‘To get to the Promised Land you have to negotiate your way through the wilderness.’
Very well said, don’t know by whom, but really fits in, in our lives. Isn’t it? Not always true, but it balances the life.
Without any glitch, I must say, we all operate in two contrasting modes – Open and Closed. The open mode is relaxed, receptive, exploratory, democratic and playful. The closed mode is tight, rigid, hierarchical and tunnel-visional.
What I was behaving at the time of GD/PI was Open Mode, and the way Panel members were suppose to behave/or say were behaving falls in Closed Mode.
Not that the closed mode cannot be helpful…if you’re leaping across a gorge, the moment of take off is a bad time for considering alternative strategies! When you charge the enemy’s machine – gun post, you don’t try to see the funny side of it. you do this in a closed mode. The moment the action is over, you may return to the open mode – to open your mind again to the feed back and see if further action is needed or not, to improve on what you’ve done.
After admission, i paid a flying visit of our college campus. I took some snaps, so posting them over here. Hope you'll like them.
The room from where I took the below shown snap. btw, I've never seen such a class anywhere. What it is meant for ?
This is from inside the Top Floor room. I guess, if not wrong, than this room is situated at one and half floor.
One can see dried up Swimming Pool...and Audi.
And this is the intersection of Boys' and Girls' Block.
Mess. This picture is taken from Boys' and Girls' block intersection.
Nice scenic view of the Hostel Lawns.
View of Hostel Block from the sides of Audi.
I entered my name at the gate and trudged on towards the college. Our Alma Matter. Construction was going on, all over.
This is when I (Bhargav Trivedi) came from Mumbai and stepped out at Chevrolet Showroom, near the flyover and walked till this place. I even went inside for inquiring whether it's boys' or girls'. It was Girls. lol. Then i got a rickshaw onwards.
There were four ISBMites, sitting at the registration desk. And there were almost more than twenty-five my-type-aspirants; gazing at me; some with worrying faces, somebody bit smiling, bit nail-biting. Some where gossiping and some where reading newspaper and a girl (Krithika Iyer, she didn’t got selected, sorry !!!) in the first row was reading a book. (I later came to know, it was “If God was a Banker”).
I approached the desk and bid ‘Good Morning’, they all returned the salutation with a warm smile on their sparkling clean saved faces. And I was glad I had my shaving done before reaching there, thank god. Before anyone could say anything to me, I started in a soft voice, “Right now, I don’t have the hard copy of the gd/pi call letter which you people sent to me, ‘coz, I had already left my station when I received it, and I haven’t received the e-mail from you side, so right now, as I don’t have the call letter as a proof of my being a candidate, and so now, I have to prove that I’m Bhargav Trivedi.” I said mechanically as a single syllable, showing my driving license.
“Okay.” The first person said, enjoying. “What is your ISBM registration number?”
“42986”, I said immediately. Then, he started checking my number in an excel print out sheet, and when he found out my number, he blurted, “Bhargav Trivedi, right?”
“Yes.”
“Can I see your license?”
“Yes, sure.”
He checked my card, little carefully and then even compared the face on it with mine. I hardly believe, face on my license card barely meets that of present mine. But after some seconds, he found satisfied. I got my license back and permission to meet next person on the desk. So I moved forward.
“Bhargav Trivedi, right?” Second on the desk asked.
“Yes sir.” I replied, politely. “Okay, so you’ve done online registration.” “Yes sir.” “Can I see your mark sheets?” “Yes.” I showed them.
He checked everything. Right from tenth standard till my eight mark sheets of engineering. I don’t know, whether he liked his job or he was compelled to check so many documents. He compared all the marks which I had jot down in the form with my original sheets. Then he passed my form to hi neighbour and I wrote my name on a sheet. I was 23rd to register. The fourth person asked me to take the sit and wait. I did so.
I lifted my bag and turned 180 degree, and looked at the foyer sitting arrangement. I decided to sit in the first row, albeit I belong to last bench only. That reminds me of my engineering days. I sat near that novel reading girl. She wore azure colour dress with white chunni and was just deep inside the book. Just to show the attitude I took a book from my bag and started reading-The White Tiger-watching whether she is watching or not. Poor guy.
More aspirants start coming in. On my right was that girl reading-if god was a banker-and on my left came a boy in denims and jersey, was filling the form. No shaving, no hair cut, no formals, juss too casual. But I like it, his carefree nature. After say, 20 minutes, one of the ISBMite addressed us all. He gave us some instruction(s) and then commended us to go upstairs for some slide show. He elegantly drove us all to a big room with U shaped table and a big white screen and an over head lcd projector. I took the central seat at the bottom of the U, so now I could see the screen straight and clear.
Now started all the worldly gossiping, all aspirants started whispering with their neighbours. Even I did. Then came, Prof. Pratap Gupta, Director, Finance & HR. He seemed to be candid and soft spoken guy. He came with six other prominent lecturers and professors of ISB&M – nande and viman nagar campuses. Firstly he introduced himself and the rest of the team, everybody as well, said about him/her self. There was one lady in that team. After this, Prof. Gupta again turned towards us and briefed about the college. And then, asked one of the volunteer to start the video. Without any glitch, straight-forwardly, he did it and lights were turned-off. And I took a quick glance over the room before concentrating over the screen, and I could see sparkles in everybody’s eyes’. Everybody had the aim, aim ‘bout getting into this new alma matter.
After completion of the video, Prof. Gupta said something ‘bout Prof. Robert J. Aumann - who is a Noble laureate for his Game Theory in the field of Physics – who came to the Pune Campus on 16th and 17th February 2009. Then started a power point presentation about college and teaching pedagogy. He gave a running commentary during the presentation. Then, last but not the least; he said few lines about the Big Daddy. I was wondering all through this, when he’s going for it, and voila he did in the end. He introduced Dr. Promod Kumar and then thanked us for listening all that so patient fully.
Again, volunteer commanded and treaded us downstairs. While coming out of the seminar room, all the team members were lined for bidding us congratulations. I liked it.
The scene in the foyer down stairs was different then. All the rumbled up chairs where lined up perfectly in through groups forming a big H. Two columns vertical and one horizontal row, and we were advised to seat according to our isbm id’s. There were 10 aspirants in each. Once we sat there, one volunteer came to our group and gave us an id card-cum-badge with simple group numbers. Mine was 7.
Those six members came downstairs and one by one shifted to three different rooms. I got the instinct which room I’m going to get allotted. Few moments passed and we were advised to move to a particular room for our GD. I had got the right premonition. We all traded into the room, thinking what the topic we have to face. Somebody took files, some didn’t. I had energy, geniality and a pen. We took the seats according to our allotted numbers and sat with proper posture and waited for our commanders to say something. I again took a round around, and I could clearly found change in the expressions on everybody’s faces. Contouring took a rudimentary change on their texture. And then, I turned towards the commanders, I mean our panel members with a little smile and curls on my face. Out of two, one of them (I don’t know the names right now, but will update shortly) opened his mouth. And shut it down. He turned his face on his left and said in low tone to the other member. Finally, the second one addressed yes. They said, GD time 15 minutes and then conclusion by any one member at the end of it, and before to that 3 minutes of preparation time. Meanwhile, one of the volunteer gave us a piece of paper for writing purpose.
Finally, they gave us our GD topic. It was, “What should we do to curb terrorism?” Believe me, it was all chaos, which should not be the case actually. But it was good.
I’m writing this on 17 June, and I’ve started my packing for Pune. And I’ve made many friends – Sumit, Vicky, Gagan, Hasmukh - whom, I’m going to meet on 25th. Yippee. I’m coming Pune, beware of me.
Sydney Sheldon in his novel, The sky is falling,
“The 13th commandment, ‘Thou shalt not abandon those who love you’ ”.
