IIM Lucknow

I had to go to my village to attend a ceremony after a disastrous talk with Isha Koppikar. I was pretty distraught and when my grandfather enquired about my interview, I nodded my head in disgust.

VC:"I don't know why but things are somewhat going bad"

Grandpa patted on my back, smiled and said

"I don't know why but i have a intuition that you will make it somewhere"

We shared a laugh and forgot about the bad one. I returned back all charged to go after Lara and Aishwarya which were scheduled in a span of 2 days.

After the beating i got in my academics related questions, I had decided to go all out with my brushing up of academics to save my face and also of my University . And of my employer!.

It was in the afternoon again and we were made to wait in a waiting room of a hotel.

Then an IIML Alumni walked in a well fitting business suit with a paper in his hand. Called out names in 3 groups of 10 each in such a clear, crisp, and suave manner that all the prospective students were immediately charged up and raring to go. It really gave that 'punch' effect. For once a person called my entire name right!.

We went into the assigned room. It was a small room with two small tables merged to form a big table. There was a old professor[OP] standing, almost in his early fifties and another young professor[YP] in his late thirties who was sitting because he had broken his leg and was using a walker which was kept beside him.

2 of the 10 were missing.sigh.

OP made us sit in order.

8 of us occupied the 3 sides of the table , 3 on the longer sides, 2 on the shorter side and the 2 profs on the other short side. I was the first(surprisingly!) in the group and so was sitting next to YP. There was a booklet with 4 empty A4 pages kept in front of us.

I smiled at him and said

VC:"Hi Sir!"

YP:"Hey!!" and smiled.

OP held a paper in his hand and addressed us
"I will give you all a topic on which you are supposed to write an essay. You will have 30 minutes to do the same and please stick to the word limit. After that you will discuss on the same topic for 20 minutes. After that we will have interviews in the same order as you are sitting now"

"Ok please make a note of the topic - If you sell a man a fish, he will have food for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you have ruined a wonderful business opportunity"

After about 20 minutes and having used 3 of the 4 pages , i stopped to do a count and found out that i had already written 100 more words!. I wrapped it up in another 20 words and sat looking at the ceiling for the next 10 minutes.

The discussion started and all but me took the side of the topic. All of them talked about corporate leaks, trade secrets etc . While i was telling that if someone can do a better job of your idea, then you should be smart enough to let him do it and take a cut from what he makes. It was me against the rest and boy i was loving it. I had all the air time in the world. They were fighting with one another "Let me answer his question first" pointing their fingers at me before someone else answered the same thing. And they kept quite expecting me to make a counterpoint. Tailor-made baby!.

The GD ended and we were told to leave the room and me and the guy next to me were told to sit in the lobby outside the room.

After about 10 minutes i was called for the interview.

I walked in, wished them.

YP asked for my file and then after i gave him told me to take my seat.

OP was having my interview form.

OP:"Introduce yourself"

VC:Tape recorder on

OP:"Good!"

OP:"So whats the big news today?.Did you read any newspaper today?"

VC:"Sir, Bangalore International Airport Limited has decided to levy User Development fees on the passengers. A fee of 250 on domestic passengers and 750 on international passengers is being planned. As of now the airlines have not decided as to whether to absorb the costs or pass it onto the customers"

OP:"Lets say they pass it onto the customers, what will happen to the traffic patterns."

VC:"Sir i believe air travel is no longer a luxury but a necessity and so i don't see any dip in the traffic from business circles atleast. Yes, families who used to travel during festivals to get an extra day for festivities and students may be hit"

OP:"What would you do to see that no one is affected?"

VC:"Sir right now there are certain airlines which do give rebates for students on ticket rates and i would certainly do that. I would put in a cap of say 4 times an year to ensure that its not misused by the rich students. On the other hand we can also increase the ticket rates for business classes a little more to make up for the money we may lose on giving these rebates."

OP:"Any international news?"

VC:"Sir.. The US Primaries"

OP:"Continue..."

I talked in length about the US Democrat candidates, Republican candidates giving examples of the states they had won recently and which all states are left and who all are expected to win in them..

I was cut short

YP:"Whats different in the ways votes are counted amongst the Democrats and Republicans?"[After asking the question, he looks at OP and gives a weird smile which i interpreted as -'This boy is trapped now!']

VC:"Sir, In democrats you take the exact number of votes you get while in republicans the person who has the maximum votes finally gets all the votes polled"

OP:"But why is it that only this year the primaries have created so much news?.. We never used to hear so much about them before."

VC:"Sir because its almost sure that whoever wins the democrat ticket will become the president of USA. Republicans don't really stand a chance because of the legacy left behind by Bush Government"

OP:"What are your views about the nuclear deal?"

VC:"Sir i think India should accept it. For one its a de facto recognition of India's nuclear status. And i think the way world runs today its better to be an ally of US then seek a permanent seat in the UN security council. Whats the use of a vote when four such votes could not stop US from having its way in Iraq."

OP:"Ok.. but whats US getting out of it?"

VC:"Sir for one India's energy market is expected to be worth $150 billion in by 2025 and that gives US nuclear firms a good opportunity. The second very important reason being that India's growing energy needs are gobbling up the fossil fuels at a very rapid rate which is badly required for the US economy. Third obviously is to strategically contain the rising clout of China in the Asia-Pacific"

OP:"What do you work on?"

VC:"Sir i am part of a team which develops firewalls. Firewalls sit at the edge of a network and prevent the network from cyber-attacks."

OP:"And the attacks still happen"

VC:"Sir, its a fight of the brains. Sometimes we win and sometimes they do. Firewalls anyways are not meant to prevent expert hackers but are expected to thrawt people who use textbook methods of attacking a network"

OP:"How can you make a living out of hacking?"

VC:"Sir there are two types of hackers- blackhat and whitehat. Whitehat hackers are either on the payroll of firms where they are expected to point out security flaws or works as freelancers and point out the security holes voluntarily for the greater good of society."

OP:"And blackhat?"

VC:"These are the guys with a rebellious attitude who derive pleasure out of breaking into a system. Its more of a mindset difference while both do the same thing"

OP:"I have also heard that companies pay hackers to hack and then release security packs to make more money"[I have never heard of this but i felt this was more of a trap]

VC(firmly):"NO SIR."

OP:"Sure?"

VC:"YES"

OP:"So you write poetry?. Why don't yo recite one.. your favorite"

VC:"Ok.. there is one called 'If i ever'... Its romantic" and i narrated it.

OP:"But this is prose... i can also write this"

VC:"Sir i don't know the subtle difference between prose and poetry"

OP:"No this does not have that rhyming effect"

VC:"Sir the others i have written do have rhyming effect. There are there in that file. You asked me to narrate my favorite " with a smile.

OP:"NO... thats perfectly fine"

YP:"Ok... tell me the measurements of a basketball court"

VC:"Sir the pole is 10 feet high. The three point ring is 15 metres at the centre and 14 metres on the sides....."

I was cut short...

YP:"Thats enough.... Take your file"

VC:"Thank you sir!"