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>June 21st, 2007:
I had just stepped into the city of Nawabs, Lucknow yesterday and the morning breeze though a stranger to me, welcomed me with a cool hug. As I moved in the IIML campus, a hope and a belief crept in me – here is a launch pad for a successful career ahead in the corporate world. The welcome speech by the Director on the induction day was a clear indication of the mercilessly hectic life as well as the worthy returns thereafter awaiting me
In order to inculcate ethical business practices and sound value system in its new batch of students, IIML took the initiative of inviting Swami Muktinathananda, a monk of high stature, to inaugurate the new batch (23rd batch) of Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM) students.
The tempo started building up right from the first day both by professors and seniors, though on different platforms and at different degrees. The whole day was occupied with lectures by the various prominent people in the administration. The evening, we thought was free to sleep (Valued Pleasure) but the students council thought otherwise. We had a batch meeting in the evening, notifying of a test from 12 to 3AM. Yes, you heard me right the test is midnight. Now this was least expected after a tiring previous night spent on the informal induction at the hostel
Somehow went through the gruel, and the arrogant seniors, who would point mistake in every step, and make us feel that we are simply not fit to be here. At 3:15, just grippling over to my room, I was in for a surprise. Those merciless seniors have organised the official hostel induction tonight, probably because tomorrow happens to be the birthday of one guy’s girlfriend!! We get into the required dress form to suit the assigned character – Superman and ***( will be screened out for obscenity). After entertaining them till 5, we were allowed to have the very much required pegs of whiskey and vodka. Slept at 6AM

June 22nd, 2007:
The registration is scheduled at 8:30 AM. Now who would explain to the authority that we have not slept! And I don’t think anyone would like to take the risk of not registering, or rather confirming, and his seat after going through the grueling billi successfully.
In the evening, we were all called for a health run. A long marathon round of the entire circumcircle of the campus, not once but twice. Probably, the seniors wanted us to realize the vastness of the campus. It was one long tiring run, damn! My stamina has actually come down, but to think of it. I completed the run successfully!
Have the seniors fulfilled their sadistic pleasures? NO!! Mentors assigned, CV submission deadline given, case study late evening (that is upto 12), then GD’s extending till 3AM. So, no sleep for one more night!

June 23rd, 2007:
When will this ordeal get over? When will I be out of this place?? Or more predominantly, when will I sleep?? These are some lingering questions and the only respite is call up your girlfriend (plz, am not an MCP, just going with the majority), and crib. Else call up juniors and future aspirants and scare them with the reality. Its no fun cracking the CAT! HELL was showing its true colours.
One earlier rise, and rush to the class! This time sans breakfast! One gets a feel that the profs are so good, it is the seniors. One more hectic day in hell. Rushing to the mentors, whose faces we have never seen. Run your ass out to find the way out of the puzzle called H13. Rush for the CV submission, and in spite of all the bhagadoudi never reach on time. The clocks of the seniors are all set fast am sure.
Now look at the new notice at mess (we were asked to keep in track with notice boards every hour, later relaxed to every two hours understanding the absurdity). We the facchhas were all divided into groups of 4, and given a group topic each. Now this is the trip! We have no clue who the hell is the partner! And now we go about searching for them. This is where management helps! Ok, we do met up.. prepare the presentation, and get all ready. At the venue, some are sent away for not wearing ties, some for not shaving and some to get their entire group! It was hell showing again.
After the long presentations, in which we all grilled and mocked to the core, there’s an announcement of a batch meet. The overcrowded room is filled with tense air. Smile?? One cannot even see a concave posture on any face! The student’s council president ridicules the present batch saying it is one of the worst batches IIML has ever had, and the likes. He reads out a list of 57 students who supposedly are not fit to join any committee and would require extra mentoring. Well, my name figures in that coveted (is it?) list. Then he reads out another list of 7 people stating that they have indulged in malpractice and would be reported to the PGP office, threatened with fatal consequences.
The whole room is silent, Drop a pin and it could give a heart attack to the feeble. And……………….

Next I find myself, dancing out at the insti party, after having a lavish sumptuous dinner. Now this was very much required after those hellish 3 days. All top brands – Signature, Bacardi, Smirn off laid for us to grab. A dj playin foot tapping songs, and half of the junta drunk to the core. Come on dude, it’s a booze on the house party – first time for many.! I myself drank 6 pegs, and my friend who had limited himself to sips and smells till now, had a hang of 2 pegs. It was one awesome night, ofcourse sans much sleep!

June 24th, 2007
Slept at around 3 AM last night to wake up at 10 in time for the chairman, board of Governors – Mr. J. J. Irani ‘s welcome speech. Business ethics, value system and the likes were stressed upon, and he wuite nicely filled the hall with his witty anecdotes and also struck an emotional chord emphasizing values in the TATA context.

The rest of the evening was chilled, with nothing much to do. That implies the much required sleep. And get ready for the actual grilling beginning tomorrow.

>This is one of those pending posts, that was long due. What did i do this summer?? Am i reviewing the movie or something?. No!! the Summer just gone by, was a very eventful one. lots of things done, for the very first time. And it had to be. This is the time i Graduated for the first time!( Abbey, ek hi baar grad hote hai!!).

First things first, went down to aruku with some friends – 4 of us. Went on a Saturday morning, and returned on Sunday evening. For the uninitiated who are still wondering what the hell is ARUKU?? It is a cool hill station, close to Vizag city, famously referred to as “OOTY of ANDHRA”. Well, for college goers, it is nothing else but a safe haven for their drinking stupors on a marathon level. It was fun out there, escaping from the scorching heat of the city and living the tranquility with slight drizzle of a small tribal hamlet in the right atmosphere of a cottage. We even went down to Borra caves, which are believed to be over a million years old. Me being the only local in our group, i was fekkoing at its best. trying to explain every random shape in the cave to some natural phenomena. creativity at its best!

then was the trip to kolkata. Had to go there to escort my granny. It was just half a day out there in Kol.. but it was fun filled. My cousin Vishal n Bharat( yes, i share my name with him).. left no stone unturned to ensure that i see all the vital places in Kolkota.. Even went by the underground metro rail.The return journey was eventful. It is not everyday that you find a hot girl in your compartment in Indian rail!. and to top it, she was pretty impressed by the fact that i am getting into an IIM( i ensured that she comes to know of tat fact, thanks Bharat( my cousin)). Also realised that the so called bad habit – smoking, is actually quite socializing. Met a guy in the side compartment who himself walked up to me to offer a smoke. Guess, he must have seen me smoking near the bathroom last night. I also met one his friends,and even the TT shared a smoke with us. Now this is something different.

I always wanted to work part time, and earn some money in the bargain. I got this opportunity in two ways this summer – Market Research and TIME classes. Yes, i was offered a faculty position at TIME, teaching or rather tutoring CAT aspirants, occasionally taking classes for Campus recruitment programs, GRE and even ICET. It was very hectic with some days me ending up taking classes for 8 hours. Not that i am complaining. I made neat money out of it. A nice experience and am looking forward to it. in fact, i would prefer taking classes in all my future vacations. it keeps the mind so much fresh, and interacting with so many intelligent minds is quite a challenging job.

Another endeavour of mine this summer was the market research project. More about it in my next post.

By the way, after all this stints with part time jobs, K.s.Vidya of THE HINDU considered me appropriate for the article on Pocket money for youngsters. Some extracts out of it..

…..Easy jobs at call centres, growing job market and much-hyped globalisation have changed the spending pattern of college students. “It’s easier to be brand conscious if you have the money to spend,” says Bharat Jhurani, who recently completed his engineering from GITAM. Presently he is working as a faculty member at the TIME institute, teaching four to six hours in a week earning Rs. 100 for each hour. Alongside he is also working on a one-month market research project for a consulting agency for which he hopes to earn a tidy sum of Rs. 6,000.

“Dignity of labour is yet to sink in here. There is still a long way to go before parents can accept their children taking up jobs as waiters or at petrol pumps,” he adds.

The whole article

now this is what i call popularity!!.. he he!!

>ok. I guess i have bored you guys quite a lot of these seemingly unnecessary interview details. Maybe they seem trvial to the majority, but for the few preparing for such interviews, like i was a couple of months back, this would serve as a teasure trove, hopefully.

Ya, there are many other better sources of such information, but well what the heck? there’s no harm adding to the list right? Its taken painstakingly long hours to type all of them just out of my diary. Most of the content was written on bus stands, guest rooms, railway waiting rooms, airport lobby and the trains. while travelling after y interviews, this was the semingly the best thing to do. Ofcourse after the indulgence of going to the door( in train), for loosing out some stress in thin smoke.

Well, after all the running here and there, the results of the same are so..
You must have already figured out about the the IIFT convert.. the remaining..

IIFT —– CONVERTED
IIML —– CONVERTED
IITD —– WAITLISTED 9 ( Converted )
NITIE —– WAITLISTED 11 ( Converted )
MDI —– WAITLISTED 96 ( Converted )
IITB —– REJECTED

as we se it, only IITB was rude to reject me. Arrey bhai, agar le bhi liya hota to nahi aata.

The IIM results took long to be declared so i rather paid up for IIFT, a sum of 90.
now later as the IIM brand bestowed upon me, i complied and have finally joined INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, LUCKNOW

and after that i also appeared for ICET – 2007, in which i got the state second rank. Here are some media articles in realation to that.

……For students like Jhurani Bharat, a native of Visakhapatnam who secured the second rank (183) marks in the entrance, the rank will give him another option to pursue his management course.

He has appeared for the Common Aptitude Test and secured a rank to fetch him a set in IIM Lucknow. “I have not decided if I will take to management or computers,” says the Gitam Engineering College student……

The Hindu front page

The Hindu local news

Indian express

p.s. Yeah, got the whole sum of 90k back from IIFT. So, no wastage of money.

>the last one in my itenary. Took me near to three months to complete witing about 6 interviews. tht is to little work according to the standards of the place i am presently in.

Anyways, The IITB GDPI thing was on 17th march. had flied back from bangalore the previous morning, and put up at my mama’s place in powai. I was scheduled at 1:30 in the afternoon, and it was pretty borin to even think of speaking out in the hot sun. Anyways, helpless situation.

The whole thing was quite nice arranged, but i felt the IITD thing to have been better organised. We were around 9 of us in the group discussion and it was a case discussion. My participation in the case was prety bad, patrly due tom y laziness, and to the fact that i have already cleared IIFT, and am anyways going to prefer that to this. But, the zea to be able to show converts was the only driving factor.

After a harrowed wait of about half an hour, it was my turn for the interview. There were three panelists. As soon as i walked in with the file, the firs thing they asked me was – “How was your participation in the case?”. i honestly, infact with a slight attitude replied that i was not that god. After some delibrations we moved ahead.

Unfortunately, the interview moved towards the technical side, and 80 percent of the questions assked were from acads, in the time period of about 15 minutes. Now that is somthing bad, and unexpected. My answer to most of the questions was a big ” I DONT KNOW” or a more diplomatic ” I AM NOT TO SURE”.. and so.. Finally they wished me luck and thus ended the interview.

p.s. : After the interview process, we had a PAGALGUY meet at cafe Mocha in the hiranandani complex, POWAI. That was fun! 25 odd people. All MBA Aspirants. I didn’t know anyone personally, except through the virtual world by their ID’s. We had brezers, pastries and also HOOKAH! And then hanged around out in the complex for sometime. It was quite memorable.

>know its quite late in posting this. n well, now i m sure that i am lazy. Just a typing job and this is the time i take.

well, not exactly. Was travelling all these days, and did not have access to a computer for long duratons.

Well coming down to business, the fifth one in the sequence. This one – MDI, hapenned at IIM Bangalore on 15th march. Had to fly form bangalore after attending the NITIE interview there on 13th!!

We were just 8 in the group in the morning 9:30 batch, and 3 did not turn up. So, just 5 of us – 3 guys and 2 girls. For the group discussion we were given a sheet of paper with 2 graphs on it. It had the movement of the GDP growth of the country and the various sectors contributions form it. The GD was pretty good with everyone chirping in a good number of times. It went on for about 15 minutes.

Then the interview. Here the unique thing was that we were not numbered and were told that anyone could be called anytime, after anyone. So we had to be on tenterhooks, always ready. As luck would have it i was the last one to be interviewed.

At around 12 noon, i expected to be called in but one of the panel members himself walked out for a sutta. Then the lady walked out and called me in. The interview startd of informally. As to where i am from, what does my father do, which other calls i hav, n stuff.

Then after the person came back, they started serious quizzing. First some stuff on probability in electronics in which i faltered. They started mocking at me sayin how could i get 9.82 percentile in quant in CAT. Probably trying to check my coolness level. he they asked me to rank the top coleges in the country. This was again tricky, as MDI’s place also needed to be put tactfully. The lady then after looking at me resume, asked me some stuf on blogging and went to the extent of asking me to write a couple of lines on the ongoing interview process. During the time i was wrting, the two panelists turned towards each other and started chatting to each other. Funny. Then they grilled me on some current affirs and thus ended the interview.

During the whole 10 – 12 mins of the interview i was being asked to eat some mixture from the plate, drink water, and the panelists were trying to act very informal. They even joked that as IIMB has not given me a call i should eat up this pack and ask them for one more pack of mixture. Overall, the whole interview was very very relaxed, could be called the exact opposite of a stress interview.

Thus, done with the MDI interview. I had a MAGGI in the canten, and went back to the guest house to have a sound nap.