Yaadein

20th December ,2008. I decided to travel on a rickshaw from Charbagh to Kaiserbagh to catch the bus on my way home.Little did I realize that the city I am living in has been a big contributor for few of the landmark decisions I have taken in life. 1) Year 1993 --> First time came to a city nearing the age of 10 without parents.Was here to give some science competition with an uncleji whom I had never met before.Got a rank of 138 among some 3600 students. My first brush with the city of Nawabs.I guess I stayed in one of the hotels between Charbagh and Kaiserbagh and saw shops that sell guns.That was just amazing and I was able to locate the shops 10 days back as well.15 years back,there were only 2-3 of them.Today , there might be atleast 10-15 in that section. 2) Year 1994 -->This time came with Papa and was able to complete all the fancy locations to be visited.Inspite of having lived here now for 6 months, I am yet to visit those places.Visited Imambada,Bhool Bhulaiya,Lucknow Z...

For the record ... I somehow converted IIFT too... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gaurav Gulati Date: Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 3:42 PM Subject: Waitlist Candidate for admission to MBA(IB0 2008-10 at its Kolkata Centre Dear Candidates, On the basis of your performance in the Admission Test comprising Written Examination, Group Discussion, Essay Writing and Interview, your name has been placed on the Waiting List for admission to Two-year MBA (International Business) 2008-10 for KOLKATA CENTRE of the Institute. It is expected that a few more seats are likely to be offered to General Category students on 26th June 2008 for admission to the above mentioned course. You are requested to please send an acceptance letter through email to the Institute latest by 23rd June 2008 that if you will be offered the admission to MBA(IB) 2008-10 at its Kolkata Centre on 26th June 2008 as per merit whether you will be intrested to join at Kolkata Campus on 1st July 2008 or not. With best wishe...

Converted all the IIM Calls I had from LIK -- One of the happiest day for me. Will be joining Lucknow for sure .

The hype that I had created for 4/11 in family,friends,office and everywhere is doomed for now. Supreme Court in India had a separate plan to bomb things 1 day in advance. Anyways, I hope the wait is not long and I am through to the IIMs I deserve :).

I had to write something on Bombay someday.I think this is the best time to do it. My first visit to the great city was when i was in class 1.That means around 20 years back.I am not able to imagine I am that old. I still remember that we stayed in Hotel Hiramani and it was a very big hotel with lifts.Might have been my first experience with those gadgets. We went there next year as well and Bombay was like a big place and out of the world thing for me.I had many firsts in those trips. First time went to watch some big sea animals in a big museum. First time went to the sea coast. First time had a ride on a ship (It was mid-size with capacity of 200 ppl should call it boat, i won't). Went to Elephenta caves,Gateway of India ,chowpatty. First watch in my life was bought there. First jeans , first jacket.. and the list is never ending. I think I did not like the pleasures of the city on my first few visits.When you are small,your vision tends to be very confined at times. Next trip ...

Finally something started happening in my favour. NITIE Call converted. :) Waiting for 4/11

NITIE finally made me to visit Mumbai after 12 years.Those were great days in my last visit. Reached Mumbai at 9 PM and ate pav bhaji first thing on landing :) Finally UP waale bhaiyaji caught me and charged double auto fare to reach NITIE.My bad start:( The arrangements there were cool but that 96 step climb was a bit difficult after being used to the lifts in the IT matrix. Reached Audi at 8 AM along with fellow aspirants. And then we had the presentations powered by Matrix backdrops and no AC. Soon , I realized that it will be a long day for me , for I was in Panel 19. Thanks to the seniors and the audi facilities ,where we were shown Mandi gyaan to start, some cricket mimics and finally the Dilbert strip. Certificate verification at 12 PM made it even more interesting on the whole sarkaari tantra. We were asked to leave for lunch and be back by 2PM for the GDs. Finally, the process started for me :P Topic :- Can Indian brands become global ? Number of Ppl present - 12 Panel Members...

Yesterday, I saw the IIFT results.Not selected. Was not selected by FMS in the writtens only. Hence it all comes to the CAT based calls and results. May the force be with me :)

Any other special thing that day: India -Australia final Venue :IIM ,Bangalore Date :4th March,2008 Article :- Corporate Sector must help out the entrepreneur junta in setting up SME. Number of Ppl present - 9 Time:2 minutes(To read the case)+ 12 minutes (To discuss) Brief Snapshot of Discussion: Was 5th in the group.Mostly ppl were work-ex and were not interested (ab aadat ho gayi hai sabko :) ). Was a peaceful discussion that was boring for me ,maybe more so for the Profs. Group Performance: Everyone got a decent chance to present the views.But the active participation was from the first five.Other 4 ppl were just there to question the group ,on what we were discussing ,with not enough add-ons. My Performance : Came in early.Gave some rational and few irrational thoughts :- i)Maslow's law (zabardati ghusaao ) ii)NRN and Infy iii)Vishal MegaMart iv)Petrol pump and dhaba v)OnMobile incubation PI: Was called 5th as per GD order and entered the room. Panel Members Intro:1 Old Prof O...

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It was an I day. CAT Score:- DI - 92.3 percentile QA - 96.01 percentile VA - 99.85 percentile Overall --- 99.54 percentile Any other special thing that day: Reached an hour in advance. Venue :IIM ,Bangalore Date :19th Feb,2008 Case Study: A guy Ashutosh ,working in SEB,is caught with the dilemma of heeding to his boss and sanction the extra amount the contractor is asking. Number of Ppl present - 7 Time:5 minutes(To read the case)+ 14 minutes (To discuss) +5 minutes (To write summary on what the group discussed and not what you thought) Brief Snapshot of Discussion: Was 3rd in the group.Mostly ppl were freshers and had TIME junta quotient and funda. Was a peaceful discussion that lost steam in the end.Could have added more heat :) Group Performance: Everyone got a decent chance to present the views.I felt they called people on GD performance basis .Although I didn't like problem solving approach ,certain solutions and method suggested by the group, but had to carry on with Group...

Its been 25 years that I suddenly travelled and decided to stay on this planet. Typing it as though , I am the next avatar of no one :) Just thought of dividing the period into 5 block of 5 years travel :- 0-5 -- Nagpur , Varanasi,Shaktinagar ,gaaon (no idea if i went but mummy says , i did) 5-10 -- Nagpur , Varanasi,Shaktinagar,Bombay,Delhi,Calcutta,Uttarakhand ckt(Dehradun,Mussoorie,Haridwar,Rishikesh ) 10-15 -- Legendary MP yatra,baaki time ghar par 15-20 -- Left Shaktinagar ,Varanasi gyaan,Nepal,Allahabad ,Lucknow,Finally the gr8 Sultanpur,Faizabad ,Tanda,Akbarpur quadrilateral 20-25 -- Left Sultanpur , Mysore ,Hyderabad and Bangalore triangle

Trying to use the PG template for the post PROFILE: Acads: X --87.2% XII--81.2% Undergrad Major - GPA/%age -- 71.2% Work-Ex: IT -29Months IIFT Score:-32.76 Any other special thing abt u: No idea Venue :Coffee Board ,Bangalore GD: Topic:Sustaining Economic Growth and Role of Services Number of Ppl present - 12 Time:40 minutes (2minute for participant +15 minute of open round) Brief Snapshot of Discussion: Was 6th in the group.Mostly ppl were IT centric.Tried to tell that IT is not only services.There are many more things.Also , we need to focus on World Story. Gave reliance IPO and Bangalore example in the open round. Other Salient Details: Break time :We got coffee and biscuits.That was the best part of it. PI: Panel Members Intro:1 Fin Prof ,1 Lady Prof. prev. IIFT alumni Questions: Fin Prof exits for a break.Lady takes over. 1)Tell something abt yourself. told 2)Which book u r reading currently ? told 3)u have mentioned a book by Pankaj Mishra in CV form.Can u tell any other books by...

The stakes are high this time. I have given exams other than CAT in the past. 2004 - NA 2005 season - XAT 2006 season - XAT and FMS 2007 season - FMS and IIFT Above data shows the importance the CAT exam has for me. Once the written barrier is broken, time to break the GD-PI bar.

The post I did yesterday was more what others have seen in my attempts. Now ,my take on the beast :- Shot 1 -- Well prepared.Getting consistently good percentiles in VA with a DI havoc now and then in CL Mocks.Did not learn that out and succumbed to QA pressure as well on the D-Day. Result - 92 percentile Shot 2 -- Frustrated by Time AIMCATs.Thought , I am good for nothing.Started getting low scores in the last mocks as well as few practice tests. End result -- 85 percentile Shot 3-- Good learning at IMS.Was doing everything correct except of doing it on the right day.Screwed VA completely along with a bit in DI. End result - 95 percentile Shot 4 -- Started the season badly with a debacle in AIMCAT joining test.Thought the cycle needs to be revisited.Joined CL again.No dangerously good results.Just OK kind.Didn't fired full throttle in the Mocks.But the day it mattered, it happened. End result - 99.54 percentile and 3 calls L,I,K 2 calls A and C were not there due to 92 percentile ...

I love the lines given by Paul Coleho writes in Alchemist:- Quotes from the book :: * “When you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it.” * “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” (The Old King) * “At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fates. That’s the world’s greatest lie. Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.” (Melchizedek, the Old King) * “What happens once will never happen again. But what happens twice will surely happen a third time.” And these lines inspired me to bell the animal year after year and finally I succeeded in my 4th attempt.Its a story of new opportuities and the way life works. Attempt 1 -- 2004 The best preparation I did to bell the CAT. Somehow Infosys happened a month before and although , I did not loose focus ,somet...

Its the fight to the finish.A nerve wrecking drama is about to start in a week. Lets see , how I fare in it.

My first visit to Delhi was in liberalization days of India. Year 1991 November to be precise.We stayed in a hotel in Kalkaji. My one visit to Karol Bagh made me feel that Delhi was not the capital of India ,but also one of the most polluted cities.That notion has changed in my last capital visit.Now I rank Bangalore to be topping the charts in somteime. College student union elections were the hot topics of those days and Delhi was showing the true colours. Visited all the tourist place of interest in a tourist bus. To name them - Red Fort , Parliament House,Rashtrapati Bhawan (the last 2 from outside ),India Gate,all the bade neta ki samadhis (Rajghat,Shantivan,Shaktisthal etc. ),Qutab Minar,Gandhi Memorial Bhawan,etc. The second visit in 1992 was also mind numbing as I saw the aeroplane with a closer distance at the renowned IG airport. My third visit to the famed capital of India happened in 2004 and then it was evident that Delhi had changed.The place was bustling with activity ,b...