X-Changing Times

Ten hours back, at the stroke of six last evening, a tired, bored and confused girl was sitting inside the Dean's office, volleying away queries from three middle-aged members of the intelligentia of this world, sometimes with a straight bat, sometimes inside-edging them onto the pads, and sometimes picking up boundaries with the 'third man' with lucky thickish outside edges. And of course there were the ones coolly left alone.

The occassion? Interview for the Students' Exchange Programme that IIT-Delhi has, under which it sends a dozen or so handpicked students each year to a foreign university so that they can study(?) there for a semester or two, and learn something about the 'rich' culture alongwith.
What was I doing there? I don't know. For almost a year now I've been listening to imploring cries from several people around me in my college and hostel, who kept persuading me for trying out The Exchange opportunity. Hidden agenda? Peace. Too many people are too bugged with me. Just Throw Her Out of This Place. Atleast for a few months....

My take? Denied for several months, till one day got so frustrated that decided I'd atleast fill up the form and see what happens. A few days later the form was out, and somehow, by the last moment I filled it up, buoyed by increasing frustration from life@IITD.

Now I've cooled down. Am in a lot of love with this place again, and don't see any real point in going abroad, even if I have a chance. But let's not talk of hypothetical scenarios. The legend is that I made the shortlist, and so at 4 p.m. I could be seen with 40 other hopefuls, all padded up to play the innings of a lifetime perhaps. The mood was sombre, infact I have been pretty irritable all day( to cheer myself up, I got five people to give me compliments that I was looking good. Always works!) , and I had had my moment of clarity that told me I don't really want to go, so I knew more than anybody else I was there just for the heck of it, for the sake of the 'experience' of the interview. And this background explains the kind of answers I gave. Full of Uchhalapa and spunk. (I could have easily PJed more, but can't really afford to offend those profs. Xchange or no Xchange, rehna to IIT mein hi hai na...) So it's extremely likely I won't make the final shortlist. But I swear the experience was worth it. I mean it was fun, even though it meant a lot of time wastage.

Glance into the questions, whatever I remember now : (especially for the benefit of the latter 20 who didn;t get a chance to bat today. Best of Luck!)

So there I was, entering finally into THE ROOM after lots of delays, having firmly decided to have fun and follow the only sane advice I had been given from him : BE MYSELF.
I gave the three of them a killer-smile. There was the Hunter, Mr. Kaale, and the Mouse, H M Gupta. Clearly Prof Shantanu Chaudhary, the Third Man was more impressed than the rest. Unluckily for me the Dean Anshul Kumar had left the room just before the interview. He had been given two good smiles, and infact he asked me to relax and enjoy and wished me luck before he left.

Anyway, so the interview began. The Hunter started reading out my Application form, that detailed all the Extra curriculars I do and other details. 120 seconds later, he throws me the bouncer:

Hunter: After doing sooooooooo much, where do you get the time to study?
Me(almost laughing out): Sir, it's all about efficiency and time-management. The idea is to maximize the output by maximizing the efficiency, and that automatically reduces the time. **some more crap on concentration etc**

Hunter: How about your lectures? How do you utilize your time spent in lectures?
Me: (fighting temptation to give the obvious honest answer...by covering up on my sleep) Sir, I make it a point to clarify all my concepts and clear all my doubts witin the lecture itself, or atmost just after with the professer. I'm not the kind who'd study just before the examination etc etc (which is sorta true, I CANNOT slog. I ruin my exams if I dont have enough clues already from the lectures, which shall be proven this sem, when i know nothing about the courses I'm doing [:(] )

Mouse is keen on taking notes of whatever I blabber. Third Man seizes the moment to ask his burning question.
Third Man(taking a cue from my form): You mention creative writing. Define 'creative'.
Me: Creativity cannot be defined sir. Creative writing, simply put, is a writer's manifestation of his own creative idea......and on and on.

Another googly, Third Man: Would you include all writing, poetry, novel, play etc as creative writing?
Me(start to answer something else, but interjected):Yes sir. To every writer, his own work is creative. Anything written to convey any thought of the writer is creative writing to me. It's about perspective. As I writer, when I put my thoughts into words, I don't really care if anybody reads it or understands it. It is precious to me neevrtheless.
Mouse(waking up):Give me an example of something that's not creative writing.
Me(after a little detour): A newspaper report detailing facts of an event, for example.

Third Man returns a smile. Some more discussion ensues.
Mouse: What is more of creative writing? Tolstoy or jeffrey Archer.
Me: Actually both. But more so former because the latter is written with a dominant commercial interest in mind, in a way for the masses, where the writer makes it a point to put things in a way readrs understand and like. So the freedom of expression is slightly curbed.
Hunter: What books have you been recently reading?
Straight drive, expected question. Talked and answered about Rushdie, Marquez etc till he asked...
Hunter: What language does Marquez write in?
Me(playing late): Spanish.
Hunter: Which country is he originally from?
Got confused, so left alone.
Me: Am not sure sir.

Mouse gives a wry smile. Third Man looks satisfied still.

Another look at CV, Hunter looks at my choices for universities.
Hunter: So you've filled in Sweden at top. Tell us what do you know about Sweden.
Blurted everything I could remember from the Dressing Room meeting outside THE ROOM.
Hunter: Hmm...so what do Swedish people eat?
Me: Food.
Grinning at my own PJ. How the hell would I know what they eat? Then said some crap to innocently cover up, and made some flukes. [:P]

Third man:So what are the academic reasons for which you chose Sweden?
Me: Sir as far as academics is concerned, there's very little to choose as all five of them are very good universities and more importantly, IIT itself is an excellent university. If it was just academics I was looking for, I would not go for exchange. My motivation is the complete experience..........................for another minute.
Hunter: But have you looked at the courses?
Me: Yes sir.
Spoke of Chemical Engg's all pervasive presence and option of several electives to do. A few quick overs with plenty of questions. Then the tester:
Hunter: OK, I'd ask you a hypothetical question. "Suppose I send you to Sweden but tell you to take no departmental courses at all. What courses would you do?"
Me(thinking quickly as I speak): In that case I would do all the other courses, optionals etc, that I like.
Hunter: Which are?
Me: For example, at least 1/2 comp sci courses, something on evironemnt, a crse on technology and society remembered seeing on the website, humanities courses, and the rest I shall see.

By now I was clearly playing for stumps. Negotiate some more deliveries, when he says:
Hunter: Ok final question, Sweden was in the newspapers 2 weeks back for something very peculiar. What?
Me, obviously clean bowled: Sorry sir I cannot remember.
Mouse(waking up): Don't you read newspapers?
Me: Of course I do sir, but I can't remember anything now. I was anyway busy organising the Inter college debate at that time.
Hunter tells me the answer. Something on clean fuel technology. I obviously didn't know. Gave him a tired look. So he finally said goodbyes.

Bad light. End of play.

Interviews can be fun. Especially the ones you don't care for the results of.