the e^xponential stress

This is in continuation of part one - How I Messed Up My First Interviews: Chapter I It was December 1st, the 'Day 1' of the 2015 placements, and Honda R&D happened to be the second company to have come after Microsoft. We were 4 students from the batch who opted for the Honda interviews. After a hiatus from my previous interview experience during engineering, I thought that this time I was prepared and would have learned something. I was excited for the interview although not much excited because I wasn't into two-wheelers as much as I was into cars. In a batch of 20 M.Des students at IIT Delhi, I too was amongst the 5 people who wanted to become an automobile designer. In our multi-disciplinary course, we studied product design for both tangible products as well as for digital products. We worked closely with Maruti Suzuki India R&D for more than 6 months and learned the entire process of car design right from research to clay modelling, but despite our efforts an...

I have messed up my first interviews in both colleges that I attended. Today, I will speak of the first one that I gave. I have written about this in two of my earlier posts- Engineering is a state of mind , and Group discussions and introversion . I wasn't sure earlier if I should write this or not but I do feel that failures are an important part of life and I sport them confidently. And, for the past 2.5 years of my career, I have been sitting on the other side of the table, hiring others for my company and I have grown a lot since then so, this post wouldn't hurt my career. Here it is- My interview experience with Wipro. This story dates back to December 2012. Wipro was one of the first few companies that visited our campus and like I always do, I cleared all the prelims and was amongst the few who got qualified for the interview pushing back many ECE, IT, and CSE grads despite I being from the mechanical branch.  I got my formals stitched for the first time in life, clean...

"My hobby is to pick new hobbies" My creative brain requires rewiring every now and then. In simple words, I like to learn new things, read new topics, build habits...I am always on my toes striving to be a better man, a kinder person who does good deeds. Ah! a tough goal, I know! But, I'll keep at it.  While we were doing our M.Des, our profs gave us a lot of different materials, assignments, theories, designing practices to shape our brain to become better in the creative and research process so that we could think differently, do something unique, build new designs...and more. But, it's not since the M.Des, my brain has been trained to be creative ever since my primary school, DAV where I learnt new art techniques from my drawing and clay modelling teachers. Actually, I believe that I was born as a creative soul thus leading me to like the art classes. I have always been good at drawing since childhood. Sadly, my explorations lie mainly in the creative side of min...

This year, I completed my second-longest stint with a deactivated Facebook account, a complete 3.5 years while I write this post in July 2020.  I have had my Facebook account since December 2009 which apparently was created by my college friend Alok who couldn't see me as the only person without a Facebook account in a batch of 60 engineers :D. One day while we were sitting in the computer lab, Alok scraped my education details from LinkedIn and created a Facebook account with my name, and started adding my school mates too. For a complete month of December, Alok acted as Chetan on Facebook until I accepted to take over the account and maintain it. I had to give in before he did anything more in the name of Chetan :D though Alok was my best buddy so he wouldn't have done something funny with my account yet to be square, I took over the account. He had kept a geeky password 'Efficiency' to start with. From January to February 2010, I added all my mechanical engineering...

This story is in continuation of  Stranger Friends . If you haven't read that, I would recommend reading that first before reading this second part. Bangalore wasn't new anymore. I had obvious friends in the office as well as in Uniworld, my guesthouse. But, there was one unique friend, a stranger friend in Uniworld, the housekeeper! I had been talking to him about random things around me in the city, office, life, and whatnot. Strange but, true; I would talk to him generally during weekend mornings. After completing my stint of four months in Infosys' Bangalore Campus, I had taken a transfer to their Jaipur DC. My transfer is another interesting story highlighting the politics in the corporate world of Infosys; will write an article separately on that. On my last day in Bangalore, I had my bags packed and kept them on the floor near the room's door. The housekeeper did all the cleaning chores and while he was leaving the room, I looked at him. "Sir, ja rahe h...

One crazy guy Left the comfort to explore From center of the land to edge of the shore One crazy guy Who once won the world Lost the trust, got the stones hurled One crazy guy With a thirst to make a dent Surviving the weather without a tent One crazy guy Wanted to remove crisis and poverty Clean the minds that were dirty One crazy guy On a mission to reach the peak Built the journey desirable to seek

The gentle traveller in my barn, Spinning an adventurous yarn. Of the pains she bore, And the experiences she scored. Her eyes were big in excitement, I was surprised with enlightenment. She started with the fun, And how she reached moon and the sun. Things didn't go well in her life, A horrible person rejected her as wife. Memories made her eyes wet, Yet the brave lady did not fret. Didn't let a single tear fall, Stood up high and tall. Gazed deep at the moon, Shouted laughter and started to drool. She then spoke of her experiences around the world, Of praises she got and criticism people hurled. We walked on the grass towards her bike, Her pains seemed heavier and rucksack was light. She smiled and sat on the saddle, Waved back while she paddled. She added another chapter to my life, A new lesson and a new light.

A quick one, wrote this yesterday post midnight :D Everything can't be bought, Every man should be taught. Every rule can't be broken, She is not a possession to be taken. Don't misunderstand, She's not a helping hand. She's an independent kite, Not a slave as your wife. She simply can't be impressed, No matter how well you get dressed. To hit the dart in the center, You have to find her heart and enter. You can't win her with your money, Nor with your love and words like 'my honey.' Give her respect and pay heed, Not only affection but attention also she needs. You've responsibility and so does she, Men should also compromise as nothing comes for free. Leaving her parents shouldn't be a boundation, Weights should be equal for a great foundation.

Finally, I gave up my Nokia, thanks to Microsoft who didn't take care of its customers and rising need of internet and apps in India after demonetization.  RIP Lumia!  I have bought a smartphone otherwise known as Android phone...Now, I am figuring out how to use it :( Alongside reading 'Family Wisdom', my 5th title of Robin Sharma. This book has deeply moved me, probably my second best read after Alchemist. I read Leadership Wisdom two years ago but that didn't have that magic! Family Wisdom is even better than its prequel, Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.  Family Wisdom is a must read!   Anyway, like every year, I wrote this rhyme on new year eve.  Break the doors which stop you, From opening a chapter that's new. Break the barriers which prevent you, From experiencing sunrise and the dew. Move ahead but not start a new life, Forget the wrongs, cherish all the rights. You are beautiful and so is your life, Leave the string and fly as an independent...

Here's my second poem in Hindi :D I'm finding it fun to write in Hindi though it's little difficult than writing in English. Btw, this post goes online on '16th December', the movie I love to watch again and again because of Milind Soman who is always a treat to watch <3  रास्ता कितना भी कठिन हो, समय कितना भी जटिल हो, मेहनत और लगन सच्ची हो, सब आसान है। हिम्मत भले ही टूट जाये, कदम भले ही रुक जाये, ठान ली अगर एक बार जाने की, पहुचना आसान है। किस्मत बेशक रूठी हो, मंज़िल बेशक झूटी हो, दिल से मांगो अगर उसे, पाना आसान है। लड़क लड़क के चलना पड़े, ऊंचा पहाड़ चढ़ना पड़े, निष्चय अगर कर लिया एक बार, सफलता आसान है। पहुच गए एक बार ऊपर, मंज़िल का एहसास किया छूकर, हासिल भले ही ना वो हमे, संभलना आसान है। रास्ता सब सिखा देता है, हिम्मत बड़ी दिला देता है, आंसू भले गिर जाये रोकर, जीना आसान है।

This post has been pending for years now. Ever since I finished post-graduation, I have got little more time for myself, time to read books again and enjoy the solitude. This article is going to cover my experiences with GDs (Group Discussions) and how I dealt with them. Not sure if this can qualify to be a tutorial post of "How to nail GDs?" or "How introverts can speak in GDs?" I'm a person who doesn't speak much, and when there's a group chat, I don't like to talk at all! I like to be in solitude. In short, I'm an introvert. Therefore, Group Discussion is a parameter that can't filter out persons like me for a job during the placement/selection process. Whether Group Discussion is a correct parameter to select candidates or not is a different topic and I won't talk about it. During my engineering, I sat for almost ten GDs (all were not for placements-some were practice GDs while some were with friends) and the funny part is tha...

Three Ds can capsize your life emotionally. What you DESIRE. What you DESERVE. And what's in your DESTINY. Although I'm a firm believer of TheSecret's LawOfAttraction, I place Destiny above all.

In order to send works to a company, I made my portfolio in just a day. That means, one year of M.Des work compiled and composed in one day :D Despite several rechecks, I didn't notice the silly spelling mistake :( Unfortunately that blunder went to the company.  Not only this, I had uploaded this portfolio on SlideShare, which resulted in 125 views within the same day from around the world except India (my own country). The funny part was, portfolio was trending there, lol and to add more fun, two UX magazines (from Japan and America) who liked my work had also tweeted the link of my portfolio :p Anyway, first professional portfolio, first blunder, first lesson. Up for it!

This is an update to the previous post:  Purpose Of Life I really don't understand the concept of people celebrating their own birthdays though I've got really no problem with that and why would I have a problem either? I have not done anything remarkable after being born. Anyway, I believe, birthdays are always special for the parents and the people around who love the person who was born on the day. Birthdays mark the day of a child entering in the parents' world. It's the day for them to cherish, it marks the anniversary of their love for each other and the offspring which brought the contentment in their lives. So, I feel extremely odd when people around me ask for my birth-date so they could wish me on the day; I don't know how to react when people wish me with 'happy birthday' except for saying 'thank you.' I've got few relatives, few former colleagues of my mom, a few neighbours (old and new) and as I mentioned earlier: 3-4 frien...

An old post from the diary, Today Sravani and Kavita, two of my best friends in class gave a surprise visit to my hostel. So, we decided to go for a bicycle trip from Boys' Hostel to the Girls' Hostel and started to discuss our project's progress. And as we started to paddle, the street lights went off probably due to some electricity issue. On the way, down the slope, just before the hospital, I noticed a boy walking in the middle of the road where cars were dangerously passing with just a little distance from his sides. He was holding his cellphone with flash pointing onto the road. I found it really strange. I passed by his side while observing closely. He was looking on the road with the flashlight. But what caught my attention was that he was not walking straight, little left then little right but still in the middle of the road. I stopped. "What happened?" Sravani asked. "Why he is walking in the middle of the road?" I said ...

Rest in peace, RK Laxman, sir. It's really sad to know about your demise! You have been my biggest inspiration for sketching since childhood. Here are, few of my sketches which I did in maths notebook in school, around 10 years ago.

Mr. Arvind Kejriwal did a lot for our Delhi. One of the achievements of him and his party (actually our party!) was being able to remove the beacons from the VIP's vehicles. Here's a small sketch to support him and his fighting spirit.

These are some of the links I referred to get inspiration while preparing for M.Des (Master Of Design). This collection contains some great works of many artists, tutorials for product sketching and much more one would need while preparing design portfolio as well as while learning to sketch. These would even help in cracking the design entrances (CEED, NID-DAT, etc.) plus their design aptitude tests (DATs). These links are randomly ordered. To know more about Design in India:- http://www.designinindia.net   (This link would give information about various design entrances, design colleges in India, etc.) http://teacupblog.blogspot.in (This link is the one-stop solution for the preparation of design entrances, DATs, interviews and more.) Another link which speaks a lot about Design:-  http://thedesignsketchbook.com/ Product/ Industrial Design sketching tutorials:-  https://www.youtube.com/user/sketchadaydotcom https://www.youtube.com/user/...

It was only a month after I graduated when I got stressed because of being unable to land up with a job. I had been looking for job throughout the final year but efforts went in vane. Having passed all the 8 hurdles, I mean the semesters, I was expecting at least one good offer in hand before graduating. Well, any above average student would expect that to happen but life just doesn't work the way we want. Somehow, after a pathetic final year I gained my senses and started seeing things normally. [Pathetic doesn't refer to academics; I have always been academically strong; one of the top contenders.] With no single company visiting the campus for us (the mechanical engineers) and my hilarious interview with Wipro [shall write a separate post on that!], the only way out of the misery of bad placements was the off-campus. But, if getting a job through campus is difficult then getting job off-campus is even more difficult especially when you don't have any uncle or...