CATastrophy-2

Changu keyed in his details which included his CAT reg no & his mail id. No sooner did he hit the ENTER button, a "INVALID reg no" page returned to greet him. Changu cursed under his breath and studied the details of his CAT admit card only to note that it was his admit card of CAT2018 which he had still preserved with as much care as his mother's pakoras.
He dug out the recent admit card,entered the details and waited with bated breath & silent prayers. (Possibly one of the few occasions when Katrina had a minority stake in his mind & Lord Ganesha the majority.)

Up came the details!

QA: 99.9265, VA: 99.9162, LR: 99.6271

OA: 99.9281

He fed in the details on the BIM J page since they were the first to come up with their shortlists.

A "hand-shake" image greeted him with the mesage below it reaing:

"Congratulations! You have been shortlisted for the GD-PI process of BIM J."

For a moment, Changu went blank like the screen of his 14" lappie, like those times when it just refused to start. Sitting on the very edge of the chair, hands covering his mouth, eyes wide open, he went into a compete tizzy. He re-confirmed the score a dozen more times. Computative errors where common-place in a competitive exam which decided who among the 2 million young minds were eligible for the 26 Bharatiya Institutes of Management BIMs of the country(BIM-A to BIM-Z)and make good managers.

"Kya hua be?" (What's it dude?). Nangu & Mangu did not miss the cacaphony of emotions on Changu's face. By now, he was looking at the screen intently and grinned incessantly (Katrina had taken a whopping 100% of his mind stakes).

"Abe b*****d !! , I m through? I cant believe it!!" Changu jumped out of his chair and caught his startled room-mates in a bear-hug.

" What's your score & which BIM you checked?" enquired Mangu as he gave him a dry "congrats" hand-shake.

"OA: 99.9281 ,yaar. Can you belive it. Got a call from IIM J!!" still thrilled.

BIM J or BIM Jhumri-talaya was a 3-yr old institution which had just come out the shadow of extreme nurture and care provided by its mentor BIM G (BIM Gorakhpur).

"How come you got through and I dint? We have almost the same percantiles" Mangu eyed Changu with a mix of suspicion & shock. His initial surprise had turned to a heart-breaking sense of having missed the bus.

" Arre, its their criteria. They have given 5% weightage to 5th std marks and 4% each to 7th,8th & 9th. Bach gaya bhaai (Saved)."

"Damn!" Now it was Mangu's turn to bang the table with his fist. He knew he had missed BIM J by a whisker. He was transported back to the past: If only he had supressed the pangs of adolescence clawing him from within and not had a crush on Aditi, he would have done better than a meagre 93% in 9th std. His 'puppy love-life' met a premature end though. Aditi had kissed goodbye to his dreams.

Mangu slapped himself for thinking about Aditi at this inopportune moment. His past sins were not letting him live in peace. "Screw her." he thought. A thought struck him that even her kids might be competing against him in CAT2020.


To be continued...

Regards

Vish