It all started on 2nd May 2016. My 4th-semester exams at NIT Surat had just ended. It was summer vacation time. I was happy as it was my birthday. But something better happened on that very day. I got a call from a Ph.D. student at IIM Ahmedabad. Yes! It was an interview call for an Internship that I had applied. After a week, I started my 2-month long internship at IIM Ahmedabad.

This was the time when I dreamt of doing an MBA. Not only just an MBA but particularly at IIM Ahmedabad. I was fascinated with the idea of doing an MBA at IIM A as I came to know that it is the best in India. I told my colleagues there at IIM A that I would crack CAT in my final year and would join IIM A in 2018. With that promise, I returned to my college after completing my internship.

Soon I started my preparation for CAT. It was a casual preparation, not a dedicated one. On the D day, I messed up my VARC section.

CAT 2017: 95.4%le [VARC – 73.xx only]

No call from any old IIMs. Still, I didn’t feel sad as I soon got a job in a Tata Company. So I was relaxed. I decided to give CAT again in 2018 with the job.

I joined my Company on 30th June, 2018 as Graduate Engineer Trainees [GETs] with 22 other GETs from across the country. We were going to have training for initial 6 months so I had more than enough time to prepare for CAT2018 along with job as there was no job pressure at that time. But I couldn’t resist my urge to the fun that the rest of the GETs were having during training time. With half mind, I wrote CAT 2018 in Kolkata.

CAT 2018: 94.98%le

After giving CAT only I wasn’t much excited realizing my performance in the exam, but the CAT result made me dejected. I scored lesser than my last year's performance. How could it be even possible? Lots of thoughts came into my mind. Maybe I don’t deserve an old IIM at all, forget about IIM Ahmedabad! But a twist came in my story.

To my surprise, I got a call from IIM Indore and IIFT. Now, even IIM Indore and IIFT looked as beautiful as what once IIM Ahmedabad had been to me. I was pretty much convinced that I could get no better colleges than what I was having at that time. I prepared for the interview well. But alas! I was waitlisted in both, which didn’t convert later.

I was at my lowest point at that time. I started from IIM A and was more than happy to go for Indore and IIFT D, but now it seemed I lacked the skills needed for getting into a B school. First I couldn’t score well in CAT two times in a row, and then when I got 2 decent calls I couldn’t convert any of them.

Meanwhile, my honeymoon period at my company was over. Training got completed in January 2019 and then I was posted in Hyderabad as Assistant Manager, Sales & Marketing. Soon I came under tremendous pressure for my sales figure. Here I was in Hyderabad in the scorching month of May, looking at both the rejection of B schools and a job that I had started hating. Somehow I couldn’t muster up the courage to start my preparation again for CAT 2019. I needed to contemplate all choices that I made, my approach, my lifestyle everything. And then I realized my biggest drawback is lack of dedication and procrastination. In simple English it’s called laziness. Yeah, I was too lazy to get out of my comfort zone all the time. And due to that, now I was in a mess.

To improve my dedication and reduce procrastination, I joined a library (paying Rs 1200 per month) so that I can get a quiet atmosphere for study as my PG in Hyderabad was filled with over-enthusiastic people. In the morning, I would go for the job, then in the evening from Job I would go to Library in Ameerpet and then at night, I would return to my PG in Begumpet at around 11 pm. It was not a strict schedule, but I tried hard to follow this schedule on most days.

This time, my target was any old IIM, IIFT, XLRI, IIT B, MDI, SPJIMR, NITIE basically any decent college as I desperately wanted to leave my job. No specific college was in my mind. That ship had already sailed. My sales job was getting heavy on me, but I managed to keep cool all the time trying to forget the last 2 CAT results.

Finally, D day came: 24/11/2019. I had been listening to ‘Ashayein’ and ‘Lakshya’ song repeatedly since the start of November month. It always gave me goose-bumps. On the day before the CAT, I played SRK’s famous Chak-de-India ‘90-minute’ speech to make my lazy mind realize the importance of 180 minutes on the next day. I tried my best to create a positive vibe for the D day as this time I desperately wanted to score better to leave my current job.

CAT 2019: 99.51%le (98.16/ 91.00/ 99.85)

I managed to get a decent score. I was happy as on the very same day I got the IIM L call. It was a dream call for me as at best I expected IIM K call only at my score. Poorly then I knew that IIM K was way out of my reach at that score. I had already ruled out ABC from the picture at this score.

To celebrate my success, I went on a trip to Ellora caves and Mumbai. On the last day of our trip, we visited Elephanta caves. It was evening time and we were on a boat returning from caves to Gateway of India. In the midway, I saw a message on EG FB group that IIM B had declared its shortlists. Just for formality, I checked my status. To my huge surprise, I got the B call! Woahhhh! I had been shortlisted for IIM Bangalore.

I was so happy that I along with my friends tried to enter the Taj hotel for dinner after reaching Gateway of India. I wanted to have the best dinner that night. But the security guard didn’t allow us to say it was full and we needed to book it well in advance. Nevertheless, I was still dancing in my head. A call from holy trinity!

Then I started my IIM B interview preparation. I took help from my friends, who were doing MS in US, to make a good SOP (Spent almost 10 days for SOP only). This time I was not willing to take any risk. Fortunately, I had 5 other B-school interviews before IIM Bangalore’s. I learnt from each interview experience that I had and improved myself after each interview. Fast forward to D day (10 march, 2020), my IIM Bangalore interview didn’t go the way I expected. In fact, I was in tears on my way back home. I don’t know how, but in the end, I did manage to get a decent waitlist at IIM B and on 11 June, 2020 I converted IIM Bangalore in the second list!

I dreamt of getting into IIM Ahmedabad and ended up getting into IIM Bangalore. Do I regret not getting into IIM A? Well, really not much. Considering the kind of bad situation in which I was there in the last year at this time, I’ve come a long way. I’ve improved a lot.

As anything, if this journey has taught me is the importance of patience and dedication. If you have them, sooner or later your time will surely come!

In the end, I would leave here with a poem that I wrote down depicting my feelings when I received the admission mail from IIM Bangalore in the second list on 11 June, 2020.

[ It was a blazing evening,
But with a little drizzling.

The sky in the hues of yellow and orange,
My anxious soul scrolling down the result page.

The cool breeze starts dominating the scorching heat,
But my fragile heart still can’t get over the earlier beat.

My mind takes a trip down the memory lane,
Recalls the first list when my hopes went in vain.

Heart prays hope, though eyes see vanning sunshine,
Like a couple urging Chronos Aeon to pause the time.

The eyes sees the awaited congratulation message,
Then heart hugs the mind, letting go of the grudge.

A light flow of tears climbing down the chicks appears,
Remembering the struggles and failures of last three years.

It was a three year journey of dedication and patience,
Failure made the noises, but success came in the silence.

Looking back at time, it seems it was all worth it,
For life, there is no dream that we can’t achieve it. ]

*******

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