In the summer of 2016, I was gleefully overjoyed and mind-numbingly confused. I secured admission into two of my dream colleges and had to make the hard decision of choosing between one of them. What made the decision harder was that they both were sectoral colleges with two-year focused programs. I had an interest in both specialisations, loved both the campuses, each one of them being a name to reckon with.
‘They, just like words, can sometimes say a lot’
Months ago, as I tapped my feet sitting nervously on the bench outside one of many magnificent classrooms of NMIMS Mumbai, little did I know what clearing the ITC Summer Internship interview would have in store for me. Fast forward - seven months, I packed my bags to begin a journey I would never forget.
1) A Loud Alarm Clock and a high dose of caffeine
Two panellists. They don't introduce themselves but it looks like one was a senior professor in agribusiness while the other one is either alumni or a junior professor who was there just to negate all my answers P2(junior one): is Shoaib Mohammad a cricketer? Me: yes Shoaib Akhtar and Malik are P2: so you are not good in cricket P1: why don't you play cricket regularly (because I said in last one year I was unable to play cricket) P1: so how from mathematics to management especially in agribusiness P1: suppose I give u an offer to work with our team from tomorrow how u will aid that team with your background. (I mentioned importance of science and technology in growth of agriculture and give examples of some reports and practices in country like Israel especially their cross pollination by using bee) P1: but cross pollination is neither physics nor chemistry or maths (I said I taught bio to 9 & 10th class students so I know it) P1: what kind of career prospects do you see in this field (Here I came in trap I mention price of potato and chips) P1: what do you think - how this 10 rs potato becomes 180 rs chips? you are a "mathematician" just take a pen and paper and calculate (I did not take paper and pen since I don't know how to calculate) P1: do you know how chips are made P1: just suppose 90 % of potato has only water so how much it cost after you dry it and then add ingredients and boil it. (Although a potato has only 60-70% water so cost don't increase as much as it can be with 90% water but that time I don't know it so I accept that this rate difference is justified and I am a gullible who believed in media reports) Then P1 told P2 to ask me about maths P2: what do you know in maths (since in BSc most of the maths is theoretical than calculating so I there was not too much they can ask so I told them about some matrix decomposition methods like LU and LLt method) P2 you are focusing more on a single topic give me something else so that I can ask you Me: sir I was a correspondence course student so unable to attend classes and did not get too much knowledge of maths by self-study. In coaching also 90% students were from Hindi medium so teachers teach in Hindi and just dictate statements in English) P2: what did you do that you were unable to attend classes P2: oh correspondence course so he is from MP and college is in Rajasthan ( I said no it is in Ratlam district of MP) I said u can ask me anything in physics and chemistry ) P2: what topics do you know Me: relativity, nuclear physics quantum mechanics P2: OK, tell me about quantum mechanics P2: no no you are mixing thing (Although I know I am right so stick to what I said and try to convince him that it is true) P2: no you are mixing what is a photon it is a particle Me: no sir it is an energy packet which has dual nature particle as well as wave P2 no you are mixing things Me: because sir things had mixed in quantum theory you can check it on net or any book P2: OK what type of news you follow (I said history politics sports...) P2: OK what u know in history Me: Mohenjo Daro era , Chandra Gupta Era
