At Last Some Sense..

Needless to say, I am very happy the way RSS and Rahul Gandhi have criticised the anti North-Indian campaign being run in Maharashtra.
In India, at the moment only the two power blocs remain, one is Congress running the government and the other is RSS who can script a regime change in the largest opposition party without even a murmur.
The fact that both these blocs have came out openly on this issue is evident of the fact that the political system of India is very strong. Long Live democracy!!!
I believe it was more important for RSS to come out considering that their headquarter is based in Nagpur,Maharashtra and BJP-sena have a political alliance in the state.
If it would have been any other organisation, I am 200% sure that sena-mns would have
made it difficult for the organisation to function in Maharashtra.But this time they too know that RSS is not an ordinary organisation. The commitment of RSS workers is undoubted and the organisation is based on very very strong principles.
To put it simply, I am happy.
Back in Melbourne, I am enjoying my stay fully :). No updates for this weekend because I was in office this weekend :) . A few more friends have arrived from India and we might plan for some outing this weekend. The biggest hurdle we are facing is the lack of a car driver among us who also has a Driving Licence. :(.
Hopefully we'll find one..

The Australian Summer..

It's been almost two weeks over here in Melbourne and I feel more relaxed now as compared to the first few days when I was adjusting my biological clocks according to the new timings. 5:30 hours ahead of India,which meant I had to sleep early and wake early.
On weekdays,its mostly the office and then when in the room,its the time to catch up with friends online and phone calls.On weekends,I have been trying to move out and explore melbourne more.
First weekend, began in style.On friday, I catched up with an online friend of mine who was interested in astrology. A drive to melborune suburbs,thai dinner and then some high speed driving across the formula one track :),thats how the the day winded.

saturday : I heard that the Indian Tennis Player Somdev Dev varman was having his qualifying match at Melbourne Park. I went there,all alone. Why? Because I knew no one would give a damn to a qualifying match and hence I decided to go alone and support my fellow country man. However,he lost :(. neways, I made two new friends in Venkatesh and Sandeep (both from AP) who were a big tennis Fan :).

Next day, I came to know that Federer was organising a Exhibition match for Haiti Quake victims.I thought it was a golden chance to have a glimpse of all the tennis bigwigs. I asked a few more friends(I knew they would be interested) and we headed to Rod Laver Arena. Man, I must tell you it was a awesome event. 100% dollar vasool :).All the top players, Federer,Nadal,Hewitt,Serena williams,Andy Roddick etc were there and entertaining the crowd.

This weekend, I met another online friend, a buddhist from Siberia,very much interested in Indian Culture and arts. The whole day passed strolling on melbourne streets,visiting museums,gardens and galleries with this friend.Finally spent the evening at a Suraj sir's place(Mech,2k4) . I played some games there and since it was my first encounter with motion sensor games, I was completely bowled over by the experience. May be I'll purchase something like this back in India. I mean, if you are playing a tennis game,your hands should move as if you are holding a racket :). Its a good exercise too.

Planning for a beach visit tomorrow morning. The weather is expected to be HOT tomorrow and I too am expecting a similar crowd ;) .Keep watching this space for more.Till then take care, bbye..

CAT 2009: A Tasty Dish gone Stale

A lot has been made of the technical glitches in the CAT,2009, of the students who could not appear for the test on a given day.I however, think that there is more to CAT,2009 than just the technical glitches.
I believe that IIMs will ensure that everyone eligible appears for the test though on a different date. And some technical issues were to be expected. Afterall, it was first such exercise, where such a large number of candidates appeared for a test on a given day. Not even the best of test taking agencies could have guaranteed a hassle free CAT.
So lets bear with it, the technical aspect. Hopefully, next year onwards it will be much more smoother than this. My concern lies somewhere else, on the test pattern,their contents and the motives behind them.

When IIMs announced a reduction in number of questions with no such cut in the time allotted, everyone expected the questions to be of a quality atleast at par with a level similar to previous years.Cometh the 27th November, and the mysterious CAT surprises everyone with its turns.The questions turned out to be much easier than expected and add to that the repeated questions from previous years,it was even more.I have heard many candidates attempting even all the 60.Though there have been such instances where questions were much tougher,but they can be discounted as exceptions only. On a broad level,everyone agrees that questions were easier and the percentage of attempted questions has been much higher than previous years.What does that mean for students and for IIMs?

For students it means that many more students are going to clear the sectional and overall cutoffs and even if someone clears all the cutoffs they cant be sure of calls.For IIMs, it means that they have a much larger pool of qualified candidates to choose from for the calls.Probably, here comes in the picture,additional factors which all of a sudden have assumed disproportionately high importance because written exam is no more the distinguishing criteria among applicants. These factors are your work-ex, 10th-12th Marks, and Undergrad Academics. This changed scenario also serves a dual purpose for IIMs which are :

1. They are no more going to be answerable as to why someone who has cleared all the cutoffs and blah blah was not given a call. They can hand pick candidates for the calls with whatever criteria they think is favorable to them. Even RTI can't come to the rescue of students this time.

2. As is known since time immemorial, such institutions as IITs and IIMs have openly expressed their dislike of coaching institutes who prepare students for the competitive exams. With easier questions,they are reducing the dependency of students on coaching institutes. The questions are easy(10th-12th standard at best) and time is ample,what do you need coaching for? Even if someone finishes the paper in 1.5 hrs with the help of a coaching institute,he wont get better marks than someone who finishes the paper in 135 minutes without a coaching.

Once the attention from IT aspects of CAT subsidies , these questions are bound to erupt which are much more important for candidates and the IIMs.Some of my friends feel, its not the same exam that used to invoke a sense of excitement and anxiety.
CAT 2009 is stale and boring compared to the previous versions which were famous for their unexpected behaviour.They feel with such questions,the dignity of this prestigious exam has been compromised.There were days, when IIMs could challenge the government on even small interferences and people supported them.Now, almost daily, you can read headlines with someone, somewhere criticsing IIMs and Prometric. A time to introspect for everyone and yeah may be for them too, the so called hallowed institutes of Management.