Witness

After the recent decisions on the Jesica Lall case & the Best Bakery case, the Indian blogsphere has a tag making rounds. I read first about this at Vivek's blog. Here's the tag:

Lets say that you are a key witness in a murder case. You saw the accused kill the victim right in front of your eyes. The facts of the case are absolutely clear to you, and fresh in your memory. Now, your testimony is up for tomorrow. You get a call during the night before the fateful day. The caller threatens to kill/harm either you or your wife/your kids/someone-very-dear-to-you. Alternatively, the caller could make you a different offer - that of money. Say Rs. 1 Crore (a little over $200,000). You know for sure that the accused can indeed shell out that much money. The condition is obvious. You must become a hostile witness. What would you do? And why?

The first knee-jerk reaction would be a 'No', simply because most of us like to see ourselves like someone with high morals and strong will. I shall not waste this space on that, I'm no Sunny Deol & this is no cinema. Answering this question is indeed very tough, mostly because its not very easy to imagine yourself into this horrid dilemma.

I don't think I would react to the money offered. Partly because I'm already comfortably placed in life; not playing in crores or stuff, but decent enough to have a decent upper middle class life. And partly because that it would be a burden on the conscience for the entire life; to sell yourself and causing injustice to come to poor victims. I think every one has some threshold and only after that barrier is crossed, people go against their moral sense of right and wrong. Money is not the one to tempt me.

Threat to my loved ones is a different thing. I don't think I can jeopardize their lives for anything. Keeping in mind that in most cases the police would not be able to protect my loved ones from the threat. And, after seeing that in many cases, even after few testimonies against the culprit, s/he was able to get free from some loophole in the judiciary system. This is to say, if I'm sure that the threat is real & the protection from the police won't be sufficient, most likely I would make a U-turn. Turning hostile would really be very burdensome morally, I would prefer to get disconnected from the proceedings, like saying I didn't see anything or I wasn't there.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you like, post it on your blog. Don't forget to add the tag "Hostile Witness" to your post.

Tag: Hostile Witness

IIM Indore GD/PI

IIM Indore has a very elaborate inteview form to be filled. Dreaded questions like "strengths & weakness in acads" & "failures at work place" can give many sleepless nights. Some say they try hard to copy IIM Ahmedabad's interview form. I'm not sure how important these forms are; from what I saw, these forms are mainly used by the interviewers to know more about what to ask. But I'm not sure if an articulately filled form has any edge.

Group Discussion
Each GD group has 7 aspirants in them, so it wasn't over-crowded. We were given a case-study which was about a family. Austen was working with a nationalized bank in Bhopal after doing his MBA. He married Dr.Sneha, who is now earning about 5 times more than him after setting up nice practice in Bhopal. Austen met his batchmates who are working with MNCs and earning much more than him. Without discussing it with Sneha, he takes up the job with an MNC in Mumbai and asks her to come along. In the end, she stayed in Bhopal when he left for Mumbai. Now when their son has done well in CAT, he is retrospecting upon his decision.

Fourteen minutes were a bit too much on this topic. Most of us were done in about 10 minutes. It wasn't a fish-market GD and everyone got ample chances to speak. The points were repeated quite often.

Personal Interview
They had told us that they will call us in random order. My number came after four others. It was a long wait since they were taking about 25-30 minutes per interview. Two professors, P1 & P2, were there for the interview.

P1: Tell me something about yourself in 3 sentances. Ok, 1 minute.
Me: {bak, bak, bak}
P1: You already have two and a half years' experience. In another 2.5 years where do you see yourself?
Me: {Managing a team}
P1: Very typical answer.
(Oh ok.. what about this one - "I see myself at Mars along with five handpicked female specimen, trying to populate the human coloney at Mars")
Me: {Want to open a firm later}
P1: I'm not convinced.
P2: Okay, what's your business model?
Me: Try to do stuff cheaper and maintain the quality. Just like BPO industry.
P2: Don't talk about BPO. We expect more from an IITian.
Me: I feel mobile communication hold immense potential in India. The penetration rose by 30% last year and as the connectivity grows, the businesses around it are likely to grow. Location based services are one example. They can be used effectively in transport industry to track their orders.
P2: But that is already being done in US.
Me: RFID is the upcoming thing. It can be done more effectively using RFID.
P2: What are the limitations with RFID?
Me: Range is one.
P2: What else?
Me: Orientation of the chip?
P2: What about the cost?
Me: As of now they are costly, but Walmart is pushing it hard and as the demand grows the prices are bound to come down. They are aiming for 5 cent chips.
P2: Walmart alone can't do anything.
Me: Walmart has initiated the process. Many others are checking out the RFID technology. Even Kingfisher Airlines are trying to leverage on it.
P2: What's Kingfisher doing with it?
Me: For most of the businesses, RFID is just another hot technology. They are searching for ways they can utilize it.
P1: (Cuts me) Tell me what's your business plan? You have written you want to start a company.
Me: I don't have a business plan ready as of now.
(P1 was neck deep into my grade cards by now)
P1: Why did you have course like IEOR and Linear Optimization?
Me: Computer science is all about optimizing stuff.. blah blah
P1: Can you tell me the optimum way to sort an array?
Me: If we consider the average case..
P1: (Cuts me) Tell me the best way, forget about the average case.
Me: Quick Sort.
P1: Are you sure?
Me: Yes sir.
P1: What's the complexity for Quick Sort?
Me: O(n.lgn).
P1: What kind of algorithm is it?
Me: {divide and sort..recursive}
P1: How does lgn comes into picture? What's the base of the log?
Me: e. It comes from summation of a series.
P1: Do you know about Simplex method?
Me: umm..
P1: What is the basic requirement to find the optimum solution using Simplex?
Me: Atleast some solution must exist (? with a silent question-mark :)
P1: What is this condition called?
Me: Solvability? (?)
P2: You have written about Photography. What's the latest technology in Photography? If you were to suggest someone what would you suggest?
Me: Today the best option is a digital SLR, if you can afford it.
P2: Don't tell me about DSLR. Whats the latest technology?
Me: {Tried telling about this mother of present cameras technology, got cut}
P2: What about signal processing?
Me: (Struggled with the name of charged plate in digital camera which captures the light) That's where this signal processing can be used?
P2: What about histograms?
Me: Yeah. ok, there.
P2: How does an LCD work?
Me: {Pixels}
P2: You are an engineer, I'm an engineer. Explain properly.
P1: You are a recent engineer!
Me: Don't know exactly.
P1: You said you've schooled in 9 different cities. Can you name all 9?
Me: Udaipur, Hanumangarh, Nohar, Anoopgarh, Bikaner, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jaipur, Karuali, Kota.
P1: What was the difference when you went to Bikaner again?
Me: {First tried to babble about the change in perspective and stuff, got cut} Traffic.
P1: What the GDP of Bikaner? Of Rajasthan? Which state has the highest GDP?
Me: Punjab (?)
P1: Lowest?
Me: I'm not sure could be some state from the seven sister states in North east.
P1: What about Bihar?
Me: Though Bihar has been hit by the political scene in the state, but the area is more so I'm not sure. It could be Bihar.
P2: Do you know about Bimaru States? Which are the Bimaru States?
Me: Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh...umm.
P1: Did you take any coaching for this interview?
Me: I took some mock interviews.
P1: Did they help?
Me: I've taken 2 IIM interviews by now. The pattern is different from what I had practiced.
P1: So it didn't help.
(Both of them laughed at this point)
P2: How did you prepare for this?
Me: I try to keep myself updated with current affairs (was hoping to yak a bit about Mittal-Arcelor stuff).
P2: What did Laloo Prasad Yadav announce lately?
Me: A new shatabdi expresses between Delhi & Agra, fastest in India.
P2: That is already done.
P2: What about online ticketing?
Me: That is functioning for sometime now.
P2: What else?
Me: He abolished cold-drinks and introduced kulhars.
P1: That was long time back.
(Not older than online tickeing!)
P2: What about upgradation of tickets?
Me: Yeah, that.

They offered me chips in the end. People try to read into this giving chips, wishing good-luck, etc. omens. But I'm not sure how hopeful should I be after such a show.

Also read:
IIM Lucknow GD/PI
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI

BLAUPUNKT: The advantage in your car

Sahi video!

L.N.Mittal or Alien Mittal?

Someone really got to help me understand why is Indian Government trying to persuade the French & Luxemburg governments regarding the Mittal-Arcelor feud? Born in Churu, educated in Kolkata, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal moved out of the country in 1994 and at present holds an NRI status and stays in Britain. He has done well to be the richest man outside the US and the third richest man in the World, but what has he done for India? His group has presence in almost every country in the World other than India.

May be Indians are behaving in an emotional manner, biased towards their own son. The deal Mittal has offered looks fair and there are not many fair doubts the Arcelor shareholders should have, but that's not the point. Even if it is done for good, is there any place for such emotions in diplomacy?

Some further doubts -

1. What about Abdul Lateef Naushad, who was serving in a Saudi Arab jail for six months, waiting for his eyes to be gouged. His wife ran from pillar-to-post for saving her husband, the only earning member in the family. The external affairs ministry couldn't have been more indifferent. I quote from the Rediff.com report:

   "This kind of rigid, eye-for-eye Saudi law has executed hundreds of Indians there. Hundreds of Indians are currently jailed in Saudi Arabia for no serious criminal reasons," says human rights activist K Gopalakrishnan.
   
   One of the recent incidents was the execution of Naickam Ittiparambil Shahjahan last year. The Saudi Arabian government had charged Shahjahan with smuggling brown sugar in his shoes when he boarded the flight from Chennai to Dammam four years ago.
   
   But soon after his execution, the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi received a message from the Saudi Arabian government, which officially admitted that Shahjahan was innocent.

2. What about Fiji's ousted Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhary? After George Speight staged a armed coup and threw Chaudhary in prison, India did little other than imposing some economic bans, despite some protests. I quote from the Tribune editorial:

   There is some hope of improvement only if international pressure intensifies.[..] Australia and New Zealand have done some tough talking on the subject. “There is no point in mincing words — he (Mr Chaudhry) was kidnapped and detained unlawfully. It was a criminal act. He was democratically elected and what George Speight and his supporters are arguing for is a racially prejudiced Constitution,” Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said. New Zealand has been equally forthright. The role these two countries play will determine to a large extent the future course of Fiji. The problem is that imposing severe sanctions will further damage Fiji’s economy, thereby hurting many of the people the world is trying to help. As such, it has to be two-track diplomacy all the way. India has not played as active a role as expected. The expulsion of Fiji from the Commonwealth is hardly its achievement because this course is already outlined in detail under the Harare Declaration and the Millbrook Action Programme. The diplomatic initiative by New Delhi has not gone much beyond discussing the matter with the visiting Mr Howard. Its argument that India would not like to be seen to be applying pressure on the present dispensation in Suva lest it has an adverse impact on Fijian Indians does not sound very convincing.

3. What about the whole "patka" issue regarding Sikhs in France? Did Indian government do anything for those Sikhs?

The point is not that government should've dived into all the aforementioned issues (I'm sure we can find many more indifferent moments from the external affairs ministry, if we rake through the history); the point is why is Kamal Nath playing hardball with EU over Mittal? The wikipedia page on LN Mittal provides an interesting insight:

In 2002 he was embroiled in a political scandal dubbed Mittalgate with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as many felt that a donation he had made to the British Labour Party had led to Blair's intervention (a letter to the Romanian prime minister) in a business deal favouring Mittal. On July 13, 2005 it was announced that he had donated £2 million to the Labour Party.

I don't think I'm very well informed to comment or speculate any further. However, I would like to see what Vivek Kumar, an undertraining IFS officer himself, has to say about it.

IIM Lucknow GD/PI

(Strange things keep happening to me. The professor who took my interview for IIML last time was here this time too! Thankfully, he was in a different panel. My panel had two professors, one of them works with quantative methods (P1) & the other with agro-business and economics (P2).)

Group Discussion
My GD panel was a very docile bunch of 8 punters. This time IIML is asking aspirants to write a 150 words essay on the same topic, before the start of discussion. They take back the essay before the start of discussion. I guess its some sort of integrity test. The topic was a very general one - "Reading is the best thing solitude can offer" (The professor who announced the topic was really bad at pronunciation; I ended up writing "afford" in the place of "offer" :-). It was a typical garbage-in-garbage-out GD. The discussion never heated up and most of the times we were just repeating our points. It lasted about 15-17 minutes. This time I did the most of "halla" in our panel ;-).

Personal Interview
(I was the second one in my panel, so it didn't take much time after the GD. I was called in by P1)
P1: So, you are a computer engineer?
(Whatever happened to the good ol' "Tell me about yourself"?!)
Me: Yes sir.
P1: Why did your grades drop?
Me: {focus, priorities, yada yada yada}
P1: So you'll do the same thing in IIM.
Me: Sir, I regret that very much and I'm the kind of person who learns from his mistakes. I don't think this time I would commit the same mistake.
P1: You know, an MBA is much rigorous than engineering.
Me: I understand that sir.
P1: What's this? Your grades have been dropping consistently over the years in Engineering. You started with {this} and ended up with {that}. {that} is not good for a computer engineer.
Me: Sir, this pattern is not really uncommon. Basically the first two years have many courses with large class size. So the grades are distributed that way. Later, the grades are distributed between 40 odd people.
P1: Ok, so which subject should I take up for the interview?
(Subject.. shit, going into acads!)
Me: Sir?
P1: Do you want me to question you on your academics or the work experience?
Me: Sir, since the work experience part is more recent, may be you should ask questions on that. You can ask about my hobbies too.
P1: I'm not going to ask about your hobbies.
Me: As you please.
P1: You get X amount here, you might not get the same amount after MBA. Why do you want to do MBA.
Me: I think that shows how committed I'm towards the MBA program. I want to open my firm and {yada yada yada}.
P1: (Cuts me) Its just about the salary. You will start to think along the same lines if you came to IIML.
Me: I've had a look at the placements and I think I'm already getting what an average student from IIM can expect. Still I'm trying hard to get into IIMs because money is not the primary motive for me.
P1: Why don't you do MBA from some other institue?
Me: That, I think, would be a compromise on quality. We all know IIMs are best in the country when it comes to MBA.
P1: This is your misconception. Nothing like that.
Me: {WTF! I want my money back!} (smiled)
P1: {Asked about my company, my work and the software I'm working on}
Me: {Successfully established the fact that even though I work for a fin firm, I don't know much about fin :-D}
(P1 now "handed" me over to P2)
P2: You talked about bad debts. How can a debt go bad?
Me: {bakar-bakar}
P1: What about the credit risk analysis?
Me: Our software doesn't deal with the initiation of debts and since risk analysis is done prior to sanctioning a loan, we don't really come into the picture.
P2: How much do you know in Economics? Did you have any courses in Economics?
Me: We had one basic course in the first year of engineering. So, I'll try my best but if I can't answer your questions, you know why.
P2: If you aren't comfortable with Economics, let's talk about something else.
Me: No sir, test me on Economics.
P2: Whats the difference between GDP at factor cost and GDP at {something else}.
Me: umm..mmmm.. Don't know sir.
P2: What is fiscal policy?
Me: {Some bullshit with some jargon thrown in. Didn't make any sense to even me in the end.}
P2: Microeconomics?
Me: Macroeconomics.
P2: Tell me whatever you know about Economics.
P1: Just say two lines on it.
Me: In recent times we have debates on mainly FDI in retail and disinvestment of PSUs. {Left is this, this is right, blah blah}
P2: What's your stand about FDI in retail?
Me: It will help the customers in the end and help the economy grow. The flip side is that the small retailers will be out of business.
P2: But it will generate massive unemployment.
Me: In the long run it will generate more employment.
P2: What about the small retailers?
Me: There is this concept of "creative distruction". The same thing happened when the cloth mills ran our weavers out of business. But I think government should first think about what is best for consumers and about the workers later.
(This discussion went on for a little while and that was the end of the interview.)

In the end, I feel I did better than my last year's interview with IIML. And since I got a call last year, there are many good reasons to be hopeful. Didn't do too bad either, did I? Things to polish - economics!

Also read:
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Indore GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI

Don't you have cobwebs in heaven?

Don't you have cobwebs in heaven?

When I see the thin trickle of spilled tea, gravitate down adhered to the porcelain cup
Onto the wooden table, thereby adding
To the small tea-puddle on the varnished surface
A harbinger of a circular stain, so ugly in its appearance
Yet so inevitable in my indolence
That I wonder, whether there is any sense
Any purpose
Any meaning
In restoring,
Nay, Trying to restore
Order in this world --

Don't you have cobwebs in heaven?

Stolen shamelessly from my good friend Nips' writings' page. Its exactly the kind of poem which leaves me with a burning, bruising feeling of helplessness about my hopeless relationship with verses. Perhaps I would be better placed to write verses if I could understand them at the first place. I just can't make sense of most of the poems (unless they go something like "twinkle-twinkle little star".. wait! I have some doubts there too). And then I come across something so good (and understand it for once).

Bhison bhalo aachhe Deepu da!

The Great Indian World Cup Dream

(Rohit Sharma attempts to pull, India U-19s v West Indies U-19s, Colombo, February 11, 2006)

While the senior cricket team is toiling hard for success on the docile pitches of Pakistan, some young guns are blazing big time for India in the Emerald island. The Indian Under 19 cricket team has made it to the final four of the U-19 Cricket World Cup! Incredibly, they haven't lost even a match in their pursuit of the ultimate glory. India now face England in the semi-finals on Wednesday. The other semi-final would be between Pakistan & Australia. Its sad that almost no one in India is following their campaign.

While the semifinal line-up looks in perfect harmony with the respective senior teams' stature, the truth is infact far from it. Other than Australia, who are almost as rampant in their campaign as their seniors, its the subcontinent teams who are the major forces to reckon with in the junior arena. Even the Bangladeshis command the kind of respect their seniors can only get in their dreams. The result of the quarter-final match between England and Bangladesh, which the English won of course, is being considered a surprise! Indian U-19s have been among the toppers in their batch since the times when Kaif used to be their captain. Then there was one Indo-Pak U-19 tour where Irfan Pathan and VRV Singh unleashed hell on the Paki kids. Shikhar Dhawan, who is making a mark for himself in the domestic circuit, was their star batsman on that tour.

Now the question arises that if our kids are frontrunners in the U-19 scene, why do they fail to blossom in promising prospects for the senior teams? If our junior team can kick butts of their counterparts comprehensively, why do they shy away from this when they meet them in the senior circuit? I somehow got a hunch that while other U-19 players improve a lot on their games before and after getting into the senior side, our juniors' game kind of stagnates at that juvenile level. One more reason can be that quite possibly we send over-19-but-certified-to-be-under-19 players to the junior matches. Since such practices are not very uncommon in the subcontinent, it explains why the subcontinent does well at the junior levels.

The current Indian ODI team has some young & promising prospects, but over the time we had problem finding youngsters who can take the burden of the international cricket with great confidence. Yuvraj Singh showed glimpses of his immense talent in his debut match; Irfan Pathan had a decent debut tour; MS Dhoni became a household name is lesser number of matches than the number of alphabets in his name, but then I look at Mohammad Asif. Here is one young speedster, bowling to the likes of Sehwag - who is riding high on confidence after scoring 250 runs just two innings back, Tendulkar - who is considered the best batsman even today, Dravid - arguably the most technically sound player and other aces of the famous Indian batting line up and he bowls with such vigor & wile that all the big names failed to save the inevitable defeat. When will India produce such confident debutantes? What do our youngsters lack? We have to look towards Australia for this answer, where every other debutante is almost as competitive & confident as the senior members of the squad. If Chappell's grand vision of 2007 world cup doesn't include grooming young talents at U-19 and other junior levels, one day India will pay dearly for that. He seems to be concerned towards building a decent bench strength and a very flexible core team. Healthy competition and perform-or-perish funda should bring the much needed professionalism in the Indian cricket, sooner rather than later.

IIM Kozhikode GD/PI

(Recording my experiences at this year's IIM GD/PIs, hopefully this would help someone.)

My GD/PI was scheduled at 2:00 PM, I reached IIM Bangalore around 1-1:05. At around 1:45 PM we were taken in for cursory check of certificates and attendance. Then we were spilt in three panels and taken into seperate parts of the building.

Group Discussion :
We were given an excerpt from Utopia (Thomas More) which talked about how "so many poor die every year while if we survey the granaries of the rich, there will be more than enough food to feed the poor", something of the same effect. I thought it was a typical communist manifest. We were seated around a rectangular table with 5 people on each side. I was sitting farthest from the panel and rather eclipsed behind 4 other candidates. Though I tried to get involved in the discussion, the seating was really an huge disadvantage and I didn't say much in the GD. Still, I won't say it was one of the fish-market GDs. One of my friends had the GD in the morning and their topic was about how sensex is a real indicator of the growth in the Indian economy.

Personal Interview :
(By amazing stroke of luck, I got the same professor (P1) to take my interview who took my interview last year. More amazingly, he remembered me! There was one more professor(P2) in the panel.)
P1: You didn't speak much in the GD.
(I was hoping they would start with the customary "tell me about yourself" question.)
Me: Sir I was seated at a rather disadvantageous position, eclipsed behind others. I had few points to make and I tried to get involved but I couldn't.
(P2 smiles)
P1: Ok, I'll give you another chance.
Me: I think the paragraph given to me was a typical communist manifest. I'm not in favor of distributing the results but the opportunities among all. The poor must be given the opportunities to earn for themselves. You give them fish for one day and they'll come back to you the next day, but if you teach them fishing, they'll be self-sufficient.
P2: But do you think it talked about the distribution?
Me: I talked about the disparity between the riches of rich & the conditions of the poor. It emphasizes on a fairer redistribution of wealth.
P2: Forget about the distribution for a while and then think what was it saying.
Me: It basically talked about the purchasing power of poor and how they aren't able to fulfil the basic requiements.
P1: Tell me about {my company}.
Me: {Some general things about the company then about my work in the company}.
P1: Varun, you're getting X amount of money here. You might not get so much after your MBA.
Me: Money is not the main motive for me. I'm looking at the bigger picture and I feel in the long run the value added to my profile will be more useful.
P1: You've written about the essay competition. Tell me more about the competition; what was the topic?
Me: The topic was about using strategic innovation to solve real life problems. I wrote about dealing with the problems pertaining to the corrupt traffic policemen. I suggested we give the policemen a cut from the eligible challans made so they get some incentive to make right challans rather than taking bribes. Similarly, the drivers too must get some incentives for paying up the fine and not the bribe. For this the fine can be made tax exempted.
P1: So do you think this incentive mechanism can be used in solving all kinds of problems.
Me: A mix of incentives & punishments. Hindu philosophy has a concept of "Danda" which is all about incentives & punishments..
P1: Basically carrot & stick. Incentives or punishments.
Me: Yeah, a mix of them.
P1: Do you know about a study of this system?
Me: ummm..
P1: Have you heard of Game Theory?
Me: No sir.
P1: Ok.
(Then we talked about film reviews, I had written that I review films for a website and for my blog. They asked me about the criteria. I talked about RDB & Yuva. They asked about cross-over cinema and asked me to name few movies. I talked about Gurindar Chaddha. They asked me to review "Bend it like Beckham".)

If you attended the mock PI sessions by TIME, you might assume interviewers are blood-thirsty hounds who'd nail you down as soon as you enter the room. Believe me, that's not the case. Anyhow, you should try to get hold of the reins of interview and steer it towards your strong points. Show them how well you'd fit into an MBA program and how you're an ideal candidate. 15-20 minutes aren't too many, plan well in advance about what to say.

Best of luck & wish me luck :-).

Also read:
IIM Lucknow GD/PI
IIM Indore GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI

Comments-Shomments Haaye Rabba

Raj tells in his latest post that not replying to comments made by others on your blog is deemed impolite among the netizens. I reply to the comments made here often, but mostly to the recent posts. Many visitors drop on to this blog via some search engine (somehow "pakistani mujra" is among the top traffic-getters for this blog ;-) and they make some comments on some old posts. I don't really make sure to reply to them, but now I'm told many people visit back to check if any replies are made and all. I'll try.

Meanwhile, some of my recent posts attracted some nice comments which I feel deserve more than getting forgotten in the cyber space. Sadly, many of them are made anonymously.

1. On my post about Suicide in IIT Bombay -

Deaths of students

Students are committing suicides; it’s a national shame,
They should be brave,not should be tame.
They all are smart,intelligent and bright,
Why they are giving-up before any fight?
What is the pain ,they are trying to hide?
What is causing them to commit suicide?
Why they choose to be on their own?
Among so much crowd,why they feel alone?
These are the questions,needed to be answered,
Whatever are the problems,needed to be conquered
They should be taught,rules of life game!
They can still be winners,without money and fame!!
They should be made at ease!! So they can share,
They are India’s future,should be handled with care!!
To save their lives,we all should try,
We just can’t afford to let them die!!!

2. On my post on Emran Hashmi & Gobhi Pakodas (I think its Emran himself ;-)

Are you out of your freakin mind! Have u even seen the guy? He's extremely hot..if u got close to him u would burn down! Oh right you can't even get close to his shadow... as for his choice of movies i dont agree much with them but u can't deny his hotness based on his few stupid choices. and as for a pathetic adult stuck with a mind of a 10-year old i dont know how much i can expect from u! and if u hate the guy sooooo much would u like to explain why u have seen all 9 of his movies or at least kept track of all 9. i think that this is just a case of a secret admirer gone bad! kinda like giving attitude to the girl a boy really loves (in the 5th grade)... you you still sitting in class?

Update: "Death of Students" is written by Rachana Bajaj. After I posted her poem here, she showed me another piece of excellent poetry written by her.

Blogs
I was wondering, what are blogs all about?
I found that they are people’s SILENT SHOUT!!
Some laugh aloud, some scream with pain,
Emotions are coming out straight from their brain!
Young ones put up their personal issues,
You can find them sobbing without using tissues!
They can be boring, they can be nice,
But the language you get with added spice!
You can read them once twice or thrice,
The best thing is, they come without price!
Blogging can be good when you feel alone,
You can get some expressions as your very own!!!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yaay! Another winter, another year .. tippity-tappity tam-tam. Life's been good. Thanks to Rahul, Jha & Nilesh bhai for the Flickr Pro Account they bought for me. For one year from now I can enjoy all their services. After that, another birthday comes (one official birthday comes in-between too ;-) .

About the pic, that's me. On my second birthday (when I got 1 year old. Is it the first or the second birthday?). Yeah man, I was *very* plump back then. You know, you eat & you sleep - its very hard to not gather some extra grams :-)

Dilbert does it again!

.. and updated wishlist :-)

	Rajasthan Folk (VOL 1): Langas & Manganiars Someone please buy me this :-). I'm eager for the "Nimbuda" song in particular.
	The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity Waiting to get my hands on this book for some time now.
	The Algebra of Infinite Justice A collection of essays by Arundhati Roy on authorities abuse. Should be great read; the other side of the fence for me.