Vizag - The City of Destiny

Introduction:

I feel in love with vizag two years back i.e. when my parents got transfered from hyderabad. Vizag with it's sparkling waters and densely vegetated eastern ghats looks like an ethreal beauty. It has scanty traffic and lesser pollution when compared with other major cities in India and is a bliss to live in.

Vizag is known by different names - Vizag/Visakapatnam/Waltair. Waltair is the defunct British Colonial name. 'Vizag/Visakha' are variable pronunciations of 'Visakhapatnam' in short form.


Coastal Line and Beach Road:

I like driving my bike on the 30 km beach road that spreads along the coastal line of vizag. With flawless concrete and gravel, the smooth road and the beach on one side and the hills on the other, driving feels like floating in the air.

The road starts at the Vizag port region and goes all the way to Beemunipatnam or fondly called as Bimli beach. With its Red Soil being washed by the ocean waters, Bimli is an excellent picnic spot.

Vizag Port:

The vizag port is known as the 'Brightest Jewel' of all Indian major ports for its outstanding performance. The port helps in the transportation of raw materials for the industries at Vizag.

Kailash Giri:




My Home:

I stay at a place very close to the sea, approx 200 m from the shore. To the right of my house are the dense eastern ghats. During my stay I had sighted many porcupines, a turtle, a python and a cheetah standing on the peak of the hill shown in the picture. The below picture, taken from Kailash Giri, shows the exact location of my house.

Mock Interview and Rafa

I had given a mock interview today and for the first time in a formal attire. The questions poured in: 'Climate of vizag', 'Climatic difference between pune and vizag' and so on. I started off well. But then got a little uncomfortable when the topic changed to MBA oriented questions. I blundered on a question that asked whether I had done any unstructured jobs. I said that I hated them. I tried my best to be conscious about my body language esp not moving my hands too much.

The feedback was positive but then my voice turned out to be a mixture of highs and lows i.e. extreme modulation. My facial expression depicted a prof teaching with his/her brows coming close. So my interview turned up pretty eventful except for two or three areas of improvement. But, it turned out to be miniscule before the Rafa and Fernando match.

The five and quater hour epic battle witnessed glorious ground strokes and amazing winners. The two players must have covered every inch of the court. Fernando had solid flattening returns that helped him make 95 winners in the match. Nadal was rather playing safe and hardly ever went for the broke. But when he went he won many crucial points. Both the players turned out to be the fittest on the curcuit. After 4 hrs into the semi final Nadal ran all around the court and played as if it is the first point. At 40-30 Nadal serving, Verdasco played some agressive strokes that made nadal run to either ends of the court but then in the moments of surrender, Nadal found an amazing return that lead a standing ovation for that single point. Verdasco's double fault ended the match in Nadal's pocket.

Verdasco on Nadal :
"You need to win the point against him three or four times more than against all the other players. Anyway, there are so good players like Federer, Murray, Roddick, Blake, whatever, all the top players. With Rafa you need to win the point three times more than with all the others.
He have unbelievable legs. He run unbelievable. Anyway, he's taking the ball, you know, like so difficult. I think that he always have a chance to put the ball in unbelievable places"

My Take on Fed ex vs Nadal :

Though, I am a Nadal fan, my five is for Fedex. If he plays like the quarters and semis then there is no stopping him.Simply because the surface is too fast for Nadal to cover. Secondly, because Nadal is tired after this five setter.

SOS - GDs/PIs

It's been a month since my last post. The MBA exams are done and the results are out. It turned out to be a pathetic performance in both CAT and XAT as I couldnt clear sectional cutoffs of one of the subjects. But, JMET and SNAP turned out to be better.

Having got calls from SIBM Pune and Bangalore and awaiting calls from IITs, I started with my GD/PI preparation. I am known for flunking six IIM calls in CAT 2006. So, I need to prepare rigorously this time. I have finished with the basic preparation, the SOP, Strengths and Weakness, Career goals and had a peep into the current affairs.

Practising before the webcam is helping me a lot. The moment I started speaking I found out multiple flaws, the brows coming together, the hands swaying from one end to the other, forgetting points and so on. But hopefully it might get better before Feb 15th, my SIBM Pune call. I also need to lose a few pounds as I have grown (horizontally) off my formal pants.

I am watching a lot of tennis these days, 5-6 hrs a day. The Australian Open is going on and Rafa is into the semis at the time of this post. But then Federer looks much more elegant and seems to have got his flair back. Hoping for a Rafa win over Verdasco tomorrow.
Vamos Rafa.

Tomorrow, I have a mock interview at 11 a.m. and so far my performances at the mocks has been pretty awful. Last time the panel said that I need to develop a panache of my own and not sound so banal. Let's see what happens this time.