An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.

                                                                                                                  : Christopher Nolan

How fit this dialogue was, I didn’t realize until that sleepless night of January, 2018. I was under a new roof with a bunch of my friends. Rolling on my sides, I couldn’t do but admire the life people were living, nay, enjoying there. I was awestruck with their charisma, their dorms, their camaraderie and what not. Even the place, that I have been in just for a few hours, had left me astonished.

That place was Joka.

I was a participant of their annual cultural fest, Carpe Diem.

It was my 4^th sem of Engineering when my institute received the mail of invitation from IIM C. We were fairly excited, because it was our chance of exploring the beautiful beaches of Bengal without going heavy on our pockets. That mail kickstarted the planning of our week long trip. A mail, that I didn’t know at that time, was going to give my empty life a goal.

Lying on the floor of Lake View Hostel, or the LVH as it’s known, I started to wonder. Wonder what it is like to be a part of one of the most desirous bschools of India. How proud must they feel when donning that hood of IIM C. The only way to know was to be on that side. And that’s when the idea of writing CAT first came into my mind. And it came to stay.

Back to my campus, I found myself abusing the internet for gathering every bit of information I could get about CAT and IIMs. The target was simple, to know what it takes to get into C and gauge my chances of it. The results were flabbergasting. With my profile, GEM Fresher, 89/89/69, yeah short by 1 in all 3 :( , C was like that ad of Gillette. It was the best I could get. And it was all I wanted. It was like even destiny wants me to get in. 

The pattern and syllabus looked quite manageable at first glance. Maths was never a pain for me. Solving conundrums is my hobby, it ought to help me with LRDI, is what I thought. The only thing I needed to work on religiously was VARC, and soon I will achieve that crazy target of 99.7, earning me a ticket to the wat-pi of C.

The relationship of this godforsaken language and me had always been disappointing. Born in Gujarat, the only language I was in contact with till I was 9 was Gujarati. Then came that one day when my father’s company decided to move him to Ghaziabad, (U.P.).

New place, new people, a completely new language. Not the conditions to make a child feel comfortable. My parents decided to homeschool me, the responsibility of my elder siblings, until I learn Hindi enough to join a school comfortably. This was the period when I unknowingly refined my brain to be able to learn things without outside aid, something that has always been rewarding to me. I kept learning Maths and Science in those years, with a bit of English and Hindi here and there.

Then came the time. As per my age, I was supposed to join 6^th standard. My father made a list of some good schools in the city. Every school rejected me. I had to join a small school that ran in a single 2-storey building. Certainly not a great place to furnish your language skills. Even the teachers weren’t competent when I think about it now, let alone the students. 

I switched to a great school in 11^th, the time when I started preparing for JEE, again focusing only on PCM.

English was my first 12^th board exam, and I had improved to say the least. But god had some plans. I fell ill the night before and thus I ended up sleeping for a good 1 hour during my exam. Scored 70 in English, 90+ in rest of the 4 subjects.

English was always a horrible experience, to sum it up.  

Staring at the screen, everything came back to me in a flashback. I had never taken any tuition classes and cleared JEE without any coaching, but this time I wasn’t ready to take chances. In a hasty decision, I joined TIME (spoiler: mistake). And this journey officially kickstarted.

Attended the classes, realized that QA and LRDI came natural to me. The VARC sheets ate of all of my confidence, add an incompetent teacher, and you get a hefty wasted amount. Low-key realized that CAT ain’t my cup of tea and moved on.

TIME for mocks. (Yeah horrible pun, keep reading.)

Gave my first mock without any preparation. Scored 30s in VARC, OA 80s %ile. Analyzed the paper. Some hours later, it struck me. It was a proper eureka moment. I was rejoicing with hope.

I had cracked the code of VARC.

The idea was fairly simple, this section doesn’t test your language, it tests your reasoning. Have an average vocabulary, employ an above average reasoning skill to eliminate options and you can nail all the option-based questions. Parajumbles were left on the shoulders of my luck.

I did enough questions in the meantime to attempt my second mock with a bit of confidence. The results of Aimcat 2024 were, 46,44,38 = 128, 97.45%ile

And I never looked back.

April marked the end of my 6^th semester. We have the option of skipping our 7^th sem for a 6-month internship, and mine began in Mid-May. I bought Simcats at this point and now, I was completely relying on mocks for my preparation.

On weekdays, I used to reach home by 7, and analyzed the mocks from 10-1. Weekends were utilized for attempting the mocks. I had joined several Facebook and Whatsapp groups and I used to solve aspirants’ doubts during my working hours. These questions were diverse as well as challenging, and a major contributor in my final score.  

Aimcat 2022 was my first 99, Simcat 6 saw a single digit rank and Simcat 8 was my breakthrough in top-3. What baffling was, the foe had become my friend. I used to score highest in VARC, with usually 32+ attempts and 70+ score. DILR was highly fickle, and QA was the backbone. Roadblocks were there obviously, but it’s life, ‘Sachin bhi 0 pe out hota tha’, this helped me sleep.

You receive dozens of congratulatory messages, but the one who sent you ‘You can do it’, when you were nothing but a part of a huge crowd, is your true friend. Yes Siddhant, I am talking about you. I still remember how you used to motivate me on late night chats after each mock gone wrong. If you weren’t the guy you are, I don’t think I would be writing this now. Enjoy your next 2 years at SIBM Pune. Then there was Harshit, who kept saying that I am made for CAT. I could always feel that this guy wants to see me successful. He truly believed in me. I still remember how he got high and made random but on point stories to help me fill the questionnaire of IIFT interview round. I submitted it at 11:53 XD 

I bore the pressure of my internship, mocks and expectations combined with fear for a few good weeks. But later it crushed me, broke me like a twig. I couldn’t sleep at night. Randomly a drop or two flowed down my eyes while I was at work. My mental peace had gone for a toss. I knew what I had to do.

September first week it was. I took a train to my college, from there my friends and I took a 3-day road trip to a nearby hill station. This was a factory reset for my mind. I was ready to fight again. Within a week, I was back at my internship.

Around this time, this journey gave me 2 precious gifts. They came in my life uninvited and stayed, stayed to make me dependent on their existence. Swarnima, who sometimes stayed awake till 4 so I have someone to talk to during my study breaks, and Mohit ( @MohitMehar ). I mean it when I say, I couldn’t have asked for a better bro than you. You calmed me down when I was at my most vulnerable. Jaldi Milenge, bhai. 

October started, and I had almost static mock scores. I was elated, nothing can go wrong now, or so I thought. And then my life hit me with, “Baitho beta, abhi bohot kuch samajhna hai zindagi me”.   

My brother was going for a love marriage, and indubitably there were complications. But everything fell into place eventually and it was time to find the auspicious date.

I still remember the horror when that pundit uttered 12^th November. The next date was months ahead and it was risky, for some better left unsaid reasons, to delay the marriage. My parents asked me to move to my hostel, prepare for CAT, come back to attend the wedding and leave again soon after. That day I had to choose between taking the load off my family or focus on my career.

CAT to agle saal bhi aayega.

I dropped my pen in mid-Oct. Maybe gave a mock or two in the next month. But that time sure flew like the golden snitch. 15^th November, I took a flight to my college. Gave a mock, scored well below expectations, as expected.

Gave another a few days later, and my last on 21^st. Scores increased, and so did my confidence. I was mentally prepared for the D-Day.

I had set my target. VARC 80+, LRDI 50+, QA 70+, OA 200+ translating to 99.9+. Spoiler again, not a single one was achieved.

The big day.

Mine was the 2^nd slot, and I was oblivious about the morning slot. I didn’t want to be prejudiced. VARC was overall tough, but the peeps of 2^nd slot would remember about a particular RC, something about ancient history that was significantly ungraspable. Murphy smiled at a distance, that was my first RC. I spent 5 minutes, attempted a single question of that RC, and had to move on. RCs were my forte, and leaving 4 of them was certainly not a start I needed. I lost some confidence, well more than some, still somehow managed to attempt the rest of questions.

Attempted 5 sets in LRDI, though as it turned out, I had made a blunder in one costing that whole set. Good thing was I didn’t know about it at that time. QA was good, no regrets there, leaving aside a calculation mistake.

The results. (Raw/Scaled)

VARC  : 73/72.5, 99.68%ie

LRDI    : 45/49, 98.58%ile

QA       : 68/67.5, 99.40%ile

OA       : 186/189, 99.83%ile

It wasn’t 99.9+ but still I know C’s call was coming so I was overjoyed.

Profile : GEM Fresher (89/89/69)

Calls received : C,FMS,XL BM,MDI,IIT B, NITIE, IIFT, S, CAP

C’s was my best interview of the season. Everything was going in my favor. Whoever read my interview was impressed and affirmative that I will make it. Everything was too good to be true. All I needed to do now was to wait. Wait for that word, ‘Congratulations’ to appear on my screen. I had started dreaming about my Joka life. The wait was killing me.

XL, MDI and IIT B interviews were also decent. Didn’t appear in S, tanked IIFT and CAP. NITIE, well the interview was just a formality.

13th May,2020

Notification : Calcutta out.

This is the moment. Everything I have done in the last two and a half years converges to this. Soon this page will load and I will run to my parents to tell them the great news.

The page loaded.

“We regret to inform you…”

No, this can’t be happening. Everyone was so sure that I will make it. I must’ve entered my credentials wrong. I re-entered them, thrice, and still couldn’t digest that I didn’t make it. Not even the waitlist. It takes only a moment, just a moment to shatter years of hopes and dreams. A few minutes of conversation with some exhausted minds to gauge your life’s hard work. A few numbers who you got hardcoded to yourself at the time when you needed permission to go out and play will be decided to shape your adult life. I always knew my chances, what calls am I going to receive, but hope is a dangerous thing. Once you hope, everything is possible.

I walked to a nearby park, called Mohit, and cried my heart out. Even he was dejected that day for the same reason, but the way he consoled me while hiding his own grief, I am forever indebted to him. He reminded me that only a dream has broken, not our lives.

Took me a while to get sane again. XL also rejected me. FMS waitlisted me at 183. MDI took me with open arms. Rest doesn’t matter now.

10 years from now, I will think of this time and smile. Smile because it will remind me that with sheer will and a bit of luck, I can do anything. I can achieve anything that may sound unattainable at first, all I need to do is start. This time will remind me to set my goals high, but be prepared for the lowest lows. It will remind me that voyage is indeed better than the destination.  

Well this was all I wanted to say about CAT. This was a journey that made me believe in myself. A journey that introduced me to some best souls of this planet. A journey that taught me some important life lessons. A journey that made my family proud. This was a journey to remember.  

Signing off,

Harendra Parihar.