Held on Feb 12, 2009, the IIM Kozhikode GD-PI was my first one (final result: selected). Here I go...
Group Discussion:
With LTTE creating havoc in Sri Lanka; Government of India is forcing Tamil Nadu Government to take action. Would it set a bad precedent for India to poke its nose? We were given 2 minutes to organize our thoughts and 10 minutes thereafter to discuss.
I wanted to start and provide a framework as to why the LTTE was formed; what the status quo in SL is; what exactly it is that GOI is asking TN govt to do; and in international community, what do we mean by setting a bad precedence. But neither I knew the answer to any of these questions nor had I any faith in the capabilities of my fellow members (and yes, I was correct!). I did not raise these questions lest it falls on me.
The group had a mediocre (unstructured in coaching parlance) beginning and I remained clueless for the first 10-15 conversations. But then...do or die...I jumped in and made some average points. Overall, the GD was not very effective mostly due to my lack of command over the subject.
Interview:
I was the first one to be interviewed. Two people who presided over the GDs were also the interviewers. I would refer to them as J's, separating by a numerical suffix if the need arises. However, in this case, both were kinda warm and happy go lucky persons, laughing along the way (hopefully with me and not on me).
Why this notation has a story to it: In the GD-PI blogs that I have read, people have used between I, P and J. I wanted an I for an interviewer but it could have created confusion between the 'me I' and the 'interviewer I'. Would have taken a P for a panelist but P might be misconstrued for Piyush. Hence, J.
I wanted an I for me but... Hence, I am just Me. Here, it goes:
J: How did you come here?
Me: By taxi.
J: (interrupting me) Are you a Mumbaikar?
Me: No, I belong to Rajasthan but have been studying in Mumbai at IIT for the past 5 years.
J: (probably stemming from my mentioning geographical directions as a weakness in interview form) How far is Dadar from Powai?
Me: (after thinking for a while) 50 km (God knows what I was thinking).
J: (laughing) 15 or 50?
Me: 50.
J: 50, you sure? How much did you pay and what was the meter reading?
Me: 139 and I paid 195. Let me make some estimation…autos charge 9 Rs/km (unfortunately, this is also 6 Rs/km), my meter reading was 139, so, that makes it around 15-20 km.
J: Why is the meter reading different?
Me: Talked sth about inflation, oil prices go up, people want to earn more, hence upward adjustment...
J: But oil prices have been reduced na?
Me: Reduced in recent times only, over a longer period they have been increasing...
J: What’s the price of oil now?
Me: Last time I knew, it was $47 (an estimated guess :D).
J: Any idea about the global oil prices in the past 1 yr?
Me: Oil crossed $100 a barrel in Jan, topped at $147.sth in June-July and now has tanked.
J: What effect does it have on India?
Me: (major time stupidity while answering this) Started off with ATF and prices change in airline industry...
J: (cutting me short) What does ATF have to do with this, is it also oil?
Me: Yes sir, a part of crude oil...
J: What difference?
Me: It is more refined.
J: So, where does it lie in the distillation chamber?
Me: Babbled sth indecisively...
J: Is it not kerosene?
Me: No.
J: Is kerosene more refined...what order for the following...petrol, diesel, kerosene?
Me: Petrol is majorly C9H20 while diesel is C14H30. Aviation fuel would be more complex hydrocarbons. So, diesel is more refined than petrol.
J: (cutting me short and repeating) Diesel is more refined, then why is petrol costlier?
Me: Sir, I also think petrol is more refined but my analysis gave me the opposite results :(
The J's laugh uncontrollably.
J: So, what kind of taxi it was?
Me: Ambassador.
J: Ambassador or Fiat?
Me: (embarrassed) Perhaps Fiat Premier Padmini...an ambassador is more spacious and more big and curvy.
J: Suppose you loose your certificates in the taxi, how would you look for it, you don’t even know the type of taxi u sat in?
Me: I will go to the taxi stand from where I took the taxi as the taxis have more or less fixed stands and ask the people there (after this answer, I felt like a winner).
J: What did it have, a hand gear or otherwise?
Me: (after stumbling) A hand gear.
J: Advantages/disadvantages of both the types of gears?
Me: Sorry sir, I have not done a course on Automotive Engineering, my specialization is manufacturing.
J: What is your final year project? (handing me a pad to write upon).
Me: Explained My DDP (Dual Degree Project) to them.
They ask me about its applications, some old concepts of stochastic processes, pure birth processes, sojourn times (I was surprised that they knew these questions. They were not that I could not answer :P).
Me: Sir, my DDP has digressed from it quite a bit...of this, only basics is involved.
J: (grinning) But I have asked you only the basics, (grinning even more) you have quite a weak memory (alluding to another weakness mentioned in the interview form).
J: Why management?
Me: Explained...some general things and that I want to own a chain of restaurants focused on healthy eating.
J: But that is not related to your core competency, engineering?
Me: Agreed (by this time, the conversation had become very casual), but this is what I want to do.
J: Anyway, you want to own, just go and buy...what is the problem?
Me: I would need money for that besides managerial skills...I mean I want to start a chain...
J: How do you start a chain...you always start one restaurant first :)
Me: (looking at them unbelievably, kya fart maar rahe hain...and then starting with a smile) I will open one first and then develop them into a chain.
J: Any Indian chain?
Me: (by mistake) Pizza Hut...
J: But that’s foreign...
Me: Sankalp...it is focused on south Indian food (did not say CCD as it is not a restaurant but should have said...please ask me about CCD...plz plz plz)
J: So, how many chains Sankalp has?
Me: (CCD has 700, is owned by Amalgamated Coffee Beans Ltd, JP Morgan Chase bought a stake in it for who cares how many millions of dollars) I don’t know...it is located down south only.
J: How much deep in south?
Me: It is in Bangalore (and somewhat sheepishly,), also in Gujarat (have screwed up).
J: What are the two southern most states in India?
Me: TN and Kerala.
J: Southernmost point of India?
Me: (bachpan mein padha tha...trying to remember) Indira Gandhi Point (yipppeeeeee, crack maara :D).
J: In which state?
Me: (flummoxed and asking them) TN?? (I knew it is in Andaman’s but the pressure got me out).
J: (laughing) You are really poor at geography.
They ask me sth about Shillong and eastern India, which I answer satisfactorily, perhaps to their astonishment. They ask me to leave and I do so, thanking both of them. And a minute later, I knock, "Should I send the next guy in?" --- We will call him ourselves. And five minutes later, I knock again, enter the room and return to them the pad (given to me to explain my DDP) I had slipped effortlessly in my bag. They are amazed.
On my way back, I treat myself at Huma CCD for not buckling under pressure; open up the day's Mint and browse through the news. Two articles especially catch my attention - one about some Sri Lankan singer Mia expressing her views for LTTE and another about the decision of Maharashtra Government to replace the Premier Padmini cabs by Tata Indica. If only, I had read the news!
Group Discussion:
With LTTE creating havoc in Sri Lanka; Government of India is forcing Tamil Nadu Government to take action. Would it set a bad precedent for India to poke its nose? We were given 2 minutes to organize our thoughts and 10 minutes thereafter to discuss.
I wanted to start and provide a framework as to why the LTTE was formed; what the status quo in SL is; what exactly it is that GOI is asking TN govt to do; and in international community, what do we mean by setting a bad precedence. But neither I knew the answer to any of these questions nor had I any faith in the capabilities of my fellow members (and yes, I was correct!). I did not raise these questions lest it falls on me.
The group had a mediocre (unstructured in coaching parlance) beginning and I remained clueless for the first 10-15 conversations. But then...do or die...I jumped in and made some average points. Overall, the GD was not very effective mostly due to my lack of command over the subject.
Interview:
I was the first one to be interviewed. Two people who presided over the GDs were also the interviewers. I would refer to them as J's, separating by a numerical suffix if the need arises. However, in this case, both were kinda warm and happy go lucky persons, laughing along the way (hopefully with me and not on me).
Why this notation has a story to it: In the GD-PI blogs that I have read, people have used between I, P and J. I wanted an I for an interviewer but it could have created confusion between the 'me I' and the 'interviewer I'. Would have taken a P for a panelist but P might be misconstrued for Piyush. Hence, J.
I wanted an I for me but... Hence, I am just Me. Here, it goes:
J: How did you come here?
Me: By taxi.
J: (interrupting me) Are you a Mumbaikar?
Me: No, I belong to Rajasthan but have been studying in Mumbai at IIT for the past 5 years.
J: (probably stemming from my mentioning geographical directions as a weakness in interview form) How far is Dadar from Powai?
Me: (after thinking for a while) 50 km (God knows what I was thinking).
J: (laughing) 15 or 50?
Me: 50.
J: 50, you sure? How much did you pay and what was the meter reading?
Me: 139 and I paid 195. Let me make some estimation…autos charge 9 Rs/km (unfortunately, this is also 6 Rs/km), my meter reading was 139, so, that makes it around 15-20 km.
J: Why is the meter reading different?
Me: Talked sth about inflation, oil prices go up, people want to earn more, hence upward adjustment...
J: But oil prices have been reduced na?
Me: Reduced in recent times only, over a longer period they have been increasing...
J: What’s the price of oil now?
Me: Last time I knew, it was $47 (an estimated guess :D).
J: Any idea about the global oil prices in the past 1 yr?
Me: Oil crossed $100 a barrel in Jan, topped at $147.sth in June-July and now has tanked.
J: What effect does it have on India?
Me: (major time stupidity while answering this) Started off with ATF and prices change in airline industry...
J: (cutting me short) What does ATF have to do with this, is it also oil?
Me: Yes sir, a part of crude oil...
J: What difference?
Me: It is more refined.
J: So, where does it lie in the distillation chamber?
Me: Babbled sth indecisively...
J: Is it not kerosene?
Me: No.
J: Is kerosene more refined...what order for the following...petrol, diesel, kerosene?
Me: Petrol is majorly C9H20 while diesel is C14H30. Aviation fuel would be more complex hydrocarbons. So, diesel is more refined than petrol.
J: (cutting me short and repeating) Diesel is more refined, then why is petrol costlier?
Me: Sir, I also think petrol is more refined but my analysis gave me the opposite results :(
The J's laugh uncontrollably.
J: So, what kind of taxi it was?
Me: Ambassador.
J: Ambassador or Fiat?
Me: (embarrassed) Perhaps Fiat Premier Padmini...an ambassador is more spacious and more big and curvy.
J: Suppose you loose your certificates in the taxi, how would you look for it, you don’t even know the type of taxi u sat in?
Me: I will go to the taxi stand from where I took the taxi as the taxis have more or less fixed stands and ask the people there (after this answer, I felt like a winner).
J: What did it have, a hand gear or otherwise?
Me: (after stumbling) A hand gear.
J: Advantages/disadvantages of both the types of gears?
Me: Sorry sir, I have not done a course on Automotive Engineering, my specialization is manufacturing.
J: What is your final year project? (handing me a pad to write upon).
Me: Explained My DDP (Dual Degree Project) to them.
They ask me about its applications, some old concepts of stochastic processes, pure birth processes, sojourn times (I was surprised that they knew these questions. They were not that I could not answer :P).
Me: Sir, my DDP has digressed from it quite a bit...of this, only basics is involved.
J: (grinning) But I have asked you only the basics, (grinning even more) you have quite a weak memory (alluding to another weakness mentioned in the interview form).
J: Why management?
Me: Explained...some general things and that I want to own a chain of restaurants focused on healthy eating.
J: But that is not related to your core competency, engineering?
Me: Agreed (by this time, the conversation had become very casual), but this is what I want to do.
J: Anyway, you want to own, just go and buy...what is the problem?
Me: I would need money for that besides managerial skills...I mean I want to start a chain...
J: How do you start a chain...you always start one restaurant first :)
Me: (looking at them unbelievably, kya fart maar rahe hain...and then starting with a smile) I will open one first and then develop them into a chain.
J: Any Indian chain?
Me: (by mistake) Pizza Hut...
J: But that’s foreign...
Me: Sankalp...it is focused on south Indian food (did not say CCD as it is not a restaurant but should have said...please ask me about CCD...plz plz plz)
J: So, how many chains Sankalp has?
Me: (CCD has 700, is owned by Amalgamated Coffee Beans Ltd, JP Morgan Chase bought a stake in it for who cares how many millions of dollars) I don’t know...it is located down south only.
J: How much deep in south?
Me: It is in Bangalore (and somewhat sheepishly,), also in Gujarat (have screwed up).
J: What are the two southern most states in India?
Me: TN and Kerala.
J: Southernmost point of India?
Me: (bachpan mein padha tha...trying to remember) Indira Gandhi Point (yipppeeeeee, crack maara :D).
J: In which state?
Me: (flummoxed and asking them) TN?? (I knew it is in Andaman’s but the pressure got me out).
J: (laughing) You are really poor at geography.
They ask me sth about Shillong and eastern India, which I answer satisfactorily, perhaps to their astonishment. They ask me to leave and I do so, thanking both of them. And a minute later, I knock, "Should I send the next guy in?" --- We will call him ourselves. And five minutes later, I knock again, enter the room and return to them the pad (given to me to explain my DDP) I had slipped effortlessly in my bag. They are amazed.
On my way back, I treat myself at Huma CCD for not buckling under pressure; open up the day's Mint and browse through the news. Two articles especially catch my attention - one about some Sri Lankan singer Mia expressing her views for LTTE and another about the decision of Maharashtra Government to replace the Premier Padmini cabs by Tata Indica. If only, I had read the news!
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