Final Destination

New Year, New Journey, New Destinations!!

2010-12-31T11:07:00.002+05:30

It’s been long time since I have posted anything on this blog. The reason is obvious. I have nothing great to share and I refrained from posting anything that would impact sanctity of this blog. Over the last few years this blog served as inspiration for students who wanted to fulfill their MBA dream against all odds. Thanks for many of yours encouraging comments in pasts which made me to feel good about my writing effort.

Once a recruiter asked me a question, can you tell me about myself that can’t be described on my CV? I told him that achievements on my CV are like milestones in my ‘dream journey’. When I look back when I was in school I dreamed to become best engineer. I dreamed for IIT and landed up in COEP. Then I dreamed to get my MBA from best b-school and ended up at IIMA. It wasn’t an easy journey but what made it more interesting were my dreams and my faith in them.

The reason for not writing is I stopped dreaming (or in other words I was dreaming for wrong things :) ). You won’t believe but last few years I was in the mode of optimization. I optimized my performance in MBA, my job choice and even many more things. This overshadowed my ‘dreamy mind’.

….and then I asked myself a question what’s my FINAL DESTINATION? Do a consulting career in USA or a swanky corporate job back home? The answer wasn’t any of this and I started dreaming again. Only difference is this time I am dreaming to make DIFFERENCE!

I am resting my pen for this blog and you can catch my New Dream, New Journey, New Destination at my blog Dream A Day. Best wishes for new year!

Alvida Ahmedabad !!!

2008-03-10T16:39:00.003+05:30

Finally its time to say bid adieu to Ahmedabad !!!

Every good thing have to end and so is my stay at the WIMWI. The place gave me more than what I asked.

Today when I was wandering around with my clearance form my legs were not moving with the usual speed. I was not whistling my favorite music tune while passing through 132 feet underpass. When I took the final sign on the form it was all ended !!! I looked at LKP and it took me down my memory lanes.

A guy had a dream to do MBA, he was not sure where that dream will take him. One thing he was sure that he would not settle anything other than the best. His efforts got paid off after 3 years of hard work and perseverance. He got admission to none other than Best B-School. All this made IIMA a far more valuable for him than anyone else and today the same thing is making it more difficult for him while he is leaving this place.

The two years here are really great time of my life. Though I am leaving all that behind to move ahead the memories will always remain with me.

Alvida Ahmedabad !!! Alvida IIMA :)

Delighted with Deloitte :)

2008-03-10T16:24:00.002+05:30

The suspense on my placements ended on Saturday when I got the Deloitte offer. I happily accepted it without doing some more shopping around :)

I never had a dream company in my mind. What I had is Dream Profile which I would like to work on after my MBA. This profile got a shape through 2 years of my MBA. I will be getting was I dreamed for. My love for strategy and passion for consulting career finally got paid off.

I will be working at the Deloitte India's office at Hyderabad in Strategy & Operations Consulting division. Though I will be missing Amachi Mumbai and Pune, I am planning to compensate it over next 2 months.

What I will be doing during this long vacations ?? Keep watching this space as there is lot more things coming up.

Success VS Satisfaction

2008-02-05T18:03:00.000+05:30

Few things I found unique to IIMA is fantastic courses that get floated in second year. I took Shodhyatra- A Journey for exploration where we traveled to the valleys and mountains of Sikkim for a week. Then in fifth term I opted for Strategy Safari which involved a week long industry excursion in Malaysia to study the strategies of organization in context of different cultural and economic settings.

When it comes to sixth term people prefer to play safe. They don't prefer to opt courses which drain their energies which they want to better utilize for the placements. I had chosen the mixed route. There are certain courses people perceived as fraud courses, which are not much demanding in terms of efforts required. When I chosen subjects for this semester, I heard similar things about a subject LVMR ( Leadership, Vision, Mission and Reality). This course involved study of 14 novels and 4-5 films which help to understand the various context of leadership with the practical examples.

I was excited when I got the set of novels at the start of the course and decided I will try my best to read them. Though I haven't done enough justice to this course but today when my group has to present on 'Success Vs Satisfaction' there is no way out for me. I just finish the class and kind of discussion we had is I felt worth sharing here.

The course involved story of a lady Rohini ( Thirsting for Water - Milind Bokil) who opted to enter into the fight of dam affected village. The other characters are Aai her mother who stood firmly behind her, her selfish husband and her sister. The theme was does success and satisfaction goes hand in hand or there is trade off ? What is important the joy of attaining destination or journey towards it? Is uncertainties create dilemma of knowing what is meaning of satisfaction for you and how one can resolve it?

You might predict that the discussion followed by this must be global but believe me this is most pertaining lesson. At many stages of life we keep on doing this trade off and end up facing these dilemmas. It will long and boring for you if I share whole discussion here. The summary was....
'The satisfaction comes out of meaning one attach to one's work. It is internal phenomenon where as success is something that is attributed to you by external factors. One should be very clear about what one is looking for. Some people are successful but not necessarily satisfied....some satisfied but not necessarily successful ...and some manage a fine balance between two"

I can't end this topic without sharing this fantastic video by Guy Kawasaki ....here you go

Nasha hi Nasha hai !!!

2008-02-04T09:59:00.001+05:30

First thing you wonder after seeing the post title is what this Nasha is all about ? IIMA has its cultural fest in month of JAN which brings new zest and zeal to the mundane life here on campus. Though it is not one of the biggest cultfests in country, still people don't want to miss it as it gave them opportunity to spend 3 days on IIMA campus and enjoy the 'Gujju' crowd :) For insiders it is a best chance to 'break free' and to extend their social networking sphere.

This time the theme of Chaos was NASHA. Even though I was not much excited (compare to my normal excitement standards) about the event still I can't escaped its fever over last 2 days. First it was Fusion who enthralled the crowd on Saturday followed by Kay Kay on Sunday night. What you call if music take you on high and keep you on your toes continuously for 3 hours? Henceforth I would like to call it as 'KayKayed' !!!

The fever haven't get ended here but got culminated at the RAMP (the DJ party). I am among the few people who never ever missed the Ramp on campus. So even though I already completed my dance quota at concert I won't stop myself heading towards RJM. It was the most memorable ramp I had here over last 2 years and was special for many reasons.

The 'Chaos - Nasha' ended in 2 days but there are many things that I experienced here over last 2 years whose 'Nasha' would stay for lifetime. Now you got the reason why I never bothered about Gujrat being a 'dry state' :)

The Road Ahead

2008-01-27T09:14:00.000+05:30

As lats process got kicked off at IIMA, the temperature on campus started rising in chilling winter here. Last few weeks I was busy and bored with polishing my CV. Believe me it is most time consuming and daunting task before placements. Your have to write about all you done in last 25 years in less than 25 lines !! and that also in glorified language to differentiate.

This word is not that simple as it looks. It is the RULE of the game. People come to IIMs so that they can get brand to gain differentiating power. Once they land up here they realize there are plenty like them around and that make them restless. Then starts rat race for one more level of differentiation and if that is not enough one more .......

I had willingly or unwillingly seen or been part many of these rat races over last two years.When everyone was getting ready for the final race I was not sure what to do. The 'placement holiday' (one can oops out of placement and come back anytime over next 2 years) created some more confusion.The confusion is finally ended in my recent visit to Pune. I doused my 'entrepreneurial spirit' and winded my 'off the track' plans to take a safe road ahead. I also started believing Dash who once said "IIMs are nothing but placements agencies make best use of them"

Kingfisher's Innovative Business Model

2008-01-07T11:55:00.000+05:30

The Kingfisher-Deccan JV is yet to prove the test of time but before that I witness great synergy between them last week. When I booked my air ticket online, I seen there were two choices one offered by Kingfisher and other by Deccan. There was small note below Kingfisher flight saying that this flight is operated by Deccan Airways. I was confused which one to choose so I checked few more details. I conclude that as the flight numbers and prices offered were different these two flights must not be same. So with the expectation of getting better 'service' and food during journey I happily put my money on Kingfisher.

When I landed at the airport in Mumbai, I was shocked to see there were no such flight operated by Kingfisher. This was nothing but the Air Deccan's flight which they claimed Kingfisher's operated by Deccan. I kept wondering on why the hell they charged premium from me ??

My disappointment is aggravated by seeing a male cabin crew greeting me at the doors of plan (who said Deccan has changed !!! ) . When I took my seat I realized both seats next to me were vacant. After some time one of that was occupied by an Air Hostess. I realized that by no way she looked like Air Deccan's crew. After talking with her I came to know she was from Kingfisher. The last thing I should do is to complain about this incidence. But I couldn't stop myself doing that. She also wondered how this can happened.

I realized one more innovative lesson on creating synergy and yes I realized why I paid few more bucks !! I missed Kingfisher's food but thankfully not its service :)

From classrom to boardroom !!!

2008-01-07T11:32:00.000+05:30

Imagine you get a chance to meet Businessperson of Year and discuss his business strategies over coming years sitting next to him in his boardroom. That was most interesting part of my one day journey from classroom to boardroom last week !!!

My new year started with this opportunity. As a part a project on 'Enterprise Solution for Poverty' we got chance to meet leading corporates and their leaders last week. Though I was highly pressed for time, I can't stop myself from joining this project team ( which consist of students from IIMA, HBS, MIT and Stanford) during their Mumbai visit. During this we met with CEOs of Tata Chemical, Godrej and Mahindra & Mahindra.

The project consists study of the corporates who are working in the areas like products,services and agri business which will affect life of masses especially farmers. We studied business like rural distribution, cash and carry, retailing and financial services which are targeted at bottom of the pyramid market. Though these corporates are doing it for profit in this process they are including people who yet to get taste of fruits of development.

Bye bye 2007 !!!

2007-12-31T19:26:00.000+05:30

Most of you ( who still visit this blog though it is inactive since long time) will surprise to see me back in action. Few of you might think that it must be part of my new year resolutions to resume blogging. But you are wrong this time. This year end is unusual for me as I decided to give break to my usual practice of making long list of resolutions. This I learned after realizing that last few years I was making same resolutions :)

So just after witnessing the last sunset of year from D-22 (my dorm in IIMA) terrace I concluded end of 2007. When I looked back how the year went and I realized that there were many promises I made to myself and others which included keep on sharing various things happening in my MBA journey but somehow I failed to keep them. Few of you kept sending me mails on how you felt after reading my blog and why I should keep writing. That made my mind to bring back this conversation ( I call it so because I always felt like talking with you rather than writing)

This year started with my third and last term ( which is known as most hectic in IIMA) here. The next 3 months went so fast and I celebrated completion of one gruesome year at IIMA. Next 2 months I have to go through my summer internship. I took this as an opportunity to have some nice time. Thankfully the workload was not much and I enjoyed traveling to different parts of country as a part of my work. For sake of change I also worked sometimes during this period.

I started my second year with 4th semester in June about which I already talked in last post. This semester ended with a outdoor course 'SHODYATRA' which is known as journey for exploration. We went to Sikkim and it was my first chance to witness Himalayan beauty. The journey was lifetime experience and I will cherish memories of it throughout my life. Though the exploration turned into a group trek but I still believe that though I was not able to achieve major breakthrough in my life ( which is one of course objectives) it made some long lasting difference.

I already made a choice to stay on campus for 5th semster rather than going on exchange. This choice was made after lot of deliberation. I set some goals for semester to support my decision and one of that was traveling around to visit the places which I haven't yet seen. I had even chosen subjects that had classes on only 3 days of week so that I can get rest of the week free for other activities. I attended two B-school festivals at IMT and FMS in Delhi to get few more labels of achievements on my CV. Even I gave a serious thought to team up with 3 other guys on campus to take on some entrepreneurship plans but we have to wind it up before anything significant happening on this front.

This semester ended up with one more outdoor course called Strategy Safari in Malaysia. It was great experience to visit Singapore and Malaysia over 15 days. It was my first time experience of traveling outside India. So apart from admiring South Asian beauty I had some learning out of this tour as well.

I landed up on campus to start with 6th semester which is very important for obvious reasons of placement. I polished my CV and now will be busy sharpening few fundas that I learned over last one and half year. After all I must sound knowledgeable enough to impress corporates. So 2008 will be very important for these companies who will fight among themselves to decide whom I should choose over coming days :)

Bye bye 2007 .....I am anxiously waiting for 2008 !!! Happy New Year to all of you !!!

Yooo!!! Finished With One More Term at IIMA

2007-08-23T01:48:00.000+05:30

Today I finished with one more series of exam here. Though the experience was not as deadly as that of my first year exams and all credit for this goes to so called ‘Tuchchadom’. Ohh I never told you what this Tuchchadom is!!

I would call it as '-ve NPV project' which everyone happily embraces here in second year. When you have plenty of time to do anything other than study. So everyone end up doing all kind of vella activities like giving gyan to fachchas, getting sadistic pleasure by laughing on their plight, by watching all possible(including hit, flop and …)kinds and types of movies under sun, celebrating your friends PPO parties, going out on for bike trips on weekends. In nut shell your try your best to take revenge of the system which screwed one beautiful year of your life and kept you away from all possible pleasures. But how this suddenly becomes possible? Logic is quite simple; you don’t have any incentive to study more!! and if you ask me where the hell this motivation suddenly vanishes? That is also not difficult to know.

There are very few here, who think two years at IIMA is a learning experience. Most of us take it as signaling outside word that we are best of the rest!!! Then once you gain enough credits for such signaling then you don’t care for anything. Some lucky few already have lot of signaling factors before they land up at this place. It might be high flying JEE rank, an IITian tag, insanely great academic track record, so called ‘network’ with those who can act godfather for you. No more signaling is required if you are female as you already have a spade ace with you!! One or more of these signaling factors fetch you a lucrative summer placement. Then these guys work their asses off to convert it into the PPO (Pre Placement Offer) from their employer and once you have that you have passport to screw the system. The rest of the bunch who miss this PPO train also don’t bother to put any more efforts just because fate of the biggest signaling factor i.e. CGPA is already sealed at the end of first year. So everyone loose their motivation to put any more efforts and all set to enjoy one complete fraud year ahead!!! (Is this sound something similar to market failure?)

People do all kind of activities to beat the whole purpose of learning. They take so called fraud courses ( one which don’t demand much of your efforts and are comparably less painful ) do some interesting projects overnight at the expense of normal credit courses. They no longer bother to read the bulky casemates and walk to classes straight from their beds to catch some sound sleep under AC. You see professors getting pissed off seeing there is no more excitement among students for learning.

Now you can see my excitement in the above subject line? But if you ask me I am really excited? The answer is no. It is no big deal when you wrote open book exams with close mind and complete the formality of giving exams. Yes I am also the part of the lot who daily murder the whole essence of system here. But my story is bit different and you will surely like to know more about it so will be covering it in detail in coming posts. Coming next in this series .....

First Term @IIMA - A Deadly Experience !!!
Second Term - Summer in the Mids of Winter
Third Term - Abb Baas Hua yaar.
Summer Internship - Finally I Broke Free !!
Forth Term - Back to Sqaure One

Business Breakfast !!!

2007-08-03T10:45:00.000+05:30

Imagine having the Wipro-Unza deal, 3-G spectrum bidding issues and ten years of South East Asia’s crisis on the breakfast menu on a fine Sunday morning.

This actually happened at the Business Breakfast, a weekly series of the events conducted by Consult Club.

The innovative concept germinated in my mind after I noticed the big difference discussion can bring to any issue rather than just reading it. This gave birth to the event which started with the objective of periodical discussion on the business happenings and major events of the week. It was first attempt to take the discussion on these issues beyond dbabble(an e-notice board here) so that the participants get holistic view. Also it was first event of its kind which involved participation of all major clubs on campus.

The one hour event involved 10 mins trivia quiz to test participant’s awareness about the last week’s business happenings. The quiz club won audiences applause for coming up with very interesting questions. It was then followed by the Week in Business- National and International conducted by consult club members. An expert panel consisting of representatives from different clubs was formed to take this discussion further and also answer the audience’s queries. The panel discussed various aspects of the news and made audiences to forget their actual breakfast !!

WIMWI: Place of Holes, Goals and Incredible Souls !!

2007-07-26T17:45:00.000+05:30

It’s almost a year back when I entered this place. But after one year my impression about this place hasn’t changed much. The title of this article summarizes it well.

First thing you notice about the place is its unique architecture. There are many things which made it unique. But what attract me more is different sizes (if I counted correctly its more than 20) of HOLES this architecture have. In one of my club interview here (where I thought the interviewer was testing my creativity) I jokingly described this place as ‘Place where big holes also add beauty’. No doubt I screwed up badly in that interview but that didn’t change my opinion.

When I gave serious thought on this I realized their significance to this place. Everyone who comes here after cracking CAT feel sense of perfection. But the first thing this place tells you is that no one is perfect. Everyone have big or small holes in their knowledge. Few of them realize this, some try to hide them and those who ignore them end up seen them growing.

Everyone who comes here has some GOAL in their mind. It may be hefty pay packages and recognition for some or value additions and lifetime experience for others. Some have a clear idea of what they want out of this place at the end of two years. Some of them discover it in these two years and rare few never bother to answer this. This place offers you everything but finally it all boils down to what you want out of it?

Let me talk about one more interesting aspect, the ‘Incredible Souls’ which you find around you. Everyone has something or other which sets him or her apart from the crowd. As the days pass you realize the greatness of these people. You not only find them in students but in professors also. You find great pride in attending classes by professors who are MIT gold medalists, nation’s policy advisors and one who work with farmers and grass root innovators to change their life.

Hats off to their greatness !!!

I am Back !!!

2007-07-26T17:36:00.000+05:30

Since long I haven’t posted anything on this blog. I can cite many reasons for not writing here but more than that I feel it is more important to share what inspired me to resume it?

These days I am getting good time to share my experiences in IIMA over last one year with my juniors (fachchas as they are called here). So I thought why don’t I compile it here? Here comes a series of articles on my past and present life in IIMA ……one thing I assure it will be as close as what I experienced and will not make you to wait for long :)

WIMWI I am coming :))))

2006-06-12T15:13:00.000+05:30

I am back here after a long time.

Many things happned in thses days. I said TATA to TCS. Finished with the my work with SPANDAN and handover the responsibilities to new chief coordinator. Also conducted DISHA a pre-placement workshop in my college COEP in Pune.

Now only a week left to join WMWI. I will go home and spare some time with my family and prepare my self to face the toughest one year waiting for me.

Don't know how frequently I can keep posting but one thing is sure if there will be something worth to share nothing will stop me to post it here.

Glimpse of Life in WIMWI

2006-05-22T17:16:00.000+05:30

Now it’s no longer remained IIM A for me and became so called WIMWI (Welknow Institute of Management in West India). If this is not enough here comes some other terms from WIMWI's dictionary.

Fachcha A First Year WIMWI Students
Tuchcha Second Year WIMWI Students
Guhahaha!! WIMWIian laugh
Muggo Fachcha Muggo !!! Tuchcha’s slogan for fellow fachchas

and there are many more to follow. I will not mention all of them here as I am writing this to give you glimpse of the life in IIM A and not the glimpse of our WIMWIish language.

I heard lot many things from the dear tuchchas about WIMWI and life there. Thanks to my interaction with Galib and Sento (Now you will ask what the hell these names are? Let me tell you this story also. Every fuchcha once arrived in campus get an arbit dorm name by fellow tuchchas and next two years people around him made to forget his real name) I got some insight about the life in WIMWI.

As it was in the engineering days your CP will speak louder than you, so if you are one who is dreaming for IB and consulting jobs then you have to bear in mind that there is no way out from maintaining handsome CP at least in first year. The work load in first year is very demanding and that will turn you into nocturnal animal. Sleep will become the most valuable commodity and you will get on an average eight hours of sleep but its not per day but per week. If you are very good in time management then you can add some more hours to your kitty but for that you need to scarify lot many things which you always stubborn to do.

But unlike engineering days study and submissions are never seems boring. You will find the best in class people surrounding you and you learn lot many things from them which made you enriched with every day spend in campus. You will find God like professor teaching you so you never afford to loose a single minute of their lecture.

The institute rules and regulation are very strict when it comes to the attending lectures and submission deadlines so you will know how significant the difference between 11.59.59 and 12.00.

Apart from this hectic schedule there will be n number of extra curricular activities you will find happening in the campus. There are not only various clubs like consult, finance, marketing which will help you to build your area of interest but also groups like photography, music, bike riders, cricket, football which add some spice to your life. The ramp parties, T-night make your life more happening. So its like study hard and party harder lifestyle waiting for me.

This is all I heard about the life in WIMWI over last one month. But as there is four fingers distance between what you hear and what you see and almost infinite between what you see and what you experienced. So write now this will just remain a glimpse of life in WIMWI. The details version your will get in bits and pieces once I will join the HOLY PLACE.

This That and All About Cracking The CAT

2006-05-11T16:38:00.000+05:30

After my CAT results I was getting requests from people asking for some CAT tips. I promised all of them that I will write one post which will comprise my experiences with CAT and some tips based on that.

Some of the requests I received was how I improved from mere 77 percentile to 99.7. I will try to cover this part also but before that let me tell you something. CAT is exam for which you can’t generalize something based on others performances and many things changes as per individual and his capabilities. So before giving gyan on the CAT, I would like you to walk through my journey.

My Journey

THE FOUNDATION

I came across CAT in year 2002 while studying in 3rd year of my engineering. Initially I was very much worried about the English section as my English was beyond improvable (as I studied in Marathi medium up to my HSC). So I gave up my preparation and concentrated on my engineering studies.

After my campus placements I was exploring the higher studies option and that time I thought I should give CAT a chance. I found myself more suitable for career in management and for that I was ready to prepare at any level. That time last date of application for CAT already passed so I had only option left and that was to apply for other B-Schools. Hence I decided to write NITIE exam (that time NITIE used to conduct separate exam which looked less frightening than CAT). With 1 month of study I wrote NITIE and unfortunately messed up in one section badly. It was not a shock for me when NITIE decided not to give me a final call.

The kick I got from NITIE done some good things to me. First it created confidence in me that I can crack any B school test and to take revenge of my defeat, I decided not to settle anywhere apart from IIMs. I attended (note the word here I didn’t join official CF course as the 12k amount was beyond payable for me those days so I used to attain the classes without enrolling for the course) Career Forum for 3 months which further boosted my confidence in QA and DI area. Unfortunately my first employer Bajaj gave me joining in Aurangabad instead of Pune and I didn’t have any other option other than joining it. My decision to continue with Bajaj was based on calculated risk to gain some valuable time to prepare for CAT. In Aurangabad there were no coaching available so I decided to prepare for CAT on my own. That year I wrote CAT, JMET, XAT, IIFT and FMS but not able to crack any of them. Every time I had some excuse for not able to crack the exam. These excuses kept my confidence going.

After spending (I can say wasting also) my very important 09 months in Bajaj Auto I was getting a feeling that I am loosing a lot for the CAT. If it is not the CAT then I should have a good career to bank on. I realized that Bajaj no where fit in my career path. I decided to switch into IT industry. I had only one name in front of me those days that was TCS but somehow I was not getting a chance to give their test. 14 Feb in 2004 proved lucky day for me. I was there in Pune for ReCAT and found myself standing in queue for TCS test. My preparation for ReCAT paid off. I missed the bull’s eye by huge margin of 23 percentile but my preparation helped me to sail through TCS walk-in.

One more try

With my MBA dreams shattered I join TCS in April 2004. Initial 2 months I was in great dilemma to give the CAT or not. I found TCS Mumbai and my project good to settle down and even I decided to forget my MBA dream. But after 3 months of thinking on this line I decided to give one more try to CAT. It was too late again so I was in no position to join full length class hence decided to join TIME Test series. My test scores never crossed 92 percentile. I thought I can do it in the final test but my declining health in those days created some more problems for me. I wrote CAT, XAT, IIFT, JMET, FMS again but no good news from any of these. I also applied for IRMA with the view of doing career in NGO consulting. I got short listed by IRMA but failed to prove them that I am joining it by choice rather than by chance so kicked away in interview.

Final CAT of my Life

I was loosing greatly due to my CATaholic habits. I was loosing not only on in professional front but also in personal life a lot of things. I thought enough is enough now. I decided not to write CAT henceforth as it is too much demanding exam. People convinced me that GMAT and global MBA is good deal for person like me. But the big worry here was how to finance my education expenses. I thought I would gain some valuable international experience in TCS and earn in dollars and then think about my MBA abroad. In those days TCS also lured me with onsite assignment in US for 11 months and I thought I am going in right direction. Even I took my diagnostic GMAT but thanks to software error I didn’t able to view my score and that prolonged my decision to choose between CAT and GMAT. I had no energy left to give again the diagnostic GMAT. Meanwhile my TCS onsite dreams got shattered due to VISA problems and I came to know next that 1 year I will not able to go to onsite.
Next few days were really bad for me. I feel somehow things are not working well for me. One by one my friends were going to US and I was going to say them good bye on airport. The idea of my GMAT dream getting shattered in front of my eyes was sinking me badly. In those days someone suggested me to prepare for GMAT get the score and side by side give my CAT as last try and then decide one of these options. I liked this option because and started working on it also. But thanks to Simba’s article on PG I decided to concentrate only one of these exams. I thought which to choose between these two and finally decided if I forget the CAT all my preparation till date get wasted so I should give one sincere try to CAT. I realized though I had given it last 2 times those were not full fledged attempts. I decided to fully concentrate and focus on my CAT preparation. I joined IMS for intensive CAT course and started preparing for the last CAT of my life.
My initial rigor depleted as days passed. It was August and still I had not finished the basic part of course. The IMS SimCAT test series was around the corner and I yet not finished with my basic part of course. The first SimCAT result was positive for me and I scored 94 percentile. Though it was not that great I thought after preparation it will surely go in upwards direction. I started preparing but in next few months my score decreases instead of increasing. It varied in range of 88-95 which was not a good sign. Every time while going for SimCAT I used to decide this time I will touch magic figures of 99 but always found myself below 95. My IIM dream was becoming hazy day by day. But I never lost my confidence in those days. I used optimization approach. Every time when I was performing well I used to appreciate myself and when my performance declined instead of blaming I used to learn from my mistakes. I told me 100 times that this is last CAT of my life and anyhow I have to crack it. I thought last 3 years I had done all possible mistakes so if I learn from all of them there will be no other mistake left that I can commit on D-Day.

The D-Day

The day before D day was not good for me. My health was not that good and I am bit worried that the situation should not become worse on D-Day. I prayed god for that and same time prepare me mentally so that even I will get 105 degree temperature I will have to crack the CAT. I spend the day watching movie and then had dinner with my friend.
On the D-Day I didn’t found any negative signs about my health to worry about. With full of confidence, blessings from my family members and wishes by friends I entered the exam hall and decided to rock the CAT.

When I came out of the exam hall my first reaction was the show was not that great for me. I know my attempts were not good enough to get secure percentile. I called at home and told there were no hopes this year also. With dejected mood I spend my next 3-4 hours waiting for any answer keys to get out. The first one came on rediff at 5.00 PM and when I checked my answers I was getting poor 28 marks. I became very upset with my bad performance but after some time made my mind to accept it. Next 2-3 hours I spent time calling some people and telling them that it all ended for me. But meanwhile I thought the test was not good for me but was that not that bad to score only 28? I suspect the correctness of keys and decided to crosscheck with other keys. I again hooked at net and found the CL guys ready with their answers. When I checked my answers with CL keys I was getting 50 marks with decent break up in each section. As per their prediction this score will fetch me at least 4 IIMs calls. I couldn’t believe this. I crosschecked again and realized it was the fact. Though my attempts were less my accuracy that day was awesome. I made one round of calls again and told my near and dear that I almost cracked the CAT.

Next 1 Month 12 days

After checking my answers with the all keys available somewhat hazy picture of my IIM future was in front of my eyes. Some keys were telling me that I will end up with 6 calls and some told me I will be lucky if even I can get bottom two. These days were quite difficult for me to handle. I was no mood to study for the other exams of the season like XAT, FMS. Every day I found myself on PG forums discussing which answer keys were correct and which were wrong. Again at the end of day I used to count my score and slept with some more anxiety. Even sometimes I found myself waking at night and checking my score again and doing the predictions of calls. Now you might feel this is too much but for someone whose 3 years of hard work on stake it was unavoidable. Finally I dumped my CAT paper and decided to get rid of all worries. The results were not coming as expected 1 month after the exam. It added some more worries and anxiousness. The last week of DEC I forget I appeared for CAT and enjoyed all New Year dance parties with friends, Then it was announced that results will be come out on 2nd Jan midnight and the final countdown began. The rest of the story you can find HERE and about the FINAL VICTORY here.

My IIM dream came true after 3 years of dedication, hard work and commitment. I am sharing this all here so that people will not loose their faith and learn from my example that CAT is hard but not unbeatable.

As I promised, I will surely write about HOW TO CRACK THE CAT here. But before going to it always remember CAT is not the end of life. I feel the luck factor was my side that helped me to emerge victorious if it was not there I might have found myself on the other side. So always remember my quote for CAT preparation GIVE YOUR BEST AND FORGET THE REST.

When to start?

I told is always better to start when you are in graduation. The initial preparation should start from 18 Months to 2 years before the date of the test.

The Prerequisite

You should be good in calculations, logic and average English reading speed is must. You should take a diagnostic test which tells you which are the areas you are good in and which are the area of concerns for you.

You need to have a strong driving force that always keep you fighting against all odd to reach your destination. This driving force can be anything like money, good spouse, impressing your girl friend or high flying career ambitions but make sure you have your own reason. Also one needs to have some inclination towards the business and related happenings. This will not help you to crack the test but surely add value when you will be there in second step that is GD/PI.

Classes How Much You Need Them?

I strongly recommend the classes for the first timers because it will help to structure your preparation and also provide you with the environment to maintain your tempo.
For someone like me they can also prove as inspiration by impressing the fellow classmates in your batch with your scores and speedy class responses. For the second timers or third timers I will strongly advice not to waste time in classes if they already done it once. They should utilize their time for identifying the holes remained and work on to remove them.

Action Plan

After taking a diagnostic and analyzing the scores one get fair idea of where one stand and how much improvement one requires to hit the bull’s eye.
Don’t rely on the coaching institute to make an Action Plan for you. Made it of your own and try to follow it. Tracking the progress in the area wise always helps.

Test Series

This is a very crucial part of your CAT preparation. I still remember the famous quote about the test series
“Practice tests are like mirror to tell you how beautiful you looks but definitely its one you to decide how much makeup you need to put on!! “
A good test series helps in identifying the areas you need to improve in and also tells you where you are standing comparing with the others in race. Take the feedbacks positively and use them to build your preparation.

Take every test as a new challenge and always try to beat the test rather than allowing it to beat you. This way it become fun to give n number of tests and you will find the final encounter nothing other than one of it only.

Some Sectional Tips

VA

Build your vocabulary. Baron’s wordlist is sufficient for the CAT aspirant but make sure you just don’t mug the words but get used to their meaning by doing some daily reading.

For grammar part you need basic knowledge of English grammar and you can improve your expertise by doing intensive practice.

Priority of, which questions to solve and which to leave is very important for this area. You can learn it by extensive practice of sectional papers on VA.
Book: Objective English by R.S.Awarwal (S Chand Publication)

RC

I rate this as the most critical section of all the CAT paper as it make or break your CAT dream.
Most of the non convent background students found this section tough due to lack of practice. I assure you how much bad reading speed you have you can surely improve it and only one thing you need is some patient and lot of sincerity. You should made reading as part of your life.
Make reading your daily habit like you take your lunch and dinner. I recommend Hindu and Business Standard newspapers and Business World magazine for daily read. About the other books don’t pick the any book just because you want to improve your reading. Pick the book of your taste that helps you to fall in love with reading

Book: How to Read better and faster…..Norman Lewis

DI + Logic

This is the section where you don’t need much effort to master. Selection of question is very critical in this section.
About the calculation part try the habit of not using your pencil much and try some approximation methods to choose best fit answer.

About logic I say a basic logical bend of mind plus some practice is sufficient.

QA

This is the scariest section for almost all the CAT aspirants. I will suggest you to be familiar with some basic formulae and don’t just mug the short cuts because it is difficult to remember n number of short cuts taught to you and use it. Make a habit of answering by SMARTNESS rather than by CALCULATION.

When 4 options are given to you it is not always expected to solve every problem. You just need to cull out the unnecessary options and select the right one out the rest. You will learn this art after practicing lot for this section.

This is what I can share with you after spending my last three years with CAT. Feel free to get back to me if you have any queries and I will try my best to resolve that. I wish a very best luck to all of you!!!

What I want out of my MBA?

2006-04-20T20:09:00.000+05:30

When I started this blog I asked Same Question to me and now after getting into the India’s top most B School I am asking same question to myself. What I want out of my MBA?

You will say what the hell I am doing by thinking on this? After all I got into IIMA and anyways with two years of rat race I will end up with some decent CG (looking at my mugging skill record and my score labels) and some decent job from campus and I will live happily……so I shouldn’t think much and just chill and relax to prepare myself so to stay ahead in this race.

Same thing was told to me when I meet a tuchcha (senior IIMA student) and asked him my queries on life in IIMA. In his words “What world (companies) look in guy from IIMA is not how much he knows or how much he learnt but where he stands among others? So if you want to end in good companies make sure you will always stay ahead”

Thanks a lot friend for giving me ground reality before entering on battle ground. I always appreciate a healthy competition that always help you to improve but sometimes I seen this competition become so intense that you don’t look beyond the marks and grades and you start compromising on your learning. Same thing happened with me when I spend my four years in engineering.

I am expecting my management career to change this equation. I am looking my MBA as value addition not merely in terms of CG I got or fat pay packages I earned after two years but something that equips me with capability to face anything in life. It should equip me with abilities to grow up in my area of interest which I choose not by chance but my choice,

After all I don’t want to feel that my MBA was by choice but my career by chance.

Admit 06 : IIM I .....Late But Correct

2006-04-17T20:49:00.000+05:30

Now you will think what's great in IIM I is getting added in my list of MBA Admits? If you refer my previous post I was 100% sure about my IIM I and IIM K admits but wondered when I haven't found my name in IIM I's list.

It was not a big blow for me as I already had big A on my list but somewhere it had shaken my confidence. After having best among the all IIM's GD/PI performance I had never expected this but somehow I managed to accept it.

But thanks to Tejas who told me that it was the mistake on IIMI site which caused a SORRY message and when entered the DOB in yy format he seen me also getting through IIM I.

That's nice bonus to raise my IIM count by one. I am ACLIK now (I am damn sure there is no such case with IIM B as I was already ruled out on my day of PI :) )

Nothing Taste Sweeter Than a Deserving Success

2006-04-13T09:48:00.000+05:30

12th April was be one of the memorial days of my life. The day started at 12.00 AM sharp and IIM C came up with their list of final admits. This was the first IIM to declare it’s GD/PI results also. I entered my number and congratulation message popped up. Yes I got into India’s one of the best B school. It was really a great joy. It was 1.00 AM in night and I even couldn’t call at my home so shared the joy with friends. Then I was anxiously waiting for IIM A and IIM B results to get out but these guys made me to wait further. I waited last 3 years for this day and to wait for even 3 hours was unbearable for me. I tried sleeping but all attempts were in vain.
It was not a usual morning for me. I waked up before my doodwala bhaiyya came to ring my door bell. No signs for A and B results on their sites. I know these guys will declare them in their office time which is not going to start before 9.00. So I used this time to make up my mind and also called many friends and family members and told them that I am least bother about A and B results as now I have one in top 3 with me.

But actually I was not. When you come to such stage and you are sure you deserve the best your mind fails to settle for anything else. Mine was same case.

While refreshing PG n number of times I got the IIM A results link.The page was taking time to load and my heart beats crossed 100 meanwhile. When I entered the number my hands were badly shaking. And I pressed GO what come on screen after that ……

You have been selected for admission to PGP (2006-2008 batch), IIMA.

I jumped with joy….tears roll over my cheeks and last 3 years of preparation passed in front of my eyes in that one moment.

A chap who studied in Marathi medium school up to 12th in a remote place….had already tasted what the failure is in his NTSE and IIT attempts. Whenever he talked in English people use to laugh on his ascent and funny grammar. He came to know about the CAT in his second year of engineering. He never thought he ever crack it so neglected it next 2 years. But after giving NITIE exam he thought he will surely crack the CAT one day. The day came after 3 years. Meanwhile he had been not even selected in any of the top B-School. He never wanted to settle for anything than top B-School. Every time he failed, he waked up with determination to stand there firm. And he finally had done it……

This is snapshots of my journey to IIM A but it will surely not complete without my track record and I am proud to share it with you.

YEAR 2003
Given NITIE --> Out in written test.
CAT 2003 -->77 percentile.
JMET -->Rank 3400 +
Kicked out by FMS, IIFT, NITIE in written test only

YEAR 2004
CAT 2004 -->88 percentile
JMET -->Rank 1965
Kicked out by FMS, IIFT, NITIE in written and IRMA in GD/PI

YEAR 2006
CAT 2005 --> 99.71 Percentile with BLACKI + NITIE

CONVERTED: ACLK + NITIE

I used to say “Beauty of dreams lies in the dreams itself but now the beauty I seen after this success cannot be described in words”

I owed my success to my friends, my family members whose confidence on me always boost my moral and yes the almighty who always there to bless me.

Admit 03:04:05: IIM A + IIM L + IIM K

2006-04-12T23:16:00.000+05:30

Here comes few more admits and yes the best one I was anxiously waiting for
IIM A..

The dream come true performance :)

IIM B kicked me as expected......IIM I was shocking to me but why I should worry when I have WIMWI with me.

Will post the detail reaction very soon.....

Admit 02 : IIM C

2006-04-12T08:46:00.000+05:30

The day I was waiting over last 3 years had come.......never thought I ever crack into the India's top 3 B-Schools.....but finally my hardwork paid off....

IIM C results declared and me sailed through in PGDM.

Now waiting for IIM B and IIM A

Two stories on the eve of IIM results

2006-04-11T07:24:00.000+05:30

The last few days were just gone in dormant mood. But I thought I need to wake up before the IIM final result will give me a wake up call. After the 3 long years of the waiting I am expecting a birth in some top management institutes in India. But meanwhile under the clouds of the B-school ranking, hefty pay packages and lucrative international offers somehow I missed my path and forget after all MBA is nothing other than education and became one of those who look it as remedy of all the worries and that itself created the biggest worry that I will be in or out. Questions like will I be in top three? Why not IIM A? What if all IIM say me thank you and try best next time? popped up in my mind.

While wandering on net while waiting for the results, I got some good read on the eve of my IIM results. These two examples are people who not only believe in their dreams but also followed them.

Meet Alwin the PagalGuy who once rejected by four IIMs, belived in his dreams, rejected MDI, started the famous Pagalguy.com and became youngest Indian ever to get in Wharton.

Meet Sarath Babu IIM A passed out who like to follow the entrepreneur path other than safe corporate career.

This are really inspiring examples especially for a person like me who is struggling to hold his patients.

After reading these stories what I had done last week? I visited many temples around not to lobby for my seat in IIMs but to ask God to give me courage to face my results if there is anything bad stored for me and also give me strength to keep my feet firm on ground if anything good happening in coming days.

My Vision, Mission and Values.

2006-04-03T19:00:00.000+05:30

When I started this Blog, there were few things I want to focus in my future posts. In one of my previous post I started a Self Management exercise to weed out some problems in my personality and to excel in self-management. The reason for this initiative was every good thing should start from you and excellence in management is also one of it. But somehow this initiative took back seat due to my indulgence in CAT GD/PI preparation. Thanks to my self-analysis and mistakes I committed until now I came to know about the holes in my personality and feel strong urge to work on them.

I was just thinking on from where I should start but thanks to the pondering mentioned in my last post, which helped me to start from defining vision, mission and values for myself. Someone of you might feel that I am going one step further by disclosing this publicly but reason do so is crystal clear, I just want all of your to know it so in case I digress from my way you will help me to come back on track.

Vision:

With continuous learning and optimization approach live a life such as God should proud on his creation.

Mission

To equip myself with knowledge and skill to build a successful career which will enable me with ability and power to serve the society.

Values

1. Continuous learning and building a complete personality.
2. To optimize under given circumstances to perform at best.
3. Knowing, accepting and learning and developing approach.
4. Affecting the conditions rather than getting affected by it.
5. Strengthening myself so as I can effectively help others in need.

Vision, Mission, Values do they really add value?

2006-04-03T15:58:00.000+05:30

One of the difficult exercises I done last one month was to remember the vision, mission and value statements of various IIMs and my last and present employer.
While mugging these flashy statements an obvious question popped up in my mind, how much value these statements add to an organization? That time I didn’t looked beyond mugging them but thanks to Gita Piramal’s Smart Leadership I realized the real importance to an organization.

While reading Becoming Great an essay in above book by Dr. S Ramadorai of TCS who aptly describes the importance of these statements to align individual interest with the common interest of an organization, my view to look towards these statements changed drastically. One more important thing I noticed about these statements is, it better for any organization to define them at right time. From my opinion such right time is when you are starting a new setup or restructuring your organization. I am not at all agreed that you can introduce these statement any time and force employees to accept them. The onus lies on the shoulder of the leader not only to make sure these statements should reach to each and every employee but also they should get reflected through their every action.

After getting aware about the importance of these statements I realized if I define these statements for SPANDAN it will be surely helpful. The result was after pondering over this for1 hr in my train journey to Mumbai I came up with Vision, Mission and Values statement for SPANDAN. Now my next responsibility is to take steps so that they will reach at every SPANDAN member very soon.

Thinking on same line an idea came up in my mind that could an individual have these statements? If I go by my above statement of aligning interest how an individual can get benefited with these statements? In organization context there these statements are helpful as everyone have different vision and they help to achieve the convergence of these vision. If you look at personal front each one of us have different mission at different time of our life. Our vision gets change with time and many times we found ourselves lack of values or compromising with our values. This all result into diverting from our mission. So having clearly defined mission, vision and value statements will surely help oneself in journey of his life. So one more exercise for me to define these statements for myself and I am thinking this is right time to do so as I am going through one big transformation in my life. Very soon you will find my mission, vision and value statement on this page, which will surely help you to define your own statements. I hope you will enjoy this exercise. After all it’s not of anyone else’s but for your own benefit.

My First Consulting Project: Rejuvenating SPANDAN

2006-03-25T01:31:00.000+05:30

Last three days I was speculating on my fortune which is soon going to get decided by IIMs in near future. I thought the best strategy to get rid of the impatients about the results is to bring some ‘I don’t care’ attitude but soon realized that this is something that I couldn’t do in 24 years of my life so how it is possible to do in 24 days ? Hence I skipped that idea. Then I decided I will keep me busy with something challenging task which will not allow me to look beyond that. When I look around I realized there is nothing interesting to do in my current job as already counting my days to get release out of it
I realized that my group SPANDAN is not in good shape and there are many things I can do to rejuvenate it. Last 8-9 months I haven’t contributed much for SPANDAN as I was busy with my IIM mission.
I deecided to metamorphose SPANDAN and to rejuvenate it completely in next 2 month. Thus first consulting challenge is ready for me before a set to join MBA.
Rejuvenating SPANDAN.

Expectations…Predictions…. Plunging into the deep sea of uncertainty again ?

2006-03-22T00:18:00.000+05:30

Finally my 007 encounters with the some of the best (or BOND) management schools in India got over. I seen many ups and few down over this journey but believe me all that I mentioned was My Opinions and I expect time will prove some of them wrong. Still it is general human tendency of expectation and prediction equally applicable to me so will like to try my hand on this.

IIM A: Great GD followed by good PI -->Time being on toss --> Chances of winning more inclined to my side.

IIM B : Good GD --> Big mistake over summary --> Good PI --> Heads or Tail both cases IIM B will win. I am expecting coin to land up straight --> Very rare chances in first list --> May find place in second if these guys are generous enough.

IIM C: Good GD --> Good PI --> They will not like to miss my name in final list.

IIM L: Good GD-->PI Nothing can judge here à Numbers look good after top 600 getting into top 3 --> Good chances here.

IIM K & I: Great GD --> Great PI --> They should start typing my final call letters.

After the long wait for the CAT results one more time I will be thrown into the deep sea of uncertainty. But if you ask me I had learnt lot of things in this last 3 years of my CAT journey and one of it is ‘Give Your Best and Forget he Rest ‘.
I gone much beyond the glamour of the ranking and salaries of these school and for me it something different I am looking out of them and my strong self confidence says I will get it anywhere in six so no need to panic for me.

Encounter 07 : IIM B…..Art of Digging Your Own Grave !!!

2006-03-21T23:17:00.000+05:30

First Impression:

As I already discussed in one of my previous posts, if I have to put money on any of the IIMs before the results, I would put it on IIMB as these guys know the value of work experience well. But what happened today was total contrary to what I expected and that also because of my unique ‘Art of Digging Own Grave’

Rule of the Game:

Case study 10 mins to think 15 mins to discuss 10 mins to write summary.

They specially instructed that THEY WANT SUMMARY IN RUNNING FORMAT NOT IN POINTS.
(Hey….I noticed it well but I didn’t followed it…..in 15 mins I wrote the summary the best way in which I can….but problem was doing so I forget the rule of game that it should not be in points)

I was very happy after my GD and thought I just have to play safe in my PI to reserve a seat in IIM B but the happiness didn’t last for more time.

PI

P1: Tell me where your place Jamkhed is ?
ANS: Located in Ahemdnagar district of Maharashtra sir.

P1: What people do there ?
ANS: I told some kind of trading and majority of them in farming.

P1: What do your family do?
ANS: Told my dad is lecturer and also do farming as hobby.

P1: So how much interest you take in his work?
ANS: I told not much but sometimes I do think on problems farmers faced, as I want something to do for them in long run.

P1: What are these problems?
ANS: I mentioned collapse of cooperative sector in my region and reasons for same.

P1: So what you can do for them?
ANS: Sir..after gaining some experience and financial stability I will like to do something in line of what ITC had done.

P1: So what ITC had done?
ANS: Talked about e-choupal here.

P1: Can you explain me how they do it?
ANS: Told details about the functioning of E-choupal

P1: What TATA does ?
ANS: Talked about Tata Kisan …work they done like selp help groups.

P2: Why ITC should do it ?
ANS: I said to explore the market at the bottom of the pyramid.

P1: What is this concept ?
ANS: Explain him concept in detail here.

P2: Why ITC should do that?
ANS: Sir to further increase their business coverage areas they were in cigarettes and want to explore other fields also.

P2; Why not alcohol?
ANS: Sir…there is good profit margin available in this area and also they can win good will of people.

P2: But at same time they will gain hatred of middlemen in farm business? Will these guys put pressure on government to create problems for ITC?
ANS: I don’t think so…. because politicians also want good will of people and I haven’t read any such incidence yet…at same time I can’t rule out possibility of same sir.

P1: How TATA gain from what they done in this area?
ANS: No idea in detail of TATA Kisan sir.

P2: How you know these things in details?
ANS: Sir recently I read Fortune at the Bottom of The Pyramid by C.K.Pralhad.

P2: What else you read?
ANS: Sir I read good books like Alchemist, Monk who sold his Ferrari and also as I am Marathi poet I do read Marathi poetry also.

P2: Hey…you don’t mention all this in you form?
ANS: Sir there is no place to like achievements and interests in form sir.

P2: But you might have mentioned it in your SOP? Actually its very nice and rare to find that an engineer write poems also…tell me for whom you write this?
ANS: Sir while college I used to write for college magazines now I right it on my blog.

P2: Marathi blog ?
ANS: No sir I write it on English blog by uploading picture. Whenever I get free time I also like to listen my own poems.

P1: what kind of poems do you write ?
ANS: Sir on social issues and some on romantic also…I also write on the disappointing part of love also.

P1: Yeh we heard to write good poems you have to experience it what say?
ANS: I am not agreeing sir…I put myself in shoe of others to write it.

P1: But in that case it will not come from bottom of your heart?
ANS: You can say up to some extend my experience also influenced my poems sir.

P1: It seems you have lot of free time? See you write poems, read book and also maintain your blog so when did you work? Actually we herd lot of complain from IT guys that they don’t get any time for their personal life ….how you manage this ?
ANS: Sir….I have 5 days working week so I use rest of 2 days for my interests. I also believe in quality of work rather than quantity and also give time for other activities.

P1: Tell me what you have learnt from your job?
ANS: Start explaining here in detail…he stopped me and said please tell in bulleted points (this guy sucks)
Sir I learnt
Its people who drive the business not money.
How to handle people and client interface.
Handling the team that also when you have seniors working under you

P1: So tell me how you handled seniors in your team?
ANS: some crap here

P1: Give me a scenario…. one of your senior team member not working when you told him he said I am OK you are wrong what you should do?
ANS: I defend with some crap here.

P1: Still the guys not working and says he is fine problem with you only.
ANS: I gave up and said I will try my best and if not possible escalate it to my PL.

P1: So you mean you are not able to handle it?
ANS: No sir I will do it only when I run out of all possibilities.

P2: So tell me how you find in Pune after joining engineering? How you handled it?
ANS: Sir initially I find difficult to mix with the local convent guys but later on I synch well with them. My participation in extra curricular activities helped me to mix up with them and also them more than a person.

P1+ P2 THANK YOU VERY MUCH

This was my last interview and as my IIM A was not pakka convert type I thought I will create option for it with some great performance in B.
When I came out of the hall, my first reaction was I dig my own grave. I didn’t realize how I committed that stupid mistake that may prove vital in long run.
The whole day that mistake sucked me lot. But when I thought it was not the first mistake I committed in my life. I am here today thanks to many such small mistakes I committed in my life which taught me lot.
I realized that its not like I never fell but number of times I stood up were more than number of times I fell and that’s why I am here. Might be this mistake want me to stand more firmly before I enter into the world of management.

Encounter 06: IIM I ……Phod Dala RE !!!

2006-03-16T20:43:00.000+05:30

First Impression:

I was holding the exact address of Indian Institute of Capital Management (IICM) in my hand. It is mentioned as plot number 82 Sector No 17. I was searching if the plot number was written anywhere so that I can get a clue…..but thanks to Navi Mumbai Mahanagar Palika there were even no remote signs of plot numbers. I searched for more than 1 hour (thank God I left early today) and asked almost 10 shop keepers but no clue. Finally I called my friend who used great google to locate my destination.
I meet with a guy standing outside who had his interview in morning batch he said chill dude!!! No new things as usual they asking acads to freshers and work ex questions for working guys. I thought that this encounter would be nothing but repetition of what happened in last 5.

Rule of the Game:

Case study (thank God I am sick with the normal GDs and hell repetition of same points)
05 mins to think 15 mins to talk and 5 mins to summarize. In PI the sequence will be random.

My Show:

Started discussion with giving good direction to the case. Then chipped in 3-4 times with good points …..Overall I was happy with the GD performance. I just completed the 3/4th summary when he took paper back (I realised it was only 31/2 mins but no objection after everything fare in WAR)

PI

The panel took almost 15 mins to call first name so I am damn sure it will be none other than me as I had written so lengthy and know it will take 15-20 mins to read it thoroughly.

I thought the interview will be just formality …..like tell me about yourself….what you like?….What you do? Why MBA ? and to give it a feel of management interview some gyan on what on society and ethics.

But it was all different game……Meet the two Guru’s from IIM I

Guru 1: Finance and Economy Guru (FEG)
Guru 2: Tech Fundoo Guru (TFG)

And here the details of how the encounter went

FEG : Tell me why you left Bajaj ?
ME : (Oh that mean you were seriously reading my form) My standard ANS

FEG : So you are with which company now ?
ME : TCS sir

FEG: What is TCS’s revenue ?
ME : 2.4 billion $

FEG: Where TCS is present in world ?
ME : Sir almost all over 53 countries……told major market US+ UK + Europe and now days foraying in S American countries and also in China. (I used WE rather than TCS here like I am CEO of TCS and talking about it, in news conference but I hope this showed my great feeling with my great company )

FEG: What is software services? Software products? And ITES ?
ME : Told giving examples with TCS context.

FEG: What is NASSCOM?
ME : Told.

FEG : Who is heading it rite now? What is NASSCOM’s role ?
ME: Bata diya.

FEG : Heard of NASDAQ ? Is it similar to NASSCOM ?
ME: Yes sir…but I think it is stock market similar to BSE?

FEG: Are you sure ? It is company or something like BSE ?
ME: No idea sir.

FEG: How can one list shares on NASDAQ? Anyone can do it ?
ME: No sir…there are some regulations and requirements from both side India and NASDAQ also.

FEG: What is ADR, GDR?
ME: American Depository Receipts and Global Depository Receipts.

FEG: Why they used? Are they instruments or shares or anything else?
ME: They are financial tools used to conversion of currency for investors.

FEG: Heard of SDR?
ME: No sir (excuse me I am engineer don’t you read my form!!!)

FEG: Heard about Rich and poor? This is any company or brand?
ME: No idea sir.

(Though out this discussion TFG was reading my file and shown that he didn’t have any interest in MY SLAUTER…..then two profs switched their tasks they exchanged my file and TFG took the control of machine gun…..but I am also ready with my AK 47)
TFG: What is hotspot ?
ME: (Jsach sach bata du kya…..FC Road in Pune and band stand in MumbaiJ ) sir these are wireless LAN access points.

TEG: What is Wi-Fi ? Why it is call so ?
ME: Sir Wireless Fidelity…..you are free to roam and same time access the wireless.

TEG: Any wireless standards?
ME: Sir IEEE 802.11a to IEEE802.11g

TEG : What is difference in these two ? Which one is recent?
ME: Technically sab bata diya.

TEG: What is broadband and intraband ?
ME: Told TRIA definition of broadband and talked about the convergence here. Intraband I said not sure but guess it is …..

TEG: Tell me how the Triband services are possible with single copper wire?
ME: Told its not wire sir…its optical fiber…..he said talk wrt to copper wire only…me explained multiplexing demultiplexing fundas.
(here he grilled me lot on how come three services possible at same time? I tried my best to explain him )
TEG: Tell me what is role of modem?
ME: Sir…it is modulator demodulator…..

TEG: Is there any difference between the ordinary and cable modem ?
ME: Yes sir…. I guess later one better for high data rates.

TEG: Where there is analog and where digital in the link ?
ME : Bata diya.

TEG: I heard companies coming up with the 2inOne GSM + CDMA mobile in India soon in news ? What is that ?
ME: Nothing great in that sir…..it will same like two mobiles in one device and you can use either of two…..as far as GSM and CDMA wireless side are not getting converged in 3G that is nothing great but handing 2 mobile at same time.

TEG : So what is 3G convergence ? Will that be possible in near future?
ME: Talked about the UMTS here and told though Japan implemented 3 G they also not yet achieved that.

TEG: THANK YOU VERY MUCH RUSHIKESH

BOTH : HAVE SOME BISCUITS !!!!
ME : Thank you and have a nice day sir.

What was that……I bate even I applied for any TECH Giant for the job they might not grilled me that in that detail…..But that what the beauty of the IIMs and that’s why I said IIM A ho ya IIM I …..Every interview is different ENCOUNETR and I am enjoying it fullest.

The BIG B is poised next on 21….so Bangalore here I come …..With experience of 6 GD/PI…..I am ready to take any challenge!!!!

Admit 01 ---- NITIE – My Dream Institute in Those Days !!!

2006-03-15T09:15:00.000+05:30

Circa 2003 in a cool morning of the Jan a guy with thick glasses and big hope in his eyes entered through the gates of NITIE and his first reaction was he was entering into the heaven!! The whole surrounding was engulfed in fog. Adding to it the campus was surrounded with the Vihar Lake and lush green lawns. It was first time in his life he is visiting any management school campus. After strolling through the campus he realized yes this is heaven for guy like him who want to do something in management.

The memories of the last day’s NITIE exam (those days NITIE used to conduct its separate exam and as this guy never thought he is capable of cracking CAT so he took this easy way out) sent quivering through his body which brought him on ground and then he headed towards the NITIE hostel. He managed to catch one of PGDIM program student and then he asked everything from will I make it to NITIE or not? What about the sectional cut offs (He screwed in one section out of 5 badly). The fellow answered many queries and headed towards his block wishing our guy all the best. He returned from NITIE campus empty handed but yes there is something more he got that day…..A DREAM TO BE IN BEST SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT.

It was no wonder that after doing CRT F and entering his name in the short listed candidates for GD/PI after n number of time this guys failed to locate his name in the list….how can he found it when it was not there in first place. Dejected, rejected he thought the B-School is not his game but his dreams always reminded him, no he can reach there. Then next 2 year’s story was not much different. Every year this guy used to fill NITIE form hoping at least he land up there. But only years changed but not his scores. With such an abysmal scores in CAT 2003 and CAT 2004 this guy never dared to send his score card to NITIE after the results.

With such a humiliation from CAT his fellow was in no mood to write it again but the dream inside never made him to stop. As usual he filled CAT form but this time he was reluctant to fill NITIE form (of course looking at track record why to loose 1000 bucks). But he didn’t know what happened, the hope inside made him to submit his form on last day. Two days later it was last CAT of his life and this guy don’t want to give CAT one more chance to humiliate him. But with sheer determination this guy rocked CAT 2005 with 99.71 and BLACKI honor. The NITIE was remained only a formality to give him a call.
Now his targets on radar were different. They were none other than 6 IIMs. When NITIE GD/PI date declared, it was clashing with IIM L so this guy thought he will forget NITIE as chances were high that he will land up in some of IIMs. But still he made schedule change and decided to attend NITIE.
The day was 8/03/2005 our guy entered the NITIE campus but this time he had his bag full of IIM calls which added extra confidence to him. With this he rocked the NITIE GD/PI and came back home with full confidence of converting it.

The formality completed when yesterday NITIE thought to wish him the Holi with this good news. He got the overall rank 07…..One time his dream institute calling him….Will he go ?

You now must realized this guy is none other than yours truly !!!
Yes I am surely happy over the NITIE victory. Now I am expecting IIMs to join party soon…..even they don’t I am not much bother at this moment as I am already at my one time dream institute. Yes my dream got promoted last 3 years but I know there is no end to it ……AFTER ALL DREAMS ARE UNLIMITED !!!!!

Encounter 05 : Call from CAL??…. Everything Crossed !!!!

2006-03-14T19:42:00.000+05:30

First Impression:

I contacted guys who had interviewed yesterday and from their experiences came to know that the CAL profs are so cordial (total contrast to their earlier reputation!!) and trying to get best out of you so obviously I didn’t need to worry about the MATH stuff.

Against all odd:

At the time of IIMA it was sudden eruption of my wisdom teeth, which didn’t, brought any wisdom to me but caused lot of trouble. This time it was Food Poisoning. When I waked up at morning I realized that there is something terribly wrong with my stomach and then next 2 hours were just hell for me (will not mention here to maintain the sanity of my blog !!).
This all mess-up resulted in 30 mins late to left the home for Dadar and adding to it there was only slow local available so no option. I was looking into my wristwatch throughout my journey.
Luckily I managed to reach the center at 1.45 pm and had nice time with people out there before clock stroked 2.00.

Rule of the game:
3 mins to think….13 mins to speak and 1 minute of everyone to summarize.

GD:

There were 12 people in a group with one lady sitting at center. (You can say center of attraction also!!!)

Topic: Life is chair.
(Does IIMC devoid of creativity? Repetition of last year’s day 01 topic…)

The GD was semi fish market where most of the times 2-3 people were trying to coming at same time.

I came up almost 4 times (but might have tried to came up 10-12 times and skipped…I don’t like this but that was unavoidable)

My contribution
Human life need support of basic needs like cloths, food, shelter and education same like 4 feet’s of chairs.
The most important element of the chair is its support similarly nation though supported by many pillars the most important is “ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT”
The chair don’t differentiate between who is sitting on it and offer equal relief to everyone similarly life give everyone same chances to grow.
Some crap here
(When asked to summaries I was 3rd last to do so….I said as most of my team members given the summary well I further want to add that the basic function of chair is to give the relief but still we demand for modified and fancy chair…similarly in life our basic needs are limited but we always demand more than that and this journey don’t have any end so we need to draw line here….blah blah )

So if I have to rate my performance I was near GOOD (but definitely not BEST)

PI

(Panel 2 IIMC profs and 2 alumni one working with MAFCO)
Q. Tell me about yourself?
ANS: My standard answer (Told about my group SPANDAN here)

Q. What is SPANDAN?
ANS: Explained meaning of word.

Q. I want to know the details of it ? Like, work you do ?
ANS: Sab kuch bata diya.

Q. How many members? Do you raise funds or only contribution by work ?
ANS: told in details.

Q. Your place is famous about something? Tell me (same Qs as IIM A )
ANS: Told the reason.

Q. Do you know MAFCO? (Lady from MAFCO asked this)
ANS: I said NO (the lady was very surprised and told me its very famous and you should know it. The other prof added that they were first one to start the concept of frozen chickens)

Q. Any idea why the MAFCO is collapsing?
ANS: (How I should know this when I don’t know what it is in first place) No MAM.

Q. You can draw the similar line with other thing in same region
ANS: I said I will compare it with the collapse of cooperative sector in MHA and gave reasons for its collapse they seem not interested in this crap (I reason to mention this was in my career goal I mentioned that I want to help this dilapidating firms in future)

Q. Your region has many sugar factories can you talk on the environment effect of it
ANS: Talked on the air and water pollution due to sugar factories.

Q. Do you know any environment standard for it?
ANS: I said I am not aware (I just recollected it while writing this that it is ISO 14000)

Q. Ok…Rushikesh you are TRUE INDIAN?
ANS: Yes sir (with full of confidence)

Q So will you tell me what is your reaction if Sonia Gandhi become PM of India ?
AND: I told sir I strongly believe in the Indian saying that Atithy Devo Bhava ….with this Sonia Gandhi becomes not only daughter of Gandhi family but also of whole nation and when she accepting that she is Indian from the bottom of her heart that shows her commitment (one prof added that he also thinks same and also mentioned Bush famous saying about India.)

Q. Can you tell me your job profile?
ANS: Told that I am working in Nortel CDMA project.

Q. Hey….we observed that our mobile shows no signal sometimes can you suggest any changes for improvement ?
ANS: I talked all technical stuff saying improved handoff …and adaptive and overlapping sector ka funda.

Q. (Lady getting curious) hey I don’t know this is right but I use CDMA mobile and observed that every time I reach top of the flyover the connectivity drop any reason for this?
ANS: (I said I will think on this and shown I went in loops…I felt this is just crap no reason I can see ) Maam I don’t see reason for this

(OK Rushikesh tell me this when you will find it in future!!!)

Q. Rushikesh…tell me why manhole called as manhole?
ANS: Told I don’t know but might be due to Man should not fall through the it … (no satisfaction on his face)

Q. So Rushikesh why manhole cover is only circular? Why not other shapes?
ANS: Sir don’t know but try to guess (he said go ahead)
Sir only circular shape don’t have edges so it will not affect to the tiers of wheels (he said no )
Sir circular shape is optimum use of area (he said no )
Then he said can you put the cover inside …..I got the hint thanks…. reason same as the cover of cooker being circular so that it should not fall inside…and I like to correct my earlier and that manhole named as Manhole because through it man can go inside…bingo!!!

Q. So how many calls Rushikesh ?
Ans: Thankfully all six sir …

Q. So how you compare your performance in A and C ?
ANS: Bata diya….GD more better than this GD.. I can’t compare as my C PI yet not over.
Q. Consider your C PI is over here …
ANS : Then I rate IIM C better than A.

Q. Why A guys stressed you in PI ?
ANS: No sir actually I missed some sitters there something related to my BE project.

Q. Where do you think you stand in our GD ?
ANS: Sir I think I am in top three.

Q. So how you compare A with C ?
ANS: Sir I think A,B,C are all at same level and this time I am not in position no differentiate between them but I seen many good things with IIM C like…its becoming consulting hub. As I am looking forward for career in this area it is better for me…one more good thing is it’s initiative in social area whose motto has same as my long term goal….so looking at all this I thing IIM C will be better choice for me….but still after result I will do further analysis and decide between the call I get.

Ok thank you very much Rushikesh…All the Best for Your….

Such a marathon PI but no stress no grilling I really enjoyed it.

So will CAL call me ? Time being I will cross fingers, toes. legs ,arms all that I can cross !!!

Journey half traveled.

2006-03-08T19:37:00.000+05:30

I finished with the half of the IIMs. The other half with two big Bs poised in it is big challenge ahead.. After the IIM A almost going on toss my hopes are now on B and C.
I heard that C is (ill)famous for the tricky questions on the Maths so I think I need to prepare for that.
As usual nothing can be said about the B but one thing is sure if I have to put my money on any of the IIM before results I will put it on IIM B as there preference to the work experience, which I have enough.
Surely, I can’t afford to be complacent and need to continue the good show….so here is the action plan for the rest of three.

Maths…I think I need to put much efforts here.
Economics…..ET in classroom should suffice here.
Industrial Management…..the management subject that I studied in 3rd year.
Two Books to talk on……I will choose Future of India and Fortune at the Bottom of the pyramid.
IIM I ka biggggggggggg form……it looks bit scary but I need to work on this also.

I hope this much will be sufficient dose for the last stage of my IIM race.

NITIE.....Dho Dala !!!

2006-03-08T16:09:00.000+05:30

After the comparatively disappointing day with IIM L yesterday I was eager to show the improvements and NITIE was good stage before the 2 big encounters with B and C.
So here are my experiences with the NITIE….

Process:

I reached at NITIE between 8-8.30 am for the registration. Then we were asked to assemble in the Auditorium for the presentation on NITIE and it’s activities.
HATS off to the IMPACT team for such a good presentation and also overall support during the entire procedure.

Then we were called for the documents verification and then group for the GD is formed there.
There were 12 people in the group.

Rules of the Game

The topic displayed on the laptop kept in front of us.
2 mins to think and 18 mins to discuss and last 2 mins for group to conclude.

Topic :

The skills learnt from the management subjects will not match that learnt from the actual experience.

I was sitting in the middle so good position to get command over the group.
I put some very good points and also earned good reputation from the group members.
I was at my best today !!!! So GD was cakewalk for me.

PI

I came to know the PI having panel of 6. I thought it is good, I will have good variety of questions and it went as follows….

Q: Describe yourself
Me: My standard answer... they stop me meanwhile and started asking questions.

Q: You are from COEP ? There is name change what the new name ?
Me: Sir they changed it to PIET and then again to COEP

Q: Why there is name change ?
Me: Sir…150 years brand value so alumni opposed the name change.

Q: Do you participated in the rowing in college boat club ?
Me: No sir I am not a good swimmer.

Q: So that means you have fear of water ?
Me: Not true sir….rowing and water sports never fascinated me and actually I am too busy with the my other activities.

Q: It feel you are interest in indoor activities? Is it right ?
Me: No sir ….I done lot of things, which were outdoor like sports and other events.

Q: What are your hobbies ? Apart from work what you do ?
Me : Sir I coordinate the activities of my group SPANDAN.

Q:What is SPANDAN ? What you do in it ?
Me: Sir we perform various activities like ……and I coordinates and sometimes participate in them.

Q: Rushikesh why not ISB ?
Me: Sir I think ISB need more work experience and also for me a two year course will more apt than one year course ?

Q: So what do think how many years of work ex require for ISB ?
Me: I think 3+ is sufficient sir. But I think the quality of work experience is more important than the quantity here.

Q: So you mean you don’t have quality work ex ?
Me: No sir….but it is true that as I changed my job so most of the time I was under grooming and last 6 months I am working on the leadership role,

Q: What are you doing in TCS ?
ME: I am working in TCS-Nortel CDMA ODC, I am working in regression testing sir. (seems they are clueless here !!!)

Q: Why we should take you ?
ME: Sir,,,,my diverse background I work from assembly line to the IT so that will add value to my profile.

Q: Do you like to work for TCS after MBA ?
Me:Surely…..if they will be offering me work in my area of interest.

Q: So what is your area of interest ?
Me: It is consulting sir,,,but still I will give the thought during my first year of MBA about my specialization.

Q: Which schools you attended ?
Me: (Took it wrong like….Which schools you work for ? I though he is asking on SPANDAN again….) sir LNHV school and junior college in Jamkhed located in Ahemdnagar district.

Q: Why Bajaj don’t offer you profile in R&D ?
Me: No sir they put me in other departments.

Q: What is VAT ? Why they call it as Value Added when actually they are taxing you ?
Me: Sir it is actually the tax on the value added so that the cascading effect of the taxing get avoided.

Q: What is ProVAT ? It is something came before the VAT ?
Me: No idea sir.

Q:What is diff between VAT and MAT ?
Me: I told the definitions of two….but told I can’t differentiate between two.

Q: What are your long term goals?
Me : Bata Diya

Q: You applied to IIMS ?
Me: Yes and thankfully I got calls from all six of them.

Q: So which interviews you finished ?
Me: AKL sir ….rest yet to finish.
(Suddenly the panel became silent like they feel anyways this guys will not going to join NITIE so why to waste more time)

Thank You !!!

I used my mantra of 5c perfectly so I can say I was at my best in PI also….

No wonder if NITIE give me a final call.

I think NO Luck Now !!!

2006-03-07T21:16:00.000+05:30

After my 2 encounters I am feeling that my Luck Account is depleted badly and that you will also agree after reading my experience with the IIM L.

Place : Dadar Mumbai
Day : Thu 07/03
Time : 2pm Panel 2

Rule of the game
1. We had asked to write a essay in 150 words on given topic.
2. Then is was followed by the 15 min GD and then PI.

TOPIC: The cost of living is increasing and the chance of living is decreasing.
About the Group

Frankly the whole discussion lack liveliness. I can blame is for the 2 people being absent so only 8 people in the group and no one is picking others points and coming with his/her own views. I wonder how the discussion went on middle class having resources but lacked happiness. Someone also tried talking on philosophical view....me chipped in 6-7 time and here are the points brought.

1. Cost of living ....cost to fulfill basic needs.
2. We have developing economies still the fruits of development is not getting distributed equally.
3. Given stats... India though growing at 8 % per annum still we have 25 percent on paper and 38 percent people below poverty line also put forward the digital divide issue.
4. Take ex of India and China.....India have democracy and China have communism still both government are lacking in the overall development front.....so apart from the government to support the reforms the corporate should chipped in......they should go to the bottom of the pyramid like ITC e-choupal.
5. Why prices increases....inflation....we need to take care it.
6. Quoted Rach and Amartya Sen's work underline the poverty is results of economic mismanagement and poor reforms so we need to work on this.
Though my points look strong still I was not able to steal the show due to the my unusual stammering articulation and the others not picking my points so they are not getting discussed......what ever it may be but I was not at my best here.......can rate 06/10.

PI
The two guys before me were grilled on the acads and other stuff almost 20 mins each so I am expecting same treatment from the profs but here how it went

P1 : Can you close the door well ?
Me : Ok sir.
P1: So your name is Rushikesh and your father's name is Chandrahas
Me: (What's in name sir...ask me what that mean I am ready with answer ).....Yes Sir !
P2: How you pronounce your sirname?
Me: (What is this man....??) me pronounce it .....Smile !!
P1: Tell me about yourself ?
Me: Standard 2 min ka ans.
P1: So why you left Bajaj and Join TCS?
Me: Told him the reason
P1: (looking into my file ) You studied Industrial management ? What was there ?
Me: (Ohh the subject I read one day before exam) Said some weird things.
P1: No tell me something like list of topics ?
Me: Like sir various ways in which the industrial operations are handled like marketing HR finace
P1: What is similarity between marketing and HR?
Me: I told see HR job is to motivate people to perform best and same is the Marketing guy has to do he has to
motivate his team to increase the sell so both are people centric..
P1: But then every thing in management are people centric tell me something different
Me: (Not agreed boss....In finance I mange money ) No idea sir.
P1: tell me what is EVA ?
Me: Bata diya.
P1: How much is your EVA ?
Me : Bata diya.
P1: How do you calculate EVA in TCS?
Me : Bata diya.
P1: Not happy......but how you decide how to distribute the EVA ?
Me: (sab moh maaya hai sir ) I told sir appraisal decides rating and rating decides EVA.
P1: Who does your appraisal? Your boss? Is it 360 degree ?
Me: My immediate boss....no sir it is only unidirectional no 360 degree.
P2: In TCS context tell me what is internal and what is external clients ?
Me: No idea about the internal clients sir....External like Nortel GE......if I have to guess on the internal part I say employee and stakeholders....
(P1 Now looking thought my file.....no expressions )
P1: All companies main aim is to earn money ? Are you agree ?
Me: Yes I do agree on this and if you are earning money by good ways there is nothing bad about it....but at same time take example of TATA they spend 30 % of there PAT on the social causes....so there are exceptions also.
P2: What is TBEM (Tata Business Excellence Model ) ?
Me: Explained it.
P2: I want the quantitative model ?
Me: I remember there are 1000 points divided into the various areas ,...I told 485-500 for results ....85 each for 4 groups like leadership....quality and some other two aspects....
P2: What is these two aspects TELL ME ?
Me: Sir I can't recollect.
P2: Thik Hai !!!
P1: Do you remember your acads ?
Me: yes sir !!!
P1: What is Boolean algebra ?
Me: Bata diya ?
P1: Your know any other similar methods ?
Me: No sir...we studied only single
P1: He told some 3-4 extra terrestrial methods which was at least no there when I studied digital electronics....any idea on these ?
Me: No sir.
P1: What say P2 I think we done with you so you may leave now !!!!
Me: (What is this only 10 mins....sir ask some more things.... ) Thank You sir .....have a Nice Day..
That's it and I am done with the IIM L.....so here goes the tally....

IIM A : Gone on toss.....lets see head or tail in April.
IIMK : I am at my best....who care about the rest !!!!
IIM L : They are sure to take me or not to take me.....but I am not sure which one of these is final verdict so for the time being I will say No Luck Now !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Success Mantra for Interview

2006-03-05T20:29:00.000+05:30

After the two interviews with the IIMs and the lot of MOCK interviews during my training, I came up with the success formula for cracking the interviews. It is nothing but 5C:

Calmness: Always be calm before and while the interview. Loosing the calmness cost you lot when it come to the answering the questions. You should think before you answer and even if interviewer try to stress you this weapon will help you to defend yourself.

Coolness: “Just be Cool” is the most widely used and less practiced clique. What actually means by being cool? I will define it as just don’t loose your normal thought process. It will make conversation as simple as you are talking with your friend. Genuine smile on you face surely helps you a lot here.

Composed: You should look composed. It includes way you carry yourself in interview like using voice modulation, body language and of course the way you put forward your views. In nut shell the interviewer should see a hidden future manager inside you here.

Confident: Yes!!! This is very important aspect of a manager’s personality so why not to show it also. Just think a second or two about the question before you answer. Then decide if you know it or not and if you are guessing it tell them that I am not sure but it might be….
Even ‘don’t know’ in right way show more confidence than giving a bad try.

Courage: One should not loose one’s courage at any point of the time in interview.
Take every question as a new and don’t bother even if you have long history of don’t knows before. And don’t forget one thing your interview is not the end of everything.
Though it’s true that you badly need to get into the IIMs but IIMs also want candidates like you badly so its fare game hence don’t allow the pressure to daunt you here.

This all will definitely act as arrows in you arsenal but wait only arrows will not help you. You will need a strong bow of overall knowledge of various areas around which your interview will revolve so make sure you tight your strings before you hit the bulls eye,

This is all Gyan that I accumulated over the last 2 months.

I agreed that practicing it is difficult game but these are my weapons to tackle my next encounters. I will share with you how effective they proved in actual scenario in coming days.

Guess What is Coming Here For You ?

2006-03-04T20:24:00.000+05:30

It is something new apart from the pangs of my IIM journey you will get to read from this blog now onwards.
So guess what I am coming with ???

MOVIE REVIEW -----NOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!! (Provided there is no other RDB will release soon)
BOOK REVIEW -------No I am definitely not THAT GREAT to review works of great minds.

So what left ……I will call it as SHARING A JOY OF READING

I am reading and going through lot many materials that touches many management areas so will like to share with you gist of what I gained from it.
You may not be a ASPIRING MANAGER to read this. In fact I am sure you will get interest in these toppics even if your are reluctant towards management.

Here comes something interesting I learn and like from the last week'sCOQ I attended.

The Parable of the Broken Window

I like this funda, definitely not due to it is outcome of some undesirable things but it proves that every cloud have a silver lining.

Yes….disaster like tsunami are really cost all the mankind badly but still if you look beyond, it is fueling growth in the affected areas and friends this is nothing but the
Beauty of the Economics.

One more good thing that happened this week is I purchased 9 bestsellers in management (Good news for you is, you don’t need to purchase them….as I am going to share it will you ) and thanks to the TCS professional membership policy I dare to pay the bill also.

Here is the list

The Future of India --------------------Bimal Jalan
The End of Poverty---------------------Jeffery Sachs
8th Habit ------------------------------- Stephen Covey
Smart Leadership-----------------------Gita Piramal
The Tipping Point-----------------------Malcolm Gladwell
The Fortune at the Bottom of The Pyramid --Prahalad
Good to Great ---------------------------Jim Collins
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance-----Louis Grestener
The World is flat ------------------------Thomas Fredmans

I don’t know how much of it I can cover next coming days as schedule is already packed with the IIM encounters but still something like The Parable of the Broken Window will not allow me to hold for longer time, so stay tuned.

Think Big ----Three Events one Learning!!!!

2006-02-27T16:58:00.000+05:30

It was short break for me after my initial encounters with two IIMs. I was not sure what to do during this time. The thoughts of in or out were hovering, especially about the WIMWI. At the same time I attended three different events/activities and believe me together they tought me single lesson THINK BIG.

Rang De Basanti

There were many movies pending after the CAT results are out and obviously I choose the RDB first. I read lot about this movie over last 3 weeks but more than that I learnt a lot when I actually seen it.

The sacrifice of the great martyrs told you that the only one think that acted as the driving force for their act was their strive for the freedom and their strong faith in their values. What we lack today is this BIG VIEW to look at our lives.
HATS OFF TO RDB for showing me how I indulge into the trivial things to loose the big view of life.

Quiz Time

First, I attended the TCS Couple O Quiz; an annual TCS quizzing event’s final at J.W.Mariott on Saturday. The students of Victoria Blind School marked the evening with their great yoga performance. The quiz that followed was one more trademark event of the pickbrain’s fabulous quiz show.
On Sunday it was time for the TATA Crucible Final at Taj Lands End Bandra. This is
the most difficult quiz where students from the best B-School of India battled for the coveted crown.

Both of these quiz events shown me the indefinite gamut of the knowledge and how small of it I know.

Ayushavar Bolu Kahee !! (आयुष्यावर बोलू काही !!!)

This is the Marathi poetry concert by the Sandeep and Salil who are my favorite for the Marathi poems and songs.
Unfortunately I missed their earlier concerts in Pune and until now they hadn’t conducted it in Mumbai. I am fortunate enough to attend the 150th show of this program on Sunday.
Apart from the joy of being in True Love these poems shown me the various aspect of the life and relationships. The some of the poems like Namnjur is real great and help you to think beyond your limitations.
For those who appreciate Marathi poetry here is one of my favorite of yesterdays program.

"व्यर्थ हे सारेच टाहो,
एवढे ध्यानात राहो,
मुठ पोलादी जयांची!
ही धरा दासी तयांची!! "

All this collectively helped me to look big at picture of Management Education ahead rather than restricting it to trivialities like ranking and placements.

Giving BEST to the RESTs

2006-02-27T00:23:00.000+05:30

After two encounters with the IIM A and IIM K, I find myself bit complacent and the rest over last week further helped to bolster it but wait, I know the game is no over yet and the 5 more encounters approaching fast towards me.

Here is the timeline

IIM L (These people joined their hands with IIM C and came up with the series of weird topics. Adding to my worry there will be 150 words essay also and they also expect engineers to know eco fundas.....Cool !!!)-----7 March.

NITIE (This is gritty when it comes to grilling the engineers to show them how much less they know about their streams and more to it I expect them to go in world of Applied Mathematics)-----8 March

IIM C (They already announced that forget the past glory when you come to their GD/PI so this time only the rocking GD/PI will sail you through)--14 March

IIM I (The only big thing about them is their BIG form.....they took enough care to sap candidates energy in filling the form so these guys can grill on anything under the Sun) ---16 March

IIM B ( I will put my mouth shut before commenting anything on them....these guys are (ill)famous for their random choice, it may be calling the candidate for GD/PI or grilling him/her on the various areas ) ----21 March

After doing this much analysis of my opponents strengths I not only need to sharpen my weapons but also need to add few more and here come my plan to tackle them.

1. Analog and Power electronics fundas.
2. Digital electronics and microprocessor fundas.
3. The fascinating world of communication.
4. Lower Mathematics.
5. Higher Mathematics.
6. Economics fundamentals
7. Industrial Management Fundas.
8. My projects and my job.
9. Computer networking + operating systems+ How stuff works.

This will be combined with the daily dose of current happenings and GK. The Bush visit and the budget which is around the corner add some more load.
This is really a long list to be finished in short time but surely it is going to give me simulation of the B-School life ahead.

Encounter 2 : IIM K aka Gods Own Land !!!!

2006-02-21T12:58:00.000+05:30

This is all about my IIM K GD/PI

Date : 20/02/2006
Place : Dadar Mumbai
Time : 9.30 AM
Panel: 3

We were 8 people in one panel with 2 ladies and 6 guys.

Topic: One 10 line article on the nuclear warheads of US and UK....why they are doing this ....american political philosophy behind this.

I started as usual.....gave outline what we need to discuss....... The GD was very peaceful no one cutting each other and each one getting his/her own dedicated GD BANDWIDTH. I came 5-6 times and give some good points. (Profs might got feeling that how a GD can that peaceful.....IS TEHRE ANY MATCH FIXING??......surely Not !!!)

PI

1. Describe yourself ......(I took 1.5 mins they didn't disturbed me )
2. So you started SPANDAN group in college? There is something with same name in IIM K also do you know that ? (ya I know it ......it's their Magazines name )
3. What XXXX spoken in GD (sir I do not know his name can yu tell me his no ? )
4. Number 8 last person (I really don't know what this guy spoken.....but I put some general stuff in his mouth and told profs... I am not SURE)
5.You spoken smt about INDIA here can you explain it (Kiyaa....I use word NAM here.. )
6. What is NAM ? India's role ?
7. There are good effects of IT we all seen .....talk about some bad effects (digital divide.....pay scale diff.....social imbalance... )
8. Any effect on the employment in 2010 (NASSCOM survey 5 lakhs more IT prof required....only few are employable out of large chunk of graduates....)
9. do you have eco in you syllabus ? (No sir ....But I know some aspects of it Sir)
10. You have accounting? (No sir )
11. You seen balance sheets ? (Yes sir I seen them in News Papers)
12. What is PAT of TCS (No idea sir !!!)
13. What is TCS revenue ( $2.4 billion)
14. We heard TCS have very high attrition rate ? Is it true why ? (I told it is only 8.4 % compare to infosysy 10 and wipros 11.....but TCS have very high no of emp also so no of droup outs are surely high....)
15. He asked me about the TCS bond and legal process if someone breech it... (Bata Diya )
16. Why switch from Bajaj to TCS ?
16. We don't know about the MARATHI POETRY but we surely know about the Bakti Movement in MHA can you tell about it ( I told all details here ....all saints their work and blah blah)
17 . There was also Saint Chokhamela. You know about him ? (I told the details here )
18. Do you follows his poetry ? (No sir I don't....it is very ancient )
19. Talk about India’s energy sector and future of it ? (Told the details.....I used 9% deficit he corrected me saying it is much higher )
20. You have written, you applied for some fellowship (my alternate MBA plan ) where shud you go then if you have two options ? (Surely MBA.....Gyan on this )
21. Which specialization ? (I told consulting... general management )

Finally they wish me ALL THE BEST !!!!

This is the best panel one can get for GD/PI........
No stress no grilling.....they were talking like someone sitting near me in bus or train !!!

So I finished with 2 and 5 more to go !!!!

Encounter 1 : WIMWI

2006-02-21T11:04:00.000+05:30

I never felt this day would ever come in my life and I will appear to the IIM A inetrview and hence damn sure this was my first and last chance to make most out of it.
But I didn't want this to put some extra pressure on me.
So Day 1 ,I reached Ahemdabad, I enjoyed meeting my friends there in IIM A and got some gyan from them.

Then came the D-Day.....I reached the place at 1.30 PM and the procedure started about 2.00 PM......Here is how it went .....

Case Study

It was related to the some small PC firm in Gujarat facing various problems in finance, employee atrrition and also customer satisfaction.

Someone started with directly jumping to the SOLUTION so I came in saying no wait we will discuss the case first (Good Chance to enter the GD !!!)
Then I came 4-5 times.....categorized the problems in 3 cat and ask group to focus on one by one.....again talked about the solution part....that’s it.

It was very peaceful affair and everyone was getting his/her bandwidth.....
I was at my best and really rocked here !!!

PI
1. So what you are doing right now ?
2. Since how long you are there ?
3. Are you team leader ? (No sir I am prime....not team leader)
4. How many primes are there ?
5. You do appraisals of your team members ?
6. Do you have subs on networking (have 0ne sir....but major was telecom communication subs )
7. Tell me about the in mobile telephony where are wires and were it is wireless ?
8.. Which is protocol for the wireless ?
9. What are BTS ?
10. Explian roaming ? (I aksed him he want roaming or handoff ? He said HANDOFF.....so then I gave all the handoff deatils and type like softer,soft and hard )

(Upto this point I was at my best to ans )

Prof 2 came into picture....

10. You done your BE project in Antenna Array (Mentioned in my file )
tell me what are they ? tried to explain......I think he need application here.....which I fumble to tell..... (He told me that wh he want and what ans is......That Realy Bad and Sad for me ) .......MISTAKE NO 1

11. Why GA .....do you gave thought on other algos ...?
I told we know there were some AI algos also ....
12. Which are they ? (I don't remember the names)
13. So why GA not the others (I told it was my guides advice that GA are easy to implement....)
(He want this only!!!! he laughed and told other two that they followed the guide advise and used GA because they were easy to implement........My MISTAKE NO 2 )
14. Then he ask me about the Qs on one graph ?
15. One more graph ......asked it is increasing or decreasing ?
16. He looked into the whole certis and suddenly went out
Prof 3 came into scene
17. So what is TRAI ? What they do ?
18. Will the spectrum allocation affect your work ?
19. What is TRAI 99 policy ?
20. What is unified licensing (I explain about the circle and bidding ka details but he want smt different so I said no idea )
21. Under which min Telecom come (I told Information and Broadcasting.......he ask me again I said that only.....but it was wrong......MY MISTAKE NO 3)
22. Then there are some news that gov is favoring CDMA ? (I said these are allegations )
23. Explain what are they ?
24. what will be effect of this on GSM ?
25. You are from Ahemdnagar ? (I corrected small place Jamkhed in that district.... )
26. So how it got name Ahemdnagar ? (Told about the Nijam Shah's name ...)
27. Same is with Ahemdabad ? (No idea sir !!!)
28. Your place is famous about something what is that ? smt related to health ? (I told the Award winning work of Dr Arole couple )
29. How the work going on now ? (I told it got affected after demise of Mrs Arole )
30. What are the corps in your area ? (I told them.......and added all fruits and vegs are also available......He asked are you sure? .....I told yes sir because it is very well connected with other places so if not production but supply is very good ...!!! )

Thank You !!!........You may have toffees !!!!

So summary is very cool interview,......no stress ...no grilling......through out I was calm,cool and confident....and my 3 BOLD MISTAKES !!!!
I don't know what will matter finally........

My good acads.......lots of achievements........all types of extra curricular one can do .....3 years of diverse experience.....Good and balance CAT score .....very well written form.......great case study show.............
OR MY 3 STUPID MISTAKES !!!!

Time will say all ......but one thing is sure this To Be or Not To Be Sucks....

XAT-2006... Excuse Me I am a NORMAL chap !!!

2006-01-08T23:23:00.000+05:30

When I left for the XAT today morning I never got a feel like going for a big exam ( though it is for one of the topmost B-School of India ). I was feeling like I was going out for a picnic (Which I missed yesterday at TCS)I reached the center about 9.15 am and roamed around for some time. Then I seen a sunday morning prayer going on in nearby church. There were no signs of opening of till 9.30 so I thought I will have some break and I entered the church. As usual church looked great ,like that I seen in many movies but havn't had any chance to get into.
I seen the paper at 10.00 am (thanks to supervisor giving it bit late) and shocked to see it was another version of CAT 2005. The number of questions were reduced badly and also there were instruction in bold which daunt you to refrain from guess work.
As usual I followed ENGLISH-DI-QUANT sequence. The paper was all crap. It was not new for me to see one or two sections coming out of box but here everything seemed comeing out of the De Bono's mind. I played it safely ......like batsmen who scored century in first innings have nothing to loose in second.
Now there is no fear that people will look to me like ABNORMAL guy scoring such a score in CAT........XAT is tough for me. It is indcation of me being NORMAL !!!

PS: If one gave close look to the paper it seems like paper set by the best brains of XAT to prove they can go more farther than CAT when it comes to setting up a challenging paper.

First Day @ GD/PI

2006-01-07T18:39:00.000+05:30

After last 3-4 jubilant days it is time to start with the serious business.
So today I cancelled the TCS picnic and headed towards TIME Andheri for first GD/PI session.
The session was informative and as ARKS was taking it it was full of passion.
When it come to teaching this guy is so passionate.

We had some dos and don'ts of GD followed with the MOCK GD in which I participated.
After long time this is my first GD

Topic : Excessive Exposure of female anatomy in ads should be banned ?
I discussion started by me went on and as usual I committed some mistakes
1.I started for the sake of starting......I shud avoid it.
One shud start only when one is damn sure that he understood the topic well and can direct the group for further discussion.
2. I was aggressive rather than assertive.
3. It's better to be contributor than dominator.
4. I took word ANATOMY wrongly.

So this is something I found out from my first GD ......There were few good things I displayed but at this point I am more interested in lacunas.

One more thing I observed in GD.... You make some mistakes just because you don't have control on it. I need to add this CONTROL factor.

That's it for the day
I have to work on my profile and also revise some MATHS so that I will do some justice on tomorrows XAT.

Magic Numbers !!!!

2006-01-06T22:51:00.000+05:30

Believe me if someone might have asked how much I can get in CAT I never ever replied more than 99, looking at the humillation from CAT last 2 years
Just have a look at this

CAT 2003 ----->78 PER
CAT 2004------>88 PER
CAT 2005------>99.7PER

I know no one will believe on this but thats the fact.... and the Magical Break Up is

DILR---97.7 VARC-98.16 QA--98.9

So what you call this .....I will surely call them MAGICAL NUMBERS !!!!
Sometimes they make you sometimes they break you.
Many of you will ask me what is a secret behind this ??
It is nothing but I just OPTIMIZED myself and the the BEST JUST CAME OUT !!!

Dream Come True Performance !!!!

2006-01-05T20:34:00.000+05:30

It was clear in last week of the DEC that the CAT result will be coming out in 1 st Week of Jan but I didn't had any idea about exact date. I decided to be ignorant towards it and to forget that I also have to give XAT on 8th atleast upto the New Year Party....
Last week of 2005 was awsome thanks to TCS I enjoyed 2 parties at office and one with friend on 31......it was like I was participating in some dancing festival......but believe me dance helps you to refresh a lot (provided u don't mixed it with drinks). After long time I was out of the burden of exams.....
Tejas told me on 31 that CAT result will be coming out on 2nd and my first reaction was why they want to spoil our New Year Party....but we thrown the worries in dustbin and went for party.
I never believed that result will come on time as it was nowhere mentioned other than Business Standerd but still I subscribed for the Broadband Net connection (apart from result I thought it will be good for GD/PI prep...) so that I can get the result at home rather than going anywhere else.
It's 12.30 AM on 3/01 when I first open IE and checked all IIM sites 2-3 times but almost all of them were not responding. Then I gave a try on 1.50 AM and got the IIM-C link......when the page opened it was like my hands quivering to enter my number and to press enter......
What I seen was IIM-C CONGRATULATING me.......I never ever seen such message in last 2 years......I given almost 10-12 B-Schools exam yet and all I seen was regreat Notes......I was so happy for a moment......there were no one around to share this great news but here come the great mobile revolution at 1.00 am in night I shared this news with all my near and dear.One thing was now clear for me I will be getting more call apart from C but no idea how many more. I put my bet on atlest 4.......so my curiosity was on its pinacle.....Next 1 hour I found myself refreshing all the IIM sites.
It was almost 2.10am now and no sign of any more results to come out. I thought the IIM people are sleeping now so I shud also do the same. I slept peacfuly. It was 6.00 am when I woked up.....ruhed to the PC and again the same exercise of refreshing the IIM and PG sites but nothing postive came out. I thought it's too early for IIM guys to wake up and I should also sleep......then I woked up at 8.30am first checked the PG and found IIM-A and L link now this was realy diffcult guys..... infront of me was IIM-A result.....I enetred the digits and what came out was again one more good news (These guys didn't used congratulations.....I found A people bit dry.......might be they want to do it when I will convert A). I rushed to L link and added one more to my kitty.......Yeppp I had 3 of them now.....Again one round of calls to all Near and Dears.....But why rest of 3 no mood of coming......I found I and K lazzy and B to wise thinking whom to call.Now I was damn sure about the K and I that they will follow the stalwarts selection but no hope of B considering it arbiterary call giving last year.....but somewhere I hoped they will also do the same.
I had little nap in afternoon and it was 3.00 PM when I got B result link from PG and it's also came out positive...later after 1 hour K and I also joined the party.
Yes I done it finally after the 2 years of humillating defeat by CAT I belled it !!! I was wearing BLACKI crown !!! What a start of New Year ......I never expected this much....but it all was outcome of my hard work...strong faith on God and Mama's blessing !! So guess which was first place I headed to......it was Ganapati Mandir in Nancy Colony.

XAT-2006 I am coming

2005-12-22T20:58:00.000+05:30

After the D-day on the 20/11/2005 thrown me on the edge of the CALL or NOCALL situation it was natural that the next 5 weeks goes in pondering over the if and but and breaking my head over the all possibilities finally I chosen my way.
First I thrown the all possibilities and the CUT OFF speculation to the dust bin and pulled up my socks for the next encounter and that's the XAT 2006.
Thanks to the 3 XAT papers give by IMS which will help me to identify the GRAY AREAS that I need to work on.
There will be 2 long weekends coming over next 2 week with some parties and picnics around the corner it will hard to stick to the books but I need to show some managerial guts by managing hard work with fun.....
After all I am shaping LEADER OF TOMORROW.

The BEST Bussiness Books of Year 2005

2005-12-22T20:46:00.000+05:30

Just gone through this article today .......
They said you should not miss them.
Why I should ??? One of them already finished partly. Will collect the rest of them and get
back to you !!!!
Still then Happy Reading for you !!!

Self Management-01-----> Just be COOL !!!

2005-12-13T00:17:00.000+05:30

As I already emphasized on the need of the Self Management and believe me I took it seriously also. You don't need to apply some stringent rules to achieve this but some close observation and introspection will always help you in identifying the gray areas. I think the time is also helping me to learn these lessons fast and last week was major contributor towards this....

I observed one thing that if you are some one who can easily get perturbed by the act or the behavior of the others then they will use it as weapon against you. On the other side if you are someone who never get affected by anyone or by any circumstances then it is hard for the others to make you suffer. I summed up this observation from the things happened with me over the last week. Just I lost control over something caused me to loose my patience, which resulted in the many things I just screwed up.

Take it as any exam or any condition in which you are stressed with the external things and these things just test limit of your patience. If you maintain cool under such circumstances then definitely there will be very few things that can affect you. So my first self Management Lesson is Ready.......

"JUST COOL" !!!!

That's it for the day.

The ALCHEMIST

2005-12-05T15:17:00.000+05:30

As I decided yesterday the first step towards my destination should be self-Management and cogitated over the steps I need to take towards it. Vinayak suggested me to go through a book The Alchemist and I finished it in 4 hours straight reading Â. and that also on the Sunday Night.....At the end of the book I realized that I gained a some wisdom from it (definitely less than what the Crossword CEO Shreeram guaranteed with the FULL REFUND in 15 Days Tag on the Book).
Here is what I would like to share with you ..

It's a story of a boy who always believe in his dreams and decided to become shepherd just to experience the world fullest. The same boy had seen a dream of a treasure near the Pyramid of Egypt at first he just neglected it as something that can NEVER BE ACHIEVED. Later on when the old lady and then King of Salem added some confidence in him he started believing that his dream can be achieved one day. During his journey towards his destination whenever he lost his belief and found him on the verge of almost relinquishing the idea of finding the treasure, the confidence added to him by the Old Man always reminded him his dream and brought him back on the right path.......Then he met the Girl at OASIS whom he felled in love with(This love is driven by the Language of the Universe....Not the laws of attraction) who again boosted his confidence to go and get his DESTINATION first (To much contradiction to the Modern Girls of Our Time?).

Then came the ALCHEMIST in picture and his wisdom, which underscore the boy's belief in Language of Universal. The story ends with the boy seeing his Dream come true!!! The GYAN from that 172 pages can be summarized as ......
1. Believe in your dreams.
2. You dream might be the futile for others but don't give up......It is precious to you.
3. Follow the omens (as per the old man's saying " All the things happening around you doing their best to lead you to your DREAM)
4. Never give up. (Look like clinch but thatÂs what the book tells you)
5. Never loose the larger picture of life indulging in trivial things.
6. Learn the language of the universe (This is the most baffling term used throughout the text...To make it easy I can coined it easy I can coined it as PURE LOVE)
So that's about the ALCHEMIST.
Should I go and ask my 195 bucks back????.....Surely NOT !!

I also picked the famous 'Five Point Someone' yesterday......Don't know how much it will add value......But 3 pages that I finished yesterday will definitely indicative of the one more good book on my list....

About Final Destination

2005-12-04T16:11:00.000+05:30

About the DESTINATION

I always found some qualities(some inborn and some intentionally acquired) inside me which always inspire me to go ahead in my field of interest. When I was in college I realized that I can bank on these qualities to build a successful career in the field of management.
So I decided my final destination as MANAGEMENT CAREER.....

Why MBA

This is favorite question for the aspirant facing a MBA interview and have varied answers.
For me MBA is value addition which metamorphose me from technocrat (Don't u think a clerk can best fit here?) of today to leader of tomorrow.
I know the good course from a reputed university will have no substitute here.
But should that be enough ?
Definitely not otherwise many great leaders haven't marked the pages of history.
I know one need to build oneself so that one can survive against the vagaries of time.
So journey should start from SELF.
I will rather say the first lesson of the management is SELF MANAGEMENT.

Why Blog

There are many reasons to start this blog few are listed below
1. I am inspired by Eric and his blog Beat the GMAT the way this guy keep the track of his GMAT prep and helped many others like me.
2. I realized there should be some tracking mechanism and found blog as best suited for this purpose.
3. I strongly believes "Success is not only the Destination but the Journey towards it". So just thought to share the joy of this journey with you.

What for YOU
1. I will be sharing my experiences about the preparation and about various tests.
2. I will update you about the happening in the areas of the ECONOMY and BUSINESS.
3. There will be some interesting articles and the discussions happening around for which you can get link from this blog.

So friends stay tuned.....