The road to God's Own Campus - Part II

Its 2 in the night as I sit down to write this blog and there are a couple of beer fests going on in my hostel since its a Saturday night and lots of shrieking can be heard. But my life at IIM-K is reserved for a totally different day and blog...Ok now I know that for any movie series, sequels have tended towards being much more boring than the 1st movie so this is my way of trying to break that jinx.

For now, lets just rewind to 9th Jan 2009 to the time where, on one hand I was extremely happy about getting IIM calls and on the other hand, a little dejected on missing out on the Grand Daddy of them all !

Anyways , it started with I getting numerous calls from loved ones (and most of them thought that now it was at my discretion as to which IIM, I wanted to choose since I had 'converted' 3). After a lot of explaining, I could finally get everyone to understand that these were just calls and the real test lay in front of me of converting the calls. Oh btw, I was in Pune and had just started hating my TCS job so this couldn't have come at a better time. I went to the Aundh (an area in Pune) center of TIME to get myself enrolled for a GD/PI special course. The receptionist had asked me what calls I had. I had replied with a "C,I,K" to which she asked me "Which college is that??? CIK". i told her that I had meant IIM C,I &K and the look on her face after that was worth a million dollars (okay rupees :D ) I received the interview schedule a few days later and got to know that my first interview (K) was on the 14th of Feb. What a bad day for an interview !!! Calcutta was scheduled on 9th March and Indore on 13th March. My GD/PI sessions, to sum up in one word were a 'catastrophe' and ended with me telling my prof (a guy who was an IIMC pass-out and had around 25 years of teaching experience) "I HATE YOU IF YOU HATE NARENDRA MODI".

So much for my GD/PI prep classes ! Nevertheless, I had brushed up my basics and more importantly had stabbed at whatever I could know about the institute and the state it was located in. The interviews were to be held in Bombay which meant 3 straight trips to the best city in the world :)

>>>14th Feb 2009 : More than the interview, I had been looking forward to visiting Bombay. It was many years ago that I had last visited this amazing city. The institute where the interview was to be held was HMATC (Hospitality Management and... ) in Dadar. I stayed at a school friend's place for the night in Andheri and took the 7 15 fast local to Dadar (Bombay's locals....amazing !!!! sigh). My back of the mind thought was that since this was the 'K' inteview, I could afford to be a little relaxed since it was prep for the biggie, Calcutta (which of course you shouldn't think because that is now yourstruly's college :D). The GD was bizzare where I could barely come in twice. One comforting thought about K was that 55% weightage would be given to the CAT score so I was looking pretty smug since most of the people around me had a CAT score lesser than mine. I just needed a decent interview and I thought I would be through. That is just what happened - A decent interview ! Leena Mary Jacob (a finance prof I think) and another gentleman (100% a bong), were my panelists and I thought that the interview had gone by pretty smoothly. After a couple of questions on the difference in communist regimes of Kerala and WB and a question on gears, I was smiling (smirking) to myself about the way the interview had panned out. 'K' in the bag was my first thought. Again at this point I'd want to mention that 'You haven't got it until You have got it !'. The return journey to Pune was probably even tougher than the interview because, to cut a long story short, I had to do something about the tons of chicken I had eaten in Bombay ...many times !!! Still on the whole, K was a pretty decent experience.

>>>9th March 2009 : The IIMC interview was on a Monday so I could leave for Bombay on Sunday and this time, I revisited a whole lot of places. Went to Leopold's, Gateway, Kala Ghoda, Dalal Street, everywhere a person who knows little about Bombay would want to visit. The interview was again at HMATC (in fact, all my interviews were at HMATC) You would have guessed it was a Calcutta interview if in case you forgot which interview you had come for. Profs puffing away like chimneys and the heavily accented english were too much of a give away. Anyways, the GD put in one word was...BIZZARE.  There was this guy and he screwed up everyone's GD big time. My group was 99% sure that it was bye bye to Cal and it was huge considering that this was the best call for most of us. My interview was conducted by the PGP chairperson IIMC and that was the last nail in the coffin. Grilled me on topics ranging from cricket to counter strike and recession to Renedy Singh to future plans and why0 I wanted to do an MBA from India only, which apparently was the easy way out (Acc. to hm !!!). The interview ended with me saying that if this was the easy way out, then the 1 in 1000 ratio of the IIMs was not justified when compared to a 1 in 8 ratio at Harvard. So Calcutta was very much in doubt which effectively meant that Kozhikode was the best IIM I could get into (no offense to IIMI :D ).

>>>13th March 2009: IIMI this time and again HMATC. Loved Siddhivinayak and the Dadar beach there. The I format was a little different with a situational analysis and essay writing followed by a 30 min GD. The problem here (tell you why it was a problem later) was that out of the expected 12 people in the GD group, only 7 turned up probably because it was the last of the GDs and most of the people were assured of admission in the other IIMs. Now the essay went off really well for me and the best part in the GD was that I was in support of one aspect of the case and the other 6 were in support of the other point but in the end, I had managed to convince everyone that I was boss. So the GD was amazing. Only 7 people being present was a problem because we finished our GD in around 8 mins instead of the stipulated 15 :) . Well the interview was a formal way of saying... you did well in the GD but we don't want you so we are going to screw you in the interview. Probably the most horrible 15 mins ever...EveryTHING they asked was from academics, only two levels higher that what I had (or you :) ) had ever studied. So as soon as I came out, I knew that I was never going to Indore (not this year because they wouldn't take me and from next year on, I wasn't going to apply for I ).

>>>10th April: After around 5 months of total stress (from the day of the CAT exam) , results day had finally arrived. 9am: I had asked my friends to check my result for me since I was getting really tense. The First one, Calcutta was out at 9 and one of my friends gave me the bad news...I hadn't made it...DAMN ... and I was looking forward to connect with my Bengali background !!! Anyways K was next and there I had a wait-list. I wasn't very optimistic because last year the K wait-list had cleared by 0 (yes zero !!!). Indore was the final one and as expected, I hadn't converted. So much for my IIM dream !!! Everything was finished. I was in Ahmedabad to attend a friend's engagement and was secretly hoping to never go back to TCS and Pune in case I converted any of the calls. Unfortunately, it was back to TCS for another year.I was totally devastated. i couldn't possibly take the CAT with the same fervour plus the danger of it going ONLINE and plus the ignominy of going through this strenuous procedure again !!! A nervous breakdown wasn't far away.A couple of days later the K website showed me that I had a waiting list number of 157. Damn that was like 40% of the batch had to say no...The waiting-list number (IF!!!) would be updated on 1st May...

>>>1st May 2009: I had consoled myself that TCS is really good and iPhone development is indeed an interesting to do in lieu of doing an MBA from IIM. Anyways I was really really dejected and the TCS work-load was getting alarmingly high. I somehow again managed to land up at Ahmedabad on the 1st and just by chance happened to open the K website just before leaving for Pune in the evening...and SURPRISE...SURPRISE...."Anuraag Prabhakar : You have been waitlisted at 6 for the PG Program. You are listed in the OPEN category" Now that seriously was unexpected...Did I still have a small chance of sneaking in :) ??? Jaan ne ke liye aapko ff karna hoga 15th May tak....

>>>11th May 2009: Was in TCS (boring !!!) when I got a call from a number that had a code of 0495...And I sure knew that code. I was shivering while picking up and the voice said "Anuraag...Will you join IIMK if we offer you admission?" The only thing I could think of was "Are you serious?" . He then started laughing and finally it set in. I WAS IN. INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT. After 4 years of knowing about CAT and wanting to get into one of these dream institutes, I had finally made it. Yes, it was not IIMA but definitely one of my preferred IIMs. That day was unbelievable. To finally realize that I had done SOMETHING that was of some value gave me the bestest feeling possible. My life was going to take a totally new path, a path that many dreamt off... Finally there was the satisfaction of clearing the toughest exam in the world and being amongst the elite few to study in the IIMs. Celebrations after that were obvious but the extent was unprecedented. Everyone was aware of how much I had loved TCS (lol) and were extremely happy for me.

But this is just the beginning of the 3 glorious months I have already spent at K but that again, is in another post along with the time-pass in the 1 month leading upto the departure date for GOD'S OWN CAMPUS!!!

Bottom line: DIVINE INTERVENTION MADE MY ENTRY TO GOD'S OWN CAMPUS POSSIBLE !!!

The road to God's Own Campus - Part I

8th Jan 2008 :

ANURAAG PRABHAKAR 96.37%ile....

You have received calls from the following IIMs....

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The world came crashing down upon me. All that hype about and around me, all those friends telling me that I was made for the IIMs ,all those tests that I had topped at PT Ahmedabad, all my dreams that I would stand in front of an IIM gate (IIMA to be precise and honest) and proudly think that - "Look !!! I don't need to pass you illegally anymore" looked like a bad dream. The realisation that TCS was actually no more a fallback option but a place where I was probably destined to spend so many years was looming upon me to the extent of frightening me. Friends suddenly looked distant and mum's reasoning of "IIM agar itne padhai se ho jaata, toh har koi IIM mein hota" kept ringing in my ears. I was devastated. Never had I had such a big failure in my life. Being educated in mediocre institutions throughout my life had only made the whole situation worse because it kept reminding me that I probably wasn't made for the IIMs.

13th January 2008

Sat in the library I used to frequent and made a list of the days to go to CAT 2008 after I had finally gotten a hang of myself and realised that it wasn't the end of the world. 307 was the number . The next 307 days would determine if destiny had conquered me or if I had conquered my destiny.

16th Nov 2008 (D-DAY)

TCS had finally given me my joining date and typically the date was 10th Nov which meant that I had to come all the way from Trivandrum to Ahmedabad to take the CAT exam since it was too late to ask for a change of test location. After 36 hours of travelling,and 2 flight and 2 train changes I made it to Ahmedabad(hence forth Ahmd) at 11pm on the 15th.I got to sleep only at 2 since I had to complete the requests my friends had made from Trivandrum to be brought back from Ahmd.

16th (9AM) A 2 o clock flight to Mumbai meant that I had to rush straightaway to the airport after the exam and hence made me look like a guy who had camped out the previous night on the street with all my luggage. The only 2 mins I had actually got to myself were just before the exam and I had told this to myself - "Look you can do it, infact you have to do it. A lot of things depend on these next 2.5 hours so just forget about all the worries in the world -TCS ,IIMs and just concentrate on th paper."

16th (1:30AM) Felt that I had done better than last time but was still apprehensive as I had attempted only 11 in the Maths(QA) section. As usual , CAT had thrown up a surprise by giving a 44.44% weightage to the English section and considering that the very section had been my nemesis the last year, I was worried (simply put :) ) Nevertheless, the urgent flight meant I couldn't check my scores but got to know that the flight ha been cancelled since I was the ONLY passenger....Now I was really worried... 5 days in TCS and I was already on the verge of being chucked out. (You can have a cardiac surgery if you please but that should be when you are not supposed to be in the office otherwise its bye-bye to TCS). Still 45 minutes and 14k later I was on a flight to Kochi.I found my way to a computer and logged onto the PT,TIME and IMS websites. I checked with bated breadth. Maths ....11 right out of 11...unbelievable... Moved onto DI. 13 out of 20 for a score of 45. That was worrying. But I still had to encounter my biggest nemesis...Could this screw up 1 more year of mine!!! Well after 12.35  ( kidding !!! ) anxious minutes, the worst I could manage in English was 20 right and 12 wrong to give me a score of 68 out of 160.Now reality was beginning to dawn upon me. Did I stand a realistic chance?

>>>Fast forward to 9th Jan 2009>>>

A lot had happened in the past 2 months since taking the CAT exam. I realized why Kerala was known as God's Own Country during my stay at Trivandrum during the TCS ILP. I probably had the worst rating in my whole batch ( of 360 !!! )so the CAT results were all the more important. Also I had moved to Pune as Pune had been allocated to me as my base branch and already had a glance of the 'famous' Pune night-life and the Pune junta . I also realised that I was not meant for the IT sector and sitting on the bench was indeed amazing.

9th Jan 2009 : My future to-be roomie came up to my room and told me that he had got 99.24%ile but hadn't got any calls.Boy, I was trembling at that moment because if there's one guy who really deserves to go to the IIMs , its him.I got up at the normal 8 o clock to leave for office when a friend asked for my roll number and D.O.B. so that he could ask his friend my marks over the phone (We used to live in a make-shift unfurnished house that has associated with it, many fond memories).  I stood with bated breadth as he made the phone call. After giving him the details , I could hear him say this - " OK 99 point..." that was the first road block crossed. At least I stood a chance..... " point  89 , 99.89" that's when I started getting the creeps.  A small balloon of hope was emerging...Could I realise my dream of the IIMs (Again IIMA to be precise). The next 3 words I heard changed my life - "Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode". Then all hell broke loose. I started jumping up and down like a maniac (so much for all the dignity to be maintained that was just taught at TCS) , my friends were equally , if not more enthusiastic than me and we celebrated for what seemed an eternity. Finally I was on the path of what I had always wanted to achieve. There was a slight feeling of "What else can I do to get an Ahmedabad call!!!" but the fact that I had managed Calcutta and Kozhikode made me really happy even though there was that feeling of never being able to study in the place I had always dreamt of studying in.

Anyways C,I & K were amazing and I was reallly realllly happy and relieved. Finally I had started to reinforce the thoughts of what people had always said I could do..

The rest....isn't history (don't worry ) but is a next post :) For now in the blog, I'm happy with the fact that I've managed IIM calls :)