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We all can never forget that day - 16th April, 2012.
A very memorable, happy and hilarious day when I look back!
Read on!
A bit of a background: My daughter Pallavi wrote the CAT exam in December, 2011 in the final year of her B.A.
Around Sankranthi time I got up as usual at 5 AM and was browsing Twitter and suddenly saw a tweet that CAT results were out the previous night! I immediately got excited and nervous and went into my daughter's bedroom and made meow meow sounds! (btw I can meow just like an angry cat!)
She got up and I gave her iPad to check the results and I and my wife were standing behind her when she checked the results at the dining table.
When we saw her result we were on Cloud 99.63 - her percentile in the CAT! Unbelievable performance beyond expectations! I literally fell on the floor and couldn't get up for few minutes for 2 reasons - I didn't wanted to get up! and no one helped me to get up!
And after a few days she got interview calls from 10 IIMs including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and others.
She attended the interviews of all of them excepting Ahmedabad at Bengaluru and the Ahmedabad interview was scheduled on one of her B.A. final semester exam day. But they rescheduled her interview to the next day when she had no exam.
She did well and all other IIMs have completed their interview process by then and Ahmedabad was the last one to complete the process.
So couple of days later all the IIMs started displaying their admission list on their websites. We were constantly checking all of them and Pallavi was selected for a couple of them but she wasn't interested in joining them.
And on 15th April, which was a Sunday, we were constantly checking up IIMA website as my daughter wanted to join only that! But alas they didn't post the results on that day.
And I forgot to say that as I knew my daughter would be going off to another city to join some IIM I made a pact with her that I would drop her at her college and pick her up after the exams for all her final semester exams and she agreed.
And so on 16th April, I dropped her at the college and went to my office.
My wife comes to my office around 11 AM with a flask full of tea and we used to have Chai pe Charcha (I'm the pioneer of that!) with our Recruiters.
And so she came around 11 AM and sat in the drawing room of my office with 2 other lady recruiters and called out for me.
I checked up IIMA website at 10-30 AM but the results weren't out. But when I got up to go to tea, just on an impulse I just refreshed the website!
And LO! the results were out!
I got super duper nervous! I sat down as I couldn't stand with excitement and nervousness.
I very very slowly typed out her number in the window and TADA! There flashed the sentence
CONGRATULATIONS PALLAVI BHAGAVATULA! YOU ARE SELECTED FOR ADMISSION IN IIMA!
I just couldn't believe what I saw!
I simply screamed and called my wife. When she came I told her that results were published and told her to type out Pallavi's number. I didn't tell her the result and also wanted to double check whether I typed out her number correctly or not. ( In the panic like excitement I forgot that they mentioned her full name after I typed out her number!)
She typed her number and lo behold was equally shocked with the result. We then called out our senior most recruiter and told her to check the result AGAIN!
She did and I saw the result page for the third time and then started to believe it as till then I thought I was dreaming.
Then it was around 11-30 by the time we finished tea and I had to be at St. Francis college, Begumpet by 12 Noon when her exam will be over.
Then my brain started to think... rather slowly I should admit. I wanted to break the news to her in a cinematic/ dramatic way and finally came up with the brilliant idea (!) and shot a photo of that results page with my ancient mobile so that I could show that photo to her!
But I wasn't happy with that idea as that mobile screen was so small it will not do justice to that BIG occasion! So I again I started to think.
Then thought of carrying the laptop but the minute my daughter sees the laptop she would guess but I wanted to keep the surprise till she saw the result for herself!
Even that idea was discarded. FINALLY... remembered that I have an iPad with SIM too! YAHOO!
Then when I was about to leave for the college my wife said that she too wanted to be there to break the news and thus we both landed up at her college around 11-55 AM.
In that college we have to park our car on the right hand side in a level below the college level. I parked it and we both came to the front of the college and I told my wife to sit on the steps which are near the canteen about 100 feet from the main portico.
And by the way after every exam four of my daughter's friends also used get into my car and we used to drop them en route at different places.
And so I was waiting for my daughter and her friends so that she could see the result in the presence of her close friends!
But to my shock my daughter alone came out of the main entrance and I did some quick thinking and met her midway and told her that my car is having starting trouble and I thought she and her friends could push it to start!
She said her friends went to meet the Principal regarding a question in the exam and I said lets wait. She went in and came out with her friends. She didn't suspect anything seeing my wife.
Then I simply handed over the iPad with the website of IIMA opened, She would've guessed and typed out her number and you should've seen her face when she saw the result for herself! She let out a scream and started jumping a round like mad. Her expression reminded me of Aishwarya Rai when she won the Miss World! And all her friends were all over her and in my excitement I forgot to take a photo of that memorable moment :(
Thus ended the MOST memorable, cherishable and happiest day of our life!
And thanks to her we all entered the prestigious campus of IIMA which I never imagined would happen in my life. We were there 3 times in her 2 years course.
NB: After my B.Com I too applied for CAT and got the hall ticket for the exam in December, 1978 to be held in Chennai. But by then I've joined MBA in the first batch of Nagarjuna University and completed my first semester and decided that getting into IIMs was not worth it ;) btw even if I had appeared for CAT I wouldn't have passed it and by a miracle if I got into any IIM I would still be in it studying the course and would never have got out of an IIM!
