One Failure is MISTAKE , two Failures are a BLUNDER and three is surely FATE.
Well, i discovered this adage just last night in a bid to bring some comfort to my hurted soul. Ever since i started my B-School hunt i have faced only one problem: Problem of complacency. When i started my preparations i had certain example with me (role models) Success stories of persons who are non other than someone i know and have observed very closely in the yesteryears. I think i am a bit priviledged to have seen all these success stories in the making and if you wish then you can draw a lot of inspiration from them. I have this story of Mihir Diwakar who was my classmate till high school and he dropped out because he was finding it hard to strike a balance between his cricket practise sessions and schooling. He played a lot of cricket in those years 1995-2000. He was also a member of the under 19 cricket team which won the world cup in SriLanka. He don the Indian cap with the likes of Kaif and Yuvraj in that series. Then he was selected for the Bihar team and played with the likes of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Well i don't know where he is now but his was truly a case, where one hanged his hat just because of the derth of opportunities.
Now the second example is of the latest Indian sensation Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Mention his name and your memory gets overflooded with the powerfully hit sixes and fours of Pakistani pacemen. He was an year senior to me in higher secondary and when i was in twelve'th standard he got selected for the Bihar team. Well, his residence was about 200 yards from the school premises so one could easily watch him during one of those practice sessions. And Dhoni was quite a hit with the girls of our class so, usually his friends, who wanted to take advantage of this fact would come on a round with him to the school more often. I have some vivid memories of Dhoni 'the cricketer', Dhoni 'the senior', Dhoni 'the sportsmen' and Dhoni 'the hero' but i don't think that sharing them here would make any difference to the feeling i am having right now. The significant thing is that a young school boy coming from a middle class family dared to dream big and despite of all the odds flooding his way he finally earned his rightful place in this world.
Coming back to the main point, it was pretty natural for me to dream big and i really did dream big. I had some realistic goals in my mind when i set out for realising my MBA dream. 99 percentile in CAT is completely achievable and there is no any magic wand for that except to work hard and practice harder. There i slipped a bit courtesy the environment at my college which makes you feel at times and often that MBA is something out of this world and instead one should work towards getting a work permit to work in airports, dhabas or drive refrigerated trucks in some alien corner of this world. Well i still knew it by heart that i can crack the CAT. CAT was not at all a dissapointment in the end. I feel that it was a more like a learning experience which taught me a lot many things. The real disspointment was SYmbiosis National Aptitude Test. And the adage i wrote at the top of this page was to absorb the shock out of this SNAP TEST.
Firstly, i appeared for the test and thought it was a cakewalk. I completed the paper and rechecked the OMR sheet for the correct markings. I expected something about 105-110 marks and what i got was much lesser than what i expected. The same problem was faced with several other students but one could do very little when he is hanging with that loose thread of optimism that maybe tomorrow i'll be accepted by this institute.
Then came the shortlisting. I wonder that premiere institutes like SCMHRD try to hide behind the 'profile based calls' crap. What's the importance of an aptitude test when you still think that a person scoring higher marks is not fit for the course because of some mistakes of his past. Well i understand that there are a lot of variables involved in the selection procedure but I wish if these varibales would be brought to light ever. So, that a student can take an informed decision about joining or not joining an institute. Another example is the extended deadlines and spreading wrong rumours regarding cutoffs for increasing the number of applicants and thus minting more money out of the pocket of the students community.
And then the third stage. I was interviewed by SIIB and i found that the case studies were same as they gave three days ago to the students of Kolkata. The group task was same for everyone in India and i wonder that are these so called professors really aware of the speed of information in an electronic age? Perhaps No. The interview questions were also more or less same for everyone and so were the topics for essay writing. Well, what have happened is that the students appearing on the second day and onwards and student appearing at Bangalore and Pune centre were in a better position to outsmart the candidates of New Delhi and Kolkata. So, the question arised that how they decided about the merit list. Isn't the whole process is something like a written test where everybody gets the same question paper but a group gets it on the first day and the rest of the groups on the subsequent days? Well then it's the simple mathematics of chance. Anyways the final result is that those who have got the opportunities are feeling lucky and this blog will be considered the effort of a loser and that's partly true.
Well, not completely true as i know that i deserve my rightful place in this world and my moment of glory is still to come. My soul is hurt but my spirits are still untouched by the cheap stunts of few people who don't know what they are doing. I think i am true when i say that One failure is a mistake, two failures are a blunder and three is surely FATE. The feeling of rejection can be very painful but friends if you have failed once twice or even thrice then take my words don't loose your hope. May the FATES have stored something better for you.
Now the second example is of the latest Indian sensation Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Mention his name and your memory gets overflooded with the powerfully hit sixes and fours of Pakistani pacemen. He was an year senior to me in higher secondary and when i was in twelve'th standard he got selected for the Bihar team. Well, his residence was about 200 yards from the school premises so one could easily watch him during one of those practice sessions. And Dhoni was quite a hit with the girls of our class so, usually his friends, who wanted to take advantage of this fact would come on a round with him to the school more often. I have some vivid memories of Dhoni 'the cricketer', Dhoni 'the senior', Dhoni 'the sportsmen' and Dhoni 'the hero' but i don't think that sharing them here would make any difference to the feeling i am having right now. The significant thing is that a young school boy coming from a middle class family dared to dream big and despite of all the odds flooding his way he finally earned his rightful place in this world.
Coming back to the main point, it was pretty natural for me to dream big and i really did dream big. I had some realistic goals in my mind when i set out for realising my MBA dream. 99 percentile in CAT is completely achievable and there is no any magic wand for that except to work hard and practice harder. There i slipped a bit courtesy the environment at my college which makes you feel at times and often that MBA is something out of this world and instead one should work towards getting a work permit to work in airports, dhabas or drive refrigerated trucks in some alien corner of this world. Well i still knew it by heart that i can crack the CAT. CAT was not at all a dissapointment in the end. I feel that it was a more like a learning experience which taught me a lot many things. The real disspointment was SYmbiosis National Aptitude Test. And the adage i wrote at the top of this page was to absorb the shock out of this SNAP TEST.
Firstly, i appeared for the test and thought it was a cakewalk. I completed the paper and rechecked the OMR sheet for the correct markings. I expected something about 105-110 marks and what i got was much lesser than what i expected. The same problem was faced with several other students but one could do very little when he is hanging with that loose thread of optimism that maybe tomorrow i'll be accepted by this institute.
Then came the shortlisting. I wonder that premiere institutes like SCMHRD try to hide behind the 'profile based calls' crap. What's the importance of an aptitude test when you still think that a person scoring higher marks is not fit for the course because of some mistakes of his past. Well i understand that there are a lot of variables involved in the selection procedure but I wish if these varibales would be brought to light ever. So, that a student can take an informed decision about joining or not joining an institute. Another example is the extended deadlines and spreading wrong rumours regarding cutoffs for increasing the number of applicants and thus minting more money out of the pocket of the students community.
And then the third stage. I was interviewed by SIIB and i found that the case studies were same as they gave three days ago to the students of Kolkata. The group task was same for everyone in India and i wonder that are these so called professors really aware of the speed of information in an electronic age? Perhaps No. The interview questions were also more or less same for everyone and so were the topics for essay writing. Well, what have happened is that the students appearing on the second day and onwards and student appearing at Bangalore and Pune centre were in a better position to outsmart the candidates of New Delhi and Kolkata. So, the question arised that how they decided about the merit list. Isn't the whole process is something like a written test where everybody gets the same question paper but a group gets it on the first day and the rest of the groups on the subsequent days? Well then it's the simple mathematics of chance. Anyways the final result is that those who have got the opportunities are feeling lucky and this blog will be considered the effort of a loser and that's partly true.
Well, not completely true as i know that i deserve my rightful place in this world and my moment of glory is still to come. My soul is hurt but my spirits are still untouched by the cheap stunts of few people who don't know what they are doing. I think i am true when i say that One failure is a mistake, two failures are a blunder and three is surely FATE. The feeling of rejection can be very painful but friends if you have failed once twice or even thrice then take my words don't loose your hope. May the FATES have stored something better for you.
1 comment:
Well Raj.. Words are not enough for appriciating your articale. i have to put my hands together to clap. The way you have justified yourself is par excellence.
The main thing about the article is that it has touched my heart. i was also facing this kind of circumstances. I have faced the failiure two times in the same regards and was in fear to face it again. but now i think your article had fished out my fear.
I would like to say thanks to you to make me read it.
Arshad.
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