the year of the cat

tomoro is the first annivesary. tomoro theoretically one yr gets over since i took the cat (bole to din ke hisaab se 20 ko hoyega)

the fight began early in january last yr. joined IMS. attended classes every weekend. my roomies used to have fun on the weekends (me too to some extent :o)) and here i was attending classes where arithmetic n english were being taught. used to console myself saying that after the exams i will also have fun.

made some good friends in ims. some of the instructors were real nice.

days flew by. my prep wasnt really getting newhere. used to psyche myself from time to time according the the methods specified in books like "The Monk who sold his ferrari" and "The Magic of thinking big". It did work.

Shifted to jayanagar in August. Got a room to myself. Started serious preparations from then on.

Finally 20th Nov came. Took the test. Coming out of the room, the only thought was "Damn, 1 yr for nothing". But then in the world of IIMs, evrything is "RELATIVE". So gradually i realized, I have done "Relatively Well".

So then the wait started. Got a interview call from IIFT. Told my office that i would be looking forward to mgmt. Told them coz i thought they shld know (a team thingy). That my life in office became miserable after that is a different issue (advice to work ex people taking CAT or any other competetive exam -- Never tell in ur office that u r doing nething of this sort).

Early Jan, the calls came. All of them. Along with NITIE n MDI.

Then started the preps for interview. Again the weekends were screwed. Again consoled myself "After the interviews".

Interveiws started happening. Didnt get much feelers as to how they were going (seems they went well, coz other than IIFT n IIMB, got confirmed calls from all the other schools).

Decided to join IIMA.

Took a giant personal decision in the meanwhile. Still have n will stand by it.

Time came to leave blore. My last day in office was really nice. Will always remember it. Was happy n sad. Sad coz i left behind many good friends. Sad coz........ Happy coz that was one of the few days when i actually spoke what i intended to. Actually spoke what i wanted to. Actually spoke wat i beleived in and felt deep down inside.

Came home for a month. Got bored since there was nothing to do. I really cant do nothing n still remain calm (watching movies is doing something :o))

Neway came to IIMA. Since then till now survival has been a struggle. But it has been one hell of an experience. Exams, summers, all of it.

But what i find strange now is when people ask me, "Give us some pointers to crack CAT". one dude actually wrote in my scrapbook that he needs my "blessings" to get thru CAT :o). COme on man, praise is one thing, flattery is another. something i cant really stand coz it is so obviously artificial. Have seen a lot of artificiality here also. Some of it among people i know well. does not go down well with me. Now some may say, to be a good manager u have to be artificial. Agreed. But not to the extent that i have seen here. but then different people have different standards. i am not the right person to comment on others.

neway wat i was saying is that there are no real pointers to belling the cat. its not something superhuman. its just wat happens on that day. those 2 (now 2.5) hours. n wat happens then is decided by "i dont know wat". i was lucky i got a good number of questions right. Someone might have a bad day. Someone's mind might be preoccupied with some more important things.

so there is not way one can tell u how to crack cat. if u crack it, then next yr u will be flooded with queries of how to do it. if u dont, then i beleive u will emerge a stronger person, set ur priorities again, n if cat is one of them, prepare urself mentally to take the challenge again.

adios