Our UK Visa experience & the trip that ALMOST never happened...

Blogging after a long time - stemming from 3 aspects - encouragement from friends, the need for people to know about a true, almost impossible experience, and of course - awakening of my old desires to write! :)

As a family, we had 8 trips out of India till now, some of them of course before we had our daughter. Planning for most trips for us starts anywhere between 2-4 months in advance, especially if it is a trip where we have lot of sightseeing, multiple city stops, etc. Having gone through this many times now, we started becoming reasonably confident of planning trips - so much so that this time for Trip No 9 - in 2019, we comfortably delayed it.

The trip was once again to be initiated on the same day our daughter finished off with school - right after her birthday - for around 10-12 days. We find this as a shoulder season for most countries and hence are comfortable around this time of the year. We zeroed in on UK after creating itineraries for 3 other countries, only to land up cancelling them either due to cost, festival times (making it very crowded in these places), or some other reasons. London had been on my mind for some time but given the possible expense involved, we perhaps had never gone ahead with it.

As usual I simultaneously researched availability of flights, about the visa, accommodation, etc. Things seemed favorable. One of my ex-colleagues and a very good friend - Rithika Sundaram had also studied in London, so she was obviously our main go-to person for planning the trip.

Planned Trip Dates: 29th March departure; Arrive back on 11th April
Itinerary comprised first 5 nights at London and subsequent 6 nights at Scotland across 3 places.

Till now every Visa process had asked us to show our flight tickets as proof before the Visa was approved. Hence for this too, we went ahead and booked our flight tickets on 19th February on Yatra.com. Carrier - Emirates. Return cost - INR 40k per person - Total INR 1.2 Lakhs.

Post this, we started assorting all documents required for our Visa process. There were 3 different applications involved for me, my wife Resha and our daughter Aashna (yes, there was no concession for children!). In our previous 3 trips to Europe, the Schengen was a process mediated by VFS, the agency which coordinates with embassies and provides Visa for a whole lot of countries. Only now, I realized that in this case, VFS was simply an intermediary and had no role in even informing / advising you whether your submitted documents are correctly provided or not.

The process:
- After assorting all documents required, we made 3 applications for Standard Visitor Visa into the wee hours of the night of February 28th - on www.gov.uk. (24 page form! -  in which we had to enter the travel history for each of our international trips and other work trips out of India).
- Each of the 3 visas cost us around GBP 95  (approx. INR 8550) - total INR 25650.
- The earliest appointment date we got to visit VFS and submit our biometrics was March 5th.
- Needless to say, as we noticed, the entire process was facilitated in a way such that one would end up shelling out a whole lot of money. To simply take your documents to VFS and get them scanned into the system had a charge of INR 500 per person. Thankfully Gov.UK had introduced a new method of self-uploading one's documents online and that's what we did. Before our appointment on March 5th, we had all our documents uploaded online, under each of 3 separate accounts, with proper file names. Anyone who is reading this and knows me well, would know how much care and precision I would take when doing this. To have the documents checked once, there was a charge of INR 500 per person, for which we paid for Resha and me. We also paid INR 500 per person for getting the visa couriered to our Bangalore address directly, rather than picking it up from the VFS office.

Having read up a lot online, I knew that 15 working days was the standard time to receive this Visa. But none of our Visa applications had taken so long, hence we were chill about it. To note: Taking the so-called Priority (processing time - 5 working days) or Super Priority Visa services (processing time - 1 working day) was out of question given the price at which they were offered :) - Priority was around INR 20k per person and Super Priority was around INR 86k per person.

One important point - I now started noticing that at every place in Gov.uk, the embassy advised the applicants NOT to book flights before receiving the Visa. That was quite odd, since the application check-list of documents did ask for travel plans (flight tickets etc.) It meant that if one did not have the flight tickets booked, but only 'blocked' - that would work. However we ignored this since there was no way one could only 'block' tickets in India.

March 5th: We reached VFS at the scheduled time. Discovered that online document upload option was very new and everyone was pleasantly surprised that we opted for it. Despite this we waited for around 3 hours for our turn with the VFS agent. When our turn came, as I had read, the VFS agent simply checked our main travel document - the passport and our travel history - that's all. He told us that VFS was just a 'coordinator' in this process and could not influence the decision / advise on the documents. He plainly looked into the system and told us that our uploaded documents were received. 15 working days was the standard timeline - which landed somewhere around March 26th. Needless to say, I knew that I simply landing up paying the 'document checking charges' for Resha and me.

The wait: All we had to do now was have some patience . In the meanwhile we had been booked our BnBs for the places we were staying, intermediate flights, etc. I checked up on the normal Visa processing rate in India in recent times and saw that 94% of the Visas were processed within 10 days. (Refer: https://visa-processingtimes.homeoffice.gov.uk/y/bangalore-india/visits-visas/all). We had not applied for the SMS service of VFS (again INR 500 per person) since we were reasonably confident. I also read up online that at every stage of the process, one would normally get an online email informing that the documents were received / a decision was made / passport was dispatched, etc. However of course, no person in the process would know whether the visa was approved or not - until you received the sealed envelope and broke the seal open yourself to see the visa stamp on your passport / read the rejection letter enclosed.

For a week nothing happened. Then on 14th March evening, the three of us received 3 emails (in a span of 1 hour odd) that 'our application was received at the UK embassy'. It mentioned the standard timeline of 15 working days. We were a bit worried, since it took 9 days to get this first email itself. We stopped booking any additional sightseeing trips or other things for the trip as of now and decided to do it only after we got the final confirmation email.

The next communication to us was a surprising one - on 20th March evening I received a call from VFS Bangalore, asking us to resend our documents since they were 'not very clear'. The person on call gave me a standard UK Visa VFS email id for this. Following this, we diligently re-scanned some of our documents (which we thought possibly could be 'not very clear'), assorted them into folders and emailed them to the given IDs within the next 3 hours. I also repeatedly called VFS on the same number I had received a call from, but in vain. The following day, on 21st March evening, we got an email on the same id that our documents had been received and had been forwarded to the UK embassy.

There was only 1 week to go now and we were tense. We decided to reach the UK embassy directly - there were 2 ways to do this as per their website - call / email. Both incurred certain charges. We decided to email first - approx. charge of GBP 6 for the first email. We put in our query in an elaborate format and sent the email. We received a reply in around 3 hours - reply was standard. All 3 applications have been received and are in process. We had mentioned that we have a flight scheduled on 29th March, to which there was no concern shown. It was mentioned 'You are advised not to book your flights or accommodation until your visa gets approved'. 

Nothing happened over the subsequent 2 days since it was a weekend.

Week of 24th March

We spent the weekend packing our luggage. Regardless of what happened, we had to be ready in all other areas, we thought. Monday 24th March passed with no sign of any email. We could not resist checking our phones every minute for any email received from VFS / UK Embassy - but there were none.

Resha woke me early morning on Tuesday 25th March. We had received two automated emails sent from VFS - at around midnight - one for my daughter Aashna and one for me - stating that 'our processed visa applications were received at VFS and would be couriered accordingly'. There was no email for Resha though. That morning we decided to make our first call (call charges GBP 1.5 per minute above the standard call rate from India). The agent at the other end told us that 2 applications were processed and the passports would be received within the next 3-4 days. Resha's application however was still under process. I didn't get it - when we applied together as a family and our 3 applications were filed together by the VFS agent on 5th March - why was Resha's application processed separately?

Surprisingly our 2 passports were received on the same day in the afternoon by around 3 15 PM - were sent as expected by Blue Dart from Chennai. That would mean that they were couriered the previous day itself - before we received the automated email from VFS.

Since there was no further sign of Resha's passport, we decided to flood VFS and UK Embassy with emails and calls. I sent a number of emails to VFS (the earlier email id they had shared with us) and also followed up on our email to UK embassy (follow up emails thankfully were not charged). Unfortunately we did not receive a reply to any of the emails. We now started getting crazy thoughts - postponing the holiday, cancelling / rescheduling flights, cancelling accommodation etc. The money loss would potentially be huge!

Wednesday 27th March: In the evening, Resha calls the UK embassy again (same call charges as I stated earlier). She gets a reply saying that 'a decision has been made. Passport should be on the way soon'. This was a small ray of hope for us, and possibly since 2 of our passports had reached us the next day after being couriered, we thought the third one would reach us in a similar manner.

Unfortunately for us, there was no other email we received like the automated one earlier. On Thursday 28th March, we called the UK embassy early morning once again, to only receive a similar reply that the decision was made and that the passport should ideally arrive any moment now. The replies seemed to be in line with all other calls, but there was no sign of the passport. That morning we hence decided to go to the Bangalore VFS office. We weren't really sure whether we would be let in inside the office for this, however we somehow made our way through. The VFS team were cooperative and looked up on our case - but the answer was not very convincing. 'The decision seems to be taken, but the passport is still with the embassy, hence VFS cannot do anything about it. We cannot influence the embassy to send it sooner. Looks like the logistics process - in scan and out scan is taking more time'.

By this time now I had also started looking up on Emirates and trying to build a plan B - of which we had not thought of at all until maybe a day before this. We had to go through Yatra.com to make any changes since that's where we had booked the flights. We called the UK embassy once again in the evening for one last time but it just resulted in a similar answer. We were also closely monitoring Blue Dart since that's where the passports were couriered (Visa Application number could be directly used to trace the passport), but again this was in vain. The night of 28th March - up and until around 2 30 AM on 29th March - was spent talking to Yatra.com on possibilities of cancelling / rescheduling, understanding what does a 'no-show' mean, etc. The agent told us that we had to call Yatra.com for the rescheduling / cancelling process latest by noon on 29th March / around 5-6 hours before the flight departed to do any changes since the process by itself would take an hour or so.

Friday 29 March (read on for the craziest day of our life!)

There was no sign of any email till now. Our luggage was packed and ready in one corner of the house. Resha was off from work. I had to go to work and we had to send Aashna to school. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 8:10 PM.

For one last attempt - we decided to spent the morning in two key places - a visit to the VFS office again and the Blue Dart office nearest to our home in Bellandur, Bangalore - to where we had traced the previous 2 passports from. This was only to satisfy a small corner of our brains which still thought that it would happen.

Now by the clock:

10 30 AM: Resha calls me from the VFS office when I was at work. The answer was the same as what we had received the previous day. Passport was still with the embassy and they 'weren't sure' when it would be back. I ask her to go to Blue Dart and wait there to check whether it comes till noon, but Resha isn't convinced - in fact we both kind of know that our last chance had passed.

11 45 AM: I am in conversation with my office colleagues that we are postponing or cancelling the trip. My colleagues start giving me other ideas on rerouting the flights / checking other options etc. Resha calls to tell me that she has reached home and will begin the rescheduling process with Yatra.com on their Customer Contact number at noon. I have a meeting in office at noon, so we discuss what's to be done before that and wave the existing, planned trip a final goodbye. There have to be some changes now.

1 PM: I am done with my meeting and call Resha again. She is now on the call with Yatra.com and they are looking at flight options. She tells me to also look at other options since there seem to be no Emirates flights available. I get on Hangout chat with Resha and start looking at flight options. All options seem freaking expensive!

1:10 PM - 7 hours to the flight departure: (Kahaani mein twist): I get a call on my cell from a Chennai landline number, surprisingly it is a person from VFS Chennai. He confirms Resha's application details and tells me that her passport will be sent by the evening at 5 PM - & will reach Bangalore next day morning at 11 AM at our house by courier. I heave a sigh of relief - finally - at least there is some communication now! I ask him if it is possible to get it any sooner since our flight is in the evening today - he says not really but mentions that he can try and arrange for it at their office by 2 30 - 3 PM. He asks if it is possible for me to come to Chennai and collect it (while we had suggested this earlier to VFS, this was the first person who said that it is possible).

(I mentally make a note and start searching for flights as I am talking to him - there is a SpiceJet flight at 5 PM from Chennai to Bangalore but there was no flight before that from Bangalore to Chennai - and even if there was one at 2 or 3 PM, it was almost impossible to get to the airport in time before the flight from where my office was located).

I told the VFS guy that it was not possible, and also asked if I can have it collected from someone else in Chennai. He said yes and that I would need to authorize that person by sending an email to VFS / Embassy email IDs (which he later shared with me). He said I would need to get back by 1:30 PM (next 7 min) as the embassy was closing on Friday at that time.

I put the phone down, called Resha and asked her to think of someone who can get the passport. I also asked my team members. But there really was no one we knew who could come at such a short notice. While I was searching, I half composed a draft email in Gmail authorizing a person X to pick up the passport. But since we could not think of anyone by 1 30 PM, I called up the VFS landline number again (our guy was waiting for my call) and told him that it is not possible to send someone and that he can courier the passport at 5 PM in the evening. Having said this, I hung up and resumed my work / finding flights to reschedule (Resha was still with Yatra.com on hold at the other end).

1:45 PM: My team member Santosh Badana walks to me. He says, 'Ashish - you know - I think I have found a person who can collect the passport from Chennai. But it is too late now right - the embassy must be closed'.

I looked at him with disbelief. I didn't waste any further time. Immediately called the Chennai VFS number (our guy was still at the landline!) - asked him if there was still some time and well - he said he can check with his manager and come back. In 2 min the guy came back and told me it is possible and that I will have to send the 2 emails as he had mentioned earlier. This time I took our VFS guy's name - Karthik R.

I asked Santosh to tell the person (his friend's friend) to send me his exact name as per some proof (PAN Card, Driving Licence, etc.) of Government of India. Without the proper name, I was not ready to send his name to VFS. Took a few minutes - I got his friend on my WhatsApp and he sent me his PAN Card snapshot. I took the name and keyed it in the email I had drafted and sent it to the two IDs given by VFS. The name - Roshan Thomas Mathew.

Simultaneously I pinged Resha on Hangouts to cut the Yatra.com call and that we had found someone. (for some good reason the Yatra.com rescheduling process had not yet completed!).

(I really did not know what had gotten into me at this point. There were so many unknown variables in what could happen in the next 3-4 hours, but I think at this juncture we could only hope for the best and take a shot in the direction this was going for us)

2:10 PM: I call up Roshan and we start figuring out Chennai geography. VFS office was in Egmore, an hour away from Roshan's house. I tell Roshan to leave immediately - he will need to get to VFS office, meet Karthik, get the passport and then leave to the airport, which was 45 min from Egmore.

2:15 PM: I start booking Roshan's flights. He preferred a return on the same day. It took me some time to do this too, since some of the websites gave some errors. By 2:30 PM I finally had the flights booked (cost me INR 28k - but well - if we had even thought of cancelling or rescheduling, the cost would have been INR 1.5 lakhs +).
I send the itinerary to Roshan on email, SMS and WhatsApp to be certain. He would come to Bangalore in the same SpiceJet flight I had spotted earlier, reaching Bangalore at 5 45 PM.

2:30 PM: I call Karthik and tell him about the plan and that Roshan would be there at around 3 PM to collect the passport.

2:35 PM: I call Resha and tell her the entire plan. We were jittery, but she decided to keep everything ready till then.

2:45 PM (5.25 hours to the flight departure): I leave from office to home having giving Santosh a big hug! (normally takes me around 45 min to an hour to reach home)

While I was on the way, Resha picked Aashna from school and kept everything ready at home. 

I call Roshan thrice on the way (the poor guy must have been bugged with the OCD that I am!). I also call Karthik but this time no one picks up the landline at VFS. I am a bit jittery again.

3:10 PM: Roshan reaches VFS. He calls to tell that it is a big building and to ask where would he need to go. I tell him 'UK Visas', and leave him to figure out the rest. I tell him to keep the phone on and to send me a snapshot of the name on the envelope once he gets it since I don't want him landing in Bangalore with the wrong passport ;). In the next 10 min, Roshan meets Karthik and awaits the passport packet.

3:20 PM: Roshan WhatsApps me the photo of the packet containing the passport with Resha's name. I scream in delight (still driving so control myself somehow!). Roshan messages saying that is already on the way to the airport.

3 30 PM: I reach home and start making remaining arrangements. It was good that we had our luggage packed.

4 PM: I call Roshan, he tells me that he has just entered the airport. I order an Uber for us.

4 20 PM (3 hours 50 min to the flight departure): We leave for the airport.

(On the way, we don't speak much. We are amazed that so much happened in the last few hours but are quite jittery. None of our friends, parents yet know where we are - most of them would by now be thinking that we have postponed or cancelled. We still don't know what will happen - as we might get the passport but there is still a 0.01% chance that the Visa is rejected...)

Roshan messages me at 4 50 PM to tell me that he had boarded the flight.

6 PM: We reach the Bangalore airport. Roshan's flight has landed, but he is still to come out. We wait at Pizza Hut and I call to tell him the same. His WhatsApp had a group photo so we had no idea of his appearance.

6:10 PM (2 hours to the flight departure): Roshan walks out and finally meets us. He hands over the envelope with the passport. Resha breaks it open.

The passport has the UK Visa stamp.

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As I embark the Dubai to London flight now after our wait at Dubai, I think of the aftermath. Calls to parents, repeating the story to so many people, etc. Few hours back we could not have even thought that we were going on our holiday - but now we were - with absolutely NO change in our plans. Besides the Almighty of course, I only have 3 people to thank for it:

1: Santosh Badana (my team member, who then went on to manage all office activities in my absence and did a brilliant job)

2: Karthik R (the VFS guy on the phone whom I want to thank, but couldn't reach later. He was one of the few guys who really 'made it happen' despite all processes and roadblocks)

3: Roshan Thomas Mathew (our messenger from God who brought Resha's passport in one piece with the much needed stamp :))


Leaving you guys with a final pic at the Bangalore airport (Mr Mathew in blue) :)

Now looking forward to making the best of our trip! :)

The truth about earning in dollars!

A very interesting read - though this article is about four years old, Rashmi captures life in US vis-a-vis life in India to the best extent. I can associate with the thoughts even though I havent been to the US - simply because I have seen people around me who have done so - either gone there and settled, or gone there and come back post some time, or have preferred to be in India. The article touches upon the mind-frames of all three categories.

Enjoy, if you have a few minutes to spare...


There are two ways to look at a foreign salary -- the Catholic and the Protestant.

The first is characterised by a missionary zeal to convert using the rupees-multiplied-by-43.8-times formula ingrained in every self-respecting Indian head.

Which is how $110,000 achieves the headline-grabbing status of 'Rs 50 lakh!'

But, protests the economist, how far does that Rs 50 lakh go in a foreign land?

What you have to look at, then, is Purchasing Power Parity. The theory of purchasing power parity says that, in the long run, exchange rates should move towards rates that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in any two countries.

Duh. Despite having acquired, at some point in life, a BA in Economics, I have no idea what that means.

Purely in layman's terms, how much bang for the buck? Well, says the World Bank, $150,000 fetches you a Rs 50-lakh lifestyle if you reside in India.

In the US, the same $150,000 is actually equivalent to earning Rs 18.7 lakh.

The Economist's famous 'Big Mac index' makes it easy to understand. A hamburger costs $2.90 in the US, but $1.10 in India. Take that, you dollar-earning desi!

Beyond economics

Of course, the real picture is far more complex. Despite what the Big Mac index might indicate, an 'upwardly mobile' lifestyle in India is more expensive.

If your family decides to have Kellogg's cornflakes for breakfast everyday in India, it will work out to about 4 boxes or Rs 500 a month.

An American family, on the other hand, would spend about $20 a month for the same breakfast.

Given that a reasonably well-to-do Indian family earns Rs 50,000 a month, it spends 1% on its cornflakes! Whereas the reasonably well-to-do American family earning $5,000 a month spends only 0.4% from the mahine ka budget. That's way, way cheaper.

So despite being a supposedly 'poor' economy, we have higher relative prices -- dollar prices -- for many commonly consumed goods. Food and petrol, in particular.

Although, conversely, we can afford bais and drivers, dry cleaning and nice haircuts. There is always a trade-off!

Living like a desi

How much dosh you have stashed away in the bank depends on how you choose to live.

If you are earning a dollar/ pound salary and your objective is to 'save', you live an Indian lifestyle in a foreign land.

This means eating mostly at home/ shopping at Kmart/ Wal-mart; thinking 10 times before making an impulse buy (out pops the conversion calculator: 'I can get this cheaper in India. Forget it!')

This is an attitude typical of the just-set-foot-on-foreign-shore worker, especially on an H1-B visa. And there's nothing wrong with it. Four-five dudes share a cramped apartment, live frugally and save a pretty packet by the time they head back home.

And even though they may have lived in what the Chicago or London native might consider as Mira Road and eaten at the US equivalent of Udipi joints, the experience of living in the First World is reward enough the first-timer. Clean air, wide roads, 'systems' that seem to work.

But, should s/he decide to stay on longer, the immigrant will be tempted to buy in to the host country's way of life. You shop to 'feel good' about yourself and, eventually, being the thriftiest shopper in town loses its charm.

So one fine day you decide to buy the Polo shirt costing $100, even if your mom thinks you are crazy because you could buy five shirts for the same money back home. Earlier, you moved, geographically. Now, you have arrived, mentally.

That dollar salary will never feel quite as weighty again.

Resident Non-Indians

On the other hand, living in India -- even for the guy with the Rs 18 lakh salary -- has its own hidden cost.

Money provides some insulation -- but the stress of working in First World conditions but living in Third World ones is inevitable. You can fiddle with a Blackberry [suit] in the backseat of an A/C chauffeur driven car.

But you are in Saki Naka, stuck in a trademark traffic jam, with a beggar tap-tapping furiously at your window.

The airport -- which sees more of you early in the morning than your spouse does -- seriously sucks. As does the fact that a substantial portion of the taxes the government earns from you end up as employment guarantee scheme for politicians.

Par kya karen, yeh hai India. So we 'adjust', grin and bear it.

At least we now have multiplexes and megamalls to hang out at, no?

The hidden price

Of course, living abroad may result in a postcard perfect 'Big Picture'. But life is made up of a million little things. And, at that level, regrets remain.

A friend who has spent most of his post-IIT life in the US -- a good 12 to 15 years -- noted on a recent visit that he really enjoyed visiting Chinese restaurants in India. "Because you can taste the food," he said wryly. "Everything there is so bland... so American."

Another friend says she misses the sights and smells of the sabzi markets in India. "The veggies there are so fresh, it feels like abhi zameen se nikle hain." American tomatoes, she insists, are huge and red, but absolutely insipid.

On a more serious note, there's the issue of parents. Growing old and lonely, often not in the best of health. Move here, you insist. But they resist.

The world is a 'global village' where India is just a mouse click away.

You buy the folks a computer with a broadband connection.

And life goes on.

The economics of emigration

Is where you live about geography, or a state of mind?

Well-known journalist Thomas Friedman has just authored a new book on globalisation titled, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

In an article in the The New York Times Sunday Magazine, he writes, 'Only 30 years ago, if you had a choice of being born a B student in Boston or a genius in Bangalore or Beijing, you probably would have chosen Boston, because a genius in Beijing or Bangalore could not really take advantage of his or her talent.'

Now, he argues, anyone with smarts, access to Google and a cheap wireless laptop can join the innovation fray. 'When the world is flat, you can innovate without having to emigrate.'

With all due respect to Friedman -- a brilliant writer with a mostly credible theory -- emigration will continue.

Despite anecdotal evidence exchanged at cocktail parties about young people who would rather stay back in India than go abroad, the fact remains that every Indian who enrols at Penn State or Sheffield University is a potential immigrant.

The Japanese or Koreans are not.

The odd Westerner will make India his/ her home, often citing the warmth received from the Indian people.

The majority of middle class Indians, given a chance, will make the West their home, despite the cold reception.

Suketu Mehta, in his scintillating book, Maximum City, analyses the situation as only an Indian can.

'Every summer, waves of Indians living overseas come back or send back little pictures: of their son in front of the new 52-inch TV; their daughter sitting on the hood of the new mini van; the wife in the open-plan kitchen... the whole family laughing together in the small backyard pool, their 'bungalow' in the background.'

These pictures plant little time bombs in the minds of siblings left behind, he writes. 'They hold the pictures and look around their two-room flat in Mahim and, suddenly, the new sofa and 2-in-1 Akai stereo look cheap and shabby in comparison.'

Hope floats

In the 1980s and 1990s, the IITs were associated with 'brain drain'.

Now, reports of dollar salaries of IIM graduates hit the headlines. But the real story lies elsewhere.

These handful of graduates studying in near world class institutions will be in demand whether in India or abroad. There will be some initial heartburn -- bhala usko mujhse better paying job kaise mila -- but in the medium to long term, things usually even out.

And staying on in India -- where your company values you enough to put down a Rs 50-lakh deposit for a house in Napean Sea Road -- is a very smart option.

The real appeal of 'foreign' lies for those who graduate from the second and third rung institutes. Job mil jayega but not one with fast enough growth or large enough goodies.

Going abroad, for them, is the only means of achieving quick and easy economic salvation.

So, at great personal risk, they beg, borrow and pay their way into not-so-well known universities. And then fight for a job to recover the several lakhs 'invested'.

By and large, the strategy seems to work.

And dollar dreams will continue to pound in India's head.

(authored by Rashmi Bansal)
Source: http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/apr/11rashmi.htm

Mind your punchline!

Sometimes I just dont get company punchlines. They never seem to be aligned with their principles, and the value they provide to the customers.

Here are two examples from companies I have interacted with, and experienced:

Vodafone - 'Happy to help you'

WTF? None of my friends have ever agreed to that line. I mean - its not just a line right, there has to be more meaning to it. Dozens of times when I have called up Vodafone Customer Care, and have had long wait periods, calls being connected from one department to another etc etc. The last time I did it was last week - I had to cancel my Gurgaon connection (I am in Bangalore presently) - so I call up Vodafone (toll free 111). So they first tell me that this isnt the Postpaid Department, so they will connect me to the required one. I wait online for the same - then I get onto another agent. However he tells me that this is a Karnataka connection, and advises me to call an NCR Customer Care number.

I then call the new number, and await for the umpteenth time while the IVR finishes, then I explain to the new Service agent I find about the cancellation and whaddaya know - he again says this is not the Postpaid Department, so I will connect you across. I wait, wait and wait - no sign of the phone being picked up. Tired - I hang up. (Remember that the NCR number now isnt toll free for me). I call back after an hour or so - finally get an agent, convince him to do the job fast - but the problem aint done with rite - he tells me no one is available in the Postpaid Department - hence he will forward my request and I will get a call within 24 hours. A week passed by - there was no call from them. I gave them a call yesterday - went through more shit - finally he assured me that the connection would be terminated in two hours.

Wait - there is more - he also told me that in order to recover the security deposit of Rs 250 (which I paid 2 years back) - I will have to submit a written application to a Vodafone store, and go along with an address proof, ID proof blah blah. Oh hang on - not to a Karnatake store, but one in NCR. Hello - whatever happened to globalization!


HDFC Bank - 'We understand your world'

When you choose such a punchline - you have to see to it that you completely cater to the customer demands. Now I dont have any other problem with HDFC service - just that there is always one fear when you visit an HDFC ATM - that the card may remain stuck in the machine. Now if you did understand our world, you would have imbibed an ICICI or any other model - where you just have swipe the card, and not insert it in the machine. Thats definitely more easing for the customer. At times I have seen many customers complaining of cards getting stuck in the machine - especially when it happens to the neighbourhood old uncle - he does get worried! What about their world - you gotto understand that too - rite?


Well - the world would just be a better place if you companies either completely get onto what the customer wants - that aint easy for sure - so well just improve on your punchlines! :)

Watz wid the Academy Awards?

I happened to see the movie - 'The Reader' yesterday. The only thing which possibly impressed me in the movie was the silence and slow but emphasizing pace of the movie. On the whole, I thought that the Academy has gone for a toss by having presented an Oscar to Winslet.

To those who haven't seen the movie - make sure you dont watch it along wid children or even female colleagues. The movie contains brash, bold shots of full frontal nudity - both male and female. In fact the first 40 minutes of the movie was more of an erotic drama than dat part which would yield the momentum to cinema. Winslet doesnt leave any respite in exposing every inch of her body - nothing new for her as she has done it in the past in Jude, Heavenly Creatures and the unforgettable Titanic. I must say she looks very beautiful, but then it seems that she took the Oscar for the erotic scenes and nudity rather than acting - I could hardly see any of that there. I have seen better performances from her in the past. Probably I agree with what one of my friends had to say - 'soft port show - maybe Winslet was just due for the Oscar'.

Amidst such movies, performances and skin show on the screen - where does august cinema like Taare Zameen Par & Lagaan get lost ? So many good Bollywood directors aspire to reach the elusive 'Academy Awards' - however dont such things reduce the credibility in the awards, and bring out feelings of nepotism, injustice and even at times disgust. Besides all other thoughts, I did like Slumdog Millionnaire, and found it to be wholesome entertainment for the viewer. But Oscars - naah... am just happy that Rehman got the long deserved one for the background score. For the rest, the Awards Committee will just have to learn to open their eyes, look around, take better decisions, make better judgements.

Things at MDI I would neva fget...

Wow - here I am back penning down my thoughts before I leave my alma meter - neva did this despite having so many chances in the last so many months...
Here goes da list - in no particular order:

- Room No 223, First Floor Boys Hostel, Change Masters
- Team Ulrichians
- Students Council, MDI
- Being the PGHR Representative - PGHR07
- Induction days, when I learnt to live without a cellphone :)
- Vaibhav Chaturvedi, the best roommate one can ever have
- Chhakka Wing Terrace
- The only cricket match HR07 won & the victory night
- One sleepless night for a project submission in Term 1; sleeping nearly at 6 AM
- Reaching late for the same submission and scrambling a good presentation :)
- Rahul Jain, my best pal at MDI
- Rahul's impromptu presentation in Term 4 - STCM class (he didnt know ANYTHING about the case/topic/slides etc)
- Term 3 - HRIS class Role Plays; the great DILBERT experience
- Late night countdown meets within Team Imperium 07
- Summer Placements Oscars night - three awesome converts :) - a sleep of 1.5 hours and a lecture at 8:30 AM
- Sankar Prasad Datta - one of the best people I have known in my life
- March 31 2007 - packing stuff all nite post Term 3 exams to vacate room for Summers; nearly NO sleep
- Term 1: Group 3
- Unlimited pangey wid Profs at MDI
- Term 2: Cost Accounting Exam days: absolutely no idea how to answer the paper - everything upto the Almighty :)
- Badminton post 11 pm at night - especially in winters
- The innumerous dinners at Metro Mall Food Court
- Roaming the campus at night - and then adding to the number of rounds, doing bakar :)
- Competing on Pacman with my roomie :)

Da process of becomin a Mandevian began from Day 1 - and is still underway - prolly 18th March 09 will brand us forever - look forward to it now...

Term 5 - YAT

And here's Yet Another Term - not that i have spoken bout the prev terms - but sometimes I do get an urge to spring back to my blog. It emerges in my dreams - crying out for having left it lost on da net... ;)

With the beginning of this term, academic RG has kind of subsided, and the one with projects and competitions has upsurged - the first one being Manthan at TISS. Looking forward to an awesome experience when the 4 of us- me, Rahul, Arpita and Adarsh are headed there in the comin week on 17th.

ManDevIan in Mumbai

Now what pushed me to get back to my blog eh? ;)
Well - it was something which used to keep my mind occupied last year - about wat 'more' to write - and I used tosearch for newer topics to write on...now I tot I'd just use it to pen down my musings - n not realli as wat happens in my life... so I neednt be hanged by mah frenz now for not updating it.. :D
Rite now moi at Mumbai - the land where u wud find everyone - rite from the pauper to the prince. Internship is definitely one phase of the MBA where one gets out of the books and gets a good perspective about the realities ofthe functioning of organizations. For us HR interns, it is about learning bout the importance of the HR function in the organization, and the importance of HR in today's business world.
Wud consider myself as lucky to be provided acco and drop/pickup in Mumbai - lotsa my friends are facing it in termsof travel in locals on weekdays, busy guides, sultry weather and pure Mumbai mechanical life. My comforts give me more space in terms of putting more into work, and tiring out mentally, rather than physically. Its 6 interns atda place me interning in Mumbai - Hewitt Associates - 2 XL guys, 2 SIBM grads, one IIML(ABM) gal and da gloriousManDevIan me :)
Probably da reason I am not experiencing hectic Mumbai on weekdays is wats making me think dat Mumbai mite not be a bad place to settle after all ;) - though Bangalore is something one cannot get over very easily coz of da climate...
Will key in more aspects of da experience as time passes by...

MDI - a leader on the HR front :)

A recent article in Economic Times has prompted me to write this post. Though time for penning down huge stories is not at hand in these days ;)

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2321241,prtpage-1.cms

The article states that there is a dearth of human resource professionals in the country, and that (I heard this from elsewhere too) we would need around 35000 HR Professionals in the next 10 years. As of now too, there is a huge shortage of HR Professionals in the country's workforce. The article proceeds to say that institutes like TISS,XLRI,SCMHRD are in the forefront in providing education in the field of HR. I was personally surprised (and so were most of my friends and faculty members here) that they did not state the name of MDI in the 'roll of honour'.

Being new here, we judge out possible reasons of the same to be the absence of a 'superb' alumni network (as in TISS/XL) in MDI. These institutes have been known from a long time, and have built their industry relations and a very strong alumni network over the years. MDI is relatively new - only around 13 to 14 years old, but has still made immense progress by leaps and bounds. It has crept up the charts of B-school ratings and is settled in at a number between 4 and 7 (personal opinion). Again the HR course at MDI is four years old, and is again newer as compared to TISS/XL. Though I thought there were certain points which came to my notice in my GD/PI endeavours with these institutes and I thought that I should bring it to notice.

- At the SCMHRD GD, I was told by the seniors there that the name 'SCMHRD' as in '.... Human Resource Development' was very deceiving. Lot of people ditched the institute thinking that it was only for HR - whereas that wasnt the case. In fact the institute is like any other general MBA institute which offers all specializations, and has a lot of stress on Fin/Mar - and has a basket of electives to choose from finally. HR is just a mere specialization there, which might not even get that much importance as much as the name of the institute gives it. Personally I feel that the HR specialization is equivalent to SIBM/IMT Ghaziabad.

- TISS this year supposedly had announced an intake of 80 students for the acclaimed HRM/LR
program. Though when the results were out, they accepted only 64 people. The thought which struck me on reading this article on ET was that - 'Well, in this case are these renowned institutes sufficing the need for HR professionals in India? By not even accepting the intake declared?'

By now you must have given a thought on 'Well this guy is out to boast about his institute' - hell right I am ! :D ;) Especially when there are certain facts about MDI which need to e brought out in public - the sooner, the better. MDI is probably very modest about its image, despite the fact that its in the lead rankings for B-schools in India. Facts which form the bigger picture:

- MDI is the first and only B-school in India to have received the AMBA's accreditation (UK based association of B-schools) - ie a global accreditation. This puts MDI in the forefront in terms of global relations. (The accreditation goes way beyong a mere AICTE approval ;) )

- MDI is ranked no 1 in the country in terms of its foreign relations with other global MBA institutes, and is reputed to have the one of the best exchange programs in the country.

- The course PGPHR was initiated by MDI around 4 years back - by a collaboration with the National HRD Ministry. (well for those who dont know -its the prime HR governing body in the country ;) ) Moreover The syllabus for this course is drafted by the NHRD itself. Need more assurance ?

- MDI has undoubtedly the best HR faculty in India - and I would vouch for this anytime. It probably has the highest number of HR faculty in India - around 80 - some of them very renowned. Recently we have Prof Saini who is the Chairperson in the HR Arena, who has got the 'Best HR Faculty award' on Aug 23 2007 by the Chancellor of the Amity International Business School, Amity University, Noida. And I believe we have received several such accolades in the past - with several BIG names from industry/very very qualified faculty teaching us. Almost every other faculty member I bump into is from an IIT or an IIM ;)

- The MDI HR course is designed to produce holistic HR professionals - HR Managers per se - and not just people who are well versed in the HR Arena. MDI HR products have an overall personality in terms of business understanding, and are wealth creators themselves.

The above all, besides the fact that MDI is normally ranked 4th or 5th among the Indian B-schools holds strong proof enough. Its true that an alumni network cannot be built overnight, and thus probably MDI loses out a bit on the name which XL and TISS have gained over the decades. But probably India needs to awaken to yet another institute which is in the forefront for imparting quality HR Education, and who is known for producing some of the best management professionals of the country.

Hear ye hear ye :) :)

Whats a ManDevIan made up of...

Yes, sometimes circumstances do force me to take a break from my blog and then get back to it some days later... :) The last one and a half month has been a roller coaster ride - where I have hardly got any time for myself... There have been so many instances when I have felt like penning down a lot of my experiences, a lot of my thoughts on what has been going on in my life as a B-skooler - but time has offered me very less chances to do so....

Aah - the feeling of being a ManDevIan is finally settling in now :) - for those of you who arent aware - this is how every MDI student is referred (probably even by global standards :D ;) )
It seems as though I have spent around six months at least here - when its just been around 50 days.Thats how a B-skool operates - every day seems like three or four days bundled together. At the end of the day... hmmm... correction... at the beginning of the next day... it seems as if the previous day was so very hectic and you start thinking as to whether there will be a day even more hectic than the same - and well - u said it...the next day promises to be the mother of all hectic days... :D

Probably I want to pen down my learning experiences etc separately - and also go ahead to write about the learning methodologies in a B-school. If I take an average of the B-school ratings which MDI has received - and probably my own perception about it - MDI would hover at positions 5 or 6. But yes - there is always much more to a B-skool than just the rankings it gets - and thats a fact all my batchmates will vouch for. Of course I have described da physical aspects of MDI in the best possible way in my previous post (agreed it was more than a month back though ;) )... what are the things which make MDI a different place - what makes it lively, frenzied and full of euphoria...

Let me offer you some situational choices.. :)

- A campus stroll... this is somethin which takes from 15 min to 1.5 hours... :D - as soon as we are nearing the hostel building (which is called 'Change Masters' :D ) - we are found retracing our steps to Nescafe's or Sharmaji - the two hotspots on campus for nite coffees, maggi, cold drinks and so on... the list is endless...

- Traditions... mobiles are supposed to be in silent mode/switched off in class. If any idiot's mobile rings, he has to treat the entire class to coffee immediately after the class - get that for some bankruptcy... :D

- Birthdays - ahem!... celebrated at the legendary 'Dome' :)... where the bday bakra is 'caked' and 'bumped' and 'kicked'... - and then... well - his roomie is also 'caked'... and 'bumped' and 'kicked' - with the worst possible shoes... :D - and the traditions continue with the bday boy's girlfriend - and the roomie's girlfriend too, if possible... the females are also 'water' treated - and 'cold drink' treated... and then every person possibly associated with the birthday is equally bashed up... :D

- My room apparently located in a corridor which keeps changing names - some time back it was 'Pillai Street' - dedicated to one of our 'stock broker' seniors... now its 'Rockers Street' - laden with pics of rock stars on walls etc... with the 'rockers' literally bashing up the weekend nite.. oops morning - with electronic guitars, keyboards and so on... :D

- The wing across the mess - which was initially the girls hostel - now called 'chakka' wing... and well - most recently the name was changed to 'CSA' wing - on account of the heavy 'counter strikers' present there - and well - I am kind of a recent addition to the same... :)

Time, and sleepy eyes is wats stopping me from continuing on today's musings - else there was another huge list to add on... :D ... kal ke liye bahut load hai... exams have just got over over the weekend - and well there is no relief as there is a truckload of submissions - assignments, project proposals - and to add to the same - quizzes and pre-readings... will there ever be some academic solace in the first trim of a b-skool?

A question yet to be answered....

MDI Gurgaon finally :)

Dreams of a b-school had finally set foot on real ground - Me reached Delhi on 21st June with parents. The next two days were spent in nice sight-seeing at Delhi. The first day comprised the normal Delhi darshan which was tiring enough. The following day we had a nice experience at the Nehru Planetarium near Teen Murti. I guess this was the first of its kind. The sky show was fabulous and very informative. We also had a nice experience in the Metro at Delhi - thats how we found our way back to Karol Bagh where we had lodged. Had to switch trains etc in between - but it was really an interesting experience :) .

The morning of June 24th - and it was time to leave for Gurgaon. The weather was like any normal day - and it took us around 40 min to scale the super empty highway from Delhi to Gurgaon. There was nothing one could make out on the way - it was simply barren land. Asked people how to get to the place - and reached there soon enough. As compared to the two 'campuses' I had seen earlier, this one really took my breath away - I was expecting something nice - but this was beyong expectations. Much more than just decent. Thankfully it wasnt as crowded as I had expected as we had reached early. Collected the room lock and keys, and proceeded. The room was really decent too - bought a mattress from the student run store Prayas for my comfy bedding - and then Mom and me did most of the unpacking and setting up in the cupboard etc. 1.5 hours down the line my half of the room was complete in all respects. Details of the room included a decently large cupboard (bit bigger than my PG wala at Bangalore), a table with 3 drawers, a comfy chair, a bed and a shelf.

Following this I went out with parents to search for the Bank ATM's etc. They were all located at a very close distance in Sector 14 market, which relieved me. My parents were off after dropping me back at the institute - and well - I was on my own.

Before continuing with what happened later - here is a brief description of what I can see and feel at MDI ;)

37 acres - but its not just the magnitude - the campus itself tells a lot of tales - its one BIYOOTIFUL campus - about da same size as dat of IIMB - though IIMB was covered almost entirely with trees - the campus here is maintained with the utmost decorum - seriously clean to say the least !!! The buildings are named after great educational institutions - Gurukul, Nalanda, Parthenon etc. The hostel is named Change Masters - and is one of the most happening places in town. The boys and da gals mess is connected via the 1st floor mess - and well there is another mess on the ground floor (yep Mandevians - thats the main one )... The mess serves great food with loads of dessert (unlimited ice cream etc ;) ), fabulous breakfast (my fav part), but a small prob for non-veggies like me as its only non-veg thrice a week - one day of which I am veg - so core non-veggies life me suffer a bit - though the veg food is of more than decent quality.

The campus is sexy for a nice stroll late in the evenings (not mornings as u dont want to bake ureself out - the climate is EXTRA-SUPER HOTTT )... the library is one of the best in Asia - its been one week and I am yet to see it properly - there is a computer center running around 20 hours per day - and of course the other things like AC classrooms, an AC audi etc... There are coffee stalls like Nescafe, Jhaji etc besides a canteen called Sharmaji which remain open very late into the nite and are great social spots. Besides all these there is a football ground, lots of greens where there is a small golf course, a badminton court, a lawn tennis court, a basketball field (unused though), a gym, and well a NEW gym being inaugrated now, a TT room and so on.

The description might speak high of MDI - but well the hectic student life probably might not let you enjoy all the facilities to the fullest extent. Though as of now I can say that besides the weather and a slight homesick feeling , I am enjoying almost evrythin else here.

More to come on how I began off here - as of now I am off to count the stars...

MBA Entrance Exams, Determination and ME :) :)

This is probably the post I have been waiting to write from a long time - its as I have put it up on Pagalguy - the section - 'All I Wanted to Speak about CAT' ...

My pleasure in presenting it here as well. Note that the names mentioned in the entire article/story are all PG members.


-Start...

Disclaimer: All characters/ incidences below are purely real – and any attempt of associating the stuff with fictional mumbo-jumbo will NOT be tolerated. ;).

Acknowledgements: Chandoo’s first article. (I always dreamt of writing one just like that – some day J)

Warning: This article is meant for fun-reading, inspiration – and may be of some help only to the average percentilers at CAT and other entrances. If the top scorers and absolutely confident 100 percentilers at CAT think that they need better gyaan, they better look elsewhere ;) ;)

Amidst the myriad questions of ‘Why MBA’, ‘Long-term goals’, ‘Short-term goals’ etc etc – was me – somewhere in July or August 2003 – when we began with Semester 5 in my engineering college. Probably that was the semester, which kicks off Computer Science on the whole – and here I was – dreaming of some other things – like how was my life proceeding, and whether I was evaluating myself properly. Programming certainly wasn’t the thing I would be happy doing for the rest of my life :D . I believed more in the Howard Roark philosophy – When I have around 50 more years to live, I feel I should be spending them in the way I like – and ork in the field I am best at.

Probably it was the Economics and Management subject in Sem 5, which set me thinking in some direction about the same. The ideas inspired me – and I could associate with the subject better – maybe also because the teaching of the faculty rocked. A post-graduation in the field of Management – an MBA, had heard about it long back – even before I had joined my engineering college. Is it the real push for a great career? Is it the thing I would need to build myself to better prospects? I needed to find out. Got some magazines – old IMS magazines on Advancedge – read more. Inspiring stories, great institutes – yes – maybe I had to get there. This is probably what is real education – real learning.

The Common Admission Test – had heard about this before – but never knew I would be taking it at any stage in life. I enrolled for the IMS Correspondence package at Goa, and they sent me some average material. One of the days in June 2004 I was sitting listening to an inspiring lecture from a student who had made it to IIML that year – a senior Goan. At the end of the lecture, he had one piece of advice – use this site – its really very helpful. I rubbed my eyes and for a second couldn’t understand what he wrote – whatever did that name mean in the world of MBA entrance examinations. Nevertheless I took it down on my book and thought I would sign in right away. Pagalguy.com. J

From then on began a roller coaster ride of studying DI, Verbal and Quant. CAT had leaked just the year before and had come out in a terrible form at the time of the re-test – with a terribly tough Quant section. Hence of course the normal rigmarole which I wasn’t aware of, at that stage at least – the coaching classes start putting up mock tests which have difficult Quant sections only. At that time however, IMS was the only institute I was aware of – being the only one in Goa. The additional info would come from PG – for some days I failed to understand why were threads entitled AIMCAT 0503, 0504 etc etc. It really took me some time to know that these were mock cat names – or rather numbers J. Goa still had to open out in terms of coaching classes and the prepratory environment for MBA preparations.

Sectional tests, Mock tests – I was on a spree – I wasn’t scoring great – but well kya mazaa aa raha tha… competition – nice fun. Got some TIME mocks, CL mocks xeroxed from my cousin who had taken the test series in Pune. They seemed tougher than the IMS Simcats (except for the godly IMS DI :D). I must have taken around 60 to 70 mocks in those 4 months or so – in the end it was almost every day – with the hope that the max score dwells on D Day. I made many friends in PG – some high-edged mock cat’ers, who would beat the hell out of the others in the percentiles. I would hardly be studying the college stuff at that time – the seventh semester passed away so fast that I hardly came to know. I had only one thought – CAT. Probably that’s why what awaited me on that day took its share of fun – and I had my share of misery.

CAT 2004 – Dadar, Mumbai. Goa had been removed as a CAT center that year itself (to my bad luck) – so the trip to Mumbai was necessary. Kept cool on the previous day while revising only very important stuff. What was landlocked in my mind was how I had to answer the paper, my ‘strategy’, my scoring sections etc. Yes – childish stuff. November 21 2004. IES School at Mumbai was crowded (had already been there the previous day). Once I was seated at my place I was simply praying was a 3 section paper like CAT 2003. What came was a 3 section paper – but with a blast of surprises – differential marking for the first time, reduced no of questions (to 123), and well, loads of surprises inside the paper too. What I did in the next 2 hours involved more of praying and less of confident problem solving – yes – I wasn’t confident – of each and every question. Even in Verbal, which had been my strongest section. I tackled the ½ markers, the 1 markers and then the 2 markers – in that order. My order was supposed to be verbal/DI/Quant – 40 min for each. I must have taken 45 min for Verbal, then came to DI (my weakest section) and tried to go in for the 2 markers (read as overconfidence). Unfortunately I attacked that question which was wrong – the infamous hockey set problem of CAT 2004. Checked it out for some time, cudnt make any sense out of it, and then moved to the one markers – no more himmat left for the two markers. Managed to solve some of the one-marker sets and then moved to Quant – tried to blast this section, but apparently I ended up ‘not’ doing it. This section had loads of scoring problems, which I managed to oversee :D . The two markers were a piece of cake, but in my spree I didn’t even notice it. Managed an attempt of some 75 marks in the paper and came out quite shaky.

The wait till the New Year was long and unbearable – and the result – one of the biggest shocks of my life.

Overall percentile – 85.XX :( :(

DI – 84.XX Quant 83.XX Verbal – 77.XX (supp to be strongest :( :( )

Expectations came crashing down, thoughts of wrong bubbles shaded passed by – well, so many other things happened. The first reactions were, of course, its useless for me to take it up again. Already lost so much money having applied to NITIE, MDI etc in the same year. Anyway I had my campus placement secure, though I had lost out in the seventh semester marks, after having topped the University in the sixth semester.

I couldn’t get over the entire thing so easily. This was soon followed by a mediocre IIFT entrance (Mumbai again) and a mediocre XAT (some 85 percentile again). Still the thought of the coveted schools wasn’t leaving me. But I had to forego it for sometime at least. Finished my engineering, and was awaiting the joining letter from my company. In the meanwhile I applied to several other companies (maybe to prove myself to me) – companies vied by several others. The joining letter hadnt arrived, and I had some other personal issues on my head. Thoughts of CAT 2005 floated by, and I grabbed hold of them. I had to leave Goa, and opt for a better test series, and of course work harder. With some news of my posting being at Bangalore, I left for the city in the end of July 2005. I signed up for the TIME test series, and started taking them up eagerly. At the same time I also sat for some company tests/ interviews. September 2 2005 – I come to know that I have made it to one of the best MNCs in the world, and my joy knew no bounds. Eventually I joined it on September 19 2005. During this period the mock cat series was on, but my scores were diminishing badly. Only once or twice could I get the score to a 95 percentile or a 96 percentile. To make up for my confidence, I enrolled at Career Avenues and interacted with Amit Saboo – who gave me some amount of confidence in the entire thing. I took up his mock cats too, in which I would at least score better than what I did at the TIME mock cats. I took up some of the old CAT papers and managed to solve quite a few. I tried to understand some of the mistakes I had made in CAT 2004 – but probably they are too many to enlist. I made sure somehow that I did not burn out myself with mock cats as I had done in 2004. I somehow got a broader horizon to CAT by having interacted with a lot of people – grasped it more as a skill gauging test, rather than a flat 3 section paper and so on.

At the same time I made some very close lifetime friends through PG, who took the mock cats with me – nicked as akhil_agrawal, bhandari, nitin_jain etc on PG. We shared thoughts, exchanged loads of views, took mock cats together etc. Besides these of course I made tons of other friends on PG. Enjoyed at some PG meets in Bangalore – finally met Psychodementia and some other known Pgites like Orca (was in my company itself), bingo (one of the first timers on PG) and many many others – most of who might be absconding from the scene now. A simple evaluation would tell me that I was strong on my HR skills, and I needed an MBA to get on into that field. It was the only thing which would get me there. Though, somehow with the hectic training etc at my company I was kinda all lost. I decided to give a couple of entrances, but apply to not more than one college in each. Thru CAT it was only the IIMs – probably as I wasn’t at all confident, and gauging myself from the mock scores, I could see that nothing was possible for me this time. But I simply couldn’t resist taking the exams.

CAT 2005- North Bangalore, Vivekananda College. I stayed overnite at a friends place the day before and it was quite a normal day, with absolutely no stress from my side. And why should there be – I had nothing to lose if I didn’t make it. Probably the attitude was lacking this time though. The morning of CAT – the normal crowd. My friend departed just before the exam – and I sat there, expecting the worst to happen – well, its CAT – and there are bound to be surprises. The paper had even more reduced questions, 90 this time, with continued differential marking, though this time more structured. My method of solving was simple – the same – Verbal/DI/Quant – 40 min each. Whizzed through Verbal, and landed up at DI – the usual nervousness. This was one section I could neva get even with – and well, the nervousness existed in some small amount coz I had neva managed to practice enough for this section – had always got bored during my entire preparation cycle. Solved only 13 marks here and moved ahead to Quant – where I could solve at least some of the questions with ease. I had kept in mind this time that I only had to pick the sitters, and had practised well at it. Hence I could do it with some ease at least. Attempted only 65 marks on the whole. I knew it was very less the moment I counted it out.

Just a week later I came to know that in the lone 2-marker set I had solved in DI, I had made a very silly mistake. That ends the story – I didn’t need to look more at the result – the loss with that one set was mammoth. The tragedy was that of course, I had to get the bad news on yet another new year J

Overall percentile – 89.XX

Verbal – 93.XX Quant – 93.XX DI – 35.XX (holy cow !! ;) ;) :D :D :D )

Immediate thoughts – no more CAT for me. I would never be able to solve the kind of problems which came for DI. I was a loser at these puzzles – and would neva manage them inside the exam hall. Yes of course, given some good amount of time, maybe I could do it, but not there in the hall :mg: :mg: .

Yes, to provide some solace were the other entrances – IIFT, which was immediately after CAT that year – went good, but eventually a shocking reject – couldn’t believe it, but I guess I was getting used to the bad luck. :mg: JMET banged right in my face – disqualified – not even a rank, XAT had the same mark left – some 85.XX percentile. And well, there was FMS too this time – with a cascaded reject effect :mg: What went really wrong was the TISS application – one real big tragedy in my life – my TISS application somehow never reached them – and got stuck due to some problem in the courier office. I came to know this only after the list for the students answering the exam was released, and my name was missing. I was devastated – the only exam left in the year also had had me bowled out – that too without taking it. :( L L

Eventually after the GD/PI some of my friends made it to some B-schools, and left from Bangalore with a promise from my side that I would make it the next year. I really don’t know why I committed in that way – did I have any confidence left in me, when nature itself was turning against me and telling me a different tale? At this point of time, I really didn’t know. I needed a lot of time to myself – and I made good use of it. I put to thinking as to whether I really needed an MBA – the answer was surprisingly a ‘yes’. The roads to the HR sector branched through this field of education – it was either some correspondence course I had to do, or a residential MBA, and I would anytime have preferred the latter. 2006 was a turning point in my maturity and my thinking levels. I put in a lot of hard work at the work place, and spent the remaining time mulling over the entire thing and also reading a lot of books. Did loads of research in the HR field too. The road ahead appeared tough, but it was definitely my last shot – couldn’t take it once more, as probably I was giving a lot of my personal self and resources to it. I decided to give it all I have this time.

I was hell bent on making the preparation more structured this time. Mocks – yes – but not without proper analysis. I introspected myself well, and saw that I was an average CAT taker, who could make it to an average 97 to 98 range – but on a high scale could just peak if the score required was less. (People in this case always pray for a difficult CAT paper). I can say that in 2006 I must have spent around 65 percent of time at devising strategies, and 35 percent for concepts. If I enlist whatever preparation I did in the latter half of 2006 – it would probably lag on for a few more thousands of words ;) ;) – so lets keep it minumum. I enrolled for both TIME and CL mock test series. I used to take the TIME tests on Sunday mornings and CL tests on Sunday afternoons (read as useless – in fact the quality of the mocks deteriorated and so did my performance). Besides these I would take up the CAV mocks posted on PG too. I started giving more time to preparations and lesser to the office work.

Read a huge lot of stuff from the net/PG/other areas on tackling the entrances. I had it entrenched in my mind that the concepts are best wrapped up fast and all problems of similar kinds which had to be broomed. :D . There were two main things I did. From August, I solved all the old original CAT papers from 1996 till 2005. I knew that the problems coming in the mocks had a style picked up from old CAT papers, and I was right. Besides I noticed something strange and advantageous – the questions in the CAT papers were repeated too – believe it or not, several quant questions had been repeated, some styles of verbal questions, and some DI types. This would be great as the questions could be repeated now too. The second thing I did was keeping a notebook to note something I called ‘Out of the box fundae/problems’. These were fundae that one would hardly find in the basic concepts books, and in normal problems. You can find some of them floating on PG now, but previously they were hardly present. Some problems too, which had fundae which cyclically repeated throughout mock tests and entrance exams. I found this extremely advantageous in the mocks.

Though I saw that my scores did not improve in the mocks – in fact, they worsened. I would score in the CL mocks, and not do so in the TIME mocks. I would score the best in the CAV mocks, which I felt were really designed well. Then I did something drastic – I stopped seeing my TIME and CL mock scores. I did this for two months upto CAT. Believe me, I just used to answer the test, come home, solve the unsolved problems – that’s it. I made a ‘repeated mistakes’ doc separately – which I would keep seeing after October. The only mock scores I would check were those of CL FLT’s and the CAV mocks that I took at home. These were my only morale boosters.

However much one is prepared, the CAT surprise throws him off guard. This is something well heard of. As usual there were rumours and half truths on PG on how CAT would be this time. 2.5 hours – of course that was the in-thing new for 2006. But anything else was unknown. I had decided there would be no surprise in terms of paper pattern that could throw me off-guard – and well – definitely the mock tests were helpful in it (in fact TIME covered almost all patterns possible). Besides this, I myself made a ‘countdown’ doc in which I prepared my final strategy – as to how I would answer CAT 2006. This strategy was devised by having put all the initial 8 to 10 mock cats of the season to severe experimentation in terms of order of sections, break up time etc. This would be what I was most comfy with. Besides this there was a supplement in the doc that made the adjustments for all kinds of patterns – starting from 75 questions, 25 per section to 200 plus questions (which was also predicted by TIME, Munira L etc). All such things boosted my confidence – inspite of low or unseen scores in mocks etc. Besides all this, I would continue solving home tests, and new problems. The struggle continued till Nov 17^th.

CAT 2006 – North Bangalore – Malleswaram – MES College. Spent the previous evening at the same friend’s place. Much much more at ease and confident than on the 2 years before. Enjoyed a bit with these guys before finally hitting the bed at nite. The morning crowd as usual – was used to this more than anything now. The college was a popular one, though not a huge one. Having relieved myself, I sat in my place – and didn’t know what to expect – nothin could much of a surprise now – was sure about it. The paper in – 75 questions – 25 per section – one of my expected patterns – but one of the least expected ones. What were the IIMs doing reducing questions was my first thought. This was a desparate way of evaluating people – a single drop would kill – instantly ;) ;). What I missed to see initially was that there were 5 options per question – somehow missed seeing that. Though the neg marking was 1/4^th , the only relaxing factor. Besides this, nothing was relaxing for me once I started off with the paper. 20 min into it and 2 bubbles shaded in verbal – an utterly, hopelessly ambiguous section. Was wondering what the others were experiencing. My luck was it that somehow I struck on the right easy questions in DI. Though I couldn’t make the most out of the Quant section – how much ever easy it may have seemed at the first shot. At the end of the entire thing I put my head down – nervousness had once again taken the better of me. Had managed a decent attempt, but could have done much much much better. Knew the others could have blasted this CAT.

Attempts – overall 45 questions - Verbal – 19 questions, DI – 12 questions – Quant – 14 questions. – totally dissatisfactory inmy standards.

The drama that followed in the next 2 months is well known – the usual jhagda between the coaching classes over the English answers – it was counted out as an endlessly debatable section – with totally ambiguous answers (and well the IIMs came out with some totally different answers at the end :D ;) ). The pattern of CAT resembled GMAT this time – but the Verbal section could have been much better. Besides this were the mis-prints and so on. I don’t need to state more about it – its well known. The jhagda over the the CAT Retest still rings in PG as of today too ;) ;). Though I stayed aloof from the coaching classes hassles – didn’t check my scores/answers etc. Was not at ease – but somehow managed it. Didn’t take IIFT this year as I knew I could neva score in that test. JMET was well balanced – but could have done better – though the result was terrible (some 3000 odd rank – useless to say the least). The only other exam which probably boosted me was SNAP this year – decent paper and managed it real well – all due to my sound prerparations – a score of 91.25.

Though the new year brought sad news again. The score at CAT –

Overall percentile – 94.56 Verbal – 85.35 :( :( Quant – 93.XX DI – 89.XX

The enthu after CAT results was all lost – faint hope for the other B-schools, but of course not the IIMs. The worst part was that I noticed that so many of my good PG friends lost out coz of the same – the ambiguous Verbal section. (one of the biggest gang I had made in 2006 – awesome Pgites, all brainies to say the least). And then there were people who made it coz of sheer luck, maybe blind shading, or riduculous reasoning. There was little energy I put after this in XAT – was calm, composed and had a decent paper – though it was the worst possible paper I had seen in my life – perfectly CAT imbibed, though with a monstrous ‘none of these’ in each question which destroyed it. (sorry XL guys, but I have said this before too ;) ). To add to it the shock at the results – a 28 percentile which XAT gifted me at my birthday – wat the hell was zattt??? :D :D ;) was shaken up – but kept control :D ;).

I can say that TISS was the only entrance that I blasted this year – left only 3 to 4 questions out of the 120-question paper. After the XL debacle, this was the only best college I was aspiring for. Thankfully it was an easy and decent paper. The DSE paper I took last went well, but I was unlucky – maybe I needed more speed in it.

Feb first week I had all my season-end calls – SIBM, SCMHRD, TISS, MDI (HR).

GD/PI Preparations

Probably one of the most dear, memorable and enriching phases of my life. Memorable coz we had a good number of PG meets in this phase. :D :D . Dear coz it finally bore fruit. Enriching coz I must have neva increased my own knowledge as much as I did during this period :D. As usual, I have always been more confident for the GD/PI phase than for the entrances – though I had neva reached it uptil 2006.

SIBM/SCMHRD involved almost NO GD/PI preparations. Except for an all interview questions doc I prepared – listing out all the ‘most common’ interview questions and my answers to each – eg Tell me somethin about ureself, why MBA, why HR, best experiences, memorable incidents, work life etc etc. This doc was my only weapon for the interviews. The GD’s had almost zilch preparation done. I managed to convert SIBM - though I had to leave the call (thats another story ;) ). Soon after the first 2 GD/PI’s I enrolled at IMS for the GD/PI classes and attended two mock interviews at the Achievers Workshop, which was indeed helpful. But what helped more was my personal preparation – interaction with HR guys in the company, with managers, top-notch introspection, preparation and modulation of the answers, speaking to the college seniors on chat etc – and above all a lot of work on the net. Wikipedia was my biggest source of information. I must have downloaded hundreds of webpages from Wiki about past political and social events, general knowledge, facts, trivia etc etc. Things that have happened in the past in India, and too in detail – most of the things that I wasn’t even aware till now. Truly speaking I never had the habit of reading the newspaper since childhood – maybe one reason was coz we always used to get a regional language paper at home. At Bangalore I somehow forced myself into the habit. Though the info I gained from Wiki, Google etc was of immense help to me.

Besides this was of course our great weekend GD/PI ‘bash’ – the Bangalore PGites meeting up for some GD/PI practice. Anarchy, Prem, Krishanu, Mufasa, Ashwini, Billy, Vijay, Saurav, Atul – some of the people I can enlist, along with whom I really practiced a lot – and the gd/pi sessions were indeed really helpful (hats off to Anarchy’s feedback sessions ;) ;) ). Somehow all these things together clubbed to uphold my confidence levels. The interview questions doc expanded like anything, and so did my folders on ‘India and issues’, ‘Docs to read for gd/pi’ etc etc. These contained other things like info on institute background, faculty of the institute, about the course, the electives etc etc. Background study of HR subjects like OB (my personal interest), other HR related arenas were also included.

All in all – I was a reasonably confident man on approachin MDI on March 12^th at IIMB and TISS at Mumbai on April 16^th. The GD/PI experiences are as described in the post before this one.

All done – I was just awaiting the results. Probably this year was the most ridiculous year for MBA aspirants with an errored CAT paper, a cry for a retest, delayed results initially, vague results, and then the OBC thingy – which delayed the final results even more. WL 15 was my MDI result – was very much hopeful about it – but fingers were crossed. Though the longest wait was on the day of the TISS results. It was something I had expected more than anything – with an excellent test and PI, a decent GD and a decent profile. Though it wasn’t to be – I had a reject from TISS – and spent 2 or 3 of the worst days of my life thinkin about why did it happen. The blow was harsh – though things worked out in May second week when MDI converted. Yes – finally it happened – for me – and for u folks too who have been bearing with me throughout this full story ;) ;) :D .

Looking back now I want to leave all my regrets behind. The HR course at MDI ranks third best in India, and MDI is definitely in the top ten colleges – hence it ascertains my target (one in the top 10). Maybe whatever happens always happens for the good (a dear friend’s advice which I shall always remember). My losses through the entire journey would probably be mainly monetary, and psychological – but my gains were totally on the intellectual and on the social side. I have grown – have matured – as I can see now – to someone who didn’t know CAT – to someone who will be doing his masters from one of the best colleges in India now. I have gained a lot of experience and wisdom in the entire experience – and would be more than grateful to grant it to others. Along with this, I have gained friendship of some of the most intelligent people in India through PG – one of the best places I have been at. Friendships that would last for a lifetime – that too even before I have done my MBA. :) :) .

Advice to future aspirants (if you consider me worthy to be givin it J )

On Mock Tests:

TIME – Probably the best for experimenting, but real difficult at times – so take them with a pinch of salt
CL – Superb in Verbal and DI – way too tough in Quant
IMS – Have improved much much more in 2006.
CF – Decent, and good morale-boosters.
PT – Heard they were just about ok.

I would say any of the above with good analysis of where you went wrong after each mock, and noting ‘out of the box’ problems would suffice more than enough. Of course above all this comes solving all the previous CAT papers, being thoroughly sure of every old problem that has appeared, and also of the concept attached to it.

On indivudual sections:

Verbal – My strongest, but didn’t help me much when I wanted it to. A good day bad day concept (read my notes elsewhere on PG – and on the new Verbal thread for this year). Be inherently good, and crack it. No one day/two day preparation can help you here. Especially when the ambiguity in it is increasing to large extents. Focus more on comprehending stuff – watever it may be. Will be very hepful – both in Verbal and in RC.

Quant – Past CAT papers – the best source of information. Besides these come the ‘out of box’ problems. Try things like TWI and Vedic Mathematics if only you are very confident about them ( I wasn’t, hence they didn’t work much for me). But TWI is indeed a very useful approach, especially the ‘bottom-up’ approach (through the alternatives).

DI – I am not the person to contact for this section. But what I referred – DI A Question A Day on PG, puzzles by George Summers (hardly solved any, but helpful), and of course CAT oriented problems.

On CAT on a whole:

One thing I agree with Munira L on this - the sectional percentiles do matter, but what matters more is the overall percentile. If the overall percentile is low, you are directly out of the race. Though its slowly moving to the stage when the cutoffs wud be sectionally 99/99/99 and overall 99.5. The day is not far when this too will happen.. Another point - CAT is best when cracked at an early stage. As every year is passing by, CAT is becoming increasingly difficult. If you are thinking tat lets give it a try this year and a better shot next year then think again. This year might just be your best chance - you neva know what can happen the next year :)

On GD/PI:

I attended IMS only – so cant comment much on the others. But this is where there is maximum preparation required on the personal front. I could probably do much better here coz of the confidence I had in myself. Make sure you get a hold of the workshops which IMS/TIME/CL conduct – they are really decent and a very good practice. I am always reachable on PG for help on this phase of the preparation (might not be a very good contender for the previous phase ;) ;) )

On the personal front:

1: Be sure of where you are now, where you want to be, and how would an MBA bridge the gap between the two. Only then can you jump into the ocean of preparation for these entrances – else its useless – believe me.

2: Pagalguy.com. Only this site would give you info, reviews, opinions from thousands of people who have made it, and loads of loads of trivia. I don’t think I need to say more about how to tackle CAT mentally/physically etc. Believe me, its more a game of the mind than of anything else. As so many others have said, get out of the hype surrounding it, and be a winner. Most importantly, (its tough but try it) – be yourself when the time is cricical – around ten to fifteen days countdown to CAT, on the day before, and of course on that day. It will always have surprises, and the aura of the unexpected. Its how you wish to tackle these things, by being prepared and being confident, or by thinking that after all its only an exam. Refer Pagalguy for words of wisdom from Chandoo, PsychoD, Orca, vinz and several other veterans on hundreds of different threads. Since I began on CAT, there has been almost no day when I haven’t checked PG – it has become a part and parcel of my life – and will be so too. In the words of Amit Saboo, it is really a goldmine that Allwin discovered 5 years back.

How I believe the CAT should be:

In the current world scenario, I believe that the CAT should have some subjective stuff also, probably an objective screening test, and then a second level test accompanied with essays, SOP’s, situational problems etc. This would screen out the real managers from those who make it through plain IQ. Of course following this can be the GD/PIs. The hype surrounding the supposedly 2 lakh aspirants would also be diminished in this case – as those who are worthy, and know why they need to pursue a career in management would be differentiated from those who don’t.

Signing off for now with a ‘kind of’ satisfied feeling. The calm mind is yet to see another storm, and even more thunder – the next 2 years promise to be two of the most gruelling years of my life – and yet the most fun-filled. Looking forward to an even more enriching phase of life now.

Ashish Kolvalker

MDI PGP-HR
(Batch of 2007-09)

TISS GD/PI experience

This was probably my best - but didnt get me da result expected :(.

Date and time: April 16th - 9:30 am
Place: Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai

Reached at around 2 pm on Sunday the 15th and spent that evening at TISS - met many new PG friends - Vachan, Rajiv and of course later Saki and Ram (whom I already knew)... the stay overnite was nice - doesnt feel as if u are in Mumbai when inside the campus at TISS :) - small in size but really nice to have a walk in da evenings etc - and extremely conducive atmosphere and surroundings for study - and well - the latest news is that TISS has become wi-fi :) - all da info was poured in from Babu who met us on Sun evening and answered a lot of questions from our side...

Woke up early in da morning - got ready and went to the main lounge where there was a smal crowd - not as much as expected - we had a small presentation on the know-how of TISS by a second-year'ite of the HRM/LR program... later we came up and were grouped into different batches (as put on da notice board) - and were led to da different classes for the GD/PI - Mine was in class XI - 8 of us (2 absent) - 4 boys 4 gals... so even ratio :)

GD: Globalisation is a mixed blessing for the youth of today (it was the same topic for all the batches in my main group) - the other group had got Gandhian values etc etc... ( though the topics are being changed evryday - so dont go by them :| )

Very decent GD - chipped in a lot of times... was surprised by da female junta as some spoke real well, and real fluently. By da way we ourselves decided that we wud use paper, and recollect our thoughts for sometime - the 2 supervisors didnt have a prob with it - though when we decided on the topic as globalisation and started writing, one of them said 'Isnt this a GD ?? ' - and well - one of the ladies started rite away. Two of the females seemed to be dominating the show - though all guys spoke well too - and well - chipped in a lott of good points - though the youth aspect was kinda fading away with all the industrial and economic aspect takin toll of da topic :mg: - all of us spoke without majorly cutting others - as we had been reminded that domination of the GD wud lead to getting -ve points.

Rating: 8/10


After this - we were led into a room, and were told that there is still some time for the PI. Hence we moved off - grabbed a vada-paav for a quick bite and then came back - to our disbelief the PI's had already begun - apparently the people were being called RANDOMLY. Was surprised at this - but there was nothin we cud do. We just gave our names, and sat there hopin for a quick call. I was called in just before the lunch call - though they dedided later that I too shud be pushed in after lunch :|. So i went ahead, ate somethin and returned. The wait before the PI was long. The PI finally happened at around 3 to 3:15 pm. I was all jittery before as I had heard my panel had been stressing the people in da morning and blasting on GK... finally I was in...

PI: The panel - Oldish smiling lady - L (did almost all questioning)
Elderly man in between - E
Different lookin elderly person with long tied hair - D
Bakra moi ;) - B

B (enters and wishes all - sits)
E: Whats these documents? (pointing to my change of name docs)
B: (Explains what were they)
E: But why did you change your name ?
B: blah blah
All 3 of them: Ok ok
L (smiling eternally :mg: ) - So u are working in XXX - how long?
B: blah blah
L: Oh - thats a lot of time - wat are u working in?
B: blah blah (cool workex questions :mg:)
L: Ohk so such a nice field - why do u want to come into HR?
B: Blah blah blah blah -( some kind of an answer which I had thought of... explained properly - wat do I get -- EXPRESSIONLESS faces from all except from L - she is smiling in an understanding manner - E is checkin my papers/docs/certificates)...
E: So what do you know about HR as a field?
B: blah blah - tell them the basics
(all shaking head except D of course ;) )
L: Ok - so Ashish tell me bout what you think of women in this present day corporate world? And what are the issues faced by them ?
B: blah blah - sexual harrasment, ego problems from men, etc etc
L: Ohkie - so wat are the things companies have been doin to prevent such things like sexual harrasment?
B: blah blah
(trying to maintain eye contact with all - but E is busy with file - doesnt look at me AT ALL - and D is well - blank - stone-faced - no expressions! )
L: Ohkie - so tell me about the reservations issue now -
wat do u think bout the reservations issue in the private sector?
B: Blah blah blah blah
L: Ohk cool - (looks at others for their turn)
D (all of a sudden): What are the different central trade unions in India?
B: (says somethin which goes kinda unheard)
D: wattt???
B: blah blah (explains)
E: Ohkay yes yes
D: (shaking head)
D: Can you name some trade union in the unorganized sector?
B: umm - dont think I know any - but i guess BMS can be one of them
D: (smilingly looks at L)
Moi understands that my answer is wrong :(
D: So which are the new states in India??
B: blah blah
(all quiet for sometime)
L: (asks E if he wants to ask any questions)
E: No nothin actually - so bout ur hostel accomodation at TISS -- blah blah ( they were askin this to all at their interviews)
B: blah blah
L: Ohkay thats it then - thanx Ashish
E: yes thanks
D: expressionless :|
B: (wishes and exits)

Approx 15 min - Dont know wat to say - questions were ok and I answered without any gaps etc -managed it well- but hardly any reaction from the panel - except for the lady at times... the people before me and those after me had a similar kinda interview - though not entirely on GK questions - theirs were even shorter - some 8 to 9 min...
Looks like they were lookin for more than just mere answers... :|

Rating: 8.5 to 9/10 (from my side)

Travelled in da evening to Churchgate to meet a friend and stayed overnite with him - had kinda fun - and then travelled back to airport da next morning to catch flite back to Blore - Saki (chaosunlimited) and another girl accompanied me in it - so that was good fun too :)

General opinion: Diverse interviews being conducted - entirely on luck which panel u get, and also how ur interview goes. Heard later that my panel conducted stress interviews in the latter half of the day... was again surprised at that... The panel with the dean was stressing most of da guys (like every year) - so guess people had to watch out there...