Chapter 1

I started of as a kid.
I first heard of the magical 3 letter word when I was 10. I-I-M. The 3-letter word that dominated me for the next 12 years. People around me were still dreaming of becoming doctors, engineers, scientists, cricketers and actors. But I made up my mind. I will become an MBA from IIM and become a manager. If somebody asked me then, I wouldn’t have been able to say what a manager was or what he did. But I knew the exact location of IIM-Joka (Calcutta). How to reach IIM-C, what bus goes there, the tram route, I knew it all. I also knew, someday I would go to Joka with my luggage and step into Ramanujam hostel to stay there for two years. I was one of the youngest MBA aspirant in my school.
As a 10-year old kid, I came across an ad posted by a reputed MBA entrance coaching centre. I was quite impressed by the ad. I went through that ad and pondered over it for a long time. Finally I made up my mind. That was the place I’ll be going to prepare for all the exams. So the b-school was decided, the CAT coaching centre was decided and my aim was set. Now came the tough part. All I had to do was grow up!
Since then it was set. Everyday, I used to go through all the ads posted by CAT coaching centers. Every November, I used to go through the newspapers reading how the CAT was. I used to hear students comment and used to read success stories of IIM students. I also came across lots of questions that appeared in CAT. I was never short of news of MBA entrance exam stories. Year by year, I was only determined to take CAT and fulfill my dreams.
There was only one problem.
I was not good in studies.
In fact, I was pathetic in it!

My teacher’s used to frequently complain that I never used to pay attention to studies. ‘He has that capability, but he doesn’t work hard’, was the common line among all my teachers. Well, the true reason was that I never used to find the subjects that were taught interesting. So red-marks in my report card were a frequent occurrence. It was only in my senior classes that I improved in my studies. The reason, I need to do well as this would help me in future in getting an admission to my dream institute.

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