The NITIE experience .. .. like I said ... A story on its own...

So I had been called by NITIE (National Institute of Industrial Engineering), Mumbai based on my CAT score... It was one of the best b-schools in India. My original GD/PI date was the 14th of march but I was unable to make it that day because of "personal reasons" and so I got it shifted to the 16th. Me and my dad reached Mumbai on the 15th and instantly I hated the traffic. We walked a long distance looking for a place to stay and all the places with a decent rate were garbage dumps and the ones worth staying in cost a fortune. So after a few gruelling hours of walking in the bloody heat, we decided to look for lodging near the institute itself and so we went to Vihar Lake, Powai. After another few hours of searching, we finally found a place where we could stay in and rented a room there.

My father and I sat and watched Sri Lanka walking all over Bermuda in the world cup and then had some awful food for dinner and then had a nice sleep.

I woke up early in the mornin and got suited up to go for the interview. And to my horror, we discovered that there wasn't a single place nearby where I could have a decent breakfast. So I went to NITIE starving. Since I was a "rescheduled" candidate, I had no idea which panel I was in (not like it would have made much of a difference if I knew which panel I was in). Everyone slotted for that day was supposed to arrive in the morning and we all did. We all were made to wait in the auditorium and they had a couple of presentations about the institute and the courses. After that we had a short recess so that we could have breakfast from the college and I had a small tiny sandwich. After that began the never ending wait! We had to sit and watch crappy sitcoms (How I met your mother! ) all day. I waited there from 8 till around 12 and finally my name was called. I was all excited expecting to go right for my interview .... but no!!

We were told to get our certificates verified and then wait. I waited will 12:45 and then we were told that it was a lunch break and we were expected to be back here by 1:45. So we did that. And then the wait again continued till 3:30. I was dead tired and drained of all energy by then. Finally they called me for my GD and I went and performed extremely badly :D.
The interview was supposed to happen sometime after that but we had no idea when. There were loads of people waiting outside the interview room for my panel and so I asked the volunteer in charge when my interview could be expected to happen. 1 bloody hour later was what he said! Another long wait in the auditorium. I was tired and hungry by then. Finally around 5:15 I was called in for the interview and gave another crappy performance there :D. I was asked a lot of tech questions which I couldnt answer but managed the HR side of the interview quite nicely. (But at the end of it all I dint make it. I guess it was a combination of the bad GD and bad Tech section which did me in :D)

It was pretty late by the time the interview got over and I had a flight for 8pm and had to get to the airport soon. What followed was the worst auto rickshaw ride of my entire life. I was still suited up since I dint get time to change , and me being the idiot I am, dint bother removing the coat before getting into the auto. It was bloody hot and stuff and the traffic was a complete nightmare. We were boxed in by buses and lorries. It was so bloody suffocating. And then my stomach started acting up. It started aching and I felt like I was gonna puke any second. Finally we reached the airport but we reached way too early. It was just around 6:30. And I needed to drink something. I had 2 mirindas in the hope of filling my empty stomach. I couldn't manage to eat anything cos the puking tendency was overwhelming me. So then we went into the airport and got our boarding passes. And since we were going to be waiting for a while, I figured I should go to the toilet and try doing you know what. And after around 15 minutes crapping like a madman, I was about to leave the rest room when I started pukin. And that took another 5 minutes. And at the end of it, honestly, I was relieved. And so I went to the cafe coffee day outlet to get rid of that weird puke taste in my mouth. Unfortunately, I tried being a miser and opted for the cheapest drink out there ... which unfortunately was an espresso. And for anybody who hasn't had one, its 1 cup of coffee concentrated to 1/10th of a cup. And I drank it like you drink tonic. And then again came a long wait. BECAUSE THE BLOODY FLIGHT WAS DELAYED BY AN HOUR!!

I was sitting half asleep in the waiting lounge. I bought a bottle of mineral water and had one small tiny sip. Around 8:30, the boarding was about to commence and every one started forming a queue at the gate. Which was when my next puke attack came. To my right and in the distance was the ladies toilet. So I concluded logically that the gents toilet must be next to it. And so I ran towards it.But to my horror, the gents toilet was no where in sight. And by now puke was filling up my mouth (and in those few seconds of grossness, I was able to figure out that it was just the espresso and the water that was being thrown out.. gross .. I know!! ). The nearest option I had was the handicapped people's toilet and I made a dash for it ... in vain! I ended up barfing all over the entrance and everything was over by the time I made it inside. (The cleaning lady gave me hell over that! Yea right! As though I puked on purpose!).

So after a change of clothes, I finally boarded the plane. Since my stomach was empty, there was no way I could puke anymore. And I sat there for the 1.5 hours duration of the flight trying not to puke and I succeeded. And I was in Bangalore at last. I just wanted to get to my sister's place. Everything would be ok once I reached there. And so we boarded the little bus that took us from the airplane to the airport terminal. Well, unfortunately I had a tiny little sip of water during the flight. And the bus ride was not very smooth. Yup! You guessed it right!! I completed my hatrick! I puked on the runway! Luckily I was at the window seat!

And so the ordeal ended there. I got home and managed not to puke anymore. And on that happy note, I will say that this may be my last post for a while. I dont know how much free time I will get at IIM. Hopefully will get some :D. Till then .. goodbye... get your friends to read this and get them to comment :D

CATography - Part 5 ( Eternal thanks)

Well this is it ... The last of my CAT series ... And probably the most important and meaningful of the lot..

During the one and a half years that was the period of this journey, there were so many people who have helped me and supported me. I haven't thanked most of them in person but I will do that at least now ...

The names here are in random order ... you all have been crucial during this period .. I thank you all ..
Manu, Abhay, Jaikrishna - They were my classmates both at TIME and in college. Couldn't have done it without their support and encouragement. They always believed in me. Manu, gonna miss forcing you to write the AIMCATs.

Abhijith - Gonna miss discussing the answers with Abhijith. Abhi, thanks for all the great info you used to share with me throughout the period and for helping me a great deal. Abhijith was one of the most helpful people during my CAT preparations. I think you were one of the few people who actually made me believe that I could achieve this. And thank you for your prayers.

Vishnu - For all the support and the valuable information you gave me during my GD training period.

Anushri - Thanks for praying for me and believing in me.

Aparna Gayathri - She is right there among the top names in the thank you list along with Abhi... Thanks for encouraging me and calling me up and asking me whether practiced and screaming and me when I said no. Thank you for all the prayers and pep talks. Thanks for giving me a push when I needed one. Couldn't have done it without you.

Athulya - A million thanks here as well. Another among the top list. Thanks for sitting online and looking up information for me and explaining stuff to me. For constantly encouraging me and reminding me of how much I want this. Thank you. There is absolutely no way I would have achieved what I did without you..

Prasanth - For the help and support and for being such an amazing competitor. You will do wonders.

Adithya, Mathew, Feroz, Parvathy, Altaf, Ragavendra, Rakesh, Frederic, Jefferson, Clinten, Lijo, Vinayak - For sharing a lot of knowledge and helping me improve.

GEC mechanical 2003-2007 - My class. The encouragement and the energy .. unbelievable. And the belief in my abilities...

Mr. Surendrakumar - Thank you for telling me, "You are someone who deserves to study in one of the top b-schools". That was the first step. That was what initiated the chain reaction. You gave me the confidence I needed initially.

T.I.M.E faculty - Lakshmi mam, Mr.Reghu, Mr. Prem C Nair, Miss Anne Fenn, Mr. Ramachandran and everyone else. - You are responsible for this. I most definitely would not be able to get anywhere near the score I managed if it werent for the wonderful classses at TIME. Reghu sir, thanks for the advice and the great amount of info you use to share with us.

My parents - I know how hard my parents work for me ... the sacrifices my father makes so that I have a good life... I wanted to make them proud, and hopefully they are. You mean the world to me.

And last but most definitely not least (Actually right on top of the list!! ) - Mr. Krishna Kumar- My mentor - The one man who was an inspiration and support throughout. He imparted knowledge and information. He was always there when I needed to talk to. As much a friend as he was a teacher, he was always there to help. He gave me hope when I saw none. He corrected my mistakes and made me a confident person. Thank you sir. For everything.

Everyone I have thanked, these words can in no way show you how grateful I am, thank you for everything. I am eternally in debt to you. Anyone Ive forgotten, My sincere apologies ...

This might be my last post for a while ... goodbye ...

CATography - Part 4 ( January 10th - March 17th)

Last episode on "CATography!!! " ... if you really wanna know what happened last episode, go read it !! You just need to scroll down you lazy bum! And here I continue with my journey..


So there I was.... One IIM call ... it was time to start my preparations. And it started with some advice from Mr. Krishnakumar. There was one seminar conducted by him and in that he stated that atleast 50% weightage for the final selections was the CAT score itself. And I found that extremely disturbing. So I went and talked to him. I asked him, "My chances arn't very good are they?". And he said, "Nothing like that! No point taking probabilities. I know many people who have had one call and converted and I also many with all 6 six calls converting none."

And so I decided to give it my best shot. The TIME GDPI sessions started and I tried to be as regular as I could. And as active as I could. I used to participate in as many GDs as possible. And I pretty much got a technique all worked out (yea ... you can have a technique in GDs as I learnt later). One thing I hate about myself is my lack of general knowledge. So I had to spend these two months working on that. I needed to learn some history and some geography. Mainly political history. I received a lot of help from my friends during this period which helped pack my brain with as much knowledge as I could. This was supplemented greatly by explanations by Mr. KK and Mr. Raghu during the TIME GD sessions. These helped so much. The best part about GDs are that they teach you so much in such a short time. You get to see various angles of the same topic. And KK sir was someone whom I used to fire lots of questions at. Because there were a lot of things that I needed to know but had no idea about, and he was right there to help.

And so with my GD preparations done somewhat, I went for my mock interview ... and it was bloody scary !! That was a huge huge wake up call! I was nowhere near the level required. And that made me work a little bit harder (Atleast for the first few days :D ). And then came the 2 day TIME worshop sessions at Bangalore. And those two days were so much fun!

The first day, I participated in one GD about SEZs and got my butt kicked bigtime!! Wasn't able to say a thing. Unfortunately I din't have breakfast that morning and ended up ill. I decided to go back to our hotel room after I had my mock interview.
I being the brilliant person I am, forgot to bring either a resume or the form to be filled in the actual call letter. So the staff had to get me a temporary resume to fill out. The interview went pretty well surprisingly and that was an extremely huge confidence boost.And the rest of the day was ruined as I was not well. So the next day again we had a couple of rounds of GDs and that is when I learnt the most for my GD preparations. There was a guy called "Sandeep" in our of the GDs I was a participant of. That dude was controlling the entire GD. And I dint mean that in a negative sense. He was the undisputed leader of the group. And that GD I spent watching and analyzing him and trying to learn as much from him as possible. And that I must say, was extremely handy later on.The GD sessions at Bangalore were mini world wars! They would end up as arguments. During one GD, people were actually pushing each other with their shoulders and arms. Was so bloody hilarious! Luckily I wasn't a participant of that one, or mostly I would be at battle as well :D.

And then after that we came back to Trivandrum and resumed our regular GD sessions at TIME. And that was where I practiced and refined all the techniques I had stolen from Sandeep. And whoever was there for that particular GD at Bangalore understood what I was doing. And so I was pretty well prepared to handle most GDs by the end of the GD sessions. And I had also increased my general awareness thanks to Mr. Krishnakumar and Mr. Reghu and some of my closest friends. And that was it. .... my last few days of preparation were also over. It was time for the final battle ... this was where I would win or lose. ... It was a matter of my future ... a "turning point" of my life as my mom says! ...

And so I made my way to Bangalore to attend the interviews. I reached my sister's house in Bangalore on the 8th of March. One of my friends Lijo was there with me for the entire day and we were discussing the forms to be filled and went online to check out some facts and figures about our fields of interest. Luckily he mentioned that they usually ask for a favourite subject. And God knows how awful I was at any subject at that point of time. That night I spent the whole time giving a lot of thought to the answers I would be filling in the form and then finally penned them down. And whatever time I had left, I spent reading through the only area of Mechanical engineering I've liked the first time I read about it .... IC engines. Easy stuff. So i spent close to half an hour reading about two stroke engines and read about how "Scavenging pump" type engines have an inlet port and stuff (Abhi ... thanks for that book!! ). And so I slept early because I wanted to go for the interview after having a good night's sleep.

Early next morning I woke up, excited and tense at the same time. I bathed, suited up, got blessings from my parents and made my way to the place where Vinayak and Adithya were staying. Lijo and Prasanth also came there and at 8:45 we made our way to the venue... "Monarch Hotel".. or "Hotel Monarch" cant remember correctly :D...We reached there and I was so bloody tense !! We entered the waiting room, and there we saw our "competition". And it looked scary. One of the panel members came in and called out everyone's names just to check whether we were all present and then went on to tell us which panels we were in. There were 3 other people in the same panel as me. Lijo, Abid and Ginoy (I dint really know him but I just knew he was absolutely brilliant and amazing in GDs as I had seen him in one). And all of us marched into the GD/PI room. There were 8 of us. I was number 3. We were seated in a U shape. We were given our case to analyze for five minutes and the interviewer stated that he would tell us when the time was up. After those alloted 5 minutes, he says "You may start the discussion". And to my greatest surprise (THANK YOU GOD!!! ), no one started! No one even wanted to start !! And I realised that this was the only chance I might get, and so I started the GD, giving a general summary and then adding a few points of my own. After a point of time, I had run out of things to say and was looking for somebody to please take over the reigns. And Ginoy thankfully took over. And after that it went pretty well. I was quite confident by now, having spoken for a long period. And I felt I did very well in the GD. And now happy and my usual energetic self, I returned to the waiting room.

And the interviews started! After Ginoy was back, he informed us that our panel was asking a lot of tech questions. And that was the last thing any of us wanted to hear. Apparently the one of the other panels wasn't asking too much tech. So I was busy biting my nails waiting for someone to come and call out my name. And then my name was called. I followed the gentleman who called me upto the door of the interview room and here is what followed in my favorite movie script format :D

Me( Entering room) : Good afternoon sir!! (Then I realise it's still just around 10 so I quickly correct myself after makin a complete fool our of myself) ... errr ... Good Morning Sir (And give him a very sheepish smile!)

There were 3 people in the panel, I shall name them (from left to right), Tech guy, Friendly dude and Strict man!

Friendly dude : So Rohin, You are a mechanical engineer, you must be doin your final year project... What is it?
Me: Portable bike ... or rather a foldable bike
Tech guy: How much does it weigh
Me: around 35 kgs
Tech guy: Thats too heavy
Me: Sir, we were looking for a moped engine but we got only a Bajaj Sunny engine blah blah blah
Tech Guy: What type of engine is it?
Me: 2 stroke
Tech Guy: Differences between 2 and 4 stroke engines
Me : blah blah port, valve blah blah yada yada
Tech:What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Me: blah blah
Tech: What material is used for valves?
Me : High temperature resistant blah blah
Tech guy: Earlier you metioned something about a flywheel, what is torsional vibration
Me: *blink blink* .... uh...er...ummm ... (and then i proceeded to try and answer and that proved to be the correct answer :D.... you wanna know the answer? Go search the net :D)

And I guess they were pretty satisfied with my technical know how by then and so the Friendly dude took over ...

Friendly dude : So you are a guitarist in a band .. what kind of music do you like?
Me : Heavy metal ...(and go on to name some bands and said that Metallica was my all time favorite!)

Friendly dude : Trace the genesis of Metallica
Me: Lrs Ulrich blah blah, Advertisement in paper, James Hetfield blah blah

Friendly dude: How did rock evolve?
Me: From Jazz , elvis, johnny cash, yadayada

Friendly dude :How did pop evolve
(And some more questions related to music, and then Strict man took over)
Strict Man: Name some Rock stars who have taken up social issues ...
Me: Um ...bono from U2
Strict Man: Anymore?
Me: Bands like Rage against the machine and System of a down talk about social issues...
Strict Man: There is a difference between singing about something and taking a stand.
(So then I proceeded to admit that I dint know of anyone else and that I was more focussed on just the music)

And then they were about to let me leave when all of a sudden the Friendly dude asks me ..
Friendly Dude: You are a guitarist right? How does the sustain on your guitar work?
Me: I have no idea :D. I just hold the note, there is an effects processor, it sustains (And I gave him one of my classis grins :D)
Friendly Dude: You may leave

After the interview I felt that I did only average, but it was an amazingg interview compared to the other ones I had. MDI was good as well. XLRI I got screwed majorly cos I was asked a lot of GK :D. NITIE too much Tech.

And at the end of the entire process. I was left tired and sick. The NITIE experience is another story on its own!!!

So then came the most heart breaking and gut wrenching period .... The wait...

The NITIE results came out pretty fast, and with that started a period of extreme sadness. I dint make it. But I said to myself.... I should get XLRI, cos I scored real high in XAT. And a few days later, things got worse, I dint get XLRI either. That was a big big big blow for me. Cos I had no hope of getting either MDI or IIM. I even asked KK sir about the repeaters classes and he was the one who gave me atleast a little bit of hope. He asked me to wait for the other results to come out and that it was too early to decide anything.

A few days later, MDI results were out. And then I had something to have atleast a half-smile about. I was waitlisted 168 for their PGPM programme and 25 for PGPHR. And it was almost sure that the waitlist would move past that for both.... maybe. Cos the IIM results were still not out because of the tussle between the Government and the Supreme court.

And finally they were out ... IIMA results .... I was waitlist 14.... And last year it went just to 16. And again the tension began. Will I? Wont I? I used to log on to www.pagalguy.com and sit and read the IIMA converts thread. Many times I was brought to tears... I was that scared and worried. So many people were rejoicing that they made it through, and I wasn't that lucky...This post in particular made me feel very very bad ....

Hearty congrats to all those who have converted IIM-A !

Welcome to India's pre-eminent and most exclusive Business School.

Relax for the next couple of months (you would be expected to join somewhere in the 3rd week of June) until the roller coaster called WIMWI takes you on board.Let me assure you that the following 2 years are not gonna be forgotten in hurry.You have come quite far and are going to go farther than ever once you have passed through these 'hallowed portals'.

We wear a T-shirt here thats sports a line : "IIM-A : Branded for life" and that by no means is an exaggeration.You are soon to become part of a brand which spans the who's who of not just India's corporate roster but the who's who of the global one as well. Imagine : to walk the corridors that once Vindy Banga roamed,to play footer in LKP where Harsha Bhogle did,to sit in the classroom that once Raghuram Rajan sat in..... To be part of a network which only 250 of the sharpest,brightest and most talented in India can lay claim to.

Welcome to IIM-A.

On the 5th of May, there was a electricity failure and me and my family were sitting and talkin in the dark.. about how much money we would lose if the MDI call got confirmed first and IIM got confirmed only after I payed the first installment at MDI and stuff like that. Suddenly the land phone rang. Unfortunately, I couldnt reach the phone on time in the dark. After a few moments, I saw a light flashing somewhere and realised my cell phone was ringing....I had kept it on silent mode. I answered ... It was somebody from IIMA and he said that he had called to say that "My turn had come for admission" and that they have sent me an e-mail. So the first thing I did when the power was back was to run to my computer and check my mail. This is what it looked like :

Subject: Admission Offer for PGP: 2007-09

Further to our letter dated April 27, 2007, placing you on waiting list, I am glad to inform you that your turn has now come for admission to IIM Ahmedabad’s Post-Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) for the session beginning June 21, 2007. We will be sending you our detailed offer letter on Monday by Courier.

In the meanwhile, can you please indicate to us by email your decision on this admission offer? This will help us in planning the admission process better.

Thank you.

Admissions Officer

I still wasnt sure whether that was really a confirmed offer. I needed to get my offer letter in my hands. And I did get it on the 8th. And then I was ecstatic!! Absolute joy! My dream had come true! And my work had paid off!!! And that is the end of my CAT journey!
This was one of the most important periods of my life in more ways than one... And in the last and final part, I will be thanking those people who stood beside me and lent a helping hand whenever I needed one ...

CATography - Part 3 (November 20th - January 10th)

And here comes the third installment of this story of mine ...

So where was I? Oh yes... CAT just got over. So I reach home early in the mornin and the first thing I do is go online and go to the TIME, IMS and Career Launcher sites. I compared my answers with those given on the sites. I ended up with scores ranging between 122 and 128. And acoording to all three sites, I was going to get multiple IIM calls. But according to another site called PTindia, I was getting only 9 for verbal. Which basically meant I was screwed. But still the score of 128 was much lower than what I had expected (which was around 150). And so began the agony. I went to the TIME office and spoke to Mr. Krishnakumar and told him that I was worried. And there are no words to express how grateful I am for his words that day. But still I wasn't too sure. And so i prepared a little more before my SNAP exam. The worst part of the wait for the results was reading people claiming on the net that they were scoring above 200 and that "they knew atleast 4 other people in their college who were getting above 200!" That just added to my fear. And hearing the scores of some of my friends din't help much either. The entire time after CAT was spent deep in regret. I regretted doing those last few questions in the quant section and getting them wrong. I regretted not attempting one more set in the LR section. And I basically felt that I had messed up CAT. And so I felt I needed to do well for SNAP.

SNAP happened on the 17th of December and my center was in Cochin. It was a fun journey with some of my good friends. We went roaming around Cochin till the exam was about to start and we left for Trivandrum as soon as the exam ended. SNAP turned our pretty good by the way, I got a score of 98.5, with 87.5 or so being the cutoff for SIBM. But I did not apply to the institute.

And then I had my stupid 7th semester examinations which seemed to get postponed forever. And before I knew it, January 2nd had arrived. The D-day. Most of my friends and I stayed up late waiting for the results only to our disappointment. So then the only thing to do was to write that day's exam and check out the results in the evening. So after the exam was over, I ran to the CAD lab to check the results. The only site that had any update was that of IIM L and that too only to deliver news that the results would be out only by the 8th or so. And so disappointed, (I have no idea why I was disappointed because I wasn't expecting any IIM calls), I returned home. After a nice nap, I went online once again only to discover that the IIMK site was down. And that meant only one thing, the results were out! (Unlike the other kazillion times the IIM sites went down). So started the extremely long and tedious process of hitting the refresh button until something showed up. Finally I got the site's home page and went uptil the page where you enter the CAT Reg. number and then it din't budge an inch. And so again the refresh spree continued. Finally I was able to get my result at the IIMA site.And here is what it looked like .


And that shattered all my small hopes of an IIM call. And so I sat there depressed. I simply logged on to the TIME website to see how others had fared, when I noticed that IIMA results were out. The first link I clicked on was a link to the shortlist criteria for IIMA. And I've posted a screenshot of the page (PS, if you guys think that it's a waste, me putting up screen shots, well Im doing it so that someday I can see it once again :D ).
And then I took a few moments to re-read and re-re-read and then re-re-re-read so that I understood completely what was written. By what was just there, I had made it past the IIMA cutoffs and by a whisker! And for the first time, I didn't regret the choices I made during those two and a half critical hours. My decision to spend more time on the verbal section at the cost of the two other sections did pay off. I had a balanced score. But I wasn't sure of it until I confirmed it from the site.... This was what it looked like. (Click on it to see it properly if you want to :D )




I was good enough for IIMA. And that lead me to the natural conclusion that I was sure to get at least 3 calls (I,L and K), if not all 6, now that I had been called by A!! But how wrong I was!!

The next day, IIMC released their results. And frankly I wasn't too surprised when I read the following :

IIM Calcutta FP PI 2006 Call List Result:

Sorry, as per the details entered, you have not been shortlisted for the Interviews by IIM Calcutta.
Please confirm that the information provided by you is as given below.

And that set of a sequence of rejects. IIMB, IIMK, IIML, IIMI. I did not make the cutoffs for any of them! I expected atleast a few more calls. But no! And then I went into being sad all over again.
Because the way I saw it, I had extremely bad scores for IIMA standards, and I would be competing with 100 percentilers for those 192 seats. My chances were slim.

And so I looked forward to XAT. It was held on the 7th of January, 2007 at Loyola School, Trivandrum. Again saw a lot of friends. But the atmosphere was different this time. Almost everyone there was upset. XAT was the last glimmer of hope for everyone. And the exam thoroughly dashed all those hopes. I thought I performed extremely badly in the exam but apparently not. My XAT score was 99.41 and I got a call for the general management programme.

I also got called by MDI for both the PGPM and PGPHR courses. And by NITIE for their PGPM course. And so there I was. 5 calls. And my order of preference was then IIMA,XLRI, MDI PGPM, NITIE, MDI PGPHR. And now it was time for me to roll up my sleeves and get to work. This was my chance. In Mr. Krishnakumar's words, "You have been given a golden opportunity. Lakh's of students across India would give anything to trade places with you. So make the most of the opportunity."

And you guessed it alright ! The second phase of my CAT story begins with part 4 !! woohoo ! another part !! will this never end?? :P

CATography - Part 2 (November 2006 - November 2006) (And yea .. I know the title is majorly corny... so sue me!!! )

Ok .. so where was I?
Yea ... last few days before CAT. November 17th. 2 days to go.After my final prayers were done and got my ticket ready and if I remember correctly, the train was all set to leave at 8:00 pm. So there we were ... a couple of hundred hyperactive college dudes and dudettes all ready to take over the train. And let me tell you this ... the "Cat Train" was one hell of a ride! It's tons of fun. People should write CAT atleast for the entire experience of the train journey. So there was a group of my friends in the same compartment .. namely Ajay,Jaikrishna, Abhijith, Manu, Abhay and I. And at the other end of the train was another group of my classmates .. again namely.. Nidhin, Athul, Aravind, Jojo (Dont remember if there was anyone else). So our entire train ride comprised of walking from one end of the train to the other looking for friends and pretty girls :D. For a while I entertained myself sitting on the topmost sleeper thingy and whackin my friends on the back of their heads as they passed by. And so we spent the night talking and joking and insulting each other.While on the other extreme, there were people sitting and studyin late into the night. A couple of friends of ours were in the IMS compartment as well. So we said a Hi to them and continued talking and generally being a pain in the @$$!!

And then we slept ... and we reached there early in the mornin .. around 7 or so. Then started our hunt for our hotel. Ajay had booked a hotel roomfor the 6 of us and we were out walking trying to find it. So after around half an hour or so, we finally struck gold! It was a nice little room. So we dumped our stuff there, and went hunting for a restaurant to have breakfast. And we found the place that was to be our source of nearly every meal for the next 2 days..." Paragon!! "
. After having a wonderful breakfast,we started roaming the streets of Kozhikode. Our first agenda was to locate our examination centers. Which we did by asking a pedestrian and he told us which bus to get into and stuff. Abhay and I learnt that ours was very close to our hotel room .. walking distance infact. And after that we went to the famous "Mittai therivu" or "Sweets alley" by my translation. And by then we were dead tired and it was 1:00. So then it was time for lunch.

And with that started our search for the "amazingly awesome super tasty the best in the whole wide world" Kozhikodan Biryani. Let me tell you .. we searched in vain. We had heard tales about the great "Hotel Sagara (Or Sagar)". The best Biryani in the world they said! And im sure everyone who was there with us will agree.... IT SUCKED!! Maybe it was just our bad luck or they were having a rough day. But it still sucked!!!!

And so dissapointed with our lunch, we decided to watch Casino Royale!!! Which we did ... It was ok-ok. And the theater was supposedly better than any over theater in Trivandrum. Well that was a lie too. The theater wasn't too great either. Anyways... after the movie, we walked back to our room. (The location of our hotel was amazing. Walking distance from all the major parts of the city!!).That night again we went for the rest of our tour of the city! We walked to the beach and I saw my exam center (St Joseph's Boys school). Then we had ice cream from Baskin Robbins. And finally dinner once again from "Paragon!" (Paratha and Butter Chicken... after fighting with Manu over our legal share of the curry!).Yum Yum!!
Here are some pics we took at Baskin Robbins...




For some reason, certain roommates of mine (AHEM AHEM!!! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!) started asking doubts about the quant formulae the night before CAT when the rest of us were trying to "chill out" ! hehe ... we ended up insulting him into submission :D. And so the night went peacefully.

We woke up at around 6 and took turns using the bathroom. We changed and Ajay had breakfast early and left because his exam center was a bit far off. But just before we left, we decided to take a pic of all of us giving our biggest smiles and holding up our admit cards.This is what it looked like.

The rest of us went to Paragon yet again and had a veggy breakfast because we din't want to run the risk of having an upset stomach during the exam. Then we parted ways, wishin each other the best of luck and Abhay and I jumped into the first auto rickshaw we could find and headed to "St Joseph's Boys Higher Secondary School"!

When we reached there, we saw that the entire place was crowded with people who had come from across the state to write this mother of all entrance examinations. We saw people in the crowd whom we knew. Everyone was tense. And come 9:45, we were let into our respective examination halls. We sat there and began filling out the OMR sheet with our details at 10. That was done by around 10:15. Then came the dreaded wait. We were given the question papers a little later with strict orders not to open them until we were told to. The front page gave us three new pieces of information.
1) There were going to be 5 options instead of the previous number of 4.
2) There was going to be a negative marking of 1 mark and a score of 4 for each correct answer.
3) There were only 75 questions .. 25 from each section.

And then it was time. The moment had arrived...blah blah blah ...
I started as was my routine with the quantitative section .. my weakest. It was surprisingly pretty good. And after my regular 40 minutes in that section, i turned over to the amazingly terrifying english usage section of CAT06. I spent the allocated 40 minutes and then another 10 to try and answer as many as I could confidently. And I could manage 6! So then with nothing left to do, I moved on to the DI/LR section (My favourite) and did only 3 sets because I was short of time. (Because I was stupid enough to not look at my watch while tryin to crack the EU section! ). And then there was the buffer half hour which i spent for ... no points for guessin... the EU section. I started answering based on instinct and answered 17.And then I added my own personal finishing touches. I had around 5 minutes left. And that was when the rush hit me. Cram in as many quant questions as I can do !! And so I did. I did four more. And then in the end. They were all wrong :D. In fact, I answered the last one while the invigilator was collecting the answed sheets :D. And so with no idea what just hit me, I walked out bewildered and dazed. And as usual started discussing the paper with friends. One friend claimed he was going to get 174 marks! And as I analysed the paper further as Abhay and I walked back to our hotel rooms, I realised the mistakes I had made with the last few questions that I had attempted. And so we returned to the room and waited for the others. Slowly the other arrived and we all sat there discussing our papers for a while before we decided to go out for lunch. And so we continued our quest for the amazing biryani and fellow treasure seekers directed us to a restaurant called "Top House" and guess what!!! The biryani there sucked as well!! So then we finally decided to call it quits. After that some of us went to buy Halwa and that was the end of our trip around Kozhkode.We retired to our room where we talked while packing.And we took photos on our way back to the hotel as well!! And here they are ...

Once the packing was done, we had to make our way back to the railway station. And that too wasnt incident free. There was some protest or something going on and most of the auto drivers were refusing to go to the station. And we were already late on top of that. Luckily Ajay, Abhay and I, I think got an auto. Unfortunately the others had to walk/jog/run till the station but they managed to reach on time. We boarded the train and then started the second stage of all the fun. Sure, everyone was talking about expected cut offs and how many questions each one had attempted, but we had fun amongst all that as well. For example, in the set of seats right next to where we were sitting was a group of friends (both guys and girls) and as I passed by their seats I happened to notice that they had a cake in their hands. So I went and announced to all my friends that someone in the next cabin had their birthday today. And so we promptly gave them our rendition of "Happy Birthday To You" and then the Malayalam version "Sandosha Jenmadhinam Kuttikyu", only to learn later on that it was the wedding anniversary of the parents of one of the girls in there :D. And the best part was yet to come, around 10, there were actually 17!! Yes you read it right! 17 of us in one cabin. Where actually only 8 are supposed to sit. We were singing our hearts out until the railway police dude told us to go back to our seats :D. And then we went to sleep and in the morning we were back to our normal everyday routine lives. And the 7th semester university exams were pretty close as well.

I know I had promised much more in part 2, but this has gotten longer than expected, so I'm winding up this chapter here.
In the next part, I'll talk about the mental trauma I went through for the next one and a half month period, before the results finally came out. And I promise to include my SNAP and XAT exams in that episode. So until then ... this is Rohin, signing out ...goodbye and good night, or good morning or good afternoon depending on what time you are reading this. See ya ...
PS. If any one notices any grammatical or spelling mistakes, please do inform me. Thanks.

My CATography - Part 1 (August 2005-September)

Ok .. .its been ages since i last blogged. But I think ill force myself to sit tight and get one more post in before my next round of laziness sets in.

I'll talk about what could probably turn out to be the most important thing in my life. ie. the defining point in my career etc etc.My entire CAT experience. I shall try my best not to sound arrogant. Forgive me if I do.

Ok, the first time i actually started thinking about starting serious preparations for CAT was during my second year in college. Maybe it was utter boredom from some of the engineering subjects of that semester or the horror of our weekly trips to the IC engines and HM labs that did the trick, but anyways, I started seriously considering doing an MBA after my engineering. I usually jump right into things. Needless to say, that enthusiasm almost never really stays for too long. .. the key word there being "Almost". The first step was probably that lunch break when Abhay and I went around asking our seniors about when to start going for coaching classes. And the response (that surprisingly disappointed me) was "When you are in the third year is enough".Dont get me wrong here... I wasnt disappointed because I was that intent on working for 2 years. But actually because at that moment that was what I wanted to do. And that fire would probably died out in a year's time.But fortunately din't and I have to thank a couple of my friends for that.

So then that was that and I waited another year. Around august the next year, IMS conducted a 12 day personality development session in college and I enrolled for that.That proved to be what actually gave me a bit of confidence. And come August 2005, there were advertisements about TIME's "Time Talent Search Examination". Well needless to say, I enrolled. I still have the hall ticket with me (Atleast half of it.. My beautiful niece tore the other half..) and I'll try and scan it and put it up. Well just for proof that i do have it, my reg. no. was TTSE1350. And I scored 29.65 if i remember correctly, 30 being the cut off required for getting a huge discount and having to pay just Rs5400. Well anyways, i was entitled to a smaller yet valuable discount and had to pay just Rs8000. And that was my ticket to TIME, and I must say, I couldnt have reached where I have without every faculty member at TIME.

So I decided to join the weekday classes, cos I thought that i would much rather spend some time that I spend sleeping everyday for this. And I did take it very seriously (My friends will testify to that).And so started the regular classes on mondays, wednesdays and occasionally on fridays as well. I will be the first to admit that I never was the kind of person who used to go home and sit and practise for hours a day. The major portion of my learning happened in the class itself. Right from the beginning I found the LR section to be enjoyable. And so those classes continued till may or june before the most critical juncture arrived .. The AIMCATs. Oops I almost forgot. Around January 2006, a couple of friends and I decided to start up a study group. We had around 3 succesful sessions before we all just stopped :D. yes .. the AIMCATs. Those tests were one thing I stuck to religiously. Because I knew that I needed as much practice as I could get. Because I wasnt practicing at home as much as I would like to (cos I was too lazy).
The AIMCATs were where most of my CAT preparation took place. I miss those sundays. Going all the way to vazuthacaud or vellayambalam and taking the test for 2 and later 2.5 hours. The place was always crowded. So many people. Meeting lots of friends. And then after the exams sitting and calculating my score (Manu used to get so bugged by this :D). Then came the waiting. Wait till wednesday for the results to come out... and then I would start asking others about their scores. And somehow I saw it as a competition. That I needed to beat XYZ in the next AIMCAT. And so I started working. And that went on for a couple of months. I started reading the newspapers occasionally. But still it wasnt enough. Around august or september, it started getting to me. I started getting worried. What if I wasnt prepared well enough. Because I really wanted to get into a good b-school.And my preparations weren't up to the mark. I received a lot of encouragement from my friends whom I'll be mentioning separately. So I stepped up my preparations by a small little notch. But one thing I later regretted not doing was my preparations for the RC section. I never used to attempt any of the questions from the RC section until absolutely necessary. And I later regretted that.

Then came the news that the CAT forms were availible at the UTI bank Pattom branch. I still remember that day clearly, when Abhijith, Abhay, Manu and I went to purchase the forms for Abhay and I. I remember staring at those beautiful logos of the IIMs on the notice pasted on the walls. They were a distant dream. And my last few AIMCAT scores just proved how distant they were. Because they just kept going downhill. And that fear made me also apply to MDI,NITIE and for the SNAP test. I also applied for the XAT but that I would have anyways.
And that was it. . .. it was time... November 19th was near. There wasnt any time left.

To catch the next action packed episode of "CATography" tune in same place and definitely not the same time cos i donno when im gonna get around to writing the rest of this!
Heres a preview!! The next episode of CATography will include
1) My CAT journey
2) The exam
3)SNAP exam
4)The results
5)XAT!!!
You know you dont want to miss that!! ok ok ... I know im overdoing it ... You have to understand... I have a real boring exam tomorrow (ECM). I am so bored!!! Snore!




And so it was the last few weeks before the d-day.