Always had a dream to write on this sacrosanct thread. So much so that, I wanted to convert a good B-School so that I write on the thread. It will be more of, what I want to say about my life rather than just CAT, as CAT formed just a little part of life. (I hope, the post is not counted as a spam)

Life had been good in childhood. Parents felt, their son should learn in his mother tongue (Not because they support sena or mns, but because both made it big in spite of their Marathi medium background). So joined a local Marathi school. Hardly used to be in the top 5 ranks in the class in the school exams, but always topped the school in every state & national level competitive exam came in my way. Just like every other Indian student, till ninth standard, everything was fine. No expectations from parents, relatives and most importantly from myself. ?

But then board exams for 10th standard came. Since I was not much interested in Acads, I knew , though I will do reasonably well but was not expecting any miracle. But the miracle happened and secured a merit rank in the Mumbai board. Topped the school when it mattered the most. And that was a surprise. The decision of choosing the stream one wants to pursue after 10th, is one of the most important decision in the life. I knew there exist 3 streams: Science, Commerce & Arts. Heard from people that one needs to study hard in science stream. So decision became easier. I had to choose between Commerce and Arts. Being a son of a chartered accountant, it became easier to choose commerce. At that time, I didn’t know about CA etc at all. Neither the decision of taking commerce was based on the probability of IIMs giving extra marks to candidates from commerce background in their selection process. At that time, had not heard about IIM at all. ?

So just to minimize the studies, took admission in the one of the best commerce college in Mumbai. And 11th was a breeze of air. I really didn’t have to study hard. Smiled at myself. 12th was also the same. Though a little bit more study than 11th , it was easily manageable. Then the reality started setting in. What did I want to do in life. Probably I had completed just 20-25% of the life, what about the remaining 75-80%? The news started coming in about my friends getting into IITs & NITs. Never knew the glamour associated with these institutes earlier. I felt, I have done a blunder by choosing commerce.:-( Seeing the friends who couldn’t clear the first level of NTSE exam making it to IITs, I felt, being the NTSE holder, I had equal chances if not more to make it to these esteemed institutes. I felt I have done injustice to myself. Depression started creeping in. ?

[Note: This is a post on the user’s CAT journey that has been captured in his own words. We have not edited it in any way when publishing it as an article. Cover image is from http://www.sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up]