Whispering Shadow

Like a typical management student, I will begin this post on my first year at a b-school with statistics. In the past academic year at MDI, I have met and interacted with nearly 600 students who were strangers to me before I came here. Apart from students, I must have attended at least 3 dozen sessions by the acclaimed and not-so-acclaimed executives, senior managers and achievers who have come and spoken about why they are doing the best thing on earth. I have given 43 exams, 86 quizzes and submitted at least 20 projects. I have seen two placement cycles of 630 students. Three festivals and six loud, crazy parties have passed by. Been a part of two elections and become secretary of a club in the latter one. Lastly and most importantly, I am sure I have slept only 4 hours a night on 75% of the days (not verified, could be higher!). The frantic pace and the shocking numbers are perhaps the least pronounced change in my life. What has changed from my engineering years is, the rate of bon...

Life has more twists and turns than the most exciting of movies. And not one of us can gainsay that. Whether it is fair, is a different question. But if it was always fair, then the world would have more happiness than it could handle. Life would have become boring in utopia. The irony today is that it is this boredom which we all seek. And we are all right in doing so. Just that some times, we get the cake, other times we get the cherry. Like today morning, I knew I had done well. My belief was further strengthened by the official results. I was one of the top 2700 from a set of 270000 who took an exam. I thought I deserved a call. But they did not. I thought I will sail through, but the script was written differently. I was happy when I saw my CAT score card. 95.1, 97.37 and 96.67 percentile in the three sections and 98.91 overall. In my opinion the score was good enough for a call. But the happiness was short-lived. As I scrolled down the sheet, I had not one call from any of the s...

It is one day to go for the mother of all exams (if you didn't know, it's CAT I am talking about), but here are a few questions I definitely am trying not to think about: How is the paper going to be tomorrow? How am I going to attempt it?  What will the paper pattern be like? What if I get through? How will I get through? Can I get through? What if I don't get through? When was the last time I said this was not a serious attempt? When was the last time I said there is always hope? What is my chance of getting lucky, when 269999 others ask for luck on the same day? Do I need luck? What if my friend gets through and I don't? What if I get through and my friend doesn't? What if the paper pattern changes next year to an online test? What if the paper is leaked? What if I forget my hall ticket at home? What if I wake up and realise it is 11:30 already? What if there is a curfew tomorrow? When was the last time I tried to not think so much?  Luckily, CAT has only five an...