XLRI : Bloodbath in XXL...

“Will you…. Please ?” And I looked towards her, almost imploringly... waiting for the slightest sound to escape her lips. She looked at me… a little bemused, looked up… and seemed to pause for a while. And then I heard those words.. “Yes… yes, of course”. And ladies and gentlemen, 30 seconds flat – that is all it took to exchange my lower berth for an upper. [:)] And thank God for that! The Charminar Xpress to Chennai turned out to be over eight hours late and trust me, I doubt anybody could have made better justice to the upper berth than me. For most of the journey, there I was perched on top – either logging z’s or flipping through many happenings of the world – and preparing myself for my XLRI interview. Well, little did I know what lay in store for me.

Now my stay in Chennai was for just about 24 hours. But thanks to an old college friend of mine, Vishnu – I managed to make the most of it. Now, as I’m nightflying to Delhi, some 11000 ft above sea-level – myriad imageries cloud my mind. The helmetless curve-speeding on his Pulsar, the endless ‘evolo?... romba-jaasthi’ bargaining with multilingual auto-dudes, the seemingly endless Mount Road… and…damn... that ONE thing for which I had planned that trip in the first place. That ONE thing which was supposed to have gone well – and much to my horror, that ONE thing that elbowed IIM-Indore to second place in the race for the worst interview ever attended.

Guys, what I’m probably gonna narrate now – is a step-by-step clinical disintegration of the average MBA-aspirants morale, psyche, confidence and lastly and definitely most sadly, his self-respect. The following stunts are dangerous and could prove to be potentially hazardous to your own MBA-aspirations. Please do not try this – anywhere !

March 09th, 2006 : My XLRI interview @ Chennai

Zero – the number of questions asked about my extra-curricular/hobbies.

Zero – the number of questions asked about India and its stock markets.

One – the number of panelists I picked up a fight with, during the interview.

Three – the number of questions they asked me on Indian mythology.

Five – the number of questions they asked me about Afghanistan’s history !!!

Eight – the number of times I had to blurt out a ‘sorry… I’m really not sure’

Twenty – the number of minutes this whole ordeal lasted.

Four hundred and seventy six – surely the number of times these guys would have chuckled to themselves…

To say that I was suspicious about the selection process of this much-famed institute even before I fell prey to it, would be an understatement. Firstly, I could not understand the rationale behind inviting a candidate for an interview without even asking him to fill-up an interview form. I mean – there ought to be some standard format which clearly lays down the parameters on which a candidate is judged. You could almost forgive them for not keeping a GD (oh hell! Maybe I’m being a bit partial here… ‘cuz this is where I usually do well, but still…), but when you know that twenty minutes is all you have – you come prepared with a lot of facts and data that has been thought out over long periods of time and most importantly, is connected or related to you in some way or the other.

One striking and rather scary thing about my twenty-minutes-of-shame(definitely, not fame) was that the questions asked had nothing whatsoever to do with me – followed no pattern in whichever angle possible – it was almost as random and vague as those befuddling red-green-yellow patterns you see in front of you when you bang your head in your sleep. Actually, the fact that the three stooges had mercilessly blackjacked me, might also have something to do with it. That is, if you ask me very very honestly !

The H5N1 Chicken Cullers…

‘Arre O Samba… kitne aadmi thhe ?’ (Yo bugger – how many of ‘em there…?)

‘Teen, Sarkar.’ (Three o’ dem, Sire…)

‘Aadmi teen… aur murga ek… bahut na-insafi hain…’ ( Three of ‘em… and scapegoat one ? Unfair… too unfair !!)

Well, funny as this multilingual adaptation of Sholay might sound – Unfair is, as unfair does. So here we go – to the extreme right of me, was an old, thin ‘gentle-man’….. you know the kind of gentleman who almost overdoes the ‘gentle’-bit – the palpable sneer, the patronizing grin – and that nagging… droning voice. No offence to Harry Potter fans, but I have to call him Patronus.

Shifting my gaze to the one in the center – I saw him staring right back at me. Ooh! With thick moustaches and a shrewd, almost mocking stare, he suited the ‘trouble-maker’ role to a T. I decided to call him Shrewdie.

The one to the extreme left seemed more like the peace-loving kinds – so much so that you could hardly make out his features from behind his specx – he beamed a pleasant smile and for a change, this did not seem to mask any evil or potential danger…pretty benevolent in fact. Voila ! There… I have my third character – Benevo !

I had reached well in time – and was busy pacing the corridors outside the interview room, when I saw the door open. The guy who had walked in about twenty minutes back exited the room and asked me to step in next. A quick chat confirmed that he had had a pretty decent interview and thought that it was not one of those ‘hostile’ panels.

Some people bring out the best in others. As I was about to find, I – call me apparently bring out the worst. It was royal – the interview, the screw-ups… everything – and I think I’ll assume the royal plural as I narrate the events as they unfolded on that fateful day.

Avian Flu attack…

We: Knock! Knock! Sir.. may I come in ?
Panel: Yes, please….

An eerie silence settled down as I heard the click of the door shutting behind me. I walked up to the panel and noticed that each one of them had print-outs of the e-form they had asked us to fill on their website. Yes – for the uninitiated – applying to XLRI is a laborious and expensive process – but more about that later. Right now, I had a smiling Patronus to fend off.

Patronus: Come in, Kaushik. Please take a seat.

After uttering the customary thank-you and making myself comfortable in the seat, Shrewdie asked for my certificates folder and started perusing through it. In the meanwhile, Patronus – decides to work his charm.

Patronus: So Kaushik... you're from Andhra Pradesh.
We: Sir, I'm working there with Oracle... presently...

Patronus: Oh, yes...yes.... 20 months right?
I nodded an approval as he kept fishing for incriminating details – pouring over the print-outs.

Patronus: …and your hometown is…(pauses for a while) Calcutta ? Oh so you're our next door neighbour. Again… that smile !
We: Yessir...you could say that. We were having a pretty interesting smiling competition over here…

Patronus: And in Oracle.... you're in...
We: On your mark… jet set go !!! And I started rattling off the by-now-ingrained details. Oracle CRM - the Loyalty development group. Was brought into the team at its initial stages - so went through all the different stages of a software development lifecycle - product planned as competition to Siebel Loyalty - but now that Oracle's acquired Siebel, we are going to cater to the airline industry whereas Siebel Loyalty will cater to the Retail market.

Patronus: Hmmm…. So Kaaa-OO-shik...Man, he just killed my name… why don't you tell me something more about yourself.

Incidentally – so far, I had not been asked that all-too-common question of ‘Why MBA?’ But from what I had heard about the XL interviews – this particular question was inescapable. Not that it should make one sweat – but I hadn’t really memorized a speech for this – what I had were points, and I decided to weave my story on-the-fly.

We: Started with the story - being born and brought up in Calcutta - 12 years of schooling at Don Bosco Calcutta – In fact I particularly stressed on this, who knows they might just have a soft-corner for Catholic schools - 16 years with family, very close ties - brief talk about father, mum and sis.... moved to goal-orientation - and how I use it in my life - how it helped me get a seat at BITS Pilani. Pushed in that little fact about how CompSci was my first choice, but I got EEE and decided to do software electives - took up the job offer from Oracle and realized how it would take atleast two years to do justice to the job. Project is slated for an April end release. XLRI was also a product of goal-orientation – also threw in the fact about how I had never taken the XAT before.

Was about to move to my strengths, when time ran short. Patronus, apparently was beginning to feel a little left out.

Patronus: Hmmm…What was your rank in college ?
We: Whoops-a-daisy! Do you think I would tell them that I was amongst the last ten of the sixty of us doing EEE? Hell yeah! Sir - BITS Pilani did not have a ranking system….as in they never had official rankings… I put on my earnest-best look.

Patronus: But still they would have had something... Uh-oh, don’t push me… don’t push me…
We: Sir – I waged on - we had segmentations - First class... distinction and so on. We had grades - and I finished with a 7.49/10.

Patronus: So Kaushik… tell me - what do you think is wrong with the environment ? Give me four causes you can think of...
We: Wwwhat !?!? Say that again ?!? you’ve gotto be kidding me – what kind of a question is this. Immediately – in fact almost involuntarily – but faced turned a pensive, thinking grey. Hmmm…well, Pollution... - and the show had begun - not enough is being done in that sector – Kaushik Mukherjee, the God of clichés - then there's waste disposal and treatment… then other indirect issues could be education of the people - they have to be taught - a sense has to inculcated about what is right and what is wrong... Comedy Central – and it was playing to a full house. I trailed off as I started recounting the point I had made so far.

Patronus: So what do you think software companies could do about this - the environment?
We: Christ…somebody explain how they are related!!! Sir - software companies would not be directly related to environmental hazards as their work is largely different from the industries that directly pollute the environment. And to look at it logically, it would not make sense for a software company to invest its profits in developing a sewage water treatment plant or the like. But what could be done is that - the companies could invest part of their capital in building public toilets or undertake spreading the message of a preserving the environment or take initiatives to educate people about what is do-able and what is not.

Yes… coming up ladies and gentlemen – Oracle air-conditioned loos. Infosys – where-to-piss-and-where-not-to-piss training programs.

Patronus: So what about virus ? Isn't that an environmental hazard for software companies ?
We: O-ho!!! Now I see what’s going on – they expect me to play darts blindfolded… Sir - software viruses are malicious programs and yes, they do affect the environment in which the software developers work - for example, they corrupt files and can result in loss of data…

Patronus: Only corrupt files ?
We: Suddenly, I decided to put-on my worldly-wise cap. Not just that - at times, viruses can create a backdoor in the system such that the originator of the virus can gain access of your computer...

Patronus: Name a few viruses…
We: Frankly I’d had too much of spyware probs on my VAIO to forget these. Trojan-horse virus, DieHard2 virus..... besides, there are a lot of adware and spyware viruses prevalent these days.

Patronus looked at me – a blank look. Oh come on, I knew it was correct – show some sign of acceptance. Something… Anything… Nothing?

Nothing.

Patronus: So what is Oracle doing to prevent this ?
We: Let it roll… baby, roll. Sir, we have a very robust system to prevent such viruses from affecting our system - we have a firewall which verifies the authenticity of a server before allowing downloads - even Yahoo! messenger chat for example - we're allowed to use it but not allowed to pass files through it - because there is a possibility of data corruption. Also, in case of new viruses - we are sent updates, and are asked to install them vaccines against them.

Benevo: Suddenly jumping in with a bewildered look. You use vaccines for your virus-problems ?!
We: Uh-oh! Sir... I meant anti-virus, of course. Vaccines.!?!... ummmm.... that was a slip of the tongue.

Benevo: Decides to step into the bullring. So this antivirus market, is it a booming market?
We: Uncommon question – and frankly, I didn’t know whether to ‘future-read’ into it… if you understand what I mean. I purposefully took 2 seconds to think. Sir, antivirus companies and their profits actually depend on the number of malicious software programs in the market - as of today, we have two prime players - Norton and McAfee who provide most of the antivirus program and the problem with companies like them is that - they provide continued support - so in case of new virus attacks, the customers would visit the same McAfee or Norton websites to download the upgrades and install it on their system. So there are not as many players as there could have been - I would not consider it to be a saturated market.

Benevo: Okay… these two companies... McAfee and Norton - what are their profits?
We: Unreal Tournament. I was slowly but surely beginning to lose interest in this. Sir… I'm sorry, but I don't have an idea about their profits.

Benevo: Hmmm… okay, 'Every Indian youth should be sent for military training for a period of two years'. Please make a case for this.
We: What?! End this charade, please! And in any case… whatever did it mean? What was I expected to do. As always, the cardinal rule – when in doubt, if you cannot convince them, confuse them. Sir... to analyze this statement - I would break it up into individual components and make a tree... at the top would be India - then beneath there would be different branches to which the youth of the nation could be of use to. Beneath India would be, for example - military... then services.... then education... (Seriously, when will I stop harping on education!! ) …then we need to be the pros and cons of investing the youth force in any one....

Benevo: No...no...no… 'Every Indian youth should be sent for military training for a period of two years'. I want you to make a case in support of this statement. You have 2 minutes.
We: Oh! Put on a surprised look.. in favour of... okay.

I thought for a brief second, gathering my wits. My mind was racing faster than my pulse…and then, suddenly…there I was. On the dais, addressing a gathering of the nation's starry eyed youth. Viva la Oracle Toastmasters! I decided to throw caution to the winds and started –

We: In today's India - we see children being egged on to do better then their companions... the teenagers following the herd mentality - everybody aspiring for a chunk of the great Indian software dream - the economic progress... nobody for a second stops to think about what life would have been had our founding forefathers not fought the long a hard struggle for independence (oh no – what if they quizzed me about independence? Scary! Turn turn turn..). In fact - today it takes a movie like Rang de Basanti or Bhagat Singh to arouse the sentiments without which India would not have been a free nation (oh no... there, I mentioned it again) Today, we have been benumbed into taking what he have for granted - opportunities galore in the free soil we walk on, but never once do we stop and think about all the blood and tears that went into laying the foundations of all this. Small example - in this budget a grant of Rs 10 crore to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first Indian War of Independence - the revolt of 1857 - has already attracted sharp criticism from all quarters - now, agreed - there could be more than one ways of commemorating an event - but outright refusal to acknowledge the past is not a good sign. By training every Indian youth in the Indian army - one would be more sensitive to issues such as national security and the country as a whole - of course, given that all of the youth will not be able to take part in a battle even if there is one - but the physical rigours will surely impart learning and discipline that would be of great help in other fields as well. Today - a lot of people don't even wake up for the republic day parade (myself being one! .... fake-O me!!! Lol…) Today - from the earliest stages at school - we learn how to score marks - how to perform well - but what is probably missing is - not thinking that protecting the nation is the work of 'jawans', as if we are not one of them…(now this was funny – it should have been - they are not one of us!) Change an education should be brought form a more grass-root (again – another one of the words I keep throwing around for effect) level. A country's military strength - its defence budget is driven by its political compulsions - but for a nation where the youth seem to have forgotten about the many trials its earlier generations faced - it would do well to make sure they attended 2 years of compulsory military training - after all, 2 years is not long enough to make a person give up his original planned course of life.

I stopped - and noticed, three pairs of eyes looking at me – very very intently. Apparently, I had said something which had brought them to rapt attention. Uh-oh, what next? Well – there was only one character left to join the party. Well, he did more than join it – he darned well rocked the hell out of it.

Shrewdie: Kaushik…..pauses for a brief moment… what can I say? You made such a passionate speech…After this I myself am speechless, I really don't know what question to ask you....what do I ask you?

I would have been flattered, if not for his face - it reeked of mockery. A smile had deftly hidden itself behind the smug exterior. I guess this was that exact point in my interview when for the first time, someone decided to go all out and stress-test me. Somehow, I had always thought I would stand up well to a stress interview. The only problem is – when we make up our mind to do something no matter what – we run a high risk of overdoing it.

Silence. It had been a while since he had popped that last statement. An uneasy silence was nudging its way into our little party – I had to speak up.

We: Sir… you could ask me what I would do...

Shrewdie: Quietly grins to himself. Oh, you wouldn't take it up - I know that.

Okay – so this guy wanted trouble. But before I scheme a tactical plan of resurrection, Benovo cuts in from nowhere.

Benevo: Okay Kaushik... tell me about research and development in India.
We: Vague, vaguer, vaguest… wtf? Sir...which sector would you want me to discuss the research and development of... hah! As if I know the a-z of development in everything….

Benevo: As in... overall, you know.. generally - in India.
We: Oh.. is it ?! I thought you were referring to Honolulu… so sorry. Humph! Well – a man’s gotto do what a man’s gotto do. Blabber mode – on! Research and development in India - as of the present day - varies from sector to sector. To take the recent example of nuclear technology, we see that a lot of research and development has gone into getting India where it is today - and because the technology being used is mostly indigenous, we see prolonged negotiations to decide which of the reactors would come under the safeguards. In other sectors, such as education - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his Independence Day speech mentioned that as lot of investment has gone into R-n-D in the education sector, but we're still not where we ought to be. Even in the software sector, we have a few research labs - in fact, I was a part of the DaimlerChrysler Research lab in Bangalore (ah! deft maneuvers…) for a period of six months, and we were researching on what was then cutting-edge technology - 'Knowledge Management' - but it was developed and researched in India and then sold to a foreign company. None of the Indian companies actually got to benefit from the R-n-D that happened in India - this is not a very favourable situation. In my opinion, to specific research and development labs should be set up by allowing FDI inflow into the country - that way we will have transfer of technology as well as funds to set up such centres.

I had to stop. This was insane – I was speaking at least a hundred words on topics which I had absolutely no conviction of. How long could this last ?

Benevo: Kaushik... tell me about two sectors where you would invest in - take India even further in its path of progress.
We: Ah… God bless that facts PPT I had made for quick data reference. Sir... if we look at the present split-up of the nation's GDP - we find that the Services sector contributes about 48% whereas the manufacturing sector and agriculture are both in the twenties, when it comes to percentage figure... (WRONG! I had actually said manufacturing instead of industrial sector) Agriculture is one of India's oldest occupations - and to think that it is what a large sector of the Indian population is engaged in - we should invest in that. As of the present day, there are too many layers in between the source and the farmers who are right at the end of the spectrum - we need to cut down on the middle-layers where there is loss of funding and initiative - a case in point that I can think of right now, would be ITC's e-choupal, where they are dealing directly with the farmers... About manufacturing - India, for a brief period of time tried following the China model and assuming the role of a manufacturing giant, but that fell through and then the country emerged as a giant in the services/software sector. (And now I was mixing Gurucharan Das’s India Unbound with this) These two areas would be ideal to invest in - and it would definitely propel India along its path of economic and social progress… hogwash!

Shrewdie: Okay Kaushik.... Afghanistan... tell me what do you know about Afghanistan. Tell me about it’s history - the last 1000 years... what has been happening.
We: I thought I was coming down with a violent attack of meningobrochitopsychosis. 1000 years !??!? This was insane – I had done Iran, Iraq – why Afghanistan – how and where did he see it in me anyway?! Sir… I'm sorry I don't think I have much of an idea about the history...

Shrewdie: Was focusing on my face – every bead of sweat that started to appear on the surface of my forehead. O-okaye... who is the Prime Minister of Afghanistan?
We: Oh come on – this was not what I had traveled a thousand kilometers for ! Sir... I'm sorry I would be guessing if I were to answer this….

Shrewdie: Oh sure… guess…. make a guess…

The guy had me by the hook – and having hauled me above water, was clearly having a wicked time playing around with me. I had to back off.

We: Sir, I’m really sorry – I’m afraid, I don’t know.

Shrewdie: Hmmm.... Okay... what has been happening of late - tell me about the recent developments in Afghanistan.
We: Eureka! Suddenly… I remembered seeing the song 'Afghanistan - Bose OST' on my WinAmp playlist! Could I stage a fightback ?! Sir - Subhash Chandra Bose, during his crusade for the Indian independence... had visited Afghanistan.

Shrewdie: His face discoloured to a gloomy dark. What is this? When I ask you about the past 1000 years you say nothing... and now when I ask you about recent developments you talk about Bose?
We: Ummm.... Sir, I just remembered that bit.. In present times - I know that it has been the seat of unrest and terrorist activities - the Al Qaeda is also attributed to that area.... Kill me, quick! Yes… I forgot the US troops - I forgot the Taliban – in fact, the Sensex of my performance just dipped past all support-levels

Shrewdie: And…?
We: Insanity – he was clearly enjoying this. Ummm… and… what ? what could it be that they were looking for ? Uh – oil ?!

All 3 in a disbelieving chorus: OIL !?!??!??!?!??!?!

We: Uh-oh.. wrong turn mister – backtrack, backtrack. Umm. No Sir, not oil – I guess, I’m sorry – I haven’t really been following it.

Shrewdie: And then he said it – looking straight into my eyes – not flinching even one bit. So... its all really guesswork, isn't it?
We: Now... now, this completely blew my fuse - which by then was already short and burning... burning. I think this was the moment that the much talked about male-ego shifted from being an advantage to the other side. I saw blood. Sir...my tone was as terse as it could get… if it was only guesswork – I don’t think I would be sitting here today.

Shrewdie: Well....he parried… smart guesswork.
We: Okay, that was it! Sir…even that, can only get you so far.

And then he looked at me – there was something sinister and something very very smug about that look. It was a look which clearly said -

And this… is exactly how far you are gonna puppy go mister, because I am gonna puppy derail your puppy train of mother-puppy guesses, right RIGHT now.

Disclaimer: For the benefit and well-being of reader below the age of eighteen a word in the above sentence has been replaced by the word ‘puppy’.

Shrewdie: So… is there anything else you know about Afghanistan? Anything at all..?
We: I was too far gone to return. Sir, I guess Afghanistan is not one of the countries I have done a lot of research on.

Shrewdie: He nodded ominously. Yes… Afghanistan seems to be your weak point.
We: And then I did the cockiest thing I have ever done in any interview – and I swear to you I am not too proud of it, but at that moment – the situation was too hostile to stop – and think for even a second. In a sing-song note, I concluded - Aaaaand… you seem to have pinned it down!!! [:o] OMG !

Shrewdie: Pauses for a brief moment. Okay.... let me ask you about something else then…

For a second, my heart soared. Maybe… just maybe – being the eternal optimist that I am – I would get another chance.

Shrewdie: The Mahabharata... what do you know about it.

Wrong.

We: Okay – so Afghanistan and Mythology bpth, are things which I'm really really not too hot on!! Sir - I know it as I did in my early childhood, but I doubt whether I'll be able to remember much of the details now... I know that it was fought between the – I thought carefully eliminated names like Dhritarashtra, Dronacharya,etc and said -Pandavas and Kauravas. Yes, it was a safe and correct answer.

Shrewdie: So where was it fought?
We: Why.. why can’t people take the answers you give them… Lord, why ? Ummmm..... I had even stopped putting on that intellectual thinking look - also, I have a habit of mumbling when i think – but this time…maybe I didn't choose the right words to mumble - this time... …Ummm… Its not Ayodhya…

Shrewdie: AYODHYA ?!?!??!?!? Ayodhya will die if you say this!
We: What?!?! No sir, I said – its not Ayodhya. Hmmmm.... suddenly it hit me like a bolt out of the blue. Kurukshetra!!!.... yessir Kurukshetra !

Shrewdie: Right... and where is Kurushetra?

Now firstly – he sees I have difficulty remembering Kurukshetra, and still asks me about it! &@&**#$&@*$&*@# and secondly, guys from REC- Kurukshetra - please do not take offence, but by then - my brains were like all over the wall. I was vexed, peeved and beyond the thick red line that separates the doable from the absolutely not-doable.

I was hearing voices in my mind..

Kaushik… psst! Say something... say something… 5 seconds up.
Come on think of SOMEthing…. Another 10 seconds pass.
Alright…. say ANYthing… - NOTHING can make it worse than what it is now!

We: Ummmm.. It's not connected to your previous question, Afghanistan... right?

Wrong. You should have just kept your trap shut, Kaushik.

[:o] OMG! What had I done?!?!

That was it. All three of them looked at each other and seemed as if they were ready to burst out laughing. Shrewdie especially seemed as if he was about to split at the seams... any moment.

Shrewdie: The final sprinkling of salt on the wounds. So, again... what did you say your rank was?
We: Sir... in a wearied tone - I said that Pilani does not have an official ranking system - we have grades - and I finished with a 7.49 out of 10.

Shrewdie: Okay Kaushik - thank you. Please sign your attendance register.... take your files - and please send the next person in.

It was all I could do to collect what was left of my pride and leave the room - in fact, I was almost sure that I would hear an uproar of laughter the minute I closed the door. Strange... this was not how it was supposed to have gone.

In retrospect

The XLRI results are usually declared in two different lists. One – the confirmed list of students who are selected for the course. The second one – the waiting list of students whose admission hinges on the decisions of the people in the previous list. This time however, I am positive that there’s gonna be a third list. It’s called a blacklist – with my name being the sole conspicuous feature in it. Bottomline – games like these need prior assessment of ones cards. To put matters simply, you cannot play your spades… in a game where some other suit is the trump. After all, they did not really ask me about my CAT %-ile did they – all they had in front of them was my XL %-ile which was at best mediocre amongst the call-getters. Patience is a virtue – a virtue I ran out of. Situations like these make you look back and ponder over the opportunity wasted – Oh no! I just spilt half my mug of beer! What I’d probably do is throw the rest of the beer away and signal to the bartender for a new mug. Cheers, hopefully – things will look sunnier in the days to come.

Next up we'll have the FMS-deal - by say.... the weekend. Thankfully, it was much much better than the ordeal I just finished with.

Sing for the moment

When you are born you're afraid of the darkness

And then you're afraid of the light

But I'm not afraid when I dance with my shadow

This time I'm gonna get it right...

- Taste of India, Aerosmith.

Verdict: Waitlisted for the Business Management programme at No. 057 in order of merit.