IIM-I GDPI-2

Indian Institute of Management, Indore GDPI Experience (2011) - 2/2

Date: 2nd March, 2011
Venue: Hotel Kennilworth, Kolkata

There were somewhere around 15-20 of us waiting in a board room ... two guys come in with the attendance sheet.. all of us were divided into 2 panels - panel 1 and panel 2 ... they started calling out the names ... panel 1 completed ... didn't hear my name  .. panel 2 half over ... 4 guys were absent in a row .. i was getting worried as the list seemed to end .. tried to recollect if it's actually my slot ... and then, i heard my name .. chalo badhiya hai 

Written Assessment Test:
Time: 40 mins ... had 2 topics 
Topic 1:
An essay on growing population and consumption, affecting the environment ... had to write down a summary - 130 words ... 

Topic 2:
An essay: In the age of texts and emails, is it still required to have a good handwriting - 200 words .. 

Personal Interview:We were being called randomly ... my turn ... 

3 men in the panel - p1, p2, p3... sitting in an age wise decreasing order from left 

p1 : come in malini, take a seat 
me: thank u sir 
p1 : so malini, u were working with infosys. 
me: yes sir
p1: why did u leave it ... (it has to be the first ques in every interview )
me: gave my gyaan.
p1: so malini, tell me, why do u think u have to be better than others?
me: sir, why do i have to care if i'm better than others. i'm just myself, and that's what makes me different. i believe in whatever i do, that's why i took the step of quitting my job, did my preparations, and (here comes my fav line  ) .. am here for an interview (tashan !!!   )
p1 : so apart from the belief in urself, what's other important aspect of yours?
me: here, i'd like to refer to my friends' comments .. they often say i'm very trustworthy. 
(p2 and p3 all into my docs )
p1: give me an instance. 
me: they confide in me some of their really personal issues, ask me for suggestions, and they actually pay heed to whatever i say ( now p1 started looking into my docs, and i got distracted, lost my path, fumbled a bit)
p1: what kind of personal issues ? love and all ? (whoa ! he asked that )
me: sir, today we can see it all around us .. people are so much into relationships, and if things go wrong, they go into a state of depression. they get mentally disturbed, and in the process they hamper their personal and professional lives .. in such a case, it's really important to take out the person from such a state, and make him think better. so i try my best to counsel them and help them my best possible way to make them feel better . 
p1: yeah yeah, it's actually important to help people that way. So how did u know of this aspect of yours. 
me: during my btech, i have spent 4 years of hostel life. so as we all stayed together and helped each other, i inculcated this aspect.
p3: why do u think this is going to help in an mba?
me: as i have mentioned in my cv, i mean form (fumbled there a bit ) .. i'm interested in marketing. what marketing is all about selling. 
p1: marketing is all about selling ?
me: yes sir, kind of . infact right here that i'm giving an interview, this is also a marketing, as i'm trying to create a brand. (bhagwaan jane what came into my mind ). So what does marketing do, it understands the need of the customer. when i'm counselling my friends, i listen to their problems, and give them the suggestions accordingly. that's marketing, knowing the needs and giving the solution accordingly. 
p1: what is a need ?
me : a need is something which one always ought to have, a basic requirement, for eg food, shelter and clothing. the need further becomes a want. 
p1: can u plz give an example. 
me: i read it somewhere, that an American needs food, but wants a burger. 
p1: y american ? what about indian ?
me: sir it depends on the financial situation of the person if he can afford a burger. actually i had read it in philip kotler .
p1: so what is food here?
me : food is something i need to have anyhow. if i'm hungry i won't look for a burger, i'll simply look for the food. that's my need to survive. and my hunger drives me to look for the food, not particularly a burger.
p1: so u mean to say that hunger is the driving factor.
me: yes sir.
p1: ok so i'm giving u two situations, listen carefully - first: food is the need, and hunger is the driving factor. second: hunger is the need, and food the need satisfier . which one u chose ?
me: (after a pause ) sir, hunger can never be a need.. no body wants to be hungry. so i say food being the need. 
p1: and what about demand?
me: it's one's ability to buy something.
p1: so if a person has the ability to buy a nano only, but dreams of a mercedes, then r both of them demand?
me: sir, the person may always think of getting a mercedes, but it's only the nano for which he can pay. that's his demand, which is determined by his financial position. 
p1: ok.. good 
p2: (now he speaks) so malini, u had image processing in your course.
(had i?? oops !! don't remember )
me: we had a subject RTV, and we had studied image processing on TV. 
p2: how does it happen?
me : (kya bolein re ?? ) the beam of electrons is aimed at the screen and we see the image. 
p2: so is the image static or dynamic?
me: the image is static. out brain holds a given image for certain amount of time ( yahan to ek line mein likh di, wahan fir se was fighting for words .. damn !! ) .. the images are flipped in a very rapid motion, which gives a sense of continuity. 
p2: that was really long time back, when people had come up with this. what did u study relevant to the recent times?
me: (butterfly effect the black out situation) sir, that's all we studies.. and we are taught about the image resolution and pixels, if we magnify an image, how does it get blurred. that's all i can recall at the moment .. 
p3: u did ur engg from kalinga institute. 
me: yes sir. 
p3: and u r from ?
me: Jamshedpur.
p3: Jamshedpur was originally a part of bihar, right ?
me: yes sir.
p3: can u tell me any relevance or relation between kalinga and jamshedpur ?
me: (hain ???) .. if asked about kalinga, the very first name that pops up in my mind if that of king ashoka, and the great war of kalinga. after that he really repented his actions and converted to buddhism .
p3: what importance does king ashoka have on india ?
me : was about to give gyaan on the war. 
p3: no, i mean, post independence, what importance does he have ?
me: there's a symbol of the pillar on the one rupee note .. no coin (budoom !!! big gondagol !!! )
p3: one rupee note? or coin ?
me: coin. it's a picture of a pillar carved on the coin. on the top there r 4 lions facing the 4 directions, standing on a base which has a ashoka chakra carved on it. and below the base, there's the rest part of the pillar.
p3: is there actually a pillar, or just in fiction?
me: yes sir, there's a pillar. 
p3: what's it called?
me: (doob mar jaun ) sir, i can't recall it right now. 
p3: where's it it ?
me: don't know sir. 
p1: somewhere in bihar ?
me: (haan aise hi kuch lag raha hai . but ...) sir i don't know. i think it's called the ashoka pillar.
p1: (asking others) so we r done. 
me: thank u sir. 
p1: please have some chocolates. 
me: (khushi khushi took one ) thank u sir..

Later i realized that was our national emblem .. and the ashoka chakra is in our national flag as well .. 
but it's well said na ... "apatt kaalin viprit buddhi"  



Verdict: Converted