Hello guys…I always wanted to share a small part of my life, about my journey of achieving my dream of joining one of the top-10 b-schools in India. Now that I have achieved my dream, Alhamdulillah, it is time for me to share it with you all. I suggest that you read it when you have some free time as it quite long and I didn’t want to eliminate any part of the story as all the happenings were an important part of the journey.
So, here goes the story…..
9th April, 2006. The day culminated with a disappointment after two years of hard work. It was the day which could have changed the course of my life and kept me away from the so many nice things that happened to me in the past 5 years. But there was disappointment that I could not crack a national level entrance exam. Yes, I was disheartened at my failure to crack IIT-JEE. Though I don’t regret what happened yet, I was unhappy thinking i wasn’t worth enough. I wanted to achieve something big, and I had forgone that chance. Life moved on and I wrote the other entrance tests and I landed in a place which never existed for me until then. Eventually, I got accustomed to the life of a 1st year engineering student, fresh and filled with energy to do something big. But, as is the case with everyone, all that fazed out. As time went by, everything that seemed rosy in the beginning was not as rosy as expected. The 2nd year was a defining year of my life. I worked hard, tried to learn as much as I can. But in the end one’s fate is already been decided and he can’t help himself except by accepting it. And I was no exception. How much ever I tried I couldn’t gather enough motivation to carry on. I started realizing that I was not made for this. There was something else for me, I thought. But I didn’t know what it was and it was too early to take a call.
Cometh the 2nd semester of the 2nd year, I decided to explore the college life and be a little more relaxed. I started participating in departmental fests and volunteering for them in a quest to identify my interests. I was gaining interest in managing things and organizing the events. I wanted to become a manager and join the management segment of an organization. Then I realized that MBA is what I had to do. Suddenly, I found a purpose in life. I knew I had to do an MBA for that and it became my dream to do it from one of the top-10 B-schools in India. I felt God has given another chance to prove myself on a national platform. With these intentions I joined the Entrepreneurship Cell of my college in hope of learning something about management and how business units work. I was involved with the E-Cell till the time I completed B.E. and those 2.5 years were a good learning ground for me. Many good things happened in this period. I made some great friends, gained a lot of experiences, both good and bad, which eventually helped in transforming myself into the person I am now.
After I joined the E-Cell everything seemed on track for the dream I had visualized. All I knew was that to fulfil my dream of doing an MBA I had to crack CAT and the only place I knew of, which would help me achieve it, was TIME. I found some friends in my class who shared similar interests and in the 3rd year, 1st semester we decided to join TIME. We had classes thrice a week at 6.15am and I used to attend them religiously. The classes were interesting and a good start to my dream. Weeks passed on and life went on. I was done with my 3rd year and almost a year passed since I had joined TIME. There I stood at the start of the crucial 5-6 months that preceded the CAT, when the AIMCATS were to start. The first aimcat was over and I thought I did well. But the results showed a different picture. I felt I was still at the same level where I was a year ago. I hadn’t improved in a complete year. This disturbed me a lot and I decided to do some serious preparation. There was a month left for the next aimcat. So, I bought ‘Six Weeks to Words of Power’ by Wilfred Funk, as suggested by our faculty at TIME and started doing it on a daily basis in a bid to improve my vocabulary. I was also preparing for the quantitative and logical and data interpretation sections. I felt good about my preparation and was slowly gaining back my confidence. Here I was ready to prove myself again. The mock was better than the first one and again I thought I did well. But, all I could manage was a %ile in the mid-80. I was wondering what went wrong and started analysing the mock paper to understand my mistakes and built my preparation on it. Many mocks went like that and there was no considerable improvement. I was still scoring in the mid-80 range. It was always said that one’s percentile in CAT would be a bit higher than what he/she gets in the AIMCATs. This gave me some respite and a beacon of hope to get into a good college after all these horrid mock performances. But the life has its own ways of troubling everyone, especially our batch. The CAT went online from that year and all the strategies for the paper and pencil format went out of the window. This had to have a new start and a new strategy with proper direction. TIME was quite helpful in getting us acquainted with the probable online CAT interface and the mocks too were given online. It was difficult to adjust to such a format in the beginning but eventually we got used to it. That was of great importance and value to the student community as it was taken care of in a limited period of time. Anyways, the mocks went on and my performances swindled from a highest of 97.xx%ile to a lowest of 35.xx%ile and a score of -2/80 in Verbal Ability in one mock. I didn’t take these low percentiles to heart as I knew it was one of those odd days but I knew I had to improve myself.
One month was left for the CAT and it was time to fill the forms for various entrance tests and colleges too, which usually makes a dent in your wallet. After a lot of thinking and analysis I decided to give all the major exams, IIFT, CAT, JMET, SNAP, FMS and NMAT except XAT. I also applied to SIBM-Pune, SCMHRD under SNAP and TAPMI, IMT-Ghaziabad & Nagpur and IMI under CAT. Soon the exam season was to start which was intertwined with our 4th year, 1st semester exams. Thank god all the semester exams got postponed one by one due to the Telangana agitation and we could give the entrance exams in peace. I felt I had done decently well in IIFT, CAT, SNAP and FMS but not in JMET, thanks to the songs from the neighbourhood in Nampally, which blew the lid off my head. NMAT was quite decent but I didn’t fancy any chances there. After a couple of weeks, results had started pouring in one by one. IIFT came first and I had screwed it royally, I had not even qualified for the second round. SNAP result was on expected lines, but I fell short of clearing the cutoffs for both SIBM-P and SCMHRD. FMS also gave me a good score, but there were many guys who were much better than me, so dint qualify here too. NMAT score was a surprise, I had cleared the overall cutoff but I could not clear the quantitative section, I was very slow in solving during the exam. CAT results too shocked me. I was expecting at least around a 95%ile in CAT but all I could manage was a mere 88%ile. I was down and dejected and completely shattered. I did not expect any calls from even TAPMI, IMT and IMI. It was a dead end for me. I did not know what to do and just wanted to take some time before making a decision. It was just a precursor to the most ill-fated year of my life. Luckily, placements were to happen that year in our college after a yearlong hiatus because of the recession. Infosys was the first to come on campus and then I decided to get a job, and prepare again for CAT to pursue my dream while working.
Infosys came and went, and there I was still unemployed, when most of my friends were smiling and brimming with joy. Yes, I was rejected. I hated to be among them and lessen their joy. But God gave me such great friends who forgot their joy for a moment and started to share my grief when they could have revelled in the joy of grabbing their first job. The only thing that brought a smile on my face that night was the deep bond which was manifest among my friends. I vowed that I would crack the next job interview and get my first job. I prepared well and groomed myself for it. It was Accenture, which was to come on the 20th February, 2010 and here I am writing this, being an employee of Accenture. I would love to thank God, my family and friends for their prayers. It was an emotional day for me and a happy one too. It was probably the first success for me in that year after a string of failures. The happiness multiplied when I learnt that I had interview calls from TAPMI, IMT-Nagpur and IMI. I was overjoyed. But then I was very relaxed and had no pressure to convert the calls, as I had a job in hand and didn’t prepare for the GDPI rounds. But, still I wanted to give a try as I wanted to complete my MBA as soon as possible and kept my dream of doing an MBA from a top-10 b-school on the backburner. I attended the interviews for TAPMI and IMT-Nagpur with zilch preparation and dint go for IMI, as it was in Delhi, moreover because I was not interested in doing a HR course. The interviews were done and I was happy with them. I thought I could convert TAPMI and was ready to join. But 3 days later there fell upon me the biggest and the most destructive bomb ever in my life. The results for the 4th year, 1st semester were out and as I feared I failed in one subject. It was the biggest failure of my life. I had never failed in an exam ever since I joined school and for that to happen in 4th year of engineering was even more shameful and devastating. The academic calendar was delayed, thanks to the demand for Telangana. I couldn’t even wait for the revaluation result to be out before I could decide about writing the supplementary. I could not risk and had to apply for the supplementary exam before the revaluation results. I couldn’t face my parents while asking for the exam fee. I was so terribly depressed. In the end, revaluation didn’t help me and I had to write the supplementary. I thought I had taken the right decision by applying for the supplementary beforehand.
On the other hand, I had converted IMT-Nagpur, my first call and convert. Tears rolled down my eyes when I saw the ‘Congratulating’ message on the website. I was very happy, though I was not sure if I would take up the offer. But then, a convert was a convert. I was preparing to take a loan as I was expecting another convert from TAPMI, which I would have liked to join. But that didn’t seem to happen and I was disappointed again. I started thinking about IMT-Nagpur now. It wasn’t so great a college, as it had started just a year or two back. I was so dejected in life because of the failures that I thought it was the best thing I could get. I also had this fear of the backlog playing spoilsport in the admission. But somehow I decided not to join it and I thank God for making me take that decision.
Eventually, June came and it was time for the last exams of my engineering. The supplementary exams were to follow these main exams. The mains went well for me. I didn’t want to write the supplementary, but I had to clear the exam. I could not think of anything else at that point except that I had to do well and pass the exam. It was scheduled for July 5th. While I was waiting for that day, I got an admission mail from TAPMI. I was shocked and surprised to see the mail. It came out of the blues and started giving me the blues. But then I was happy I could convert the call. Now was the bigger dilemma, to join or not to join. I decided against joining as I couldn’t pay the 1st installment and neither could I have taken a loan in such a short time. Also, by then I had decided to give another shot at CAT and started my preparations for it. This made it easy for me to take that decision. That ended the 2009 season for me.
Now, it was time to shift the focus onto the exam on July 5th. But when it is me in the most ill-fated year of my life, something had to happen. And lo, it did happen. The Opposition Party of India called for a nationwide bandh to protest against fuel price-hike and they found no other suitable day than July 5th. The exam had to be cancelled and rescheduled. It made sure that I would remain in that dreaded state of waiting to get over with the supplementary exam for another 25 days. I could do nothing else but be patient. Meanwhile, there arose rumours of the 4th year, 2nd semester results coming out even without the supplementary results. I thought what a way to screw me even more. I was already down and lost and this pushed me further down. Never did such a thing happen and it was happening only because I was at the receiving end of it. This made sure that I lagged behind all those, with whom I spent my 4 years of engineering. The early results also meant that I could not join Accenture along with my peers as the date of joining was given as 15th of July. Another setback, I thought. All this while, I could not face my parents properly. I was ashamed of myself. Soon, there was another disappointment on the cards. The college management announced the convocation for our batch and I still hadn’t given my supplementary exam. For obvious reasons, I could not wear the black gown and toss my graduation cap. This was an even bigger disappointment as it was not just myself I had even deprived my parents too of what would have been a proud moment for them. It hurts me even today while I am writing this; because I know the sacrifices they made for me. I could never repay them and after all this, not at all. But still I have to try and make up for it.
I knew I had another opportunity at giving my parents a chance to be proud of me by performing well in CAT and getting into a good college. At the time all this was going through my mind I started my preparation for CAT-2010. I wanted to register for a test series from TIME. I could not even face my dad to ask the money I needed for the registration, after all I had wasted enough money in the previous year. But my dad never doubted my ability and showed faith in me and encouraged me in pursuing my dream. I did not want to waste another year and so had made up my mind to join a decent college if not the best one at the end of the season. I started my preparation and it was a bit organized this time around. I started the season with two good mocks getting around 97%ile in both of them. Eventually, the percentiles started dwelling in the late 80’s with a couple of 90’s. I knew I was doing well in the mocks but somehow it dint reflect in the percentiles. One reason could be the low attendance in mocks and hence I started believing that I could do well in CAT as the number candidates would be quite a huge there. I started working on my accuracy and time management, as these were the problem creators for me in CAT-2009. Now, I was feeling good about my level of preparation but still I knew I had to deliver on the C-Day.
My strategy this year was to target the top-25 colleges and apply to those colleges where I could have more chances of getting a call and converting it as well. Hence, I decided to take NMAT, CAT, SNAP, JMET and XAT. I had applied to TAPMI, IMI, IIT-Kharagpur, MDI and NITIE under CAT and SIBM-Pune, SCMHRD and SIBM-Bangalore under SNAP, with an intention that I would take up an offer even from SIBM-Bangalore, in the worst case. I was of the thought that I could get at least TAPMI as I was able to convert it at 88%ile last year and I was expecting a much better performance this year. With this in mind, I started giving my exams still knowing that I had to perform in order to be eligible for the second round in the first place.
First one to come was NMAT. I thought I did decent enough, but was a bit sceptical about it. The next exam was the mother of all exams, the CAT. I knew this was the time to give my best performance and I tried my best to give my best performance. All the while before the test started, Atif and I were gauging the positive omen only to give us the positive mind-set before taking an exam and that actually relaxed us. After the test we discussed some questions and realized that we actually did pretty well. NMAT score was out just after CAT and before all other exams, and after seeing my score I decided to take a chance and test my luck with a second attempt at NMAT. SNAP and JMET too went good and I was quite hopeful about calls from b-schools considering these tests. XAT was a disaster for me as it was a paper with variable marking and I was never good at attempting such papers. I could never figure out how to attempt and what to attempt that in that paper. I had lost all hopes just after the exam. But it was a matter coincidence that the place where I gave my first mock for this season was in fact the center for the last exam of the season.
Now after the rigorous preparation and strenuous exams, it was time to wait for the results. JMET result was the first one to be released and as against my expectations it was very disappointing. Even after performing well I couldn’t get a good rank because the competition this year was too tough. I was disappointed again but, I had set high hopes from CAT as I had attempted 50 questions with 15 each in Quant and DI, expecting all 30 to be correct. Well, there were about 10 days left for CAT result after JMET’s result but, suddenly the next day when I was in my office under training (yes I could finally join Accenture on November 9th) I got a call from Atif saying CAT results were leaked and he gave me the link saying it showed his score as 99.49%ile. I was excited, happy for him at the same time nervous for myself. I didn’t care for my training and started typing in my CAT registration number. And then it showed my score to be an astonishing 99.46%ile. I was elated and quite relieved too but wasn’t sure of it as it was not an official release. But then, there were speculations of it being genuine and we had to wait till Jan 12th to know the official scores. Until the time official results were out we never let anyone close to us know about it, fearing a change of scores in the official results. Eventually, 12th Jan came and to our satisfaction it was the same result. Nothing else mattered much at that time. It was pure joy and tears that greeted the CAT results. The news spread like wild fire and congratulatory messages flowed in and flooded the Facebook wall and inbox. It was the first time I scored a 99%ile and to get it in CAT-2010 made it even sweeter. Soon the joy came to a halt when none of the old IIMs shortlisted me for their GDPI rounds at 99.46%ile and I was left disappointed. An IIM call is what people expect at 99+%ile and I was deprived of them. Life had again started to be harsh on me. But then, they were not in my destiny and I had to look beyond them. However, I got calls from all other colleges I applied to under CAT and the surprise of them all were the calls from IIM-Rohtak, Raipur and Trichy, the new IIMs. That was some relief at least. But I still had two calls (MDI and NITIE) more preferable than them and I wanted to convert them. SNAP result was as expected but I couldn’t clear SIBM-Pune’s cutoff again and had to be content with calls from SCMHRD and SIBM-Bangalore. NMAT result was also good and I got a call from NMIMS too.
Everything seemed on track and I got a little closer to my dream. The first stage was completed successfully and now it was time for the GDPI rounds and I started preparing for it from all sources possible. Each b-school needed a special area to be focused, which demanded a different approach towards each of them. First of them all was SCMHRD at its campus in Pune. I was very excited about travelling to a new city and that too for an interview. It was completely enjoyable process at the campus and I loved every bit of it. Overall, I felt good about my performance there. The next interview was of SIBM-Bangalore at its Bangalore campus. I put up at Tanveer’s place a day before the interview. This interview took a completely different direction and I had never imagined it would happen in my wildest of dreams. At the end of the interview one of the panelist said he was very impressed with me and stood up to shake hands with me while giving me his visiting card. The card said he was the Head, Talent Acquisition at Wipro BPO and it was then that I knew who he was. I felt quite happy after the interview and was expecting a positive result. Almost a week after that on Feb 26th I was again in Bangalore to attend the GDPI process for IIM-RRT on 27th. The night before the interview I was standing by the window at midnight looking out as the beautiful city of Bangalore spread out before me and I started wondering about my future. Life is unpredictable as you know and, I feared what would happen, if nothing worked out this year too. Brooding over this for some time, I went back to bed and pulled out my cell from under the rug. It was a pleasant surprise to me when I saw a message showing the name as SCMHRD. My heart was pounding, as a message at that time meant the results were out and that too a positive one. I just wanted to open it and confirm the news. With much anticipation I opened the message and it read ‘Congratulations for being selected to MBA 2011-13 batch at SCMHRD’. That was it and I shouted for Atif, who was almost slept by then. He sprung up on the bed and was puzzled. I then told him about the result and there started the congratulations and celebration. I called up my parents first and told them about it. They were very happy at that news. The one thing my father said to me, which I will never forget was, “…it is important to have patience. Always be patient and work hard, for hard work will never go unrewarded…” Life became a bit easy as I knew I had something in hand and a direction for the future. I gave the interview, the next day, in the same frivolity and it cost me bitterly. It was the worst interview I ever had and I had no expectations of getting even into the waitlist. I came back home and started the loan processing for SCMHRD. The next two interviews were of NMIMS and NITIE in a gap of two weeks at their campuses in Mumbai. Both went quite good and I thought I had a fair chance of getting selected in both of them. After getting through SCMHRD I skipped some interviews as I would have preferred it over them. I was now left with only one call and that was from MDI. My parents were vexed at me going to other cities every week and asked me not to attend MDI’s GDPI round. But I wanted to give it a try as it was from the top-10 colleges of India and I would have liked to join it, given a chance. I somehow convinced my parents and went for the GDPI round at Bangalore. Atif and I went together and put up at Tanveer’s place. We had a good time at his place which helped us get relaxed. The process was smooth and I gave another decent performance. With my performance and CAT score I expected a convert at MDI atleast in the waitlist. This was my last interview and I felt a lot relieved after that. The excruciating wait for the results from the two most anticipated colleges (MDI and NITIE) had started.
I was expecting a convert from NITIE and would have preferred it over MDI had I converted both of them, considering the fees of both these colleges. At the end of March, NITIE came out with its list of selected candidates. I wasn’t selected and neither was I in the waitlist of 200 people. I was expecting at least a decent number in the waitlist. Without any old IIM calls and a reject from NITIE I was very dejected and wondered when my CAT score would come to use. But somewhere I had a thought that it was God’s way of keeping me away from NITIE. MDI was considered better than NITIE for the specialization I am inclined towards and hence I thought it must have happened for my own good. But I was still not sure of what my result would be at MDI. At the same time I had faith in my Lord. On April 22nd, a day after my birthday, the wait for the results was still on and nobody knew the exact day of the results. It was the evening on this day and I was checking my mails at that time. I happened to see some mail saying PGPM confirmation mail or something of that sort. I was pissed at that thinking that it was another spam mail. But I wanted to know what it was about and opened the mail only to know that it was from MDI and I was selected for PGPM, in the first list. I was very happy and thanked God as he didn’t disappoint me and tears started rolling from my eyes. I had finally made it to one of the top-10 b-schools in the country. My parents were even happier than me and proud of me again. I was content looking at their happiness. I told Atif about his convert too and let the news spread to all my close friends. When I told Fareed about this, he reminded of what I told him and asked me if I still feel that my CAT score was not helpful. I could just smile and said no. Congratulatory messages flowed in even from all corners of the world. It was a real dream-come-true for me. It was the ultimate thing I wanted to happen. Finally the hard work, perseverance, sacrifices and all the prayers paid off. Now, I have resigned from my job at Accenture and am heading towards Gurgaon to begin a new chapter in in my life.
There were many lessons learnt in the two years of my struggle. I am what I am now because of all that I had been through last two years. It was the most difficult part of my life. I was in a complete mess and when nothing worked for me, the only ray of hope I had was my faith in God. I understood that whatever happens with us in this life is for our own good and this was my first important lesson which I shall never forget in my life. Many people understand this when they are faced with a calamity. Even I understood this only when I had converted TAPMI but still I could not join it because I couldn’t give my supplementary exam by the time the college had started. Also, I couldn’t get a loan sanctioned last year which, too, kept me away from TAPMI. All these things gave me a hint that God had something better in store for me. I had complete faith in Him. This gave me confidence to give a second attempt at CAT and achieve my dream. The second important lesson I learnt during this time was that nobody gets anything other than what he is destined for. I was not destined for TAPMI and hence I couldn’t join it, I had 99.46%ile and I dint get an IIM call unlike others, my NITIE interview was good but still I didn’t get selected because I would have preferred it over MDI, whereas MDI was better in the area I wanted to specialize in. At the end of the day I ended up in the place which God knows is better for me. These lessons helped me ease the pressure off myself and brought me closer to God.
It is not difficult to get into a top b-school. If you have the passion and the desire to achieve the best for yourself then nothing else matters more than success. At the same time, one needs to have immense courage to pass the different stages, in their pursuit to get into a b-school, as there is every chance of a person breaking down even before reaching his goal. And, one should also have firm belief in the above lessons I learnt, in himself and yes in God ofcourse. It is always good to have a high confidence level as it helps you in making great comebacks.
I would like to remind you of this song from the movie Yeh Saali Zindagi, which is more relevant to the second lesson I learnt:
“…Zindagi pe tera mera, kisika na zor hai..
Ham sonchte hai kuch, wo saali sonchti kuch aur hai..
Yeh Zindagi..yeh saali zindagi..
Ham chahte hai yahan, saali jaati kahin aur hai..
Lamhe aur lamhon ke bich, tedhe medhe modh hai..
Yeh zindagi..yeh saali zindagi..” (Neglect the irreverence showcased in the song)
So, when you follow your own desires and try to fulfil your dreams and nothing goes as per your expectations just forget it and move on. Life has its own plans for you, something which is always good for you. Go with the flow and make the best of this life. Do not stop trying as it is only then that you will achieve all that you are destined for.
