Two Great Days

April 11th & 12th May 2007 were days filled with lots of memories.
These were the days, when I went for Google Hyderabad Interviews and visited my home after a long while.


I applied to Google, Hyderabad through my senior Srivatsa during first week of March.

After a long wait, HR from G-Hyd team called me on 13th April. I felt it as a chat rather an interview, she asked my interest towards technologies, my MTP(m.tech project). It went for 20 mins and thats it. Next day I got a call from her, scheduling my telephonic round on 24th April 2007. She gave me lot of suggestion abt how to prepare what to prepare.

Being occupied with my academic stuff & lazyness hardly I could prepare anything. Just brushed up my algo, OOPs, C basics. On 24th April I got a call from Ms. Rashmi(working from USA team now). She asked me abt my MTP for 15 mins followed by 2 technical questions and 1 puzzle. Everything was over in abt 25mins. She gave lot of explanation abt the profile I am being taken for, Google Internal Applications Development. To my surprise lot of stress was onto Java as technology development. So felt preparation on Java concepts would have made the situation better. Though I answered everything very promptly, I was not happy since the questions were not difficult.

Very soon got a call for onsite interview on 11th May. Since my parents, sister, brother stay in Hyderbad, I gave my preference of 10th night for onward Journey, 11th interview, 12th night return journey to mumbai. Thanks to google they accepted my request. 9th May was my wife's Bday & 10th May my prof(mtp guide) was leaving to France as a visiting professor. 9th May we had big plan to go to many places, but it was a flop. 8th evening from 6pm to 11:30pm we had a ride & diner out side.

(Hiranandani Gallaria: the usual place, we hang around )

10th afternoon started looking at syntaxes of Java. 10th evening with help of bike ride with santy (santosh, my iit bombay batch-mate) reached Shivaji Domestic Airport, mumbai just in time 6:45pm.
Was lucky to reach in time but unlucky since by that time all window seats are occupied. This was my first journey with KingFisher, wow that was amazing. Unlike my earlier journies with Jet Airways, SpiceJet this time I did not have to take any cab to get into the flight. Just walked for some distance through some sky bridge and directly entered the flight. The feel of Red seats, pillows in the seats(First Class seats), the visible white cool breezes over the luggage cupboards was too good to feel. In 10 mins of slow journey of the flight it reached the runway. Then just with lot of sound and wonderful pickup in 35 seconds with the speed of 250+ kmph we were in sky. Wow great feel. Since it was night and since no window seat the journey for the next 1 hour was just normal. Had non-veg dinner. Took the feedback form and gave full ratings to most of the options.

Reached the Begumpet airport, Hyderabad at 9:45pm. A cab driver, Manohar was holding a play-card with my name. He dropped us to the Google guest house(24/7 INN) in road no 12, jubli hills. Watched TV (aah after a very long time) from 10:30-11pm. Then brushed up some concepts of Java till 12 night and slept. Around 1am another guy joined my room. He was Vikas Kumar Bansal, from near Delhi. He had the interview the next day at 8:30am.

The next day morning, Google Cab came to take him to the office. I asked my brother to come over to the guest house. We had chat for some time and time for catch the cab has come. Reached the Google office, RMZ, behind Cyber Gateway at 1:15pm. Bad luck, could not take the picture of the building. I heard couple of times abt the Google ofice. It was just as I expected. I had to enter my details on a computer and give a digital signature. Sign on an NDA(Non-Disclosure Agreement form). Got a sticker my name & detailed printer on it. I had to stick it over my pocket. Hmm.. a new way of giving a visitor pass.

(Globe with all the search query paths shown)

I had 4 rounds that I rate myself A, A-, A+ and A+ from 2pm to 6:
Very soon couple of guys came and asked me whether I wanted to have some snacks etc. A HR lady gave me feedback form along with Goodies(A bag containing, 'I am feeling lucky' T-Shirt, Google pen and a notebook). It was a long while I waited for that T-Shirt. Felt very happy receiving them. While leaving I got a chance to thank the Google Staffing Officer Ms Anuradha who took lot of strain to organize my interview.


A cab driver (Raj) dropped me upto my home. We shared a tomato-juice tin that I brought from G-canteen. Had a nice chat with him. During the journey, he would have said to me atleast 2 or 3 times " IF U GET AN OFFER, JOIN GOOGLE. THERE IS NO BETTER COMPANY IN HYDERABAD, IN TERMS OF PAY, WORK AND OTHER PROVISIONS. GOOGLE IS THE BEST". I asked him how does he know? I said very confidently, I spoke to many guys while dropping them at home. It was nice to know what public over there thinks about the company. We chatted over various other things like real estate boom in Hyderabad, about his personal life and about my personal life, wile enjoying the movie songs in the cab. Reached home at 7:30pm

Dad was very happy to see me after a long while. Another reason for his happiness was, my attempts & interest to settle in Hyderabad. Chicken curry was the dinner special. Waited for my dearest brother Satish to come. He came at 10:30pm. Mean while met my sister and played with my niece.

"Hi Re Krishna!!!! "... my sister Uma
(I was ready with cam when she opened the door)

Dad likes weekends alot. Bcos he records all the things he wanted to fix in home and targets them to be addressed on weekends by us(me/my brother). So the next day, Saturday our day started with a morning walk, dad took me to thru entire Pragati Nagar(my colony) and showed the gigantic constructions coming over. He was sad about upcoming problems water scarcity. There is a very big and beautiful lake near my home. But dad says after 4 years everybody will be buying water for house needs. As part of home work, he watered the plants in the garden and fixed a flower plant which was growing very randomly. Bought 3 fans and replaced them with new one.

In the evening it was one of my good friend CHAITANYA(chanti)'s marriage reception. My flight was at 9:20pm and the reception start at 7pm. It was nearly 20km from the reception hall to the airport.
To my surprise I was the first person to enter the reception hall at 7:15pm. No hosts, no guests. We waited till 8pm many hosts & guests came. But our hero was missing. I could not wait any more so wished him on the phone and left the hall at 8:05pm.

(emtpy hall :( with my B.Tech friend Satya )

(Stage is all mine)

I should take my boarding pass by 9:05pm to catch the flight. Huh.. time to feel tensed. The entire root was very much jammed, so there were many moments I left the hopes of catching the flight. On the way, I enquired abt the flight, they said it was on time :(( Fortunately, instead of catching an auto/bus I planned it on my bother Satish's bike. So his speed was the only hope for me to cross the 20km lengh traffic in 60mins.


First, 5 km -> it took 15 mins, time was already 8:20pm. I told to my brother, "unless we use every opportunity on the road we cant catch the flight". Now his speed was varying from 20km to 80km based on the opportunity.

Next 5kms -> it took 10mins,(8:30pm) bit of hope was there, but the driving was too scary. Generally I drive fast, but my brother is even faster. Unfortunately, I cant believe on his driving, since he doesnt follow traffic rules, safe distance, doest use indication lamps. So kept on telling him to follow rules properly. At some times I told him lets forget the flight and be alive.


Next 5kms -> It took 10mins (8:40pm), Aah too scary driving. Enquired abt the flight. They said it was on time. Now its 5kms pending to be reached in 20mins. Though we had reasonable time, just to be in margin of safety now driving was like dhoni. in 7mins we covered the 5km and were quite in time. Took a snap with my bro.

Took the boarding pass right at 9pm. Unfortunately, no window seats again. Went to a waiting hall. At 9:05 an announcement about my flight that it is 15mins late. :) I had no other expression to keep on. Waited till 9:30pm and entered the flight. It started at 9:40pm. Thanks to my neighbor who offered me window seat unasked.

Unlike my onward journey, this time I wanted to make some statistics about the flight journey. For every minute, the information like speed of flight, height, temperature out side, distance to be covered still, estimated time remaining was flashing on the screen.

Speed	Height	Temp	D2D	Time Remaining
-	-	-	621
-	-	-	-	-
.	.	.	.	-
Was ejoying the takeoff so didnt note down the data.
500	1.35km	.	.
508	2.1km	-	-
578	3km	14	591
629	3.4km	10	582
660	-	-	-
686	4.7	-2	561
751	5.5	-6	539
770	6.3	-8	526
772	6.8	-10	514
798	7.1	-12	500
810	7.5	-16	488
819	7.9	-20	474
828	8.3	-23	463
840	8.6	-28	448
858	8.8	-28	435
856	9.1	-28	420
856	9.4	-30	407
856	9.8	-34	393
841	10.2	-37	379
830	10.4	-40	365
843	10.4	-40	352
848	10.4	-39	339
852	10.4	-39	324	30mins
851	10.4	-39	310	29min 30sec
848	10.4	-39	297	28.30
846	10.4	-38	282	27.30
845	10.4	-38	269	30.30
842	10.4	-38	255	32
840	10.4	-38	241	30.30
-	-	-	-	-
838	10.4	-38	214	28.30
837	10.4	-38	200	27.30
Airbus shaked due to wind or some other reason
841	10.1	-36	187	26.30
Started Pain in ears
821	9.5	31	173	25.30
Airbus shaked
Pain in ears became more
805	8.9	-26	160	25.00
789	8.2	-23	147
779	7.5	-17	135	23
766	6.9	-12	122	21.30
753	6.2	-8	110	21.00
Pain in ears was lessened a bit
741	5.6	-3	97	19.30
Ears felt good
679	5.2	-2	8.6	19.00
607	4.9	1	75	18.00
543	4.6	3	65	17.30
520	4.3	6	57	16.30
495	4.0	7	41	14.30
462	3.8	7	41	14.30
460	3.5	9	33	13.30
464	32	11	27	12.30
Airbus turned back towards Hyd.
482	3.1	12	31	5.30
479	3	13	38	6.00
476	3	13	-	-
426	2.7	16	59	9.30
Photo
412	2.6	16	66	12.00
Airbus turned back towards mumbai
366	2.5	18	64	11.30
Photo to be inserted
352	3.3	18	58	10.30
360	2.2	19	53	9.30
355	2.1	20	48	8.30
Airbus shaked
356	1.8	20	42	7.30
344	1.6	22	36	7.30]
Lights off in airbus
350	1.4	23	3.1	6.30
351	1.3	24	25	5.00
Airbus shaked a lot.
341	1	22	19	4.00
271	0.7	23	0	3.00
Felt lot of down movement of airbus
252	500	26	0	1.30
238	200	28	0	1
203	0	30	0	0
23	0	30	0	0

This data was pretty much interesting for me, the Height Vs Temperature,Speed Vs Height, Distance to Distance, Time Remaining. The last two calculations were not as per standard formulas, but were heuristic taking many other facts into consideration.

Reached Mumbai at 10:55pm. It took buses to reach home. Got a new friend in the bus who accompanied me for nearly 1km walk from bus stop to home. By 1am was in my sweet home.