On Creativity

Looking back, I think my placements season at IIMK was one of the most depressing periods of my life. Being a fresher, I'd be shortlisted for almost every process only to be eliminated in the GD round. You see, I was never the one to share opinions forcibly. Also, a very dear friend of mine once remarked that the aim of a placement process should be to act as a lubricant between the companies and the students so as to ease the interaction between the two parties. And I've always been of the opinion that GD is not the best way of doing the same. I digress.

So as I was telling, I'd usually be eliminated in the GD round. But there were times when I was lucky enough to make it to the interview round. And it was during one of those interviews that we had an interesting conversation on creativity - the interviewer and I. The company in question had come to recruit for a marketing role. And I was one of the first few to be called in. My interview was going fine. I had written a paper on the "Effectiveness of use of sexuality in advertisements" and we were discussing the same. We spoke about Indian brands which have used varying shades of sexuality in their campaigns.

Suddenly, out of the blue, the interviewer asks me, "You claim that you're creative. Why dont you tell me how you'd use sexuality in promoting our products?" And that was that. I spaced out. I could not come up with anything. You see, I've always thought of creativity as one of my forte and here, sitting right across me, was a gentleman who was asking me to prove it. I just could not come up with anything!

Which is when I gathered my guts and spoke, "Sir, there are two types of creative people that I know of - the naturally gifted ones and otherwise. The naturally gifted ones are like the instant, maggi-noodles type who can give you a bucketload of ideas in two minutes. Unfortunately, I belong to the other category. Hence I will need some prodding in the right direction before I can actually come up with something." (I took 30 seconds to think of these lines before I started delivering them)

Frankly, I expected him to be happy that I was not one of those stereotypical, IIM egomaniacs. Unfortunately, I could not read much into his poker-faced expression. However, he offered some pointers on how we could go about integrating sexuality in the products without actually offending our target audience. And I took the cues rather gladly thus making it more of a discussion than an interview as we exchanged the pros and cons.

The interview finished on a rather smooth note. I shall not tell if I made it through or not but it did make me introspect on how creative I actually am. For a day.

PS: A totally random post. Blame I.V!

mama mia!

So after a long hiatus, I am back into the blogosphere - only to disappear again into the shadows of blogger's blocks but then let us live the moment, shall we?! :P Between the time I last posted and now, lots of things have happened. Our summers process took place and yours truly made it to SET - Sony Entertainment Television. So if you think Sony has been airing crappy programmes think no further! Just change the god damned channel! :D Before I digress completely, ahem.. I have been posted in Mumbai. So any attractive female readers of mine out there in Mumbai, please mail me across your address and phone numbers.. and may be we can have a chat over a cup of coffee. What say? :D *ducks*

Moving on.. *sigh* I celebrated my first Diwali away from home. Never knew it felt so crappy to celebrate Diwali away from home. The food here was awesome, lots of competitions were held and the junta was quite enthusiastic about it. But then, somehow felt quite uneasy.. :( I guess this is just a beginning of a long stretch of festivals I'd miss celebrating at home. You can find more on how we celebrated Diwali here. And btw India won the 3rd ODI against our "friendly" padosis. Now how cool is that! :D

On a different note, our first semester grades are out. I scored a very respectable GPA of 2.83 out of 4.33. I have cut down on studies lately so as to be able to do other things like this and this. Life has been slightly hectic but I've started liking it more and more. Right now, I am running a Make-Gokul-fat campaign as I raid friends' rooms and loot food from them. I wish I were Mahmud of Ghazni.. looting is so much fun! :D However, I've not been putting on much weight as was evident from my mother's reaction when I had been to Hyderabad recently. But the looting shall continue!! >:)

PS1: I will be back in Hyderabad sometime next month. :D
PS2: Missing home.. :(
PS3: Happy Diwali to one and all! :D
PS4: Its 7 already! Going out to eat at Taj.. friend's treat.. >:) time to launch another looting expedition! :D
PS5: And ManU is through to the next round. BTW Heroes rocks. And is anyone reading the Naruto Manga.. woo hoo! :D
PS6: Someone was telling me the other day that I should market my blog more aggresively. Idhar bhi marketing!? /:)
PS7: I was just wondering.. is there any relation between the title and the post? hmm.. Guess and win exciting prizes! :D
PS8: This is the end.

CAT '07 sample questions..

Well, since CAT is around the corner, I thought I'd share with you different kinds of questions that might be asked in the coming edition of the billi. A typical question connecting multiple concepts is given below:

1) The minutes hand of the clock is on 12 and the hours hand is on 11. But Gokul has not started studying for his ME mid-semester exam. The probability of him screwing the exam if the paper is tough, is 0.6. The probability that Gokul will complete studying the entire portion before the exam is 0.3. What is the probability of him screwing the exam, provided the paper given is easy?

a) 0.28
b) 0.12
c) 0.18
d) 1

Solution: Answer is option d. I screwed up what might possibly be the easiest paper ever set by any professor. Looking back, I wish he had given a tougher question paper. At least I'd have had a few fellow cribbers! Our mid semester exams are going on. Hopefully my other exams go well.

In other news, we've received our grades for term 1. My performance has been slightly below average, but nothing to be ashamed of! :D And my GPA calculations have been reasonably accurate! I was after all gifted, eh?! :D Work is expected to pile up exponentially in the coming weeks. I've ended up cutting down on CS so as to accomodate other activities in my schedule, which include studying, giving quizzes and sleeping in classes.

Time to get back to studies. Adios!

PS1: To all those who ended up hoping to find a leaked CAT '07 paper - sorry for the misleading title of the post.
PS2: CS fest being planned in IIIT! :(
PS3: Anybody has the song Sideways by Citizen Cope? Please mail me the song! I'm tired of searching for it over the net.
PS4: The last episode of HIMYM viz. 305 was frikkin hilarious! Barney's theory of plotting girls on the graph of hot and crazy was.. err.. classic Barney! Especially the Vicky Mendoza diagonal!! :D
PS5: Dont ask me how I find time to watch HIMYM episodes during exams. Please refer to the second sentence of the sample question given at the beginning of the post.
PS6: Back to studies!

The Human Calculator..

There was this phase I went through, in my third year, when I used to sit and calculate my CGPA time and again. After having accounted for various permutations and combinations, I'd arrive at my GPA for the semester and consecutively my CGPA. The whole funda behind the exercise was to check whether there was any hope of me crossing 7 at the end of 4 years. And typical of me, I'd always put very optimistic estimates and would feel good about myself. But at the end of the semester, I'd get a rude shock when my GPA would be a good half point less than what I had calculated. But at the end of my 4 years, I'm proud to say that I crossed the psychological 7 mark. Its like getting a total of 300 on a flat pitch - you never know whether it would be enough or not.

So why am I saying such things on the public domain and lowering my image amongst my readers? Because the syndrome is back again to haunt me through my post graduation. Yes, the past couple of days, I've been calculating my GPA for the first semester - adding new results and revising estimates time and again. I've come to be known as the Human Calculator (of GPA) not because I calculate faster than anyone else but because I am the only one involved in such fruitless activities. People come to me asking for an estimate of their GPAs. I, just like the fake baba/saint/whatever-you-refer-to-them-in-your-language, give them hope by over estimating their GPAs. Well, I am not charging any fee for this small service I offer. Not yet. But I hope I dont get into trouble once the sem results are out. If things work out just fine, then I might start charging some consultation fee from the next semester. So how does this work? This calculating of GPAs?

DISCLAIMER: Please dont try this at home. Or in class. Or in your hostel rooms. These are trained professionals who have spent their lives perfecting the art of calculating GPA.

Well, firstly you take into account the past record of the instructor. If it is Mr.X who has given 40 Ds last sem, you take an optimistic grade of C- for that course. If it is Ms.Y who believes in giving lesser As and more Bs and Cs, you take into account the mean grade - which might be a B or a C ,and then calculate the resulting GPA. Other factors which should be considered include the number of times the instructor has caught you sleeping in the class, the overall performance of your section and batch, and the average performance of your section and batch. Believe me - calculating GPAs is a very tough job and not everyone is cut out to do the same. Only a select few are gifted with qualities of estimation and intution to carry out a good job.

So I repeat - please dont try this in your data compression/HSSM/Open Elective lectures. It might be a highly amusing exercise at the beginning, but one tends to get addicted to it. They're worse than drugs! Not to mention the depression one experiences due to overquoting of GPAs. You need to be a certified GPA calculator to put the worst beind you and continue calculating for the coming semesters. May the force be with you.

PS1: After my second year, my calculation speed increased manifold mainly because of 2 reasons:
a) calculating my GPA after every mid-term/end-term result was announced
b) when India used to chase a huge target. Once upon a time, we used to be good chasers
PS2: I finished the Quant section of CAT in 35 minutes. No prizes for guessing why.
PS3: I spent 1 hour 15 minutes on the verbal section in CAT :(
PS4: Hectic life.
PS5: Somebody scrap me.
PS6: Somebody comment!
PS7: We have dandiya night scheduled today. We are supposed to come dressed in ethnic wear.. :|
PS8: Special buffet arranged for tonight. hehehehe.. aakramannn.. :D
PS9: Washing clothes in washing machines is not a pain at all! :D
PS10: I hate wearing suits!
PS11: Mom, if you're reading this - Hi!
PS12: Seriously, why is the Indian cricket team so inconsistent?!
PS13: CAT 07 round the corner. All the best to all the CAT takers.
PS14: Work piling up. adios!

Zombie!

He was trying very hard not to let go but then.. suddenly, they seemed to weigh a ton each. This is just a phase - he repeated to himself. Soon I'd get over it and they'd go back to being weightless. But he knew that was not true. His willpower was being tested and he was not ready to give up that easily.

He started counting. 1.. 2.. He hung on but slowly his resolve began to crack as he started losing focus. 3.. 4.. He started counting faster. 6.. 7.. He wanted to fight it; 8.. he shook away all the remaining lethargy and concentrated but he could not hold them back long enough as the shutters came crashing down like the twin towers. Suddenly the whole world seemed to come to a standstill and silence prevailed. So did peace.Until someone poked him from the side.

He knew it. It was inevitable - the nightout had taken its toll. He wanted it all to be a dream but it refused to go away. Unwillingly, he opened his eyes to find the Microeconomics professor giving him one of those "gotcha" stares as she repeated, "Please dont sleep in my class. I am not going to take his name, but dont sleep in the class" And all this while she was staring at him without looking away. Talk of subtlety!

As the whole class started grinning, realization dawned upon him (which would later take him to exotic places with voluptuous women on either side.) He no longer cared! As a smile spread across his face, he turned to his neighbour and quipped, "That was the best nap I ever had!"

And since then, the count has not moved past 8.

________________________________

PS1: This story was based on a true life incident. Yes, I was caught sleeping in the ME class. However this is just half the story. The better half of the story, I'm afraid, will be kept under wraps. :D
PS2: Seriously that was the best nap I ever had.
PS3: Exams are over! woo hoo!! :D
PS4: Never been so eager to go back home. Hyderabad, here I come!
PS5: Respected Flyovers, please dont collapse.. :-s
PS6: Slept for only 5 hours in the last 48 hours! :(
PS7: Screwed up almost all my exams. I really think I am not cut out for studying. Lets see how things go in term 2.
PS8: Last post in term 1.. :D
PS9: Did you know that cobras are hunted by raptors, mongoose and mallu security guards of D hostel?
PS10: Yay! Two posts spaced out so closely. Long time since I posted so frequently.. :D

Feast your eyes!

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you.. pictures of God's own IIM!

Early morning view from the valley facing rooms..

Sunrise!

The Amphitheatre

The thinking point

The Sunset

PS1: None of these pics were taken by me. I've been downloading them from different people thanks to DC++. (Yes, we've got dcpp!)
PS2: Have been very busy with this! Do visit it.. its our institute's blog.
PS3: I never knew before that the RTI Act can be misused.
PS4: I am supposed to be studying for my end sem exams which begin tomorrow. Unfortunately, the motivation to study has disappeared! :(
PS5: Make a mental note of this fact: The Indian cricket team flatters to deceive.
PS6: I'll be reaching Hyderabad on 14th of this month! Excited!! :D
Country roadss.. take me home.
PS7: People have stopped spamming ug2k3 list. I guess everyone has moved on.. :(
PS8: I wanted to blog about my daring feats :P but then.. time constraints have held me back. May be sooner or later..
PS9: I shall blog more often. I shall not fade out like other fellow bloggers! There, I've taken the vow.
PS10: Long time since I went blog hopping.. :( Some day.. some day.
PS11: It has almost ceased raining. Last night, it was so foggy outside that the lamps seemed to float in mid air! :D :D Awesome sight!

The long overdue post..

Well, I finally get down to writing this long overdue post. So much has happened since the last post that I am wondering how to put it all in words. It is this overwhelming feeling which cannot be expressed so easily. Anyways, moving on to the actual post, lately I have been thinking a lot.. about some of the burning problems that we face in our day to day life like global warming, deforestation, and how I dont have enough time to have more than 2 dosas at breakfast! Yes, life has been a blur lately. Its been a month although it doesnt seem so.

Amidst surprise quizzes and assignment deadlines, my birthday was celebrated on the night of July 13th. The funny thing about this whole episode was, my friends almost forgot and were reminded at 1:00 AM. Typical of any birthday celebrated at K, I was treated to a generous dose of cakes, milk shakes, ketchup, vinegar, soft drinks etc. Yes, it was an exotic concoction and it was smothered all over my face and head. Pictures were taken but I am not going to post it on the blog for obvious reasons. I was also kicked until I was on the verge of crying, but overall a very memorable affair.

And as most of you must be knowing by now, we had a small photo shoot. We were dressed in our business suits. And for a change I looked level-headed, more adult-like and ready to become a manager. In fact, once we received our pictures, I could not believe I could look like that! I guess self-realization is one of the few things which one attains after reaching a B-school.

Lately, the amount of work that's been piling up has been increasing exponentially. For example, I've been typing this post for the past 4 days but somehow or the other, something crops up and I'm forced to leave the post incomplete. So I guess I'll just publish the damned post now instead of shelving it for the future. Why do I sound frustrated? hmmm..

PS1: I think I just slept through my convocation.
PS2: Midterm exams from next week. Hardly prepared.
PS3: Is Halley really getting married.
PS4: I want to be at IIIT so badly now.. :(
PS5: I also want to graduate! :(( I always thought it was fun wearing those ill-fitting gowns and throwing the caps in the air. sigh!
PS6: Hot news! Our ex-president, APJ Kalam has accepted to be a part of visiting faculty at IIIT-H! Now.. now.. NOW.. things will get interesting! :D
PS7: The next guy who is going to ask me a reason for my absence from the convocation is going to get it big time!

About klasses and other things..

Classes at K are a very interesting mix. There was a time when I used to hate attending classes but over here, the classes are so interesting and interactive, that you cant help but sit up and take notice. Be it our accounts prof's wry sense of humour - not to mention the poker face he maintains when he cracks some of the funniest jokes - or our marxist STI prof's hard hitting statements; attending classes is a completely different experience.. its fun! :D

But the past one week has been kind of depressing and hectic. Classes.. presentations.. case studies.. case analysis.. quizzes.. surprise quizzes and many more! I have not slept for more 4-5 hours a day. And the worst part is, you cannot sleep in classes which is quite contrary to what I was practising during engineering. Especially after having been inert for the past 4 years, it is tough to again get back into the "Study-till-I-drop-dead" mode. Anyhoo, apart from academics, we've been treated to 3 parties so far since our induction - our hostel party where we had some social interaction with our seniors, our fresher's party where we had our inter-section competitions and a special "gult" party for people from AP. And believe me, all parties were fun and acted as stressbusters. I guess they make you have fun during the weekends so that you are ready to get screwed during the weekdays. Nice logic! :D

We also had an inter-batch TT competition for which we had selections for the top 4 players from our batch. Although I did get selected to the top 4, we could not put up much of a fight to our seniors, some of who were state level players! Of course, yours truly put up a much better fight than some of his peers. *A rare moment when I get to bask in some limelight* :D In other news, I have applied for the college placement committee. The present members of placecom have assured us that we'll be faced with humungous tasks and would have little time for other recreational activities. Another chance to learn time management! :D

We've got interest groups for almost every sector (like marketing, finance etc.) which are headed by students. And what is impressive is, most of the clubs and interest groups have a very professional way of doing things. They have the kind of charisma which one would normally associate with hotshots. I might seem to be exaggerating but you need to feel it to believe it. Its awesome!

And finally after having delayed for quite sometime, i present this post written on June 17th, 2007. Almost a month.. shucks! I need to blog more frequently.. :-<

The day when it did not rain..

As written on June 17th, 2007.

@11:30: yay! Its sunny outside! :D

@14:00: Its a little cloudy.. :-s

@14:30: We decide to go visit the Kappad beach.

And so we did visit the Kappad beach. And before I go ahead with the narration - our seniors had warned us that it was a gay beach. But since we were a huge group, we were bold enough to go ahead with the trip. It was an awesome experience. Some of the girls also joined us. There were around 40 of us and we had loads of fun.

At first, we were quite cautious not to go very deep into the water so as to not wet our clothes. And then one of us slipped and got drenched. And slowly, one by one, we got rid of our common sense and went deep into the water to get drenched. And those who resisted were taken forcibly and drowned in the water until they got fully drenched. The description might look barbaric, uncivilised and unfit for future IIM students, BUT it was fun! :D We did take a few pics with waves lashing against rocks in the background, but then I dont have them right now. So probably one of us might put it in his orkut albums. It is yet to rain.. :D Now thats rare!

_______________________

PS1: Lately, there have been patches in the timeline when it doesn't rain. Yippee! :D
PS2: Gave a presentation today on meeting etiquettes. Sounds boring but somehow managed to make it interesting and had the class laughing as well! :D
PS3: People here are usually serious and hence getting a few people laugh requires a huge effort.

PS4: My first nickname @ K - The C-KID! *echoes* :D
PS5: As I mentioned in my earlier post, most of my classmates look like uncles. And hence the nick.. :( But surpisingly I've learnt to carry the name quite well.. :D
PS6: There are two kinds of people in our batch - bloody freshers.. and bloody corporates!
PS7: My oft used quote lately - Be it jail or hostel, khaana time mein mil jaata hai! :D
PS8: Leaving for dinner. Hope its chole bature! :D

Khronicles - the beginning

We've got a supermarket here where we get almost anything and everything. But the problem is, it is kinda addictive! I found myself shopping for unwanted items and ended up paying a lot more than I intended to. We've got our own washing machines so there is no dhobi problem unless one is too lazy to get his clothes washed by a washing machine!

First day, I went to the computer centre but was not allowed inside. Reason - I was in my three-fourths! And you need to be dressed in full pants to be allowed. But thanks to my excellent negotiation powers which also include begging, pleading and keeping a sad, innocent face, the guard let me in.. :D We've got sofas in our library! And lots of books as well. That is all I know about the library since I've not really gone about exploring. It does seem to be a good place to take a small nap between classes though.

Lately the climate has been extremely pleasant. You really need to see it to believe it. Sometimes at nights, it becomes so misty, that we practically get to walk through the clouds! :D The view from some of the valley facing rooms is breathtaking, especially early morning. There can be a no better start to a morning. I was so inspired by the view, that I decided to go jog early in the morning. Can you believe it? :)) It was a fairy tale story as long as I was jogging downhill. Only when I decided to return back to hostel did I realise that I'd have to jog uphill! I was short of breath for rest of the morning.. so much for being inspired by nature!

It rains 24 hours a day! Either it is that slightly-irritating-drizzle or the cant-be-so-easily-ignored torrential rainfall. But it is fun.. it brings out a new look to the surroundings. I guess one gets used to it. It looks more or less like a resort. The people are kinda nice, mostly confused because this the first time they’re staying away from home. We’ve hardly got any freshers here so it kinda sucks. Everyone looks like an…Wait for it. Uncle. :D

And before I forget, there are no heaters/geysers. So we’re forced to take bath in cold water. :( We had a small hostel party where we had some "social interaction" with our seniors. It was fun! :D The classes have started and frankly speaking the classes are damn interesting! It feels good listening to interesting classes after almost 4 years! In fact, 6 people happened to come a minute late to the first class and they were asked to submit a 5 page report on the case by evening. The way the prof. gave the punishment looked so matter of fact that it was awesome! It has instilled in most of us, a sense of fear! Need to be careful though not to get into the bad books of any prof.

Our campus:

The passage to IIM-K

Before I begin this post, I’d like to take this opportunity to warn all the readers not to use the Indian Airlines service for the coming weeks. Thank you.


So I was all set to make my way to God’s own IIM. I was supposed to catch a flight to Chennai from Hyderabad and then catch the Mangalore express to Kozhikode (also known as Calicut) Unfortunately for me, the Indian Airlines ground staff decided to go on an indefinite strike. First I got an SMS from the Indian Airlines saying only hand baggage was allowed. And just an hour before the flight was scheduled for its departure, they cancelled the flight. Luckily I got on board the Paramount Airways’ flight to Chennai at 5:30 otherwise I'd have missed my train to Kozhikode.

I caught the train on time. The last few hours of the journey were quite memorable thanks to the incessant rains and the fisherman throwing their nets in the just-filled-lakes. Reminded me of the "chinna-chinna-aasai" aka choti-si-aasha song in Roja.. We reached our destination only to be greeted by some more rainfall.

All the students supposed to join waited outside the station for the other train to arrive from Delhi, the Nizamuddin express. However it was delayed by 2 hours and hence we decided to go have breakfast at a local hotel. I was warned about Keralite food long before I left Hyderabad but I comfortably ignored them. We found a certain hotel DEEWAR near the station and decided to have our breakfast there.

Now before I get into the details, let me make one thing very clear to all you non-Keralite readers of mine. Fish is considered vegetarian in Kerala. Repeat after me - fish is considered vegetarian in Kerala; just like potato is considered vegetarian in Hyderabad and the rest of the world.

Coming back to the story, we unknowingly stepped into Hotel Wall (also known as Deewar) thinking we'd have an unprecedent supply of idlis and dosas. However we were disappointed when we were told that only idiappams and vellappams were available. As for the side dishes we were asked to choose from 2 vegetarian and one non-vegetarian curry. Yes, fish was one of those 2 vegetarian curries. Thankfully, we realised it before we had ordered and went for the other one - a vegetable vegetarian curry. And not surprisingly, it contained the most important vegetable in the Kerala way of life - the coconut. The main dish also was a mixture of dosa dough and - no prizes for guessing - some more raw coconut.

In spite of repeated threats from our oesophagus, we managed to gulp down all the coconutty food. We then made our way to God's own Kampus, IIM-K. The campus looks heavenly! It is like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! :D The climate is pretty cool, slightly sultry; food rocks - it is of the non-coconutty type! And the people here are quite different. Can't wait for the classes to begin!

BTW it is yet to stop raining.. :(

PS1: This post was written quite a long time back on a wordpress blog. 14th June to be precise.
PS2: I had to switch to wordpress because blogger.com was not opening in the IIM-K labs.
PS3: Lately I discovered that blogger.com opens in the IIM-K library :D
PS4: Other posts will be added sooner or later.
PS5: Life is rocking! :D
PS6: We have a presentation to make tonight at 11:00. Excited! :D