Great insights Grad88 and IndianLawyer! You both seem to have a great grasp of the realities in the applications process. With your experience, I think you will make it into IHEID.
On the other hand, I do not want to be a wishful thinker, so will probably wait till next year to apply. By then, I'd probably have obtained stronger GRE scores to make up for my lacklustre undergrad grades.
I'm really grateful to you guys.
Cheers!