Foxed!

PT takes a fun ride down the interview lane for admissions to university courses.
If you thought that interviews were meant to evaluate how much you had studied, think again. For, take a look at these questions: ���Would you call yourself an apple or a pineapple ��� what are your feelings regarding the fruit?��� ���If the cockroaches in your bathroom turn homosexual, how do you think will it affect the Indian economy?��� If you were someone sitting on a chair under the intense scrutiny of the management panel, the prospects of your making it to the institute could be completely dependent on how much sense s/he can make out of these seemingly absurd questions.
But then, there are some whose presence of mind allows them to come up with some equally strange answers. Ananya Sharma, who is completing her first year in a media school in Melbourne, tells us her experience, ���They asked me ���If it rains in Alaska, how many people would actually have sex tonight?��� I told them that if they let me do their course, I stand a strong chance of being recruited by a company that might post me on an off-shore project in Alaska. If so, I could provide them with the accurate statistics! Despite my bizarre answer, it was just my good luck that they took me in!���
Sometimes, the biggest challenge is to answer a question that is surprisingly simple. As Ravish Taneja, a third-year student in a business school, remembers, ���I had prepared no end for the personal interview round. I knew the names of CEOs and chairmen like the back of my hand. And, the only thing they asked me was what my favourite ice cream was and why? I was zapped.���
A similar thing happened to Aparna Gaikwad, who is pursuing a degree in marketing communications. Says she, ���They asked me this really weird question that if my car broke down one morning, would I consider taking public transport or go walking or cycling? So, all the theoretical questions that I had extensively prepared for, were completely wasted.���
Check out for some more: ���Do you like your toast buttered?��� ���If you were an astronaut, which planet would you like to land on?��� ���Prove the logic of Hell ��� do you think hell is endothermic or exothermic?��� The questions are not always as random as they seem. Seema Biswas, a career counsellor and psychologist, tries to make sense out of these nonsensical questions. Says she, ���These questions might appear as casual as they seem, but they often have a deeper connotation than most students can imagine. True, most times these questions are meant to just crack up the student who walks into the interview prepared with answers related to his/her field. The larger view is all these questions reflect the mental makeup of the student to a great extent. The only way to tackle these questions is to be absolutely calm and think of other things before walking into the interview.��� A soothing suggestion indeed.