2010 to 2019, a decade in review

Recalling a year is in itself is a task and yet here I am trying to unbox a decade full of memories and then I will say why not? Isn’t it a story to tell. To come around how much you have evolved, how much you went through and how different you are to the person you were then.

The only similarity I would have of when I started this decade and this day is, I still remain a student and that I am at home on this date. But this journey from student to a student also is filled with being employed, serving across different geographies, going places and meeting people.

Well I started off the decade as an engineering grad in my penultimate year of studies. Learning to look ‘cool’ and growing long hair was an easier option. That and the next year brought me to my knees to realize that hard work did matter and it would pay off.

2011 to 2013 had been probably most tumultuous, got down to being an employed citizen and started in construction sites for about 2 years to resign and prepare for a ‘better future’. Cut off myself from friends just to do so and ended up landing an opportunity for a Masters and a service with the Government. As luck would have it, rather y laziness would have it, I did go on for the job offer.

2013 to 2018 these 5 years were of such learning experience that I couldn’t even imagine. To serve at various places, solving myriad issues and coming across such a wide gamut of people was an eye-opener. It did feel like that I had arrived and there wasn’t any more to go forward. But, still got hold of a camera and started learning the art, and I am at it still. Gifted a car to my father, traveled to places and worked to make some people realize their dreams. I know not how much I feature in their prayers but yes, the recollection of such memories does give me joy.

Driving through non-notified highways to get home quicker at night, to facing wild elephants and long gossips with policemen on highway checkpoints. Freshest of teas, budding gardens, tastiest rasgullas in the borders of Assam, the boiled pork at Arunachal and what not and faking the top speed of the car to make a co passenger afraid.

The advent of 2018 however brought in some realization, that had I arrived, or did I need more, and to see someone close move to an institute for studies spurred me, to go and start preparing for being a student, working around to prepare for CAT, do my duties, and hope for the best only to doze off during the exam.

Thankfully I did manage to clear the examination and sneaked out to Kolkata to appear for interviews while my friends knew of them to be dating trips (dating was a long-gone activity). Nonetheless, I did manage to get through.

2019 brought in the biggest decision for me, to leave a comfortable life of being a government servant to be a student. And yes, as I did happen to mention, I am a student now having brought unto myself the rigors of being one and jotting this blog.

May you have a great decade ahead and wish you a Happy New Year to start off with.

Whatever it takes

I have been working around for almost all my life right after graduation. But there always has been a zeal in me to try newer things, take up new challenges and strive to never make my life easy for something better.

I got selected into Tea Board of India in 2013 and have been an officer of the government till the day I quit (erm yesterday; look at this post’s date). But unlike a typical babu, or rather the typical impression of a babu I have always strived to be as clockwork as possible. Maybe the reason why I was feared for my punctuality by many of the stakeholders. I have also been appreciated a lot of times for striving to find solutions for the same people who would fear me and designing a path amid odds.

In 2018, probably the bat hit my head, figuratively of course. My younger brother, cracked CAT, graduated in engineering and headed off to join IIM Ranchi. This is when I realized while coaching him for the WAT-PI that these are the stuff that I would too like to do. So, we packed him off in a plane and off I went back from home to my workstation with the books he had been lugging around.

The role that I worked in required a lot of travel and even my commute to the office on a train would be about an hour long at the least. To top it up, I had already paid up for the gym and had cooking and chores duty at my residence. With all this in hand, I realized that sitting at a table would be almost impossible albeit for the weekends and some holidays.

So, off went the table plans, the books that were huge weight out of the window (again, figuratively) and in came all the gadgets I had at hand namely the iPad, the laptop and the cell phone.

In managerial roles, it is told that one should listen to their juniors, and I had one at home. This brother of mine happened to quip, you can either learn or you can practice for the tests and learn on the job err test. Being a person who would like to take the efficient route (I have never been able to sit at the table for more than 30 minutes ever in my life and I proudly have the attention span of a fish) I took the test and learn way. To spice it up, it was “test and learn on-the-go”. What it meant was, all learning happened in my commute. That probably had been the toughest learning methodology for me till date. Imagine standing with your nose stuck to someone’s back or bag on a good day and armpit on the worst, holding the iPad or the mobile, scrolling through the applications and solving quant and DILR. There have been times when I have dozed off while in comprehension questions, though it even happened on test day. The other spare time I could find was while cooking, so wait for the rice to boil, the fish to fry and do the sums at the same time.

The biggest takeaway through that process was that I was always under pressure of either the commute, the nearby passenger wanting to gossip, the calls from the office, of overcooking the rice or burning the fish or some other trouble for the day which I was gifted by the Almighty. The biggest pressure maybe was that I have been out of academics for almost 6 years when I started crawling back in. And as a lovely friend of mine put it, the ‘dil maange more’ trait in me is what makes me do these things (though the exact words used was madness)

So, the test came and the test went away and I had no idea what had happened inside the hall, except that I got some shut-eye in the verbal section. Cut forward to January and I get interview calls from IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong, all the IIMs participating in CAP and the newer IIMs who didn’t.

The interviews were another game of their own and the only common theme for me was defending, “why at this age?”. If you ask me how I defended, my honest submission (pinkie promise for all who still believe in it) I do not recall the exact words. But I can surely tell you that it contained something or the other from the passages above. And who says no to a caffeine-laced drink over some conversation?

So, here I am, with conversions from almost all the institutes interviewed for and finally having selected PGPSM at IIM Lucknow. I am Prakash Roy, an engineer by profession, a former Factory Advisory Officer at Tea Board of India, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, a humble being with hobbies in photography (Instagram: @prakashray), blogging (utopianfisherman.blogspot.com, prakashray27.blogspot.com), micro-blogging (Twitter: @prakashray) and a knack to speak in public. This is my story of whatever it took for me to get through CAT.

 And if you are in search for some inspiration, look up the Stanford Commencement Address of 2005.