Book recommendations

------ Reserved for book recommendations ------

Here I would recommending some books...for particular institutes such as IIFT, the candidate has to mention the  2 recent books that he/she has read. In most cases, it need not be a management-related book at all. It all depends on how well one can explain what he/she has learnt from the book for application in real-life.

You can either try reading the below books or use my reviews (click the books)..the choice is yours!!!

--- "Reviews" work in progress ---

  

SIBM-Pune GDPI-2

Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune GDPI Experiences (2/2):

I started with the normal registration, got compliments from two lady volunteers "nice saree" 
we were shown a Times of India ad ..

In our group of 10 (i was the last one), 4 were absent, so we were only 6 people .. so things seemed easier ...
mine was the K group, and our process began with the PI part ... but when 4 of us were done with the pi, and we were done with the sandwiches and aloo chop, we were called for the GE process .. and last two people's PI got deferred ... 

Group Exercise:
We entered the GE room .. and there we met the same Army person mentioned about earlier ... he asked us how's the weather, and campus and blah blah ... 
back to business ... started off with a case study ...


It was about a minor girl Anita taking a right turn in a heavy traffic and leading to chain of accidents ... with Akash, Arvind and Sheela as the additional characters .. question: who is to be blamed, blah blah ... the discussion was fine , nothing very great about it .. 

Then the army uncle gave us the feedbacks, then we took a 2 min break.. when we returned, it was time for GD ... 


Group Discussion:
the army uncle was a great guy, asked us what kind of topic would we like to discuss, 5 out of 6 said abstract .. he was like "great!!" .. and gave us the topic "Black is black and white is white" ... had a nice discussion .. in the end, we even got to summarize the topic (courtesy : Malini  )


Personal Interview:I enter the room , and there i see 2 ladies in the panel ... 

P1 was one with short hair, and always bore a look "what's she doing here?"
P2 seemed to be a better one 

P1: hello malini, how r u doing ??
Me: m doing fine.
P1: so how u feel about the campus?? (even the army uncle had asked the same ques ... uff )
me: it's beautiful ma'm .
P1: so malini, pick out a chit and talk about it for 2 mins (Extempore)
I pick up the chit, and kept staring at it for god knows how long. The topic was something about success and mental attitude and mental ability
me: and i supposed to speak ?
P2: u can start when u feel like (looking at the annexure )
me: ok mam, m ready .. (and then gave some funda .. not even sure if it lasted for a single minute)
P2: ok .. so malini u r with infosys .
me: i was with infosys for 7 months.
P2: so why did u leave it ?
me: gave my reason n all..
P1: so tell me about ur autobiography .
me: told them whatever was written 
P1: why SIBM-P ?
me: gave some toota foota answer (and the entire time P1 had this expression as if i was speaking elvish)
P1: is SIBM-P famous in Jharkhand ? (What d crap ?? )
me : yeah, may be.. (and here goes my terrific blunder) actually for my mba preps had joined ims coaching, so many people over there had applied for it.
P1: so u want to say it's famous in Jharkhand.
me: may be.
P2: So u want to take Chris Gardener and Amir Khan for the trip.
me: yes.
P1: who is your fav actress?
me: none as such
P1: no actually, most of the girls say Kareen Kapoor. (Huh ??? )
P1: why do u have such low marks in 12th?
me: was preparing for engg at the same time, and both the courses are a bit diff, so couldn't manage well.
P1: but u will have to manage a lot of things during MBA as well, how will u do that?
me: ma'm that was a long time back, and i had a different level of maturity and responsibility at that time, now i have come a long way. now that i'm more capable, i will put in my best effort to whatever task m given.
(Now read this)
P1: has this answer been suggested to u by ur coaching institute ??? (WTF !!!)
me: why would they tell me this? this has been my experience, and only i can justify it well.
P1: but m just asking u, have they told u about this question ?
me: (straight looking into her eyes) NO.
P1: it's fine, i was just trying to get the thought process. u don't need to get "defensive" about it . (Bye bye Sibm-P)
P2: tell me something about ur family.
me: told them blah blah .. and in the end, said " so i belong to a humble family of 4
P1: how humble? how would u score on a scale of 10?
me: 7
P1: which being the most humble?
me: 10.
P1: which field u r interested in ?
me: marketing 
P1: but u know it's going to be difficult for a girl
me: yeah, some of my people have told me, that it includes a lot travelling , and even my parents are keen on me doing HR, but marketing is something which I'm really interested in.

Verdict: Converted

SCMHRD GDPI-1

Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD), Pune GDPI Experience:

I entered the the admission hall.. the registration was going on.. I sat there for quite a while, trying to decipher what was going on, and then my name was called out .. I was the first person in my group (of 5) .. seriously, why do i always get positioned at the extreme positions?? in sibm-b and p, i was the last on in the group, this time i was the first .. any ways ...

Essay Writing:
I was given a topic somewhat like "for success in academic and professional fields, _______ (don't remember the word, was the synonym of "creativity") is more important than knowledge" ...
wrote okay .. like people can get knowledge, but how can one utilize it in an unconventional way makes him stand out in the crowd .. bahut funde maare .. gave example of Aamir Khan ( now i think, Christopher Nolan could have been a better example) ... but not very satisfied with my essay part ... 

Group Discussion:
we were given a case study, about a softare company in a dilemma who is supposed to fire one of it's 4 employees ... had a good discussion .. and then finally came to a conclusion ... my first choice was not the unlucky person to be fired, a logical decision was reached upon though .. umm.. not that bad, I guess.

Group Interview:
it was about a lady working in a banking sector, with a jobless husband, struggling with the finance probs ... and luckily, this time also we all came to a conclusion .. so overall group experience, in my opinion, was not that bad.

Personal Interview:
I had to wait really long for my turn, in fact even my panel was changed .. anyways, i entered the interview area, and the first thing i noticed was the absolute silence over there ... i tried to walk as slow as possible, to avoid the "tak-tak" noise of my heels .. i entered the cabin, and there were two persons : a lady, with a pleasant smile (P1) and a man, kinda serious, but not a tough one in looks (P2)

p1: hello malini, how r u doing (smile) ?
me: i'm doing good mam.
p1: so where r u from ?
me: jamshedpur.
p1: u r with infosys, right? does infosys has a centre in jamshedpur.
me: no mam, i was with infosys.
p1: oh yes, u have left it. so, after leaving infosys, what have u been doing?
me: i came back to jamshedpur, n started preparing for mba. after having done with all the written tests, i got into part time teaching. 
p1: where?
me: (bingo ) and then my story.
p1: so why did u leave infosys?
me: during my tenure i realized i was more keen on doing mba. so having thought over this, and having discussed it with my parents and friends, i decided to leave it .
(p2 all silent ... just watching )
p1: is there anything u didn't like about infosys.
me: no mam. in fact, infosys taught me a lot many things, made me more endurable. but at certain point of life, u realize that u want to do something else. so did i. i thought that it's better to do something which u actually want to do, rather than dragging yourself. so i left my job after 7 months, got into preparations, tried my best, and thats why i'm giving an interview here right now .
p2 : are u always this soft-spoken, or u r trying to be that way just coz u r here in front of us .
me: sir, to be honest, the environment over here is very quite, that's why i prefer to talk slow. or else, i'm a very fun loving person, and my friends really do enjoy my company, so do they say .
p1: so malini, u told us about your job and your teaching. tell me, what else really excites you.
me: dancing . it always gives a rush of excitement, especially when i'm performing on the stage. 
p1: any particular dance form u like?
me: my style is typically free style dancing. i also love to watch dance shows like DID and So you think you can dance. my fav is contemporary, but i don't know much about it. but i guess if i ever get a chance, will surely learn it .
p2: so, do u sing?
me: i used to sing. actually, i'm a trained classical singer . when i was in std. 10, i had completed my 4th year. but after that had to discontinue it because of my +2 studies.
p1: u r a computer science student.
me: no mam, electronics and tele-comm.
p1: what if u don't get admission in mba? have u thought of any other option?
me: right now, m just not thinking of any other option. my prime focus right now is getting an mba degree, and will try my best to get that .
p2: which field u r interested in ?
me: marketing.
p2: which other calls u have? 
me : IIM-k and I.. 
p2: which is your fav technical subject?
me: to be honest, there's no fav technical subject for me. i was fine studying them, but if u don't mind i'd like to mention that i enjoy doing maths.
p2: which area in maths u like the most? as in algebra, geometry..
me: sir, geometry. at times i often came across really tricky one, but even then i really like solving them (itna bhagwaan jane kyun boli  )
p2: what's pythagoras theorm ?
me: gave them the formula.
p2: but what is l?
me: drew a diagram , explained the entire thing.
p2: what is h?
me: it's the hypotenuse, and we denote it using h.
p2: u comfortable with trignometry?
me: have been quite a long time since i pratised it, but still can give it a shot .
p2: what's sin 90, cos 90, tan 90 (was a rapid fire)?
me: gave the answers.
p2: can u draw the quadrant?
me: (i tried drawing it, but had forgotten .. mumbled a bit, even p2 tried to help me out.. in the process he even asked me the value of sin 180 .. i said 0 .. and told him about the formula sin(A+B)= sin A.cosB + cos A. sin B )
p2: (asking p1) u want to ask some technical ques ?
p1: just nodded her head, kinda no .
p2: what's a transistor .
me: told him .
p2: what's ________ (seriously i hadn't heard the term before, so can't recall i now as well )
me: sir i don't know.
p2: they haven't taught u this (that really wasn't rude ) ?
me: sir i just can't recall it right now.

p2: (again to p1) u want to ask anything ?
p1: (asking me) u want to ask anything ?
me: mam i can't think of anything right now.
p1: ok then.
p2: all the best for ur IIM calls 
me : thank you sir. thank u madam.



Verdict: Converted