Time in T.I.M.E.

Here is a story of a group of guys who had nothing in common but came together with a common goal and were determined to put in their best efforts to achieve the Ultimate!!!

One fine morning in a class bustling with fervor to learn from the legendary “SM” of the TIME institute two boys sat side by side – one wearing a cap all the time to suppress the locks of hair that stood in all direction indicating that he rushed to the class directly out of sleep and another guy who was apprehensive of the stiff competition ahead of him but zealous enough to give every one of his competitors a run for their money.

The capped fellow, named Avanish was a seasoned player in this game of CAT. He had spent many sleepless nights last year i.e.2004, not worrying about filthy matters but preparing for the final exam of CAT. He was a guy who had mastered all the tricks of smart calculation and eventually nicknamed the “Quant Guru” – well at least within the group that got formed and it was also attributed to his pedigree since he was born into a ‘Marwadi’ business family. He had spent his entire life in Kolkata except for the 4 years of engineering which he spent in a college at ‘Chikmangloor’ in Karnataka. Avanish was not only good at calculations but had his own way with words. During the preparation he had not only gained mastery over the exquisite set of words in English but also merrily flaunted with the foreign words of French and Greek origin. Well, I know you might be thinking that then he must be named the “English - Guru” instead but no! In CAT there are 3 major sections – English, Quants and Data Interpretation (DI) and to excel in the English section one need not have an out of the world vocabulary but very good comprehension skills that would help you crack the RC passages and gain an upper hand over the others. This was present in abundance in another guy – Rajarshi, who batted like a master blaster when the bowler was RC and the game of cricket was CAT.

Rajarshi was a cool dude who had his own mobile phone and gaming business in partnership with one of his childhood buddies. He took a bold decision to take a break from business, though he knew that he was sounding the death knell for his partnership, and prepare well for the exam. He was an aspirant who was attempting the most uncertain exam for the first time. He was a true Kolkata guy roaming around the streets on his Bajaj Pulsar – 150. A fair and stout guy and also a self-leaned guitar player he was the cynosure of all eyes at any of the get-togethers of the aspirants at TIME. His decision to take a break was very bold because he had ventured into his business so that he could devote enough time towards the practice with his evolving band wherein he was not the lead guitarist but the lead vocalist. And now here he was dedicated to only studies and taking a break from his passion that was Music. On the other hand, Avanish was no less talented and had a wonderfully flexible and thin body (all credit goes to his fantastic metabolism rate) and could move his body with the grace of Prabhu Deva. The first rendezvous of Avanish and Rajarshi was through two other links in the chain – one was a married gentleman named Shatadru and other the boy whom Avanish met in SM’s class.

Remembering of that other guy, his name was Kartik. He was a software professional like Shatadru and was posted in Kolkata since the past 8 months. Kartik was a tam-brahm, born in Maharashtra, did his engineering from Allahabad, trained at his company’s center in Chennai and now posted in Kolkata. He was disgusted with the city since he had no friends either from school or college with whom he could share his heart with and as a last resort to move from the technical ennui of his work and that of the city he joined TIME for the preparation of CAT which if cleared would open the doors to the world of new opportunities. Shatadru was no different in his motives to take CAT. He had been a techie since last 3 years and wanted a change of profile to suit his area of interest at work.

Shatadru fondly referred to as ‘Uncle’ in the group, had married his love whom he met during the training program of his first company. He had a very well built body and good height and could command respect for not only his age  but also for the sharp mind that ran fast behind that bespectacled face of his. He stayed in Kolkata with his family and had taken his first attempt at CAT during his final year of engineering at Jadavpur University. This was his second attempt and as for Kartik, he was leading the race of attempt counts with 3 unsuccessful ones earlier on. Shatadru was a great fan of SM since the very first day of class and also was a favorite of SM because of his maturity, almost perfect English grammar and on the dot attitude. There were so many instances when the other kids in the group were reviled by him for being off the scheduled time. Shatadru was a core Bengali at heart. He would deem it an uneventful day if there had been no fish or chicken in any of his meals that he had throughout the day. A well cooked home-made preparation of mutton tasted like ‘Rasagolla’ to him.

These 4 musketeers on their way to bell the CAT became friends during an English class wherein a ‘jugalbandi’ started between SM and the students when SM in his full mood to flirt diverted the topic from a simple plain meaning of ‘amour’ to sex and related fantasies. The introduction of these guys that started on a fun-filled note became a deep rooted one that became a sort of dependency for Kartik who was staying away from home and his dear friends had become his family – as is said ‘Home away from HOME’.
The awesome foursome knew their limitations and an incentive to the bond amongst them was that they complemented each other very well. Also the reasons for hanging around in the group were different for each one of them. Shatadru had become a complete family man and while with these 3 guys he was able to relive his golden days that he had spent with friends from school and college and speak his heart out that he couldn’t in a corporate environment at office. Rajarshi needed people who could back him up in this new venture of his and also get accustomed to spending a day without his old friends. For Kartik it was a break from the mundane office work and a set of people who would keep the momentum going till the final goal is reached. Avanish was still recuperating from the horrors of failure last year and needed a patient ear to not only the rhetoric of his rough love story but also his meticulously rhymed poems. This was all apart from the common aspiration of tasting a bite of the most coveted IIM pie.

The steam engine that was set rolling by the teachers and counselors at TIME caught pace when everyone was pouring into their books and trying to find new strategies to maximize their scores. But two people seemed to be lacking in the race, Kartik and Shatadru. It was very difficult for both of them to cope up with the extra hours of study after a tiring day at office. It is rightly quoted that the bonds of friendship are reinforced by sharing. Similar stuff happened when a recurrent meeting was planned on every Saturday at 3:00 pm at the TIME classroom for discussion of the concepts of quants, strategies for English and deliberations on the smart guess work and fast calculations. Avanish’s chubby friend Sachin too joined them during the meets. He was a stud in DI and knew many good techniques of winning over a problem. The guys were rebuked by Uncle a number of times for not reaching the venue on time and finally rescheduled it to 3:30pm. Every one was watching everyone’s back and they were always eager to lend a helping hand to the one who stumbled, and most of the times it was Kartik who needed the support. Even today are reminisced those days when they took at break at the make-shift shops in front of the Telephone Exchange Office. One of small confectionary shops in that area started a chain of his own by serving puffs and pastry to these gourmands when they were famished after 3-4 hours of rigorous studies. The momentum had started building and the group was gaining confidence of cracking it this time if they continued at the same pace.

One fine day while SM was on a high and taking the entire class on a frenzied ride on the English wave, Shatadru burst in with a box of ‘saundesh’ and smiling from ear to ear. His wife, Swati had been blessed with a beautiful baby girl. From that moment on the entire class ratified his epithet of ‘Uncle’. This gave another place to unwind oneself from the mundane office work and studies – Uncle’s home. There one could forget all miseries while fondling with ‘Swara’ – the baby girl and having a hearty laugh with Swati. She was a very charming lady who had a knack of relaxing the mood with her good humored banters. Kartik was the most shameless fellow to drop in at Uncle’s place any day to have a feel of home. His other favorite hang outs were Avanish’s house for lunch and anywhere with Rajarshi for a fag, a peg or some eye-exercise at City Center. His eating proportions earned Kartik a nickname at Avanish’s place – ‘Neanderthal’, a person who eats as if he has not eaten for days together. Well, no one was to relish home cooked food like a person who stays away and goes to a hotel each night as if it were a duty call and not pangs of hunger. The tea at Sachin’s place was another lure for taking a break amidst the preparations.

Days passed by and everybody could witness a substantial growth in the level of understanding between each other parallel to an increase in the scores that they scored in the mock exams. Shatadru, despite having a very solid grasp over the fundamentals of mathematics, consistently faltered when it came to DI. The scores in DI used to haunt him like unburied ghosts from the past. Meanwhile Rajarshi was blasting the English sections as if it were child’s play for him but finding it difficult to gather the same pace in Quants section. Sachin became the ‘DI guru’ in the group with leveled performance in the other 2 sections. Avanish was oscillating between the highs and lows whereas it was not until the 5th mock exam that Kartik cleared the cut-offs in all the 3 sections. After the 5th mock, on the night of Kali Puja, the group decided to do a night out and help each other in overcoming their respective weak areas. Rajarshi couldn’t turn up due to some family commitments but the other 4 met with full preparation. There were 2 flasks of tea and some snacks from Sachin’s home, Avanish had got some tea and snacks and Kartik with Uncle was ready to enjoy the preparations. The awesome foursome started directly on the 5th gear and was committed to destroy all their fears with ‘gyaan’ pouring in from all directions. But they could sustain the momentum for not more than 2 hours. Then started the rounds of tea and cigarettes interspersed by the ‘How to solve a problem in a Minute’ lectures by the each of them in turns. But as they say old habits die hard. Uncle started reading in an out-stretched position and slowly slid into deep noisy sleep on the wooden bench. As if a divine intervention for Avanish, his cell rang and he ran out into another classroom to spend the night chit-chatting with his love. Sachin and Kartik were waging a lost battle against the Sleep Goddess. Though the study hours didn’t stretch to 7-8 hours as planned, but it did have a positive effect on the scores of mock CAT-6.

The scores were constantly on a rise for all the aspirants – Kartik had covered substantial ground as compared to his initial standings and Shatadru was able to get rid of his DI ghosts to at least clear the cut-offs. Avanish, Rajarshi and Sachin had started making a forte of other areas apart from their initial expertise. Just when things were taking a turn for the good, Kartik’s aspirations hit a road block. He was to go to his client’s location for 6 weeks starting from 13th August. Though he was bound to return before the D-Day, there was no guarantee as to what chance he would stand against the others on his return. Amidst the chaos and desperate voices ringing in his head, he was not able to concentrate neither on his work nor on the studies. SM told him – “Cross the bridge only when you come to it!!” It was like a guru-mantra which changed his thinking right from that moment on. Kartik happily boarded the flight to LHR, London but not before warning his friends to not write him off. The group continued on a frenzied momentum, devising new tricks and strategies and raising their confidence levels by leaps and bound. Meanwhile, Kartik was having a gala time roaming around in Scotland and London completely devoid of any thoughts of 20th November ’05.

The judgment day was nearing fast. Kartik had landed back in India and the remaining days were as if he was learning to walk on the crutches lent by the group. The tension levels were soaring and it was becoming really difficult for many to cope up with it. SM sir decided to cool it off one day prior by organizing a camp fire night, in fact eve, on the terrace of TIME, Salt Lake. Almost everyone turned up, even the most hostile ‘junta’, who opposed the proposal gathered to relax. Avanish was the last to enter the show. Unfortunately he has fallen ill and was completely wrapped from head to toe with warm clothes to cut out the cold. Rajarshi and his friend raised the spirits when they started playing, on the guitar and mouth-organ respectively, the tune of ‘Hum honge kamayab’ and the entire group erupted in concert.

That night the entire group dispersed hoping that they all would be singing together in a similar camp fire night that they would celebrate on one of their coveted IIMs