This is going to be a long, long, long, post... So please bear with me.
I'm not doing this to win a tee, I already have one. I just want to get across what this wonderful site means to me.
March 2003: Decides to try for an MBA
April 2003: Wonders if the IIMs is what he really wants. After all, advertising was an interest...
May 2004: As if sent from above, MICA features on the front page of an IMS magazine. Read it, fell in love.
Nov 2005: Wrote CAT.
Jan 2005: Got 95.5, as expected. MICA call for sure.
THE EARLY DAYS...
At this point of time, 8th Jan 2006 to be precise, while frantically searching for MICA gyaan on the net, a certain invention by S. Brin and L. Page helped me stumble accross a forum... Sounded funny, but hell, it looked good!
Got in, and just read through... And it was incredible - people who shared the very same feeling as I did about MICA - People who knew it meant something more than an amorphous element - people who thought like me!
I wasted no time in registering... And being a part of the community.
So that's how I came to know about PG. What has it meant to me, since?
Early on, it was a way to interact with people who wanted exactly what I wanted - a great place to exchange gyaan, meet similar-minded people, and share our experiences... It was wonderful... We had people from ad background, media, MICA seniors, and of course, the usual truckload of engineers

all aiming for the same thing... To me, this was amazing... The power of the internet, a wonderful forum and a lot of insanity...
Along came the MICAT. And the enthu was palpable... It felt so bloody amazing to be part of the insanity...!
And now that it was all over, I decided to see what else was up on the forum - and I was taken aback. You had threads for so many things... So many interests... So many crrrrrrrazy people...!
THE RESULTS... And when the MICA results came out, I was devastated. For two days, I couldn't bring myself to open PG... And then... I got onto the site, and I see people asking, What about Chuck, did he get through? I looked at this and thought to myself: Crap... If these guys have so much faith in me, why am I losing it?
I allowed myself one more day of mourning, and decided the past was past.
MavericK messaged me after MICA, telling me to listen to my 'five favourite songs' - an obvious allusion to a post on a thread of the same name a few days back.
THE RECOVERY... I got back onto PG... Making more friends, making more PJs, helping out people whenever I could, and - oh okay - spamming

It felt wonderful... Everyday, I'd meet someone new... Someone crazy... Someone dedicated..!
Many of my best friends today are people I've never met... Whenever I get a fresh PJ, I forward it to the PG list I have on my phone first
AND TODAY? And today... When I look through that list of friends I have on my phone... nikhilkulk, ninja_talli and BUGS are my favourite PJ victims :P
estranged_gnrs sent me a tee shirt for which I still owe him a treat
Mahip gave me the best birthday
post ever

With uRmad, CATrix, somname, stormrage, catch-it, Arun MAK, Baby, rpradeephere, guy_next_door82, Hanuman, karthik_h65, prahalad, maverick_srikan and a few others... We had a Chennai meet (with some of the above) and I forged relationships with the rest... (Guys, the GD meets after work idea is still on

) ... It felt great... Something I lacked in a small town like Thrissur was junta to practice GDs with... And when I landed in Chennai, I made sure that I wouldn't let the opportunity slip.
PaGaLGuY taught me humility. I got 95.55 and was expecting a MICA call. Big deal. Move over, buddy, there are guys with 99 and applying for MICA.
I read two issues of Pitch. Big deal - there are guys who can rattle off agency names faster than Akhtar can bowl.
I got 98.xx in a mock. Screw you, pal, there are 2000 people above you.
Not that I got an inferiority complex

But when you share a community with some of the best minds around - guys like Apurv Pandit, Rohit Awasthi, Allwin himself

... Guys like Grond, j0... You know that you're rubbing shoulders with the best... It teaches you whatever you do, there are guys better than you. In the words of a Lowe copywriter, "You won an award. Remember, there are guys who've on thousands. So what are you, peasant?" ;)
THE PRESENT
To me... PG is now life. Guys who've looked at my phone wonder what that odd yellow sticker is doing at the back. People wonder how I had the guts to wear a black tee with the pic of a smiling devil at the front (yes, estranged, that was the factory defect wala thing

)...
One of my proudest moments was getting out of the cab at the CAT center and hearing someone remark.. "Hey! A guy from PaGaLGuY!"

after seeing my tee-shirt...!
I proceeded to do crazy things to make sure Rohit's banner made it to all major entrance exams in Chennai.
PG is so much a part of my life my parents know what the initials mean.
And today, when I log on to PG... I see the madness... The desire... The sheer helpful nature of some people... PG to me is not just a community... It's not a website... It's almost a part of me now (which part? :satisifie:)... The PJ threads... The birthday threads... The arguments on the rock threads... Oh and can anyone forget my hoax 'CAT results out' message during the PG Mumbai meets? ;)
PG also helped me improve my writing, but that's another story ;)
Thank you, PG daat caam.... For everything... The support, the gyaan, the relationships, the fun, the pain, the everything.
Insanely yours,
ChUcK
Added as an afterthought: TIME named 'You' as it's person of the year... Because of 'Your' contribution in the new web - YouTube, blogs, etc did what traditional media couldn't. In this same way, I would say PG gived MBA aspirants what formal coaching instis cannot.