When you eat a Sandwich in HR interview

I woke up two hours early from my usual time which was quite unusual. Though, I was supposed to be woken up by my alarm but that day i.e. 4th march 2010 I was woken up by mother nature. Sun rays from a window falling straight onto my face as if asking me to get out of bed. While brushing my teeth I looked outside the window and realized that the ambiance outside looks exhilarating 1 hour after dawn.

The reason why I got up so early is because Accenture wanted to recruit students from our college. I had as usual no hope at all because as told by some friends they want only hardcore programmers. Which was a myth(Thank-God), which I later came to know. So with no hopes of being recruited, I neither shaved my beard nor wore formal shoes.

When I finally reached PICT(where the recruitment took place), I saw many,many unusual faces. I thought they might be of PICT but later came to know it was not only PVG(my college) and PICT but also Cummins and PCCOE. Summation of all students added up to 500+. Which made me even more disheartened. Then I managed to find some of my college friends and I observed nobody was tensed on seeing so many students. On inquiring why no one was nervous, it was thanks to Cummins girls. I literally could see all the heads(especially PVG's) were turned towards the assembly of 100 girls from Cummins.

Round-1 Aptitude test.
Was 100% sure this will be my first and last round. I started to make plans of things to do when I immediately get out of this round. But as politicians say "never say never", a friend(well wisher) came and told me that questions will be easy. Which gave me immense confidence to crack this test.

As test got over I was confident that I will make it to next round but still had butterflies in my stomach. I got back with friends who were still busy with "bird-watching". Even I joined with them with their pass-time,which made me realize that I was actually getting less and less worried about the test results.(That's the beauty of girls they actually get rid of all the stress of a man.I then understood why people say, behind every successful man there is a woman).Suddenly results were out and selected names were called out loud. My name was also called but it was pronounced weirdly,anyways I did not mind it.

Round-2 Group Discussion(GD)

I was sitting quietly with my friends in a room waiting for someone to come and conduct our GD. After sometime, a ma'am(name undisclosed) entered the room. Ma'am
was wearing formals of natural fabric,cut to perfection which reminded me of the film Corporate. My first reactions was that this GD will be the toughest I will ever give. But everything went very smoothly and I managed to get through to next round.

Round-3 HR interview

I have to admit that this was the best interview I have ever given and will ever give. GD got over at 4 in the evening and I was called for my HR interview almost after 4 hours. These 4 hours were like 4 years for me, I could not go out to have tea not even allowed to go out of our classrooms.I did all possible things I could do to pass this time. Finally It was time for my interview.

As I entered the room I saw it was the same ma'am who took my GD. So got even more nervous,but all my preconceived notions,assumptions were vaporised in a jiffy when she offered me a grilled sandwich. First,I refused to take it but because I was hungry I took a bite. I was then asked the orthodox questions like 'tell me something about yourself', 'why this company' and I pretty much managed to answer it correctly. Ma'am also asked about my blogging and I instantly asked for her e-mail address and also promised to write a blog on this HR interview experience.
Next couple of questions which I answered should never be tried by anyone in their HR interview.

1) you have consistently got less marks, any reasons??
a) Ma'am my marks don't reflect my knowledge**.

2) Do you have anymore questions to ask me??
a) May I take some ketchup(for sandwich)????

Finally I came out and was little satisfied with what I answered. But then my friend said Satisfaction lies in efforts, not in success.

After the technical round(Final round) I was disheartened as I was not able to answer 2 questions.

But as they say when everything goes right and right and right. I was finally recruited in my dream company Accenture. Now I can really say High Performance. Delivered.

Wrong Timing of IPL

March has finally arrived. First thing which pops in my mind in this month is nothing but IPL. It is complete 45 days of non-stop cricket. Though matches are played in the evening but thanks to our media the analysis,predictions starts right from 7 A.M. It is the only(rarest of rare) time in the year when saas-bahu team up to fight against all those in the house who want to watch IPL. But even they cant stop themselves from watching the cliffhanger moments in the match.

In the midst of all this blithesome time the only person who is neglected is the person who is in standard 10th or 12th. Though it is joyous time for those in front of TV it is woeful time for those in front of books. It is that time of the year when this person needs his complete concentration but is not able to give any of it.

I have been in this situation before during my 10th board exams(2004). It was ground breaking series of India-Pakistan in Pakistan(which is million times more important than any IPL match). In the morning when I came at the exam center, everyone(including girls) were talking of this special cricket match. Suddenly I asked everyone for how long did you manage to watch it(very stupid question to ask minutes before your exam). Some of the answers were :
1: I managed to watch only last 5 overs.
2: I toh watched only last 2 overs.
3: I watched only last 2 balls.
4: I did not watch it but just saw few moments on News channel.
5: Even I did not see it just read the headlines in newspaper that India had won the match.

Then it was my turn to answer my(foot in the mouth) question, though I saw 30 overs of Pak innings and I did manage to see the whole of India's Innings. But then I had to lie to make it equitable to their answers. So I replied "only last 10 overs of each innings". And then everybody were shocked as if I had watched the whole match.
Everyone started to curse me. Some of them :
1: Now toh you are gone.
2: Lagne wali hain teri.

I never blame my parents for anything but this time it was their fault. Whenever I managed to concentrate there was a loud cheer like "SIX!!","WHAT A SHOT!!","FOUR!!","OHHH!!". My family is cricket fanatic, so much that they dont like to watch alone they would call uncle,Aunt,driver,gardener,etc. Possibly everyone who they think is free was in my house. So more the people more the noise and less my concentration.

I think there might be similar situation in most of the homes in India. My heart goes out to those students who have to study even though their mind is in front of TV. But there are students and then there are students. Some manage to score well in their exams and also watch the matches. This is only because of time management.
But then students who have a problem like me, who take the match with them even after the match, who like to analyze where the team went wrong or right, who have after effects of the match, Should strictly AVOID all the IPL matches before and during exams.

Though some would say that students should learn to avoid temptations. I personally feel that the IPL should be held at some other time of the year. But which time is the question which has no answers.

Weird trip to a college near Pune

I had my exam center in a weird place near pune. Though I live in Pune for last 4 years I never expected the college to be on the outskirts of outskirts of outskirts of Pune. In the morning I began my (weird) journey towards this center, usually I am late to reach anywhere, but just because my mom literally pushed me out of the house I had to leave, I am glad she did because center was 44 k.m. from my house. So I began my journey on my sister's moped which(my sister says) is much faster than Pulsar and Karizzmaa.(she ONLY knows these two names in that category). She feels that her moped is faster than even Boeing 747.

I kept on going on that super fast moped at a lightning speed of 35kmph.I kept on going n going n going to reach my destination center. Slowly,slowly the hayabusas, the audis, the mercedes, started to fade. The hustle-bustle of people started to abate. Finally, I realised, I had reached the end point of Pune. I was sure that I took a wrong turn and now I was lost. So, as usual, as every Indian does, I started to look for a rickshaw(Auto) driver to tell me exactly where I was.(I always believe that only a Rickshaw driver will tell u the correct way and nobody else in this world can). But I realized that with the audis,the mercedes, even the rickshaws had vanished and instead they were replaced by Six Seaters a.k.a Dukkar gadi a.k.a tum-tum. Though it is made for only 6 people, none of them had 6, instead it was jam packed with 12 people- With three people(including driver) sitting on the drivers seat and three inside the trunk.Not one driver was in a mood of stopping his mini bus,I guess if he applied breaks some passenger would have shattered his windshield.

So after 20 excruciating minutes with sun on my head, I finally got hold of one driver, I asked him the million dollar question(in marathi)"Where am I and Where the Hell is this college??" .He also replied in marathi but his accent was Bihari. But he spoke correct marathi(MNS effect,I guess) and said its more 6 km ahead. So I was on the right track but more 6 km to where??? There was nothing no trees,no people, no nothing. I could not see one vehicle on road nor a cycle. After 3 km I reached a village and that is when the tar road gets over. The weird journey till now was bad but now it was even worse with bad roads(actually no roads). This path consists of only broken pieces of rock with pointed stones waiting for you to run over them. I wondered why these stones are laid on the ground? If you cant build a road just let it be a natural ground, which is much smoother than this hopeless road.

After cursing the government, cursing the owner of this college, cursing my luck for giving me this center. I wondered who in the world would be studying at this pathetic place. Finally I reached the college and as soon as I reached I was greeted with beautiful girls which made me brainwash everything what happened in last couple of hours.(Thats the best part about girls, and still some people say that women are not powerful.lol. Have lots to talk about powerful and extremely powerful girls but in some other blog ) But the students who had come to give exam were talking of only one thing "Where the hell are we??"