Affirmative Action

I feel like taking a long sojourn and travel India. In just more than a month and a half, I am going to join amongst the most coveted institutions of India, IIMs. With the reputation of going to the place comes the responsibility of what the education imparted there is going to teach us. That is exactly why I want to travel the length and the breadth of India; to spread a bit of awareness amongst people. I believe that it is a very small time to do that, specifically for the purpose I want to derive from it. And so I would start from my family and the peripheries of it.
It pains me to see that most of the candidates coming from the affirmative action of reservation constituted by the government of India into the hallowed portals of the elite IIMs are the ones who have done their under-graduation from another such national institution of repute. Since it has not been more than 3 years when reservation for OBCs was made they might be exempted from being in our sample set. But nonetheless, the government has invested us tax payer’s money in their under-graduation study.
The problem that I see in the implementation in the affirmative action and its rewards not being realized by the ones who really need is the lack of accounting in the same. It is understandable that when there is no record of a student, the accounting of whether the student is genuinely in need for reservation is extremely difficult. But cannot a centralized database of the students of national universities be made? I believe the system of book-keeping is there, my alma- mater had, what just is required is sharing of the data. And with the UID project going to realize itself in the next four years; we could have this accounting happening at the grass-roots level. At least a considerable amount of seats can then go to the ones who actually deserve it.
But I cannot see that happening. With the state of politics in our country, I have my doubts about any member of the parliament coming up with such a suggestion in the near future. Nor is altruism an inherent part of us. What then is required to at least let everyone know that there is something like a reservation for them. One of our chauffeurs and his family at my place come under the OBC category. Talking to him just a few days back after seeing in first person the fallacies in the implementation of the so called affirmative action I realized that he had no idea what reservation is. He knows that the Dalits have found their new found power and confidence due to their vote bank, but how?
Hope the government realizes the latent potential in spreading the news into the rightful candidate’s ears. Hope the rest of the General masses spread it through word and mouth rather than feeling sad for themselves. Hope the UID project realizes itself on schedule, a rarity in our nation. Hope education rises above being just a dog eats dog business for students. Hope.
The above would not mean benefits in the short run. The gap between the deserving and the benefiter is huge. But it would guarantee that the ones who have taken benefit once are again not standing in line once again for the benignity of the government. In two three generations down the lane, may be the lines would actually be made of people who actually need that benignity.
And I hope to see , and I know it is too distant to be seen , but even though the government has it lines, nobody actually wants to stand in them .

My IIMC interview

o.k. This post had to be made. Because the call got converted. Serendipity. I always liked that word. It came true. I like the statements I hear ;" I am proud of you". The surprising thing is that I did not have any tangible preparation. May be that makes me more happy.May be because I was not expecting it to be converted. More about the interview below.

Venue: IIFT, Delhi

Date:March 24th, 2010

First the GD :-

Topic: Every Child should have a bank account.

Was the third or the fourth to speak in a group of 10 or 11. While the others had accepted the topic and were discussing how to bring it forth , I started to question the topic itself, whether it is required or not ( with an example of a mother selling her new born daughter for Rs. 10 in Orissa ). Then discussed about the funding , the money , who's initiative it should be, transparency and accountability in the whole process , tried to draw an analogy and contrast with Qatar where there is such a scheme. I did not come up with other meaty points because the other guys were busy discussing that.

When I look back I guess trying to make one's identity is quite important. Try to be different , but not off-beat. And try to discuss the topic from all angles.

You must take a few mock GD's just to know how one should participate in them. Fortunately I attended 3 in a workshop , observed 2 there and participated in 2 at home.

The next was PI.

Three people : I guess 2 professors (P1 and P2) and an alumni(A) and me(I)

Salutations:

P1: Tell me about your hobbies in brief.

I: Sir , I read non-fiction and popular fiction.

P1 : Not many people read these days.Name 5 Indian fiction authors you have read.

I: ( named some 7-8 ..... recollecting them .... looking in hindsight ... I guess it came forth as being natural)

P1:These are all popular ones. But you said so.

I:(smile)

P1: non-fiction?

I: Taleb , Gladwell

P2: (interrupting) k...tell me what is so special about 371.

I: (thinking ..... P1 leaves)

P2: 3^3+7^3+1^3 = 371

I: grin.... yeah

P2: give me another number like that

I: sir can I solve some equations?

P2: here ... pen and paper...

after 10 seconds.

P2: 370 .... laugh

I: yeah ... (as if its krypton , I guess I get excited because of such situations)

P2: that is lateral thinking.

I: Bono.

(A cuts across)

A: why are you wearing a suit?

I: sir , I wanted to put my best foot forward.

A: you think we are not when we are wearing shirts?

I: (with a smile) Sir, its amongst the most important things in my life.

A: you must have taken coaching. Coaching institutes tell you to wear suits for interviews.

I: Sir , I did not take any coaching. I prepared on my own.

A: You are wearing suit. Coaching institutes tell you to wear suits. You took coaching.

I: That is hyperpolating it to a very high degree.

A: (observing the way I was sitting) Are you confident , under-confident, over-confident?

I: previously I used to be under-confident, now I find myself more confident.

A: Why these jalebi answers?Can't you be crisp?

I: I try to be as elaborate as possible to be clear.

P2: what is your percentile?

I: 99.5 . I am amongst the last people selected by IIMC for interviews.

P2: How many ahead of you?

I: Those who were selected , I don't know.

P2: How many candidates wrote the CAT>

I: 2.2 lakhs.

P2: so?

I: sir I said I did not know how many selected.

P2(smile): how do you know you were amongst the last?

I: it is there on your website sir. I searched it all up.

P2: we are done.

I: Thank you sirs. It was really a pleasure giving my first interview.

Anyone played Mafia ? Werewolf?

It is an awesome game. We play that daily. About 25 developers. It gives amazing insights into game theory. The best situation that I could relate to was when the lone-wolf tried to kill the wolf-cub and how the other wolfs attacked him , making way for the villagers to lynch them!!!!

Gave a situation so much related to real life ,something which we see during the coalition politics in this country where the lone-wolf can be a candidate whose ticket is funded by a party so that this candidate can reduce the vote bank of some other party. And somehow this candidate screws up , ultimately helping the other party.

Viman told me that the game was actually an experiment in a psychological institute.

But more than that , the game gives me a platform to interact with my officemates and know them better.

I now realize how distant the academic course curriculum is from the industry requirement.

I wish we had a course in web development , I wish I had done the HTML scripting during Effervescence. And yes , get your hands dirty.

If some of my juniors read this , learn some web technology and yeah at least do your HTML well. It will give you a jump start.I wish I would have listened to my mind some 2 years ago.

Bhavin is one heck of a cool guy. Which CEO is in his office in three-fourths and a T. I saw him wearing that!

Buzz is the next word?

first day@directi

Boy! job is ... k, i have been told to evaluate everything for sometime , so i won't give my judgments but well .... given a desktop with 2 screens ! they are something like 2 19" readers! that's something that i have found , well , amusing.
It is not much different from the college environment , something like we have when some project is there and a brainstorming session has to be done! It is quite free.
i have been told quite a number of times not to call people sir and madams. well 4 years in an engineering college trains you to be so , I now need to come out of that groove.
there are lots of girls , for an engineering college guy , who had 15 non-males in his batch of some 180 odd students , that is like paradise ! i don't know why i am remembering the paradise that "akhmed the deadly terrorist" on youtube wanted to go to , i hope it does not turn out that way ;)
the best part is nothing is banned over here , the environment is so that anyone does not abuse the bandwidth.
there was quite a glitch the evening before we(yanu , another intern from my college) and I landed . there was only one room in the guest house , and from what she and I comprehended of the hindi that the frontdesk guy was speaking , he wanted us to put up in the same room for the night. that was well quite a shocker! anyhow , for all those college mates who would take sadistic pleasure in imagining the same , well , she slept that night in another hotel altogether. but well that was quite humorous nevertheless.
inductions , as all the presentations , are boring , no matter it is from a good-looking lady or a pot-bellied professor.
lunch and dinner are from TajStats , its a subsidiary of the TAJ , lunch costs 30 bucks. it has both , indian and green cuisines ( the word for that is not striking me). My fruits requirement is served.
Coffee seriously is rejuvenatory. I had that today(my second day and well , have been feeling good since then). there are some 6 varieties of tea. I will try them out with due course of time.
the first thing that my team did play werewolf. not my team , but well who all were willing. it's a fun game. yanu apparently has a liking for it , wanted to go for it even today. we did , spent some 2 hours on the 7th floor of the office. It is fun seeing people lie.
oh! i almost forgot , juice is free, and amul products and some other stuff which i have not tried out till now .
the TT table is always occupied. For a guy who can never make the ball land on the table , and who ends up playing badminton there , well I cannot show my skills in public. I am still trying to find out a time in which that could be possible.
It is really fun hearing sockets and pipes and kernels and loads of other technical nitty-gritties being just puffed up at random from places.
There is a lot of things to be learnt. i wish i would have listened to my mind and been proficient in web technologies. I would like to be in some time.
the most shocking thing of mumbai is the size of a green patch that they call a park . I mean a kitchen garden can be bigger than that.
it is nice to see the local trains cross each other from the other side of the glass . thankfully it is sound proof.
have to find a place for myself. I want it closeby so that I do not have to travel in the mumbai traffic.I want it to have like a real park. I guess i am asking for a little too much.