Yippeee! I go to WIMWI!

Note: Just realized years later that I have left many memorable posts incomplete. There have been several blog posts over the years which I wanted to write (I used to write the title and let it remain in the hope that I will write sometime later). I kinda regret that laziness because I failed to capture some brilliant moments like leaving from Bangalore and my unprepared run at the Bangalore midnight marathon. I don't think I can complete those posts now and so I instead deleted the drafts. But this one post was about 70-80% complete and hence, I felt, better late than never!

For the umpteenth time, I have had a long long break from blogosphere.. The things and events that have occurred in the meantime are just too many to narrate... So, to cover up my backlog on the blogging front, here is the narration of one of the most memorable days in my life.. The day when life changed from agony to ecstasy.. and the change was not so smooth after all..

It began with the dawn of the much-awaited 27th of April. The previous day, the revered DHRM had reluctantly agreed to end the Cruciatus curse that it had cast on the many aspirants of CAT 2006 who were eagerly waiting to be let into one of the six coveted institutes.

I reached office early and was feeling all the anxiousness all over again. After 15 days of facing the question "When will the results be announced?", the situation had suddenly changed to "What the results would be?" I had felt that the delayed results would just wash away all the excitement of results. But that was not to be.

The first blow came at about 1:30 pm when IIMC came out with their results. And the institute was sorry to inform that I was not among the list of candidates selected for the PGDM program at IIM-Cal for 2007-09. Well, I knew C was one of my worse performances at the GD/PI stage but the sting of the first reject was painful nevertheless.

It was a rather light lunch thereafter, given that 5 more were to go. I got a call from another colleague (who had all calls but A) and he had made it to C. I congratulated him and talked about not getting through and he gave me all the gyaan on patience and staying relaxed. Yes. I smiled to myself. "It's just one of the six", I thought. Five more to go.

There was certainly no way to keep concentrating on work and my boss, Gaurav, was well aware of it. About 2:45 in the afternoon, given the tense atmosphere, Pappu (a senior colleague) suggested to have a walk out for an ice-cream. The rest of my team had my login details and were checking the results periodically.

We reached the ice-cream store and ordered some chocolate flavor. We tried to talk about something unconnected with CAT. Pappu tried to crack a joke or two and it lightened the moment.

And then the phone buzzed! It was my colleague Prady. "Dude, you've made it to I", he said. "Oh great. Thanks!" I replied, certainly relieved. Well, having six calls, people would have thought that getting into Indore was no big deal but it was indeed a big deal for me. At least I had cracked one of the IIMs! :-)

Well, we soon finished off the ice-cream and were on the way back when the phone buzzed again. This time it was Kozhikode. I had made through God's own IIM! I silently congratulated myself.

And by the time I had reached office, there was a wave of congratulations amid which, another colleague Ramlal announced that Lucknow was done as well! So 3 of 6 in the bag!

Then there was a gap for some time it was close to 4pm. No more results coming out. Gaurav suggested that we go out for our evening chai and biscuits. It was a treat from me to the team. Just a starter treat, of course.

The two big ones, A and B, were still out there. Would I get through. I was more confident of getting through B than through A. I thought back on the interview. I could look at it as being positive as well as negative. It all depended on how I wanted to look at it. The interview was done and the only thing to do now was to wait.

Gaurav thought that we may as well get back to doing some work in the meantime. So we were talking about something when my phone rang one more time. This time, it was my dad. And the happiness in his voice was almost evident. His words "Congrats. A madhye jhala" are the only ones I remember now. I just smiled and whispered A to Gaurav and walked out. I spoke with parents for about 5 minutes. And then the flow of congratulations began!

The rest of the evening was just surreal and I had at least a couple of dozen phone calls. In the middle of it all, someone told me that I hadn't made it to B but then who cared! The Well-kn0wn Institute of Management in Western India had admitted me! It was a dream come true!

I left from office at 10PM that day. 27th April 2007 is certainly one of the most memorable days of my life.