Indians and visas

One of the biggest frustrations of holding an Indian passport is the difficulty to use it. Damn, Indians need visa everywhere. I am working out of Brussels when my whole team is in London because my UK visa expired. Indians can't go anywhere without visas. Now, even Nepal is considering visas for Indians! (I mean where you would want to go. To find the list of countries where Indians can travel without a visa, visit: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=772153 )
Now why does that happen?
I think the biggest reason is that everybody else in the world require an Indian visa to visit India. These agreements are bilateral and for some reasons, India has not entered into any such agreements.
This treatment is always mutual. Usually Indian embassies in Europe issue short term visas, and Indians end up getting the same 3- month single entry Schengen visas. I don't know who started this. With the increasing terror around terrorism, situation is not expected to get better. Till then Indian tourism industry continues to be hit, and we continue to stand in long lines, filling forms and apply for all the visas in the world.

p.s. Perhaps the Indian passport is the thickest in the world. All the EU/US/Canada passports are wafer thin :-)

Why you would hate living in Europe

It is almost 1 year in Brussels for me. Coming to Europe is always a dream sequence for people all over the world, and especially in India. Indians always flocked in Switzerland to spend their holidays (and to spend their black money!), but since Kajol ran into SRK in the backdrop of swiss alps, grassland, and Swiss cows, things have taken off!
Now, situation changes a lot when you look at Indians living actually in Europe (I exclude UK from Europe, its not Europe, its a colony of the US across the Atlantic). From my experience here, living in Europe can be a real pain at times. Please note that I have just shifted my house and really frustrated, so all my views have extreme negative connotations (but close to reality).

So, why can you hate living in Europe:

1. All shops remain closed on Sundays. Markets close down at 7 during weekdays and at 5 on Saturday. You even can't get bread on Sunday. This is European definition of customer focus! Mindset of a shopkeeper is "You came here because you want something, not because I want to sell something."
2. All restaurants close down at 9 30-1000.
   
3. You need to take appointment from everybody, from government officers to a cleaner (!). Appointment from a cleaning company- can you imagine that! First an "inspector" comes to visit your house and he gives you a quotation. I got a quotation of 350 Euros, bloody hell! Then he sends over 2 persons after 2 weeks. All services are damn expensive!
4. Landlords rule here. You shell out a huge sum to leave the apartment. So-called expert charges you for everything from a small scratch on floor to cleaning of the apartment. You may end up paying 3 months of rent while leaving the apartment.
   
5. You receive all your bills in french/dutch, you ignore and 6 months after, they send you a bill in English with a penalty 3 times the amount on bill.
6. All government processes are extremely slow and bureaucratic. I got my commune card after 2 months of repeated visits.
7. Don't be lured by the EU passport, tax rates can kill you. It can be up to 70%, all for your social security when you get old...so you will have to live your whole life in Europe as you would have nothing to save!
8. You will get nasty looks if you ask for ketch up for pizza. The heavenly cuisine prepared by the Godly chef should not be disturbed at any cost.

Some added by Kunal:

1. It takes 1.5 Euros a minute to call India. Almost equal to the amount you would pay when you bring your Indian cell phone to Europe on international roaming. Even the local calls and roaming within Europe are max expensive.
   
2. Appointment for a plumber takes 3 months. So if your flush stops working, well... Good luck!
3. Normal shops close at 7:30 and night shops close at midnight. Aren't they supposed to be "night shops"?
   

More to follow I am sure as I have more time to go in Europe....

Vancouver- best city after retirement- I

I set my foot in North America when I landed in Vancouver, Canada. I stayed there for about 3 weeks. My first impression of Canada was a relaxed country with lots of open spaces and few people. I got out of the airport and even before I could see few locals, I saw all the Desi taxi drivers. I boarded a taxi and we were off to downtown. Soon I was in a conversation with the Desi driver. First of all, he was now a Canadian citizen, he got rid of his Indian passport 5 years ago (that's a very sensible thing to do given the number of visas required for Indians!). "Ab koi airport par sawaal nahi poochta" was his candid admission. Fair enough!
First experience with a local was with the hotel receptionist who taught me a few lessons of hard core selling. He tried to sell an upgrade to his best, but then he could not get over my strong Desi "never say yes" attitude, and I got rewarded for it too. He gave me a top floor room without any extra charges. I ran to the nearest shopping mall to buy some clothes for next day's meeting. Why? Didn't I tell you that Lufthansa forgot my baggage at Frankfurt! It was so good to see some shops open on Sunday after a long time. Europe really needs to learn customer focus.
First day at work was a complete disaster with meetings on technical details of mining. I did not know even a single detail and was trying to write notes to look intelligent. By 4 PM, things got worse as I was struck by jet lag. That night's dinner with the client was the longest one ever for me.....
People in Canada are amazingly lifestyle oriented. Work hours start usually early, more important reason being avoiding early morning traffic. People usually commute 1-2 hours daily. But by 5, everybody was gone! Simply amazing! I met a guy who used to run 10 kms daily during lunch hours. And he was not alone. There were several groups of 10-20 running during afternoon hours in Vancouver.
Meetings after meetings, and week was over (anyways you live for weekends in a job). Finally on Saturday morning, I got to enjoy the view from my room. It was fascinating with mountains (peaks were still snow clad), port and the river. With sun coming out, it was the right time for a stroll. So like a true tourist, I picked up a map and off I went.

10 most interesting questions about India by videshis

Based on my experience over the last year (includes some personal questions too):

1. Are all Indians vegetarian?
2. What is an 'arranged' marriage?
   
3. Is India really growing?
4. Why are bollywood movies long and have song and dances?
5. What is the caste system?
6. What is the famous 'Indian' marriage?
7. Do you speak Hindu? Do all Indians speak Hindu?
   
8. What is your religion?
9. Why do Indians talk a lot about money?
10. Why are Indians not interested in charity?

An interesting mobile product

"One can now send e-mail without GPRS/Internet through SMS."
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/bNow-send-email-through-SMS-b/318049/

Interesting product, but with limited functionalities. Interested in what others have to say about it?

The Brazil experience- II

No doubt, I didn't lose as much weight as I should have.....

-- We should not forget Brazil's natural beauty, it has great beaches, forests, and some mountains too. Rio is completely different from Sao Paulo, much smaller city with great beaches and party atmosphere. The biggest obstacle in exploring Brazil is language, it can get really tough to find the right places and go beyond Sao Paulo and Rio!
-- I am forgetting an important part of Brazilian culture, in fact, two: Samba and football. Loser I am, I missed both. Carnival ended two weeks before I landed; and there were no major football activities in South America (except for the Ronaldo's 'incident')
-- I should end by saying something about brazilian people. I found them very friendly, open to other cultures, people made an effort to speak in English. They have strong family values and children usually live with parents till they are married. It is Ok to pat on the back and hug. Society shows glimpses of the 'US dream', despite of the fact that relations between the two countries are not very strong. In many ways, it has lot of similarities with the Indian culture.

On a final note (bear with me), the only time I saw Indians in brazil was when the President visited Brazil. She stayed in the same hotel. To be blunt, she lacks any charisma and totally, lacks the 'thing' required when you are the Head of the State. No wonder very few parliamentarians turned up for her speech!

The Brazil experience- I

So what are you thinking? What was I doing there? I was on a study in Brazil for full 3 months, based out of Sao Paulo, and made some visits to Rio. It was a completely new setting to me. To summarize the experience in one word, it was different.
Brazil is a mystery to many people, only known for Samba and babes. Let's explore it further:

-- First things first: the beauty, what you have heard is true and its amazing! Though, my Colombian colleague was fairly disappointed by the brazilian 'standard', claiming that Colombians are better!
Those girls have highly well-toned body, and not surprisingly, many have gone under a knife! If you know portuguese, its a heaven!
-- Which brings me to the next issue: language. Portuguese is the only language spoken in Brazil. Very few people speak English even in Sao Paulo which is considered to be highly cosmopolitan. All the business is done in Portuguese. After going there, I have a new found respect for Hindi and have been trying to use it more in business discussions (with Indians of course).
Tip: Always have a card with your address written to show to the taxi driver.
-- Talking about taxis, they are expensive, but drivers are very friendly and honest (unlike some Dutch taxi drivers). I tried Metro once, and I must say Mumbai metros are much better than brazilians. People have little sense of discipline in getting in and out.
Public infrastructure is good, but under tremendous pressure with long traffic jams, very similar to some of the big Indian cities.
-- Which brings me to a comparison of the two countries. Goldman clubbed India and brazil together in BRIC, I don't know why! Brazil is far ahead of India (at least 5-8 years) in terms of quality of life and living standards. And I am comparing apple to apple, Delhi/Mumbai to Sao Paulo. To give you simple real life scenarios: everybody in a family has a car, roads are much better, 'normal' employees travel abroad on personal trips frequently, etc.
On the other hand, focus on growth is much higher in India. Financial markets are more sophisticated, and companies are more aggressive in international expansion. I found Brazilian companies inward looking and lacking on ambition. Focus is still on commodities, and their strategy is to milk the cow as long it exists.
-- Cow reminds me of beef and food. All my team mates met a vegetarian for the first time in their life! I was starved there, living on pasta with tomato sauce throughout the week. My main meal was breakfast and lunch was always rice with chilli sauce. There was one Indian restaurant which served the worst food I have ever eaten. Lately I developed a liking (or addiction) for hot chocolate cake with ice-cream. No doubt, I didn't lose as much weight as I should have.

More to follow...

1 year at Job!

Talking to a friend today morning, I realized that I have almost finished 1 year at my first job. This might be a good time to write down some memories, learnings, experiences..blah blah
So the biggest achievement has been that I traveled to 8 different countries during the last year (UAE, thailand, belgium - my sweet home(!), netherlands, france, germany, UK and brazil).

This travel meant working with people with very diverse backgrounds and cultures. Telling them about India and indian traditions was challenging as well as entertaining for me. And knowing (and seeing ;-) their culture was truly amazing, the differences between the French and Dutch are just as staggering as those between a north indian and south indian. Just a word about the Brazilians: they are amazing!

As this was a post related to the job, I should mention something about the work. It was a good learning experience about project management and media industry (my field of expertise now). The best part of the learning came from other people, some of whom are really smart people.

Finally wrapping up by saying few things about the experience of living in brussels. It is sweet as long as it is short and you know how to drive a car. Fortunately, first factor worked for me, but second didn't! I know have to learn driving pretty soon......

More to follow...

Back after a long time!

I stopped blogging a year ago, reasons were many; primary being that blogger was too slow! I tried to load it sometimes and it never did! Of course, more obvious reasons also applied: being busy in job, travel etc. From now on, I will try to be more regular (as though people are waiting for me!)...

Campus Recruitment Automation Software/Portal

I am currently working on a start-up, Eatbits.com.
We have come with a Campus Recruitment Automation Software for educational institutes. We have built up a system which, we believe, is going to add a tremendous value to the Placement Activities at an educational institute and give it a new professional outlook in line with the stature of the institute.

Our main motivation for developing this software came from our personal experiences at IIT Kanpur. We saw an inefficient and manual set-up of the Recruitment process.

We would like to introduce you to “Ergo”, a Campus Recruitment Automation Software.

Some of the important features of our software are:

1. Complete automation of the entire placement process through a web-based interface.
2. Ergo supports 3 interfaces:
1. Administrator Interface: To monitor and control the entire process including managing job applications, student profiles, recruiters’ data, announcement forums etc.
2. Student Interface: To create profile, apply for jobs and manage resumes.
3. Company Interface: To view job applications, short list students and communicate with students/institute.
3. Archival and maintenance of past recruitment data
4. A comprehensive portal for the Institute’s Placement Activities.

Ergo provides a user friendly and comprehensive interface to the institute, all the students and the recruiters. It will make the whole process easier, more efficient, reliable and fast. It will provide the institute an efficient and professional system which will be a definite edge in the eyes of recruiters.

We would be thankful to you if you can go through the demo of our product at: http://www.eatbits.com/demo.

Username/Password for the same are:

Administrator Interface: admin/admin

Student Interface: student/student

Company Interface: company/company

We request you to go through our system and give your valuable feedback. We would be glad if you can refer the software for your respective educational institute. Please contact us for more details.

Contact me at:

Phone No.: +91 98863 46740

Email:pankajg05@iimb.ernet.in

Anusmaran- A great experience

Back to blogging after a looong time. Can't say I was too busy for taking just 15 mins to write a blog, just laziness I guess....and probably, lack of content for me to write about. Finally, I have got something to write about.
Being the Alumni Secretary of IIMB (because of that 1 dreaded vote :)), I was in-charge of Anusmaran'06, the annual alumni reunion of IIM Bangalore. It was supposed to be held in 12 cities across the world and being here in Tokyo doesn't help the matter anyways. Basically, all coordination needs to be done from here....and here I realized the importance of technology and team in this world.
So, what was the homework I did in IIMB for this? Basically, built up my team. I was not supposed to be present in all locations and success of the entire event depended on people who were supposed to be present in these locations. People will say my team was my "circle" only. But, then I openly admit that I purposefully did that. Nothing but personal equations work in a non-rewarding situation. At the same time, I build personal relationships with many others and they are now my closest friends.
Coming now to ground reality...the real action began when I reached here in Tokyo. I was supposed to get resources for my team. Initially, no body replied to my mails, I was frustrated with lack of support from any of my team members. Had I made the right choice? But, then this is not how it was supposed to work. I needed to lead, right! All initial work had to be done by me, nobody else would do it. Then began my series of cold calls, mails and pitches to Alumni for sponsorship. Coming back from work at 9 pm, and then making those calls/mails:- aah!! Selling an event with the worst possible past record and image was not easy. Frankly, it boiled down to begging and emotional appeals. It was a long cat and mouse game between me and alumni :)
So, where was my team? Well, they got into action when we had the sponsors, and they really did get into action! Certainly, few pinches of emotion and anger had to be put in from my side here and there :)
My target was to put the entire event into "auto-pilot" mode by last week and I was able to do that. In the last week, my involvement was nearly zero. Everyone knew their responsibility and deadlines. And finally, the event was a success.
A good experience for me! certainly....made some mistakes definitely. But, overall learnt a lot. It has certainly given me a lot more confidence in myself.
Can't forget the technology part here. Gmail, gtalk, telephone calls: really, world is so small!! I certainly realized it for the first time......
My greatest personal achievement: my team members are getting more credit than me for the event.

Orkut Profile of a Software Engineer

About me: I think I am changing the world, but I am not. I think I am contributing to the Indian economy, but I guess I am not. I think I love my work, but I do not. I think I hate all people who made me earn my engineering degree, and I do. I think I am living, but… and most importantly, I am LOOKING for someone!! Ok...I won't be funny anymore. I am a cool guy with a zeal to enjoy life (If you know me--> "Just stop laughing!!")

Relationship status: what?

Birthday: The day my PL is about to fire me

Age: 10111

Here for: web browsing in company hours

Children: can’t be (hey, don't get me wrong here!!)

Ethnicity: Programmer

Languages I speak: Java, C/C++, 010101110101

Religion: I get holidays on all religious festivals, so I love all religions.

Political view: the guy sitting beside me is a pig!!

Humor: weekly

Sexual orientation: When will I have sex?

Fashion: Ask my company HR. Btw, I like jeans, t-shirt and a cross-bag.

Smoking: The second greatest pleasure on the earth

Drinking: The first is this.

Pets: Yeah, my PL looks like a dog.

Living: Cummon, this is a stupid one. How can this be asked to a software engineer? Believe me, I am living!!

Hometown: My company (Oh God! Please bring my appraiser to this page)

Webpage: http://naukri.com, http://jobsahead.com

Passions: searching for the cheapest pub around, cursing my company, looking for another company, remembering my good old college days, worrying about my future

Sports: quake, CS, computer chess

Activities: Are you crazy?

Books: “How to lose weight in 20 days?”, "How to live a happy life?", "101 ways to attract a girl", “Java Unleashed”, “C++ at your footsteps”, Others censored

Music: Metallica, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, ACDC, and anything depressing

Tv shows: can’t afford one

Cuisines: Bread, Omelette, Butter, Maggi, anything available within 200 metres of home

And, the above post has been written by ME and its not a pick up!!

An interesting thought

I have borrowed this thought from my friend Aseem. Here I present this interesting comparison along with my inputs :)

The comparison is between JIT production and our risk-averse nature. I will start with a brief introduction to what happens in JIT which will help you appreciate the comparison better.

JIT: One of the cornerstone thought of JIT is that “Reduce inventory and capacity for improvement”. It is like a ship sailing over an ocean. More the water level, lower the probability that you will hit a stone. Inventory and excess capacity increases your water level. Everything goes on smoothly and you never feel any problem. JIT principle is to reduce this water level so that you fail and the, you improve.

Same thing is applicable to me and many of my batch mates from IIT and IIM. With 4 Is or 2 Is in their degrees, they have increased the water level. “Playing safe” seems to be the sole motive. Do IIT, then US/IIM, and then do a job. “Play safe” always. We are living in a small cocoon which guards us from failures, pains and miseries. And once you are guarded, you can never improve. Whoever said,“One failure teaches you more than 100 successes” is the greatest thinkers of all time (If nobody has said this, I am saying this :)).

One needs to reduce that water level to hit the road blocks and then learn. Otherwise, your boat will always sail across a river, it will never be able to voyage in an open ocean.

Another semester gone by...

Another grueling three months, another semester at IIM Bangalore gone by….now I am half an MBA (last 2 semesters are discounted!!).

Any memories from the last semester? Many, some great, some not so great. As a ritual, let’s first talk about the courses and the instructors. If I can summarize my learning from this semester, I learnt two things in this semester:

• Corporate Finance: It was the most interesting course: 50% due to the instructor, Prof. V Ravi Anshuman (an IITK alumnus). During my engineering, we were told that theories work under only “ideal” situations which can be created under laboratory conditions. In markets, theories are never applicable because even the “ideal” conditions are not defined. It depends so much on individual behaviors and perception that the complexities are wonderful. Behavioral Corporate Finance seems to be an interesting topic to me, a mixture of Psychology and Finance. Would love to read about it…
• Toyota Production System (TPS): Japanese proved the 200 year old theory of Adam Smith of “economies of scale” wrong!! You don’t have to produce the maximum for minimum costs. Right from the childhood we are taught this and now, suddenly JIT proves it all wrong. “The Goal” was a great reading.

No more learning from this semester!! Wondering why? Kotler was mercilessly butchered by our marketing professor. Most of the stuff in QM was not new to me. I found MPPO interesting enough.

Now, other things apart from academics. Hard work put in the first month paid off with an internship in Lehman Brothers. Read more about my summers experience in one of my previous postings.

Time spent with my friends was a great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed their company. May the friendship last for ever!

So, how would I rate my second semester? A lot may depend on the final grades I get :). But, discounting that effect, it was better than the last semester in terms of enjoyment that I had.

My "fraud" b'day mail

Today is my "fraud" birthday, thanks to my IIMB friends. It was the wildest surprise ever for me. I had gone to L^2 to celebrate other's birthdays, suddenly saw people rushing towards me and then it was all history. Thought I should "preserve" my birthday mail. Here is the "edited" version of the mail.
Strong Disclaimer: This mail has no resemblence to any person or place in reality. It is a fiction work engineered by my friends here at IIMB.

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

“Go miser go, for money sell your soul.

Trade wares for wares and trudge from pole to pole,

So others may say when you are dead and gone.

See what a vast estate he left his son.”

My motto in life is that every penny is worth a million dollars and spending even a penny on anyone else is a forbidden sin. I am a maha lichhad (ultimate miser and greedy pig) DML2 who does not believe that securing a CGPA of 3.76 is reason enough for a small treat to close friends. My time is also a very precious commodity and I believe that studying with lesser mortals slows me down. Therefore I study in groups only when I see a distinct advantage.

I have an overwhelming programming fetish which I often use for self gratification, and this orgasmic passion has driven me to join SIGMA in search of exotic codes. I have had diverse experiences as a coordinator of SIGMA, where I bluntly dismissed frantic calls for computer repairs and restoring internet connections. At IIMB, I have supplemented my programming skills with ‘Global’ abilities, which is evident from my global CP and a 4.00 in BGS.

Apart from the love of my life, there is another woman (PGP2) behind my success. She is the only one I consider worthy of my Day 0 treat. The fact that I was planning for this treat and refused one to my friends speaks volumes of my judgmental skills and persistence. I am a thorough perfectionist, which is evident from my reaction to a score of 3.59 in QM- “Yaar yeh course to mujhe pehle se khatak raha tha”. My weaknesses are that in spite of being AIR 39 in IITJEE, I am extremely down to earth, simple and honest person.

I believe that my abilities and diverse experiences have prepared me well for a grand hooshing tonight. I am extremely confident that my butt will be able to last the beating and challenge you to prove me wrong.

Credits: Pankaj Goyal

Break over..

Last 3 days were good, infact great. A break after a month almost where preparation for summers had taken its toll on me. Had a great time over this weekend, slept, watched movies, and enjoyed with friends. Missed the class trip to an extent though....
Now all good things come to an end and same for this break too. I am lacking behind by miles this semester in acads and surely need to do some catching. A new beginning from tomorrow.....

Galaxy -- Was it worth it?

I thought I had left those memories back. But then things keep coming back to hit you and leave you unguarded. I came across this article about Galaxy by Abhishek Verma and suddenly I found myself struggling with the same question, "Is (Was) Galaxy worth it?"

The question will raise many eyebrows including some of my closest friends'. Galaxy has always been treated by those passionate about it as a sacred truth; no one can question the sanctity of the event. I had been passionate about it myself, though I must admit not to such an extent as some of my wing mates. But, it has been close to my heart, especially since I have seen it being scrapped twice and being subjugated to petty student politics and whims and fancies of certain individuals.

Sometimes not being a blind follower helps you to ask questions. And I was fortunate enough to be in such a position. This question has haunted me right from my third year when I was in the team having the passion about the event. I have been on both the sides - in the first year, I did some "labor" work and then in my third year, I was little bit involved in organizing things as well (For reader's record, both the times galaxy got scrapped).

So, the question remains. Was Galaxy worth all the passion, talk, and hype? As a first step, let's see who gained from Galaxy.

Galaxy was never conceived as an event for experimentation, it was always about excellence. So, who got to participate in all the cultural events like debates, skits, drama, music and dance? Those who already knew it! Same 2 debaters, 5-6 excellent dancers, 3-4 actors and 7-8 musicians were motivated to perform throughout the year at every moment possible. Total number of actual performers did not exceed more than 50 out of a hostel of 500 students. So, where is the learning or personality development of an average guy who has done nothing in his school but wants to try out things here? I will discount all those workshops held in the hostel and few individual exceptions. Those were more "fund generator" exercises than anything. No culsecy felt like really organizing those workshops.

So, what were the other arguments for "motivating" people? "You will work 24 hours for 7 days. You will work for the team." blah, blah.....Fine. Acceptable. But, what will I do during that time? Carry bricks, cots, or be one of those "falling walls". Where is the value addition? How will an average guy who does only “labor” feel passionate about the whole event?

What about ideas? Who generated them? Again, few "das" from Hall 1. No contribution from your side for sure.

I don't want to get into political implications of Galaxy. It was always used by Cul Secys as a guard against doing nothing for most of the part of their terms.

In such a scenario, how was Galaxy helping a majority of students? Institute festivals were screwed, all the Gymkhana clubs were inactive, and all the hostel cultural activities were in jeopardy. Who was benefiting from all this?

I have attempted to bring to spotlight the other side of Galaxy. It is not an attempt to disregard the feelings of people from past batches of IIT Kanpur and my batch who have been passionate about Galaxy, who still can "feel" it. In fact, I demand answers of these questions from them...... After all, I haven't seen Galaxy ever!!

Yours truly In news!

Though it is a shameless footage seeker post, but who cares, this is my blog :)

Thanks to the media cell, IIM Bangalore, I got some footage in media coverage on IIM Bangalore summer placement. Here is one such online article,

http://www.business-standard.com/search/storypage_new.php?leftnm=lmnu7&leftindx=7&lselect=8&autono=205138

Management guru dead

All time great management guru, Peter Drucker dead at 95.

http://www.ndtvprofit.com/charts/homepage/news.asp?id=223215

Summer Placement: Emotionally draining

In last 4 days, I have seen it all. I myself went through periods of lows and ups. Sometimes, it seemed all is lost; other times you have a feeling of achievement; and there are some times where you feel; is the whole thing worth it? I have seen people losing hope when they had to go from one company's process to another to another, and continue doing it. I have heard people feeling guilty of coming here to IIMB itself.

By God's grace, I was out of this grilling process quite early. I have been a volunteer from there on and I could afford to have a bird’s eye view on the whole process. People had to go from one GD/interview to another, one company to another; and it continued from 8 AM to 12 Midnight. This has been continuing for the last 4 days!!

Uncertainty, "arbitness" and lack of transparency of the process add to the complexity and anxiety. As some of the seniors put it, "The system is fair to all, unfair to some." If you happen to belong to that "some", you can feel pretty devastated.

What about people with work experience? Well, this place is not for them. In most cases, they don't get what they deserve. Questions like, "How is your work experience related to this company?" are cruel jokes. Recruiters should realize that most of them are here to do an MBA for precisely this reason- shift over from their present field. But, I think I am expecting too much from them considering the fact that some of the recruiters are themselves fresh graduates!! An ISB is always a better choice for people with 2+ years of work experience.

And finally, did one have a choice in terms of type of job or company? Most of them did not. People with interests in IT didn't even get a shortlist from IT companies. Some who hate selling soaps and detergents ended up in FMCG marketing. I am quite sure that even some of those who got day 0 are not interested in I-banks as of now.

Mid-way through the process, it was more about getting "out" of the process, rather than getting an internship you like. One can guess the motivation and enthusiasm levels of people.
I just hope that final placement is a much more logical process.