Mother Of All Formalities

When you are about to finish your under graduation, you eventually end up at cross roads. You have no clue what to do next, and in fact, you really wonder if you have to do anything next at all. I mean, you've got a great bunch of friends at college, dad got you a bike and even pays for the petrol, you get to come home pretty late and the girl you met at that inter-collegiate function just returned your call. Life couldnt get better. But then, towards the start of the final year, you can hear faint murmurings at home about something that doesnt even remotely bother you, "higher education" and guess where every parent wants their kid to do his masters, Indian Institute of Management.

What bites every college senior bit me too. Suddenly there were signs of unrest at home and mom told me to take up the CAT. Actually she wanted me to join either in ahmedabad(since it was number 1 that year in the Business Today ratings) or bangalore (since it was closer to home). I was to reject calcutta and lucknow and not even apply for indore and kozhikode. I laughed, mom didn't. She was serious. I told my mom that she might as well give me the 700 bucks and put it to some use than flushing it down the drain. Mom laughed, i didnt. I was desperate. I guess she sort of concluded that i was clark kent.

Since CAT had become a ritual by then, i had a pretty decent gang at college, since there were other parents who thought their sons were peter parker or bruce wayne. Now that we all had a reason to go and lock up in a friend's place for the weekend with regular supplies of tea, biscuits and other assorted junk food, CAT suddenly didnt seem that bad. The 700 bucks part still hurt though, but we reconciled ourselves considering the fact that we were making a small contribution, without expecting anything in return, towards a noble cause, the betterment of indian education.

The big day came. The second sunday of december and our parents said their byes and started their prayers. Me and Settu were taking our exams in chennai since chennai happens to be where i was born. Bulljith, Rumkumar (no spelling mistake here) and the others took their exams in bangalore since "CAT exams" sounded a loftier reason to visit bangalore than "guzzling beer". Me and Settu got off the train and were on our way to my place. Just then, a big black cat crossed the road right in front of us. Settu frozeand decreed that we had to wait until a white cat (four legged feline) uncrosses the way, or else our CAT (the exam) would turn out disastrously. What on earth ?? Even if a 10-megatonne tyrannosaurus rex uncrossed our way, i wasnt going to clear the exam. Since this was delaying breakfast, I tugged him to walk with me, but he solemnly refused. I asked him if there was any way out, without involving a white cat. There was one, thank god. It was to let someone else cross that path and let him take all the bad luck. How noble. Anycase, now that i was sure i cannot drag settu across, we waited until some poor old man came for his morning walk and crossed the line. For the record, Settu didnt clear the CAT exam. I am not sure what happened to the old man.

Loads of advice from folks at home, asked me to take some 7-8 pencils since time was the key. They missed the skill part and i didnt bother to remind them. The venue happened to be the only thing about my CAT exam, Stella Maris on cath road. On any other day, i guess they would've called the police, but that day was a riot inside stella. I reckon i didnt need more than two pencils to finish the exam. Most of the candidates came out all the more wiser knowing that women are as good as men when it comes to graffitti on desks. The rest, as they say, was mere statistics.

After a while, the results were starting to come. My gang started getting regret letters with the usual melodrama. I guess no one paid enough attention to it since that was our last semester and we had so much more to do than to spare a second to think about foregone conclusions. After a week, and then 10 days, and two weeks later, i didnt get my regret letter. Boy, what do we have here ?? Is there some sort of tug-of-war between the IIMs as to which one is going to call me ?? Are there companies that are already offering me placement looking at my scores ?? I'd bury the rest of the conclusions i made to prevent hypertension for the reader. After another week came the much awaited letter. So, which one is it going to be ?? A-bad ?? Bangalore ?? If it is calcutta, they better offer me finance. What do i do if it is Indore ?? Should i send a letter regretting my lack of interest in joining them ?? Would that affect my chances in Bangalore ?? Mom reminded me it would be easier if i open the letter first. It started "We are sorry ..". I checked the "To" address. It was mine. Then it struck me, Its okay to count your chickens before they are hatched, but to do that before the hen and rooster even decided to make a go at it, was criminal. A costly lesson, but worth every penny of the 700 bucks.