7000+ Kms in a fortnight

I travelled around 7300 Kms in a fortnight.

I travelled from Bangalore to Dhanbad (via Kolkata), Dhanbad to Jammu(Vaishno Devi) via Ranchi , back to Dhanbad (via Ranchi) and finally from Dhanbad to Lucknow in a fortnight. This gave me a little time to be at my home but it was good travelling and enjoying with the family.

Thanks to Sid, Chummi and Vivek that I got all my luggage loaded at Bangalore station. Loading 8 pieces of goods in 2 minutes, that too when the bogey you are supposed to get in stops at some distance from you, was no small thing. Then thanx to my childhood friend Batti that I had a good time at Howrah station waiting for my train to Dhanbad. But it was really tough to get used to hot and humid weather after pleasant summers for continuous three years in Bangalore.

I had a unique experience during the trip of Vaishno Devi. We had tickets in 2nd AC. After half the journey the AC of our bogey broke down. And so the emergency window had to be kept open for the last leg of the journey. It was fun keeping emergency window open in an AC bogey for the sake of air.

Its really good to be the only young leg among the people going for a sacred place and thereby getting a lot of blessings from others for your efforts.Overall it was a memorable trip.

I will try to share the stories of reaching Lucknow and intial experiences here in few days.

Here and There

Last weekend I was supposed to meet someone on the MG Road. I took an Auto from my house for the place. As usual in Bangalore, a huge traffic awaited me at Ulsoor. While waiting on one of the traffic signals, when there was enough time to even get a nap, an uncle started looking inside my auto with some interest.

"Are you alone?" He asked.
"Yeah" I replied back.

"Where are you going?"
"Kumble Circle"

"If you don't mind can we share your auto till there? No empty auto is coming this way. We have been waiting her for last 10 mins." One old aunt, probably his wife, was also standing nearby.
"Yeah sure"

They got into my auto and then we moved on.

"We need to go to Malgudi Road. We took an auto from my place but auto meter was faulty. It usually takes 17 rupees from my place till here. But meter was showing 20. We left him here itself and was looking for another one. Most of these autowallahs do like this. "
"Yeah many of these auto meters are faulty." I myself do take care of auto's meter to distinguish faulty from correct ones. But never tried changing auto mid way. At most few times I complained autowallah about his faulty meter after paying him the faulty amount. But I do always compliment them if their auto meter showed real distances and amounts.

"So where are you from?"
"Jharkhand" I never risk telling people Dhanbad where even Jharkhand sometimes create confusion.

"Oh so from our Dhoni's land. You have come from a far off place. What you do here? Working?Studying?"
"Working"

"Where?"
"Samsung, CV Raman Nagar"

"How long?"
"Almost three years here in Bangalore, but will be leaving it soon."

"Going back to your own place?"
"No, going back to studies"

"Good Good...Study.. work...again study...good."
"Good beta....keep going" Aunty jee complimented too.

Then we talked about how good Bangalore was and what it has become now-rain, climate, temperature, traffic. I also joined them with nostalgic feelings and experience of mine with Bangalore.

I reached my place, got out of auto and paid the money. They blessed me and then went ahead in that auto. It was a good experience talking to them.

IIML Interview Experience

So here I am back again after a long time with my IIML interview experience.

This was my 2nd and last IIM interview of my life and I wanted to make most of it.

Venue: Hotel Monarch Luxur, Infantry Road, Banagalore
Date: 27th March, 2009
Time: 10 AM

Though I have been living in Bangalore for last 2.75 yrs but I was not familiar with the part of Bangalore that contains this hotel. I reached there well in time but had to do a bit of walking (1 km) to search the exact place. When I entered the hotel I was asked to go to Banquet Hall on first floor. When I entered the hall I unexpectedly found a big crowd (around 100) and got confused whether I reached the right place. Then I saw one of my company mate sitting there in that crowd which confirmed I was at the right place.

While I was checking my panel number somebody patted my back. It was one of my hostel mate from IITD. We were meeting for the first time since we left college. I chatted with few people out there and then the process began.

Each panel was allotted a room in the hotel with mine being Room No. 5. We were asked to sit in a pre defined order. My number was 8. No. 7 was the only one missing in the group. We were given a page to write an essay on a given topic. The table was covered with a bright white cloth and the environment inside that small room was peaceful. But the cloth and the table with a spongy top made it difficult to put paper and write. Anyway there was no alternative. Those who had hard file folder used it underneath paper. Mine was a bit spongy so I used the table top . Everyone was allowed to use a rough paper.

GD

The topic was "Patience is like a bitter tree which gives back sweet fruits." I heard better instead of bitter and got confused, so got it cleared. I think it helped few others.

I used 3-4 minutes to jot down the points and then wrote the final essay. After 20 mins we were asked to stop and return back the paper. Aftr a minute we were asked to start the GD on the same topic.

3 people (including me) tried starting the GD but 2 (including me) of them gave chance to the 3rd fellow. He started very slowly with an example. I was the first to interrupt and tried giving a structure to the GD. Various point were discussed and everyone gave others a chance to speak. Everyone participated. I think 2/9 spoke a little less. 5 (including me) did most of the talking. After 20 mins we were asked to stop. Moderator complimented the quality of discussion that we had.

Interview

PR(ofessor): Professor from IIML
AL(umni): He didn't look like a professor, behaved as a dude. He was the person who had conducted the GD. To me he looked like an alumni.
YT: Yours truly.

The candidate before me asked me to step in after 30 seconds. I opened the door of the room exactly after 30 seconds by my watch.

AL: Nishant, give us 2 minutes.
YT: Sure sir. I closed back the door.

I waited for 3-4 minutes.

"Nishant, Nishant" I think AL called from inside.

YT: May I come in sir?
AL: yeah sure.
YT: Good Morning Sir
AL: Good afternoon!! (with a smile)
PR: Take your seat.

Now something interesting happened. As I was in the process of pulling the chair back and sitting, my eyes were on the table. During that time AL lifted the plate filled with eclairs and pushed it towards me. At the same time he spoke something which was not very audible. Moreover, since my eyes were not looking at him directly I was not able to read his lip. I heard something as "toffee" and guessed he must be offering chocolates.

YT: No sir, its OK. By this time I sat on the chair.
AL: What OK? Give me your certificates. He stressed on the last word. Then I realized that the word that i guessed as "toffee" was actually "certi". He had asked for my certis.

YT: Oh sorry sir. Here it is. I started opening the zip of the file folder.
AL: Give it to me as it is, unless there is something inside which you want to hide from us. (with a smile)
YT: No sir, its all yours.

AL started looking into it.

PR: Please introduce yourself.
YT: (hey what a start!!) I am an Electrical Engg......(it contained IITD, my company, my work .... then the number of Patents that I have filed)
I was allowed to complete half of my prepared answer as PR got interested on listening about patent filing.
PR: How many of them have been patented?
YT: None sir. The whole process requires at least 2 years. It gets published between 6-18 months and then after that only it is finally patented.
PR: When was the first of them filed?
YT: 15th August
PR: OK what kind of patents you have filed?
YT: Sir its mainly realted to multimedia and mobile TV, a field in which I have been working. One of the idea goes like this....Explained one of the idea (It is in Mobile domain wherein my MNC company belongs to).

PR: The idea looks interesting and may be technically challenging. But do you think in this kind of world where hardly anyone has time to talk to others, people will have time to use these kind of features.
YT: It depends upon how appealing the feature is for the user. It may not be appealing for you but it may be for others. Moreover, in this world where products from different competitors generally have almost same features, companies use these new kind of features to make a mark in the market and show themselves different from others.
PR:Yeah, I can find one use where in if I am interested to know more about a girl in a video your idea will be helpful.
YT: (smiling) definitely sir....
AL: You have so many extracurricular interests....which one excites you most?
YT: Sir, Dramatics
AL: Which was the last role you played? or is it u r more interested in writing ?
YT: No sir I have acted too....Last time i did a skit in my company.
AL: No... not skit. I think u understand the difference between skit and play.
YT: Yes sir....before that I played a role in play called Sultan.
AL: Who wrote that play?
YT: I don't know sir. It was a local play. The last script that I wrote was about a murder mystery.
AL: From where u picked up the play?
YT: It wasn't picked. We wrote it of our own.
AL: you mean it was original.
YT: yes sir.

PR was listening all this time. He interfered

PR: I tell you something. There was one of those guys who said there is nothing in this world which is original. Everything is a copy. Einstein, Edison everyone used something or other to come up with their invention.
YT: Sir I would say ....that is not copy but evolution. You use your knowledge on existing set of things to come up with things that serves human society.
AL: okok...but someone must have inspired.
YT: For that play it was Byomkesh Bakshi. I watched the serial during my childhood. I thought it is easy to show mysteries in a serial where you can show different places, times,etc easily but how can we show it on a stage where there are so much of restrictions.
AL: hmmm...can u name some writers of mystery genre?
YT: (I thought of saying few names but i was not interested in talking about them in interview as I was not sure about their writings) I was thinking..meanwhile he immediately made the question more generic.
AL:What do u read?
YT: (I thought he is still taking about mystery genre) Sir I don't read much.
AL: What!! You don't read?
YT: I mean I read but nothing specific.
AL: What was the last thing that you read?
YT: The White Tiger
PR: What is this.....it seems everyone these days read the same novel. OK the ntell me..why the novel is named white tiger?
YT: (Thinking....tried to answer something than thought it will not be a good attempt). Sir give me a sec.
Then came up with a answer.
Sir the main protagonist is the novel was very aggressive, emotionless person who was only interested in what he wants and nothing else....like a tiger which is very aggressive.....(PR interrupted)
PR: No no...that is not the case. Tiger is the shyest animal in the cat family.
YT: Yes sir....but when it sets its sight on a prey it doesn't stop before it gets it.
AL: (He was trying to help) This doesn't sound convincing. Anything else which you can draw something in common?
YT: Yes sir...White Tiger is one of the most uncommon tiger which is found at very few places . Same is the case with the novel's main protagonist who turned out to be a very uncommon character.
AL: hmmm...
AL: OK Nishant...what other call you have?
YT: Apart from L I have call from K.
AL: OK Nishant thats all....please send ***** after 30 seconds. (I was not able to understand the name)
YT: Thank you sir.

Overall it was a feel good interview. Interviewers, especially AL, helped me to come up with answers.

Commendable Gesture...

I thought of writing about this incident earlier but wasn't able to do so because of my busy schedule. Anyway here it goes.

Anybody who uses Autorickshaws in Bangalore knows well the pain involved. Yours truly has experienced such troubles many a times.

About a month back I was searching for an Auto near Ulsoor Police station for Kumble Circle, M G Road. No autowallah was willing to go by Meter- "20 extra sir" "One and half sir" "No passenger from MG road sir"- giving banal excuses, that too at 2' o clock in the afternoon. Soon traffic light turned red and few Autos coming from the other end stopped. I started looking among the ones halted on red light. From one of the Autos someone started waving his hand, as if calling me. I went nearby to find a guy, about 28, sitting inside the Auto. I thought I misinterpreted and went ahead to look for the next auto standing in line. Then he called from back.

"Hey"
"Me?"
"Yeah"
"Searching for an Auto?"
"Yeah"
"For?"
"M G Road"
"Ok come in"

I waited for a second.

"Hey come on, signal will turn green."

I jumped in.

"M G Road will fall in my way. You can get down there."

"Thanks, Do You work?" He nodded." Where?"

"Earnst and Young". He told me his position too. But as it was not clear, I concluded it was something related to Chartered Accountancy.

When Auto reached Kumble Circle I got down and offered to pay the rent. He declined "Leave it to me, my pleasure. Bye"

"Bye Bye"

It was a very small gesture but still I guess, it will not happen with many. I found it good enough to write about. Who knows, may be that person visits this place and recollects the incident.

Big Time Final Loser!!

I am a kind of person who is always happy with his past, never giving a thought to what I did - right or wrong. But lately some one's comment forced me to give a thought about it, though it was a sub conscious try but resulted in a factual conclusion. I do realized it and logically deduced it from my past life - I AM A big time FINAL LOSER.

I have almost always been able to come up with flying colours in whatever field I have given a honest try-most of the time in top 2. But may be I never gave that extra punch which separates the first from second, gold medalist from silver medalist and topper from others in the top group. May be being happy with my good satisfactory performances, I never strived for the best. At least, thats what my own history suggests me-

• Silver medalist for 5 district/state TT championship but won only 1 Gold in my whole TT career in school days.
• 2nd in class from VI to XI but never 1st, continuously for 6 years.
• 2nd in XII board results in school.
• 2nd in so many school events- kho-kho, carrom, chess, etc.
  
• Around 98 percentile in my CAT attempts but never crossed 99 percentile, the mark which makes the difference.
• In IIT always remained among the 2nd tier performers (may be top among them:)) but never moved to the top tier performers group.
  
• Lost the elections for House Secretary after coming up as top two consensus candidate; almost guaranteed victory before the election and the small losing margin made the loss worst.
• Most of my skits and plays fell short of the 1st position (always 2nd/3rd) for some or the other reason, irrespective of the applauses. (MM, my best creation, is the only exception which broke all records)
• In campus placement got interview calls from almost all dream companies from different fields (consulting(Mckinsey)/banking(Lehman)/analytics/tech) but finally made into a 2nd tier tech company.
  
• In professional life too - solution developed by myself is contesting with a competitor for the top slot, and is presently placed at 2nd position.

Though there have been few exceptions- JEE, MM, BTP. May be I have always been a jack of many trades but expert in few. But I seriously think that it is the attitude for the top slot which makes the difference. And as it is always known, best is always remembered while next i.e. second, though may receive applauses for very short time, is always next to best. May be someday I too will strive to move from rest to best category with that extra - I need to find that!!

Dreams: I really dreamed!!

I am having few weird dreams for last few weeks. Though its really difficult to remember them all but few of them I have tried here to reminisce.

• I was sitting along with so many people around me. But I was the only one able to feel rotation of earth- it felt like earth was literally slipping off my feet. It made me feel as in I am going to fall of earth into infinite space. Also, someone in US is chatting at the same time on messenger with me but because of the effect of rotation I am not able to type things correctly.
  
• There is a big mirror in the sky where I can see the reflection of the whole American continent (Few days before this dream I had an idea of putting a big mirror in the sky so that the during the night time sun light is reflected back converting nights into days). Plus, I am able to see light traveling from mirror to my place. And once it reaches my eye then I am able to see that image in the mirror (truly world class imagination!!).
  
• I am at a place somewhere near my hometown. There I met some guy. He told me I met him at some place(which I am sure in the dream that it exists). I recognized him immediately but this time he was with his wife(whom i haven't met in the past. and she looked like a Mallu converted to Christianity). He told he can meet me anytime and gave his mobile number.
  From here scene of dream changes and now I at my home. I had a vibration feeling in my pocket. When I checked it there was some very fundoo, eye catchy yellow-black mobile in my pocket which I haven't seen anywhere before. It had received a SMS-"I met u yesterday with my wife, Instead of giving you my mobile no, I gave u my mobile itself. Please return it to my wife".I searched his wife name, S***(I have forgotten it now, but I remembered it earlier when I told my friends about my dream) in the phonebook, but it was not there. After that I was so disturbed in sleep- how to return this mobile? At last I woke up.
  
• One of my college friend here in my office comes up with a problem that the most beautiful girl in our office is always behind him and not letting him go anywhere(yeah thats his problem!!) .(Few days ago I was surprised to see both of them together at a public function of our office)
• I wanted to go to toilet in my office but I was unable to find it on any of the floors. At last I found one open air toilet on the ground floor where on entering the scene became unbearable to me. There are no urinals and people were just using it like a roadside thing with everyone peeing on walls itself(color was full yellowish and greenish).
  
• I am in a building where Koreans have captured few people and one of them is a small girl. I got them run from the place. My dream went on for I don't how much of time, but in the whole dream I kept on running with them-forests, jumping walls, climbing mountain slopes, sliding snow falls,etc. It ended when I reached my hometown kinda place though it was not my hometown.

I remembered few more but now I am not able to remember them while writing this post. I don't know whether its my imagination which is doing so much of work or am I not mentally at peace. But all through my life I have been having so many weird dreams and few of them- ghostly, gore, friendly, humorous etc- have stuck in my memory for forever.

Unique or First time Experiences!!

I am going to complete 1 and 1/2 years of my stay here in Bangalore in few days, 13th Jan to be exact. These 18 months have been marked some first time and unique experience of my life- enough to be listed in a post.

• Live -In is not a big thing nowadays. But to leave your room for the sake of Live-In for your friend is indeed a unique experience for anyone. And yeah mind u that I stayed in the dining hall of the same house. And here comes the surprise- the girl was not just any girl but a Brazilian coming all alone from Brazil just for the sake of my good friend. The girl was awesome to be friend with and for those 2 months our rented house became a home for the first time. Breakfast at home; clean each and every corner of the house even bathrooms; snacks while watching movies at home; there were so many things that she was the one to be responsible for. Watching hindi movies, mythological discussions (explaining so many hindu gods and goddesses, their incarnations and cricket are the most difficult things to explain) ,cricket, fights, compromises- there were so many things that happened.
• Not many people will have an experience of getting into a Panga immediately after entering in the corporate life, and that too because of a girl. The reason was too ridiculous- an orkut thread on our bakait community hurting feelings of few people, a girl and two boys. But there were too many friends (especially HB) that I made over here in 2 months to take care of everything that came up. But it was really unique in a sense to have a fight in front of office reception with around 25 people for me, a pure college day fight. I wonder as in I didn't faced such a situation whole my life but ended up facing it at the start of corporate life. But it was too childish from the other end!!
  
• 1st time Abroad experience for me. A 2 and 1/2 month stay in Suwon, korea was indeed an experience to cherish for a long time.
• Watching a live cricket match for the first time in life in cricket ground. And that too a India-Pak test match. What to want more when there were already- a double century by Ganguly, century by Pathan, 6 sixes, Kumble' successful LBW appeal, Indian team's fielding, etc
• Not many people would be having time to do the same kinda things, that they used to do in college, in their corporate life. But I am still able to continue the thing that i used to do with best of interests in college days. 4 skits doesn't sound too many but still a relief and refreshing change from the regular work. And yeah the prize money and treats for them are too big to compare with that of college days.
  
• So many bike trips- Nandi Hills, MekeDatu, Hogenakkal (there are too many places to visit in an around bangalore)
  
• Car Trips: Mysore, Skandhagiri
• New friends: People make friends during school, college and then at the 3rd stage of corporate life. I knew many friends who went to different IITs and then made many friends at IITD. Then again here i had been enjoying company of so many friends from different IITs who joined along with me. Many of them started fresh for new destinies but few still here with me enjoying the days over here again and again.
  
• After getting out from IITD, first time realized the importance of IIT and that sometimes do become a reason of frustration on seeing so many people around here whose sole aim was to reach the point where they are standing now. But journey also involved knowing so many non IITian talented, good people around here. (especially in the team to which i belong).
• And after all these, there have been happening so many things on personal life end too.

May be I missed few others, but these 18 months have been eventful on one end and monotonous on the other. And that is how I guess life is supposed to be.

Korea: Experiences continues....

I am finally returning on 22nd september to Bangalore. It will be 2 & 1/2 month by then. Though most probably it remains the same as it was when I came over here, apart for that my enthu for CAT doesn't remains the same.

Over the time, I made some good friends over here. I felt every moment that Koreans are by far good people at heart. Most importantly "Kid" at both heart and mind. And their hospitality has been the best. The worst part is they work too hard and expect same from others. Anyways, thats the reason for where they are Now. And most interestingly, girls over here always look much younger than they actually are.

Some beliefs that I had about the place before coming here got changed with time - girls still hesitate in talking about the relationship status; they are no longer senti with their own languauge; SAMASUNG,though being a Korean private company, its like "Sarkari company" for them but with more devotion towards work; India is not very popular over here in general public though better than most of the Asian Countries; people dont care or know much about other than their own place; commmunication is much more difficult than I thought of, etc. In fact if one lives here for long time, one will forget the use of verbs, prepositions, conjunctions and will only talk in terms of subjects and key words.

The most interesting incident that I will remember forever will be the one that I had on my first trip to Seoul. You never expects anyone to call you in this ChinkiLand in your familior tongue. Though I dont remember his name(their first names are anyway very difficult to remember and last name will always be one of the four guesses that you can make) but the way he was speaking Hindi was even shameful for one of my friends (who is from kerela and speaks a little Hindi). He was there organizing the youth film festival and invited us to watch films. The way he started it looked to me as he was trying to catch attraction of our group for the films. But in the next moment he was speaking though not very fluent but appreciable hindi. And guess what?He was able to write as well. My disgraced friend in no time tried to get lost in crowd before I could start teasing him. We could not refuse his request for watching films and that also for free in the multiplex. At last it turned out to be a nice Romanian film. The most astonishing fact is he was upto that level in 6 months during his stay in India. He tried to contact us later also. But in my busy schedule over here I was not able to contact him back. May be will meet him someday in my own country.

There are many more things to cover. I will try to continue with such posts.

Experiences & Realization

So I have completed 60 days outside my homeland today. When I look back at these 60 days which went by at the speed of light for me I, it reminds me of the experiences and realizations that I had at some point of times within this period. Most of them happened only on weekends because of the kind of work that kept me engaged for weekdays (abt 12-13 hrs a day) and sometimes on weekends too. And I am writing the blog, I dont why, on the day when I came to know my final day of returning which has been postponed thrice and will be making my stay here for about 2 and a half months. The visit to so many places can be seen over here(http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/tej.nishant.shekhar).

This has been for the first time that two of the festivals (out of millions in INDIA) Rakshabandhan and Janmashtami went by without myself knowing that half of it is already over. But then I do realized the importance of so many festivals back at home. Here in Korea they have a some kind of celebration (thanksgiving) in the last week of sep., the biggest for them after Christmas and people out here with an excitement in their eyes asked me about any such thing clebrations happening in India. When I told them about some or the other things happening almost every month they were quite amazed to know more about it.

And along with it INDEPENDENCE DAY was also during this period, though kinda the mood here was same, with Korean Independance Day falling on the same day. Infact attended a function for joint celebration of Indian and Korean Indepeneance Day which was quite a unique experience (http://picasaweb.google.com/arunsdevine/IndependenceDayJointCelebration).

Along with these there have been many other things to talk about which I will do in my next post.