The end of my dual-degree…

My M.S. thesis defense took place a couple of weeks back, so I can now officially put two degrees next to my name. The dual-degree has been extensively written and talked about and while my affiliations used to lie with the anti-dual group, I really have nothing to say which has not been said before.

The end of the dual degree is an extremely unsatisfying experience. The 4-year people have a nice farewell, then a set of end-sems followed by a couple of weeks of total freedom before the authorities force them to leave or fork out the summer rent for their rooms. A whole batch passes out as one, with promises of “staying in touch” and “meeting up later”. With a dual-degree, there is no real farewell, there is no last hurrah, no celebration after a final set of exams. There is no sense of accomplishment or even a feeling of finality. One fine day, you just defend your thesis, pack your bags, clear your room … and leave, never to return.

Spartacus : Blood and Sand

Over the years, several TV series have “pushed the boundaries” of what to expect from television programming. Battlestar Galactica for example, took the sci-fi genre, which till then was about aliens in bad costumes who bled green slime and impractical technology which was poorly animated, and instead spun a complex and realistic story (for sci-fi) with entire layers of philosophy and religious zealotry topped off with visually satisfying space dogfights.

Similarly, Rome came along, with its emphasis on powerful storytelling and meticulous characer development. This, coupled with the visually gorgeous sets and an intriguing depiction of Roman depravity, set a standard for all things ancient Rome-related. Series like these two (and many others – Pushing Daisies, The Sopranos, The Office, etc) may not always be the most entertaining or the best 20 or 60 minutes you will spend glued to the TV/computer-screen, but tend to be ones you will remember the most.

Consider for a moment series like HIMYM or TBBT. Some episodes and some quotes are certainly memorable – “When I’m sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead” or “A little misunderstanding? Galileo and the Pope had a little misunderstanding…” being apt examples. However, a few months after a season is over, you rarely seem to remember much of the story. What about character development or a story arc? Anything suitably absurd is acceptable as long as it can be made into a joke. The series writer’s greed for a few extra laughs shines through in their writing, and apart from some LOLs and a handful of ROFLs, they leave very little by way of a lasting impression. This is where series like Pushing Daisies and to some extent, The Office (US) get it right.

Now onto the subject matter of this post – Spartacus : Blood and Sand. It is the story of a Roman gladiator/slave who, to put it simply, walks around killing stuff. He hacks and slashes, with sword and axe, as buckets of animated blood and guts spill to the floor and the object of his violence dies a painful and gruesome death. Being about gladiators, is it better than Rome? Definitely not. However, this is probably one of the most memorable series I have seen.

Why you should NOT see this -

1. How much is too much? The series starts off with an unhealthy overdose of nudity and blood. At times, you wonder if “Spartacus : Blood and Sand” was dreamed up by a horny, 300-obsessed  teenager. Every character when introduced, is shown either naked or with blood spewing out of them. John Hannah? Naked! Lucy Lawless? Naked. Erin Cummings? Fully clothed for a while, then … BAM! Naked! Andy Whitfield? Naked WITH blood! At one point, I was screaming “Enough naked people! Get on with the story!” into my monitor.
2. Low-ish budget. The sets seem fairly authentic, to be perfectly honest. However, when this series is inevitably compared with Rome, the limited-area sets seem like a major issue. The CG parts, especially in the first few episodes are a bit fake. The writers do the sensible thing, and rely less on fancy CG and more on solid acting as the series progresses.

Why you SHOULD see this -

1. It really improves as the season progresses. The first few episodes, as you can imagine, are watchable, but not particularly great. There is just way too much blood, the acting is a bit shit and you shake your head wondering if the next 40-minutes are worth the effort. Somewhere near episode 4, the series takes a turn for the glorious! The acting suddenly becomes very real, the blood is less a torrent and more a drizzle, the characters seem more lifelike, the story falls into place, the atmosphere reeks of ancient Rome’s decadence and you can almost feel the crowd’s lust for violence as the arena resonates with chants of “Kill!Kill!Kill!”
2. Story-first. A lot of TV series try to “protect” the main leads. These special characters build up a strong bond with the audience, and it makes commercial sense for the writers to somehow make sure that they survive. No matter what the odds, the storyline will be twisted in such a way as to ensure their survival for seasons 2, 3 and 4. Not with Spartacus, oh no! Everything is secondary to the story – the last episode is titled “Kill Them All“, and I was (pleasantly) surprised to see two major characters killed. These two characters were probably the best and most believable actors in the entire season, and here in the season finale, they lie in a pool of their own blood, with a sword sticking out their backs! Brilliant! This hammers in the message that “story is king” and the characters merely pawns. Plus, the story is actually pretty good. A lot of little sub-plots intertwine and make you exclaim “Holy hell! This is going to have an epic finale!“
3. Equality. A lot of series along such lines tend to show just the standard heterosexual male standpoint. In Spartacus, you almost pity the men, as they are objectified more than the women, and irrespective of sex, characters are shown to have a nasty, decadent side.
4. Well-done action sequences. Despite the blood flying around, all the major battles are well done – adrenalin pumping music, artful use of slow-motion ala Time Warp, helmet-cams, etc.

Final Verdict : Definitely watch it, if you can stomach it. The story is engrossing enough to make you forward through some of the pointless nudity. This series might well have been called “Spartacus : A level of depravity never seen before“, but for better or worse, this is one TV series you wont be forgetting anytime soon.

NOT a GD/PI experience – Part II

This post and the next (Part III) are unlike the other posts here – they are as serious and grave as an undertaker. And I certainly am not referring to the WWE guy who puts other grown men’s heads between his thighs. My feelings toward these two posts are very similar to my feelings toward the WWE – mild dislike with a healthy dose of “What is the point of it, really?“

Coaching: I did not go for any coaching at any stage for the IIMA/IIMC admits. This fact made me pretty nervous in the run up to CAT and the interviews. The last time I went for coaching, I spent the weekends of XI and XII at one of the best coaching classes in Mumbai, attempting to crack JEE. I eventually ended up with 3k in screening and a 6k-ish rank in Mains. I did pretty badly, in a nutshell. I honestly did not feel like that coaching was any form of value-add 6 years ago, and during CAT/interviews, I was determined to go it alone.

The only reason I put this here is for the record. When I was slogging on my own for the interviews, I rarely came across anyone who said “I didn’t go for coaching at any stage, didn’t order in any standardized reading material and still got an admit“. Reading something along these lines would have been pretty helpful for my morale, and that is the reason I put this up here. However, I met a fair number of people at the interviews, who had come there without any coaching, and have A/C admits. I am sure there is a sizeable number, but people just don’t bother putting it up.

CAT: I consider the CAT a thoroughly unpleasant experience. I already had 2 degrees, so I wasn’t too serious about it. However, it was an examination I was attempting, and I intended to do justice to it. Most people already have a pretty good “speed-accuracy ratio” going for them during AIEEE/JEE, and it takes about a week of CAT-slogging to get rid of 4-engineering-years worth of rust. That was precisely what I did before the CAT. One week of slogging to get all the rust out of my system, and about another week to cover the syllabus. I eventually got a 99.68 percentile. However, it is entirely possible that I fluked a good score and like I read on forums, 8 months of prep and a hundred mocks are required to score well. I really have no idea. Coaching classes seem to send so many people to good MBA places, so I believe it may have been a huge value-add for them. I consider CAT to be a huge pain in the ass, and have no idea what works. Anything I have to say about it is probably not going to help anyone.

Calls: When the scores came out, along with interview calls from only A and C, I was a bit surprised. I assumed 88% and 91% in X and XII in CBSE, along with a cgpa of 8.45 in IIIT-H, as well as a dual degree would get me more calls. It didn’t. Once you have calls from A, B or C, a level of arrogance sets in, and you start looking at the rest of the calls as “practice sessions“. I was worried that I didn’t have any “practice sessions“. I am really embarrassed about this viewpoint and was an arrogant b*stard at the time, but this is ground reality. I mention it however, with a sense of shame, as dealing with this feeling is critical in doing well – you begin to feel a sense of being better than you really are, and think “If I did so well with so little prep for CAT, I will do similarly well in the interviews.“

That is downright unacceptable, and for the next couple of days, it was hard work keeping my feet on the ground. Complacency began to set in. I was basically walking around looking really smug – think Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man 2, only less good-looking. I had a month and a half for my interviews, and wasted about the first week doing absolutely nothing. Finally, reality caught up with me – I had just two shots, against the best in the country, with no coaching, and had to make each one of the interviews count.

TBC… Part III in a few days time.

P.S.: Hover over links.

NOT a GD/PI experience – Part I

I have about a month and a half before I get to WIMWI and brawl it out for survival. If the next two years are as challenging as they are made out to be, I probably wont have any time to blog. That puts “New Years Resolution for 2010 no. 22 out of of 58” aka “post 50 blog posts in 2010” in serious jeopardy. Having completed barely 13 of the aforementioned 58 resolutions, the list stands in danger of being called “Stuff I did NOT do in 2010“. However, like the Chennai Super Kings winning the IPL was sparked by an emotional Dhoni upper-cutting himself in the jaw (in their last group match), I hope this post sets me on the path to that ultimate objective.

I realize that there are 4 things shocking about the previous paragraph -

• I made 58 resolutions for 2010.
  • I refuse to comment on speculation that I pulled the number out of my posterior.
• I actually managed to keep 13 of them.
  • Thats like, an unparalleled 22.5% success rate! IN YOUR FACE!
• I will be posting FORTY-EIGHT more times this year!
  • May God have mercy on your souls, etc.
• I actually watch cricket and know who Dhoni is.
  • With Liverpool doing so splendidly well, I have gone back to supporting the team I used to in 2001 – Leeds United, who are second in the league. Which is the Coca Cola League One, but SECOND they are! However, due to their matches not coming on TV, I watch the dreadful sport of cricket instead.

Anyway, onto the subject matter of the post. “GD/PI experiences” are plentiful on the internet. They are especially abundant in that haven-of-Bschool-related-spamming that is the PagalGuy forum. Reading a dozen or so experiences are helpful, no doubt, to get a feel of the rough areas an IIM interviewer can cover. Beyond that, you just end up getting disoriented by the sheer volume of questions, most of which you dont stand a chance of being asked. Why? Because not everyone is from the same sodding place or has the same sodding background. Logic dictates that the interviewer will probably NOT ask you questions about some random village in Uttarkhand if you’re not from it.

Besides, the more the “experiences” you read about, the more you tend to overanalyze – seeing minor patterns which may/maynot really exist. After reading the thousandth GD/PI experience, you may exclaim “Ah! Now I know! IIMA asks academics from people with XYZ background!” or “Eureka! I’ve figured it out! IIMC asks about hobbies if they include ABC” , etc. Lady Luck is usually a bit of a bitch though, and such narrow preparation leaves you vulnerable to the vagaries of the average interview.

I was faced with the same dilemma, and I had a pretty simple solution – prepare everything, thoroughly, for every interview. Yes, it was a total overkill. And of course, it takes a fair bit of effort. This is especially hard while juggling a full time job. But if you aren’t willing to put in that effort, the question isnt “Will I clear the IIM interview?“, the question is “What am I doing in an IIM interview in the first place?“

Now is the time for some magic! I will make TWO posts out of ONE! Ta-da! Part 2 will be up soon. Well, unless I get lazy again. In which case this page will languish on this blog unread and unloved for a few months, before spam comments about real estate and real men flood my comment section. Lets be optimistic though, shall we? Part 2 will be up soon.