IIM Calcutta Interview Experience

Getting into IIM Calcutta was an unrealistic dream for me, specially, after my cellphone rang twice during the interview prior to IIM C - that of IIT Bombay.The IIT Bombay panel had pretty much conveyed the message to me that I wasnt fit enough to do anything useful in life.That actually reinstated my belief that I was fit enough to do an MBA.
For IIM Calcutta, I had made a huge list of topics that I had to read.But I cut down the list from about 100 bullet points to an efficient 2 when I read in Pagalguy that they didnt ask a lot of technical questions.
12th of March-2009.The most important day of my life.Hotel Monarch Luxur,Bangalore.
I got a lot of confidence from 2 things which worked in my favour as I waited for my GD.
First,out of 10 people in my panel,I knew 5 through IMS,CL or maybe some random encounter at one of the previous interviews.It enhanced my comfort zone to unprecedented levels.
Second,the topic in the morning had been an abstract one - 'Life is a chair' or something.I absolutely love participating in abstract GDs coz they give you the freedom to misinterpret,misunderstand and misquote - something my friends say I excel at. But then Lady Luck had other ideas for me.

2 male professors made up the panel.1 minute to think.15 minutes to discuss.
The topic - 'Global Warming is a hoax'.For starters,it aint an abstract GD.You are expected to know about global warming. The first thought when the topic was read out was - 'It was the 7th bullet point in the list... wasnt it Apurva'.
Factually,there was only 1 thing that I vaguely knew about Global Warming - I had read somewhere that the average temperature of the earth had risen by only 0.5 degree in the last century.Other than that I knew that glaciers were melting at random places,cyclones and hurricanes were caused due to pressure and temperature imbalances(!!!),certain dopes had used CFCs as refrigerants (remember IIM Indore!!!) which somehow deteriorated a certain ozone layer,the chemical formula for ozone is O3 and not O2 due to some reason,somebody along with Al Gore had done something about it and bagged the NObel Prize for it, and that temperatures in Bangalore were comparatively higher than last year.Not to mention that dodos had vanished during the ice age.

I knew that with that amount of knowledge,I needed to do something else to strike an impression.Maybe start.
So I decided to start the GD.But heck!There was a smart chap who I knew was excellent at starting GDs and managed to do that without fail in almost all the practice GDs that we had in CL.So inspite of all my dogged determination to start,he beat me to the buzzer(comfortably).
And unsurprisingly,I realized that people knew more about global warming than I knew.

Somehow I put in the statistic somewhere that temperatures had risen by only 0.5 deg in one century.But then people went on to show that they had studied the entire physics,Chemistry and Biology behind it and I was certain that atleast 9 others in the group(there were 10 including me) had read Al Gore's book on Global Warming or atleast researched as much as him if not more.I heard terms like water cycle,ocean physics,Kyoto Protocol etc during the course
of the GD.Out of the fear of getting embarrassed for lack of knowledge,I somehow managed to convey my sentiments by asking the people to consider the topic in its entirety and not jump to 'foregone conclusions' (a pretty useful phrase when you dont know much) about the causes when we were not even sure whether it was a hoax or a reality.My 3rd and last contribution to the GD was urging the group to talk about maybe the role of media in exaggerating stuff.

Then all of us were asked to conclude in a randomly selected order.I was chosen last.I started saying that 'Only yesterday while walking with my friends in Bangalore when somebody said that it was very hot,another friend exclaimed - Global Warming.'I went on to talk about how Global Warming might have become an everyday word and might have lost its essence to perception.Reminder - this wasnt an abstract GD.Also talked something about Companies going green.
For people wondering how I got selected in IIM Calcutta, the GD carries 10 marks out of 100.But then people say that if you dont make an impression during the GD, you are doomed.At the cost of sounding preposterous, I will conveniently assume that I did make an impression.

If Iam not wrong, I was 5th to be called.There were 3 people in the panel now.A 3rd guy about 65 had joined the other 2.Believe me,I had never seen so obvious looking professors/faculty in NIT Jamshedpur.But yes I had seen profs munching paan, uttering their frustration in relatively simple terms like 'bhup' or 'dhut',or maybe candidly sharing their sexual incapabilties and frustrations with us(trust me).

Anyway.

Here is what happened.

Panel - So Apurva Agarwal. Tell us where you completed your education from.
Me - Told them (10th from Dhanbad, 12th from Nagpur, Engg from Jamshedpur)

Panel - So you currently stay at?
Me - Sir working in Hyderabad , stay at Nagpur

Panel - What is the language you use a home?
Me - Sir basically we talk in Hindi and English. But my parents speak to each other mostly in Marwari.
[An uncomfortable silence for a couple of seconds]
Sir I can understand Marwari but Iam not very fluent while talking[I actually cannot talk at all]
[Another uncomfortable mum. I dunno why the panel was suddenly quiet]
And Sir I can also give my introduction in Bengali and Marathi.

Panel - Only introduction?
Me - Sir in College I had a bengali roommate[Debu Dada, Kindu Ba@a kaimon aacheesh] . So the Bengali influence. And also during the ragging period in our college, we were supposed to memorise our introductions in the language of the state we came from... Marathi in my case.

Panel - Something very fast in Marathi[How on earth do these guys knw everything]
...I couldnt get it. He repeated it slowly . Tujha Naav kaay (What is your name)
Me - Sir maajha naav Apurva Agarwal aahe.

Panel - Kuthun aala tu?(Where have you come from)
Me - Mee Nagpur Maharashtra yethun aalo aahe.
At this 2 of the panel members started laughing. One of them said - Atleast your grammar is good[if not accent]
Me - Sir, actually I just know the introduction.Nothing more.
My friends who knew Marathi later told me that what I had answered for the 2nd question was a very colloquialish dialect.
Actually if there would have been a third Marathi question, I would have been floored. These were the only 2 questions seniors used to ask in College. The third used to be an ice breaker [Read:abuse,slap :):)]

Panel - So you had ragging in your college?
Me - [Thoughts : And much more] Yes Sir.

Panel - So what do you do in your spare time?
Me - Sir I watch and play Soccer, I write articles, mostly sports articles and I also play the Guitar.

Panel - How did you learn to play the Guitar?
Me - Sir I learnt it from a friend of mine who used to stay next door to my Hostel Room [Aneeeeee].

Panel - Which guitar do you play?
Me - The normal acoustic guitar.

Panel - What is the difference between a Hawaain guitar and a Mexican guitar?
Me - Sir a hawaain guitar is kept horizontally and played. It is mostly used for classical music and a guide bar is used to play it. A Mexican guitar is
used for normal chords and western music.

Panel - So Apurva you have been working in TCS?
Me - Yes Sir...for the last 2 years.

Panel - You must have written CAT before?
Me - Yes Sir I have written it thrice before.

Panel - What happened earlier?
Me - Sir the first time in college final year I had 98.52 percentile but I had missed by a whisker in Quants. So I didnt get a call. The 2nd time I hadnt prepared much because I was in the middle of my training in TCs. But I still managed a decent 98.15 percentile. And the last time I got
97 percentile.

Panel - [A nod of appreciation] With these kind of marks you could have got any college other than an IIM...so??
Me - Sir, the class of an IIM is incomparable to any other college. I had seen people getting calls at the percentiles that I had been getting. I knew I just had to give in that extra bit and I would make through because I had always missed by a very close margin in just 1 section. So I just worked a shade harder every year and kept on identifying my problem areas and tried to improve on them.

Panel - So you have not applied to any other college this year? Only IIMs?What all calls do you have?
Me - No Sir I have applied to other colleges as well. This time I have calls from XLRI, IIMs C,L,I and K, FMS, IIT Bombay, MDI Gurgaon,IIFT and S.P.Jain.

Panel - [A confused look] So will you join any other institute if you dont get through an IIM?
Me - Yes Sir I will.[At this the panel gave me a surprised and disdainful look]. SIr actually I had been applying to these colleges as well in the last 3 years. But as I told you that I had been missing in only 1 section, I had not got calls from any of these earlier [forgot to mention abt XLRI in my 1st attempt]. Moreover most of them are not through CAT. Sir the IIMs are a class apart. But I guess somewhere you have to keep your options open and draw your line.
Having deliberated over all these factors, I have felt that after 2 years of work ex, Iam at the ideal stage for doing an MBA. So I had to be a bit flexible in including the other top colleges other than IIMs if that be the case.

Panel - So what is it that you look for in an IIM?
Me - Basically the faculty, the infrastructure and the placement.

Panel - Can you rate them?
Me - [He actually meant the IIMs] Sir for me the most important is the faculty of the college [ And I come from NIT Jamshedpur. Lolz ] .Then the placements and
finally the infrastructure.

Panel - No...CAn you rate all the IIMs according to the above 3?
Me - Sir it may not be a very informed opinion because it would be based on whatever I have heard from my friends studying there and maybe magazines etc.

Panel - Yeah yeah..we understand.Go ahead.
Me - Sir Infrasturucture wise, I guess IIMs Ahmedabad and Kozhikode are the best. Faculty wise IIM Calcutta is the most renowned. It has about 75 eminent faculty members [Trivia:The entire computer Science branch in NIT Jamshedpur has 4].And placement wise also IIM Calcutta has been the best for the last 2 years[even better than Ahmedabad].

Panel - Atleast you are being honest.
Me - [Thoughts: wow]

Panel - So what else do you do?
Me - [arey...] Sir I have been the part of the TCS football team which won the Inter Corporate Soccer tournament. I was also a part of the college soccer team. I absolutely love football. I also watch a lot of European Soccer.

Panel - If you love football so much than you should come to IIM Calcutta.
Me - [Well well. SOunds good]

Panel - [This guy had been quite for a long time].If you love sports so much,can you tell us the venues for the last 5 Olympic games.
Me - [When did I say Olympics...Shit Shit!!! Just try Apurva you should know this.] Sir the last one was at Bejing China.[After a long pause]. Befor that it
was at Greece.

Panel - Name the city.
Me - Sir Athens in Greece.[I was not able to recollect 2000. After about 10 seconds ] . Sir I remember 92 was Barcelona and 96 was Atlanta. I cannot recollect 2000 at the moment.

Panel - Ok...Where is the next Olympics.
Me - [I would have answered this 9 out of 10 times. This was unfortunately the 10th time] I dont remember Sir [after a lot of thought]

Panel - Ok Apurva. Thanks.
Me - Thankyou Sir.

Even though it didnt end in a great fashion, I somehow felt good after the inteview. Maybe it was relief. Or maybe the fact that this one was after 2 disasters at IIM Indore and IIT Bombay.Whatever. I came outside and started walking towards the nearest mall. For some reason, I was smiling throughout. Bangalore felt much more cooler than normal. Despite Global Warming.