And the future looks like…..

Yesterday I wrote the all elusive CAT , an exam which determines which 1% of the population of the great republic of India would get a chance to be molded into some of the finest minds of the country and get a chance to study with some of the smartest minds of this country. Although the selection process is flawed in my opinion, it is part of the system and needs to be followed.

Anyway, before I go about ranting on how the exam is the worst way to determine who gets into the IIM (grapes are sour eh????) , I want to describe some of the sights from the hall before the exam. There were like a zillion people (exaggerated figure) who had come for the exam. It could be that one of those minds could shape the future of the business world to come, or some could just get a fancy degree and squander it being nobody in a corporate setup. What I found really interesting was the myriad expressions every person had on their face.

We had a good number who kept pacing up and down, reading all the formula they could in the last minute. Who knows what might come in handy? Many of them obviously had a blatant disregard for public appearance and showed up completely disheveled without either not bothering to shave or combing their hair.( guys and girls included in either category) Just because you are probably going to get into the IIM’s, doesn’t give you the right to show up looking like a homeless person!!! Most of these bore a terribly worried look about their face, dark spots under their eyes from the sleepless nights spent working on quick and easy methods to answer more in less time.

Another bunch showed up. That’s it. They just showed up. Didn’t look to bothered or concerned; to a point where they didn’t even bring a pencil or a pen. The admit card had been conveniently folded into about 4 and shoved into the wallet with the spare change. Some of the girls showed up and were actually rummaging through their massive knapsacks…I meant hand bags….looking for the admit card. There were many who really did not bother even changing their clothes and showed up in whatever they slept in. (remembering the girl who came all sleepy with her pink track pants).

The bindass bunch were really way out this time, most of them on the phone with god knows who. Many Podicts (those who are addicted to the ipod…eg: yours truly) were doing the whole Snoop Dog head bobbing thing. There was one dude, who was catching a couple of quick winks while resting his head on the wall. Many were vigorously texting away. These kind of people are generally the most interesting. You can’t tell if they are actually prepared or are there to make up the numbers.

Oh, there were these two nut-jobs who showed up wearing suits. (The old style magenta coloured suits Salman Khan would wear in the movies from the early 90’s.) Maybe they thought that the GD and PI rounds would be right afterwards and they were dressed to impress. Hair all oiled into place.

Not to mention the many parents who had come to wish their children the best, giving them last minute tips on how they should focus on the paper and not be distracted, to remember to not do any blind guess work, to mark the OMR sheet properly, to make sure they use the correct values…..hey! Wait a minute…those are my parents!!!!!

And through all this, what was yours truly doing? Yours truly had come there and was busy checking out the opposition and wondering, what a motley crew, I need to write about this. “Yes Mum, I will remember the square root of 3 till the second decimal place…..”