My experiments with the IIMK Interview

Finally, one over, two to go. Yes, I am talking of the IIM GD/PI process. The process which selects the raw material to undergo processing at the 'best' B-schools of the nation. As is usual for me, I did not prepare (ok! I did prepare a wee bit after a super-disastrous mock PI at IMS but not that much). Only thing that I very seriously prepared for was for the pronounciation of Kozhikode. Is 'z' silent or not? Also is 'kode' spoken as in 'code' in English or as rhyming with 'thode' (little) in Hindi.

The IIMK interview was scheduled at 2.00 on the 20th of Feb. As far as the forms are concerned yours truly started filling those at 11.00 - exactly three hours before the process starts. By the time I got dressed, bought the file and got ready with my marksheets and the copies, there was simply no time to prepare for any hobbies or look up the acads or for that matter the day's newspaper headlines (I will live to regret the headlines part....). Infact, there was also no scope of reaching on time. This future manager then suddenly regretted his time management skills. There being no options left, I jumped into a cab and went till Dadar. I arrived safe and sound at 1.50 and spent the next ten minutes searching for the GD/PI process rooms of one of the best management institutes about which no one knew (the location of the rooms that is). Anyways, just reached in time and was the last person to register. After around five minutes of anxious waiting (during which I adjusted my tie , wiped my forehead and comforted myself with self-pity for just about a hundred times), a person came and divided us into three batches. Reminded me of Sholay...... Aadhe idhar idhar jao, aadhe udhar jao, aadhe mere peeche aao..... except for the fact that this guy was not mathematically challenged.

Anyways, I followed him (unke peeche) to the first floor. We were asked to wait outside the room. which time was efficiently utilized by all of us in introductions and socializing (as taught in IMS, CL, TIME etc.) An impromptu voting session also told us that this was the first GD for 6/8 people present. The GD topic was

"Seek wisdom not knowledge. Knowledge tells you of the past. Wisdom prepares you for the future - Native American Proverb".

The topic being about wisdom, its very sad that we did not have any wiseguys in this group to make it a fishmarket and allow me to get away by shouting a few pigheaded points. In short, the group was discussion was very level headed with good points flying about and various aspects discussed. It was so polite... One guy even had a chance to say a whole story and was uninterrupted. These in sum were the points I made:

1) Since the quotation is of Native Americans, it reminds me of the Incas who were riddled with infighting when the Spaniards attacked. However, even though they had knowledge of the Spanish attack, they did not have the wisdom to get together and fight the external aggressors. As a result the Spanish conquerors won and the Incas were wiped out.

2) The field of biotechnology is coming up and we need to be aware of what's coming in the future. The U.S. already has bioethics as a major stream of study and is prepared to deal with innovations in the field of biotechnology. India should also show wisdom and utilize this knowledge to build a policy framework to deal with the problems arising.

3) (This was after a guy counted in adjectives the attributes of the wise....) We should
encourage such people to come up in all fields, especially the beauraucracy where they take a lot of time to take very small decisions. Our Prime Minister announced his intention to bring in beauraucratic reforms but did not follow it up. We could have an incentive based system in the beauraucracy like in the industry to reward innovation and encourage progress.

After about 10 minutes, the interview process started (simultaneously with a couple of butterflies who decided to have an impromptu dance session in my belly). I was third in queue. Before the interview, I spent my time deciding on which singer, author was my favourite. Also asked people about the protagonists of Five Point Someone and the formulae for Laplace and Fourier Transform (which were graciously answered by an IITB 8.8 pointer). I also decided to finally read a photocopy of my form and understand whatever I had scribbled before.

The first guy coming out held the opinion that the panelists were cool and asked him amongst other things to speak on the 'Future of India 25 years down the line' for 2 mins. Then the second guy came out (and the butterflies in my belly had decided upon playing football now). I waited nervously for around 5 mins after which one of the panelists called me in... This person was a US return, I could make out from the way he pronounced the S in Saraf. (Lets call him P1 for reference). Once inside I was asked to sit by the other panelist (lets call him P2) who had a great flowing beard (which appeared to especially intimidate a candidate outside).

Both the panelists were kind of unhurried like they dont know what to ask me. There were lots of pauses in the middle and overall it appeared as if they were more or less trying to get me into a conversation rather than test something vigourously.

P1: You have no work ex....

Me: Yes Sir

P2: So Ankur, tell us something about yourself.... Your background, family....

Me: I have been born and brought up in Bombay and come from a family with a commercial background. My father is into steel trading and mother is a house wife. I am currently doing my final year electronics engineering from Sardar Patel College of Engineering.

Both quiet for 3 seconds. Me waiting........ (P1 is reading form)

P2: Why did you say commercial? What does your father do?

Me: My father has a CA degree but he is into steel trading. All the other people in my family have a B.Com degree. Infact, I am the first engineer from my family.

P2: Why did your father not start practicing CA?

Me: gave the reason

P1: So your father trades steel in Bombay?

Me: Yes Sir

Again a period of silence for 2 seconds.

P2: You have any brothers/sisters?

Me: Yes Sir. A younger brother. He is also pursuing his engineering. In the second year now.Again wait... Finally P1 finds something interesting in the form

P1: So you have written about the Mumbai Floods. Water had entered your house... (left it hanging)

Me: Well Sir, those were not exactly floods. Mumbai has not seen floods but that was the closest thing. Described my experience for around 2 mins and also why I consider it an achievement for myself...

P1: These Mumbai floods were compared to another incident... (left it hanging)

Me: The New Orleans disaster....

P1: (Nodding his head) Yes. How do you see that comparison?

Me: Sir I believe the comparison is not justified in the first place. New Orleans is below the sea level while Mumbai is above the sea level. Mumbai does not have a good drainage system but once the rains stopped the water had to go down. On the other hand water had to be pumped out of New Orleans and the levees repaired. If you still want to compare, one point could be that there was lot of theiving and looting in New Orleans while in Mumbai, people were helping each other. People had travelled 10-12 kms on foot and they were offered biscuits, water, food etc. People even allowed others to use their toilets. If you think this way, you can make a comparison.

P2: (With a loaded smile) So! Do you think we are more civilized?

Me: Depends on what you mean by civilization sir. Jim Corbett has described it very beautifully in one of his books. He says that when two people in Indian villages meet, they do not directly come to the point. First you ask the person how is he? How is his wife? What are children studying? How much are they earning? Corbett says that in his country Britain people would be offended with this enquiry. They would feel you are invading their privacy. Western people come directly to the point. So these are just cultural differences. Our culture is ours, their's is theirs. They are more individualistic whereas we are more networked, enmeshed socially. One important reason for these cultural differences I believe is the concept of anonymous trust. They have institutions there you can trust and depend on. If a person there wants to survive alone, it is possible. Whereas in India, you need contacts for very small things. So we need contacts socially. Survival without that is very difficult. That is the reason we are more social while they are not.

P1: Yes. You cannot even trust the government in India. You cannot depend on it...

Me: Yes sir! You cannot depend for your survival on the government. They have social security there which we do not have.

P1: Ok. So you know about the BPO industry? Which would be the next big thing in BPO?

Me: I think law outsourcing would be the next big thing. There is a lot of legal paperwork which US lawyers just don't want to do. I recently read that a US firm is planning to outsource legal paperwork to India. Indian law graduates are ready to do the paperwork after a bit of training. So this field would be the next big thing I think.

P1: Have you heard of medical transcription?

Me: Yes sir! I have heard of it but I dont know what it is exactly about. I think it is something related to Indian Doctors giving you the medicine or molecule name and then searching the appropriate name for the medicine in the US. But again, I dont know for sure.

P1: You have written here that you like reading Non-fiction, fiction, 'comics' (surprised at
comics). So which comics do you read? Phantom, Mandrake....

Me: I read Phantom, Mandrake.... the whole TinTin series..... (Meanwhile P2 takes the form from P1.)

P2: So. You like Captain Haddock? (With a not so loaded smile this time on)

Me: Yes Sir! In fact, why only Captian Haddock? I love all the Tintin characters. The whole of India loves them. Tintin DVDs have been translated into Hindi are selling very well even in the rural areas. The large number of languages the comics have been translated to shows us that people all over the world like them. Coming to Captain Haddock, he's the tough on the outside soft on the inside character we all love. So I like him ofcourse.

P1: You know about the Indian Pharmaceutical industry? They are on a expansion phase. Know something about their activities?

Me: This is a sector I do not know much about sir.

P1: Recently, an Indian pharmaceutical company acquired another one. Do you know?

Me: I know of this news, but I don't know which company acquired which.

P1: It was in the papers. Today's paper I think. (looking at me with the 'you didn't read this news?!?!?....' expression)

Me: Sir, I just glanced through the headlines. Didn't read the whole article. (Regretted not reading the article. I had read only the bird flu articles that too only on the 19th..... they seemed more interesting) I think it was Ranbaxy but I am not sure. I don't remember.

P1: No. It was Cipla.

Me: Ok Sir, might have been Cipla. I don't remember.

P1: But the Indian pharmaceutical industry is on a growth spree. They are expanding all over the world. Dr. Reddy's, Cipla, Ranbaxy all have expanded and acquired other companies.(some examples I didnt know and cannot recall) Do you know anything about their global expansion....

Me: Sir I had read quite a time back that if you have a drug molecule, you can make derivative out of it and patent it. There were quite a few patent wars with Indian companies involved. Also Bill Clinton said that Indian pharmaceutical companies are supplying drugs at lower prices than western companies to Africa.... So they are also doing social work in a way.

P1: He really said this?

Me: Yes Sir. Especially about the AIDS drugs.

P1: During the Mumbai floods, there was also a fire at ONGC, Bombay High drilling plant....

Me: Yes Sir. News came at night. Lots of people.... around 65 I believe were trapped. They rescued most later but 5 or 6 died. They were not able to rescue them.

P1: Yes... So we ask each candidate to speak for about 2 minutes on a topic. I was wondering if you could speak about the acquistions of Videsh... the oil fields it has been acquiring taking the view of India's energy security. You could speak on that.....

Me: (completely blank on this. Didn't even know what Videsh was) Didn't quite get you sir.

P1: (Repeated, Me still clueless... Sensed my discomfort ) You can speak on any other topic too.... anyone that you want.....

Me: Can I speak on psychological warfare. I have done a presentation on it so...

P2: Yes yes why not? (looked at P1 for confirmation.)

P1: In fact, this will be interesting, that is if you don't decide to use those techniques on us of course. (gave a big smile)

Me: Okay! So psychological warfare consists of psychological operations. It is a war of minds which aims to win a victory before the battles starts. It is basically aimed towards two purposes: Reduction of the enemy's moral, increase in the moral of own forces. Also towards winning the support of your own people. Infact Kautilya has given us the precepts of Sama,Dama, Danda, Bheda.

P1: I didn't get that..

Me: (Repeated Kautilya sentence)

P1: Who was Kautilya?

P2: (Before I could answer, said to P1)Kautilya was another name for Chanakya.

Me: (Started explaining sama, jumped to danda, then said dama)

P2: Its sama, DANA, bheda, danda

Me: Ok sir. I got the order wrong maybe

P2: Its dana

Me: yes. My mistake. (then gave meanings of dana and bheda.. Actually wasn't planning to move into this but P1 wanted the meanings. Then continued with examples of Second World War, US-Japan leaflets, leaflets used by US in Iraq. How Russia turned communism on its head to win support of own people. How Hitler blamed everything on Jews to get people to support him. Then sensed that they are getting visibly bored like you may be by now. So ended by saying that today this warfare can be fought through the new media like forums, blogs, which can affect the minds of educated ppl. Ended there) That's it sir.

P1: Ok

Me: (Thinking ok means ok 2 mins over or ok interview over.. Waited for 2 - 3 secs.... Nothing happened... then stood up)

P1: Ok Mr. Saraf ! Best of Luck!

(Whatever that means)

Phew! Ended the post! Finally! Can certainly agree with Amartya Sen now. 'Prolixity is not alien to us' (Which reminds me it was a good thing that I appeared for the GRE)