My tryst with destiny

ISB interview

2008-12-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

Warning: A Long Post

It was journey of two days and more from hyd to chn and back but the interview was over in just 20-30 minutes. While the journey itself was interesting and deserves a post, i would register the interview account first.

It should be almost 6 years since i wore a tie. i expected fellow candidates to be equally uncomfortable. To my horror i found everyone wearing a complete suit. I imagined that worst case people would only wear a last minute bought/borrowed blazer over their regular formals. That wasn't to be. Candidates were comfortable and ready to join the mba classes immediately.
If you are a techie too, please imagine the scene were there is a big campus with beautiful libraries, mirror clean floors and suit wearing candidates. Since the cold wind of business aura blew, i had to wear my techie attitude glove. Aah! It felt warm then. I started to feel confident. After all, all techies can become MBAs but the reverse is not true. Believe me, these types of stupid thoughts really boosts your confidence.

With almost all butterflies killed in my stomach, I sat down to write my 100 word essay. there was a column for application reference number. I didn't remember mine. Didn't mind either. Come on! techie can afford to forget everything. The word for essay was "beat". I refrained from giving any broad views like "beating terrorism", "heart beat" etc. I told the story in which i played my first tournament match and how i beat the opponents. It came out really well. Without much thought for decency, i peeped into the adjacent guy's essay. It started with "Pakistan's attitude towards ...". Oh my god! Not again. There were four of us sitting in our couches each waiting for our panel to call us. A lady came out of the room with not so enthusiastic face. The guy next to me P asked her how it went. She said it was ok (meaning it was flop). She started wishing everyone all the best one by one and left. Only thing is that she missed me. Damn it! Don't i look like a candidate. Of course not! I overlooked one of the candidate's interview. He was pumbifying (pretend to be good boy) like anything. By the look, he didn't look confident. I could feel that he is just answering and not conversing. After a wait of 50 minutes, the same panel called me in.

Somebody said hi. I said a loud good morning and looked at my watch to confirm if it is still morning. Then the panel introduced themselves as student s1, student s2 and adcom member ad. I practiced why mba question hundred times. So i was ready to tell the answer. "When i started my careeer......" But the first question wasn't to be that way. From then on, it never went the way i planned.

ad: what is this "innovative genius award" (achievement part in app)?
me: contest of business ideas. blah blah
ad: what was ur idea?
me: (damn it i had this in my to-do list but forgot to prepare an answer) there is something called VOD and PPV. (when i was explaining the students didnt seem to understand but adcom lady did. looks like she has lived in US for a while) VOD had the option of paying it through cable itself while ppv didn't have the facility. My idea is to introduce the facility to ppv. (I was ready to answer if they asked did they give the award for such a simple idea but they never asked)

s1: so what does your company do? Its ok if it is lot of technology jargons involved.
me: end-end cable solution starting from head end to set top box (he didnt understand but adcom lady did when i repeated it again he acted as if he understood - peer pressure!!)

ad: what is this tiger team (mentioned in app)?
s1: u pounce on others?
ad: why did u name it so?
me: its an SOS team. what happened was...
ad: yeah we know, serious issue, people were not able to see channels
me: (eloborated on it further)
ad: is it always stationed like NSG?
me: no. (gave more info)

ad: what is R&R?
me: Rewards and Recognition (again i was ready to give story behind it but they weren't interested)

s1: what is this interview hobby?
me: newly cultivated one to overcome my inhibition and to understand real world which could be quite different from what we read or what media projects
s1: when i am interviewing u, u will tell me what i want to listen. how does it makes sense?
me: that happens when there is a common interest. These are randomly selected people.
s1: so it is just an interaction and not an interview.
me: no it is more than interaction since i prepare questionnaire, take a print out and asks questions. it is rare when people speak out to strangers. so when the opportunity comes i shud be asking right Qs.
s1: what do u plan to do?
me: it is just for me (fumbled a bit as he seemed not convinced then i said i will blog it and s1 gave a ok look)
ad: so give an example of the difference that u understood
me: told them abt canadian people's view abt indians.
s1: how do u plan to improve india's image?
me: why shud v influence some canadian's view. we shud focus our energy only to target audience (fumbled a bit but they seem to understand the point)

s1: how did the economic down turn affect ur industry?
me: told them abt cisco forced holiday but stressed them that my division is sound. (gave some data abt the customers and how strong they were - well answered)

s1: how big is ur team?
me: 15..in chennai but spread across atlanta, cupertino
s1: what issues do u face?
me: v don't hv communication problems...
s1: (stopped me) tell us only abt issues.
me: approaches are different. (was searching for the word extreme programming - showed them i was trying hard to get the term correct)
s1: i come from same background. i wish i cud tell the word. everyone laughed
me: (carried on without giving the term)
s1: if u r named CEO, how will u address it?
me: right now, the modules are independent across locations. i will send out the instructions for proper approach and share the modules across locations.

s1: What is the capital of Ireland?
me: huh?
s1: U are the president of a quiz club. I just know this particular info.
me: took a while to say no. (all 3 gave a that-didn't-matter look)

s1: you are the placement co-ordinator of ur college. if made the same in isb what will u do to tackle economic downturn problem?
me: i dunno how isb works. (fumbled a bit)
s1: ok then tell me how u will do in ur own college.
me: told them how we used to invite companies and how this scenario needs the co-ordinator to market his college very agressively. (regained my composure regarding isb). Again i dunno how isb works. but i will give a piece of advice to students. they shud be ready to get jobs in any company and not stick with any particular company. ur aim is to get out with a job. after getting a job, u can always jump to company of ur choice (s1 seemed to have liked the answer)

ad: what do u want to do post mba?
me: tech consulting
ad: (gave a i-knew-it look)

s1: any questions for us?
me: (looking at the lady) what did u try to understand through dam essay?
ad: creativity, problem solving ability
s1: mainly creativity
me: nothing else

Shook hands and left. Over all very confident interview from me. Working in a non-english speaking environment makes it difficult to switch suddenly to english speaking mode. So i was in want of words many times but filled those with my body language. The third guy who was supposed to watch my body language was looking pretty dumb. so , i successfully engaged him too in the conversation spoiling his job. Lets see whats in store?

ISB shortlisted

2008-12-19T04:08:00.000-08:00

I was totally out of MBA activity for a good 2,3 weeks, not even applying for Alberta.
Now comes a good news.

Come January - Haas would visit Bangalore

2008-12-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

I just sincerely hope that foreigners don't get paranoid about anything that sounds Taj.

Adapaaveengala!!

2008-12-03T08:08:00.000-08:00

I was going through one of the quiz blogs and came across this question. My goodness!! Are we so disconnected with our history? I admit that I forgot most of the important freedom struggle events and dates. But thinking that identification of a post independence prime minister (that too a famous one) would be a challenging question is beyond my imagination. Thank God no body got it wrong.

ISB goes Youtube

2008-11-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

ISB has created a branded channel on youtube. Recession - Says who? The charge per year for the youtube service is 200,000$ or in other words a whopping Rs. 1 Crore.

Listening-9 Reading-8.5 Writing-7.5 Speaking-7.5 Average-8

2008-11-26T05:46:00.000-08:00

Before the IELTS exam I decided firmly that I would remain confident and happy throught my preparation, my exam and after that.

With very less support from the net and with only a practice guide (given free with registration) before me, I started my preparation just a week before. I just skimmed through the material without any interest. Before I could realise it was already friday. I wasn't even past the introduction. Saturday was the exam. I didn't go for office that day and took the practice book seriously. Everything was vague. I could neither get the feel of the exam nor understand what they are trying to test. Anyway I did all the exercises given in the book. I took the practice test in the CD. That sample test clinched the test of me.

Basically there were 4 sections - listening, reading, writing and speaking. Speaking test would be conducted individually and for me it was on a different date from the other tests. Other sections were 40 minutes long. Listening was the easiest of the lot. One has to listen to conversation, speech etc and answer the questions. A little bit of concentration would fetch you the full 9. Reading had 2 paragraphs. One smaller and another bigger. With just one day of preparation, it was harder to follow the tips given in the book. But if one follows them, it would be lot easier. On the test day, I went by the book tips. it was enough to fetch 8.5.

Writing section was a bit tricky. No clear cut winning formula was available. I applied whatever I learnt for my AWA writing. I got 7.5. Speaking test was very straight forward. A small introduction, a speech about an event, Q&A around the speech and a brief speech to conclude. I was lucky to get sports related topic. I talked about a non-existing NCAA experience, my club etc and was very emotional when asked about country's sporting infrastructure. I earned a 7.5. So, my final average score was 8. Not bad considering Haas expects at least 7. A special mention has to be made about the test experience.

It was professional to the core. British council conducted it in GRT hostel. I was one of the few people who looked like earned his own money. So, it was quite chaotic with the majority college going kids. One of them was shocked to hear that I didn't go for a coaching class. The ambience in the hall was very good. Proper light. Proper sound. Two beautiful (in fact very) girls at either side of my desk. Speaking test was in British Council itself. Sunday traffic didn't offer much resistance to my libero. I had to wait for my turn. In that period, I talked to a very forthcoing catering student from Australia. Without giving a thought about our mother tongue, we spoke in english. So, I was well warmed up. I already knew the test would be recorded. I was apprehensive to find the playback audio level so low. So I raised my voice above my normal level. The lady who conducted the test was very nice. She made me very comfortable. More than that she reacted to what I said. That really helped me. All in all the experience was very pleasant and one to cherish.

Haas submitted

2008-11-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

I belong to same country as Anand

2008-11-02T04:59:00.000-08:00

This is what FIDE said about Anand-Kramnik match.

Mr. Anand, I offer you No Salute, No head bowing, Just a heartiest hug. After all "Gens una sumus".

By the way, my father has Anand's autograph. My father worked in SBI branch near Southern railway HQ and Viswanathan was then the Southern Railway's General Manager. My father met Anand there.

Cooliris - Very Cool!

2008-10-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

I tried Cooliris yesterday. It sure was worth it's name. 3D wall is the highlight of the plug in. Though only few sites are supporting media RSS, its just a matter of time before every site jumps into the bandwagon. The company has its headquarters in Palo Alto. Sure missed an opportunity when I was in Sunnyvale.

Another Blockade

2008-10-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

Looks like Citi has cancelled students loan at many campuses. In Haas, it cancelled the loan without co-signer. I was depending on that particular loan to fund the MBA. It is a great set back for me. I have to now dig deep to find other options.

Me and fin aid team at Haas

Q:
I am a Haas mba aspirant. Earlier there used to be "Sallie Mae / UC Graduate Business Loan" and CitiAssist Loan for UC Students" loan programs that offer loans without a co-signer. I didn't really keep myself upto date regarding the financial matters after that. Now i am seeing that at Haas only loans with co-signer are offered to international students. Is there any other viable options for an international student like me?

A:
Hi Ram,
Thank you for your inquiry into the Full-Time MBA Program at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
No, there is no option for the international student without a US Citizen or permanent resident as a co-signer.

Mutton Biriyani

2008-10-26T02:24:00.001-07:00

When I sat infront of computer, all i wanted to write is about IELTS exam. But then after having a really good lunch, can't help but writing about the lunch i had.

A friend of my father, promised us to give biriyani for lunch. No one can be happier than my mom. Atlast she got to relax for one Sunday or else she has to chop, smash, fry fish, mutton or chicken. It is amazing how she still keeps her going on Sundays when she has to cook all by herself to feed 6 useless male morons who have no intention of helping her (hee hee i am one of them). Probably the barbaric way in which we fight for the Sunday special food inspires her.

It was mutton biriyani. I had never eaten such soft mutton pieces (actually i had before but that was from a young goat). I still can't understand how muslims are able to prepare such good biriyanis. Probably its like idly for south india and chappathi for north india. They are born to make it the best. It is better to leave it that way. People always run their imagination about elixir as a sweet magical potion. After eating the biriyani, i strongly contest that notion. Excuse me all earthlings, you were wrong. Elixir tastes hot. It has lot of masala in it and its other name is biriyani.

If you are thinking, i am going too far with my appreciation. Sorry, i haven't finished. I have converted into Islam for the biriyani. Why not? Some people convert for their loved ones, some for money, some for society, some to escape (from whatever). Why not convert for food? My mom is calling me to assist for adhirasam. As usual i am not going to help her. Apart from me being lazy, i don't want to help her because she has prohibited us from eating adhirasam till diwali. Inshallah - adhirasam and murukku - what a combination. Looks like i have to wait till diwali to convert back to Hinduism. Thats the day, elixir would turn sweet again.

Indian mythology gets it's due

2008-10-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

The Hindu mythological stories have always fascinated me. I loved "Mahabharatha" series from AmarChitraKatha. The stories are very rich in plots and messages.
But, we need to take the story telling to a different level to gain wider audience especially the west. This is important with respect to indian audience as well because the current (and the next generation) is very westernized and would ape whatever west does. (Just like Yoga got awareness only after getting its attention in the west)
In this context, indian comic book fans must welcome Ramayana 3392 AD from Virgin comics. Ramayana is always dull compared to Mahabharath but the comic version is simply too good. Many a times, I didn't know if it was Ramayana or Star Wars. A more detailed post on Ramayana comics later. This post is to share the news that Hollywood producer Mark Canton of "300" fame is going to make the movie based on the comic. The movie will be released in 2009. I can't wait to watch it.

The news here.

Not a bad news after all

2008-10-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

I asked the Haas adcom if it is ok to write IELTS on Oct 25 but still submit application for round 1. The answer is Yes. So without any knowledge about IELTS, I am going to register for it hoping that a weeks time is enough for preparing.

With all that i am doing for Haas, it is better for the school to select me. Or else....

Irony - Picture says it all

2008-10-08T01:13:00.000-07:00

Chat session with Haas

2008-10-04T06:53:00.001-07:00

Haas arranged for a chat with student's ambassadors and adcom members on Oct 1 9-10 am PDT.

Since I got the timing wrong, i went to chat 1 hour early only to find out that no body was there. I expected a lot from the session. I thought that they would be candid about their process and clear very specific doubt. Most of the doubts were pretty general and could be found in the site itself. There were certain specific questions that was not related in any means to me.

I asked just two questions.

1. I expect Haas to provide good placements in Tech companies as it is near Silicon Valley. Am i right?

2. I am from India. I have had two business trips to US and one to Canada. I work in an MNC. I communicate with US people almost every day through calls and e-mails. My medium of instruction throughout my education was english. I don't understand the need to appear for TOEFL. Is there any chance of getting a waiver for TOEFL?

The chat was moderated. I didn't see my first question and they didn't answer directly to my second question. The answer had exactly the same words as what I have seen in Haas site about TOEFL requirement. By this time, it getting late for me. So, I logged out. I got only two meaningful information from the session.

1. They treat the applicants who visited their campus favourably.

2. They consider mathematical talent very seriously. (Not bad huh?)

For those who had missed the session, they had promised to post the contents in their site by 2, 3 weeks.

Accept your mistakes

2008-09-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

The only way I tell a lie is by not telling the truth. Otherwise, I find telling a lie and trying to keep it intact is very tiring and demanding process. Some of my friends and relatives, whose lies i can see through have always said the chance of one getting away with a first lie is greater (i.e you dont have to say many lies to save the first lie). So, its worth a shot instead of facing the consequences. But then i have seen them pay a very high price for the very small percentages of lies which went on to become a big problem. So, from my point of view it is better to accept any mistake and face the consequences.
In reality, we dont face ego-shattering, life-threatening and moral-dilemma situations often. So, if we practice telling truth in that situation, it would be easy for us to say truth in trying times.
Look at what Scott Adams did. Whether he intentionally did this or not is not our botheration. Accepting his mistake is the best way out. You could see many comments where the audience empathizes with him for self-plagiarism.

Mine Sweeper

2008-09-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

I beat my own previous record of 8 seconds.

Calvin & Hobbes

2008-09-10T08:34:00.001-07:00

My first Haiku

2008-09-08T03:04:00.000-07:00

Ahem..mmm...

I bought a book in
time management but did not
get the time to read.

Wah Ustad Wah.

Hike-Who?

2008-09-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

Haiku is one of the most important form of traditional Japanese poetry. Haiku is, today, a 17-syllable verse form consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

I tried to compose one Haiku. Damn it! I can't make the syllable count correctly. To balance this and the meaning is pretty difficult. After a little search for Haikus in tamil, i realized nobody is strict about the count. All they aiming for is 3 lines with preference for the middle line to be bigger.
Freakonomics blog had a Haiku contest in economics. The winner was

Haiku writers know
The opportunity cost
Of a syllable.

Where am i?

2008-09-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

After a major disappointment, i have come in terms with the fact that i have only two colleges in the world that specializes in technology.
1. Alberta - Technology Commercialization
2. Berkley - Management of Technology

There could be many schools that may provide an elective in something similar to technology. But only these two schools offer closer to what i want. Importantly they are situated in areas where there is a huge opportunity of this kind of MBAs.

I am not that confident with applying just for two schools alone. If curriculum is compromised, i am ready to take trade-offs in any other aspects of school selection. Hence, i have decided to go for a set of indian schools.
IIM, ISB, XLRI, SP Jain, GLIM are on the list. The list may expand or contract. I would come to know after few weeks of research in these colleges.

Vive Le Sam

2008-09-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

If you want to know what freedom of speech is, watch cartoon wars episodes of south park. My only reaction was Oh My God!.

This is not on, Mr Suresh Kalmadi

2008-09-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Not often do you see rediff commentators voicing same opinion (Raja Sen review is an exception). But Suresh Kalmadi easily did it. I don't know in what world Mr.Kalmadi lives and what he thinks about himself.

WORKERS OF ALL LANDS UNITE

2008-09-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

In physics, work done is the amount of energy transferred by a force.
Work Done = Force * Distance
When you move an object from one place to another, a positive work is done.
When you stop an object which was moving earlier, a negative work is done.
Basically when a force is significant enough to cause a change in energy (kinetic usually), then the work is considered done by that force.
W = F * D = F * D * cos theta.

To make the class interesting, physics teachers would always quote two things.
1. When you carry an object say a shopping bag at the behest of your mother and ask for a favour or pocket money in return, then the mother can simply reject your statement saying that according to physics you have not done any work. teta is zero- The class by now would burst into laughter.
2. But when you carry the same shopping bag to your mother's room upstairs, then you have done some work. theta is some angle.

I have my doubts in the spirit of the statement that translated into this formula.
a. When a car is stationed and you touch it. Work is not done because you are not responsible for the change in kinetic energy and in fact there is no change in kinetic energy of car. But when you carry a shopping bag, you have lifted the bag from the surface. If it isn't for you, the bag would have reached the ground. In effect, you are preventing a change in kinetic energy of the bag (gravitational energy converted into kinetic energy), thus changing the kinetic energy actually. (You might call this a potential energy)
b. If you argue point a is wrong, then you should very well accept point 2 is also wrong. Because in effect you are not changing the kinetic energy of the bag. You are just increasing the potential energy.
So my main argument is that when a force is applied work on the object will be done. Don't ask me to come up with a formula.

PS: I know i feel little lonely!!

Good to know

2008-09-03T12:43:00.000-07:00

This term Vaporware popped up when i was reading about SlingCatcher.

"Vaporware is a somewhat derogatory term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar software/hardware product. The term implies unwarranted optimism, an as yet unannounced abandonment of a project, or sometimes even deception; that is, it may imply that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility. However, most vaporware would not be considered a hoax since the makers have a genuine intention to create their product, even if it ultimately never materializes. Products with unspecified release dates or long development times that outwardly demonstrate regular, verifiable progress in production are not normally labelled vaporware."

Interesting..

2008-09-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Krishna kumar is one of my favourite singers. He is capable of singing any type of songs. Born in kerala and brought up in Delhi, his singing in telugu and tamil without a hint of other accents is amazing.
Me and my friend Prad would always discuss which is his first song in tamil. First what i thought was his earliest song is Poovukellam siragu mulaithathu from Ajith movie Uyirodu Uyiraga. Then i found that he has sung even before in Prabhu Deva movie VIP - Eechan kaatu. Recently, when i was hearing Minsaraa kanavu songs. It suddenly struck me Strawberry kannae was KK's voice.
So as per current standings, minsara kanavu leads the pack as his earliest song in tamil.

People taken for the ride - Do we have a solution?

2008-08-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write on this for a long time now. The plight of ordinary people who depend on bus for their commutation. First of all who use the bus facility.
1. Those who can't afford any other mode of transportation. (line between share autos and buses are diminshing)
2. Those who wants to travel long distance and hence don't prefer using personal mode.

Category 2 is small but significant. It is better to sweat it out in the bus rather than die in the traffic. The bus fares used to be fair. So fair that we don't know if it was fare or fair. I certainly don't have the data to compare the prices across ages and see if the fare was adjusted to inflation. But if it is not affordable to poor people, then let it not be adjusted.
Bus fares like train fares, vegetable prices, petrol prices posed serious threat to the incumbent government when they faced elections. For all those cynics about democracy, you should note this point. An increase of 50 paise would invite hue and cry all over the state. And rightly so because every poor, every individual who is affected knows this rise is permanent and a literally a one-way ticket. The prices can go up never come down.
Since this is a problem, some brilliant tactician came up with express, deluxe and luxury bus concept. Some peole think this is a good idea. Those who can afford more can travel seperately. Well, lets see its cons.

1. It simply breaks people into economic classes. Again whats wrong. When you start paying for deluxe buses and luxury buses, you alienate yourself with mass and you accept that you don't care about the prices. So you are not part of the effective force which can determine the election outcomes based on the prices.
2. Like any unfair business idea, the buses don't offer what they look like they are going to offer. Express, deluxe, luxury buses are crowded in peak hours like any other LSS bus. By the way, when did you last see a white board bus? Like the sparrows in the city, it has become extinct silently.
3. Most important questions for a consumer. Is it worth? Definetly not. The irony is that express and LSS buses offer more space to stand than the deluxe bus. The luxury kind is way out of league. It may work when you go from terminus to terminus but not for shorter distances. They charge Rs.18 for just 3 stops. Moreover, imagine using those services during rainy days.
4. There would be few people still not convinced. I pay more so that i dont want to travel with poor people. No sir, it doesn't work for you as well. The number of buses that operate during office hours are so less that people are forced to buy expensive fares. So when you step into express, deluxe or luxury bus thinking that you will be alone, you are terribly mistaken.

Thunder out of clear blue sky

2008-08-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

"Thunder out of clear blue sky" was my favourite idiom during my school days. I didn't quite enjoy it when it really came.
The course which was my dream one, Management of Technology MBA offered by SFU is not for me anymore. It is a part time MBA. I was browsing thought all the details of the course for a long time now without even seeing it is a part time course. Thank God atleast i know it now.
So that makes what was once second best as my current dream course.
University of Alberta - Technology Commercialization.

Questions to SFU

2008-08-24T19:50:00.001-07:00

After collecting and analyzing the information present in SFU website. These are what i wanted to ask the student advisor.

1. When would the school start accepting applications for 2009 class?
2. In the "apply now" section, i could see transition directly from submiting the application to acceptance to the program. Doesn't the application process include telephonic interview?
3. Average age at admission - 32.5
Average work experience - 9.3 years
Are age and experience crucial factors in the application?
4. Both the qualification assessment form and self evaluation form for MOT MBA has questions regarding the number of years in managerial position. Is this program inclined to those who have already held managerial positions?
5. I couldn't find vital statistics like number of students recruited, technology wise split, which region etc. Could you please help me with those?
6. I couldn't find the duration of the program in the web site. For MBA program, the duration is specified as 12 months. Is it the same for MOT MBA too? Could you please help me with the program schedule?

I am planning to get more details after he responds to these questions.

Top 50 influential thinkers

2008-08-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Thinkers 50 2007 list, produced by Suntop Media in association with Skillsoft, is a definitive guide to who is the most influential living management thinker. I guess we are not talking about constructive thoughts or what is right/wrong. Thats why you would find Scott Adams in the list. A reason for a little smile in an indian is there in the list. This year the top slot goes to our own C K Prahalad. Obviously you would expect most of them to be americans. There are three indians in the list. I hope they are still indians. Surprisingly there are no gurus to represent the dragon country.

A Whew! moment

2008-08-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Lost in thoughts, i was walking back to my hotel. It is a km walk from office to hotel made pleasant by less noise, less crowd (could be quite dangerous at times, you will know why later), less pollution, more green, more traffic discipline.

There was a young couple about to cross me about 20 metres in the walk way. The girl, i dunno must be latino, was really buxom. I am a guy who is really conscious when it comes to seeing those on road especially if it is an unknown place. But this time, my mind was somewhere else. Thats when the what-a-male-normally-does program got activated in the brain. My eyes were scanning the girl unknowingly without the brain really registering the information. I was woken up from my myriad of thoughts by this girl saying something to the boy. I realized my eyes were somewhere it shouldn't be. Man!! i was caught. The guy smiled but his face didn't look good.

The guy was well built. He looked like one of those guys posing in a big bike with a leather jacket and a hot chick sitting besides him. Brain quickly calculated the odds of escape. Hmm.. with laptop in my back i stood no chance. Eyes scanned for support. Only two old people were walking with me. Damn it! Thats it! Why was i born on a beautiful day 25 years ago in meenakshi maternity clinic, madurai? To get thrashed by a stranger for an offense which i did unwittingly. So, what should i say if he confronts point blank? Why the f* did u see my girl friend like that? By this time, the gap is reduced to 5 metres.

When we are about to cross each other, i suddenly increased the speed and avoided them.
huh..excuse me.
A strong chill went inside my spine. Now, i had to turn back. My god tell me it is a dream. I can't believe it is happening.
Hmm. actually, my girl friend thinks you are really cute.
Oh no, why does he say it unashamedly? Is it some kind of prank of poor indian boy? or Is he a pimp? or Is he a thief? The girl does the distraction the guy takes away things or Is he really telling the truth?
I took a very good look at the girl. I saw her in the eye, gave a big smile and said Thank you! I turned around walked faster like never before. I could see the guy trying to say a next sentence but stopped at the way i went past at that speed.

Whew! that was close. Vive le Canada.

Transgender - Aravani

2008-05-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in Kovai express travelling from Coimbatore to Chennai along with my college friends. Suddenly there was a gang of transgenders approaching our compartment. My friend who asserted himself as been-there-before guy asked everybody to keep any currency or wallet in safe place. The group was begging for money. If that was not working, they started to harass people. Thanks to our thiruttu muli, they understood clearly that we were an easy prey. They collected themselves to target our group. One of my friend who sat first and didn't heed to the expert's advice lost his money in the pocket. Happy that their first attempt fetched them what they wanted, they left us.

Strangely the experience made me empathetic towards their plight. After all what could they do. No one would give them proper work. They are left with only 2 options - prostitution, begging. No wonder they have high percentages of HIV postives among them.

In March, TamilNadu became the first state in india to officially recognize transgenders as a seperate sex. Transgenders can avail ration cards now. Tamil Nadu AIDS Initiative-Voluntary Health Services played a major part in this move. Let me also give the leader his due. Take a bow Mr.Karunanidhi. You did a great job. Though not a case for euphoria, the news would surely bring smiles to their faces. I also heard that in a new Jeeva-starring movie, they are going to show aravani in positive manner.

Clearly times are changing that too for good.

Wimbeldon 2001

2008-05-17T00:10:00.000-07:00

If anyone wants to learn how to be a good winner or a good loser, please watch this video. A definite watch for guys like bhajji, sreesanth, hayden, ponting.
Interesting fact : The on-court interview was allowed in Wimbeldon only after 2000.

Gajini

2008-04-23T04:35:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-12T07:54:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-04-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Hit me baby one more time

2008-01-09T04:31:00.000-08:00

It is good to recollect about your previous failure, before attempting for one more time. It has been more than one year since i wrote GMAT and failed miserably in it. Scores read 640 50 27. It's no brainer where i failed. Having scored in the likes of 750 770 in practice tests, how did i fail in the main exam? Usually the trend is otherwise. People score lesser in practice tests than in the actual exam. This could mean only one thing. I have been cheating myself in practice tests.
Its hard to believe you cheat yourself when no one is looking at you and the practice tests were only for you see where you stand. But still there could be a slight possibility that i could have fed my ego and tried to avoid the truth and fooled myself that everything is on course.
Next thing to keep in mind is obviously my failure in english section. The low score could have been due to 2 reasons.
1. I was bad at solving those questions.
2. I ran out of patience after 2 hours when i finally arrived to that section.
Now that i had finally decided to start my preparation, I have to be wary of these two points. How can i rectify my mistakes?
1. Practice hard. Probably i could ask help from my friend. Probably ask him to prepare along side. (This is too much of an ask but lets see!)
2. This is difficult to achieve given the current life style. I am going to challenge myself with non-fiction books to cultivate patience. Avoid multi-tasking during office hours.
GPAI attack!!!!

Whats in a name?

2007-11-24T03:05:00.000-08:00

The other day i was chatting with one of my class mates. From our current work status, the topic changed to her family. She has a baby girl. I asked her name and "Krishna Tulasi" it was. Such a lovely name. I praised her for selecting a very good name. Like every other parent, her husband's and her thoughts would have circled around grandma's grandpa's name or god's name or a name which has syllables from both the parents' name (this is becoming a fashion now a days). Is it that simple to keep a name? Few may say it is and few may say it is not.
For those who say it is not, probably they have the issues that they face in satisfying all the close one's expectations. Mother-in-law might come up with her father's name or some mentor might come up with a god's name or a crazy relative might come up with a freedom fighter's name. Too bad the child can have only one official name. It is no wonder parents avoid this dilemma by keeping a house hold name and an official name. Poor child it has to respond to two different words everytime.

My point of view is completely different from this. I see it from a child's angle. Just like child cannot choose its parents it cannot choose its name. Yes, they can change it but how many people do that. Even the ones who do it will have superstitious reasons but not a egoistic reason. For example, in my friend's case, her daughter has a lovely name Krishna tulasi. Since she is a girl, it is highly likely that they will call her tulasi shortly. But there would be always peers, friends, neighbours and relatives who will cut short the name further to save words as if it is an endangered species. Some would call her tuls and some crazy people will call her lasi. For those who think this is unlikely, consider this. There was a girl in a college by the name Saraswathi but called sasi. Saraswathi and sasi are like two ends of the galaxy still the short form for saraswathi is sasi.

Every household in tamil nadu would have forgotten the original name of thols in kolangal serial is tholkapian, a beautiful tamil name. We really don't have control over what short form would people around us would come up. It's better if we move on just accepting it as a part of life. A guy like Ambalavanan might end up with Amba even worse Ramba. If you expect padma raj to be called as raj. Sorry people might prefer Padma. The name shortening is parodied in almost all the stage dramas. Crazy mohan when running out of jokes would return to his age old joke.
"You call Venkat venki, then will you call Mahesh Monkey"

When we were in college we didn't do this much injustice to the name Mahesh. We gave it a superb short form "Maxi" something like Maximus from gladiator. We called Pradeep Prad giving it a US touch. Though it might sound like fraud, it was a name in vogue. Not everytime we were this kind. There was a guy called Krishnan. He preferred Krish as short name so that he can get even with Hrithik roshan but we called him with the household name Kicha. When in a very good mood, i would call him "Ucha" which means urine.

Name doesn't always reflect what people are. I knew a ramasamy who looked like hot model, a Karupasamy who was fair, a Vidya who didn't study well, a lakshmi who was poor. So parents please be careful while giving a name to your child.

Avoid names like
Arokia raj
Dhandapani
Rathi
Ajith
Aravind samy
Pichamuthu

Moreover, when i was a student i preferred to be the last student in a batch so that we would get time to prepare ourselves. We won't be first up in the line of fire. Typically a class would be divided into two batches. A to P names would fall in first batch and R to Z would fall in second batch. So keep a name starting with I, K, S, T, your child would be indebted to you forever.

Time to answer these questions.
What is your name and its short form? How would you like your name to be shortened?

aduvari matalaku arthalae vaerulae

2007-11-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

A *ding* sound from gtalk and then came the query.
XYZ: Hi Ram
Me: Hi

She was my colleague in office. It was diwali time.

XYZ: Advance Diwali wishes.
Me: Thanks. Still working?
XYZ: No waiting for my husband to pick me up.
hey distributed Haldirams sweets worth 500bucks
Me: Mine?
XYZ: there in CUP for X-Mas they might distribute.
Me: But i will be there in india by that time.
XYZ: Oh you are coming? when?

Every chat with my colleagues ends up with "when are you coming?" that too almost daily. They managed to forget the date. This is the problem with every person who left their shore. They think back home everybody is eagerly awaiting for your return or atleast know when you are returning. But in reality, people move on in their lives without them. I am not talking about the family but about friends and acquaintances. Not that i am blaming. It is just a reality. For just two months, i am already being forgotten.

Me: Nov 17

I could have stopped here. but i turned apologetic.

Me: I forgot there was diwali at this time or else i would be there by now.

This is very true. I had the oppurtunity to tell when i can return to india. I totally forgot the festive of lights. The problem is Diwali doesn't come every year in the same date and i am for one know the date only after the TV starts banging your head with the Diwali special programmes. As i forgot that, i gave a date which would allow me to be there at the time of my bro's birthday.

XYZ: How could you forget that? You are not responsible always.
XYZ: What if you are married?
Me: Say that to my family. A man needs marriage to get responsibility.
XYZ: and still manage to forget say your "thalai diwali"?

This is what we call in our college "reverse bias". You say "India should lose" but inside you want india to win. By this way you always win. Same applies to a marriage talk. By the way, i have been infamous as a guy without responsibility in my office. Scant respect for deadline, forgetting everything from my bike key to Visa documents and Mr.ABC's fervent propaganda about this has made me look really irresponsible. Me forgetting about important festival like diwali only contributes to the image.

Me: She would have reminded me and hence i wouldn't have forgotten.
XYZ: the girl wud be in a pathetic condition celebrating thala diwali alone.

"Thalai diwali" or first diwali is the first one that you face after marriage where the bridegroom goes to his father-in-law's house, stays there and tries to reduce the old father's bank balance as much as possible. At this point of time, i have to tell you something. Wherever i go i talk like feminist giving ultimate support to women's cause, supporting like i am woman myself. Still no one believes me. All women i meet end up saying, what you say is good but you don't like a guy who believes in it. This is so beyond comprehension for me. May be this conversation would explain something for me.

Me: Come on..you are underestimating the nagging capabilities of a woman.

Oops i already pressed enter. Now, I myself teared off my feminist camouflage here with my sexist statement.

XYZ: What if your wife is an exception and she celebrates happily without you.

Yeah!! she didn't notice it. Moreover she doesn't mind someone addressing wives as nagging persons. suna pana image apadiyae maintain pannu.

Me: thats kind of cool too. she will get a temporary break from me.
XYZ: adappavi (can't translate is correctly but it is close to ada=hey paavi=sinner")
Me: why i am paavi?
XYZ: you are supposed to fight, how could u be happy without me
Me: i forgot and she didn't bother to tell me. so its even. Why should i fight?
XYZ: no she is punishing you
Me: for what?
XYZ: u being slack.
Me: I don't understand.
XYZ: Ah! leave it you won't understand.. ok ram its time for me to leave. have a nice day.
Me: ok:) bye

Now wait a minute. My wife is not telling me that diwali is around thinking that this is the way of punishing me for not remembering that there is diwali coming. And fighting is expected and if you don't you are a slacker. Maaannnnn!! Women are from venus. Oops another sexist statement.

"You won't understand". This means either of two things.
1. She not treating me like a grown-up as married people have more knowledge about family life than unmarried people.
2. She addresses the entire male community expecting it not to understand what women say.
If 2 is the case, more trouble lies ahead!!

Disclaimer: I didn't have my gtalk chat history with me when i wrote this. So, the words in the conversation might not be exact but they surely covey the gist.

Cast Away

2007-11-03T22:04:00.000-07:00

I am not sure about the exact date but i saw this film 5 years ago not intentionally though. There was this contest in our college organized by our department for being the best person with quick wit and communication skills. It was called "vibr(e)ance". Till now i don't have a clue what it means. Anyway i happened to be in that team that conducts the contest and i was picking up video clips for a round thats when i was showed this movie. My senior was a marwari who pronounced "porumai"(patience) as "poramai"(envy). As an english film buff, he forgot his actual work and sat through the entire movie unknowingly forcing me to watch the movie as well. Most of the time i didn't cared about the dialogues(monologues most of the time) and paid enough attention to understand the plot alone.

Next time i saw the movie some 4 months ago. The second time i was actually watching the movie. Enjoyed the movie, acknowledged Hanks' great acting skills, amazed about the product placement marketing skills and went to sleep.

Today i saw the same movie for the third time. Only this time, this time i travelled along Tom Hanks. Whenever he spoke with Wilson, i was hearing on its behalf. Why this sudden attachment with the film and sympathy towards the character?
Turns out, it is not sympathy but empathy. In a way i have been cast away for 2 months now. Yes, there are lot of differences between Hanks and me in terms of plight we face but there are lots of similarities too.

He had no one to speak except Wilson which is ofcourse delusional. Yes, i have people to speak here. Hotel waitresses, receptionist, cab driver. I see them daily, smile at them and ignore them the same way thing they do with me. You might point out there are office people. Yes, there are many. I speak with them daily about what SCTE18, ISO/IEC 13818-6, ETSI EN 301 192, ETSI TR 101 202, CCIF etc etc. You call this speaking? I do talk to my family twice weekly. Still there are lots of time when i am alone having nobody to speak nobody in sight infact. I wish i could say that my laptop is my Wilson but i am not that desparate as Hanks' character.

He had to find food so am i. Yes i have all the dollars to buy food in indian restaurants in El Camino Real. I tried few times eating out but how many times should i have to go alone. I never cared to know what my mother does before she brings the hot food. Anyway necessity made me to take up utensils. After the first week, the cooking enthusiasm died out. So, stopped cooking vegetables or should i say stopped trying to cook. I had bought ready-made mixes, chips and eggs. i guess the bachelor boy going to america is a big business for all those MTRs and Ruchis. This has been my food for almost 2 months now. Every time tom hanks catches a fish or tries to fry something, i saw me preparing a rasam or boiling rice. When he sees the desert isle theme party, he shows little interest just like i got used to my same set of food items. It's not hate for the food but the sigh of the monotony.

On returning home, Hanks finds certain things changed from what he expected. Mostly things that he cared. While it is too early to say that i would feel the same because my trip to home is still 2 weeks away, i know for sure atleast chennai would have few new one-ways and traffice diversions.

Well you may accuse me of making storm out of a whistle. The emotion might be small when compared to a cast away but feeling lost is still significant enough to ponder. If just a 2-3 months of being away makes me write this post, i really don't know how am i am going to cope with my wannabe expatriate dream. But there is always hope that everything would fall into place and there would be some wind to guide us to the place where we want to go.
"I've got to keep breathing. Because tomorrow, the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"

Darn!!

2007-10-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

I was whining about the profiles i see in my previous post. Just look at these profiles. "I am already leading 200 people. I brought profit to my company. I saved them from drowning. I did that, i did this. " Then why the heaven you need MBA. I have to come up with something special to distinguish myself, to make myself worthy for the school to have me as student.
Let me see if the program "Shot at Love - Tequila" teaches me anything regarding it.

First Step

2007-10-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Confucius.

Step 1 in the MBA journey is getting into the school. All those who have been there and did it before may say that is the easiest and less taxing part of the journey. But no one cant deny it is the most important step. All that .There are few things in my hands and few things not in my hand.

Things in my hand
1. GMAT score
2. Essay presentation
3. Interview
Things not in my hand
1. My track record

Well i chanced upon few resumes and few profiles of applicants. Many have fancy achievements. Something like ..i was selected for leadership program in my company. i am one in million. Kind of scary when i don't have such achievements. I don't really worry about presenting my achievements (it may not sound like one) in a pompous way. nor am i worried about picking mediocre of work and translating it to something extraordinary. I can do all these things for my extra curricular activities that i did in college and my activities in workplace. What i cannot do is that i cant really come up with any instance of helping common people anyway. Yes i have donated blood many times and i have donated money when ever i was approached. I have visited orphan homes few times (thrice to be exact). These are very few and scattered in my life and it doesn't sound like an achievement. Achievement should be something like..i am involved in an NGO, i helped tsunami victims, i am youth leader of green peace movement.
Well i am thinking about improving my helping record in coming days. But my application wont wait till i transform into a responsible citizen.

With respect to all these achievements getting mentioned in applications and interviews, i have few questions for all those Been-there-done-that (BTDT).
1. How do the admission panel know if i am lying about my achievements?
2. Will they ask for any proof or letter from the concerned people? For example, if i say i captained my college volleyball team (which i didn't, i was in the team but) will they ask a letter from college PT?
3. If i am a very good lier, can i get away with all those small work built up to a towering achievements?

Youtube Gems - Thumbe Vaa

2007-10-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Youtube is becoming haven for many rare gems of a video. Be it the song which rocked India when i was kid. I dont even know who was the hero or what film or why i was not able to see that song in the never ending film songs bombarding TV channels. Turns out it was pakistan pop song sung by Hasan jahangir.
Thus when i am digging more and more gems from Youtube, i am came across this jackpot. A malayalam song. This song so captivated me, i have heard it thousand times now. Ok ok that is a bit exaggerated. But truly it has been in loop for almost 2 days now, i am not still bored of it. I am raving all about it to my friends in chat and recommending people to listen to this song.
I had a chat with my friend today who said he flunked in an interview. I gave him the link and said this would lift his spirits. I was expecting something in lines of "good machi" if not "superb machi". He replied "yennada scene onnum illa" (Why there are no sexy scenes in the video). Looks like he still views me in the college mould. After a hearty laugh, i said i was not aiming to lift the spirits by lifting your ....well you know what i mean.
The song is from the movie Olangal and music director is Ilayaraja.
Song starts with amazing piece. Human vocal chord sound and piano string sound taking their turns to blend with the bass guitar in the background. Then begins the flawless flow of janaki's voice. No frills nothing. simple arresting mellifluous voice. Just like any other raja's great compositions, the orchestration is extraordinary. That makes the song so special.
The usage of bass guitar is ...(i am running out of adjective here) divine. While tabla takes most of the responsibility of accompanying the voice, the remaining void is filled effortlessly by Bass guitar, piano, keyboard, flute. The concoction is exemplary. The beauty of malayalam language and janaki's rendition adds to the marvel. I don't expect everyone to appreciate the song as much as i do. But i can guarantee that it wont hurt you ear.
Before you click play in the video below, i request you to hear the instrumental version of the song.

Dilbert - Blurb

2007-10-22T21:18:00.001-07:00

You know those personal endorsements you see on the back cover of books? Those are called blurbs. Scott Adams has a contest in which his blog readers can come up with good humorous blurb for his new book. "STICK TO DRAWING COMICS, MONKEY-BRAIN!" The book is about the interesting posts and comments in his blog. The contest is only for US residents. The post had 512 comments. I didn't have enough patience to read all of them. These are the few good ones.
Just to keep you guys guessing. One of them is my blurb.

This book proves Scott Adams is a genius, he not only makes money on his writings, but on other peoples too.
If you don't like Scott Adams' work on the Dilbert comic strip, then chances are you aren't even reading this.
Nothing you hear or read can do this book justice. Not even a quote said by some random stranger on its back cover.
Adams' conversion from internet to paper is a refreshing twist for both lovers of his blog and people who hate trees.
The monkeys stopped dancing and stared in shocked silence as the first edition of this book rolled off the presses.
Ever wondered about the meaning of LIFE?
Ever contemplated the BIG PICTURE?
Ever ruminated over WHY?
Ever reflected on your place in the universe?
Ever speculated on HOW and WHERE?
Well this book has nothing to do with these questions. Have fun reading it.
I read this book 1000 years before it was written;
Now you know why I'm always laughing.
Buddha
If you don't read this book, you'll die! Of course, all of us will die eventually, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
Don't wait for the movie to pass up this opportunity to waste your money.

Update: I asked you suggestions about IT in 2010. I didn't get enough thought stimulation to write it yet. Will surely try.

G6 to Malibu

2007-10-21T13:17:00.001-07:00

Though i paid only for a compact size car, they gave me a mid size car. Wow!! Chevrolet malibu deserves its reputation. The drive is smoother than g6. Look wise g6 is better but malibu rocks in the feel.
Pontiac G6

Chevrolet Malibu

Mazhai Varsham Baarish Pula Rain

2007-10-13T17:29:00.000-07:00

It is a type of precipitation, a product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapour that is deposited on the earth's surface. This is how Wiki defines Rain.
I was born in a land where i cudn't afford to sing "Rain rain go away come again another day". It was more like ...."Rain rain come my way come again another day that little johnny was a gay".
I loved rain just like everyone in my place. I used to imagine when i am pissing.If it would be raining for all the small creatures in the land when i am pissing who is pissing over me when it rains on me. Is this what mom is referring as GOD. This was some ten years before MIB film hit the screens. Such a great thinker I am (POMB)!!! The very moment of seeing rain brings most of us the memories of all the golden days which we had in our lives. Well i have a list of mine. Dont expect every one to be a candy sweet memory.
1. The day i had hot samosa seeing Super human samurai cyber squad. It was thursday and 3 days of holidays followed.
2. When rain cut short the boring speeches of our school annual day. Though everyone was asked to go to respective class, i sneaked through and went home. Guess what? all long my way to home h20 was kissing me.
3. There was not much rain for almost 2 yrs in chennai. I bought Duckback rain coat for Rs.800. My friend was like "..what? 800 for rain coat. I just bought road side cheap one. Afterall it doesn't rain in chennai." Like Prasad's wicket of Aamir sohail in 96 world cup quarter final, my rain coat changed the complexion of chennai. It was raining cows and buffaloes in chennai. My friend used to hitch a ride to office with me. When we reached office, i was clean while he had lipsticks all over his body. YYEEESSSSS Duckback works...and it works very well.
4. We in office went for outing to Fisheman's cove in ECR. I took my car. Little did i realise my lack of knowledge as to how to defreeze the mist inside the car would threaten my very existence. When i was driving back, it was night and it was raining heavily. To add masala to the situation, there were 4 other members including a girl risking their life with me. The flashing lights of cars on the other side hitting the mist filled car screen made vision impossible. Looked like mission impossible. U know what happened next. BTW this is not a ghost which is blogging.
5. It was hot as hell when i reached CA. People told me it rarely rains here. I told my colleague that we in India believe that good people's presence brings rain. Guess what it rained!!and it rained heavily. I was afraid to take the car. The guys were their usual self in their speed. Man it is raining and u r supposed to slow down. Nobody listens or cares. Sitting lonely inside Pontiac G6, i was thinking which is better. Sitting safely inside a car alone or drenching in rain with ur lover Pyar hua iqrar hua ......The devil inside me shouted "AAAH Loser!! Loser!!" Only way to stop him is to stop this post right now!!!.

Ideas Needed

2007-10-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many in the blogsphere had even a glance at my blog. Anyway it doesn't hurt to have a shot.
I was asked by my friend to write an essay on "IT in the year 2010". Before i write my essay on the topic, i would like to garner other's idea as well so that i have diverse ideas.
So guys please pour your ideas.
No i don't want essays in the comment section. Just pointers like
1. Working from home.
2. Contract workers rather than full time employees.
3. Worker's union.
or just what the essay shall focus.

Update: I wud b starting the essay on sunday afternoon. Suggestions are welcome till then.

Black or white? - Part II

2007-10-06T16:51:00.001-07:00

Is it really logical to define fair skin as beautiful.?
Lets begin with purpose of life. What is the purpose of life? I want to be kind, be famous, be rich, be helpful, be adventurous........... In reality the sole purpose of your birth is to reproduce so that your kind is not extinct. WWHAAAAATTTTTT? you senseless Neanderthal. Hold your tongue a bit guys.
Agree or not we are born to reproduce. May be our sixth sense wont agree but that is how nature has designed not only us but the entire animal kingdom.
If nature comes to you and tell copulate with your opposite sex so as to continue your family tree. will you do that? Ofcourse not, what is in it for you? Thats why it has come with sexual feelings, harmones, and...love. Please shahjahan don't get me wrong. Even your divine love is because nature wanted it u to reproduce. Nature has this bait called attraction. This attraction shud b logical. Nature wants only toughest to survive in this world. So, the attraction should lead to a successful birth, not miscarriages. birth of a tough offspring, not a stupid sopalangi(weak guy).
Hip and waist size, full lips, defined cheeks, and sizable breasts are all controlled by female sex hormones.
Tall figure, broad shoulders, prominent cheekbones, a strong jaw, hair in body are all dependent on male sex harmones.
So a person having all these features is the alpha male or female. These not only indicate harmone secretion but also shows how healthy you are. So logically everyone gets attracted to an opposite sex person so as to have an offspring strong enough to survive the world.
Now wait...aren't we living in a civilized world? we are not in some jungle. Exactly, we humans have evolved so the defintion of features of attraction should also evolve. Not every day you fight with someone to show your physical strength. Intelligence should be the feature we should be looking into.
Time to return to our original discussion. As you can see there is no place for colour in mutual attraction. Atleast logically speaking. All those guys who feel superior because of fair skin and inferior because of dark skin, you are really stupid. If you dont agree, leave it atleast nature would agree with me.
Disclaimer: Next time if your eyes unknowningly goes to see a women's breast. Dont feel bad. You are programmed to do so.

Black or white? - Part I

2007-10-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

"The world is full of prejudices. To get on top of it ignore it" - So said the great zen Kyuin goan...Don't believe it? Man when am i going to be convincing in telling lies.
In the places where i grew up and lived till now, the colour of the skin decides the beauty 90%. I don't question one's own preferences of what beauty is even if the pattern is so omnipresent that u start question whether beauty lies in beholder's eyes or not. But, sometimes people take their definition of beauty too far that they judge one's ability based on that.
I am ok with someone who says "Wow how beautiful she is ..those flawless fair skin showcasing her as an angel"
I am not ok with "Eeek look at him how black he is. definetly he will not qualify"
Well, if u r acting holy by thinking "does this happen in my world no way", then sorry my pal you are not only ignorant but also have a very happy life without much thought about how the earth revolves around the sun
Let me first tell my tryst with all those people who are obsessed with colour.
1. My cousin - she is younger than me. We just meet in marriages and rarely in our houses. When we were travelling together, she sat near me and kept her hand near mine. "I am more white than you". I was not irritated but that left an impact on me. The thought came to me again and again. what if she has asked somebody who has inferiority complex about her colour.
2. My friend - He hates actor vijay. well any sane person would do that but the questionable thing is what made him hate. He says it is his colour. He hates every actor who is dark including thalaivar.
3. My colleague - Her child is little dark i.e darker than the min(hus col, wife col). So she is not happy showcasing her kid. Ofcourse there is society pressure which makes her admit this only in rarest of rarest of moments. Imagine how blasphemous it would be for a mother to make such a statement.
The list goes on and on. If u r expecting all these people to mean. Sorry guys they r not. In fact they r some of the nicest persons i have seen. So how come these guys have such a meanly prejudice. Let me analyse in another post.

What i look in B-school?

2007-09-30T20:18:00.001-07:00

Based on priority.

Location:
In most cases, where you study is where you get employed. For past one year, this has been point of confusion. Due to personal reasons, i am looking east right now. Singapore would be fantastic but the good looking schools are in HK too. Canada would be an option if the other criteria fit well.
Curriculum: Give me anything for the core i would study. The specialisation - i am looking for something which would get me placed in tech companies. Something related technology. Though this is a rare commodity once, i am sure i could catch some schools concentrating on this part due to the current trend.
Diversity:
This is very important. Though i am not very conservative about the geological diversity, i am definetly looking for professional diversity in my class mates. No more IT people please.
Clubs: Sports related should be must. Basically i am expecting real clubs and not the name sakes.

Well i am pretty sure that i wouldn't get all the expected things in one single school. There has to be compromise somewhere.

MBA..and why

2007-09-30T18:22:00.001-07:00

It is nice to be blog again after a long time.
Planning to do as frequent as possible.

Last time i made an entry, i was really clue less what to do. I had given gmat and the score was very less.
Well GMAT is not all that tough. It is just like getting centum in maths in public exam. Everybody is capable of doing it but not everybody does it. There is a fine line between success and failure in gmat. I wish i would have been at the other side of the line..the successful side.

Nevertheless, i was planning to give GMAT after break of month or two. But on retrospection, i was really questioning my intent of doing MBA. It has been a year since i wrote gmat. Still i have not come in terms of what i want in life. There is one thing i learnt from my life, never run away from problems. So, if someone asks why do you do MBA. i should n't be saying i do it because i don't like to carry on in s/w field. I should be saying..bcos i want to manage people, manage deadline, manage fate of the company and MBA is short cut for it.

Having indirectly said my intentions of doing MBA, one which really is a block to taking a plunge in career shift is....MBA ok what MBA? I want to work in product companies ..which run for their lives in the innovation race to save their butts. With definition of what i look in my MBA and after that, i have trouble in matching with any course offered in B-schools. Just like any MBA aspirant i dream of the board room meeting trying to explain why the company has to take this path.

Current status: Taking my time to see what is there for me in B-schools.

Mission aborted!!!

2006-09-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

640 50 27

Irrespective of the outcome, i had planned to do many activities. Primary of them, thanking all those who supported through this journey. special mention to Iday who guided me and patiently answered my queries.

Penultimate day

2006-09-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

Needless to say i didn't do anything worth mentioning as far as preparation is concerned..... or is it one way of preparing for exam?? I don't know why i am getting nervous. This is not the first time i am taking a career-defining exam. I have seen it all. 12th board exam (the present academic bas have made those exams irrelevant as far as the engineering stream is concerned it was quite different in my days), college exams... and this is not going to be last of such moment in my life.

(Start dreaming)Just imagine stepping into the bed room for the first night. What a big moment for a virgin like me .(Stop dreaming) Man this exam is nothing compared to that.One should learn to take everything in his/her stride. I am also learning.

I tried to redo certain parts in prep materials. I was not concentrating at all. I was thinking of both pleasures the success would bring and pressures the failure would bring. I decided to see the test centre cos i should not be searching the centre tomorrow. Transferred my weight on libero. It didn't start for a while (poor maintenance?!?!). On the way, I almost got crushed by MTC bus. I skidded near Choolaimedu with the bike landing heavily on my left leg.....Hmmm I am beginning to sense fortune here. I was not killed by the accident. My legs are safe. Seems like lady luck is going to have a date with me tomorrow. With this thought, now, I am confident of taking GMAT challenge.

Dwindler's List

2006-09-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have decided on the five schools which i would give for free scores in the GMAT exam.
York University: Schulich
McGill University
University of British Columbia: Sauder
Queen's School of Business
National University of Singapore

I have selected schools in a such a way it could cover the entire spectrum.While the course offered in Queens is what i am aiming for, there are other universities which i am ready to settle. The main criterion for selection has been the fees. (what to do? middle class mind man!!)Ofcourse, Schulich is top of all univs.McGill and UBC are with manageable fees. NUS being my poor cousin. Based on the GMAT score, my risk taking ability would increase. :) Till then this is the list.

GMAT PREP 2

2006-09-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

740 (Didn't note the split some i think 51 and 40+)

I started the day directly without any warmup. I usually warm up reading newspaper before indulging any GMAT activity. Today, i didn't do that. Just thought what difference does it going to make. It did make a difference. I completed 2 essays. I was feeling uneasy. I was not concentrating enough. By subconsious mind was doing all the work. After 10 questions or so, i got an easy question. I was really sad. I thought something is terribly wrong. You guys remember the static screen that would appear in DD before the programs start around 5pm. My mind was like that today. I decided against all my strength to quit the test. I know i was trying to stimulate the test day as far as possible. In the test day, i cannot do what i was doing today. But, why carry on when you are not at all thinking.

All thoughts of failure and subsequent embarrassment were simulated in my mind. I couldn't take it any more. I started reading Business Today and slept unknowningly. My mom woke me up for lunch. I washed my face and took the test again. As i don't want to face the same question again, I tried re-installing. GMAT prep was very smart, it gave me the same session. Then, i decided ...o.k i would take the same test. I completed the test. Again concentration was o.k. I never believed it was a good atempt.

Quants was killing me. Usually, i do 1 question/minute and have sufficient time to spare. Today, hmm-um... May be i am missing Kap800 here. Hope i don't miss it dearly in actual test. First time in my life, i was enjoying verbal more than quants. number of mistakes stands at 5 for quants and 11 for verbal.I don't know what to take from the test. Though, there are lots of positives and 740 is very commendable, there is a sense of fear going on undercurrent in my stomach.

This is what my last three tests show
670
770
740

The average is 730 and my aim is 800. This test changed all my perceptions about my strengths and weaknesses. I want to finish this as fast as possible. Can't wait for the moment!!!.

POWER PREP 2

2006-09-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

770 Q51 V42

I was very disappointed to miss 800 by just 30. o.k o.k just kidding.The initial thought was "What ?!?!". cos i really didn't concentrate well. It didn't require. Most of the questions were reminiscent of OG questions. I had 28 and 18 minutes to spare in quants and verbal respectively. I decided to discard this score as i thought this was not reflecting my actual ability. But, the very taste of 770 was very good. Just thinking.... mission 800 was afterall not impossible.

Fifth day gone

2006-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

I took Kaplan book's practice test. Best thing about the test was that i was able to concentrate the entire 3 to 4 hrs. I took full length test including AWA. I never thought i could focus given what happened the entire last week. (I wasted much of the time including watching some soft porn movie clips. Bad boy huh?!?!). Main point is that i took this test seriously.

Result
Figures indicate Quants followed by Verbal
Time to spare 15 20
Correct 35 31
Wrong 2 10
Raw Score 34.5 28.5
Scaled Score 52 38
Total 670
Percentile 91

PS and DS are very silly mistakes. One was multiplication error and other was ...i thought 0 is not a multiple of 5.I am both happy as well as worried about RC. I always think RC is my weak point. Happy because i got only 3 wrongs. Worried because i am consistently making mistake in my first RC (5th question this time). It is the first question i flunk always. I was really surprised by the amount of mistakes i did in SC. Many were close. CR is my strong point of all three.A credible performance indeed. But, nowhere close to my target 800.

Plan ahead

2006-09-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Analysis...a small one

2006-08-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to analyse my strenghts and weaknesses. Pretty important huh?!?!

Strength

1. On any day, Quants is my strength. I have encountered only few problems which i didn't know how to solve.

2. Reasoning ability is terrific and i am now able to guess GMAT testers intentions (just like Neo could see all those binaries... o.k o.k wrong comparison agreed :) )

3. Timing has been terrific. Always ahead of the clock. That relieves most of the pressure.

4. Mental strength. I would never bog down when i got a question wrong. Through my test taking experience, i feel one question doesn't make or break anything. The tests are intelligently devised to give us the score we deserve.

Weakness

1. In Quants the mistakes that i have made are mostly silly. But, does it matter. Is there any mistake classification report given to the schools. No. Even if you click the wrong answer though you know the correct answer, it is a mistake. So, need to remove this weakness.

2. RC is a major set back. I do RCs better in OG but not in tests. Atleast one goes down. This is the major problem. Need to be very careful. There is no margin for error.

3. SC. Man these GMAT testers....Some one teach them good grammar. Though i am strong in parallel construction, modifying clause, sub-verb agreement, one thing which drives me crazy is idiom/phrase. I am o.k even with that. Suddenly, there would be out of the box for which i am not convinced even after seeing the explanation. Luck would play a vital role here.

4. Mental stamina - Till date i had only one test where i could concentrate on both sections. That was PR4 but the result was 570. Shit i hate that score. Anyway, i should be beware of the fact that mind is a monkey. Give a good GMAT show so that it doesn't wander anywhere.

5 days to go (including today)

2006-08-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

I really like this countdown game. 5 days to go..3 days to go...It really builds up the pressure. isn't it?
The whole of this week has been disappointment. Well, my study plan had Kap800 in it. Unfortunately, it is not available. I tried my level best to get one. :(This made a big vacuum in my preparation phase. I really don't know what to do. I wasted my time in surfing unnecessary things. I didn't really have the motivation to re-read everything. I have completed almost all the materials i have. I felt like stranded blind in a forest.
Now, as i am typing this, i have exactly 5 days to go including today. To get back to rhythm, I read the posts of both iday and inblue for a while to get some inspiration. Iday's all success story gave the necessary motivation and inblue's not-the-best-performance gave the right warning signal to me.
What i have completed? (Question bank basically)
Kaplan, OG10 Verbal, OG10 PS, OG10 DS, OG11 Verbal, OG11 Quants, OG11.
Whats remaining?
Kaplan (few practice tests), GMAT review questions,Power prep review questions.
Full Length tests remaning
Kaplan practice test in the book
PR practice test in the book
Power prep 2GMAT prep 2
Plans ahead
9/1/2006 Kaplan practice test in the book / Remaining materials
9/2/2006 PR practice test in the book / Remaining materials
9/3/2006 Power prep 2 / Browse through every materials for the mistakes and redo it.
9/4/2006 GMAT prep 2 / Browse through every materials for the mistakes and redo it.
9/5/2006 Skim through preparatory materials and flash cards. Relax as far as possible.
9/6/2006 Hopefully i get atleast 800.

Sensex touches 700 mark

2006-07-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

I took PR 3 and got 700. M49 V38. Hmm.. 100 to go.
Field Correct Wrong
Data Sufficiency 11 3
Problem Solving 21 2
Critical Reasoning 10 2
Sentence Correction 12 3
Reading Comprehension 11 3

I am not all that pumped up with this score though i should be. The reason..

1. Princenton is little bit easier than Kaplan. Kaplan being my next test. It makes me sad that i might get less than 700.
2. This was not a usual timed section. The first time i sat for the test, i had sever stomach ache. When i was nearing the compleletion of maths section, i left as i could no longer take it. By the time i came it was all over. I had to restart again. This time i know what was the question coming. Questions were same for the first 10. Then afterwards, it began to differ. Probably i should have made mistake in the first 11 in my previous attempt. From then on, it was a real test. I completed maths section by a good 20 minutes.

Maths
Last time i got all PS correct. This time 2 wrong.
Last time i got 5 wrong in DS correct. This time 3.

Verbal
I was really surprised by my verbal section. The highest i have got is 30 till now.
I would like to ask a typical CR question.

Last week, I worked hard in CR. This week i got more in CR than last week. This week i didn't practice verbal at all. I practiced OG11 Quants review. In free time, i did OG 10 DS. The Verbal score is more than the previous week.
Explain the paradox.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

I could think of only one reason. My concentration is improving week by week ...........along with the fear to perform.
As i am typing this at 8:47PM, i still have 174 questions to practice in OG10 DS section. An impossible task for this night given the fact that i sleep at 10PM. But then, isn't it this blog is all about.

Next week.... I am going to write the essays as well to really test my concentration level for 30+30+75+75 minutes. :)

IF (Infinite Fidelity, Indian Fanatsy, Idiotic Fumble.. whatever)

2006-07-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

IF... nice word isn't it? One always try to use this word after making a failed attempt .......what IF i studied MBBS or what IF i became a painter.
The fact which we can't deny is that we chose the position what we are today ...o.k atleast played a part in it. So, all the IFs become useless since we are the one who made the condition true of false when the control flow came to that statement.
Still i can't resist myself asking many IFs. I would like to categorize my ifs to two sections. one positive and one negative.

ONE
what if i didn't chose GMAT to write and stuck with my techie job?
what if i don't cross even 700 mark (yes, EVEN 700 mark)?
what if i didn't get a job after spending much in a foreign b-school?
what if i really don't like the MBA stuff after learning what it is?
what if i meet an accident in the mid air leaving all my loans to my father?
Am i going too far?? May be yes but can some one deny all these possibilities.

TWO
what if i got 800 in GMAT?
what if i got to my dream college(do i have one?? yes:)) and get into a great company as a manager?
what if MBA is really what i expected?
what if i met with a strikingly young intelligent women in the plane who was destined to be my beloved wife?
Am i going too far?? Again..... may be yes but can some one deny all these possibilities.

Two guys in the entire universe have the strength to make a difference.
1. Me
2. God (oppurtunity, fate, luck, destiny - the name might differ based on who you are)

Power prep 1

2006-07-24T05:40:00.000-07:00

Taking back to back tests is not an easy job. After completing the GMAT prep 1, i decided to take power prep 1. I was angry at myself for my low score in verbal. The annoyance came out not on the low score but rather on not concentrating during the verbal phase. In power prep, i attacked verbal questions and i was in full concentration. I had nearly 10 minutes to spare while finishing the exam. Techniques could be corrected at even the last moment but concentration needs to built over a period of time. I am happy that i finally sat through the entire test without loss of concentration.
The score is 660 M50 V30. Just 140 away from my target 800.

I didn't review the wrong questions after the test. Ideally i should have done that. But, since i didn't have explanations for the answers, i didn't feel like reviewing the questions. Are explanations given in GMAT and Power prep or did i miss it?

The Power prep s/w takes much time to load. It really irritates at times. Reason....?!?!?! ofcourse, it is written using Java applets. Dai ramu onakkula oru techie yepavumae mulichikitu irukaanda.

GMAT prep 1

2006-07-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

I took this in the afternoon. I slept at 11am just to make sure i won't sleep in the afternoon and had early lunch. Still i was not able to control my sleep and lack of concentration. I won't blame the timings for my lack of concentration. In the previous four tests that i took, i was not able to concentrate for the full test. It slowly declines and by the time half of the verbal questions are over, no concentration is left in me. Somehow managed to finish the test and it showed in the results.
620 M48 V27
This is the first time i breached the 600 mark.
I am happy that i got 48 in maths despite flunking the very first question which was a lollypop. Verbal less said the better it would be. I know it is too early to guage on my verbal skills with morethan one month to go for the exams. It clearly shows where i need to concentrate.

Last week... CR week

2006-07-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

Whole of last week was dedicated to ..err... office. :) As per plan, i was supposed to finish CR basics.

What i learnt
1. Read the passage carefully word by word since every word is important.
2. Read the question before reading the passage. This would give you an idea what to expect.

Areas of improvement

1. Some of the CR questions i didnot understand at all. So, i chose the wrong answer.
2. I go wrong especially when the question involve words like EXCEPT and LEAST i.e they provide a twist at the last word. I don't read this word inspite the word being in caps. So, a strengthen or weakening questions, it would be like which among the five, strengthen the argument the LEAST. I see the word strengthen and off i go.
3. When i choose a wrong answer for a question, in all probability the next answer will also be wrong. This clearly proves that i have high concentration for few minutes and low concentration for few minutes. Need to work on concentration more before it is too late.

A Teaser (atleast for me)
An empty metal box weighs 10 percent of its total weight when filled with varnish. If the weight of a partly filled box is one-half that of a completely filled box, what fraction of the box is filled?
The calculation for this problem is very easy but i didn't understand what this question is all about. I would have understood the question had they rephrased the question better. Something like........
An empty metal box weighs 10 percent of its total weight. When filled with varnish, if the weight of a partly filled box is one-half that of a completely filled box, what fraction of the box is filled?
Anybody hearing in ETS and kaplan??? Hello!!!

DS on saturday and sunday

2006-07-05T04:14:00.000-07:00

As usual here is the list of questions that made me to have a second look.

1. Is x2 equal to xy?
(1) x2 - y2 = (x + 5)(y - 5)
(2) x = y

I answered it D but the answer given is B.

Option 2 is sufficient as it says x = y which means that x2 equal to xy.
So, A & E are eliminated.
Lets see the option 1.
x2 - y2 = xy + 5y - 5x - 25
x2 = y2 + xy + 5y - 5x - 25
x2 = xy + some value (y2 + 5y - 5x - 25)
So, i came to a conclusion that x2 not equal to xy. What i missed is when y = 0 and x = -5, x2

equal to xy.
So, option 1 is insufficient.

2. At a certain university, if 50 percent of the people who inquire about admission policies

actually submit applications for admission, what percent of those who submit applications for

admission enroll in classes at the university?
(1) Fifteen percent of those who submit applications for admission are accepted at the

university.
(2) Eighty percent of those who are accepted send a deposit to the university.

This sort of questions confuse me. Sometimes we shud assume that when a university has accepted

an application then it means the student has enrolled. Sometimes u don't.

3. A jewelry dealer initially offered a bracelet for sale at an asking price that would give a

profit to the dealer of 40 percent of the original cost. What was the original cost of the

bracelet?
(1) After reducing this asking price by 10 percent, the jewelry dealer sold the bracelet at a

profit of $403.
(2) The jewelry dealer sold the bracelet for $1,953.

I answered D and the actual answer is A.
I didn't understand why option 2 is not sufficient. Is it because the asking price is different

from the selling price?

4. The surface area of a square tabletop was changed so that one of the dimensions was reduced by

1 inch and the other dimension was increased by 2 inches. What was the surface area before these

changes were made?
(1) After the changes were made, the surface area was 70 square inches.
(2) There was a 25 percent increase in one of the dimensions.
I answered C and the actual answer is D.
I didn't understand how?

5. If ? denotes a mathematical operation, does
x?y=y?x for all x and y?
(1) For all x and y, x?y = 2(x2 + y2).
(2) For all y, 0?y = 2 y2
I answered D and the actual answer is A.
I didn't understand how? Based on option 2, we can say that x?y not equal to y?x for all x and y.

isn't it?

6. If b is the product of three consecutive positive integers c, c + 1, and c + 2, is b a

multiple of 24 ?
(1) b is a multiple of 3,
(2) c is odd.
I answered E and the actual answer is A.
I didn't understand how?
if c = 1, b = 1*2*3 which is not divisible by 24.
if c = 6, b = 6*7*8 which is divisible by 24.
if c = 6, b = 15*16*17 which is divisible by 24.

7. Is the integer n a multiple of 140 ?
(1) n is a multiple of 10.
(2) n is a multiple of 14.
I answered C and the actual answer is E.
I didn't understand how?

Areas to improve.
1. Not reading the question stem properly.
2. Though i know the correct answer i mark it wrongly.
3. Concentration shud improve.

There were some 12 DS sets of questions each containing 25 questions to be answered within 30

minutes. Most of the time i took less than 25 minutes. Whenever i took a long break (indicated

here by a line break :)) i scored less and took longer minutes to complete.

Correct/Wrong

19/6
20/5
22/3
19/6

18/7
20/5

23/2

23/2

19/6
20/5

SC here i come

2006-07-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

Before booking for some non-bailable offence, let me clarify this is about Sentence Correction in short SC.
As i enter into SC phase, i have one small word doc to finish.
The name of the doc is 1000SC. The name frightens me just like the movie name "ayiram thalai vaangiya aboorva sinthamani". I have decided to take this during the build breaks in the office. On an average, the build i do takes atleast 17 minutes - this time i have been usefully ?!?! utilising in staring at the monitor and atmost reading some nonsense blogs. Now, its time for SC to fit in.

I hate tv

2006-06-27T01:23:00.000-07:00

World cup football, kolangal, Wimbeldon 2001 final........
What else do u want to keep me away from books?
Yeh!! morning time is there. What to do? I didn't wake up since my brother didn't wake me up.
Studying 12th std, i thought he wud definetly wakeup early.

TV is really spoiling me. I don't know what anti-dote i need for this particular venom.

Weekend

2006-06-25T21:13:00.001-07:00

I took princenton test 1.
The score was 550 M40 V26. I was greatly disappointed by the maths score. Since, i didn't read the verbal section's rules, i didn't even review the verbal section.
Each and every PS that went wrong was due to only one reason. Not reading the question properly.
Just giving a thought to those great souls who guessed that idiots like me would not read the questions properly and they gave options accordingly. Otherwise, PS was a cake-walk. PS didn't require any of the things that are given in the text book. But, there was one problem which i didn't understand completely. Hence, even the plug-in technique didn't work.
This question is the excellent example of how people will suffer if they didn't read the question properly. This particular question i read the statement "1/2 of the handmade ornaments are antiques" as "1/2 of the ornaments are antiques" and treated antiques and ornaments as different entities and failed miserably.

Mysoon collects glass ornaments. Ten more than 1/6 of the ornaments in her collection are handmade and 1/2 of the handmade ornaments are antiques. If 1/9 of the ornaments in her collection are handmade antiques, how many ornaments are in her collection?
Correct answer is 180

9 Total Wrong
5 PS
4 DS

Given are the four DS i made mistakes. Unlike PS mistakes, the DS mistakes are genuine in the sense, mistake because of wrong logic.

What is the value of y?
1. When y is multiplied by 6, the result is between 40 and 45.
2. When y is multiplied by 3, the result is between 19 and 23.

My answer statement 2 is alone sufficient
Correct answer both are not sufficient

Mistake reason : I assumed y to be an integer.

What is the value of x?
1. (x+2)(x+3)=0
2. x^2+5x+6=0

My answer each statement alone is sufficient
Correct answer both are not sufficient

Mistake reason : I really didn't understand their reasoning here. I thought x=-2 or -3.

* + # = @
In addition problem above, * and # are single-digit numbers. * and # are +ve odd numbers and *>#. What is the value of *?
1. @ = 6
2. # = 1

My answer Both statements together
Correct answer statement 1 is sufficient

Mistake reason : Clean bowled in the logic.

What is the value of p?
1. 5p - 20 = 5
2. (p - 10)^2 = p^2

My answer statement 1 is sufficient
Correct answer each statement alone is sufficient

Mistake reason : How would you solve the second equation? I took sqrt on both sides and got the equation p - 10 = p which is non-sense equation. I should have expanded the equation for solving. Again mistake in the logic.

Lesson I learnt : Read the question properly even if takes longer time.

Score

Data Sufficiency 11 4
Problem Solving 7 5
Critical Reasoning 9 3
Sentence Correction 9 6
Reading Comprehension 10 4

Q6

2006-06-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

6. There are three secretaries who work for four departments. If each of the four departments has one report to be typed out, and the reports are randomly assigned to a secretary, what is the probability that all three secretaries are assigned at least one report?

Q5

2006-06-25T21:12:00.001-07:00

5. In Rwanda, the chance for rain on any given day is 50%. What is the probability that it rains on 4 out of 7 consecutive days in Rwanda?

a) 4/7
b) 3/7
c) 35/128
d) 4/28
e) 28/135

Q4

2006-06-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

4. John wrote a phone number on a note that was later lost. John can remember that the number had 7 digits, the digit 1 appeared in the last three places and 0 did not appear at all. What is the probability that the phone number contains at least two prime digits?

a) 15/16
b) 11/16
c) 11/12
d) ½
e) 5/8

Q3

2006-06-25T21:11:00.001-07:00

3. Jerome wrote each of the integers 1 through 20, inclusive, on a separate index card. He placed the cards in a box, and then drew cards one at a time randomly from the box, without returning the cards he had already drawn to the box. In order to ensure that the sum of all cards he drew was even, how many cards did Jerome have to draw?

Q2

2006-06-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

2. How many odd numbers less than 1000 can be formed by using digits 0, 3, 5, 7 when repetition of digits are not allowed?

Q1

2006-06-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

1. How many numbers are there between 500 & 1000 which have exactly one of their digits a 8?

Afterall they were right.......

2006-06-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

In earlier post, i had mentioned i am not convinced about the usage of plug-in methods. Seems like someone overheard this.

If a sequence of consecutive integers of increasing value has a sum of 63 and a first term of 6, how many integers are in the sequence?
11
10
9
8
7
As i forgot the sum on n terms formula in AP i found this difficult to solve. The key didn't involve AP formulae. Instead they found out by working out the sum themselves starting from 6.

In a jar there are 3 red balls and 2 blue balls. What is the probability of drawing at least one red ball when drawing two consecutive balls randomly?

a) 9/10
b) 16/20
c) 2/5
d) 3/5
e) ½
I read about a type of probability problem where atleast one is used. I forgot what was the trick involved there and i cudn't think more into the problem also. i was stuck. (During the morning trip in the van i tried this) I know for sure this problem wud involve 5 and 4 in denominator and the numerator involved 3. Hence, a shud be the answer. Bingo!!! the guess is right. Though i understood the problem later, i now fully convinced that guessing and plug-in r effecient methods especially if u r stuck with the problem.

Math - Verbal

2006-06-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

Many a times what we say becomes what we are. You keep on saying "Dai naan romba weak da.". someday u will really become one. In any competitive exam, there wud b 2 section to contend with - Math et verbal. We tend to take Math more seriously and verbal too lightly. Reason we don't want our egos to get hurt. machi, maths o.k da verbal thaan idikithu.
In the case of GMAT again, getting high math score and less verbal score doesn't bother us much. But the truth cud b little difficult. This article provides excellent insight about how scoring well in verbal gives u an edge over others. Anyway, the article claims that most of the B-schools apply 80/80 rule. Turn your arclights to Verbal!!!!! Atleast now.

To plug-in or not to plug-in

2006-06-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i was just skimming through the algebra section in PR. There was a concept called plug-in which is nothing but trial-and-error method in our language. Various types of problems were discussed for which the method to plug-in was discussed.
I was not convinced to use this method for two reasons.
1. Solving thru' algebra equations gives me confidence.
2. I do it quickly with equations itself than substituting and finding out.
Anyway it is a good technique especially for questions involving fractions and set theory.
Ex - 1/2 were boys 1/3 were both boy and girl how many girls were there.
If we assume there are 6 as total ppl, it is easy to solve. 6 is selected because it is the LCM of the denominator of the fractions

Booked

2006-06-20T01:10:00.000-07:00

No, not for any offence.
The GMAT day, G-day as people would fondly call it, in my case falls on September 6 2006 at the stroke of nine.
Miles to go before i sleep
Miles to go before i sleep
:)

Not so great start

2006-06-19T23:19:00.000-07:00

No updates for the last 5 days. that says it all. The weekend went by without any significant effort from my side for GMAT. I planned to give a test. But never did.
I started reading Quants section in Princenton yesterday at 9PM. Slept at 10PM. Got up at 5:30AM. Before you open ur mouth for any WOW kind of sounds let me tell i was fighting my sleep and pushing the limit from 9 to 10 PM. Morning times, reading newspaper and doing my backbone exercises took much of the time. Need to adjust the newspaper reading time during the office hours.:) I am targeting to complete quants section both kaplan 2006 and give a test on weekend.
Difficult ask. isn't it?
But, that is what i am targeting. The computer is giving me headaches as it has some boot problems.

Day two

2006-06-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Lots of confusion yesterday regarding how to plan for the test. But, it was heartening to note that for the given time the plan i had in mind almost coincides with the one in GMAT Tutor site.
My target for the weekend.
1. Nail the plan.
2. Complete collecting the materials.
3. Complete all the preliminary tests in vyom s/w and assess yourself.
4. Book date. Do i have the credit card? No. Why fear when I is there? So, no worry on this front.
I took the second test. Part of it yesterday and part of it today morning. Not much difference in scores. I scored 515. Expected isn't it. After all it is the same me in the first test and the second test without any knowledge updation. The weaknesses are apparent by now. Suggest need to strongly confirm it by taking another 3 tests.
Field Correct Wrong
Data Sufficiency 8 7
Problem Solving 17 5
Critical Reasoning 9 4
Sentence Correction 7 8
Reading Comprehension 9 4

DS down
PS up
CR up
SC down
RC up
This up and down trend surprisingly is by one question going the other way.

Again the positives out of the test.
1. Concentration level is good. Hey i can sit through the test without uneasyness.
2. There is no looking back. I am into GMAT thoroughly.

To be taken care:
I am finishing the test very quickly without giving a second thought for an answer. I had 18 and 26 minutes to spare for Quants and Verbal respectively. It could have been utilised to analyze more the q&a.

Day one

2006-06-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

Atlast, i have come to a conclusion. CAT or GMAT? GMAT. Still, unclear of the B schools i would apply. Another important question is - where does all the money for the education come from? I am not bothering about it much at present. Yesterday, a friend briefed me that the reason many internation schools prefer international students is not the diversity but the fees which is double for foreign students. If that is the reason, it would be hard to get financial aid no matter how well is your application. So, it is safe not to depend on financial aid while planning for finance. Safe ??? safe in what sense :) As i said i am not going to bother about this at present.

I took a test yesterday. Score 435.
Field Correct Wrong
Data Sufficiency 9 6
Problem Solving 16 6
Critical Reasoning 4 8
Sentence Correction 8 7
Reading Comprehension 9 5

Good start isn't it? :) There are many positives in the test.
1. I was able to sit for the whole test.
2. The test suggested i was thinking my strengths and weakness's in the just opposite way.
3. Usually i had to fantacize to get my sleep. This time it was not required. meaning i am ready for the game with focus.
4. I am not afraid of the failure. Be it 640 or 800. I would try to give my best shot.

Road ahead... for this week.
1. Need to book slots in Sep first week. Sep 1, 2 or 3.
2. Narrow down the schools as far as possible.
3.. Need to chart out a good plan with the help of GMAT guide Iday. I am ready to call him mentor. Only that it would increase his age. thats why guide Iday. nice term isn't it?