Is it time to bell the CAT ?

Its november and its time for every individual (I'm sure there are more than fifty thousand of them) to take the most coveted management entrance test in India....Common Addmission Test(CAT). A dream for most graduates to get a boost in their career or so to say to earn a few lakhs more. Is it really worth it? Lets see...

After your graduate studies , the urge to add another tag behing their names for the sake of...money...marriage..career..god knows, makes a person's life so confused ( i am not an exception). Confusion began in June when those institutes with their flashy ads and attractive statistics wanted me to enrol myself into one of their programs. All those marketing brains sitting in the AC rooms in offices of these institutes literally sweat it out to get people in.

I visited the office of a a very popular institute. There was a lady who asked me to take seat and wait till the previous guy fell for her trap. I was looking around the place and saw a magazine rack full of business magazines. I just picked up one of them to while away time. Was reading through it...till the moment she gave a sweet smile. She smiled as if she saw a 12 thoudand rupee demand draft stuck on my forehead.

She first enquired about my background and the course I would like to enrol myself into and stuff like that. She was pretty smart to pass on a form for me to fill up my contact details. I spoke to her for about an hour and at the end of my discussion she had convinced me that in four months from now I would be entering the gates of the top Business schools in India with an admission letter.

It seemed pretty simple in the beginning. All you have to study is Class ten mathematics and a good knowledge of verbal and analytical skills. "Is it all that simple ?" I asked myself but let the next four months answer this question.

I got my regular dose of class room coaching and study materials which ideally you are supposed ot do at home. Well I really felt like asking myself do you really wanna do it? I didnt have an answer as future was as uncertain as uncertainity could be.

I figured out that I had to battle it out against 2.5 lakh other people for the most coveted 1000 seats in the IIMs...What does an IIM give you....brand name...money...lifestyle...well although there is nothing more you could ask for in life...does it give you self satisfaction? does it do justice to the four years of Bachelor of Engineering honours in electrical and electronics from BITS pilani.....? Well form what I could see most people who choiose to do their MBA from the IIMs sacrifice their graduate degree and end up doing financial analysis and marketing.

Well I am not saying an MBA does not help you. well it does. If money and lifestyle are the only things that you want from an MBA from the IIMs...then there are hazaar ways of getting it....and MBA is not your destination. And what criteria are you tested on to enter into one of the top B schools in india...Simple math and English..and a GD and Personal interview...well thats not enough...

Once in class there was an instructor...himself an IIM -A Grad(pretty proud at that)...who put up a question to the students..."Why do you wanna do an MBA?"...not a soul had an answer..."Whats do u wanna do after you do ur MBA?"....same silence...well that moment...I realized a truth...I am working towards an aimless future....I am studying for an examination that would get me an admission into an IIM...but why do i wanna do it?...or what do I wanna do after that?...I seriously didnt have an idea. That was the time when I realised that 99% of the 2.5 lakh fools in this country had no answer.

a person who wishes to be a future leader...a person who wishes to transform the existing Indian society into an economically sustained developed country through entrepreneurial activity ...a person who has a dream in his mind...a vision...a person who would make india's name shine in the top conglomerates in the world...and one who is a wild animal will be tamed by the education at IIMs....his dream will take shape...he will gain a new perspective to achieve...that should be the kind of person applying for an MBA...

Now that I have realized I have started to dream...dream about what I want to do...whether or not I wanna do an MBA...and well honestly speaking I hope this self realization matures into a beautiful dream.