Out Bound Training Camp

I joined Great Lakes on 23rd of April 2009. There was a OBT scheduled for us as an ice breaker session on 25th and 26th April at the Adventure Zone, which is 90 km away from Chennai.

We left from our resort at 7.30 AM, but lost our way in between and reached the place at around 9.30 AM. Maj S. R. Roy, former Army man and Adventure Zone’s founder, was already waiting for us. He debriefed us about the day’s proceedings and set the ground rules. We were then divided into six groups: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo and Fox of 21 persons each.

We started with various psychometric tests, which lasted for around two hours. After the tests we were given a demo of Rappelling and Rock Climbing from the experts.

After lunch we played a game of Mine Fields. It was a strategy game wherein some mines were placed on the ground in a bounded area. Four teams had to start simultaneously from the four sides and had to go from one end to other while maintaining the human chain. Only the captains of the teams were allowed to speak through out the game. It was complete a chaos initially and we could complete the game in our third attempt.

Next was rappelling from a four storey building. Though it seemed too scary even with all the safety measures in place, but I went ahead. Taking the initial position is the most difficult step when you have to stand on the edge of the roof and get inclined while holding the rope. After this going down was just a cake walk (or should I say cake hop).

Next day, we started early at 7 AM with rock climbing. We’d to climb on the wall of the four story building. It was the most tiring task. Later we faced the obstacle course where we’d to complete 10 small tasks like walking on a narrow board, spider crawl, climbing rope ladder, passing through tunnel, rope walk etc all in a matter of 3 minutes.

After lunch we were introduced to Orienteering. Wiki says:
“Orienteering is a family of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain. Participants are given a map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points.”

We were given a compass and a card specifying the coordinates of next card. It was exhausting to walk hundreds of meters in scorching heat at 2 in the afternoon. Our team could collect only 3 of the 5 cards in the alloted 90 mins, but we enjoyed finding our way through the jungle.

The camp ended with a small talk from Maj. Roy. Our team, Charlie, ended at the second position overall!

It was fun to do so many activities in just two days and definitely to make so many new friends!

Quotes!

Some of the quotes that were part of my official signature at some point of time or other:

~ I asked my new girlfriend what sort of books she's interested in, she said: Check books.

~ My software never has bugs. It just develops random features.

~ I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.

~ Warning: Deadlines in calendar are closer than they appear.

~ Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

~ Whenever I find the key to success, someone comes and changes the lock.

~ The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend as to find a friend worth dying for.

~ How many of you believe in telekinesis? Raise my hand.

~ I only work on days that don't end in a 'y'.

~ If something "goes without saying," why do people still say it?

~ I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

~ 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

~ When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

~ To err is coder. To conceal it is supercoder.

~ When there's a will, I want to be in it.

~ I'm on a See Food diet, whenever I see food I start eating.

~ Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected become the expected?

~ No one is perfect. Apart from google ofcourse.

~ My income seems to be the only thing I can't live without or within.

~ A day without sunshine is like night.

~ If at first you don't succeed, coding is right for you.

~ Life would be so much easier if we just had the source code.

~ If the sky is the limit, then what is space, over the limit?

~ Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film!

~ Love me or leave me. Hey,where is everybody going?

~ The three most dangerous things are a programmer with a soldering iron, a manager who codes, and a user who gets ideas.

~ I can resist everything except temptation.
Oscar Wilde

~ A girl can be poor in history but great on dates!

~ When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

~ Me n my girlfriend have similar taste; she finds chocolates sweet n so do I.

~ Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.

~ All generalizations are false, including this one.

~ I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

~ Don't be so open-minded your brains fall out.

~ Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'

~ Sometimes I wish life had subtitles!

~ Creativity is great, but plagiarism is faster!

~ The best things in life aren't things.

~ Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.

~ Some goals are so worthy, it's glorious even to fail.

~ I disclaim my disclaimer!

End of my Syntel story..

Yesterday was my last day in Syntel. It has been a long journey of 4 years 9 months and 5 days.

Syntel being the first company will always remain close to my heart...

My interview experiences

I got Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) calls from two B-schools on last weekend.

On Friday, it was for Great Lakes, Chennai. The venue was Hotel Tunga Paradise, Andheri and timing was 11.30 AM. I reached the venue on time. The whole admission process was conducted by the students only as GL is a student driven institute. The crowd looked impressive. I got a chance to interact with few guys and found most of them had 3-5 years of experience. Some of the guys were dressed in business suits. I was among the very few, who were not even wearing a tie.

After the documents verification, I went in for the interview. There were two guys in the panel. One person was from industry and other one was an alumni. Both were very cool and were smiling all the time. They asked questions about how things work in IT, deadlines, project estimates, day-to-day activities, difference between working in USA and India. The interview lasted for around 25-30 minutes, but there was no stress at all as the questions were restricted within my domain only. When I came out I couldn’t believe the PI was already over.

The GD was also cool as everyone got chance to speak and it was followed by a psychometric test of 10 minutes. The whole process was very smooth and overall it took 2.5 hours to complete.

On Sunday, had a GD/PI call for SP Jain Dubai-Singapore programme. The venue was SP Jain Mumbai campus and timing was 2.30 PM. I reached before time and had to wait for one hour for the process to start.

There was no GD. We were given a case-study and were to answer the questions in 45 minutes and had to write two essays in 15 minutes. After the documents verification, it was interview time. People from earlier slots were already waiting, so we had to wait for our turn and it was a long wait.

By the time my turn came, at around 5, I was already tired of waiting. I went in and found two old khadoos professors in the panel (P1 and P2). After the initial greetings, they started firing the questions.

P1: We've gone through your profile. First of all tell us, how come your acads are so poor?
Me: (I know I’ve average acads, but POOR?? Anyway, tried to give some explanation.) Always wanted to do an MBA and was not much focussed in engineering.. blah.. blah..

P1: How do we know that you'll be focussed in MBA?
Me: Sir, this is what I always wanted to do.

P1: You said you were not focussed in your engineering, but why do you have poor scores in school also?
Me: Umm..well..actually..I mean..you know..

P1: How did you get admission in DAVV college? Was there any payment seat?
Me: Sir, it's University's own college. There are no payment seats. I got through pre-engineering test. Actually I had an All India Rank of..

P1: (Cutting me in between) So you got through some test.
Me: (Huh..some test..I took an year's gap to prepare for it) Yes sir.

P1: You've mentioned that you did your schooling from CBSE. Which school was it?
Me: Central School, Mhow.

P1: Mhow?
Me: Mhow is a small town near Indore.

P1: Oh! That Army Headquarter?
Me: Yes sir. I've done most of my schooling from there. I've lived most formative years of my life there and have lived closely with Army people.

P1: Is that the reason for your poor performance?
Me: Sir?

P1: There is a lot of freedom in that society and I guess you misused your freedom.
Me: Umm..(where is it going?)

P1: What is the biggest achievement of your life that you are proud of?
Me: It was when I was titled Best Student of the year in school. Normally, the School Captain gets this title. Even though I was not the School Captain, still I was given this title as an exception.

P1: Do you think you were very popular in your school?
Me: Not exactly popular, but people liked me.

P1: Why?
Me: I'm a likable person. Even in my college and in my organisation people like me.

P1: And you still don't help yourself?
Me: Sir?

P1: You don't help yourself and perform so poorly in your acads.
Me: (Acads again!) Umm..

Later P2 asked me about Satyam fraud, IT best practices, social issues, my hobbies etc, but P1 kept cutting me in between to ensure that I’d not get comfortable at any moment.

I came out, not sure what went inside or how long it went. They’ve a second round of interview with Dean, if the first round is cleared. I was definitely not expecting, but got a call for it immediately after coming out. I was surprised, but was not in a state to feel anything though only a few moments back I'd seen a girl in tears when she got a call for Dean's interview.

The Dean too started with the same question about my decent GMAT score, but my not-so-good acads. It was a short interview and he asked about my career aspirations, why SP Jain and some usual stuff. He kept marking and writing notes on my application form without looking at me, not sure even if he was listening to my responses.

The whole process took around 6-7 hours to complete and included a lot of waiting time. I mentioned this as a scope of improvement in my feedback form also.

It is very difficult to predict how an interviewer judges a candidate. Both the interviews were extreme in nature. The only thing common was that I came out smiling.

And for now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!

Finally some respite..

After four long hours of struggle, the final screen came up with these two options - Report Score or Cancel Exam. I decided to go with the former one. It took some 4-5 seconds to process, which seemed like eternity to me, and finally flashed a score of 710. Though not an exceptional score considering that people even get a perfect score (800 on 800) in GMAT, but definitely some respite for me.

I'm not sure even if I'll use this score or not, but after facing so many not-so-encouraging results in the last few months, more than anything I wanted this score for myself. I'll be joining back my office from this Friday and the last thing I wanted was to go back as a loser.

Mumbai Marathon 2009

The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, Asia's Largest and Richest Marathon, has completed its sixth edition successfully on January 18, 2009.

Although I wanted to participate in it this time, but couldn't register for the event. I got to know that the registrations were closed in August only, a fact that speaks voluminously about the popularity of this event.

Anyway, I decided to be a part of the event as a spectator. I wanted to write about the event, but couldn't put everything into words. So, instead, I decided to upload some 80-odd snaps of the event with some description. As they say, a picture speaks louder than words (or was it something else).

So, click here to have a look at Mumbai Marathon 2009. You can leave your footprints here by using "Post a Comment" link below.

Disclaimer: The image captions are not intended to offend anybody!

Time to sit a while..

It's already half past two in the night, I'm ready to switch off my lappy. A look at the date and I realise that five months have gone since I'm off of work. Even before coming back from US, last year, I was sure I’d take a break, but didn't know it'd extend so long.

People wonder how I got such a long vacation from work. Well, they say it's all about employee care at Syntel; the moment you put your resignation (or threaten to do so), they start caring for you!

After completion of my high school, my class teacher, Ms Nelson, after so much of my insistence, had written a few lines in my slam book. Though these lines didn’t make much sense to me at that time:

“May you have a hundred more beautiful years to live. Take time to smell the flowers that grow along the way, time to watch some little one happily at play, time to spend with someone lonely, time to lend a helping hand, time to sit a while and listen, time to look and understand..
Do more of all those little things God has in mind for you.”

..they have started to make some sense to me now..

Why MBA?

There are a lot of questions that are asked in a B-school interview, but this one seems to be the most favourite among the interviewers. It's asked in almost every interview. The Interviewer knows that the Interviewee is not going to give an honest answer, but asks the question as it has been a sort of tradition. The Interviewee knows that whatever he says is not going to be believed by the Interviewer, but tries his best by saying something like:

~ It'll provide an environment to grow as an individual and expand his horizon of knowledge.

~ It'll provide an opportunity to interact and learn with some of the best brains of the country.

~ It'll provide a holistic view of the functioning of an organisation..blah blah..

~ It's all about money. Honey! (kudos to this guys' honesty, but not sure if he gets through)

~ Why not? (this one's surely out)

Some even give it a Ms-India-contest touch by saying that after their MBA they want to serve the society. Ok, I know that was a bit exaggerated, but you got the point of its being so pointless.

Well, the question has been haunting me too for quite some time, but still I couldn't find a convincing answer. So, after a lot of brainstorming (one of those high-sounding-MBA-words) I've come up with my 4-Gs theory, much in line with 5-Cs of economics or 4-Ps of management.

Glitz n Glamour - One of my earliest memories of an MBA was a young guy in his early 20s, working as a top executive with an MNC, earning a fat pay package, wearing a formal suit, sitting in a plush office in a high rise. The image was created as a result of reading some business magazines, which sells on the success stories of young enthreprenuers and 30-something CEOs. Though this image gradually changed when some of my friends after completing their MBAs were placed in field jobs for sales and marketing. They used to say "glamour kya..sabun bechna ka job hi hai yaar!"

Ghostel Life - Don't even bother to look into dictionary, the 'G' is intentionally added. As I haven't been (un)fortunate enough to stay in a hostel for my grads, there has always been a feeling of missing that crazy life.


Gorgeous Girls - Due to dearth of nice girls in my Engineering college and later in IT industry, MBA seemed a lucarative option with some colleges boasting a boys to girls ratio as high as 1:2-3 in HR. Once again my MBA friends shattered my hopes by calling it a myth.
I've started doubting if this species really attends any college as everyone seems to agree with the 99%-of-girls-are-beautiful-remaining-1%-are-in-my-college school of thought.

Getting Back to School - After working for so long in the same company, I need a break from the routine life of project deadlines, office politics, appraisal issues, salary concerns, etc and going back to school seems to be the only escape route.

Some people say that I never had a genuine reason to go for an MBA and I just say "Wait, till I come up with another reason".

I've already started looking for words starting with the alphabet 'G'!

Tour de' ISB

As I'm in Hyderabad on a official trip I thought of visiting the Indian School of Business (ISB) campus. They organise a campus tour on every Friday from 6.00 PM to 7.30 PM (maybe I should charge ISB for advertising this). So, I went online to book a slot for yesterday, but found that the batch was already full. Disappointed, I just dropped a mail to the Admissions Office saying that I'm from Mumbai and wanted to take the tour. To my surprise, after few hours I got an invitation from them, something that I might not expect from other established Indian B-schools.

The campus is located on the outskirts of the city and sprawls in an area of more that 250 acres. I'd not say that the infrastructure is phenomenol because that would be an understatement. 'Truly worldclass' would put it more appropriately.

The tour started with the tour guide showing us all the facilities present on campus from shops, banks, sports facilities to everything required for an years' stay. After this we headed for a classroom where the presentation was to be given about ISB and its admission process.


The ISB song '525600 minutes @ ISB' with slides showing the student life at ISB really made me nostalgic about my college days, which now seems like ages before. The presentation was handled by a student from the current batch and a guy from Admissions Committee. They went through the slides explaining why ISB is ranked in the top 20 B-schools of the world. By the way, it's the first B-school to get into this league in the very first decade of its inception. Some more stats were thrown at us, which we normally find on the ISB website.

Next came the most interesting part of the tour - 'Q & A session'. I was amazed to see the diverse mix of people attending the session. In the group of 50 odd people, we'd Army officers, Airforce officers, CAs, Consultants, News Reporters and obiviously a lot of Software Engineers. It was pretty visible from the queries asked that people were so specific about what they wanted from an MBA. There were some budding entrepreneurs also, who wanted to know how ISB could help them with their business plans.

I almost fell off my chair when the person behind me asked - "I've 16 years of work experience and I'm CEO of four companies. How could MBA at ISB help me"? They said it all depended on what he wanted from an MBA degree at this point of his career. Later he revealed that he wanted to take a break from work (maybe mid-life crisis) and wanted to utilize it properly. I was glad that we'd similar reasons for doing an MBA, only with a slight difference that he'd been in the industry a bit longer than me.

The gentleman next to Mr CEO was an Army Officer. He wanted to know how his application would be evaluated as he may not have best of acads and GMAT score. They said that it is entirely on case by case basis and each year around 5-7 Defense Officers join the program. Even the class President of current batch is an ex-Lt Colonel. When he asked - "Would it matter if I get a referrel from the Chief of Army Staff"? I almost fainted.

Why don't they ban such people from applying is what I was thinking on my way out. And this is not all. It's a weekly tour. Next week another group of aspirants would visit the campus and another one on the week next to that and so on.

The session turned out to be an eye-opener. I could now imagine the kind of people who finally make it. Some food for thought and a lot to be done. They say, aim for the stars and you'll atleast land up at the Twin Towers. Oh! that stupid Osama even destroyed them.

And I let myself go.

It's already 12.50 AM. The flight will depart at 1.20 AM. Boarding has already started and I am waiting for my row number to be called.

Finally the day has come for which I've been waiting for the last 13 months. Here I'm on the San Francisco airport waiting for my flight to India but I'd never imagined that it'd be so hard for me to leave this place. It's not actually the place that I'd be missing so much, but the people here and the fun we'd in the last one year.

~I'll miss the weekend poker at Casino D where winning was more important than the means (read cheating!).

~I'll miss playing Volleyball on weekends and pulling each others' leg on the court.

~I'll miss playing Cricket-with-custom-rules on weekends where main target used to be not having a negative score.

~I'll miss going to late night movies on Sundays to extend our weekends.

~I'll miss renting cars on weekends just like that and then driving around for no reason.

~I'll miss hunting for food on weekends in other apartments and finally finding Sid as our savior.

~I'll miss Nandan's witty jokes and body building lessons.

~I'll miss Anna's dialogs from latest movies. Only in his company did I realize that the dialogs of AAA and Hera-Pheri are universally written and can be used almost in any situation.

~I'll miss Manoj's sixes in unisex Hindi like wo naya chokri.

~I'll miss Yash's photography tips and the long discussions we used to have about where life is going.

~I'll miss Bond and me watching the same girl in the whole crowd and either me or he saying abe! munh to band kar.

~I'll miss Pandeyji's non-stop chatting, which leaves no moment of dullness around him.

~I'll miss Bheda's chumma chai (as he used to call it).

~I'll miss Lavya and all her stepping over foot and hitting the people around. And wondering, while having serious discussions with her about life, is it the same girl from 5th B !

~I'll miss Deepa's comforting company as of an old friend.

~I'll miss asking Naveen a puzzle and his asking counter questions and leaving us all puzzled.

~I'll miss Mishi's lively talking and putting expressions in every word, which I could watch for hours even without blinking my eyes.

~I'll miss Reddy playing those comedy clips (including kauwa biryani and shaadi ka khana) again and again and we laughing hysterically everytime watching them.

~I'll miss me, Yash and Bond running to catch the last train at 12.25 AM from office everyday and then eating frozen parathas at 2 in the morning.

~I'll miss those Daru Parties where others enjoyed more making me take a sip from their drink than they having it.

~I'll miss those weekend trips, which we had in the last one year, covering most of the US.

~I'll miss those b'day celebrations, giving b'day bums and applying eggs, ajax, juice, liquor or anything available in kitchen to the b'day boy/girl.

~I'll miss those parties on Saturdays when we used to go to a new desi restaurant for dinner and creating so much noise that others would leave the place.

~I'll miss my Bhabhi scolding me for not calling her for ages and then we chatting for hours.

~Oh! and I'll miss the girl at starbucks whom I'd asked out (obiviously she said NO), but couldn't ask her name in more than an year.


The list would go on.. (not the list of girls).

This is one of those few moments in my life when I want to hold on.. but I know I've to move on.

The final boarding announcement is made.. and I let Myself go..