The Biggest of 'em all!

Had my GD and interview for IIM Ahmedabad at Bangalore on 2nd March. There were 8 pople in our group, all except me were kids studying in their final year of B Tech (one each from NITC, NITK, BITS, CET, GEC Trichur, Model Engg College...there was one more guy, I can't recollect where he was from...all except one were malayalis)

Case Study for GD : For a change, this was not a piece of fiction. This was about increasing the height of Tehri dam and its impact on the people of Tehri town. A very nice discussion followed where all of us were passionate, at the same time compassionate towards each other...quite a few points came up and were discussed in detail...I didn't bring up any new point but actively participated in the discussion. The summary sheet was snatched away from me before I could complete it.

I would give a 4/10 for my performance overall.I was the second one in the line for PI. The first one told us that he was grilled on mathematics (Hahaha....I didn't know if I should cry or laugh, anyway, I knew mine is a gone case) and Civil Engineering. No budget, no extra currics and no personal details...Some 5 minutes passed by, and a face appeared through a half open door, and called my name out. I said a typical "Yeah" and moved towards the door.

I went swiftly in, closed the door after me, and walked towards the panel. I was offered a (hot)seat by the professor who would be P3 in the transcript below. I thanked him, and offered a sweet smile and Good Morning to all the Ps (P1, P2 and P3)P1 asked me my certificates and I gave it to him. The professors went through my data form (which I thought, in total would contain the biggest description about me until I got to see the data form for IIMI).

P1: So you are a module leader?
Me: I have played that role, sir. But currently I am not.
P1: Were you one when you wrote this?Me: No sir.
P1: How big is your team now?
Me: We are a four member team now, sir. It doesn't have any modules as such.
P1: Then why have you written...err...hmm...achcha you have written you was assigned...
Me: Yes sir.
P1: So tell us about the work that you are doing.
Me: Explains that it is an average cost inventory maintenance application running at XXXX.
P1: Are you able to use anything you learned in Mechanical Engineering in this?
Me: Some concepts from Industrial Engineering are found helpful in, may be not for actual use, but in relating some of the things being done (I was as unclear as this sentence is )
P1: Who decides the methods? Is it you who suggests the way things are to be done, or does th client gives you the solution and you just code it?
Me: It is the latter way. It is the client who decides what is best for them. We just implement the solution.
P1: How well do you think they are doing this?
Me: Some unclear answers...
P1: Some grilling on inventory valuation methods
Me: Answers...
P1: How is the economic order quantity decided in cases of seasonal price variations...
Me: Fumbles...Tell them that it might be using the historical data and current market trends

P1: Rules out the current market trend, I hang on to the history, P1 asks if the enterprise is new, are they at a loss, I fumble again...blurts out something...

P2 takes over
P2: You were talking about inventory. Is there anything in the software industry which can be compared to inventory in a manufacturing set-up?
Me: Thinks a bit and tells him that we need storage space to keep our softwares. Therefore it carries a cost and may be treated as inventory.
P2 rejects this and tells me that it is very negligible, and I asserts that it is still a cost. P2 decides to give me a clue and asks me what about the skill levels. I decide to go further on this and tells them that people is the main asset of software companies and they can be regarded as inventory. But P2 was adamant that it is skills, I tried to reason my stand saying that ultimately it comes to people, but P2 didn't agree. Finllay I gave in saying "You are right sir, it is the skillsets".

P2: How much of mathematics do you remember?
Me: (Is your name Chacko Mash, by any chance?) Sir, I am out of touch for the past three-three and a half years and do not remember much now
P2: This is not the proper way to answer. You should tell me some topic from 10+2, rather post 10+2 from which I can ask you some questons.
Me: (Oh...now I am sure you are Chacko Mash (for the uninitiated, Chacko Mash is a character in a malayalam movie who believes that the ticking of earth is in mathematics and that without mathematics, world is a big zero) Sir, in that case, I would like to take some questions from Matrix (did I spell it right?) and determinants.
P2: OK....so, what is the rank of a matrix?
Me: (Nice sweet simle) I do not remeber that, sir.
P2: Looks a bit surprised, and jots down a 3X3 matrix on a paper, and asks me to find out its determinant value.
Me: Expands it into a big array of numbers (a11 (a22*a33-a23*a32)-a21*..... funda) and says this is it sir.
P2: So what will it be?
Me: Oh...you want me to do the complete calculation? (P2 looks at P3 and smiles...rather laughs soundlessly)
Me: I do the complete calculation and finds out the value to be zero :O

P3 chips in: How could you tell this without even doing the calculations?
Me: (Looks at the matrix once again...)
P3: What is special about those numbers?
I said that the matrix is equal to its transpose. Apparenly, it wasn't the answer they were looking for...
P3 excalimed "Transpose??" P2 started a mild laugh. P3 said it was something related to the rank of the matrix.
I said I can't see any speciality for those numbers except that Aij = Aji, and that I don't remember the concept of rank of a matrix very well.

P3: OK...imagine you are at Bombay airport, have boarded a flight to New York via London and a small kid stting at the windo next to you wants to name out all the water bodies as you pass above them. What will be your answer? The water bodies and the sequence.
Me (Hahaha..I could answer this while in 4th Standard) : Sir, water bodies will include rivers and seas, I can list down the seas, but not rivers (Not that I didn't know any, but didn't want to take any more chances)
P3: OK, all major water bodies.
Me: Arabian sea will come first. If the flight route is through the air space of Iran, you will fly over the Caspian sea, then the Meditarranean sea, English Channel will come when going to London, and after that, it will be Atlantic Ocean all the way till New York.
P3: If you are coming back flying westward?
Me: The great lake of Michigan, the Pacefic ocean, south Chinba sea, Bay of Bengal, and then you will reach back Bombay.
P3: Tell me some of the islands where you can see people of Indian origin.
Me: Fiji is one of them, where we have a lot of people of Indian origin. Then Mauritius, Madagaskar and Sri Lanka.
P3: OK...do you know how come they are there?
Me: They are mainly people whom the Britishers forcefully took there to work in plantations. Some people might be there who willfully went there in search of better opportunities.

P2 is back into the action: Where does V.S. Naipaul belong to?
Me: It is the Carribeans, sir. He is from the Carribeans.
P2: Which country?
Me: I do not know for sure, sir. It might be Cuba (All the three Profs started laughing), I smiled back and said I am not very sure.
P2: Who is the leader of Cuba?
Me: It is Fidel Castro.
P2: Do you know any other Latin American leaders ?
I started searching my database for a matching name when P2 expands the question..."Any other Latin American Leftist leaders"?
Me (Now I ratified the observation by the one who was interviewed before me that the Maths Professor was a Bengali) : I have heard of Cheguera, sir.
P2: Where is he from?
Me: I think he is from Bolivia (P2 starts laughing again)
Me: ...no sir, Bolivia is where he met his death.
P2: Name the Latin Amreican countries..
Me: Brazil is the biggest Latin American country, then we have Argentina, Urugway, Colombia, Paragway, Chile and Bolivia (Hehe...I haven't watched any other Latin American country in World Cup Football)
P2: OK, that is it...(turns to P1)..anythiung else?
P1: No, Nothing...(May be on an after thought) How many calls do you have?
Me: I have calls from all the six IIMs, sir.
P1: OK...you can take a toffee and leave...I thanked P1 for the toffee and then thanked all the professors, gave out one of the swetest smiles ever donned my face and walked out.