Gajini

The most overkilled term after Thalapathi is Gajini. He is an often used metaphor for somebody who tries again and again for success. This fallacy was strongly established after the release of tamil movie of same name, acted by Surya. Well then, who is Mohammad Gajini. He was a ruler of Ghaznavid Empire and is a celebrated national hero in Afghanistan and Pakistan for a very simple reason. He destroyed and looted as many hindu temples as possible. He was mostly successful in his military conquests. He vowed to raid every year the Hindu temples which were abode of enormous wealth and succeeded in every campaign. In no way his life was an example of try-try-till-you-succeed story. Now that Aamir khan had decided to retain the title in the hindi movie, it would be interesting to see how it would escape the historian's flak. It wouldn't be surprising even if religious extremists jump into the bandwagon.

Ok then, if Gajini is out, who should replace him? We can't live without metaphors. If you are looking for any prominent king, then it must be Robert I of Scotland. Remember the guy who got inspired by spider trying to spin a web again and again.

Why should boys have all the fun

Traffic jams, crazy bike riders, indiscipline - all contribute to the bad exprience one would have while travelling. Least talked about yet highly significant is the way women drive automobiles. Here are the few things that they do.

Spreading legs
Topping the list would be their air bus like landing. Just like the aeroplanes bring down their wheels just before landing , women spread their legs just before they slow down or come to a halt. Unlike men, they don't do it in the last minute, but when the motorcycle reaches 20-30 km/hr. While this may provide a great sight for poets who love women, same cannot be said about gap hungry co-riders. No wonder they were the inspiration behind the bikers in road rash game who kick their opponents out of the race.

Indicator
This habit is not that bad but just that they don't fit in the street. Women put their indicator at the most inappropriate time. They do this while changing lanes when there is no body close in the entire road. They do this one turn before leaving the co-riders thinking why in the heaven she didn't turn.

Horn
Many a times, women prefer riding in the centre of the road blocking the way for heavy vehicles like bus. When bus or lorry drivers horn out of frustration, women have no clue how to respond. In the ensuing confusion, they don't alter their line of ride and status quo is maintained.

Shaking handlebars
This is a customary ritual performed at low speeds i.e when they start, stop, negotiate between the gaps.

Applying brakes
Declared the physically weaker sex, it is surprising that women prefer their legs to stop the motorcycles rather than their brakes. This coupled with shaking handlebars provides men a tricky situation where they are targeted for bumping into women's vehicle.

As a self made neo feminist, i shouldn't be concluding this post as -Women drive bad-. Then how do i explain all the above stated short comings. "I am a legend" movie comes to the rescue. Taking cue from it's theme, this is my reasoning.
These are not bad at all. It is just men are the majority in the streets. They define what is right and what is wrong. May be shaking handlebars is supposed to be cool as wheeling. May be spreading legs is a style to follow rather than danger to be avoided.
After all, Why should boys have all the fun!

April 3rd and april 4th

Well, if everything went as per plan then the title would have been just April 3rd. Alas, there were enough confusion to distract me from my GMAT exam.
I took leave the whole week. This was my plan starting from Saturday.
Sat - Complete OG
Sun - GMAT Test Series 3, GMAT Test Series 4
Mon - Kaplan book test, Power prep 1
Tue - Power prep 2, GMAT prep 1
Wed - GMAT prep 2
Thurs - Exam

One test in the morning and another in the after noon.I was trying to simulate the exact test environment. So, all my afternoon tests would start 1:15pm. GMAT test series was giving me low scores. More importantly their explanations were not good. So, i decided to skip GMAT test series.

Kaplan book test
This gave me the required boost in confidence. The concentration was super intact. I cracked most of the questions.

Power prep 1
I got 660. This was the first time i took a full length test in the PC. The result was obviously discouraging. Mainly because of two reasons.
1. Power prep usually has questions taken from OG which means that you have seen most of the questions already.
2. My fear of GMAT mainly stems from the level of concentration needed for almost 4 hr long test. This test being the first full length test was raising questions - will i be able to hold the forte for 4 hrs.

Monday taught me another lesson. Two tests a day is little too much of an ask. So, plan changed to
Tue - GMAT prep 1
Wed - GMAT prep 2
Thurs - Exam

GMAT prep 1
720. M49 V38. Pretty good. Obviously getting a score of 720 in GMAC's software is truly encouraging. Unfortunately it threw me off-balance through out the test. Maths was tough and Verbal was easy going. This questioned what i have been thinking about myself. As test progressed, maths section was getting tougher and tougher. I was not able to really solve most of the problems quickly. First time, i was left just 5-10 mins. Usually i finish with 20 mins to spare. Verbal experience was a confidence booster. I just attacked the section. I got 10 of the last 11 questions wrong. I was excited of getting difficult questions correct.

GMAT prep 2
Almost all the books and persons who took the test recommended one thing. Don't touch GMAT related thing on the last day before the exam. But, i was taking the practice test in the afternoon before the D-day. 730 M50 V38. Again Maths was tough. Verbal was good. This time incorrect answers were spread throughout the verbal section.

April 3rd
Man! i was tensed or what? My heart was pumping like anything. I just didn't know what to do. I decided to sleep in the morning so that i would remain fresh in the afternoon. But sleep wouldn't come. I was really not happy with the situation. I remained cool in the most daunting of situations in the past. I have taken life defining tests already. Not a single instance i could think where i was tensed.
While i was uneasily whiling away the time, a bolt came out of the blue sky.
Tring Tring..Is it Ram?
Yes.
Ram, we have a technical problem in the test center. Power supply is cut through out Nungambakam.
Ok.
Even the first batch didn't write their exam. So, your test is postponed. I would inform you i when you should report to the test center. Bye
Bye.
What the fuck? They charge 250$ for the tests. They don't have a generator? Oh my dear, i was tensed even when knowing the exam timing. After the call, it was became worse.
Tring Tring...Is it Ram?
(yeah the same unlucky guy) Yes
This is preity.
(Who preity zintha?) Tell me preity.
Ram it looks like you won't be writing your exam today. When shall i schedule your exam tomorrow?
What are the slots available?
3:15pm is available. I can try 9am as well if the candidates did't turn out.
No thanks. I don't want any surprises. So..preity don't i need any confirmation papers. are you going to send any mails?
No ram. Just your passport would do. So its 3:15.
Yes. Bye
Bye

April 4th
From morning i started seeing the "Hogenekkal issue". I have this bad quality. If i see any social issues. I would start arguing inside my mind. Imagine myself as some political person giving interview in some channel. I was afraid whether this would disturb my performance.

Test
Formalities were easy. If it was just another day, the fact that preity looked like nadia would have caught my attention. There was one big guy with beard taking the exam along with me. There were already 1 middle-aged woman, 1 young lady and 1 nerd looking guy taking exams. I was not sure if it was gmat or some other tests.

Analysis of issue
I don't remember the topic. Some dummy topic about changing food habits. I quickly wrote intro and finishing para. As planned earlier, i wrote one para "for" the topic and 3 para against the topic. I had good 5 mins for review.

Analysis of argument
This threw me off balance. I was used to opposing the arguments saying "the argument lacks evidences", "argument misses the premise" etc. "Computers are improving the life standards and not destroying". Oh my goodness it is difficult to oppose such an obvious argument. Hence first time i was going to support the argument. Supporting computers were not a difficult task at all. Most of the points were about internet. I realised this and started correcting it since i had some 10 mins for review.

I took the break given. Went to rest room. Drank half of the glucose water i brought.

Maths
Last two test experience was bothering me. I was determined to alter that. Section went well. I didn't have to rush. I had 10-15 minutes to spare for last few questions. It went ok. It was not great performance but i was sure the score won't give any bad surprise.

Again i took the break given. Drank the remaining glucose water. A mistake i would regret later.

Verbal
I was very confident at the start. This is my day and this is my section which became favourite the last two days. After 5 to 6 questions, i was not sure if i was answering correctly. Going by other test taker's and my own experince, if one is doing the section well, one would get RC soon. I got my first RC only after 10 questions. This doubt destroyed my confidence. Suddenly i was worried about the failure. It is easier to say "GMAT is not a reflection of your ability" but it is difficult to mean it. I began to cry inside. Everything seemed to crumble. Meanwhile the clock was ticking doing its duty properly. I took a deep breath, patted myself. I started taking few questions without being conscious. After 2 such questions, again the spirit soared. I did a RC pretty good. From then on, i enjoyed the test not bothering about the test. I faced another difficulty - my bladder was fully by now. Somehow i managed it well.

Survey
The most annoying part of the test. I didn't complete it. It got timed out. Ah! what a relief.

Score
Those few moments of wait are the most testing. I closed and opened my eyes repeatedly. After some time, i got bored. AH! Damn it show the score - I am not afraid.
730 M50 V 38
Certainly i could have done better. But then, the way i made a comeback in the verbal section - I am proud of myself.

If this was a story book, i would like the author to end it like this.
And he lived happily everafter.

MBA front

Nothing big happening on the MBA front. I have almost hit the road block. Though, there is ample time for the application fever to catch up. I was planning many things like fitness development, social service, reading books, meeting friends. Essentially things i was not doing convincing myself that GMAT was the reason. Now GMAT is out of the way, i should have started doing all the things. But i haven't.
If some really bored human being by chance happened to read this blog, kindly suggest some nice book to read.

Marriage and more

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" If you think this was quoted by someone of your dad's age, you are terribly wrong. This was Plato. I don't know if there is any syndrome related to this attitude. The attitude of complaining about the genNext. Whatever it is, i have not escaped the syndrome. I have my own complaints about the present day children.

April 7th, i had a chance to attend a marriage. If i remember correctly, it was Ramanathan Chettiar Mandapam. One of the costliest in the city. Not a surprise considering its size. Even if you fill the whole palace (yep it doesn't feel like a mandapam to me. poor middle class boy) with people, you will still get place to play. Yet, i didn't see any children playing.

During my childhood, i was always happy to go to marriages. Yeah, there were always some elders asking you what rank you got, what mark you scored. Ignoring those gentlepersons, i always looked forward to these gatherings for a very simple fact. I can play as much as i want. So much so, i used to take rubber balls for marriages. Two things you need for a enjoyable game - space, people. You get both in a marriage. Moreover, it was time for innovation. We invented new games based on the place and the crowd.

I remember a game we played in the stage. The stage had four pillars. The catcher would stand in the middle. The other 4 people has to move to the other pillar. The catcher has to catch the guy in transition.
One mandapam didn't have place to play. All it offered was alley kind of space. We decided to play catching game with catcher blind folded. The place was so small that catcher can easily catch others. So, we waited for the weakest person to get caught. Once he was the catcher, we started climbing the wall with our two legs stretched out, something spiderman would be proud of. After trying for a long time, he would remove the fold. By the time, he removes we will come down innocently explaining that we dodged in the floor and he has to grow a little bit tall to catch us.

The list is endless. I couldn't see anything of that sort that day. May be the small number of children in the marriage might be the reason. Even the children present were not playing. The workers arranged the chairs for the evening reception very easily. During my times, while playing catching game, we would turn the hall upside down. It would look like a mess created by an elephant in an republic day parade. May be i should start taking these things in a positive manner. May be children have matured. May be they know they look childish playing in a marriage hall. Wait a minute...aren't they supposed to look like that?

Mission accomplished

This title is a stark contrast of what my post had a year ago.

730 M-50 V-38
Am i elated? No but i am happy.
Am i feeling proud? No but i feel responsible.
Am i dreaming of school admissions already? No but i am looking forward to the battle.

I decided my reaction to the test result even before giving a shot at the exam. Irrespective of whether it is good or bad score the following would be my reaction.
1. You have prepared well. Pat yourself for it.
2. Learn the lesson that experience teaches you.
3. This is just the beginning.
4. Show your class in other parts of the application package.

PS: I would post my exam experience soon.