What the FAA!

It's high time I say something about this. I scored a 'D' in FAA  (by the way, FAA = Financial Analysis and Accounting) and I consider it one of my biggest achievements in MBA, no kidding. Till the results came, I had my heart in the mouth. Whatsapp didn't help much. This is what happened before results came on Whatsapp/Telegram

'9 failures'
'What?'
'Yeah, Nine'
'Someone post the scores please'
One good samaritan went to the college notice board (so much for technology), clicked pictures and posted in Telegram (Whatsapp never worked in college wifi in 2014). 38... 39... 40... 42 (my roll number) ... heart pumping...

'Common' man Admission Test!

It was raining a little and I had to go to Koyambedu as usual, park my two-wheeler and get a bus to the exam venue. On the way the rain gathered momentum, so did I. By the time I reached CMBT, I was totally wet. The route from CMBT to Saveetha Engineering College (my exam centre) was unknown to me and I had to strain my eyes to see the bus numbers. I called my father and he gave some instructions. I was moving back and forth between the town bus stand and route bus stand. I found it hard to retain my focus.
I looked at the sky.

It all looked very familiar. I know I always do well in this weather :) The time was 6 AM and there was no sighting the sun. I couldn't remember the last time I had so much idle time standing in a bus stand. I asked a few local people and they said I had to take some bus number. I went to the said place but couldn't find the bus.
I decided to try one of the all-faithful 'route' buses! I noticed the wordings "Chennai - Dharmapuri" and I immediately went towards it. I asked the conductor
"இந்த பஸ் பூந்தமல்லி ல  நிக்குமா?"

He answered in the affirmative and I went in. In fact, I was the first passenger to board the bus. I was wondering how I would reach the venue, in what shape I would reach. I called my father again and updated the status and cut the call.
He called me back after two minutes.
"Did you say Dharmapuri? Give the phone to the conductor!"
That was all. The two good men knew each other. By God's grace, within a span of two minutes, the bus was transformed to a direct transport to my exam centre, which was well on the way!
"The bus wouldn't have stopped otherwise!"
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I reached the venue well ahead of time, about an hour or so. Fantastic organization in Saveetha, as is often the case in this place, or, so I've heard. No hassles, everything was spot on. The Prometric people had done a wonderful job. These kind of infrastructure rather motivated me to do well!
"When the dressing room infrastructure is good, even a debutant plays well"
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I had a stop in Poonamalle bus stand on the way back. It was this place that gave me immense satisfaction. I haven't been to a township for long. There was everything - a mad rush of people, a samosa+tea shop, citizens carrying wire bags, 'n' number of provisional stores, vegetarian hotels small and big, yellow coloured houses, families travelling together - a rarity in Chennai 'city', there was no 'single' person; it was either large families or a family of three or four - everything that was so close to me! அப்படியே சொந்த ஊருக்கு சென்றது போல் இருந்தது! I asked a person where the CMBT buses come. His reply showed me clearly there are still good people on this earth. "You can walk into the bus stand and get a bus. But they go in a roundabout route. You can even get share autos here, but they take a long time. Do one thing. Stand right here, you will get long distance buses going directly to Chennai. You can have a relaxed ride and reach CMBT quickly!"
And I did just that!

Just about 500 metres from there, I could see a house with a beautiful garden around it, and in the entrance, a bunch of old men waving at the bus.  சென்னையில் இது போன்ற காட்சிகள் காண்பது கொஞ்சம் அபூர்வம் தான்! அந்த ரோஜா பூக்களை பார்த்த போது ஒரு "holiday picnic" சென்ற அனுபவம்!

I tried hard to think about the CAT exam performance, but I was lost in the beauty of Chennai city. Friends called just after the exam. Happy.
Route bus was going fast, no halts. Happy.
Songs in the background.

Everything appeared so perfect for the day.
 All I asked for, was a hassle-free CAT exam. I got more than just 'that'! Including the beautiful people in the exam venue! :D
I knew the exam had gone well!
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Back to Chennai city... traffic...
ak

Persistence! :) - Never give up! :D

Valentine's Day wishes to all readers! :)
Well well... I am stopping with the greeting. (Leave me from that topic! :D )
GATE exam happened on February 12th (Offline exams) this year and it seems there's a record 7.8 lakh people took GATE this year! Quite a phenomenal number that! Much of the number is due to the consideration of GATE score for recruitment in public sector companies. Not all people want to do the so-called (and of course, dreaded) 'higher studies'! :)
B.Tech itself was cumbersome! No need to say anything about M.Tech! 2 more years of the same branch??? No way!
I also wrote GATE. No kidding, Yes, I really wrote.
I went to the Exam Centre armed with 2 Black pens, 2 Blue pens, a pencil, a calculator and an eraser. For ID proof, my college Id. Of course, my mobile phone too! THAT WAS ALL! I was really amazed to see so much people preparing even at 8.30 AM (the exam starts at 9AM)! Some of them had come with parents. They had food and water bottles for their 'children' - I wondered if they were going for a wrestling match! :D
Embarrassing, anyway, I walked straight up and found out my exam hall. One good thing about being a chess player is that, we find a chess player wherever we go. (Atleast one person! No escape!) Here too, I found my friend Haribalu eagerly checking the notice board!
Coming to the main part, I went to my exam hall at around 8.45 AM. As a surprise, the invigilator was also known to me - she was a chess player's mother!
"Wherever we go, I don't know if Hutch and Vodafone follow; definitely Chess follows!"
As bad luck (or good luck) would have it, I was seated in the very first bench! Oh my god, the very thought of she looking at my answering made me laugh inside! I knew very well... I could answer only the last ten questions. (We prepared in VIT two days back with a GATE mock question paper. Nothing much to say, the mock paper humbled me! :D)
One bad thing about GATE exam compared to SRM Semester exams is that, we cannot leave the hall until the exam gets over. This meant that I had to sit in the same place for 3 hours...
1st 30 minutes - I solved the aptitude and English questions - fairly easy.
I looked at my watch - 9.30 AM :( 150 minutes remained... Fate - cell phones are not allowed. My thoughts went to VIT where the South Zone Inter Universities was still going on. This is the worst thing that happened in the exam hall, I will tell you why - I dozed off at 9.40! Due to 4 years of sleeping experience in SRM, I knew perfectly how to sleep in a classroom but this was different. Unconsciously, I shaded another bubble with 'black ink ball point pen' (this was the only color allowed in GATE)! To my horror, I found that I had already answered that question!

"தூக்கம் கலைந்தது!" (I woke up!)

"The forehead-sweating feeling when you wake up suddenly after a sleep-in-sitting-position is very annoying! You get scared if something has gone wrong - you look around to see if someone caught you sleeping; look what others are doing and later... realize that everything is fine!"

The instructions in GATE paper read something like this ... "Use only black ink ball point pen since it cannot be erased. Hence the candidate must shade the bubbles carefully"

Yeah... Right! They cannot be erased I thought. Then my thoughts went back to something I read when I was young... er... a school-goer!

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins...

Not through strength, but through persistence!"

What an Idea! :)

I took out the eraser and started erasing. Initially it did not make any difference. I looked at my watch. "Hell with it, I said to myself. I will keep erasing - I have so much time all the same"! I continued erasing. After ten minutes, some part of the bubble disappeared. And with it, some portion of the top layer of the extra thick ORS sheet. (The usual shading sheet, nothing alien). I continued with the most productive work I did in the exam. After 25 minutes, the whole bubble was erased. I was very very happy at what I had done. Now the question had only one answer. (The IIT people got it wrong - it can be erased! Yaar kitta!!! Tamizhan da!)

Thoroughly elated at my endeavour, I finally gained some motivation to read the technical questions. And how well I did, I managed to answer a few questions and make some intelligent guesses for the others. I also mustered enough tolerance to stop myself from shading answers for all questions - there is negative marking in GATE! I had answered 49 questions out of 65!

And then I answered two more. I crossed 50 and kept my answer count at 51!

There was still some 30 minutes left and I had to sit idle. There was nothing else left for me to do. The other questions were unanswerable to my standards. My knowledge in CS & IT is very limited. As one significant person enlightened me recently, I just "Did what made me happy and left the rest to God!"

p.s. These stunts are performed by professionals. Don't try this in any competitive exam! Prepare in advance!

Phir melinge!

ak :)