Tryst with RBI

1.12.2016

After a gap of 2 years, I got an opportunity to face an interview. This was my first interview after joining a job. So was worried about the nature of questions. After 4 attempts, I finally managed to get an interview call for post of Grade B Manager at Reserve Bank of India. Around 700 people were called for interview to fill up 170 vacancies. I was called for interview on 1^st December at 9 AM.

                I reached the venue around 8.45 AM. Unlike government offices, RBI office is sparkling clean and resembles interiors of a five star hotel. The interviews were being held at top floor of office. I got to know I was slotted at No 12 out of 14 members scheduled to be interviewed that day. After completing biometric registration and certificate verification, I had to wait till 1.15 PM. There were various newspapers available, but I was worried of information overload, so decided not to read much.

                At 1.15 Pm I was called into the interview room.  It was a 5 member interview panel. All seated in sofas and a chair was put in middle for candidate to sit.

Me: Good Afternoon Sirs and Mam

M1: You have speedcubing as hobby. Don’t you get bored solving the same thing again and again. Are you still improving your timing?

Me:  There are various permutations to solve the cube, so it isn’t boring. I can solve in under 2 minutes but world record is less than 10 seconds

M1:  What do you do in volunteering?

Me: I picked it up at college which had an active volunteering cell. Had participated in tsunami rehab

M1: What are you doing now?

Me: I volunteer with an NGO involved in teaching government kids during weekends

M1: Good, what do you teach?

Me: Sir, right now annual day is coming up , so I am helping them in preparing for quiz

M2: How much is India’s Tax to GDP ratio? Do you think it is low? What can be done to improve it?

Me: Sir its around 16%. Its low in comparison to other advanced nations

M2: How much in advanced nations?

Me: Sir it’s above 20%

M2: Ok what can be done to improve it?

Me: Sir there is a need to widen it

M1: This tax:GDP ratio, does it include state taxes as well?

Me: Sir I am not sure about that but it does include direct and indirect taxes

M2: What are non tax sources of revenue?

Me: Sir, it includes disinvestment proceedings, interest from loans lent to states, Grants from international insitutions like world bank

M1: World bank gives grants? I don’t think so

Me: It does for specific projects,

M1: No

Me: Sir.., it lends through credit lines as well

M1 That is different

M3: Do you think India’s tax system has equity in it?

Me: Sir, Direct taxes are progressive

M3: What progressive , a large section is left untaxed , agriculture. Don’t you think they need to be taxed?

Me: Sir agriculture sector has a large number of small and marginal farmers

M3: But there are large ones also, don’t you think this is unequal

Me: Yes sir but that is politically unviable

M1: So you think it is a holy cow?

Me: Yes sir, its seen as anti public friendly(Don’t know why blabbered this)

M3: So why do you think it is not taxed? Under whome does agriculture come

Me: Yes sir, Its under state list, so need to garner public support for such a move

M4: Ok you are from Central excise department. Tell me how GST is going to change your role?

Me: Sir. We are handling a large number of service tax assesses….(M1 Cuts short my answer)

M1: In GST, who would decide on issue of classification of goods?

Me: Sir that’s a tricky issue. Currently it’s still a work in progress. A committee of secretaries has been setup to decide on this.

M1: Are you sure , it has not been resolved?

Me: As far as I know , its not yet resolved

M4: In comparison to your department, how is income tax?

Me: Sir we deal with indirect tax, So our interface with public is less

M4: What do you mean by public?

Me: I mean for income tax an assesse is an individual while for us its an enterprise

M5: This demonetisation , are you fine with the timing?

Me: I feel it is a paradigmatic change. I agree in principle with it, but I feel timing was not right. Especially when a nation which had 80% cash transactions. Now 86% of cash has been taken out

I feel this push for cashless could have been done before

M5: So you feel timing is not right

Me: Yes mam

M5: What other measures have been taken recently?

Me: Mam RBI has put withdrawal limit. Income tax law has been amended to penalise tax evaders. I feel it is a win win situation

M5: What about black money abroad, any measures ?

Me: Yes mam, that’s an important issue as well.

M5: Any agreement with countries?

Me: Yes mam , an agreement has been reached with Switzerland but its implementation will start in 2019

M5: Apart from that what more can be done?

Me: I feel tax compliance burden should be reduced so that people pay tax willingly

M5: What about electoral reforms?

Me: Yes mam, There needs to be transparency in fudning, right now only funds of individuals are kept track of but not party. There is no limit. Also recent step by PM calling for MPs and MLAs to submit their bank accounts for scrutiny is a step in right direction

M1: Ok. You can go

Me: I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity

I feel the questions were good but I could have answered better. Many times my answers were cut short, may be I wasn’t to the point or due to time constraint(15 mins) they had to get in as many questions as possible. As of now, fingers crossed. Hope for the best

6th March 2017

Marks are out. This interview fetched 38 out of 50 . Highest marks were 44. So this can be considered an above average interview. On the whole i managed to clear cutoff by 4 marks. Phew, so the journey to RBI was not an easy one . But all's well that end's well.

Debit card data breach:Threat to Digital India?

In past few years, India’s banking system has undergone enormous changes. Banks have embraced the benefits of digital revolution and are harnessing it to improve service delivery. This has benefited not just consumer and banks but even the government has put its hopes on spread of digital banking to realize the dream of Digital India.

                Economic survey highlighted importance of JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) for better targeting of subsidies and thereby improve governance. The Jan Dhan component  is moving swiftly with the growing number of bank accounts. Aadhaar is also fast becoming ubiquitous in India. Mobile revolution has put mobile in hands of common man. However JAM benefit can be harnessed only when mobile banking is utilised by public. This will enable payments and transfers via mobile .It will reduce time and opportunity cost of daily wage earners. For others, it makes transactions convenient and hassle free.

                Mobile banking has spread fast thanks to innovations and supportive regulations. Today there are numerous companies coming out with apps to enable payments and transfers of various kinds. Reserve Bank of India has given in principle approval for setting up of payment banks. This will further penetrate use of digital medium for transactions. All these paint a rosy picture. Some analysts were so excited by these developments that they started dreaming of a cashless Indian economy.

                The dream shattered with revelation of a large scale data theft from several Indians banks in 2016. The incident revealed the loopholes in India’s cyber security regime. Even as more and more Indians are logging on to the cyber world. India has been slow in coming up with security measures to protect its citizens and property. We have seen cyber attacks on various institutions of government. But the recent incident in financial domain is a cause for grave concern.

                India’s growth has been propelled by IT boom. Much of activity in future would be dependent on cyber world. Hence it is imperative that we buck up and strengthen cyber security. India is blessed with surplus engineers by fate or design. Indian government should tap these enormous pool of talent to create a cyber army not just to defend but also to unleash cyber attacks. Deterrence is best form of defence.

                The recent attack reveals the threat to financial sector. Financial sector regulators and participants need to heighten their vigil in cyber world. Digital banking which is still in nascent stage in India can grow only with trust of people. The recent incident has created a trust deficit among public. There has been a decline in online and debit/credit card transactions and a increased demand for currency. This is a setback to digital banking. Banks need to act fast to secure their networks and assure their customers of the safety of their systems. Regulators need to give equal priority to cyber audit as other audits. RBI’s move to setup a IT division is a step in right direction.

                Cyber criminals are evolving new and advanced methods to perpetrate their crimes. To keep these in check, we need to invest in cyber surveillance and research. Our investigative agencies need to be equipped with skills to undertake investigations in cyber world. Laws need to be strengthened in cyber world to instill fear among those who have evil designs in their mind.

                The economic survey called for spread of JAM to alleviate people’s problems. Before spreading JAM it is important to protect it from attacks of ants, only then can we really enjoy the taste of JAM.

Central armed police forces[Assistant commandant] 2013 Interview

Date- 23^rd June 2014

Venue: UPSC, Delhi

My interview was scheduled in morning slot and was asked to report at 9. I reached UPSC bhavan around 8.30 Am. The security said they would allow only at 9. At 9, we were allowed in after checking call letter and ID proof. At reception desk we were allotted table numbers. We were taken into a circular hall with dome shaped roof. There were 7 tables each corresponding to a particular board.

                Document checking too around 2 hours and interviews started only around 11 AM. I was number 4 in my group of 6 people. We got to know that our interview board chairman is Hem Chandra Gupta. My turn came at around 12 PM

                The peon escorted me along a long corridor passing through chambers of various UPSC members to Mr Hem Chandra Gupta’s chamber. After about 10 minutes , I was called in. Please find below a transcript of my interview.

Me: Good afternoon sir.

Chairman[CM]: Please take your seat. [I sat down] So you have studied engineering at amrita school of engineering. Where is it?

Me: Sir, university is located at Coimbatore while I studied at a campus in Bangalore

CM: ok. You completed graduation in 2010, what have you been doing since then?

Me: Sir, I have been preparing for civil services. Apart from that I got a central government job in 2011 but I am still waiting for joining.

CM: Hmm k. So why are you coming for CAPF ?

Me: Sir, I have always wanted to join a challenging and rewarding career option. I feel this job will suit my requirements

CM: You have mentioned volunteering as your hobby. What do you volunteer for?

Me: Sir I am associated with an NGO that works in education sector

CM: Ok ok . Recently an issue has come up with NGOs. What is it about?

Me: Sir, Recently an intelligence report has identified certain NGOs as acting against our national interests. According to report, certain NGOs are stalling development projects deliberately and this is being perceived as actions against national interest

CM: can you name the NGOs listed in report?

Me: Green peace is one of the NGOs sir. I am not able to recollect other NGOs at this point of time

CM passes over to Member 1[M1]

M1: Police to population ratio is very low in India. Can you tell me how much?

Me: Around 110

M1: Some say there are more number of NGOs in India than police personnel. Is it true?

Me: It could be sir as very little investment is involved and registration process is easier

M1: So Bharath, We have made several policies regarding education yet we see large number of illiterates. Can you tell me what are the number of illiterates in India?

Me: Sir its around 25% of population. But a lot many are not functionally literate

M1: Can you give me a number

Me: Sir around 250 million

M1: what was population at time of independence?

Me: I am not sure sir, maybe 500 million

M1: If you see number of people illiterate, it has increased over time . Why do you think so?

Me; Sir I think our education curriculum does not meet needs of people. For example a tribal community may be good at a particular thing but our education system does not recognise that

M1: Ok. But if you see even literates. Many are not able to find jobs, so what use is it to increase literacy rate?

Me: Sir, skill deficit is also an issue. We need to promote vocational courses. A person with skills need not look for a job, he can setup his own venture. This way we can unleash entrepreneurial revolution in the country

M1 passes it over to M2

M2. You have mentioned blogging as a hobby. What do you blog on?

Me: Sir initially I used to write on my personal experiences. Now Its mostly related to my preparation and sharing of notes

M2: Is blogging same as social media?

Me: Blogging is a part of social media. Apart from that micro blogging, facebook and other such sites also constitute social media

M2: Do you know Edward snowden?

Me: Yes sir. He was instrumental in revealing American snooping activities. This has caused cocnerns in different parts of the world

M2: Have you heard of cyber security? How to address it?

Me: Yes sir. Cyber security is a contentious issue now. Internet was initially designed for a small community, but today it has grown into a truly global medium. So we need better structures to govern it. Currently internet is governed by few bodies in USA. This raises security issues. We need a multilateral multi stakeholder mechanism. That’s regarding cyber governance issues. In domain of cyber security issues, lot of progress has been made. Today it is possible to send messaged in encoded format so that even if anyone snoops in they wont be able to identify it.

M2: Do you know NASDAQ? What are its activities?

Me:Yes sir it’s a American stock exchange. I am not aware about its activities

M2: Do you know DAC?

Me: Is it department of atomic commissions

M2 no response, moves on to next question

M2: You are from east Godavari. Can you tell me differences between the two?

Me: Sir both are agriculturally prosperous thanks to dowleswaram barrage which provides water for both districts. West Godavari has more industries. In east Godavari there is lot of scope for development of ports. Kakinada is famous for fertilise factories. Its providing employment to many people

M2: Yes. Two more are being proposed now. A lot is being talked about Godavari basin? What is it about?

Me: Yes sir, a project has been proposed to divert waters from Godavari to Krishna river. Currently about 600 tmcft water is being drained into sea while Krishna is completely dammed. So this project has been proposed. It’s a river inter linkage project. There are concerns about displacement and submergence in certain areas of Orissa and chattisgarh

M2: What about gas?

Me: Yes sir KG basin is present.

M2: what is the issue with it?

Me- Sir a private agency is involved in exploration activity. It has been alleged that the company is gold plating its costs so as to reduce governments share in profit

M2 passes over to M3

M3: Your state has been divided. Why has it been divided? Both speak same language, I don’t think there are many differences. Why do you think it split?

Me: Sir, it has both historical and economic reasons. Historically telangana was under nizam rule while coastal Andhra was under british. British developed ports, transport well while telangana lagged behind

M3. Ok ok. Can you tell me how many states were there at time of independence?

Me: I am not sure.

M3. No problem, guess

Me: I think 18 sir

M3. Today there are 29. Can you tell me how they formed?

Me: Sir initial demand for separate state ironically came from Andhra itself. It was first state to be formed on linguistic basis. Later on a state reorganisation committee was formed which recommended formation of states based on linguistic and administrative basis though it specifically mentioned language should not be the sole criteria

M3: So don’t you think this state split has violated language criteria?

Me: If we see it strictly on language basis, yes sir. Because there is not much difference in language apart from accent

M3. Can you tell me names of states formed not on linguistic basis

Me: chattisgarh, Jharkand

M3. Yes basically all north india states. They all speak hindi

Me: yes sir

M3. Can you tell me demand for states currently that are not on linguistic basis?

Me: Sir, there is vidarbha, . Also a proposal to split UP into 4

M3. How many languages are there in india constitution

Me: 28[Brain freeze. I don’t know why I said that]

All members shocked

Me: sorry sir, Its 18[I was wrong. Its 22]

M3: k k. can you tell me which is largest spoken language in india?

Me: Hindi

M3: k 2^nd?

Me: Bengali

M3: K 3^rd?[smiling]

Me: I think telugu sir

M3: Ok you have mentioned cricket. Tell me all world records held by india?

Me: Sir there are many records by individual players. One of them is Sachin . he has scored most number of runs, played most matches

M3. Ok what about other records?

Me: Sir we won world cup twice, that is also a sort of record

M3: What record? West indies also won many times

Me: Yes sir. I am not able to recollect other records

M3: Ok . tell me who has scored most of triple centuries?

Me: Sehwag

M3. Who has caught most number of catches?

Me: I think Rahul Dravid

M3. See all these are records. Ok tell me top 5 run scorers

Me. I don’t know sir but definitely Sachin would be in that list

M3: What about dravid? Any other Indians in top 5

Me: I am not sure sir.

M3: Tell me test and ODI ranking of India

Me: I am not sure. I think it is no 2 in tests and 4 in ODIs

M3: its 3 and 5

Me: ok sir

CM you may go

Me: I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity

Interview lasted for about 20-25 minutes. It left me with mixed feelings. While I felt i answered opinion based questions satisfactorily, I made major blunders on factual questions relating to languages in 8^th schedule and cricket. 

My SBI interview

Date: 12^th january 2012, Hyderabad

Exam for SBI PO posts was held in july 2011. It comprised of an objective paper comprising maths, english, logical reasoning and general knowledge. The written paper comprised of letter writing and precise writing. After a long wait of 7 months results were announced and I was shortlisted for interview.

                On 12^th jan 11 AM I was called for interview to SBI Headquarters, hyderabad. I reached their campus around 10:30. It was a sprawling campus resembling a mini hitech city. A total of 18 people were called for interview. I had to wait for over two hours to get my document verified.  After which, they provided us lunch coupons and asked us to have lunch at their officers mess. After a quick meal, we were taken to a conference hall for group discussion. Again we were made to wait for another 2 hours as interviewers were busy interviewing people from morning batch.

                The conference hall was huge with state of art equipments. All of us were provided with a table mic. It was more a test on public speaking than a group discussion, as the format allowed no scope for countering others points. Everyone were given 2 minutes to talk on topic in 1^st round and another 1 minute to conclude in 2^nd round. The topic given was “villages in India are its strengths or weaknesses” . I said villages were once a strength and now have become our weakness and gave a few suggestions to convert our weakness into stength. After group discussion, the interviews started

                I was number 4 on list and hence didn’t have to wait for long . The interview board comprised of 4 old men. Unlike a traditional interview setting, this room had sofas on four corners of room and each was seated in one corner. I was made to sit on a chair in middle of the room.

Chairman: Welcome . please sit down.

Me: thank you sir

Chairman: So you have completed your graduation in 2010. What were you doing since then?

Me: I have been preparing for civil services

Chairman: What is the status now?

Me: I have written the mains and results are yet to be announced

Chairman: good. So if you get  through civil services, You would prefer it over this job

Me: Yes

Chairman: Did you write any other bank exams?

Me: Yes I did. I managed to clear the exam for a couple of banks but I couldn’t attend interview as they were too close to mains exam

Chairman: Ok. Do you know about lothal?

Me; Yes sir, it is a harappan site. It was an important port town

Chairman: Name some harappan sites in India

Me: Mohenjodaro

Chairman: its not in India

Me: sorry sir, its in pakistan. In India we have kalibangan, ranikhet

Chairman: Tell me one more

Me: I am not able to recollect now

Chairman: Name the person who designed delhi

Me: New delhi was designed by Lutyens

Chairman: Ok . what about chandigarh, rock garden is there na?

Me: I don’t know. I have stayed in delhi so I have an idea about it

Chairman: Ok. Name the tribes in meghalaya

Me: Mishmi…..gharo, khasi

Chairman: There is one more without which answer is incomplete

Me: I am not able to recollect not

Chairman: Its jaintia

Member 1: Can you give me technical definition of semi conductors?

Me: I can’t give technical definition but I can explain it

M1: ok please explain

Me: It is a material which has very low band gap and hence can be bridged easily and made conductive. So it can act as a conductor in certain circumstances

M1: Can you tell me how much that band gap should be?

Me: I don’t remember

M1: atleast resistivity

Me; No sir

M1: what about insulator?

Me: I ddon’t remember the band gap range

M1: Ok. Can you name a nobel prize winner who was born in almora?

Me: hargobind khurana?

M1: No.

Me: Am sorry sir. I don’t know

M1: name some nobel prize winners from India

Me: The latest was venkatraman

Chairman: what venkatraman?

Me: venkatraman ramakrishna

Chairman: no no tell me proper name

Me: I am not sure

M2; What is this? You have cleared prelims. You should saying these takatak

Me: sir the exam pattern has changed. It is more analytical and less bookish now

Chairman: but still, this is general knowledge. You will be asked these in civilis interview as well

Me: yes sir. I shall update myself in future

M1: Ok any other nobel laureates form india

Me: Amartya Sen

M1: Pandit amartya sen?

Me; No sir economist amartya sen

M1: that’s what. Pandit amartya sen

Me: eh??

Chairman : what he meant was you must address him as Dr Amartya sen. He has accomplished so much

Me: yes sir, he is professor emeritus, renowned economist

M2: Who is Rajat gupta? Do you know him?

Me: Yes sir. He is facing allegations of insider trading

M2: who was he helping?

Me: Rajaraman

M2: raja..what

Me: The srilankan Rajaratnam

M2; Yes. name some rating agencies?
Me: CRISIL, Moodys
M2: in India
Me: I only know about CRISIL in india

M3: Who was responsible for green revolution in India?

Me; M S swaminathan and Norman Borlaug

M3: Ok. What about white revolution?

Me: varghese Kurien

M3: where?

Me; at anand

Chairman: Ok thanks you may go

Me; I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity

Chairman: Ok all the best

The interview was for around 10 minutes. I left for home around 4 PM .

It was more a quizzing session than an interview. I have a feeling they have struck me off as my priority is civil services. Hence they didn’t ask anything related to banking or my background.

Anyways lets hope for the best. The results are expected in a months time.


Result: On 17th Feb 2012 results were out. Much to my surprise, i have been selected!

Moral of story: honesty and frankness helps at times :)

Post your feedbacks and suggestions as comments

                

Bank interview

Bank of maharashtra interview , Hyderabad, 23rd march 2011
Keeping in view the changed pattern of civil services exam, I decided to write bank exams for practice. But later I realised that the marks are not disclosed by banks. Only the result i.e. whether you are selected or not is disclosed.
I wrote around 6-7 exams spread over 2 months(dec-jan). so far 3 results have been declared. Two banks (allahabad and vijaya) showed me the door. Surprisingly bank of maharashtra called me for the interview.Here is an account of what happened at the interview:
I had reached the place around 11 AM. It was one small multi-storey building. I was directed to the third floor. It was a video conference room. Then I realised that interview was going to be conducted through video conference. Ignorant of that fact, I bought new shoes and watch!! Alas all in vain.
I was second on list for interview. My certificates were verified. Most of the candidates were uncles and aunties(28-30 yrs). Hence the person verifying the certificates was doubtful about my age and I had to submit my driving license as proof of my age!!
The video conferencing room had an old Onida TV with a web cam sort of thing. At 12:30, it came up and a group of buddas and one aunty were sitting on other side. The group of buddas were restless to start off the interview. So we were shunted out of the air conditioned room into the corridor . Luckily I was number two on list , so didn’t have to wait for long. I pity others who had to wait in the hot sun and also the hot air blowing out of AC compressors placed in corridors
At around 12:40 , my turn came. I went and took my place. I could hardly make out the faces of the people. For me it was just 4-5 faceless people on other side, I hope it wasn’t so for them. Here starts my interview
Lady: So vaishnov, tell me about yourself, your back ground, your work experience, your parents etc
Me; I am bharath vaishnov,basically from hyderbad but my schooling has been across the length and breadth of country since my father is working in HPCL a PSU. I have completed my B.Tech from ASE bangalore. My hobbies are speed cubing and blogging. During my engg course, I got an opportunity to work with Bosch. [While working there I realised that IT sector was not for me. Out there people work in a narrow field. All work they do is going to serve only the needs of a small strata of society]******* . I want to work in a sector where 30-40 years down the line, I feel that through my work I have been able to serve the needs of a wider section of people. This is when I decided that banking is one sector which is on a rise and is serving the people at large. With the financial inclusion drive on, I am sure banking sector provides a wider scope to serve the society. Hence I have decided to join the banking sector
P1: Who is a leader?
Me: Leader is one who can get things done. Hence he/she should be able to motivate the people towards achieving the organisational goals. Also at same time , he/ she should make efforts to bring the employees goals in sync with organisational goals. That way they will be able to serve the cause of organisation in a better way.
Lady: What is your short term and long term goal?
Me: My goal is to be successful in what ever endeavour I take up. I would like to see myself in long term at a position where I feel satisfied about the work I have done and at same time people feel good about my work
Lady: what is success?
Me: It is all about achieving the goals that one has set for themselves and also at same time ensuring that in due course it brings happiness to the people around.
Lady: how do you think your educational qualification is going to help in your job ?
Me: Engineering provides problem solving skills. It helps in developing an analytical bent of mind. This will surely help in my job as a bank officer
P2: The bank is recruiting 400 probationary officers. What do you think is the reason?
Me: With the government insisting on financial inclusion, I am sure there will be a need to expand the bank network. Especially considering that bank of maharashtra is a leader in rural banking considering that 38% of the bank’s branches in rural areas, I am sure there will be a huge need for manpower. This can help bank put more people at cutting edge level and get more out of their network.
P3: will it improve efficiency/ productivity of bank?
Me: it depends on how the organisation handles it. If the new recruits are imparted the required skills and put in right place at right time, I am sure there will be a boost in productivity
P4: What are the expectations of employee towards the employer?
Me; as I said before, it is important that people are put in right place at right time. I think that is a key factor
P4: 2nd factor?
Me: errrr…..It is also important to provide a person exposure in different fields. Regular rotation of job should be there to ensure that job doesn’t become monotonous and employees remain motivated
P3: You are 21 year old. Under you people of 40-50 year old will be working. DO you think you can handle the situation?
Me: I have faced such situations during my internship at Bosch(bluff) . So I don’t think that will be a problem(I should have said that authority flows from position and not the person and hence if what you are doing is right, I think there will be no problems)
P1: ok thank you. You may go
Me: thanks for giving me this opportunity

I was disappointed that no economics questions were asked. Neither did they ask about their bank nor current affairs. Lets wait and see how the result is gonna be.

There ends my interview. Hope to see a positive result. They had called 1500 people for 400 vacancies. Hope I end up among the 400

*******The italicized lines are not my true opinions. it was made up just to satisfy the egos of interviewers.


Result:

On 25th april, i got a mail from bank intimating me about my selection as a bank PO. I was supposed to join on 9th of may at Latur in maharashtra with an initial pay pack of 14000 per month.

The flying dragon and the oversized elephant

It has been a busy year for India when it comes to international relations. India has already hosted leaders of 4 of the P5 countries and the 5th will be coming soon. The most awaited visit was that of Wen Jiabao in the context of growing tensions between the two.

Despite the panchsheel and myriad other agreements China finds means and ways to irritate India. The latest being the stapled visa issue. India’s response has often been weak to the challenges thrown up by China. Post crisis China ‘s stakes in the global economy has raised to high and it now wields great power. But with great power comes great responsibility which is clearly lacking in the chinese way of politicking. It has constantly been at loggerheads with its neighbours be it japan, India or South Korea.

The growing presence of India in international fora has clearly irked China which seeks to be the dominant power down south. India’s policy towards China is flawed and lacks direction. At a time when China is putting its foot forward aggressively India is taking a step backward and pacifying the dragon. When China began throwing tantrums on Arunachal issue, India declared that it supported one China policy. At a time when trade deficit has reached unsustained levels, we have doubled our trade targets. While china puts up trade barriers for frontline indian industries, we are opening up our sensitive sectors like banking and finance to China .

On the stapled visa issue, India has been repeatedly imploring China to review its policy despite China giving a crass reply that it is an administrative issue!!How can a state belonging to India be an administrative issue for a foreign nation?? India needs to take a tit for tat stance on Tibet. In this regard India seems to have made some progress by not mentioning that it supports the one China policy in the joint statement. Also India’s decision to attend nobel prize ceremony should have sent a clear message to China .

Post 1962 war China captured a large chunk of J&K area known as aksai chin. Till date India has never demanded China to return back the land and even China has never bothered to tender apology to India for violating the panchsheel doctrine.

The widespread public view is that with the growing trade ties, China would be less aggressive and more obliging to India’s concerns. That doesn’t seem to be true. During the visit none of the core concerns of India seem to be addressed by China . The joint statement says that the ties have now be elevated form bilateral to global level. But what use are ties when they have divergent views? Even on a issue like terrorism, China refrained form taking a hard position.
India and China have agreed to cooperate on nuclear disarmament declares the joint statement. This seems to be more of a platitude than a commitment. This is clearly reflected in the fact that China has been actively empowering Pakistan , a state that is on the brink of failure, with nuclear technology.

On the whole Mr Wen’s trip was a mere PR operation. In the last 5 years there have been 4 high level delegation visits by India to China while from China this is the only visit. This sums up how the relationship is playing out. We need to make amends on our policy towards China .

THE telangana turmoil

On Dec 31st whole world would be gearing up to party while in AP the situation is gonna be tense. This is coz Sri Krishna committee will be submitting its report on dec 31st. Sri krishna committee was setup to determine the legitimacy of demand for a separate telangana state, an area in north AP.
Over the last few years, the stir for a separate state has been intensified. During the rule of YS rajasekhar reddy(YSR), he managed to keep them subdued with his leadershipa nd coercive skills. With his untimely demise in a helicopter crash ins ept 09, the state has been left without a strong leader.
K Rosaiah , aveteran politician with over 4 decades of experience took on the burden of carrying on governanc e of a state where revenue was dwindling and separatist forces were gaining popularity.
Yesterday all of a sudden, K Rosaiah stepped down citing health concerns. The new CM announced is Kiran Kumar reddy. A comparatively younger and inexperienced congressman. This will be his 1st post in the government. This might seem a heroic move and a sign of encouragement for young politicians. But deep beneath lies a different reason.
With the state heading towards tough times in december, a lot of pressure would be there on CM . At this hour AP needs a strong leader. Rosaiah with his vast experience could have steered the ship through but seems like he has hsied away form taking on the challenge. Instead an inexperienced Kiran has been put onto the high pedestal. This is for sure a makeshift arrangement coz no big leader wants to take on the helm at this time and take the risk of losing their image and credibility post dec 31st.
With such a selfish mentality, it is hard for congress to survive long in AP . Only time will tell how AP repsonds to the situations and how the inexperienced CM handles it.

Charity: losing its sheen?

Charity has been part of many a religious texts. According to dharma shastra of hinduism, charity should be anonymous and selfless. It was based on principle of left hand not knowing what right hand was doing and vice versa. Donations were anonymous and were genuine. Over the years , the selflessness and anonymity is being replaced by selfishness and publicity.
With the end of soviet era and the fall of communism, the states turned more capitalist. The global south or the 3rd world soon adopted to the western models of export led intensive growth and hoped for a trickle down of benefits to pull people out of poverty.
But the heady cocktail of corruption, redtapism and nepotism was too large an absorbent to let anything trickle down to the lower strata of society.Democracies turned into plutocracies. The result was a growing and diversifying divide. From a primitive rich poor divide, today we have the caste divide, the digital divide and so on. Humanity has been dissected and trisected according to the whims and fancies of the opportunist politicians.
All these have lead to a growingly selfish and sinful society. Surprisingly a major change is occuring in this world of narcists. One mister Gates suddenly got enlightened and opened up the gates of his bank account to let the wealth flood into the global south and help in bridging the very divides that companies like his created. Even in war torn countries like Iraq and afghanistan, the capitalists are leaving no stone unturned to publicise their brands.
Lord Blalaji of tirupathi today receives gifts amounting to crores of rupees from affluent people amidst full media glare. Donation which was once a low profile anonymous event has not become a PR event. Such has been the commercialisation/westernisation in our society.
India had assumed to itself a socialist pattern of society in 1970s , but this seems to be fast changing into a opportunist society where every activity is performed based on a cost benefit analysis.

Tax reforms

Tax Reforms
Why tax reforms?
India after independence decided to tread the socialist path and govt took upon itself the onerous task of wiping the tears of the poor. However in its effort towards delivering services to all and ensuring equitable growth, its expenditure on social sector shot up. It established numerous public sector industries to manufacture goods right from bread to ambassdor cars. All these resulted in heavy spending. However governments revenues remained weak. One of the main source of government revenues are tax revenues. Tax revenue was alarmingly low because of the regressive tax structure we had. This called for a tax policy reform. Finally the fiscal crisis of 1990 forced us to unlash a series of reforms in our economy popularly known as LPG(Liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) reforms.
The tax policy pre 1991 suffered from following drawbacks
• It was retrogressive ie it taxed both the poor and rich equally. Majority of government revenue was from indirect taxes. Indirect taxes like excise duty , custom duty don’t differentiate between rich and poor
• It was irrational with tax rates going up as high as 97.6%(i.e. for every 100 rs earned 97.6 rs goes to govt)!!!
• Irrational policies discouraged people from paying taxes and lead to tax evasion
• The more the rules, the more the loop holes. With so many rules in the income tax act people with help of their chartered accountants could easily exploit the loop holes and thus managed to legally avoid tax
• All this lead to a huge fiscal deficit for government which mad eit imperative on govt to undertake tax policy reforms
What were the tax policy reforms?
The need for tax policy reforms was
• To improve tax to GDP ratio
• To progressively tax people ie tax the rich more and the poor less
• To increase revenue from direct taxes
• To improve the fiscal balance of govt
• To lower tax rates and widen tax base
Keeping these objectives in view MMS formulated a meticulous fiscal policy which worked wonders for our country.
He undertook following steps
• Earlier cotton cloth was subjected to 50 different tax rates depending upon quality of cotton. Such multiplicity of rates resulted in administrative complexity. This was borugh down to a uniform single rate called CENVAT
• Earlier our tax dept spend rs 1.2 per rupee to collect Tax!!! By leveraging technology and optimising the administrative structure today the cost of collection is 6 paise per rupee
• The tax slabs were reduces encouraging more people to pay taxes. As a result the direct taxes have increased and are today almost equal to indirect tax revenues
• The cascading effect of taxes on industry was corrected by implementing the advalorem taxation system through VAT
So what next?
The next step is to simplify our tax laws. The IT act of 1961 has become voluminous and is not in sync with current demands of economy.
Hence the government is undertaking GST and DTC to put in place a simplified, transparent tax system.
A transparent tax system will lead to a situation where people would start voluntarily filing tax leading to surplus revenue with govt which could be beneficially invested in social sector schemes. This would help in achieving our goal of financial inclusion. It would encourage people to save more leading to higher savings rate and hence promoting investments. This would lead to a great thrust to our economy and will jettision us into the league of developed nations.
So the need of the hour is a swift and smooth passing of DTC and GST bill

India: Bullying a billion

“Whenever the Indian Prime Minister speaks, the whole world listens to him”-Barrack Obama
The statement was a shot in the arm for the visionary leaders who envisage a vision of India as a superpower by 2020. But they fail to realize that before we can claim a role of superpower, we need to empower our people. Today more than 50% of population lives on less than Rs 20 a day (official figures still show it 26%). The concept of holistic growth and inclusiveness is a far cry from the present Indian system of governance. The hasty legislations have become mere paper tigers. In the absence of proper machinery and infrastructure, many policies like the right to education and setting up of green tribunals are yet to be implemented.
The pompous inauguration of T3 terminal of New Delhi, built in record time of 37 months, lays out a red carpet welcome to all our international guests. At a time when our Human development index is nose diving, child malnutrition is on a rise, we are more worried about getting Indira Gandhi international airport into the top ten airports of the world rather than addressing the problems of the poor.
The constitutional ideals of sovereignty, secularity and democracy are in danger. In the north J&K curfews and stone pelting have become a regular occurrence. The short lived calmness in valley has ended with the mindless shooting and Killings by the paramilitairy forces. Down at Haryana, Khap panchayats are running a parallel judiciary system openly defying the laws of the land. The principles have natural justice have been thrown out of the window in the name of honour of a group of people.
Delhi is busy with arrangements for CW2010. Common wealth games in India was to project india to the world. In this regard a string of welfare and poverty allievation programs should have been taken up. Atleast an effort to alleviate poverty in NCR should have been taken up. Instead they turned a blind eye to it and went on a spending spree to pep up the city for the International event. The RTE act which has the potential to change the future of India has not been implemented owing to lack of funds. I wonder how they were able to pump in crores of rupees in City planning and beautification.
The Bhopal gas tragedy was back in news after 26 years thanks to the inconsequential judgement in Keshub Mahindra case. The government in a bid to console the people of Bhopal gifted them a toothless Green tribunal to resolve any future accidents of such sort.
AP seems to be on a downward spiral under the reign of Rosaiah. Ever since he took over after the shocking demise of YSR, the funds have dried up and its reached near bankruptcy with many welfare schemes being stalled or restricted to certain regions. In a bid to garner the necessary funds for welfare programs, govt came up with idea of selling licenses for liquor shops. What a gem of an idea! Getting funds for welfare programs at the cost of health of its subjects.
The roads of India are one of the dangerous in world. Lack of
i) lane discipline
ii) Safety infrastructure
iii) Stringent rules
have led to accidents which take away lives of 350 people a day. That is equivalent to an plane crash every day. Instead of improving the safety standards of existing roads, the road ministry is busy making up plans of laying another 43000 km of roads and thus laying more deathtraps.
For sure our economy is robust and is leading the world out of recession with its vast experience in monetary and fiscal policy making of a nation of a billion. But it is also a selfish and witty one at bullying the poor and making way for the rich to prosper.

CTS placement

6th Dec:
After the hectic morning with CAT, evening was also equally busy. I had to pack up for ettimadai. I had a placement process to attend the next day. I packed the best of clothes in my wardrobe, hoping to wear them for the interview if I made it through the apti round. I was ready bu 6 PM. Left hostel by 6:30 pm for the station keeping in view the frequent traffic jams in Bangalore. I picked up my friend on the way and reached station by 7 pm. I had my dinner at comesum and waited for the train. The train arrived on time. But it left after a half hour delay. I slept around ten PM. Thanks to my sony zapper, I had a sound sleep. Later I came to know that my friends couldn’t have a sound sleep as an old lady was crying all through the night.

7th Dec:
The train reached Coimbatore at 6 AM. We got a taxi and reached ettimadai by 7 AM. I got ready by 8 and reached the panthal(a tenthouse for 1500 people) by 8.30 Am. Every participant was given a bar code. It was funny to have a bar code. Bar code is usually given to a commodity. Here we were being identified as commodities and CTS was out on jumbo shopping spree. A lady in suit and boot came up with a boring one hour long pre placement talk. It touched upon all the important points that would woo the prospective candidates. I wasn’t interested in any of them as in the first place I have no plans of taking up a job and secondly I can never work in a company like CTS spending hours together in crammed up offices. Surprisingly the presentation was without a vision or a mission!! Probably they were too interested in wooing us the students than talk about their company in detail. The talk went on till 11 Am and then we were packed off in buses to IT block. We were allotted classrooms in IT block to take up the test. Over there we had to wait for another one hour during which we were told to fill up a sheet of questionnaires. It had the following questions.
Name, tenth and 12th percentages and B.tech aggregate percentage.
Q: strengths and weaknesses
My Ans:S: Will power,perseverance, Adaptability
W:Impatience
Q: What do you think are the requirements for a software engineer?
My ans: I don’t remember the answer
Q: What are your short term and long term goals with CTS?
My Ans:
Short term goal: To continuously upgrade my skills and be part of many a successful projects
Long term goal: To consistently deliver quality services and build a strong and dynamic CTS

And a few more question which I don’t remember.

The test started at 12 PM and went on for another 70 minutes. It comprised of three sections called as
Quantitative aptitude
Verbal ability
Attention to detail
It was not all that difficult to crack but one had to be quick to go through all the questions. We were told the results would be out by 3 PM. About 1500+ people wrote it . Their claim that they would be out with results by 3 PM was impossible. We went to the mess and had our lunch and spent time at cafeteria hoping results would be out by 3 PM. We waited till 4 PM and then went back to our rooms. People had already started preparing for interviews but I was in no mood to study after the gruelling CAT prep . I went around the campus enjoying the cool breeze and scenic surroundings. If CTS recruits me it would most probably be my last trip to this beautiful campus. I still regret not taking up a course at ettimadai. The results were out at around seven thirty in the evening when we were about to leave for dinner. Long namelists(like the ones in railway waitlist) were stuck up on the hostel notice boards. There were hoards of people all around it. I could get a glance of a few sheets but I couldn’t find my name on any of those. But most of my friends found theirs and were enjoying their moment of success. I decided to check my result after dinner. After a quick dinner , we rushed back to the hostel to check if our names were up on the list. Thankfully the crowd had reduced and i could easily skim through all the lists and finally I found mine . I was on panel 29 at 8 in the morning. I was happy that I got a morning slot as I didn’t want to spend nervous moments waiting for my chance. But later I realized that I was the last one in the panel. So I had to endure the long wait. However I would have the advantage of knowing the interviewer and type of question by the feedback I got from people going before me. We got back to our rooms . I spent an hour going through the interview questions to get a feel of the questions being asked. The questions being asked were very basic and sometimes the answer was too obvious. That gave me a lot of confidence. I decided to just go through basics of the subjects which I had stated as my areas of interest.
I spent about three hours with my interview prep. I went to bed by 1 Am



8th Dec:
I got up at 5:30 AM and was ready by 7. I arranged my file ,polished my shoes and left for breakfast by 7:45. The breakfast comprised of distasteful idlis.After the breakfast we proceeded to the IT block. There were in total 50 panels for interviewing over 900 people. The interviews were going to take place in classrooms itself.
It took me sometime to find out where my classroom was. One of my classmate was also on the same panel. Each panel interviewed 9 people per slot. The interviews started 1 and half hour late. Once interviews started , all that we were waiting for was the feedback from people about how their interview was.
The first one to go in was an ECE girl from Coimbatore. She was asked about VLSI and some easy HR. I was happy that he was asking about VLSI as I was quite comfortable with that subject. Next in was an MCA guy with a red tie!! He was asked about the projects done so far. Each interview on an average lasted 10-15 minutes. By the time my turn came I got a fair idea about the interviewer and sort of questions being asked. I hoped that he didn’t change questions for me. And thankfully he didn’t. Herez how my interview went on:
Me: May I come in
(Interviewer(I) gave a slight nod with his head and I walked in as dignified a manner as possible)
He extended his hand for a shake hand.Initially I thought he was asking for my file.After the shake hand I sat down.
He went through the answer sheet and my response to questionnaires and noted down some info from that into another sheet.
I:Okay vaishnov. Tell me about your life so far ie I want to know your family background,schooling,extracurriculars,how u ended in amrita, what did u do in dese 3 years,ur projects etc.
Phew that was a really long question and I had already forgotten what were the points he wanted.
I started framing up the starting sentence.
I wanted a punchline to start with
However that didn’t happen. It was a boring start
Me:
I am from Andhra Pradesh. My dad works in an Public Sector undertaking and hence gets transferred frequently. So I got a chance to do my schooling in different parts of country like kerala,tamil nadu,Andhra and delhi. This gave me an opportunity to understand the different cultures and work with different kinds of people. Coming to amrita errrrrr happened something like this. I saw an advertisement in the newspaper and decided to apply for it and on the basis of my AIEEE rank I got a seat in Amrita Bangalore. My three years at amrita have been wonderful. I got opportunities to interact and work with great minds. I have been to many fests, seminars, workshops and recently I organized Rubik’s cube workshop. It was pretty successful with around fifty people attending it.
I:What workshop you organized?(I guess he didn’t know what a rubik’s was)
Me: Rubik’s cube sir. Its a logical puzzle involving a cube with different colours.
(I guess he didn’t understand what I blabbered)
I:tell me what subjects you studied in your previous sem
Me:Sir. In 7th sem we had subjects like Cellular, management,embedded,biomed,microwave etc.(I purposefully left out VLSI as I didn’t want him to ask any technical questions)
I: Management! What did u study in management?
Me: Sir, management course plan was something like this. It starts of with basics of economics and then goes onto analyse relationship between price demand and supply. We also learnt various HR fundamentals like motivational theories,leadership skills etc.
I: U have one more management subject next sem?
Me: Yes sir.
I:okay. I think you had VLSI last semester. Can you tell me how to detect faults ?
Me: I told all diffrnt types of faults and causes for a few of them. He seemed satisfied with my answer
I: can u explain me chip’s life cycle?
Me: (I didn’t understand what he wanted)Sir u mean the fabrication process??
I:yes yes
Me: I explained something something.
I: Where is silicon wafer used in the process?
Me:Sir, In making silicon layer on substrate.
He asked the question again and I gave the same answer
I: Okay. Now u can leave. All the best for result
Me: Thanks to you and cognizant for giving me this opportunity
I left the hall and phew! it was a great relief.
I went to mess at around 1. Couldn’t find any of my friends. Had lunch and went to my room for a short nap. In the evening went for a stroll. The results were out at around 9 PM. 541 people were selected. The registration numbers were being announced in alphabtcl order. First Amritapuri CSE,ECE,EEE,EIE,MECh. It was a really tense moment for me. Next up was BANGALORE CSE. There were heck a lot of people from CSE and my wait prolonged. Then came ECE. I had to wait a bit longer as my reg no was after 73 people. And alas my number was announced. It was a cakewalk for me as at no point of time I felt I was tested . It was just a matter of getting through the process with a cool mind. That’s how it was for me.

CAT experience

6th Dec ’09:
After a year of start stop preparation, here I was to write CAT. My centre was RVCE. It is one of the prestigious colleges in Bangalore with state of art infrastructure. Hence I chose it as my centre. I arrived at centre at 7 AM. My dad had arranged for a cab to make my journey to the centre smooth and comfortable.
The security guard informed that entry opens at 8:30. So I spent a boring 1 and half hour in the car. I wasn’t even allowed to explore the sprawling campus. At 8:30 we were allowed to go to the computer centre where our test was going to be administered. There were four labs in which were allotted for the tests. My lab was on the first floor. After a half hour wait in queue a prometric guy allowed us to get in after checking our credentials. I deposited all my belongings at the security and moved to the lab. At the lab, there was a problem with my ID proof. I had taken my college ID as ID proof. My DOB was wrongly printed as 240588 instead of 89. This caused a problem and I was asked to get another id proof. Luckily I had my driving license to prove that I was born in 89. This brought in some nervousness . After that, I had to go through some biometrics and verification for the 3rd time!!
After the three layered check in process I was allotted my seat(S 15). I switched on my PC and there were over a dozen passwords which were keyed in by the proctor before the test interface came up flashing my photo that they took at check in. For another half hour I had nothing to do except for staring at my photo on the screen. At 9:45 were allowed to go through a tutourial video about the test interface.
At 10 Am , the test started off. We had to agree to the customary NDA before we started with our test. The first set of questions were from quant. It was a mixed bag ranging from sitters to complicated questions. It took me around 55 minutes to get throught he quant section. Next up was DI but I decided to skip it and move to verbal as I was tired of calculations that I had done in quant. But verbal gave me no respite. The RC were at its best and to make things difficult , the options were too close to eliminate. None of the options I was sure of. I had to go with a few guesses. Other than that, Parajumbles and Fill in the blanks were of moderate level giving me an opportunity to rush through and make up for the lost time in RC and quant. By the time I was done with verbal section I was left with around 40-45 minutes for DI. The DI however had a lot of sets and required much more time. I had to let go a few sets involving complicated calculations. However the remaining sets were direct and it wasn’t difficult to arrive at an option. On the whole , my CAT experience was like a roller coaster with certain highs and lows. Jan 22nd will determine what were in majority..highs or lows?

BHARATH-A 20Yr Sojourn

CHAPTER:4

Cochin was a wonderful place right from people to the weather. One good thing about cochin was most of them knew English. Even a butcher knew English! Yes , kerala was truly a highly literate state.

My school "chinmaya vidyalaya" was located in vaduthala. Malayalam was a compulsory subject. However the school authorities relaxed the norms for me. I was allowed to study 1^st standard Malayalam in the first sem following which I was supposed to shift over to 3^rd standard Malayalam in the next two sems. The school had a semester system,where in we had 3 semsters. Each semester ended with a term exam. Once that exam was over the next sem exam didn’t test on the portions that were already tested in 1^st semester. This made things lot easier. The workload was reduced to a great extent. Even the school ended by two. This allowed me to take up some extra curriculars. My dad arranged for a music teacher, though I don’t remember having any keen interest for music. We had to get a harmonium as the music master wanted that as a pre requisite for teaching.

Daily five to seven, I had music classes. It was a big bore. I just went through the moments. I learnt a few ragas and songs for a couple of months and gave up after that. One of my dad’s associates owned a theatre. He used to arrange for movie tickets on weekends. I remember seeing Jurassic park over there.

At school I was completely at ease, Thanks to the cosmopolitan nature of my class. There were people from different places in my class. I had a friend by the name of Abhishek. His father was owner of “Bheema jewelers”. He used to come in chauffeur driven fiat car.He called me amul baby as I was pretty chubby those days. One more good friend of mine was Kartika. She helped out in completing my notes whenever I was absent and helped out a lot during exams.Then there was ameena who I admired for her beauty and brains . She was the topper of the class.

One of my best friends at cochin was shankhar. My mom was strict with regards to my performances in exams. I always feared the results. It was Shankar who used to come to my rescue, most of the times making me understand that I had actually done better than a section of class and there was no need to worry. There were times when he went upto my mom and told her not to scold me. He was one nice guy I regret losing contact with.

Apart from the regular subjects we had crafts, drawing , PT and bhagvad gita. I struggled with drawing and bhagvad gita. Drawing classes were a nightmare . The drawing sheets and crayons were horrifying images for me. In craft class we made various decorative pieces which I still preserve. PT we mostly played dodge ball. Cricket and football were out of bounds for us. It was only for high school.

My mom took great pains in learning Malayalam and then teaching me. She learnt it from the doordarshan teaching channel!! And it began yielding results. I got decent marks in the first semester exams and I made a smooth transition to 3^rd standard Malayalam. Bhagavad gita was really tough. There were 18 chapters and we had to by heart the whole thing and recite the ones the teacher asks. That was a daunting task.

My mom kept herself busy by teaching in a school for mentally challenged. She also learnt car driving though my dad was reluctant to let her drive. We got a sunny and my mom used to drop me at school on that. I enjoyed the drive along the railway track to school.

On independence day, I got my first opportunity to venture into extra curriculars. Having learnt carnatic music for sometime I sang well. So I got a chance to sing “Hind desh ke niwasi”. There was also a fancy dress show and I dressed up as Nehru.

I made couple of friends at HPCL quarters. But I didn’t get to spend much time over there. Occasionally we ventured to the marine drive. The scenic backwaters was a view worth a watch. There was a floating restaurant over there. My other hangout spot was driving park, where I got to drive pedal jeeps and scooters on real roads. It was like real life complete with signals and zebra crossings.

My dad made frequent trips to pune for attending training programs. He got me chocolates from the famous nathu’s sweets over there. I relished them a lot. My pet collection widened with a mini aquarium comprising of fishes and snails. My dad also got a special kind of birds which didn’t fly. We could hold it and play around and they made no fuss about it. But over a period , their wings got strengthened and they managed to fly away.

The love birds met a sad end. One of them died due to ant bites(Bloody ants..i hate them!!). After a few weeks the other one died when a cat attacked and devoured it and left only bones(sob..sob). The fishes were often attacked by the snails. The snails squeezed the fishes to the walls and the fishes died of suffocation. All these were sad moments and we decided not to have any more pets.

My dad wrote CAT and various other MBA exams. He managed to get a seat in Philippines to do MBA. But he let it go as he didn’t want to leave me(love u dad ).

Two years on there was a sudden change in mindset of my dad. Those days I was pretty dependent on my parents and I guess most of them would be at that stage. But probably I was a bit too dependent. I didn’t know how to tie lace(I still don’t know :P), how to wear a shirt and other silly stuff. This made my dad think of putting me in hostel so that I could learn to do things on my own.
One of my dad’s colleague's son was studying in 8^th standard at vijnana vihar in vizag. The friend(jobless fellow!) suggested my dad to put me in the same school as it gave good value education and was disciplined.

There was an entrance exam to be written for getting into the school. And believe it or not .. there was a crash course to crack that exam!! Amazing! people make money out of every damn thing. After my fourth standard I left my great school and friends at cochin. I moved over to vizag and underwent the crash course for half a month. It was a horrifying experience. We were packed into small dark classrooms and made to attempt loads of questions from dawn to dusk. I had made up my mind to fail the test at any cost. But god had different plans I guess. As even my worst performance got me into touching distance of getting admission. I just missed the cut off. My grandfather was Assistant police commissioner at vizag. He put some influence and got me a seat in that dreadful place. I was disappointed as all my plans failed and I had to stay away from my parents for 1 year. It was something I had never imagined of.

My hostel experiences and stay at vizag shall come up in next blog