Mumbai

AXIS Bank, Turner Road branch

For CAT aspirants, queueing up outside Axis Bank’s Turner Road branch, it was a dripping affair. With only part of the bank’s foyer flaunting a roof, most students waited in the rain, though a handful were couched under umbrellas. By 9.00 am (the scheduled time for the voucher sale), there were at least 25 aspirants in the line, some included mothers and fathers who had come to collect the vouchers for their children. Khar resident, Avinash Shahri was also one of the early birds. “I want to do CAT because it is the perfect jump-start to my career. That’s the best thing to do for those who have graduated and do not know what else to do due to lack of orientation,” he said. After five years, Shahri sees himself quitting his job and starting up something on his own.

Ashwin Singh is stuyding Commerce and is in his final year at National College, Bandra. He wants to study and pursue International Trade eventually and says he has the skills to sell anything in this world. “But for now I want to do CAT as I have realised that only no one wants anything to do with people who have not graduated from an IIM,” he said.

For Pradnya Shirsat, it’s her second attempt at CAT. An IIT graduate herself, she wants to follow her brother’s footsteps who after graduating from IIM(A), is now at JP Morgan, London. A Santacruz resident, Shirsat was at the venue at 7.00am along with her mother. Last year her mother had fetched her form from an Andheri branch of the bank. “The facilities there were awful. The queue was so long and no facilities for senior people. Here in Bandra, at least the watch man offered me his chair,” Maya Shirsat, Pradnya’s mother said. When asked why she wanted her daughter to do CAT, she said: “I don’t want my daughter to be any lesser than my son who has done so well.”

Arpit Shah worked with SBI Mututal Fund for a while and has always wanted an MBA degree. “I am gong to sit for the other entrance exams too,” he said. When asked where he see’s himself five years down the line, he says he would be quitting the job he would be in and start something on his own.”

Ashtiaq Dalton was also in the line, and says his mother who did her MBA from a Mumbai college, is not the reason why he is pursuing the same. He says the IIM stamp will get him a good job, help him make some money and also let him pursue his love for travel. Dalton worked for a while with the media sales department of a television channel. There was also 58 year-old VH Shirodkar in the queue waiting to get a voucher for his daughter, a B.tech student, who is attempting CAT for the third time. A Mumbai Port Trust employee, Shirodkar is certain that CAT is a good experience and getting in an IIM is prestigious but women need to tread that path cautiously. “For women, it can affect their family life,” he says.

There was another young boy braving the rain. He was from a coaching institute and was distributing CDs and literature about the institute to students. Few students appeared interested in the literature, most just passed it on to the students behind.

At about 9.05 am, the glass door of the bank was thrown open for CAT aspirants. A lady inside the bank instructed the watchman to send only 4 CAT aspirants at one time, two each to different tables. Within a minute, all four aspirants were seen huddling around one table which was further crowded with bank officials. Apparently, the machine was not working at one of the tables. But even after ten minutes, nothing seemed to have progressed at that one table either. It was the same till after 9.30 am. Finally Akanksha Gupta, who was one of the first to get inside the bank came out and announced that everyone should keep their money ready. “Since there is a problem with the system, the bank will give everybody temporary voucher numbers and begin the process and later when the systems starts functioning, proper vouchers will be given.”

First come, first served

Even before the roads in Bandra had begun to warm up to Monday morning traffic, Akanksha Gupta was at the door step of the Axis Bank on Turner Road. It was just past 6.00am and the rains had made visibility poor even for a few feet. But none of this dampened this CAT aspirant’s spirit from being the first in the line. “I wanted to be here before anyone else and here I am,” said a beaming Gupta, looking at the bank’s downed shutters. Dress in shorts and a yellow T-shirt, Gupta looked no older than a tenth standard student waiting to get a voucher for her older sibling. But when she began to speak, it was quite another story. “CAT is going to give me a career boost,” she said in a confident tone of voice . “I will also get to meet new people. Not to forget that I will get a chance to go to college again and live a typical college life all over again,” she added.

Presently, life is all about CAT for Gupta who is deep into coaching classes and CAT prep books. She also reads anything and everything she can lay her hands on, from newspapers and magazines to novels. “Even Mills & Boon too,” she adds. Presently, she is reading ‘Thank you for Smoking’ by Christopher Buckley.

Prior to her CAT preparations, Gupta worked in an advertising firm and handled event management. She worked there for over a year. When asked why CAT, Gupta had a questioning response. “Why? It is a logical choice for me. I always wanted to do CAT.” So what does he hope to achieve after CAT. “Plenty. To begin with I will own my own company in five years. With all my experience in event management and PR, that is the line I will choose.”

Axis Bank, Shivaji Park branch

At 10.00 am, there were at least 50 people in the queue, most with harried expressions. When asked, they said that the systems were down and queue has stopped moving forward after the first bunch of CAT aspirants were allowed inside, half an hour ago. Those allowed inside sported confused looks and stood bunched up in a corner. Outside, Sheetal K said she was waiting since 8.00am for the vouchers. She wants to clear CAT for ‘career growth.’ “I want to be at a middle level manager post in an FMCG in five years from now,” she said.

Salil Pawar is doing his final year in engineering and is bored with it. Crazy about the auto industry, he wants a foothold in it as soon as he can. “MBA will help me get there,” he said.

For Aparna Sundaraman who is also doing her engineering, MBA will get her into Finance, a subject she loves. She has also been in the queue since 8.00am. A lady who was waiting in the queue to collect a voucher for her daughter said that she has been making trips inside the bank for the last one hour and has been getting different reasons for the delay in handing over the vouchers. “First they say computer is not working, then they say, they cannot connect to the server. Now they say the lady who has the key to the cabinet that has the vouchers has not yet come into office,” she grumbled.

Explaining the delay in handing over the vouchers, Abhay Nargund, Assistant Vice-President and Branch Head said that initially there was a problem with the system. “But that was solved. Due to the heavy downpour, the lady responsible for keeping the vouchers is stuck in the traffic jam. I have sent my car to fetch her and she will be here anytime. I assure everything will work smoothly,” he said. True to his word, within a minute, the lady arrived at the bank and every staff was seen running helter skelter to get things in order.

The heavy downpour continued till late morning and that further dampened spirits.

Vasundhara Vyas from Axis Bank, Fort branch

Strangely, there are two branches of the Axix bank on Sri PM Road in Fort and only one of them deals with CAT aspirants. Looking for the correct one on a rainy Monday afternoon is not the perfect way of spending it. The first Axis Bank on PM road I came across was the obvious place to knock. But, it was not my destination. When asked for the CAT form, the pat reply at the reception was “corner office in the next building.” Guess, the lady has dealt with other lost CAT aspirants like me since morning. When I finally reached the right bank office, the lady at the information desk game me a pay-in slip. Though there was no que, time was spent in filling copies of the pay-in slips. The process after that was quick, with guards standing there to guide aspirants. A small chat with the counter-guy, and I learnt that I was the 138th person since morning to get the form. “Though there was a small crowd in the morning, since afternoon, the numbers are getting lesser,” said the person at the counter.

Pune

Abhinav Agarwal from Axis Bank, East West

Even at 8.30 am, there were only 15-20 people in the queue. The wait was a little over an hour since the voucher process in the bank was smooth. There were no complaints on any front except for Axis bank officials who distributed additional forms to the aspirants asking for personal details. These forms asked information about family and telephone numbers. When aspirants asked the bank whether the IIMs wanted the information, they were told it was needed by the bank. Sensing that filling the form would lead to many unwelcome telephone calls from marketing companies, many aspirants filled in false information.

Priyabrata Bisoi reports from Axis Bank, Camp branch

Reached there at about 7.30 am and there were about 5-6 people in the queue before me. By the time the bank opened the door and the counters started, there were about 40 people. The rain was the only spoiling factor as it made the wait seem longer.

Chennai

Anand Chandran from Axis Bank, Radhakrishna Salai Branch.

At about 9.15am, there were an odd 30 people waiting outside the bank and it took about an hour for each person to get to his turn at the voucher counter. The start was pretty slow as there was confusion at the bank whether the forms could be distributed without insisting on the address and that appeared to be slowing down the process. It was only an hour or so later that it was decided that forms could be given out without the candidate having to put his/her address immediately. This speeded up the process greatly and aspirants found themselves at the counter faster than expected. Once at the counter, it took only about 10-15 minutes to finish the process. There was ample seating space for CAT aspirants and that made the wait comfortable. Apparently, most banks in the area have sitting facility for their customers which makes banking a pleasant experience.

Rajesh Dandepani from Adyar branch

At about 11.00am, there were just ten people in the line. It was maximum a 10-minute wait for each CAT apsirant. There was no seating facility for those in the queue. But since the bank was undergoing renovation, the entire ground floor was reserved only for the CAT process. Banking operations were being conducted on the first floor of the building. Strangely, many of those in the queue were parents of CAT aspirants who were standing patiently in the line. Once, they got to the counter, it too about 15 minutes for the process to finish.

Bangalore

Praveen Poluka from Axis Bank Marathahalli branch.

For most of the morning, there were at least 150 people in the queue waiting for the voucher. People had begun to queue from 8.30 am onwards. It took an average of two hours for a waiting person to reach the counter. Apparently, the large numbers of CAT aspirants could be attributed to the fact that maximum number of IT companies are situated in the area. Most people had come there in groups so the wait was tolerable. The working inside the bank was smooth and aspirants each took about 5 minutes at the counter to finish the process.

Kanjal Das from Axis Bank, Koramangala branch

There were at least 200 people waiting in the line for much of the morning. The wait was more than a two hour-wait for every candidate. Like every bank, only two counters were earmarked for CAT people. However, seeing the slow progress of the queue, late morning, a third counter was opened up. That’s when the process actually speeded up. Many had come in groups to collect their vouchers and those who were single had got into conversations with each other, so it seemed like a happy wait for all. The topic of discussion among CAT aspirants was the slot schedule for the CAT exams.

Hyderabad

Santosh Lakshman M from Axis Bank Tarnaka branch.

“I reached the bank branch around 8:30 AM and to my surprise, there were around 10 people who were there before me. Though the branch opens at 9:30 AM, the bank employees started distributing the pay-in slips from 9:15 AM only. By the time the bank opened, there was a crowd of 70 people waiting. Though the time spent on registration was not more that 10 minutes, the process was smooth. The only problem was with the candidates who refused to stay in queues and wanted to edge their way forward.”

Anusheel Srivastava from Axis Bank Indira Nagar branch, Lucknow

“I reached the bank branch around 10:15 AM and there were around 50 aspiring candidates already ahead of me waiting in the queue. The whole process for me took nothing less than 45 minutes. The people who had come to buy the vouchers were working professionals, students from coaching classes and colleges students who were there in groups of 3-4. The bank employees seemed to be having a tough time and the distribution of the pay-in slips stopped before 2:45 pm.”

Kolkata

Atul Mishra from Axis Bank, Dalhousie branch in north Kolkata

“There were just no crowd at any time. Maximum one or two people waiting outside. There are no CAT aspirants staying in the vicinity and this branch was anyway not expecting many students like every year. Once at the counter,it took at about 10-15 minutes for the voucher process to finish.”

Somaditya Basak from Axis Bank, Gol Park branch

I reached the Gol Park branch of AXIS Bank at around 9:50am and found the the bank because of the crowd that had gathered in front. Saw some familiar faces from my coaching institute and exchanged greetings. The queue resembled the alphabet ‘S’, starting from the main entrance of the bank, continuing into the lane next to the bank building, them taking a huge turn again finally ending up on the opposite side of the same lane. Some people left the place after seeing the long queue and went to the Salt Lake branch as it is a scarcely populated area. Some guys phoned their friends in other branches and got to know that the Shakespeare Sarani branch had more than 1000 people standing in queue. Anyway, I joined the queue, and within minutes the number of people behind me were as many as those before me. A paper was passed along the queue to write our name and a serial number for counting, and I was number 245. As the queue moved slowly, I passed my time reading a book and chatting with the guys in front of me. Finally, got to enter inside the bank at around 12:30pm. I gave the cash and the filled up the payment slip (which we were provided earlier while we stood outside) and got the voucher. Before leaving, I noticed at the corner that the suitcase that was used to keep the cash was brimming with it. Overall, it was smooth, with no maara-maari or dangaa. Just waiting in the queue under the sweltering sun along with the notorious Kolkata humidity was a bit tiring. I also got my preferred date and slot, with no issues with the online registering after I reached home.

Patna

Jai Prakash from Axis Bank Dak Bunglow Crossing branch, Patna

“I reached the bank branch around 2 PM. There were close to 10 candidates ahead of me in the queue. An additional surprise for me was the pink rose that the bank employees gave to the candidates with the voucher. The experience for me was good”.

New Delhi

Avneet Singh Sethi from Axis Bank Rajori Garden branch, New Delhi

“To my pleasant surprise, it took me only 5 minutes to complete the process of registration. There was a separate counter for distribution of pay-in-slips and a separate counter for cash payment. There was a guard placed where the candidates queued and there was a bank employee helping the candidates fill the pay-in slip.”

Vivek Arora from Axis Bank Sec 14 branch, Gurgaon

“I reached the branch around 8 am and till 8:45 am, I was waiting there alone. But post 9 AM, the crowd started pouring in. As I am taking CAT for the second time, I felt the excitement for CAT was more last year. The experience otherwise was pleasant and smooth.”