Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched 2 states or 3 idiots you might miss some references ( but seriously if you haven’t watched there is something very wrong with you). Also, the post doesn’t deal with any kind of preparation strategy for CAT and just narrates the journey of a CAT aspirant.
Ten years back I watched a movie named 3 idiots. That movie especially the character of Phunshukh Wangdu impressed me a lot and I got inspired to become an Engineer. So, fuelled by this inspiration combined with hard work and expensive coaching materials & classes, I made it to one of the old NITs. I guess it was enough for me to just attend 2 or 3 classes of Engineering Drawing to realize that I was in the wrong universe. I didn’t understand the subjects in the first year of Engineering. I am still clueless about the need for an Electronics and Communications Engineer to study subjects like an engineering drawing, mechanics, etc. in the first year of college. Obviously, this all led to a fall in my grades(scored close to a 6.8/10 in the first year) and unknowingly I transformed from a Ranchod to a Raju Rastogi.
This Raju phase continued for a while but late in 2nd year, I realized that I was on the wrong path and decide to improve my academic scores. This mending of ways ultimately made me into a Chatur. I started mugging up the subjects (sometimes even the whole mathematical solutions too), copying lab experiments, and even writing answer papers in a particular way to impress the examiners. All these ways worked and I even got 9+ grades for consecutive three semesters. I even started coding to prepare for final year placements. But deep inside I knew you that something was not right. Something didn’t fit (You guessed it right I had an existential crisis as they show in Imtiaz Ali movies). So, I started looking for alternative options for Engineering. Sadly, I am no Farhan Quereshi and don’t follow creative pursuits like photography and hence I had only one option i.e. MBA. Therefore, I switched gears. Instead of 3 Idiots, I now started watching 2 States for motivation. I prepared seriously for CAT, solved all the coaching material, wrote more than 50+ mocks, and even improved my general knowledge for PI. Also, I ignored the final year placements up to an extent and didn’t focus on it. (I did sit for few companies but it was never the primary focus)
Obviously, if this post was a movie script, then this point would have been a climax and I would have cracked CAT and got into an IIM. But sadly the real world doesn’t operate like that and hence I failed in CAT 2018.Period.
Luckily I wasn’t that crazy and had secured a good enough job during final year placements.
The Chennai phase
I had always dreamed of getting a job in Chennai after watching 2 states. But that dream also had few other steps like getting into IIM A, having a Tamilian girlfriend, etc. Somehow, I managed to skip those two or three necessary steps and reached Chennai as it was my job location. Let me be frank here with you, if you are a North Indian, love good food and don’t know anyone in Chennai, you will want to run back to your hometown even in the first week itself. But being a fighter I stayed there. As I was settling into my job, the CAT 2019 forms were out. I earlier thought to try CAT after getting a 2-year work ex and hadn’t prepared anything after the debacle in CAT 2018. But still, Chennai and an IT job inspired me to fill it as I wanted an escape route and that too fast. So, I filled the form.
The Climax
I appeared for the CAT 2019. The VARC section was a shock and I was clueless about my performance after completing the paper. After one month CAT results were declared in January and I got a 99.81%ile, got a few good colleges call. As of now, I have converted FMS Delhi, IIM Indore, and Kozhikode, and also, waitlisted in IIM Calcutta and Lucknow.
But this post is not a success story. It is about the journey of an Engineer who committed mistakes and learned from them. He isn’t your perfect Rancho. Actually, he is more like a Suhas Tandon who committed the mistake of Engineering and later moved to the field he desired. (Even I hated his brand and money obsession but I will like you to ignore that for a while). Suhas for me was the fourth Idiot in the movie and I proudly admit that I am not a Raju, Farhan, or Rancho but I am the 4th Idiot, one who did Engineering and then went for an MBA.
In my childhood whenever I lost a competition or failed in an exam, my Father used to console me by a quote and that quote became my life motto. In the movie, Rancho called Suhas a “donkey” and I will like to respond by that same quote to him. Here goes the quote:
“A person who fell and got up is much stronger than a person who never fell. “
I hope this article acts as a source of inspiration for candidates who committed a mistake and are looking for an MBA( or for that matter any other field) as an alternative