Pursuit of Happyness

I still remember the scene from the movie when Will Smith walked out from the office and was clueless in the midst of the swarming and seemingly aimless crowd. He claimed that the feeling then and there, that small part of his life, was "happiness".

The day the CAT results were to be announced, I knew that it could make a great difference in my life, my approach further, my belief and also my confidence towards everything. But, I was prepared to handle both the scenarios. I told myself, I am still young at heart and can lead my life any way I want to, with no restrictions. I didn't hate my job; neither did I have any particular stream to look forward to. I knew that whatever happens, I have to keep moving and gain as much knowledge as possible, and to understand the world as much as I can in my life time. I have learned that when one starts living one's own life and not think about what others say about him/her, be it good or bad, he/she can excel in anything he/she wants to.

As expected, it was 12:00 am, and the servers were dead. No one was able to access the website. Given this, I disabled my temporary Facebook account, switched off my phone and started watching some random TV series. I was prepared for the worst. Various thoughts went through my mind; the most prominent one was the look on the face of my grandfather once he knows what my result is. He had lot of expectations from me, given that he was here in Mumbai when I took my exam. I didn't want to disappoint him, but I was prepared for that too. I have learned to forgive myself now otherwise I would just keep apologizing each second for the countless mistakes I have done in my life with respect to family, friends, love, passion and what not. I also thought of my friends from PG, how they changed my life, how the interaction has gone beyond a normal online relationship, and how my inherently lonely soul was finally finding a channel to speak out, bring smiles to other's faces and after a long time laugh genuinely. I somehow had a belief that they would support me, be it adversity or the reverse. This was a big change from the shy, diffident, and lonely character who used to reside in my head. I never took so many people for granted before this. It felt good.

At around 5:00 am, I was able to access the result. While, I opened the page, I had a photo frame of God in my hands. Situations like these make me weak somehow and I turn to something to hold on. When I saw the results page, I was quiet. I saved the page. I didn't sleep then. At around 6:30 am, my sister opened the door and asked me what happened. I told her that I got 99.92 percentile, and she said - "Bhaloi to hoyeche" (Achcha hi to hua hai). I said – “Yeah, but job is not done yet”.

I was almost alone during the GD/PI preparation. Thanks to Priyank, I got to know of an awesome guide/mentor. So, the next one month was hectic with all the form filing, interview preparation and group discussions. During GD classes, I didn't speak much mainly because A,B,C didn't have any GDs and I somehow felt bad in taking away chances from others or raising my voice.

IIM-A's interview day, my first interview, I was sort of relaxed when I arrived at the venue. Then, I realized I forgot to bring the photocopies of my extra-curricular certificates. So, I rushed out only to find out that since it is a Sunday, the shops are all closed. So, I approached the reception to guide me to a printer within the premises, and they did. But, as soon as I took a print-out, some IIM-A admission guy started shouting at me, and said – “Didn't I mention in the letter that you need to bring the photocopies?” I apologized for the inconvenience and went towards the waiting area. Not a good first impression but I didn't care much as I cannot possibly afford to lose my peace (Thank you VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid). Before the interviews, I kept bugging everyone by asking every electrical/electronics guy/girl about the questions that had been related to academics. Something told me that many of them were not well prepared. There were many who were acting over-smart and talking to everyone there. One of them was sitting in front of me, so I caught hold of him and started warming up for my interview (Thank you Gym!). I asked him one question, he asked me five. So, my flow of thoughts was in place. I was the third to go in Panel-2. I was thankful that the admission guy who scolded me was nowhere near that panel. The interview started very well, and for the first 10 minutes, I felt as if I didn't put a foot wrong. Then, suddenly they asked me questions related to Ramdev, Vivekananda, and also administration of state, and I was not much comfortable with any of them. I explained the last one, but for the first, I said – “I don't follow any spiritual leader”. For Vivekananda, I tried something but it was incomplete, and I agreed to that when the interviewer cross questioned me. After this, came the weirdest question of all – “Do you know why are we asking you about Vivekananda?”[To be honest, I was thinking the same question in my mind, that why the hell are you asking me about Vivekananda]. I replied – “May be because it is the 150th birth anniversary year of Swami Vivekananda”. They sort of shrugged and then finally one of them said –“Thank you, that's all, good!” (Later I realized that the question was related to the pre-written essay I had in the IIM-A form, where I mentioned “empathy” as the most important quality in a citizen, and apparently “sympathy” was what Vivekananda thought of during his times)

Now, I wanted to write my experiences of IIM-B/C/L interviews too, but I am bored and I bet you are too by now. So, I will jump off to present. Right now, I am feeling anxious, apprehensive and all those cliché adjectives that can be used to describe similar feelings. Some may say that the journey has finally ended and I have reached the destination, but given my past experiences, I would say the journey has just become longer and tougher (will it ever end?). But, I have gathered pieces of memories and experiences along the way that would always bring a smile to my face and remove a wrinkle or two from my forehead.

I am thankful to my close friends here, who never made me feel like an outsider here, and neither kept praising me again and again for the achievements, if any. I realized that people take CAT way too seriously and hence can't give their best. Anything which is not fun is not meant to be done.

To end with, always smile, never regret and learn to forgive and love genuinely. If you can absorb life as it comes, take every criticism as a challenge, take every success as a humble stepping stone, and take every failure as an experience, you will be stable in every situation and not chase the seemingly shiny and attractive things of this perishable life.

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An Indian king was born in a year that was a square number, lived a square number of years and died in a year that was also a square number. Then the year he could have been born in was

Choose one answer.

a. 1936

b. 1764

c. 1600

d. 1444