My Engineering Services Interview (Mechanical Engineering)

Ms. Chokila Iyer’s board interviewed me on 21st May 2007. I was the very first candidate to be interviewed this year. I was wearing a navy blue trouser and an off-white shirt with a matching tie of blue color with red dots. The helper opened the door and told me to go into the boardroom. I stopped near the door and my eyes met the chairman’s. She indicated me to come in. I went in and wished the members after which the chair indicated me to sit down. I thanked her and took my seat.
(for sake of simplicity CM stands for chairman Ms. Chokila Iyer, M1, M2 and M3 represent the other three male members present)
CM: Mr. Tirumala, I see from your profile that you have some work experience. Why did you leave your job?
Tiru: I left the job to prepare for civil services ma’m.
CM: I see, so you left the job to prepare for civil services. Anyway, I guess you would have come here by train. Am I correct?
Tiru: No madam, actually I am currently staying at Delhi and didn’t come from my hometown.
CM: Anyway, you must have traveled by train sometime. So I want to know whether you have observed lately that concrete sleepers are replacing the wooden sleepers being used earlier. What do you think about it? What is the advantage of concrete over wood?
Tiru: Madam, wood (lignum vitae) absorbs moisture and slowly loses its strength. India, being a tropical country, receives a lot of rainfall and this proves detrimental to life of wooden sleepers. Concrete sleepers do not have this problem.
CM: OK, thinking from environment point of view, what do you feel?
Tiru: Wood is renewable madam, as specific trees can be grown to meet the requirements but the metal such as iron used in reinforced concrete cannot be replaced, once used.
CM: You might be reading newspapers. What do you think about global warming? Do you think people are concerned?
Tiru: Yes madam, Global warming has taken up serious proportions now and it’s high time we take hard decisions to stop it. And yes, people are now very concerned which I feel is very correct. We now hear every other day about Green peace, Kyoto protocol, Carbon trading etc.
CM indicates to other members that she has finished asking questions and other members can now ask questions.
M1: So, I see that your hobbies are blogging and reading books. Don’t you think these two are contradictory?
Tiru: No sir, in fact I believe to be a good blogger or writer a person has to read a lot of books. The books give man perspectives on various issues. The books stimulate thinking and only then ideas come out which become material for blogging or writing.
M1: Do you write blogs online?
Tiru: yes sir, I maintain three blog sites. (I tell the details of my blog sites and what I write in them)
M2: You initially worked with Wipro. What were you doing there?
Tiru: Sir I was working at Wipro fluid power. (I explain my roles and responsibilities)
M2: Tirumala, what is the relation between global warming, ozone hole and the refrigerators we use?
Tiru: Sir, ozone hole is a side effect of pollution and global warming. Some refrigerants which contain chlorine in them e.g. Freon group react with ozone and break them into oxygen and this leads to formation of ozone hole. That is the reason why now a days such refrigerants are being phased out and we are moving towards chlorine free refrigerants like R134-a.
M2: But do you know that ozone hole has formed over Antarctica. Why has it not formed over US, Europe or India?
Tiru: Sir, it is not that the effect of pollution or global warming should be felt in the immediate vicinity. There are surface winds which moves all over the world and even the ocean currents move. Therefore, the effect of US’s pollution might be manifested anywhere in the world. This is true of any place and in any case sir, it is good that the hole has formed over Antarctica. Had it formed on our country, we would have been in trouble.
CM: Tirumala, you were working earlier. I see that you last worked as a senior design engineer at Eaton industries before leaving it. What were you doing there?
Tiru: (I explained my complete job profile which involved product development in hydraulics field)
M2: So you worked on gear pumps too. What type of gear do they use in gear pumps? What is the profile? Is it same as the one in industry?
Tiru: Yes sir, we too use involute profile but with a positive addendum correction.
M2: Can you show me how an involute profile is generated? Please draw it on the paper.
Tiru: (I draw it and show), Sir, this is the base circle and this is the generating line that rolls without slipping on it. Any point on it traces the involute curve.
M2: How do you manufacture involute gears?
Tiru: Sir, for mass production, we use hobbing. However, we can also go for simple shaping or milling too. But they are slow.
M2: What is the difference between hobbing and gear shaping?
Tiru: Sir, the principal is same except that the tool shape in hobbing is such that the cutting motion is continuous. The teeth are wound over a cylinder.
M2: Ok, can you tell me something about hydraulic pumps? What is a positive displacement pump and is there anything called negative displacement pump?
Tiru: Sir, there is nothing called negative displacement pump. We have positive or non-positive displacement pumps. The difference lies in the principle of operation. The positive pumps generate pressure by reducing the volume occupied by the fluid. The non-positive ones work on generating the pressure head by consuming the kinetic head as per Bernoulli’s equation.
M3: I see that you were also into bodybuilding and power lifting? What is the difference and use of these sports?
Tiru: (I explain)
M2: But bodybuilding is not a team sport. Don’t you think it is better to play team sport to develop team spirit?
Tiru: (I defend and accept the view of the member)
M3: Can you compare yoga with bodybuilding?
Tiru: (I compare and enumerate advantages and disadvantages of both)
M3: Regarding the question madam asked about wooden and concrete sleepers, I want to ask you one more thing. What is the advantage of wood over concrete?
Tiru: I don’t know exactly sir.
M3: What do you think about vibrations?
Tiru: Yes sir, wood is a better damper than concrete.
M3: So what should be done if we use concrete?
Tiru: Then we have to introduce dampers sir.
M3: Yes, we have to use dampers. Good. As you have worked in the field of fluid power, can you define what is a fluid?
Tiru: An ideal fluid is one which doesn’t offer any shear resistance i.e. no shear strain gradient is formed when subjected to shear stress. However, generally fluids form a strain gradient based on Newton’s law of viscosity as they deviate from ideal.
M3: Is air fluid?
Tiru: Yes sir, Air is a fluid.
The members indicate to the chairman that they have finished asking questions.
Chairman: Thank you Mr. Tirumala. Your interview is now over. You may leave now.
Tiru: thank you madam, thank you sirs.

I got up and walked out of the room. The interview lasted around 20 minutes.


Tiru
(I got through this exam. All India 38th Rank. The results came on 8th June 2007)

UPSC failure sinking in

ZOR KA JHATKA, DHEERE SE LAGA…

I caught an auto and Sandeep, my roommate, accompanied me to UPSC on the day the results came. There was already a crowd standing outside and checking their results. We rushed to the spot. It was crowded but we jostled and reached near the board. I started from the top. I first checked if I have topped the exam. Grrrr…. It was not my name. Fine, let me see in top 50. I started sweating when I didn’t see my name in top 50. So, I am not an IAS. Let me see next 50 if I am at least an IPS. Tough luck again. Then I patiently went through complete list of 474. I was not there; I mean, my name was not there. I checked again. Sandeep too was sulking, feeling wretched. His anguish at me failing appeared more than mine. He always believed that I would qualify. He looked at me, I grinned back. I told him to come out of the crowd. He wanted to check again. I said, no use, just come out. He came out.

We walked silently on the footpath. There were TV channels with their trucks and some reporters (including couple of beautiful ones) lining up outside UPSC to interview the toppers or those who qualified. We decided to hold on for some time. We lit up cigarettes and smoked. The cameras were rolling for successful candidates. I could have been one of them. I daydreamed giving an interview to one of the beautiful reporters. Then the absurdity of my situation stuck me and the feeling of self-loathing took over. I controlled. I called up home and told my parents. I got SMSes from the friends, some asking about results and some cheering me up for next time. In fact, I took it very lightly. The failure didn’t sink in. I was feeling fine. We caught an auto till IIT Junction, near Sandeep's office. Sandeep went back to office to do the remaining time;  I walked back into Jia Sarai. I couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of what had happened. I had another sutta and chai. Sank into my room. One by one guys came over to express sympathy. They wore dead expressions as if they, and not I, had failed. I in fact enjoyed looking at them. I couldn’t mourn the failure as I had prelims coming up after 5 days and I had Engineering Services interview lined up the very next morning after prelims.

Now, everything is over, my roommate has gone home. I am packing my books and baggage to shift to Bangalore. I have decided to appear this mains exam from Bangalore. Now, slowly the magnitude of failure is sinking in. I sit whole day in my room and stare blankly at the walls. I get bored. I lie down and look at the ceiling. I get up again and stare at the walls. The pain has gone beyond threshold of perception. I am numb. I am taking a break from books. I need it to recharge my brain. I roam around Jia Sarai, my last few days out here. This place taught me all about competitions. This place is now trying to teach me to live with failures. Yes, nothing has changed. Just that I have failed. Even my internal organs are working fine. The birds are flying, the sky is blue, and the trees are green. Nothing, absolutely nothing has changed. Will it change if I die? No, nothing would change. Life would continue. Only I would change. How personal and how mean the failures are. It only affects the person involved.
Anyway, I am too numb to write blogs. Just blabbering something. I saw some comments on my previous blogs that really made me feel better. I thank the souls for leaving such encouraging words in comments. It sure helps when one is down. But I will bounce back. This exam has caught me pants down. I will not rest till I change the situation. But if someone said "Zor ka jhatka, dheere se lage", he was talking about civil services exam results.

Failed!!!

A GAME WITH LIFE

I was strolling down the road, whistling some tune, and i saw life coming towards me. Life looked at me, stroked its chin and smiled. I returned the smile. Then we started speaking,
"How 'bout a game of cards buddy?" Life asked
"mmmm...why not?'" I replied
"OK, but there's no fun if there is nothing at stake, let's have something at stake"
"Can you elaborate?"
"I mean, if you win, I will be your servant and serve you, you will be happy and if you lose, you would lose all your savings and a couple of years of your life, fair deal, ain't it?"
"But i am already happy and i think you are already serving me well"
"Nope, you can't be happy for long like this, take my word on that and besides, I promise that you would enjoy the game" Life pleaded
"Fine, I like adventures and if the game is enjoyable, let's play"
The game started. It went long. With every passing round, the stakes increased. All my saved money, a year and half of my life, hard work of 10 hours per day, my little joys, everything was on the table. On life's side, there were only promises which I couldn't see. But i knew that life never lies. Finally, we called it a show. I showed my cards. Life showed it's cards. My heart sank.

I failed to make it to final merit list of UPSC Civil services exam.

tiru