Job Interviews

No show-off time now, but it truly felt nice to get a pat on the back for my writing skills from Rashmi Bansal - editor in chief of the JAM magazine and from Vaibhav who's also on the editorial board of the same magazine.

Now to post what the title of this post mentions:

Job Interview – These are two words that, when used in unison, could paint people’s minds and faces with the widest variety of emotions and reactions: triumph, despair, frustration, anger, smiles, fits of laughter….it’s all there. If you have started skimming through this article expecting it to be one of those “How to crack it” gyaan bhandaars, stop! It doesn’t have what you expect to find. It’s just a college-goer’s account of a few memorably witty job interviews that I’ve been through, a few that I’ve seen around me and the subtle fundas that I picked up from these experiences.

In one of my friend’s interviews, the interviewer was gutsy enough to ask “What’s the difference between you and a bastard?” My friend thought awhile and snapped back “One table length!” Needless to say, he got through, despite having ridiculed the interviewer with his witty repartee. In my interview, I was mockingly asked about my chess nationals – “So you consider yourself a stud in chess?”. I said to the young man with a tinge of my naughtiness - “Yes I do! If you employ me, you never know when I might check-mate you!!”. He was thoroughly embarrassed as his colleagues on the panel broke into fits of laughter. In another interview, a friend was asked what he did in his spare time. The interviewer was obviously looking for a healthy, interesting hobby list that embellished the candidate’s personality or maybe a geeky extension of the candidate that made him code even during his spare time. My friend blurted out “I just chill out with my friends” and he was immediately asked to leave. Funda that I picked up: Set your rhythm to the pulse of the interviewer. Be perceptive enough to gauge what the interviewer is looking for. If he’s witty enough, your sharp wit, presence of mind and chill attitude are also appreciated. If he isn’t, you would do better to maintain a formal and serious tone when you answer.

As I entered the CTS interview room, the words of my gyaan-guru seniors rung in my ears – Mention ONE subject that you’re really confident of and they’ll grill you only on that. At the opportune moment, I mentioned ‘Operating Systems’ and boy! the next 45 minutes were spent asking me questions on every single subject I had studied in 3 years of engineering. When the storm was all over, the interviewer thought out loud “Anything else?” and I had a good mind to say: “Yeah! Thanks for quizzing me on every subject under the sun. You probably forgot English!”. Funda that I picked up: Surprises can spring up, totally contradicting even your most-trusted, been-there-done-that gyaan-gurus.

In one of my interviews, the interviewer’s last question to me was: Based on your experience, tell me one thing you’ve learnt about interviews and I honestly spoke up: I’ve learnt that you need not know the answers to everything! She applauded in admiration. But that obviously doesn’t mean you draw a blank on most of the questions posed.

In Toto, what I’ve learnt from some funny interview encounters, is that technical soundness alone gets one nowhere. A thorough read-up on the company and job profiles is a must. Confidence, wit, presence of mind, poise, sensitivity to what the interviewer is looking for and choosing one’s words carefully are a few traits that I’ve personally seen, working wonders and turning huge tides in the candidates’ favour.

A leaf from the past

What is it like, catching up with a long-lost buddy after 13 long years!?!I was lucky enough to figure out on Saturday...

Ater I had schooled for 8 long years, a new girl made her entry when I was in my 6th standard.Nami was a thin,fair girl.All that I remember was that she used to stand at the far end of our school assembly lines,being the tall kid that she was,while I used to be amongst the first few short ones.For some vague unknown reason, I was under the perception that she was from England!She was in a section different from mine and we never really interacted much.We later moved into the same school again for high school education but the sections remained different and we remained the hi-hello buddies that we always were.It was after 13 long years that I got a scrap out of the blue in my Orkut scrap book saying "hey seema! remember me? I came in late... 6.5th std :)?" One look at the name was enough to inundate me with golden memories of school.I instantly replied, asking if we could meet up n the 'date' was fixed for Saturday,11am,Cafe Coffee Day, after a few funny scrap exchanges.

Yours truly being a baby when it comes to 12-hour sleep schedules, got up at 10:45am,unable to bear the sun shining directly into my eyes.Rushed to the phone,dialled Nami's number to tell her we could meet up in half an hour and got to hear a polite "She's out to meet her friend at CCD" from Nami's mom.Quickly got dressed in the very first wrinkle-free thing that I could lay my hands on and landed at CCD at 11:10am.Oooooof!that was quick.Nami had settled down with a book at a comfy corner table n looked very,very pleasant.Exchanged greetings n hugs with the gorgeous girl whose wit I had begun to admire after our scrap exchanges on Orkut.The very first thing that I said to her was "Oh!Not bad if I find myself a tall boyfriend,Nami.I just realized that my petite self can still manage a decent hug with tall people ;)"

As we settled down with our hot chocolate and coffee,we got talking about everything under the sun ranging from nostalgic school days,staying single,crushes,career plans,hobbies,friends,books,attitudes,treks etc.She frankly told me that although we didn't talk much during our school days,she just thought I was a snob - "simply because anyone who's cute and who's a topper is BOUND to be a snob :)" I had had no opinion of her in school coz I did not know her at all.I liked the '20 questions about each other' game that I convinced her into playing,although we did not quite complete 20 full questions.That, till date, is the quickest and most enjoyable fun way that I've known,to get to know a stranger/an acquaintance better.

She then took me to her workplace and showed me around the campus.I admire its interiors.They are painted so well by spastic children.I had seen the office earlier too but being shown around by a friend with all the accompanying chitter chatter,being told some funny incidents/trivia about the place/colleagues as we paraded up and down the fleet of stairs,standing on the terrace to catch a panoramic view with the wind blowing against our hair was a different and immensely enjoyable experience by itself.

It was time to part ways again.I was a lot richer in terms of joy, as I returned home,thinking of the wonderful reunion that had just happened with someone I had begun to adore,with someone who shared a lot of my interests,with someone whose crosses matched a lot with mine,with someone whose company was absolutely wonderful.From what she said to me and wrote in her blog, she loved the meet too and returned home with prejudices about my being a "cute smart snob" changed for good :) It's amazing what wonderful things could result when people can be balanced enough to put in just that lil bit of extra effort to let an open mind win over a mind that's prejudiced,ain't it?

Big bad world

Iam glad that I finally got down to writing this post that I so badly wanted to write, after a week of endless procrastination:

An empathetic,socially responsible,selfless woman activist tries her best to curb the meaningless,preposterous and superstitious tradition of child marriage by trying to talk sense to people and this is what happens to her : Hands severed,she lies in hospital, battling the pathetic twist that life meted out to her as a reward for her efforts.


A college girl goes shopping with her girl gang.She meets her friend there.This guy takes her to his place on some "exchange books" pretext and gang-rapes her along with his friends.The innocent girl now spends her life in solitude, battling ostracization, shame and extreme depression : a price she had to pay for trusting a friend!

These are just two of the umpteen stab-in-the-back incidents that have caught my attention of late.Values,undoubtedly is a personal thing,but what a shame to see even the most universal and basic of them being thrown to the winds!What a shame to live in a world where trust is broken at the drop of a hat n noble causes are repaid with infliction of untold suffering! Reminds me of this:

Watch out for the big bad world,
it's coming at you now.
Baby girl it's a big bad world,
so let me show you how to survive
and to keep the love alive
in this big bad world - yeah!
[/Chorus]

It's not about bad expectations,
I'm just saying that you need to be aware.
No one said it'd be easy, so believe me,
I'm a pain because I care.
Don't you know you're a part of something more,
someday you'll discover what your life is for........

Fashion statements - part 2

...Continued from the previous post

The hot fair babe who seems to love flaunting the fact that she's being waist-held by Mr.AutoDriver,is cat-walkin as unnaturally as possible with gay aplomb.

*** She has a thorny short hair cut that's (a)giving her a "stay away from me" kind of prickly porcupine look (b)putting the cactii to great shame.Missie has also coloured her hair with the dirtiest brownish yellow streaks,making her look as though she forgot to wash herself after having accompanied a buffalo in its roll-in-the-slush frolic.The streaks, needless to say,are held together in innumerable small plaits using multi-coloured beads that XXX uses to adorn her Barbie dolls.Who's XXX?U guessed it right this time:my one-year-old neighbour.Grrrrrrr!I never seem to get bored of bringing in the one-year-old.

*** The small silver rings that the guy wore on his eyebrows n lips are replicated on Ms.Hottie's eyebrows n lips too.So is the silver lump on his tongue.

*** Apart from the four small rings at the top of her ear, the small ear-lobe also carries the weight of long metal ear rings, that are reaching all the way down,way beyond her shoulders.On a hugely exaggerated scale, it certainly seems like our dear Missie has mistaken the wind-chimes in her room for ear rings!

This is about those aspects of the femme fatale that we GALS wud notice.Now coming to the aspects that the darker sex wud notice:

*** Ms.Hottie,despite having a fairly flabby belly,has enough guts (or should I say is shameless enough) to don a blood-red figure-hugging spaghetti top that stops just short of her belly button.Ofcourse we understand why....the silver lump that adorns the guy's tongue is replicated in greater numbers all aruond the girl's belly button!Flung around her neck is a white fur piece.Why I hate fur is a different story altogether as you shall soon see below.


*** The capri jeans are low-rise jeans that stop just below the knees.Slidin through one belt-slot in the jeans, is a shiny steel chain (the cycle chain types, except for its shine)

Chutki's mawaali instincts make her prod her group to whistle at the item jodi n shout out cat-calls at them.However, just as someone prepares to shout "tall hep babe",Ms.Hottie twists her steps, the 8-inch pencil heels give way and the heavy frame comes crashing down.The rest of the scene is left to the reader's imagination since it falls way beyond the scope of my limits of vulgarity-descriptions.It would serve better purpose for the reader, though, to stop painting pictures of the babe-fall scene and return with me to grab the bottomline of the post.

MY take on fashion:Fashion is definitely a matter of personal choice.I,for one,love long ear rings although I sneer at them calling em wind chimes here.However, we would all make a more SENSIBLE choice if we keep certain factors in mind while choosing our fashion statements:

(1)Weather:Showing up in a spaghetti top n low rise capri jeans or a showing up in a half-unbottoned shirt on a cold winter day when all your peers are fat and snug in sweaters and jackets may make you look different n ultra-sexy but it's also ultra-stupid....Y dare to bare when all you get is a contemptous glare ;-)

(2)Occasion:Showing up in spaghetti tops,capris and 24-pocket cargos on ethnic day is ridiculous to say the least!

(3)Peers:If I were to be in a college that had an ultra-hep crowd, I probably wouldn't wear tank tops just to keep up with the crowd....but i wouldn't show up in college everyday with oiled hair partitioned at the centre,with a huge round bindi as big as my eye either.On the contrary if I were to be in a college that had an ultra-orthodox college, I would show up in a salwar suit on atleast 60% of the working days.I would NEVER show up like Mr. n Mrs.Hottie.

(4)Comfort:What sense would it make for one to wear a top that is so tight that it's sure to tear when you lift your arm over your head?What sense would it make to wear a mid-reef top if you are so uncomfortable in it that you keep pulling it down every two seconds?This one's just for Mr.Anonymous who commented on my previous post:What sense would it make for someone to forcibly try to fit into her old 28-sized jeans when what she needs now is a 100000 sized one? :))

(5)A sense of social responsibility:Proudly waist-holding your skimpily clad girlfriend if you're walking to a disc is fashionable.Doing the same when you're visiting a kids' school or a temple???

(6)Last but definitely not the least, a lil civic sense about the environment, a lil concern for animals:Wish Ms.Hottie will watch this macabre video before selecting her next fur scarf.It would surely make an impact on anyone who has a heart.So think twice next time you want to buy that fur coat or that leather belt.

Be fashionable but don't compromise on being sensible too!

Fashion statements - Part 1

All the "she's a tall,hep babe","his shoes are so cool","her lipstick is so chic","his cap is so sexy","this is such a yo place","his sunglasses are so hot" are drilling a second hole in each of my ears.This is the kinda lingo that Iam exposed to on a daily basis,thanks to my hanging around with the crowd of my age group.Not that I find this derogatory,not that I don't like it,not that I don't like the "punch" n "kicks" that I get out of using lingo like that,not that I don't use it generously.However, I DO find all this gaga about fashion statements like caps,clothes,shoes etc. nauseatic,irrelevant n extremely ludicrous at times.Times like when?Here's when:

It's a very cold day in December n it's the much-awaited ethnic day at Chutki's college.Chutki, with her group,is busy at an ADDA(slang for 'hang out') in college, bak-bakking endlessly about every humanly imaginable topic under the sun.Today the group's gossip is about how wonderfully traidtional n ethnic Ms.SweetGal is lookin in a saree.Just as the discussion drags on about who n who n who else is Ms.Sweet-n-beautiful,a hottie hunk(whose description follows)breezes by,waist-holding,a hotter babe (ofcourse,her description also follows his.They are sticking together after all, u c.So are their descriptions).

***Mr.Hot-Hunk has spiked his hair in the la-Vchannel-VJ style.

***He has taken pains n borne all pains to get all the prickable parts of his face pricked.There are small silver dangling rings adorning his eyebrows n lips- the kinds that my one-year-old neighbour wears exactly where they belong - on her ears ofcourse.

***There's a slightly bigger ring hanging from one n only one ear - a trademark of today's 'yo dudes'.This ring,needless to say,is my one-year-old-neighbour's bangle.

***There's a small round lump of silver stuck on his tongue,which flashes every time he opens his mouth to talk.
~~ First question that whirrs into my mind - how does he eat/taste/chew comfortably with that trummel stuck there!?!
~~Second question that baffles me - how the hell did he stick it in there?
~~Third - what if the glue or whatever it is, just fails sometime n he swallows n chokes oer the darn thing?
~~Fourth - if costly metals on his body are so fashionable, he might as well go get golden teeth - the kinds that some rich grandpas have.Then maybe I shall christen him 'The golden fanged one'.

So much for the face.With the face being so eye-catching,ur tempted to check out what else is yo about our man.So ur gaze shifts from the face.

***U cannot miss the heavy steel chain that's choking his neck.(the kinds that you use to fasten ur luggage to your seat while travelling by train so that the chaai-chaaaaaaaaai guy or masaala-vadaaaaaaai guy or the kaapi-kaaaaaaapppppppi guy doesn't wack it off when ur sleepy self is lost in sleep land - a blissful escape from the hustle-bustle of the mundane big bad world around).

***Follow the chain down n u'll notice the top 3 buttons of his loose khaaki shirt flung wide open.In his, what I suppose is a vain attempt to seduce chics by baring a hairy chest,our man ends up looking like a chapraasi auto driver.sigh!n some dudes like our man here,even have rudraaksh maalas peeking out of the 3 button-peek-hole.Rudraaksh around ur neck n rings all oer ur face!Wow now that's what I call contemporary fusion in fashion.

***As for the trousers,it surely is the supposedly hep 24-pocket black cargos.U n I may wonder what the 24 pockets are for but Mr.Richie Rich with silver rings n lumps all over his body, surely seems to have his reasons.

***Boot all the above with a pair of godzilla-sized green coloured shoes with white stripes n white laces which aren't tied ON the shoes like most of us do,but are pulled back like the reins of a horse and tied all the way all over the back of his majesty's legs too.

***Top off this cool-dude look with his flaunting the latest radio-cum-camera-cum-infrared enabled,bluetooth enabled,internet access enabled,Gawd-knows-what-the-hell-else-is-enabled cell phone.All that seems to be missing on our fashionable student is a bag/book.

To be continued...

Tough to bid adieu

Getting emotionally attached to people?That's one area where yours truly is incredibly slow,and I must add,consciously and cautiously so.Despite all this theory looking good on paper, I realized a tad too late that it was just my THEORY indeed.Despite spending just a month n a half at 'Cyber Cafe Resort' alias 'My Office', I realized that I had indeed grown quite attached to my pals in CCR.I can vouch for the fact that I have had 100 times more fun during my short stint here than I have had during the past year n a half.I guess it had something to do with the crowd mix - most of the yuppies with me were my age.This was the junta that helped me wade through the bheja fry sessions which were (1)the times when I'd relax with some hot chocolate (2)the times when I'd rush to class in my just-outa-bed look (3)the times when students behind me would see 10 Yahoo windows blinking on my screen while I furiously nodded in agreement with what the speaker was saying,blissfully ignorant of whateva it was that he was saying (4)the times when I would be so lost in class that I could easily mistake a lecture for a lullaby n lull myself to sleep (5)the times when I got to surf as much as I wanted,all for free(cheeee how cheap!)(6)the times when we'd sneak out to the coffee area,hate the huge mirrored wall n stil spend enuf time on it to steal some sidey glances at cute people(7)the times when tests were synonymous with group discussions(8)the times when a lota funny bewada talk would spam our inboxes(9)the times when 'session on architecture and internals' meant 'a session earmarked for planning our evening movie'(10)the times when physical fights with SA were so much fun...........ooh i could go on n on n on.This was also the very same junta that helped me fight my mighty war against Ms.SJ - a pathetic excuse for a human being!In short, this group of frenz is one that I'll miss terrrrrrrrrrrribly when I leave B'lore on my MBA@SPJ odyssey.Was a lovely evening this Friday where my dearie dearie frenz group missed their shuttles and stayed back just to spend some quality time with me before I could bid adieu.My pals gifted me with a beautiful musical showpiece.We clicked some awesome snaps just before sunset.SA gave me the much promised over-due ride on his bike.Took a nice long walk with Ro dahling n finally headed home.

Spent the weekend havin a lota fun with this group of frenz.Played the most kiddish of games in Cubbon Park(It's so nice to be the kids that we once were, all over again),laughed our hearts out,posed some funny n weird poses for Rummy's cam,cooled off oer icecream at Corner House,spiced up the evening with some masala corn at Food World,were sadak chaaps on the MG Road steps for a while,bought glasses from Lawrence n Mayo for our dear ol blind Bhatta before finally calling it a day.


Shall miss em all big time.....I hope they all remember to spam my mailbox,make my ears go deaf coz of the constantly ringing cell phone,send pigeons to deliver all their love mails(they betr have loadsa em :) ) n visit me as often as they can.Loaaaaaaaaaaadsa luv n full of nostalgia,chutki.

frustrated

Blogger has really really been getting on my nerves....I have access to a comp only from my home now n I can access everything else BUT my blog site!!!Changed browsers...nothing works .... aaaaaaargh.Pathetic to be back to the 'post once in 10 days' mode...*sigh*