MDI GD-PI experience

My MDI GD-PI was on 28^th of March. For all my GD-PI I stayed at my friends house ,because my every GD-PI was in Dadar in the morning and commuting in morning from Dombivli to Dadar is a huge pain. I was certainly not keen on going to MDI as my preparation was completely IIM, Lucknow centric. I could see Lucknow even in my dreams because of my insane preparation. My senior(NK) in office also was not ready to let me go to MDI, but I was of opinion that there should be some backup plan to fall on. Both NK and Varun were not willing to leave me for the GD-PI. The night prior to that we three were drinking till late night and then had nice bhurji-pav. I remember to be sleeping around 2:30 in the morning. I was just hoping that I wake up with no hang-over.

I woke up early. I think from past few months I am getting up, before the alarm rings (I hope, I continue this good habit even in B-school). I wore a baggy white shirt which I bought just the previous night. I tried every shirt but nothing was fitting me, I think I should start searching in kids section[:D]. One of my student, Ayush, had GD-PI in same panel. It was because I and Ayush were together we two didn't got bored. We discussed few topics and then along with other aspirants we went into the GD.

GD topic:
“Chinese products are threat to Indian market and hence India should ban Chinese products”
I think in every GD, I was the one who started it and spoke the most, here too there was nothing different. I spoke about Indian and Chinese economy, imports-exports between the two, India providing helping hand to Chinese agriculture, ban on tiger trade, effects of ban on Chinese products and many other topics. It was again a nice GD with almost everyone giving good points.

I was ninth in the list and hence had to wait for around 2 hours for my turn. Every interview was going around 15-20min. The interview panel was same as the GD panel. There was one sir and a madam. I entered in,

Harshal: Good afternoon

Sir: Good afternoon, sit. You worked in Career Launcher. What was ur profile?

Harshal: My prime job was to mentor students. Being a small company I was able to work in sales, marketing, operations, e-learning product design and customer servicing.

Sir: That means you are jack of all

Harshal: Yes, because if I am not jack of all I would not able to decide in which subject to master in.

Sir: What is mentoring?

Harshal: Being a mentor, my prime responsibility is to teach them concepts about math and DI. Apart from that I have to be also a constant motivator for them. There are some students who are self motivated which just need directions while those who are not need constant motivation.

Sir: Can you give one example of motivation?

Harshal: Sir yes, I have two. One of my student was preparing for CAT. He was a working in a company as well and hence had very less time to study. Though he was very dedicated and hence used to study religiously for one and half hour everyday. It was September and his mock scores were not increasing and were constant at around 75%. He started thinking that he is not going to make into CAT. I told him to continue with his regular preparation with some slight modifications. Effects were visible in the following mocks and finally that guy converted into IIFT and had also a wait-list in FMS.

Sir: Impressive. Why you want to do MBA?

Harshal: I want to do MBA so that I can start a business of my own.

Sir: What kind of business? Do you have any plan?

Harshal: Yes sir. I want to start a K-12 school. As you know India has around 1million school out of which only 7% are private which caters around 40% of children. At the same time quality of education is also not upto the mark. I would like to start a school which will be in semi-premium segment, with fees around 35,000-40,000. (I was stopped by sir)

Sir: Don't you think this is expensive and will create a divide. (At this point of time, I felt like saying even MDI is very expensive. Don't you think its not worth that much.)

Harshal: No sir. I am targeting a different segment. I am trying to target the households which earns around 5-10lakh a year. According to studies people spend around 5% of their income on education of children. This spending is going to be around 8% by 2012. So these people will be my probable customers. (listening to this answer madam was on fire)

Madam: But education is must for all and the way you are going to impart education will create divide among people.

Harshal: Madam, I am looking for business and hence my prime target is to generate revenue. (I think this was very rude answer. I could have answered in better way.)

Madam: Which means if a poor person goes to private hospital, he won't be treated because he doesn't have money.

Harshal: Its not that way. If I am doctor of the hospital, being an employee, I will take ownership to treat a needy person.

Madam: But why would doctor treat him. His main responsibility is towards the company he is working for.

Harshal: I think not. Being a doctor, the person has taken an oath that he/she will treat every person. Hence the prime responsibility of doctor is to treat the person and giving the patient importance before the company.

Madam: But this case is different. Your model will definitely create divide among people.

Harshal: For that I am planning to have 10-15% reservation for EBC(eonomically backward class). But this won't be implemented in the early stages as in the early stages it will be very difficult for me to manage finances. Hence first I will ensure that my business is financially stable and then I would like to take the social responsibilities.

Sir: How is MBA going to help you in business?

Harshal: I know entrepreneurs cannot be made, they are born. I do have the risk taking abilities which is very important for a person to be a businessman. But when I start my business I need to address two issues, one is entrepreneurial problem other is functional problem. Entrepreneurial problem means how to raise finance, how to build a team, how to mitigate risk and so on. Functional problem means which product to launch, pricing, way of marketing, market survey and so on. This is where MBA will come handy.(I prepared this answer after reading a report of Mc Kinsey about Lack of entrepreneurs in India)

Madam: What do u read?

Harshal: I read anything.

Madam: Anything means what?

Harshal: I read anything which comes in my hand. Magazine, newspaper or articles on net. The topic also can be anything. Like I was reading about history of Afghanistan and who is responsible for Taliban. I found it very interesting, but was not able to read completely as it was around 30-35page report. Then I also read partly about trafficking in India.

Madam: About human trafficking?

Harshal: Yes, because I was writing a blog on “Legalizing prostitution” (this is how I lead the interviewer to my strength)

Madam: What are your views about it?

Harshal: In India prostitution is partially legalized, means a girl can sell herself but she cannot market herself during selling, means pimping or brothels are illegal. Prostitution as a whole is Rs 40,000 crore industry. But what does the prostitute get, just $2 per customer after working for 12 hours a day and serving 6 customers a day. They can fight for their human right but they cann't fight for their labour right as they are not covered under labour laws. If prostitution is legalized prostitutes would be covered under labour law and this would help in improving their condition. At the same time we would be able to provide them with insurance and also keep a check on STD and AIDS. But this all sounds good when things are implemented properly. In India we have huge gap between ideation and implementation. Already there is high level of corruption in India. If it is legalized then powerful people might take advantage of law and the lives of prostitutes would become worse. There are some evidences of misuse in Amsterdam and Germany where it is legalized.

Madam: I am not clear about the implementation gap, but rest your views are fine. Anyway thank you.

I am in waiting list of MDI I don't remember the exact number, its somewhere around 250. Anyway I found this interview pretty interesting as I was able to speak a lot. I think waiting list is justified because of the rude answer I gave back. Because the statistics I was giving and the plan I was having were related to different causes, I realized that later. Had I given that answer carefully, I am pretty sure I would have also made it into MDI. But anyway who cares when I am going to Hell[:D].

Nothing

Without you, my days are silenced, Away from you, my nights don’t smile.
Tears have left with a smiling pain, its us or the world who is at blame

Feels like my thoughts are freezed,
Emotions all dried and sudden cold has seized.
Blindness has taken me all over again,
How to hold life when I have lost my rein?

Things happened thick and fast, You left me lost deep in the past.
Searing pain and burning desire,No way out from this mire,

Should I fight hard to kick back every blow,
Should I struggle every memory to forgo,
Should I move away from the cries,
Should I move away from your eyes

I feel like I exist not anymore, but how do I quieten my heart’s roar
blinded me trying to look beyond, but all i need is your embrace fond

were gonna live ‘til death do us apart’
to keep our promises from the heart
we stuck together, sunshine or rains,
but end was sudden and we parted lanes

Is it the end or is this the beginning, With you life was n will be nothing,
should I brave up and explain the meaning, or sink back and accept to be the nothing.

IIM Kozhikode Essay-GD-PI experience

IIM Kozhikode was my first IIM interview. It was on 26th March 2010. Given huge amount of expectations I had from me, I was bit scared before going for the essay, GD and PI. I was completely soaked in sweat due to hot and humid weather and was rehearsing all my answers in mind during the one hour train journey. I was more careful as it was my first interview.

Essay: "Fools and fanatics are certain about things but wiser people are not"

I started with Albert Eistein quote saying, "There are two things in world that are infinite, universe and human stupidity. Though i am not sure about the former." I wrote who can be termed as fool and fanatics and why are they sure about things because they are driven by parochial attitude and a very dogmatic approach. Sometimes fanatics take decisions only to ensure that their points are accepted even when they know that they are wrong. I wrote tha wise people are unsure because they always try to figure out reasons and try to understand things better, which results into indecisiveness. There is a four dimensional apporach of taking decision. Single dimension is based on self perception. Two dimensional based on opinions and self perception. Three dimensional when two dimensional model is given a knowledge resource and the fourth dimension is innovation.

GD: A passage was given regarding water scarcity and mis-management of water.

I started the GD saying that water is life and the entire humanity is based on water. We have very limited resource of drinking water. Talked about resources not valued when in abundance and current drought has brought our mis-management to lime-light. Spoke points like water harvesting to volunterrily done by every citizen, sachin tendulkar being brand amassador of save water campaign, excessive use of ground water by farmers have resulted into decrease in ground water level, desalinization plant should be built, waste water from bathrooms and toilets should be treated to be used in carwashing or gardening in a society and also spoke about a brazilian campaign where government asked citizen to flush toilet only after three usages.

PI experience: There were three people in the panel. Two prof and an alumni. One prof was around 40-45(terming it as P1), another one was bit scary with big eyes and long beard(looked very simlar to Jharkand Chief minister Shibhu..hence terming him as CM) and the alumn was very young, tall and very serious faced(A1).

P1: You teach in Career Launcher. Do you take care of GD-PI?
Harshal: Yes
P1: What is good GD-PI or Essay-PI?
Harshal: I think essay, gd and pi is good. As there are few people who good at writing and few are good at speaking. Hence essay and gd will be helpful in testing both.
P1: How was the GD?
Harshal: Frankly speaking, I never expected IIM GD's to be so civilised as many things are stake. But the gd was extremely civislised and everyone got a chance to speak. We also put in many points and constructed very nicely. We were also able to summarize it, that was one gud point. P1: Rate the people in GD.
Harshal: (I started pointing towards the chair numbers) This guy gave in many points and came with many new ideas. The girl tried to speak but managed to give few points. The guy over there had serious communications problem. He tried to speak later but I am sorry that I spoke at that time. I felt sorry for him.
P1: Rate urself
Harshal: 8.5/10
P1: Who is the highest?
Harshal: That I cann't do. As everyone has different perception while doing that.
P1: We are looking for your perception.
Harshal: Still I cann't tell you who is the highest. But I can tell you top three. You decide whom you want to make first, second and third. One is me and others are chair 5 and 7.
P1: Still will you tell me who is first
Harshal: Here many things are at stakes. I know they are my compitetors but still I would not like to tell who is the highest.
CM: You did engineering and then you went into Career Launcher. Don't you thing you wasted an engineering seat?
Harshal: No. I didn't waste any engineering seat. I know I am not applying any technical knowledge out here but I am still applying my analytical skills. Also because I am an engineer I was able to work on e-learning module of Career Launcher. At the same time the job profile clearly specifies that an engineer is required for my post and hence I am taking a position which only an engineer can take.
CM: What u did in e-learning module?
Harshal:We were trying to develop a learning module where the classes will be conducted on net. This will help them to understand the concepts better, also revise them any time they want and will reduce travelling time, which is a major problem in mumbai.
CM: Don't you think e-learning module doesn't have demand in India?
Harshal: This is because students are very much used to human touch while learning. Hence for the intial phases we are trying to launch this as an teaching aid and not as product. So once people get used to things we can shift our focus from normal teaching to core e-learning.
A1: What is your favourite subject in engineering?
Harshal: (OMG!!) Sir, its Bio-medical instrumentation. (This is my ace answer as I am 99% sure that people don't know this topic)
A1: Any other subject?
Harshal: Others are not favourite as such. But being instrumentation it was a sandwich course so if you want you can ask me about electronics. I will try to answer those.
A1: What is K-map?
Harshal: I don't know. (Later I found that I knew the concept but never knew that it is called K-map. I am bad at remembering names and terminologies)
A1: What is semiconductor?
Harshal: (Explained him global concept about semiconductor being doped with impurity and all kind of shit)
A1: Differentiate between conductor, semiconductor and resistor.
Harshal: Conductor conducts alwaysss, semi-conductor behaves like conductor after some thresh-hold while resistor have higher threshhold.
A1: How can we use resistor?
Harshal: We can use to create different potential drop and can use to activate different gadgets at different time by using it like a switch.
(A1 was thinking resistor in parallel combination and I was thinking in series. Later I cleared his misconception)
A1: What is register?
Harshal: I only know that its a memory device rest I don't know.
A1: What is todays news?
Harshal: Maria becoming new ATS chief. 15% water cut in Mumbai and the finance budget of Maharashtra.
A1: Who was the previous ATS chief?
Harshal: I don't remember the name, but it is some person starting with R. I think its Rastogi( In reality it was Raghuwanshi)
A1: Fiscal deficit of Maharashtra.
Harshal: It was given in the paper but now I am not able to recall.
A1: GDP of India.
Harshal: 6.8 ( he was asking me in terms of money value but I gave him GDP growth rate. I didn't realized at that time)
A1: 6.8, what?
Harshal: percent (he understood what I was talking about)
CM: What do u do in spare time?
Harshal: I work for 9hr a day, 4hr travelling, 8hr sleeping and hence I am hardly left with any spare time. (I think I could have answered him better than this....but I took this learning to give better answer and helped in Lucknow)
CM: Don't you think you sleep more?
Harshal: During my peak season, I work for 14hr and sleep only for 5-4hr.
(I don't know what was trying to prove, but this was because I was irked by acads questions)
P1, CM, A1: Thank you

Result I got a waitlist 8, this is surely going to get cleared but I don't care now about this as I am already through IIM Lucknow.

My IIM Lucknow Essay-GD-PI experience

Getting an IIM GD-PI call was like a dream and getting through was more than what I desired. Its a combination of hard-work, intelligence and luck which has helped me to get through IIM Lucknow(IIML) call. Had I not got through IIML, I would not have shared my GD-PI experience[:)].

IIML second stage selection has an essay, a GD on same essay topic and a PI. My essay topic was a topic which I have thought for many many years, "Do God created man or man created God?". Being an atheist and avid reader, I always think rationally and like to give reasons for every step or every statement I give. Few points I wrote in essay and even said during GD were:
1)Why do God look like man? Just to make God super power we make him an abnormal looking human having many heads, many hands and many legs.
2) Humans always want some actor or doer for every action. Hence if any action is done and we are not able to find actor or doer then we hold god responsible for the action.
3) Humans love control in life, but there are many things which are beyond human control. Hence we make a super power, a super controller called God. We pray to god, we please him and then ask for favours. This is how we think that we can control our lives.
4) It is well said that, even random is a pattern which we cannot recognise.

Personal interview was amazing. It lasted only for 7-8mins. So the moment interview was done I knew that either I am through or I am rejected, there will be no middle course. In interview panel there were two panelist. One old and one bit young. After looking at faculty profiles on IIML website, I can say the older person was Mr N K Sinha and the bit younger one was Mr. Ashwani Kumar (I am not 100% sure though). So for me most of the questions were asked by Mr Sinha.

Mr. Sinha: Tell something about yourself.
Harshal: I am Harshal Chandak, born in city of Dombivli which is know as educational hub in suburbs. Being brought up in a middle class family my family gave me sole objective of studying well and earning a good job. Following that I studied well and was 14th in Mumbai Division in SSC. But when I went to my junior college...(Stopped)
Mr Sinha: (my engg percentages are 58.3, looking at that) But I think you stopped following your parents objective in engineering.
Harshal: Sort of, actually I was bit irresolute during my engineering and goofed up in exams.
Mr Sinha: U are an engineer, but then why you went into Career Launcher?
Harshal: I was very sure that I don't want to be part of IT industry. When I was 17 I had a dream of starting my own school but never thought so seriously over it. When I got opportunity to work in education industry, I thought this might be a way I can understand more about my dream. Hence I went to Career Launcher.
Mr. Sinha: What do you do in Career Launcher?
Harshal: My prime job is to mentor students. Being a small company I got lots of opportunity by working in different sections like marketing, sales, customer servicing, e-marketing.
Mr Sinha: What is mentoring?
Harshal: Mentoring is done in many stages. One is teaching fundamentals of math and DI as I teach those subject. Rest it also consists of motivating students. Like one of my student who is right now in IIFT was facing problems while giving mock exams. He was not able to score more than a particular level. So I advised him to continue with mock exams and not get frustated about the score.
Mr Sinha: Don't you think its common sense.
Harshal: Definitely its commmon sense. I know this but students sometime overlook this.
Mr Sinha: I thought Career Launcher pays faculties in tons but looking at your salary it doesn't look that way.
Harshal: This salary value is two year old as appraisals were not done last year due to recession.
Mr Sinha: How many times you have given CAT
Harshal: 5 times, but out of that only two were serious and rest three were not so serious.
Mr Sinha: What was ur last score?
Harshal: 97.17%, missed out on english. This time also I don't have great percentiles in English.
Mr Sinha: It might be bit akward question, but will you give CAT one more time?
Harshal: Definitely yes. I am totally in love with CAT exam as this is where I can give some exercise to my brain. (This I think was the turning point of the complete interview)
Mr Sinha: I think this CAT was very easy. What are your views?
Harshal: I don't think this CAT was very easy. As every year if you observe there are around 10-12 questions gettable, this year too same number of questios where gettable but only difference this time was less number of questions.
Mr Sinha: Looking at your 4 years experience and your love for CAT. Will join IIM or not?
Harshal: Definitely yes sir. This time I am adamant over joining only IIM's.
Mr Kumar: What are your hobbies?
Harshal: Reading books and trekking.
Mr Kumar: Where do you go for trek?
Harshal: In Sahyadri's i.e. in Maharashtra. I ensure that I have minimum 2 people so that if anything happens to me the other can bring me back and maximum 5-6 people.
Mr Kumar: Why maximum 5-6 people? Do you go for trek every year?
Harshal: Maximum 5-6 to avoid conflict. I have experienced that during trek even the best of the best friends fight. I do go to trek every year.(I could have mentioned seasons as well but forgot to do that)
Mr Kumar: Any incidence of conflict?
Harshal: It was I think during one trek when we were going to Tikona. It was raining lightly and my friends had super enthu about building a tent. The only resource they had was a huge plastic sheet. I warned them that this is not gonna work. But they continued with it and finally after one hour of hard work one strong wind blew our tent away. It was getting darker as well. Luckily I knew about a temple close by and hence we decided to take shelter in that temple. But one helpful farmer allowed us to stay in his house.
Mr Sinha: What is meaning of life for you?
Harshal: For me life is all about learning and not earning.
Mr Kumar and Mr Sinha: Thank you