IIIT Bangalore interview

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We reached the campus for the interview 5 minutes before the scheduled time. I attended a lot of interviews before this but the interview at IIITB seemed special. A little bit of tension and the joy to be in Bangalore balanced my psyche as my brother parked the car in the parking lot. He was my cousin’s friend who was there to accompany me as he himself was a student of IIITB. Nevertheless, both of us went to the help desk located at the main gate where I had to verify myself as me. Then we were handed over a paper which listed all the process that was going to be held and was directed to the main building. Impressive as we already knew what all we had to do without any problem. So we headed towards the main building. It looked great from outside with some perfect combination of colors and a large logo at the top. The campus was tidy enough which seemed to have a great maintenance with a lush green lawn adding to the beauty.

We entered the building where I could see huge serpentine queues of padhaku students waiting to get their interview call letter verified. I followed the trend with a great doubt of qualifying against them. Finally my turn came and I could see that the verifiers were the students of the college itself. After verifying they directed me towards the conference room which was already packed up with students and their parents. While heading towards the conference hall I saw the college interiors which had an impression that we are checking into a five-star hotel. Suddenly my urge to study here got increased which even boasted my confidence. After reaching the hall I found that a lot of seniors were trying to control the overall process by calling out the students. I could hardly find a place for me but did not have a problem as one of the seniors came and arranged a seat for me. I sat down and tried to relax a bit. I saw a big board in front which was divided into five parts. All the parts were showing some information regarding the college, the interview process, and the placements and so on. The seniors seemed quite cooperative as they fulfilled the queries of each student without a kink of hesitation. They were calling out the students with their registration number where each student was to have a biometric verification after which they will be proceeded towards the document verification section. So I waited for my turn to come. The student next to me was brushing up for the interview and had his GATE Scorecard on top which had 48 printed on it. I tried to console myself as I could manage only 17.33. Then I avoided him and looked around the room. Everyone was busy preparing, so I also tried to recall the topics which I will present at the interview. After a long wait finally my registration number was called and I went ahead. Completing all the proceedings, I was then forwarded to the document verification section. There were three queues each preceded by a lady who seemed to be the faculty of the college. There again I had to wait for sometime when finally my turn came. The lady asked for all my certificates- original as well as the photocopy. I had already arranged them in order as stated and she verified them with ease. Then she took all the photocopies and stapled them while returned the original copies back to me. The stapled lot was handed over to a senior who then accompanied me to the waiting room. “The interview will take place within fifteen minutes” said one of the seniors. Instantaneously all my confidence started evaporating and I realized the tension surrounding me. But suddenly my brother came to my rescue and took me to show the college. As we had fifteen minutes so we quickly took a small tour of the campus. We went to the hostel, the boundaries, and the buildings and finally back to the war zone. On my return the senior took a bunch of students including me to the interview section. We made a queue and followed him like school students. On reaching the interview section we all sat down on the chairs provided until our names were called. Amazingly a man came and called out all the names of the girls present and took them. I was indignant with the mere show of favoritism towards women but waited for my turn without any protest. Suddenly that man came again, called out my name and instructed me to follow. He led me to a room for my interview process.

I took a deep breath and entered the room with my file. There was an old man with some of the last hairs on his head waiting for me to enter. He looked at me through his spectacles, greeted me and then offered to sit down. I too greeted him and sat down. He seemed quite friendly and hence I gained confidence. Without wasting a single bit of time he went through the stapled photocopies and threw the first question towards me. “Well Satyam tell me about you and do add something which I would really love to know”. Now that was an easy question as I started with my name, my family, occupation of parents, my schooling, college, marks, hobbies and finally added that I love to collect small Ganesha showpieces, love to visit different places, scored 1230 in GRE and already have an offer letter from MINDTREE. He listened to all this with much curiosity and it seemed that he got impressed. Among so many listings about me, he liked my collection of Ganesha and asked, “How many do you have at present and do you know that Ganesha idols are available in different forms like six packs Ganesha, Ganesha playing cricket and likely. I had my answer in an instant stating that at present I have around 20 unique pieces and that I have learnt about these various forms from the internet. I don’t have them but I would love to collect if I get them. He said good and asked whether I have been offered the joining date in MINDTREE. I clarified that I have the offer letter but the joining letter will be notified later. He nodded his head and said, “You were asked to prepare a topic. So please go ahead”. I said yes when he suddenly forwarded a pen and a paper to explain. I denied the offering and said that I would rather use the white board to explain. He got impressed and said “good”. I went ahead recalling all the topics from my preparation of Mobile Communication. I knew that this was the only chance to prove myself and I went along. I explained all the topics covering how mobile system works, how a call is transferred between users, how data gets transferred, about base stations, about frequency reuse with the maximum possible diagrams. The man listened as if he is my student asking questions in between. Suddenly he poked me and told to come back and sit down. I cleaned the board and sat down. Then he spoke, “We need this presentation to see certain points and I have got what I wanted. From your file I see that you have pursued your higher studies from Bhubaneswar while you belong to Kolkata. Why so?” I tried to convince him by saying that I wanted to go out and study as my native place Barrackpore is a small town. And as Bhubaneswar was the nearest so by default it was the first choice. Then he asked why I wanted to do an MTech. I stated that during my Btech I learnt many things and wanted to give a shine to my learning. Moreover before entering a professional life I wanted to finish my higher studies. He went on and asked that do I have any programming knowledge. I stated about my knowledge which I acquired during my graduation and have the potential to write programs. Then he said,”OK great. Anything you would want to know”. I went ahead and asked “Tell me something about you?”. He said his name and told that he is a professor of the same institute and runs a company named RADIX which is situated on the first floor of the same building. Then I asked about the college and the relationship between the teacher and the student. He answered that this college has a very good decorum and the college is a good place for learning. He also added that if you get a chance to study here then you will surely love the college. Then he returned my file and had a handshake stating “Nice to meet you”. I thanked him and went out with a little bit of joy that I did not ruin the interview and have a stand to get selected.

Finally on May 11, 2011 I got the good news of my selection. I received an email from IIITB stating that I have been selected to pursue my Mtech from the institution.