Hello,

Finally my CET gd/pi is over after a very long wait. My Gd batch was 10:15 - 11 am. I reached the college well bfore time at 9:15 am. We had fill up two forms which had the same steortyped questions like: fmaliy backgrnd , achievements , extra curricular , why MBA etc... had prepared these answers so it ws just a matter of using my engineering skills ( of copy and paste ) to good effect.

Our GD group was of eight students. We were given two topics: -

1. Free market 2. Caste system hampering nations growth

Our group chose th second topic. We were given 2 inutes to think initially , 15 min to discus and 3 min to summarise.

I initiated the GD by describing what does caste actually mean and the different types of it prevalent in our country. Later on i also spoke about the current reservation scenario in detail , Dr. ambedkar, plight of backward classes for the past 200 years , white v/s black in africa , america etc , marriage related problems , cultural diversity of our country , brain drain due to reservations....

The problem with our group was only 2 people were dominant speakers , myself and another OMS candidate. Others nodded to our point or mentioned a line or two in between. it was basically between the two of us. So as a group we didn't perform and a healthy DISCUSSION was missing due to non-partcipation of other members.

Our group also became silent in the 13th minute and then we were asked to summarize.

PI.

there were two panelists. A male panelist ( M ) and a feamle panelist ( F ).

As soon as i took my seat , they bombarded me .

M,F : - Being such a brilliant all round student , why do u want to do an MBA ? MBA is done by loafers. U should continue in computer stream and take up a JOB instead of an MBA

KK: - ( expected this question ) I told them calmly that doing an MBA will give more options in the JOB market. I wont be stricted to one particluar field.

M,F: - Being restricted in one field is very nice. U shudn't do an MBA .

KK: - ( took a deep breath ) Doing an MBA will help me diversify my role in the job market. I can always be a good manager in an IT firm.

M,F: - No u cant. two years later u will forget all the basics of LAN ,WAN ,modems etc.

KK: - I have taken computers as my optional subject since the ninth standard so i have in-depth knowledge about it. two years of an MBA will not erode this knowledge. plus i wil also learn about how to work in a businees environment.

M: - so which is ur next semester paper ?

kk : - robotics.

M:- what is robotics ,AI , cognitive theory , example of a robot , pattern matching , parity bit ?

kk : - answered all of them.

F:- do u read newspapers. name a few recent events ?

KK: - mentioned about stock market , PM's JnK visit , reservations , foot ball world cup

euphoria , ind - wi series.

F: - when and where is the football world cup hapeening ?

KK: - answered.

F:- what r ur views on reservations and what r u doing about it ?

KK: - answered.

F:- u have mentioned straight forward ness as ur weakness. i dont consider it as weak ness. give

me an example.

( i had to get in the magazine work into the PI )

KK: - told them about the magazine like budget , responsibilites etc. then told them that when i selected team of 12 people for the work 4 of 5 them worked only for the certificates. even though they conveyed their full support in the beginning, they betrayed me in the end.

M: - so what did u do ?

KK: - ( i had to lie as i haven't done anything so far but i was HURT to see the attitude of a few peole in my team) at the release of the magazine duing my speech i thanked only those who had worked and told those 4-5 GUYS personally about their mistakes.

M,F: - thank you!!!

I guess was interview was good as most of the questions were answered confidently. I need at least 30 out of 34 to have a shot at JBIMS.
waiting for the results on 10th june...

ADIOS

UPDATE

GD/PI date changed to 26th MAY....10:15 am slot....

adios...

UPDATE

GD/PI date changed to 26th MAY....10:15 am slot....

adios...

ANTI RESERVATION PROTEST

PROTEST RALLY
There will be a protest march outside Mantralaya on May 8th 2006 at 11 a.m. IST.
This is a call for action for all the students, parents, and individuals who stand up for their rights, and against inequality.
Be there and get yourself heard.
For further details, contact akanksha.rajput@gmail.com

ANTI RESERVATION PROTEST

PROTEST RALLY
There will be a protest march outside Mantralaya on May 8th 2006 at 11 a.m. IST.
This is a call for action for all the students, parents, and individuals who stand up for their rights, and against inequality.
Be there and get yourself heard.
For further details, contact akanksha.rajput@gmail.com

UPDATE abt my GD/PI schedulde

Well..i called up KJ Sommaiya office on wednesday morning 10 am....A male official told me to come any time between 10 and 6pm....and gave me asurety that my work will be done.....

To be doubly sure..i called them again at 10:30...and this time it was the same female phone operator who met me at sommaiya last time around.........

She bluntly replied that nothing can be one right now as they have dont have the database from the DTE....i pleaded with her on the phone to do my job but hse didnt budge and gave me example of a person who had come from PATNA, BIHAR and waas refused...

She asked me to contact them after 17th may 2006

The fight continues.............

COMMON MAN’s HASSLES

A Day in the life of a CET aspirant

A brief introduction: - My CET GD/PI is scheduled to be on 22nd May and centre is K.J. Sommaiya Management College at Vidyavihar. Last week our time table for our semester 8 exams was put up in college. Our exams are scheduled to be on 18th, 23rd (May), 1st and 6th (June).

With this time table in hand, i entered a very difficult situation. Which one to compromise, the semester exam or the gd/pi. I asked a few seniors, did a bit of research on pagalguy and few communities on orkut. With positive feedback that gd/pi dates can be rescheduled I decided to change my GD/PI date to a more convenient day preferably between 24th to 31st May.

Now here goes the story of 28th April…

Our college was a centre for submission of CET forms in February.

9:45 A.M.

I approached the concerned authority of my college. He is more commonly called as the ARC officer in CET lingo. He is a senior professor in Civil Department of our college. I explained him the reasons for my decision. He told me to approach the System Administrator (S.A) at the DTE office, Dhobi Talao (Next to St. Xaviers College). He also added that the S.A. was a very good friend of him and by taking his reference my work would be done immediately. I also enquired about S.A.’s availability for such cases and his response was that he sits in his office from 11 am till late in the evening. I couldn’t get hold of S.A.’s mobile no due to certain reasons our esteemed professor should know of.

10:15 A.M.

I had to go for G.E. medical check up as well with mandatory 12 hour fast before that. The hospital was near SEEPZ, Andheri (east) about 40 minutes by road from our college. The medical check was over within an hour and after having a light snack at the hospital, I continued my sojourn.

I reached St. Xavier’s College at 1: 30 P.M. In another 15 minutes of time I was able to locate the office of the concerned authority. One thing to be noted here is our government seems to lack in improvement of government offices. It was a total mess. With dim lights , creaking doors and fans , old wooden and partially broken furniture, stacks of file spread all over the office…welcome to the office of the most important person of CET admission process. I asked one madam about Mr. S.A. This was one of the setbacks of this tiring day. Her reply was that Mr. S.A. never comes to office before 3 P.M. and she also told me to go to the respective centre of GD/PI for any changes. At this point of time I was totally frustrated, was continuously hurling abuses at our ARC officer.

With determination of finishing off my work I decided to go Sommaiya College in Vidyavihar (about 30 minutes from V.T. station).

One of the best part about town side are the bookstalls on the footpath which sell books of various categories at very reasonable prices. After going through few bookstalls, I found the book I wanted to buy. The book is titled “The World is Flat”. I bought it for 75/- where as the showroom price is 700/-. Though by such acts I do encourage piracy but it also supports the families of thousands of economically backward families.

2:45 P.M.

I reached V.T. station and grabbed a much needed bottle of Maaza to quench my thirst. I boarded the local for Vidyavihar. During my journey I asked one of my friends to call up sommaiya and enquire about the procedure to do the needful. I got a reply that I have to reach college within 45 minutes with an application for the same. To save time I asked one of my fellow passengers to lend me a paper. I wrote down the application in the moving train.

3:30 P.M.

I reached Sommaiya college’s office. (15 out of 45 minutes were still left).For a change this air conditioned office resembled a company with latest upholsteries, nice seating arrangements for visitors etc. I quickly enquired the office staff about the person who needs to be approached to do my work. Here in I got my second shock of the day. He replied that NO CHANGES CAN BE DONE AT THIS POINT of TIME because they haven’t received any list from the DTE office. Their reasons were valid. Then I asked them about the person who is in-charge of handling phone calls to their office. They pointed to a place where no one was sitting and asked me to wait for a few minutes. I was disgusted and vented out my anger on them about how they mislead students. After 20 minutes the phone operator made her appearance at her desk. I quickly reached her desk and asked her about the phone call that was made by my friend. She recalled it within a few seconds. At this moment I could control my anger and started shouting at her. Surprisingly in a gentle tone she asked me to calm down. She asked me my problem. I told her about my confrontation with the officials. She explained to me politely that the concerned authority had just left and also scolded the official who tried to mislead me. She murmured to her colleague sitting next to her that these officials are total “GOVERNMENT BABUS”.

The above two words has made me write this blog. It is these people who are sitting in air-conditioned offices (the lucky ones) who take the common man for a ride. Be it our passport work, admissions etc. I do agree that there a few exceptions but most of them are not fulfilling their duties and hence making the common man suffer. The government seriously needs to get over such kind of a setup to help the common man meet its needs. There will always be a few “Connections or Jacks “which are always used by us to get our work done quickly. We sometimes do resort to paying bribes to get over things quick and fast. Corruption runs in our blood which also needs to stopped immediately. Every individual should take the responsibility of removing social evils in our country. Lets put in our little efforts to make this country a better place to live in. There’s lots of work to be done…………………………………….

PS: - Well the phone operator has again called me on Wednesday. Let’s hope that the mission is accomplished. I am totally dejected and tired after spending so many hours in the relentless heat of the sun.

Reservation

The government of India has again passed an atrocious judgement....27% quota for the OBC...when we already have 22.5% for SC/ST...why do we need more...why cant the OBC's be included in this quota....

The HRD ministry says that the problem can be tackled by increasing the no. of seats...........is it the solution ...i dont think so....IIM's rarely increase their intake....even if they increase 50-60...its only 30 seats for people in open category....

If they want the development of SC/ST's , OBC's wyh not oother castes like EBC's , Dalits.....etc....

In near future we may have state wise quotas at permier institutes which will again take back INDIA 100 years back......

When reservations started in 1950 ofr SC/ST's it was meant only for 5 years.....but after every 5 years the political parties have used it to gain votes....and hence it hasn't gone out of our system..........

Then in 1978 we had the Mandal Committee which proposed the 27% for OBC...........

I do agree that 50-60% of our population are from various classes ..... but how many of them are really back ward....

we have a few students in our own class who r from backward classes but economically they are very affluent.....they have sharp minds ...so why is the need of reservation for peole like them....
It really pinches me when they dont have to pay their college fees...instead they get a few thousabd bucks from college....isnt it unjustice.........????...coz there r students in open category who have financial prblms but still have to shell out 50000/ every year................

With this kind of situation prevailing in INDIA...in future the brains of our country wud rather to go to foreign countries and study.....atleast they will be given better treatment than their home country...............

Why doesnt government come up with reservation for the opne category .... atleast the reserved classes wont be able to eat up our seats in that quota...........

i am really feeling ashamed that i am a part of this country where government stoop to such low levels for politics............

adios

Three days of mayhem and madness

The last three days of my life have been very exciting. They have given my life a different direction and made me hopeful of achieving my dreams of doing an MBA.

DAY 1

I won’t be able to forget this day very easily. I never knew how crazy I was for cricket. Day 4 of the test match between India and England at the wankhede stadium gave us some hopes of an Indian win. Most of us thought that it will be a draw but the prospect of watching world class batsmen the whole day at the stadium was hard to be missed.

We had a group of 25 friends who were willing to go to the stadium. All of them were given different time slots to reach the stadium. The experienced ones(those who know the tricks to take tickets) were asked to reach the ticket counter at 7:30am in the morning. I was one of them.

I reached the counter hoping for a small queue but the process of taking the tickets over the next few hours was troublesome to say the least. We found a few juniors from our college in the line. They were very close (100 people ahead of them…considering that there were at least 2000 people in the queue) to the counter. Some of us managed to get into the line along with our juniors.

I didn’t stand in the queue. All of a sudden people started pushing from behind. There was total chaos going on. Line was meandering and breaking at various places. I seized my opportunity and got ahead of my friends by a decent margin.

Suddenly the police started lathi-charging to manage the crowd. Luckily I was standing on the inner side of the line. I didn’t get hurt. But due to this dastardly act a stampede occurred. The situation was worse than local train. I had 2600/- in my hand along with the Indian flag. I was getting crushed. I didn’t know what to do as I was blocked from all sides. Then there was a huge push from behind and I fell down along with couple others. In a few seconds 20 people were all over me. I was really scared then. Every one was shouting that I would die. Somehow a few people managed to pull me out of that. I was gasping for breath. It was a lucky escape. This incident pushed me ahead in the line and after a few more minutes of struggle I was able to get 13 tickets of North stand.

I was totally drenched in sweat with my t-shirt totally crumpled along with a few bruises on my hand. It was like returning home after a battle. After another hour of struggle our friends were also able to get the tickets.

We thought that we will get a good match after having such a horrific time. But the Indian team disappointed us again at the wankhede. I guess they have made a habit of losing at wankhede. I have never witnessed an Indian win at this stadium. Lets hope that they give us better performance at this stadium in future.

I would also like to wankhede officials to be more considerate to the spectators. One ticket window for 20000 people and the poor state of the stadium shows that they are unconcerned about it. I would never ever do the daring act of taking the tickets again in my life.

DAY 2

After a tiring day at the stadium, I was feeling very drowsy on Thursday morning. At 11 am CET results were going to be declared. But as expected they were released a few hours before. My friend told me about my percentile and my marks. For the first time in 3 months an MBA entrance exam result brought a smile to my face. I had scored 137/200 with a 99.3 percentile. With abysmal performance in CAT, XAT and FMS.. I was disappointed with my self. The CET result has given me hopes of getting into JBIMS. Let’s hope it comes true.

We were also celebrating TIE and SAREE day in our college OR more commonly known as ROSE day. This was our last Rose day. We wanted to celebrate it to the max. Our group of friends decided to play pranks with our college mates. We succeeded in most of our endeavors. We also enjoyed the songs that were played by the DJ. We also dedicated a few songs and danced a lot. Our group enjoyed this day a lot.

DAY 3

On Thursday afternoon I received information that G.E. (general electric) is coming to campus for placed as well as unplaced students. There was another rule that the placed students will have to forfeit their previous job if they get through. This was very tricky. The whole Thursday evening and night went into discussions that should I leave TCS for GE or not. I spoke to my sister, father, friends, MBA students plus a senior working in TCS. I was totally confused. One decision that I could make was that I will sit through the process. It will at least help me get GD/PI practice for JBIMS.

I reached the SPJAIN auditorium at 9am in the morning. Most of my friends who were present were confused. The pre-placement talks started at 9:45. I was impressed by the versatility of G.E. After the PPT, I asked many questions to the G.E. panel. I got satisfactory responses to my queries.

I took the aptitude test. The test went-off well. I was sure of clearing it but unsure of leaving TCS for GE. The next was GD round. The topic was very simple – “ How can today’s youth fight corruption “. I was very vocal. After the GD I was confident of getting through this round as well. At this point of time I made decision that G.E. would be better for me TCS. They can be listed as follows: -

1. No bond. TCS has a 2 year bond.
2. Pay package of 2.75 lacs plus perkrms TCS – 2.03 lacs

I have to pursue an MBA after all. The amount of work-experience is the sole criteria for MBA. So working in GE or TCS won’t make a difference.

The brand name of GE is much more than TCS. It has revenue 20 times that of TCS.
I won’t be benched at GE. They recruit only few engineers whereas TCS hires in bulk. There is a high probability that engineers get benched at TCS due to lack of projects.

I got thru the GD round and then gave an almost perfect interview barring a few technical questions.

In the end 6 people from our college got through GE. I was really happy. It was another very tiring day. The process got over at 10 pm. I reached home and hit the bed until I realized that I have to back in college the next day to fill up some GE form.

Adios.

Jumbo Point

Well.....please dont let your imaginations run wild by thinking of some monument or historical structure created for our dear Anil Kumble.....

It is actually a point on the andheri-kurla road where flights descend to land on the run-way..

The flights are about 30-40 feet above us and to see a plane so close to us makes for exhillirating view....

The best time to go that place is betwwen 11 - 11:30 PM where the frequency of flights landing at the aiport is about a minute....

The whole process of seeing a shining tiny object approaching us in the distant sky and then turning into a big- jumbo aircraft as it approaches is truly mind-boggling...

I had gone over there last night along with a few family friends.... this was my first visit...

At this point , if we stand on a double decker bus and or stand on the roof of a two- storey building ... i am 100% sure that we will be able to get a free ride on the aircraft till the airport -: )

So if u have free time in the wee hours of the night ... please go to this place....coz i am regretting for not going to this point earlier .....

adios.....