Marriage on my mind

So, I went to this engagement ceremony that day. It was for the same person, my cousin uncle Mr. AG, I have mentioned in some previous posts. Though he was not able to awe us by his presence, the ceremony went on very well. I was kind of a heavy weight, representing my family who is in Mumbai and cannot attend the function.

But the good news did not end there. Now, I was officially the next boy in the family who would be married. This eligibility was on the basis of my age (apart form my pleasant personality and a list of other traits too long to be mentioned in a single post). Mr. AG is the last of my uncles to get married and along with his; the series of marriages would end for my previous generation. Also, I have an elder cousin brother, who is around 32 and already married. Now, it is upto me to marry and help in the proliferation of our family.

It feels nice. At this moment, I have the control to even direct the course of other people’s lives. Till the time I marry, my younger brothers can only wait. After the ceremony, I was told that many people were asking about me. My aunt who did the honours (of introducing me) was also excited about this fact. I was introduced to the bride’s mother and she enquired about my education. I felt she was quite inspired and that the eligibility part might have easily struck her. After that I saw her talking to her relatives. I am quite sure the talks were about me as the relatives were definitely looking at me during the conversation (See the disclosure).

I wonder, if I should start looking for girls who would like to marry me. But going by the large expected number of such girls, maybe finding those who would not like to marry me would be easier.

I have chalked out a plan. The first thing I am doing is to make the announcement through this blog in the form of this post. Second, I would register with a number of matrimonial sites and upload my bio-data (i.e. what they call your resume in the matrimonial world) so that the girls and their families can find me and start enquiring. Third and the most important would be to tell every relative that I am considering the thought of marriage and that it would be nice if they could find a perfect match for me.

I also wonder if I am lucky like Irfan Pathan and girls have already started chasing me. Or whether my aunt, who has played a pretty important role in the bride selection process for Mr. AG, has already started work on this project of mine as well.

Disclosure: I may have exaggerated some of the events that occurred.

Stamp of IIT, IIM

There have been some comments about my previous post being not very articulate. I am trying to work on that and would be more than happy to get your suggestions on this issue if you too feel the same.

There have been two reports related to IIT (my current alma mater) and IIM (my expected future alma mater). Firstly, the issue was if IITians should vie for IIMs and the second was regarding the much talked about reservation issue in educational institutions especially IIT and IIM.

IITians looking to join IIMs, and for that matter other top B-schools, should not be looked at with skepticism since it is their choice and their wish. Arguing that they are taking up someone else’s position and quashing other people’s dreams lacks maturity. If this is the case, everybody should move hand in hand with everyone else and there should be no hierarchy of any kind. Everyone should have equal salary, equal status etc.

If a person performs well and is promoted once in his life then that is it. Promoting someone a second time would actually be quashing the dream of someone else. All employers should definitely not look forward to employ from IITs or IIMs since the positions being offered can be helpful for students of local colleges. Infact the government should not provide any funds to the IITs or IIMs since they have already developed and it is now the turn of other local colleges to catch up. Even if this means, the former institutions taking a step backward, it would be good since equity can be achieved faster between the former and the latter.

Talking about reservations, we have already achieved a stage where the word ‘GENERAL’ has lost its meaning completely and is being specifically targeted. Every reservation happens on the cost of this dreaded ‘GENERAL’ category. Even the topper of some exam from this category has to ensure that he has some other option to fall back on, if after sometime he is made to realize that he does not stand a chance.

On a lighter note, recently while reading the newspaper, I came across a rather interesting suggestion which could be a boost the advertising world even further. How about using stamps for emails! The stamps would obviously be free; otherwise there is little scope for any progress on the issue. The users can customize their stamps. They can choose from a variety of size and shapes as well as the content. The content can either be companies willing to put their advertisements in the form of stamps or maybe some messages in the interest of the public from the government or other world bodies like Red Cross. The email service providers can charge companies for each stamp and thus open another source of revenue.

This would also give kind of a real and traditional look to the mails.

P.S.: You may say that I composed the post such that I get a good title.

Drink, Drink till you Sink

Some believe that India is a poor country in terms of the money the people have. Yet what we do with the little money which we have is far from being commendable. We have traditionally considered giving water and quenching someone’s thirst as an honour and a virtue. However, now that we are progressing, it is not very far when we completely get rid of these feelings.

Consider this; India consumes 1.4 billion gallons of bottled water per year i.e. 5.299 billion litres of bottled water. Assuming the prevalent price of Rs 10 per litre of bottled water, the total amounts to an outflow of Rs 52.99 billion or Rs 5299 crore or $1.19 billion from the consumers’ pockets. The trend has become so much prevalent that even ordinary restaurants have started asking their customers if they would prefer ‘normal’ or ‘mineral’ water.

Adding to all this we have the consumption of soft drinks increasing at a rate unmatched in the entire world. This again is mainly water with ingredients which, though are not completely disclosed, but have been talked out at length. If you consider the outflow corresponding to this industry then you might change your perception of India as a poor country. Also, at Rs 10 per 300ml this water is more costly than diesel in many states of the country.

Also, there is a perception that Indians are one of the most intelligent human beings. Consider this; the soft drinks sales do not drop even when it is confirmed in the laboratories that they contain pesticides and other chemicals which would be harmful for the body. We are indifferent to the proved allegations regarding the consumption of the country’s ground water reserves, which are as it is scanty for the population, by these companies. We do not care about the price at which we get the soft drink even after knowing the fact that it costs the company only Rs 0.70 for a 300ml bottle.

From childhood, we have been taught that we take in oxygen and leave carbon dioxide. Also, how active deforestation is harming, apart from other things, the availability of oxygen and how the percentage of carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere. Yet, here we are consuming soft drinks which are nothing but water with carbon dioxide and some other harmful chemicals pumped in.

Also, now-a-days everyone is health conscious and tries to avoid sweets or anything that would be fattening. But they cannot say no to a soft drink which constitutes of 10 teaspoons of sugar, if not more, per 300ml.

Finally, I personally like soft drinks as would you but I wonder, considering all the things if it is a good idea to drink one.

Nationalism and Communalism

I did not post yesterday and was sad because though I had the time for the same, somehow I managed to skip. Recently, I have been getting so much content to post that it kind of stacks up if you do not post regularly.

French President recently walked out of an European Union summit after a French business leader abandoned his mother tongue. Now that was bold but probably not against the prevalent attitude of the world governments. We have various recent events which show nationalism being the prominent feeling even in this age where widespread globalization is being claimed.

We have the US Congress opposing the control of their ports by a Dubai based company. The Luxembourg, France and other governments opposing a takeover bid for a company, in which they have a stake, by an Indian business tycoon.

Though the French President’s behaviour is a little outrageous, he is not alone. And I do not consider these feelings to be unjust in any way if they do not criticize other people who are in the same boat or do not try to propagate the opposite feelings if it suits them.

So, I have no problem if the US and the EU keep providing subsidies to their farmers but I do have a problem if they oppose a similar venture by the Indian government in the name of globalization and free trade.

These feelings many a times also extend to communalism. So, we have some papers ready to mock at other religions but not that of the religion of the people of their country. But before looking outside, I should first reflect within India i.e. my country. And I would find almost equal, if not much more, to speak.

Everywhere around me, I see people following the same path that I have condemned above. So, if you speak Hindi, which is my mother tongue as is of the majority in India, you are considered not that sophisticated. Watching Hollywood movies is fashion and criticizing them reflects your lower taste. Opposing the foreign channels, which are promoting values opposed to those proposed by our traditions, is taken as an act of naivety. And if government brings in a law to curb forceful conversion of religion or a law banning cow slaughter, which is taboo for Hindus, it is considered as an act of communalism.

To sum it all, this is what an article at Wikipedia has to say

“Thus, in India, there exists a peculiar situation where the opponents of a secular law are called "Secularists" while those in favour of a secular law are termed "communalists" or even "fascists"”

Statistics everywhere

For the past few days, I have been bombarded with statistics.

Firstly, we received a mail from one of the professors of our department that the proxy access provided to us is being used for stuff which severely deteriorates the performance of the server resulting in extremely slow access speeds for everyone (the technical reason for the same was that the server runs out of file descriptors). As such, three users were barred from using their accounts.

After sometime we received a mail from someone else who wanted written applications from 20 students. These were the top 20 students whose accounts have seen the maximum activity. They were to explain why such a thing was happening. One of them was a guy from our group. The mail contained a link to a page giving all the statistics regarding the proxy usage for this month with details about the hits, the files and the Kbytes in question. It contained bar graphs and pie charts as well as the top sites being visited.

One strange thing (as I see it) is that Wikipedia was not present in the top sites being visited. I myself am an avid user of the same (as you might have noticed from the links in my post) and if it were the statistics of the sites I visit, Wikipedia would have been the clear winner.

So, a little depressed, I open the main page of the site. As if it had responded, the site’s main page had undergone a change for good. There was colours and categorization and yes, statistics. So, I moved on to the Statistics page to see what was in store for me. What I saw, I am quoting here:

“Wikipedia currently has 1,040,724 articles.

That number excludes redirects, discussion pages, image description pages, user profile pages, templates, help pages, portals, articles without links to other articles, and pages about Wikipedia. Including these, we have 3,709,474 pages. We have 399,806 uploaded files.

Users have made 46,789,105 edits, an average of 12.61 per page, since July 2002.

We have 1,133,674 registered user accounts, of which 855 (or 0.08%) belong to administrators.”

There were other charts and tables. And I was again confident that sooner, if not already, it would be the most visited site.

Criminals reduced and debt incurred

The effect of my last post was quite evident.

Firstly, the efforts put in by my relatives for marriage of my cousin uncle gave fruit and his marriage has been fixed. The dates are not yet decided but the bride is. Secondly, the idea of surrender and get paid put forward by Mr. Nitish Kumar was kind of successful with over 200 criminals surrendering with few days of the announcement. The surrender and rehabilitation package would be worth Rs 200,000 for each person, of which 25 percent would be government aid and the rest would be an easy loan to them. This includes housing, land and education. Also, special courts are being set up for speedy disposal of the pending cases against these former criminals.

Also, today was my last IIM interview (namely, IIMB). I would like to make a summary of how all the group discussions (GD) and personal interviews (PI) went. Lets see if all these match with the final calls I receive, if any.

	IIMA	IIMB	IIMC	IIML	IIMK	IIMI
GD	<>	> OK	OK	OK	BAD	OK
PI	OK	BAD	> OK	<>	BAD	OK

Note: (BAD) is less than (<>

Finally, some facts which people can find informative and useful.

Did you know that the "Big Apple" is a nickname for New York City? Its popularity since the 1970s is due to a promotional campaign by the New York Convention and Visitor's Bureau. Its earlier origins are less clear.

Stop yawning for this one is interesting. Every Indian owes Rs 30,000 (674$ approx). This is on account of the total debt taken by the Indian government which is more than Rs 30 trillion. And we are not backing in any way. In the last year itself India’s debt increased by around Rs 1.5 trillion. When I heard it I too was quite surprised for I knew the figure was around Rs 10000 per person but did not knew it has reached Rs 30000. Also, one important thing to note is that the GDP per capita of India is 622$ (less than the loan per person). So, if the entire value of goods and services produced in an year within India were to be made available for loan payment, we would not be able to repay the loan completely.

Marry and reduce crime

My last weekend was entirely devoted to match making. It all started with my cousin uncle (but I consider him my elder brother, due to the small age difference) flying back from the US to have the traditional match making session for himself. He was to meet a few to-be-brides before he again left flew from where he came. One of the girls was, selected would be presumptuous, found by himself through the net (through some matrimonial site, I suppose. I wonder how much the scope and reach of these sites have increased in recent times). After all the meetings and the much more lengthy discussions (of which I was not a part of as it has been traditionally restricted to the elders) the girl mentioned above has been chosen to take the process further. However, discussions are on as there were some differences on the dates of marriage etc. It is worth mentioning that my elder brother is an IITian and is currently doing his MS and as such, no girl’s family would like to leave such an opportunity (Not that I am boasting about my family, but that is how we are. You will get one of us when you search millions … may be more).

Now for some current affairs.

Mr. Nitish Kumar has come up with a good (I do not know if it is novel) idea of reducing, or at best removing crime from his state of Bihar. He has offered cash to all criminals surrendering. Also he has offered varied amounts of cash for the weapons that they bring along. These offers are a good opportunity for the criminals. It may not only lead to surrenders but the criminals would want to bring along large number of weapons as well to fully cash on the offer. I have always believed that the people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the most intelligent in India. Also, Indians are considered the most intelligent people in the world and so that make these people the most intelligent in the world. Look at Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav. He and his family combined has ruled Bihar for nearly 15 years. He has managed to create such an aura for himself that the situation is that if an Indian citizen knows the name of just one politician then it has to be him. One may not remember the Prime Minister, the President but one definitely will remember him. Going back, what the people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar lack is direction. And such an offer plans to provide one. The plan can easily be extended to other states so that the benefits can be reaped.

Also, there was news regarding Mr. Jaswant Singh, who has been the Finance Minister of India recently, being made a professor at UK’s University of Warwick. The accompanying announcement described him as a man of tremendous experience. This is a good precedence which could be followed by Indian Universities and Institutions. We have various people like Mr. Jaswant Singh of valuable experience and knowledge. These people would be ready to share these with the students who could make ample use of them. Before these mighty personalities start being ‘drained’ towards other countries, we need to be proactive and retain them. Mr. Jaswant Singh teaching a course in Finance in one of the IIMs would not be that of a bad option. As such, other personalities like economists, ex-military personnel, people from industry etc. can take up such positions. Not only would students be inspired by their presence but it would be a good exercise for the entire country.

Some new things

I had planned to write my IIM GD/PI experiences in detail. But as of now I am postponing, if not dropping it all together. There are two reasons. One, we have enough of those available at ‘pagalguy’ and second the IIM guys can ask you anything under the sun and for that matter from outer space as well. So, there is nor rush and on a second thought no need for wasting space at Myself Speaking™.

The advantage of the entire process of “preparing” for the group discussions and personal interviews for the IIMs has been the fact that my senses have opened out to things happenings “around” me. The definition of this ‘around’ has changed and the radius of this ‘round’ has increased considerably. But I am not interested in anything and everything happening but things of interest have definitely increased and the depth of knowledge required to satisfy these enhanced basket has also grown.

So, I thought I would give you a glimpse of this new facet by commenting on a few things I got from the newspapers.

Too much to ask

With reference to the recent articles in newspapers about Mani Shankar Aiyar, I think it would be too much to ask from Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar to be proactive and work as he did at the petroleum ministry for he has already faced the repercussions of such acts. However, if Mr. Aiyar does replicate some of the innovative thinking it would be good for the lagging Indian Sports and also would create a precedence for other people/politicians to follow.

Playing the Right way

BJP’s call to the youth to ‘Emulate Infy, not Dravid’ should not be treated as just another regular one. Not only is it bold in ignoring the popular mood but also brings to the attention the fact that these days, many students may not remember names of freedom fighters and even the names of the country’s President and Prime Minister but do not fail to recall those of filmstars and cricketers. These, while good sources of recreation, may not always lead to motivation in the right direction.

Trying our hands at

As usual I have again succeeded in my pursuit of making people blog. My latest achievement is now available. Also, atleast there is one good aspect of watching cricket. That people start posting.

As I have mentioned in previous posts that I have given many interviews and so would like to share every one of them. I have been trying to endeavour on my quest to join a reputed B-school. I was in for a surprise when a B-school from Europe, namely ESCP-EAP, came looking for possible candidates in our institute. The sudden discovery of the B-school took everyone by surprise for I am quite sure that nobody had heard of it before. Not that people here are ignorant but at this stage of the career, of apparently no work experience, rarely does anyone find a foreign B-school wanting to take students of our level of experience.

The school had organized a seminar and had its posters all around the campus. I along with my friends planned to attend given that we were making efforts to join a B-school. Some would argue that it was because of the refreshments promised but I would not like to comment. The seminar was conducted by two students from ESCP-EAP, one of them being from IIT Delhi (i.e my institute). They talked about everything from the institute, the selection process to the scholarships, the fees. I would say that the presentation was pretty impressive and the refreshments were not far behind. They gave us the link from where we could apply for the management program and bade good bye.

I along with my friends planned to apply as just the thought of going to Europe is enough for people here to get convinced to join any institute. Regarding the fess, we all fell into the category of 50% scholarship on account of the fact that our family incomes were within the stipulated threshold for the scholarship. However, as we went to the link for applying, we became a little concerned as the form to be filled was in Italian.

So we kept postponing. As we all had expected, one of us took the pain of translating the form into English and then we were all ready to fill the form. The form filling was followed by a small online test. The test was to be given individually (obviously), the probability of which was negligible (more than obvious). After giving 4 or 5 tests we had improved to the extent that we could give the exam twice in the maximum time allotted. Everyone cleared the test (surprised!) and were called for an interview in a 5 star hotel. Again, we were motivated to give the interview for 2 reasons – the opportunity to seek admission and the opportunity to relish the hotel food.

I would enlist only the questions of the interview as the answers are nothing worth mentioning.

1. Where are you from?

2. What is your CAT percentile?

3. Why do you want to join ESCP-EAP?

4. Which campus would you want to join? (ESCP-EAP has five campuses across Europe)

5. Where would you go if you get admission both in IIM and ESCP-EAP?

6. Where would you like to stay, India or abroad?

7. Did you try for an internship abroad?

The rest of the time we were discussing about the scholarships and the management programme being offered. Lastly they asked me if I wanted to ask them anything. When I answered in the negative they were surprised. So, I had to console them by saying that I wanted to ask about the scholarships but since we have already discussed that question has already been answered. Also, they told everybody (me and my friends) that a GRE score would be essential for admission and that too around 700. We did not say anything at that point of time but later were discussing that if we were to get a 700 in our GREs then we might as well apply to a Harvard or London Business School. And that what was the use of the interview when they wanted the GRE score.

After a few weeks, we got an email that wanted us to continue further with the selection process by mailing the certain documents. On the last count, none of us had obliged.

Ponting leads Australia to biggest loss EVER

Words cannot express the spectacle that happened today, still I cannot not-write about this.

When SA lost the very close fourth match, I thought that was IT for them. Going 2-each to a final with the Aussies the result is never debatable, but this time it was different. I love the unmatched happiness I get whenever Aus lose, but this was a bonanza.

I was playing cricket in the "basketball" court in our hostel when someone told that Aussies were cruising at around 8 an over, when I went to the TV room the last 8 overs loooked like a joke. Ponting was doing what indian cricket fans are used to see him do in finals... murder!
Final score 434-4, this big a score ought to be followed by a full-stop, but to my utter delight it was just a comma this time!

Walking out of the TV room I joked that if an only if Gibbs hits a double, could this be possible.
Now people obviously believed this match was over and F1 prevailed. Smith and Gibbs had very different plans though. Looking at the score over the net, I was just hoping that the freak continues. It did.

Although now the TV room was packed with people, I thought I'd rather go to the annual BHM nite than go and make SA lose. (My friends say I am cursed and whenever I go and watch a match to support any side, it is bound to lose).

While eating I heard that Gibbs got out and SA had started their "choking" thing. I thought it would end up being one more of those could-have-been-the-best-ever scenario. Suddenly someone said it was just 24 of 16. Now I thought if SA could do so much, they may as well overpower my black shadow, so I rushed to the hostel TV room.

I reached in time to watch the last over. 7 reqd. of 6.

Ball 1: Boucher smashed the ball straight down the ground, almost teared apart Lee's right foot.
Managed a single.

Ball 2: Hall pulled Lee away for a boundary. Now only 2 of 4. Lee almost crying.

Ball 3: Hall gifts his wicket away (typical SA stuff one would imagine).

Ball 4: Ntini to face the music. I thought a 150 kmph yorker would definitely rob SA of another significant victory. The ball was full, but outside off, and Ntini squeezes the most important single of his life. Now 1 of 2.

Ball 5: Fullish ball and Boucher picks it up for a boundary. !@$%#^&. All hell breaks loose in TV room.

I sincerely thought only India could mess up this big!!! But Aussies outdid my imaginations.

This was undoubtedly THE BEST MOMENT of cricket. Not just because Aus lost after posting the highest total, but because SA finally won, and from a situation from where no other team would even try for a win. Sometimes I wonder how different would things be in the cricket world if the blunderous run out had not happened in the WC-99 semis...

I cannot wait to watch the highlights, which would be only minutes shorter than the whole match. I know this was a very biased post but I don't remember when was the last time I was this happy and content :D

Hoping taht Aus loses the test series "comprehensively"...

The Real IITian

I was forced to write this post due to some recent experiences. In the past few days I happened to meet few strangers in context of some interviews and some parties. When they heard of myself being an IITian their misconceptions about IIT surfaced and they started expecting a stereotypical behaviour from me. When my behaviour did not match their expectations they actually told me what they, and for that matter what the outside world, sees an IITian as and what they imagine would be the schedule being followed in IITs.

Basically their point of view was that an IITian would be working their ass (the donkey) off. He/She would be up late nights doing assignments, working in laboratories, studying what syllabus has been covered and even what is to be covered and stuff which would never be covered in the curriculum. I think this rumour has also gained strength because of people raeding books like Five Point Someone and taking it for facts rather than fiction which I hope was the intention of the author.

Though they are partially right but the other part of truth will make them want to go back in their state of speculations regarding an IITian. I said partial truth since students do stay up till late in the night (the time may vary anywhere from 1am to the entire night). Also, a few of them are of the kind as described above (which are tagged as “maggu” or “fighter” by the others). But the majority (a large one) is far from the hassles of academics. They are busy not doing some kind of “research” in laboratories but are confined to their hostel rooms playing strategy games on the LAN or watching movies (you can guess the legality of the source) on the computers again downloaded from the LAN or just wiling their time away.

Most IITians would argue that the greatest asset and attraction of IIT is the LAN. When the students go for their internship at companies or universities, they are happy as it is the first time they would be getting some cash in hand. But after some time, they start having a feeling of separation from the LAN and that of helplessness. The power which the LAN provides makes them want to come back to IIT leaving the worldly pleasures.

Coming back to the topic, most IITians feel that the exams are the best time, not because they are the ones who are fond of studying, but because that is the time when there are no classes and laboratories (as if they attend them) and what is expected is, to be present in the exam room for atmost an hour. The scenario is such that after the hectic night schedule the morning starts at around 11:59:59 am (Just to remain on the am side). And any lecture class before that is sacrificed for the sound sleep which is essential for the body and also as per the typical IITians hobbies.

Though I have prepared a complete schedule of atypical IITian as well as the broad categories in which all IITians lie along with their characteristics, it would follow in the future posts.

Job Interview - The Finale

Well many people had promised of writing their experiences (interview experiences to be specific) but none have overcome their lethargy. Failing on that front, I thought I should atleast complete my experience for I have given many interviews after this and going at this pace, I may not have sufficient free time to share all of them.

So, just to recap … I had my first interview and was waiting for the next round. The interviewer (who took my interview) was almost finished with his initial shortlist of candidates. And so I had expected to hear from him soon. But then suddenly other non short listed students started entering the interview room and I was puzzled. On probing, I found that he had made it open for anybody (who maybe on the shortlist for other profiles) to come and be interviewed. It became kind of a walk-in-interview. I was sad, not because others were getting interviewed for I knew that the number of students to get offers is not bounded, but because I felt that this was it for me.

After all the interviews the shortlist was announced and I was one of the 4 to be shortlisted. All the worries were behind and I started waiting for my chance. My turn came and the following happened

Note: I: Interviewer; AA: Myself (Someone said after my previous post that the initials should have been the other way round)

I: Select a company of your choice and do a SWOT analysis
AA: The company would be Reliance Infocomm.

I: You can take your time.

So, I started jotting down whatever I knew of the company. After a while

AA: Strengths: …
Weakness: …
Opportunity: …
Threat: …

I: Ok. So, we had lunch in the canteen (named ‘Sip n Bite’). It is doing well in terms of volumes but not profit. What may be the possible reasons? Analyze. Again, you can take your time.

Again, I jotted whatever I knew and said

AA: blah blah …(not literally)

I: Ok. So you may go
AA: Thank you.

And I left. But it was not over as all those who were to receive their final offers were to be interviewed by a senior employee of the company who was also conducting interviews. I had to wait a lot since he was busy on a call. After waiting for what seemed like longer than the actual elapsed time, he came and the interview started. Before the interview started I was casually talking to the interviewer (who had previously interviewed me)

I: If it was for me I would have selected you by now.

So, I was like happy-but-keeping-it-down kind of phase. So, we started talking and he was telling about his background etc.

I: What is my age, take a guess?
AA: Around 40-45

I: It is 36. Do, I look that old
AA: (Laughing, having messed up) I should probably get going.

SE (Senior Employee) comes.

SE: Sorry, I had kept you waiting. Ok. So, why do we take from IITs when we could recruit from IIMs?
AA: Beacause … you will get fresh candidates (stammer) …. I don’t know

SE: You would like to work in India?
AA: Yes, especially in Mumbai (where they were placing me) since my family lives there.

Then there were some questions repeated from the first interview about CAT, why then my company etc.

SE: Ok. So you did this course in Finance. Did you get some grading?
AA: Yes, I got an A grade.

He was noting all the points in his evaluation sheet of his company.

SE: Ok then Thank you. Do you have any questions?

AA: Yes. The same question you asked regarding recruitment from IITs rather than IIMs.
SE + I: (not a chorus, but I cannot remember who said what) IIM students have depth while you have breadth of knowledge. Also, a balance is maintained in the employees. You bring in a new perspective.

AA: Ok. Thanks
SE: So if there are no other questions then you may leave. We will notify you.

AA: Thank you.

To conclude, I was worried about the result but was more worried that if the result is not in my favour then I would have to repeat this entire exercise with another company. After that, with my head paining a bit I reached hostel only to realize that the news had spread and everyone was congratulating me. I had to convince them that it was not final and we would only know by the next morning.