Mein Kampf : CAT 2008

First I would like to seek apologies from Adolf Hitler for stealing the title 'Mein Kampf' from his famous book. But I could find no apt words to describe my feelings. Please do not refer the dictionary if you are not aware of what the words 'Mein Kampf' mean because they are in German. It means 'My Struggle'. Let me just take you through the phases of my entire CATastrophic cycle.

The Beginning: Life was all very relaxed. It had been more than two years since I had started working. The weekdays were very busy with work and on weekends I had nothing to do expect lazing around at home (disadvantages of not having a GF or should I say advantages :) ) This had made me complacent and at the same time very edgy (Side effects of working in IT industry I guess...) So I craved for some change in my routine and finally decided to appear for the CAT 2008.

The Journey: I was very determined about cracking the CAT and so joined a training institute as early as I could. (the rational behind this being I would have more time to prepare... hmm sounds quite logical) So there began a series of lectures and tests. Initially it was fun and I was really enjoying it as all this reminded me of my college days.

The Struggle: Very soon the actual truth dawned upon me. The work pressure at office left me with no time to study and the long weekend class sessions sucked up all my vigor. I realized that my life had become very mechanical and I was busy for weeks without any break. The exam was still too far and I had almost used up all my energies. And then began the struggle of dragging yourself to your limit. I had started losing my interest and quite a few times I thought if it was really worth the pain. The test scores failed to show any improvement and my motivation took a beating.

The Last Straw: Then came the day of the great financial crises and gripped the world in claws of fear. The Lehmans and Bear Sterns of the world were left bankrupt overnight by the sub-prime crises. As the markets collapsed world wide the most coveted MBA suddenly lost its sheen. This proved to be the so called "Last Straw" and I finally gave up on the CAT. Life changed suddenly. The lazy weekends were back again and the exam was now just a formality :)

The obvious question in your mind would be why am I hell bent on narrating my disastrous CAT tail? (Oops!! "tale"...) But then every dark could has a silver lining, so if you dare (or care.... whatever) to see, there is an altruistic motto "what not to do to crack the CAT".