It was 16 Sept 2017.

I was in Delhi. I came back from my morning coaching classes. I was planning to appear for UP-PSC and thus was preparing for it. As usual, after the class, I came back to my pg room and called my parents to know their wellbeing. My mother picked up the phone. I heard her sobbing voice. As soon as I asked her what the matter was, she lost her control over emotions and started weeping. My father, a UP government official, had lost his job. This was the biggest tragedy that had ever happened to us. Corruption prevailed in UP and it still prevails. He was terminated from the job on grounds of an offense he never committed. To make it worse, he was denied to the rights of hearing by the commissioner of the revenue department. No one was there to listen to the truth. I wondered what my father who never thought of himself as an officer , instead he served the people as a government servant, got the gift of ‘DISMISSAL’ in return of his honest service, what will I get if I landed into the same job in the next few years( first of all, I would have to get the job, which, in India, is equal to a deal of corruption). This incident completely changed my views towards Government job. I changed my mind to go into the Government sector. I now thought I was on a path which just had a dead end. This was because I completed my graduation (B.Sc. Hons in mathematics) back in 2016 with a low percentage of 69 and it was too late to start preparing for post graduation in my subject as I had not been in touch with the subject for long. It would take another year to get admission in a good college.

“GOD WILL TAKE YOU TO PLACES YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND JUST TO BRING YOU TO THE PLACE WHERE HE NEEDS YOU TO BE”. One day, something struck me, I realized I could appear for CAT 2017. And this is where my journey to one of the most prestigious B-School, IIM Rohtak begins.
I was always an average student with 9.2 CGPA in class 10th and 78% in class 12th. In sports, I played some games without excelling at any. But since I had a more than average background in quantitative aptitude and reasoning, I decided to write CAT 2017. I was slightly less comfortable with the verbal section, I focused more on it with a little time left. The exam was held on 26 Nov 2017. Apart from syllabus, I didn’t have much idea about the exam. My test center was in Ghaziabad. After the exam got over, other CAT aspirants discussed the paper amongst themselves. As all other introverts, I am also a silent listener. I listened to them. Some found QA difficult while others found LRDI the most difficult section of the exam. I was in the latter group. I came back home and through call predictors provided by some websites, it predicted around 75 percentile on the basis of my attempts. I now left the hope of getting into any of the premium B-Schools. And with no source of income at home, I decided not to waste the money by going into a normal college.

Days passed by, and on 8th Jan 2018, IIM Lucknow declared the results for CAT 2017. To my surprise, I got, more than expected, 89.67 percentile with 92.XX percentile in LRDI in which I attempted mere 11 questions which I knew I could have done more but I messed it up. I heaved a sigh of relief. But I feared of still not getting a good college because of 2 years gap. On 28th Jan 2018, I received a mail from IIM Rohtak which stated ‘Congratulations! You have been shortlisted for further consideration for admission to “IIMs”(CAP)’. Oh yess! I got a call from IIM. I was on cloud nine. Being an average student, I could not have been happier because this was one of the best achievements and opportunities I could get in my life.

CAT exam is just the first hurdle. The Personal Interview is the final frontier in the admission process of most of the B-Schools. Ever since the CAT results came out, there have been numerous articles, testimonials, and inspirational stories - stories of character, courage, and determination that have been doing the rounds on the internet. I was thriving in these articles. They gave me direction and motivation. I prepared for the interview with the help of WAT-PI kit provided by IIM. Finally, the day of the interview arrived. I got calls from many other colleges too. I gave an interview for CAP only, clear that I will be doing an MBA only if I get into one of the IIMs. My WAT-PI was scheduled on 19th Feb 2018 in Delhi. It got quite stressful throughout the day as it was my first interview, but exhilarating in the end. I reached the venue early and everyone was distributed in panels Most of the faces were new to me except that I found one of my school friends there, even though we were meeting after 9 years the first question which she asked was “Why are you not wearing a blazer ?”, after that only I noticed every candidate was wearing blazer except me. I got tensed and just like most of the Indian children I called my parents and they told me not to worry and they will arrange something. After some time I got a call from my father and he came to save my day with a new blazer. I still remember while I was removing the tag and putting it on, it was from Allen Solly. I put on my new blazer and went inside for the process.

Then we were taken for the WAT, which lasted for 15 minutes. The interviews started 20 minutes after the WAT and each panel had eight candidates in it. Interviews lasted for 15 – 35 minutes. I was the fourth person to go from my panel and I came out of my interview thinking this was the worst interview ever. Tongue-tied situations are something that a lot of candidates have faced during interviews. They feel embarrassed and extremely nervous and it might end up as a bad experience for them. Something of a similar sort happened with me too. They started with the trickiest question ever “Why MBA?”. I learned that an interview is all about being honest. The best way to answer this question is by connecting small incidents of your life and making a story that sells. I tried to do the same but failed miserably. All my preparation for the interview seemed of no use. I was questioned on mathematics, politics, my hobbies, etc. I flubbed a lot of questions but kept a smiling face throughout.

Now it was time to wait for the CAP results. After this bad interview experience, I didn’t expect much. Meanwhile, I got the call letter for Skill test ( last level) for the post of assistant at Indian Space Research Organization and SSC CGL tier 3 exam. Before I could decide whether or not to appear for the two, I got a mail from IIM Rohtak. May 29 was the day I got my IIM Rohtak offer. A day which I will never forget. I guess the blazer which I bought turned out to be lucky for me. It has one of the best feelings of the world. Fate has its own ways. I never thought of ending up here.

TASYA KATIYAR

My journey to IIM Rohtak