Like this:

i hope i am able to get the formatting appropriate for this one. i know the previous one was badly spaced (the enter’s were missing).

start.

the Schlum GD was for 42 people split into 6 batches. Mine being the last slot had an open ended topic (at least that’s how i infer the increasing level of the GD topics). earlier, these 42 members had been shortlisted based on the online resumes submitted. here, i was lucky to have got away with a blunder of a lifetime!!! my resume read ‘currently an undergraduate student of METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS ENGG’ instead of the actual Civil engg. that’s why one needs to copy smartly…even for CV’s…!!!

anyway, the GD topic was ‘Crouching tiger hidden dragon’. Akanksha started speaking first and went on to explain the topic (which is technically a sound approach; only i was feeling as if time was running out and interrupted her first!) As I appealed to the group to quickly narrow down the open ended theme to a specific issue, in came the ‘most awesome’ speaker of IIT_R. Miss Molly Mehta (Meta III yr.) interpreted it as ‘AFSPA’ !!! and succeeded in extracting a ‘What!’ out of me. all this while, you must note that I was still blank about the topic despite having followed of subhro’s advice of looking onto the board immediately upon entering the room, as it had the topic on it. i had a few seconds extra, while the people were being arranged onto the seats, and still couldn’t start the discussion.
anyway, Baljeet Yadav came to our rescue and interpreted it as India v/s China, and everyone else started blabbering about the economy, only we weren’t fighting like the previous groups. in the middle i managed to slip in a valuable contribution of quality v/s quantity, and that saw me through. a vote for the same was taken up at the end of the GD. the moderators admitted that had we chosen any other line for the topic he would have rejected all of us right away. in the end, 3 people from this slot made it to the interviews, which was the maximum for any group. baljeet, akanksha and myself.

I was no. 10 for the interview and had to wait for hours. (the phenomenon was repeated for tata with me, only this time baljeet was the PR around, and not the interviewee after me.) it was quite a happening process with miss komalpreet requiring to collect her phone (perhaps something to do with her FB account), and others a certain lady constantly taking in live strategic inputs over her phone. I emulated that in december.

finally, i went into the room and replied as ‘tired’ to the first question asked, ‘how are you?’. quite a shot in the leg, you’d think. then, i was asked about my schedule as i mentioned that i liked to go to bed by 10:30 pm, and begin my day early. somehow, i failed to drive home the point that I too was tough in my routine and could match their standards of 4 days of work before 1 day of sleep!!! further, something about my hobbies. i had to name my favourite short story writers, and some characters from PG wodehouse. i hadn’t prepared these, and perhaps this was visible on my face. i did answer them, however. that there were 3 types of guitars—mexican, hawaiian and spanish, and i owned the 3rd kind, earned me raised eyebrows from the lady among the panel of three. the fat fellow thought i was some communist because i had named leo tolstoy as one of my faovurites. (i consider that a lame generalisation…but, i should admit i wasn’t prepared for this either). the youngster in the middle kept doubting my endurance levels. (???)
finally, they brought up the quality v/s quantity issue that i had raised at the GD, and I answered some rubbish.
finally, the middle-man closed the interview saying he wouldn’t hold me any longer from getting to bed. i said i would wait for the results, as i left the room. he probably missed that as he gave me an astonished look when they finally announced the results after 5 and a half hour long selection process. my name wasn’t there in the final 2 out of the 11.

after all this, i returned with the ‘schlum’ sticker with number 35 written on it. and quite like a bollywood film i pasted it on my almirah to remind me of a failure!!! now, i can remove it and with pleasure!!!

also, following that friday, i spent the weekend listening to these two songs that i had taken from tuxxi sir, on my floor. again, a cliched filmy response…the songs are: beetey lamhe and zindagi ne …, from ‘The Train’, by the serial kisser of B-town.

that’s all.
Stop.

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