100 days...

Today is yet another 31st. The last day of August 2009. Exactly 4 months back, that is the last day of April 2009, was an important day. Yes, it was on 30th of April 2009, that I along with crores of other Indians had soiled our fingers, as our duty towards the nation. As I was cutting my nail today, I realised that the faint and remaining part of that ink which I proudly carried on my nails so long, had to disappear. As I cut the nail, I began wondering how have the last four months been for India as a whole. As the Manmohan Singh Government completes hundred days in office, lots of significant measures have taken place in this period. The only requirement at this stage is sustenance of these measures. Though this should not be taken as a shot at imporvement, the signs are definitely positive. Hoping for a great term governance from Sardar Manmohan Singh and his team!

Group Discussions... Is something actually ‘discussed’?

Group Discussions (GDs) are being increasingly used as a tool to evaluate a candidate’s ability to communicate in a group. GDs are used by corporate looking to recruit candidates from campuses. GDs are also used to check the candidate’s ability by B Schools during their admissions process also. There are still lots of various instances where GDs are conducted. In a GD, members are supposed to discuss on a topic. Sometimes, the panel expects a conclusion from the group, whereas sometimes it’s the discussion that is more important.

But having watched and having been a part of a substantial number of GDs of late, I have an important observation. In most of the GDs, the focus is on talking as much as possible. More than anything, the members want to hog limelight and make sure they have spoken something. Rather than actually discussing anything, people go on adding points, irrespective of that fact whether it is adding any value to the discussion at all. Nobody actually even cares to bother if the discussion is heading somewhere.

Ideally, whenever a point is raised, the group is expected to discuss on that point from various perspectives before going to some other point. But what generally happens is one member raises a point and another member raises a totally different point. Though both may be relevant to the topic being discussed, the discussion as such is not at all happening. And many a times, when the discussion has to be concluded, rather than getting into the gist of the discussion and concluding on it, what happens is every member starts contributing his own ideas to the group.

A big reason for this is most of the GDs are not elimination rounds. In the sense that, immediately after the GD, candidates are not eliminated before the next process. As a result, the expected aggression is not seen to be on top. Also, this gives the candidates a breathing space as to nothing is going to happen even if your performance is not exceptional in the GD. You can always showcase your talent and demonstrate your case in the succeeding rounds of evaluation. An elimination round would require you to be in the top, or rather not be in the bottom. But in a GD which is non-eliminating, you can walk out free even by underperforming. As a result, the required quality in the discussions doesn’t generally exist.

What I fail to understand is the actual motive behind a GD. The GDs are in fact no way close to the discussions that happen in organizations over issues and anything for that matter. These discussions are generally structured and in a way the focus is on adding value to a point raised by others in the team and concluding it logically before moving on to another point. But the GDs, (at least those that I have watched and have been a part of) of late, fail to actually do that. They actually fail to test the group dynamics and how people actually discuss. Partly to be blamed is the time constraint on the discussion, which makes it impossible to discuss as happens in the industry. GDs generally are 30-40 minutes long to the maximum. But discussions in the industry actually go far longer than these and sometimes, run up to late in the nights, when the matter is critical.

So I personally feel that GDs don’t add any value in terms of analyzing how good a candidate is in communicating and team work, because the team work simply doesn’t exist. The discussion doesn’t happen at all.

Back to the battlefield....

I am back to my ‘Karma Bhoomi’. After a good two weeks (almost) at home, I was not in a mood to come back. But the opportunity cost of not coming here, actually pulled me here. And what a welcome it has been! Two tests and a presentation on the next day of arrival! Man, am I really prepared for this?

But there is another reason to put this post up. As all good reasons are celebrated, I wanna celebrate this by dedicating a post for it. This is probably the first time I am coming back from home without forgetting anything at home! Everytime I leave home, I have always forgotten something or the other. Sometimes it has been things of necessity and sometimes, not so important things. Wallet, ID card, Cellphones, bus/train tickets, ATM cards, Chargers, Camera, MP3 Player, Clothes, shaving kit, Important office documents when it was most needed, CD’s and pen drives, laptop charger etc. The list will only get longer if I devote more time. The point I want to convey here is that I have always forgotten something or the other over the past several years whenever I have travelled away from home. Call it absent mindedness or whatever, it just used to happen no matter how much care I take. Something or other will happen in the last moment, and I end up forgetting important things.

Now, after two days of being back in Pune, I can confirm and tell confidently that I have not left anything back at home. Two days because, I wanted to be doubly sure. So I am really hoping that this is an indication of things changing for better in and around me. Hoping for brighter days ahead. Till my next post, keep rocking!

Walking down the memory lane..... roughly after 3 years!!!

I had been to my earlier college today. And man, I could not believe it was indeed the same college I had graduated from barely three years earlier. Loads of changes in the infrastructure have happened. Large buildings have cropped up here and there and at the least expected locations. Certain structures have been demolished and some new ones have mushroomed out. Overall, a trip I had made for some certificates that I required, turned out more of a revelation trip!

As I got down on the highway from the bus, I was greeted with the 4 lane road. And as a special gift to the NITKians, the 4 laning just starts before the college. The road looks a lot wider with 4 lanes and service lanes on either side also. This means that a lot of trees have been cut on either side of the road and also the greenery on the highway is lost. The main sufferers are those who wait for buses in the scorching sun. And yeah, whatever rusted bus shelter was there is also missing.

On the other side of the highway, opposite to the main campus are buildings dedicated to IT and EEE departments coming up (they have rather come up and only the painting work is probably pending). Not this makes 4 departments on the other side of the highway, along with CSE and ECE. The location of the entrance gate to that side of the campus has also changed.
With so many classes on supposed to be held on the other side of the dangerous highway, and this in turn requiring a significant proportion of the students walk over to the other side more than a couple of times a day, there is a flyover constructed for vehicles on the highway. The students now walk under the flyover to reach their respective classrooms on the other side of the road.

‘Krishna’ who used to be the savior of faggers on campus, has moved his location to opposite the main door. So has Reddi moved inside the campus. Not much seems to have happened with the Guesthouse and International Hostel though.

As I walked in through the ‘Main Entrance Dwara’ towards the ‘Main Lobby’ I was greeted by huge flex banners welcoming visitors for the Golden Jubilee Year. Incidentally NITK is celebrating the Golden Jubilee of her existence from 6th August 2009 to 6th August 2010. This made me wonder how many ‘quality’ engineers had she given birth to in these 50 years and how many of them had indeed made her proud.

The main lobby also has been totally revamped. The first floor has been converted into ‘Directorate’, work for which had actually started way back when I was still a student. The main lobby looks a lot brighter and more spacious, unwanted hindrances having been removed. Proper demarcation has been made outside for the vehicles to be parked and the signages too look far more professional. They are planning to have a lift in the main lobby, the reasons I was not able to understand. The classrooms also look a lot cleaner. The ‘Co-operative Society’ which was known as SCOOPS, and was famous for the bastard who existed there (and eventually got kicked by agonized students of our batch on our last day in college), which used to be located at the end of the corridor, seemed to have disappeared (probably for good!). I dint even bother to check out.

I went to the examination section to complete my work and to my surprise found out that the ‘Exam Section’ had been clubbed with the ‘Academic Section’. Overall, there have been a real lot of changes that have happened. I was hoping to meet some students who I knew, but unfortunately no one really came across.

Having done all the formalities, I started walking towards the Mechanical Engineering Department which had been my home for 4 years. The most primitive in size, yet the biggest in impact, this department building was still the same. But for some minor changes, I did not find much of a change there. Only a few professors had switched their cabins. Major work on the department had already happened when I was still studying there. So as it was, there wasn’t much scope of improvement on the existing building. The new building, about which talks were so much in the air during our final year, simply seemed to have disappeared in thin air.

The workshops also have got a major uplift. The CAD lab has become bigger and more computers are now working in there. The AC also seems to be working nicely. Individual cabins are made of aluminum fabrications for individual foremen in the workshops which has given them the most required motivation. The Machine Shop is now gleaming with a few more CNC machines and the required infrastructure for them. The ‘Fitting Shop’ has now become ‘Power Tools Shop’ with Bosch sponsoring the capital expenditure on the tools as well as their maintenance. The Mechanical Laboratories, IC Engine Laboratories also dazzle with new equipments, most of which failed to enter my thoughts.

I had the opportunity to meet quite a lot of the lecturers and professors who had made me the proud ‘Engineer’ that I am! And I was more than happy that most of the actually recalled either my first name or last name or both! Though they were not able to recollect the exact batch I graduated, they were able to associate me with my batch mates and the major events that had happened during our time.

Lots of events had unfolded in the Department ever since the current Director had taken over. A few of the great professors had left the institute and some new faces had joined at various levels in the hierarchy. Also the batch strength has been steadily increasing with the progressive implementation of the OBC quota. So the entire batch which used to comprise of around 440 students, now comprises nearly 900. The mechanical engineering class which used to have 90 students now has 140. Other departments with are handling batches with strengths of more than 100 in single classes. I really do not know where all these is headed, because with the increase in the strength of students, the infrastructure and faculty strength has not increased correspondingly. So quality on a whole is bound to suffer. So is the big question of what is going to happen to the placements at the end of 4 years. The addition of more courses like management makes things even difficult.

A great moment for me came when a Professor asked me to address the final year students. I was definitely not prepared for this one. I politely told him that it would not make sense for me to speak to the students at this point of time when I myself am a student. I also promised to come back when I become something and achieve something substantial.

I walked around the campus for a while. The hockey ground had made way for a grand hostel. So has the empty space between fifth and eighth block. I also heard that first year students in 1st and 2nd hostel blocks are made to stay 4 in a room, which is meant for three. There cannot be a bigger atrocity for someone who has probably come to stay away from home for the first time in his life. The Nescafe parlour which had refreshed thousands over the years with hot coffee and ‘half maggi’ over the years still existed physically as a structure. But I am not sure if it still operates the same way. The STD booth outside the parlour which used to host long queues in the evenings, also existed in structure, but I am not sure if it functioned. With mobile phones becoming an essential commodity rather than a luxury, STD booth operators have gone for a six. Though there was news of certain facilities for sports being constructed behind the boys’ hostel blocks, I am not sure if that has actually happened. A1 prints behind the college, is still making huge business there. Probably he is still a monopoly. The SBI ATM in campus is still probably the nearest source of students for instant cash. The ‘SNP Canteen’ as it used to be known back then, is taken over by a different management. It is now called ‘Food Court’. But insiders say they still find cockroaches and flies in the food as used to be before. So other than the name, nothing significant has changed there either.

On the other direction, towards the girls block, more barricades and higher fences are found. Seems like someone actually tried to break into. The ‘Coffee Dabba’ outside the GB is also there, and I heard that it’s still active. The Applied Mechanics and Hydraulics department and all its associated labs have got a brilliant facelift. The ‘Down Corps’ or ‘DC’ still hosts the co-operative store, but the bakery in the basement, which was a popular hangout and a temporary solution for hunger, has closed down. Sad news for the students though. I assume that nothing much would have happened in the staff quarters on that side of the campus. The swimming pool still seems the same. Don’t know if it attracts people. The SAC and the football ground brought back some pleasant memories.

Of the hangouts for students outside the campus, there has been one significant restaurant Suraj International on the way to Surathkal, a few meters before the Surathkal bus stand. Other than this, there isn’t any significant change that I have seen. The small roadside dhabas keep cropping up and down as mushrooms during rainy seasons.

The beach is probably the only place which I did not visit. My favorite hangout for the 4 years of my life where I used to stroll with my friends many a times in the evenings, the early morning jogs along the shore in final year, the temple on the beach, the loads of things technical and non technical I have discussed with my friends sitting on the beach are all things which I miss even today. To this day, when I discuss about my UG college with anybody, I derive pride in saying that ours was the only college in the country which had a private beach.

As I was walking back, memories of the four years I had spent there started coming back. I started remembering the fun we had had, the pranks we had played, the mischief we had been involved in, the hard work we had put in, the long hours we had spent in the library, the PJ’s we used to pass outside the classes, the visit to the ‘SD’ canteen every 5 minute break, the classes we mass bunked, the blunders we had made. I told one of my professors that I feel like coming back to the college at least once a year and spending one full day there reliving those four years again. I wished that I had my friends and my partners in crime so that connecting back to those days and relishing those memories becomes more fun and an enjoyable experience.

I was totally thrilled and walked out with Goosebumps. At one point of time, I had tears in my eyes also. Thank you NITK for being largely responsible in grooming me to what I am today. I owe a deep sense of gratitude to you!!