The IIMA Experience

(written on 20th Feb '06)

Hi all...

my experience at the Worldclass Institute of Management in Western India

a bit long.. so dividing into 2 parts...both parts in the same mail.. u cud also read the more interesting part 2 first..

Part 1: before the PI
firstly before reaching ahmedabad.. seemed like nothin cud go rite... used fevikwik instead of fevistick to stick my fotu on the form... that created a big oily patch on it (imagine IIMA form with a patch!!)!!!..as if this wasnt enuf.. then I nearly missed the train.. got stuck in traffic..seemed like God had programmed all the signal lites to go Red just as my cab reached there!!! and He also instructed the Rickshaw fellas to block my road in case the lights were green!!!:-D..just abt managed to reached the station!! (JIT ka funda!!!).. caught train reched ahd at nite..

okie.. flash forward to next morn... enterd IIMA campus at 8:30... and boy.. the love story started.. the red bricks.. the huge structures..the vast grounds... it felt like.. man.. this is it!!! btw.. the guys there aint any different from any of us.. in shorts..n tshirts.. njoyin their sundays.. and gawking at us scapegoats.. :-).. and there r beautiful girls too.. (saw just one.. )

..I had paid the auto wala... n the peon called us inside...n within no time.. 3 profs came out.. n called out our names.. and we were in the GD rooms...
there were 10 of us.. infact 9.. 1 guy was absent!!!.. i was 6th... it was a case study.. some mens retail outlet ka problems... etc... I was the 1st one to speak...n then this (bushwagon piece of shit) guy sitting opposite to me.. cut me!!! I said pls lemme complete... but by then it was too late.... I recovered however.. made quite a number of strikes.. for the kamat ppl..hope some were 5 raised to 5..:-)..

ws pretty relaxed after that.. my interview was 6th... ppl were all tensed arnd.. asking ppl comin out what they r asking... just overherd one guy telling that he was asked the industrail uses of gold silver platinum!!! I moved away.. took a walk in the campus... the huge khandars.. the open grounds again... had an infy ka guy for company...

Part 2: the Big Thing
okie.. now for the big thing... I had written music, painting, movies as my hobbies.. so was expecting Qs on that.. and some work Qs and some basic etrx.. wat is transistor, Flip flops, logic gates etc.. and guess what i get??

I go in.. its a big room.. and 3 ppl sitting on the other side of a big table!!! 1 had just one eye..The one eyed assasin..OEA.. the second one looked innocous like apna Ramu Kaka... but when he opened his mouth..got to know he was much more than that...call him RK...then there was this 3 rd soft spoken middle aged guy.. who looked sagacious!! call him S...
and the bechara Innocent guy...thats me... I :-D

okie...so this is how it goes..

RK: ..so what does ur mean.. (taking my certis n stuff)
I: err.. dunno sir..blah blah..(gave some absolutely crappy ans...soem king of processes etc..if someone knows the meaning pls lemme know..its a Gujju name.. so may b.. the familys new roomie mite know:-)))
OEA: so tell me something abt urself.
I: Born n brot up in bbay... closed knit south indian fly.. blah blah.. disciplined..dedicated.. teamwork etc...
OEA: so ur n ETRX engineer..(and the great IIMA massacre begins..:-)).. u must know DSP... Tell me how do u seperate a single signal from a Scrambled one...
I: err.. (shit i din prepare DSP)..if the signals r serialised u can use a demultiplexer..n route them through different channels
OEA: what if they r not!!!
I: use a filter..if u know the frequency... u can filter it out...
OEA: How?
I: The filter has a certain pass band.. and if that matches the freq of ur signal.. the other frequencies get attenuated..
OEA: How?
I: u multiply the freq of ur filter with the freq of the signal..
OEA: How?
I: err.. Sorry sir I dont know..(some one pls lemme know??)
S: So ur ve participated in Maths olympiad... so tell abt it mathematically..
I: U convert to frequency domain and multiply the 2 equations..
OEA: How
I: Fourier Transform ka formula...explain. u get a func in freq when u integrate in Time domain..
S: Ok.. so how do u do it geometrically..
I: I drew waveforms..explained harmonics etc.. then drew a graph of its frequency response..etc
S: ok.. so what is that "j" out there
I: It is the imaginary term.
S: Imaginary.. what is taht?
I: (blurted)-1..
S: what??
I: Sorry.. root of -1
S: Why is that imaginary?
I: err..
S: u have done this right??
I: Long time sir... (hoping that he d get to something more logical...)
S:u must have done the concepts sometime.. u dont remember? why is it required?
I: no.. may b to calculate the phase..
RK: What is this paper? (it was a chemical paper.. my dad's office ka journal.. it had my name on it for winning a drawing competition..and it also had many chemical stuff!!!)
I: Its got my name.. (showed him)..
RK: This is very interesting.. u must have read it rite..
I: (o shit man..now im screwed!!!) NO!!!!
RK: Its got this beautiful thing here.. a football.. what r these shapes on it.
I: (after seeing).. hexagons n pentagons...
RK: So can u have all hexagons or all pentagons?
I: err... Dont know sir.. mayb it depends on the surface area.. it needs to be a multiple of 4 pi r 2..
RK: So it can have all hexagons??
I: sorry sir.. I dont know
RK:ok.. tell me.. what is the melting point for nitrogen..
I: I dont know..
RK: I know.. its written here..
I: err..
RK: whats the range..
I: err...
S: the magnitude?? -ve or positive??
I: err.. It must be negative.. Nitrogen is gaseous at normal temperature..
RK: so what is it.. -20..
I: sorry sir.. I dont know..
RK: how is it liquefied.
I: under pressure.. it is condensed..etc..
RK: ok..what is liquefied nitrogen used for..
I: err.. LNG is used as fuels in reactors...
RK: LNG and Liquefied Nitro.. are they the same..
I: (Oops).. No sire.. LNG is liquefied Natural gas..
RK: Good..(he actually told good!!) where is it found..
I: Bombay high..
RK: What is the policy for extracion of natural gases..
I: i dunno..
RK again..Dunno
I: dunno.
OEA: So what r ur work responsibilities..
I: (sigh.. of relief..:-))... blah..blah..Software Test Engineer.. bugs etc..
OEA: So...what happens when a bug crops up?
I: A code defect.. or some functionality doesnt function properly..
OEA:No.. what happens when a bug crops up??
I: Ok.. the manager sees the bug.. he gives his comments.. passes it on to the dev n test leads... they look at the cost of fixing it.. blah blah..
OEA: ok.. (looks at S.. he indicates that hes done with his screwing..S seems bored by now..shakes his head!!)
RK: Ok ritesh here r ur certificates..
I:(o shit man.. its over.. what was it..all dumbfound!!) Thank u sir..
RK: ( giving the newspaper..) this was a very dangerous thing..
I: smile..:-) (andar se to shola bhadak raha the!!!)
S: Have a chocolate..
I: thank u sire...
I take one n leave!!!


Oh man.. never faced anything like this.. DSP.. Liquefied nitrogen.. Football.. no work Ex.. no infy.. no current affairs.. no budget.. all prep.. down the drain!!!

thats abt it..thanx for reading patiently..

Ritz..