The date was 17-Nov-2015, it was a chilly evening and after a hectic day full of classes I was sleeping at my home. Suddenly my phone started ringing but I silenced it; a day full of classes, assignment, projects, seminars and what not, definitely takes a toll on a fragile human being. But the phone was adamant, it kept on vibrating and in a semi meditated state I picked up the call and the conversation was as follows:
<Call connected>
Me: Hellllllllllllllllllllllo (in a sleepy tone)
Friend: Bhai congrats..!!
Me: What??
Friend: Bhai Congratulations..!!
Me: Kyun??
Friend: You topped the first semester..!!
It was 5 seconds of silence; probably I was trying to assimilate what I heard. Was it a dream?? Was it a prank?? Because I know and God knows this can’t be true. It was definitely a prank; I asked my friend “Is the result out?” to which he replied, “Check your mail”. <Call disconnected>
The blood was rushing through my veins, the sleep disappeared in anxiety, the phone was still ringing on the table and my eyes gazed into the laptop. Suddenly the 2 Mbps broadband connection seemed too slow. I was excited, I was scared, I was laughing, I was crying, I don’t know what I was feeling, but what I wanted was for that pdf file to download fast. The file got downloaded, I opened it, It was a white page with some time dots of black ink on it. I zoomed it, scrolled down and there it was “PGP06073 – Dixit Aggarwal”, I used my finger to traverse the screen so that, accidentally, I wouldn't see someone else's result. My finger stopped at 9.12 CGPA, I scrolled the document to see the highest and that was it: I was the topper!!
The hormones were flowing in my brain, neurons were firing at their optimal capacity and that got me thinking, how I got through 65.8% in HSC CBSE board to 9.12 CGPA Semester 1 IIM Rohtak.
And here’s a flashback:
I passed my HSC in 2008 and due to poor scores could not get into an IIT or NIT, Did my graduation from the same Maharshi Dayanand University where the temporary campus of IIM Rohtak is situated. I passed by the IIM building daily and glanced to see the IIM students chatting in the parking lot. A few days they were in formals which got me thinking that there must be some event going on. The IIM campus knew how to make its presence, almost on a routine basis there was an event going on. You can see the IIM Rohtak students wearing college T-shirts roaming around in the campus and they had a very different aura about themselves which made you feel attracted towards them. You can feel the presence of IIM Rohtak in the city through “IIM Rohtak-Save the girl child Marathon” posters. Half the roads of the city were closed on the day of event and it was a festival in itself. If you take an auto ride in the city, there was banner at the auto’s back saying “Meri Beti School jaati hai – An IIM Rohtak Initiative”, supposedly IIM Rohtak was sponsoring the education for the Girl child of auto drivers. One day I saw an article in the newspaper how a professor of IIM Rohtak was providing education to the rag pickers children and was successful in getting them admitted to a private school, his name is Dr. Venkatesh Murthy. The newspapers were always full of praises of IIM Rohtak. And then I knew, this is what I want; IIM Rohtak is what I want!!
My graduation was nearing its end and I was rejected from Infosys interview, my friends who were selected were celebrating. The college ended and I had no job but who knew that God has a bigger plan for me. I joined my father’s business. Helped it expand many folds and then it struck me, I am not made for IT while working at my father’s place I fell in love with management and it was then I started preparing for CAT. I gave CAT a total of 3 times. First time I didn’t get a call from any IIM. The second time I got calls from new IIM’s except IIM Rohtak. It was only the third time that I got a call from all the new IIM’s including Rohtak and MDI, NITIE and a few others. And this time I converted all new IIMs, MDI, NITIE and without a doubt, I joined IIM Rohtak. Finally, my 3 years of hard work had paid off. From a guy asking questions on various forums “I have xx percentage in my 10th/12th/grad, can I convert an IIM?” now I was an IIM-R student. The hammer had finally struck which changed my destiny.
But one must not stop there; getting into an IIM is one story but getting through it a totally different one. Here you meet all kinds of students and in a batch of 160, everyone is unique in his or her own way. Just a CGPA is not enough to compare two students because it’s like comparing apples and oranges on the same metrics. Every student who got into an IIM is already a winner, every student who has survived the induction module is already shatterproof, every student who has submitted numerous assignments on time is already meticulous and every student who has attended the early morning lectures after being awake the whole night is already enthusiastic.
I can go on and on by telling you stories about my friendships at IIM-R, the events, guest lectures, conclaves, celebrations, fights, love-affairs, placement week, exam days, projects, field days, clubs & committees and numerous other things but let’s leave it for some other day.
And here I am, from a student with no job after graduation, sitting here at a desk, interning in Idea Cellular Ltd., Chennai on a weekend writing this story with tears of joy in my eyes and in retrospect I can only say “Merely having a want for something is not enough, make it your passion and you will create wonders”.
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About the author:
I was born in Ambala, Haryana and was brought up in Rohtak, Haryana. Completed my SSC from I.B. School Rohtak and my HSC from D.P.S. Rohtak. Did my B.Tech in Computer Science from Vaish College of Engineering affiliated to Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) Rohtak. I have 3 years of work experience in my family business as an Administrative Trainee where I handled all the chores related to Marketing, Finance, Operations & HR. It helped me to get the ground level understanding of all the management fields. At IIM Rohtak, I have organized and participated in various events, clubs and committees and held positions in a few.
I have a keen interest in automobiles and have driven numerous cars from Tata Nano to Mercedes. I have also won the Bronze medal in Inter-school skating tournament.
But this is all just the past…the chapters of my future are still unwritten..!!
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