“ Hey what do u do when u get a bad intuition?”
I asked my bro Akshay. “What can u do? Why to get a bad intuition in the first
palce?” was his reply. This is how my D-day started. Harbajan was still playing
shots somewhere in head; hangover of previous day’s match and I was trying to
get over it by sipping coffee.
There
is something about formals that makes you feel smarter and confident. or maybe
its just about that moment. Whatever it may be, but I stepped out feeling the
same. While on my way to Andheri, there was this one thought, that this is my only
hope, only hope to make it to a good Bschool this year, today it’ll be somewhat
clear whether I’ll have to join job or not. All set to give my best shot to my
only chance, I entered into S.P. Jain Bhavan’s premises. “ “What? This is it? This is the
campus of SP Jain?... You know what, when you enter IIMA you immediately feel
the impact of its granger.” I said to Akshay. I don’t know why I said this just
before entering the registration room “ Yar, ek try tar bantoch IIM A.B.C
sathi”. “Ho!! Absolutely….Ok then. All the best. Do well.” was his reply.
While I was waiting for them to call me for round one, something started
troubling me. I knew it wasn’t
tension. Oh! Dam it!! My formal
shoes! It’s a shoe-bite! I tried
to forget that pain which was really getting worse. Finally my name was called
and… I entered. I was the only girl and the only fresher in my group of six
people. What happened in a group PI is not worth telling. Akshay always told me
that job experience makes a difference for admission to such colleges. And my
reply to it used to be “ Wha..t??(In Barney Stinson style). Its nothing like
that.” But when I was done with my interview I realized what he meant. As I
came out of the room I was shouting in my head “ Wha..t?? (again in Barney
style but this time the meaning was different)”.My brain told me its over. I messed up and there is no question of
2nd round now. But this “filmy bhedia” dil of mine was not ready to
accept. I waited with hopes for the result. In real life your heart never wins
specially when you want it to, and that’s what happened. I wasn’t shortlisted.
I still waited in the room, probably expecting that some one will come and say
that there was a mistake and you are through or I was just taking time to
accept that I lost the only hope I had.
When I returned to the car my face was more than enough for my bro to
understand what happened. Through out the journey from Andheri to Bandra there
was contemplation over interview. Akshay was doing some Bro talk to cheer me up
like “ It doesn’t matter. Anyways
you wanted to give one more try for IIMs”.
He
also took his “MBA graduate” role
and gave some suggestions. But nothing seemed to be working. I was still asking
myself “How could I? Why? What’s wrong?” To make things worse my shoes have
eaten my feet totally by that time and I really didn’t know then which pain was
stronger. When we got down at Mc Dee at Linking road, I couldn’t walk. Stupid
shoe bite was badly troubling. Looking at me struggling with the shoe Akshay
shouted at me, “ Why do you even want to hold on to those shoes if its hurting
so much? Just take them out and walk barefoot for a while.” I did as he told.
Then he said something more to himself “ Sometimes things just don’t fit in and
you have to let them go. Make sure you don’t make same mistake next time”. I
really don’t know whether it was for my shoes or for this whole interview
thing.
Guess what, it worked. I felt better walking bare feet. It also
attracted gaze of some kool guys in Mc Dee, a girl;dressed up in formals
walking with shoes in hand;interesting site…Trust me I never enjoyed chicken Mc
king so much before!
Now here I am back in Nagpur, giving a rethought over this Mumbai trip
of mine.
Well, about my SHOE- BITE…wound is still there. It hurts sometime but
not that bad. In fact that mark will remind me when I go for a formal shoe next
time that I should pick the correct one. Now I know for sure which shoe I want,
it’ll be difficult to get hold of it but I’ll try my best. Coz I know its not
always about whether you or anything else going wrong. Sometimes everything is
correct at its own place but it’s just that you have to make things fit
together or else its like a shoe- If its not a fit for you or you are not a fit
for it, it is bound to give you a SHOE BITE!!
