Showing posts with label Horizon. Show all posts

 

Posted by PRACHI...... in ,

The CAT-astrophic Fever….




"Picture This"


Scene 1- A night before the D day- jittery

I should be nervous, anxious.. anticipate... look forward to successfully complete the exam.. atleast attempt to hope to clear it.. achieve or atleast try to

But i am not.. i don’t have an answer for it..
What is it ???
Its seems like its a last bus to heaven.. everyone is keen to catch up..
sheer overhyped blunder..

Grapes are sour.. sure might be.. but what if I don’t want grapes.. what if I don’t like them at all.. What if I want something else...
why should I be wasting my time and energy.. in seeking something I don’t look forward to.. sure I want a great career.. but I cant be pursuing something that would make me unhappy.. and my zeal and enthusiasm in pursuing the same is lost in process.

After giving a thought about what is…. getting an entry into this institution going to give me.. great career.. good money...
Happiness.. umm I don’t know yet..

Why should I let my life be ruled by an entrance exam???

Its competitive.. its tougher.. people are smarter.. people work hard..
Is it what defines.. success.. is it what defines.. NOT being a failure...
Its coveted seat.. a treasure of knowledge seeks the right candidate..

Is it the only place???

Lot of emotions, literally gushing through mind....yeah “emotions from mind” … not just me.. But I guess every CAT taker


Scene 2: Pre exam

As an apparent result of me paying my application fees at the last moment, I get my test centre at Kharghar.. If your everyday life revolves around suburbs then Kharghar is like a distant village. Anyhow.. it was the closest compared to the next destination nashik… phew!!!


The D-day: Eventful.. 2nd Dec 2009

In the hopes of reaching the test centre at 1:30 pm, 2 hrs prior to the examination time as thoroughly advised by the Prometric (online exam software developers) and also by their videos posted on youtube.
I had to leave home by 10:30 ( yess good 5 hrs prior to exam)
Guided by a friend on all means of transportation and routes to reach Kharghar.
I choose the most frequented!!!
[Robert Frost poem doesn’t apply to traveling in Mumbai, here if you choose the route less traveled by… you are bound to get lost].

So this was my route.. ummm errrrr routes..


The journey was made possible without me loosing my patience by reading Paulo Coelho ”Like Flowing River”
[Yeah I preferred not to carry any mathematical formula books and stuff..last minute studies screws up brain]

On reaching the station I was delighted not to find any rickshaw, or bus.. as matter of fact any other means of transport to reach test centre.
So the trusted means of transportation is to walk. The apparent 10 min walk as local suggested is infact good 25 min walk..


Scene 3: At the Venue

There… finally I reach the centre, have a glance at it and heaved momentary sigh of relief having reached like dot on time…
No sooner that sigh ended…with phew!!! I saw a huge queue of students getting to check in.

After the person matched my identity with card which took him good 2-3 mins..
Another check point greets me …frisking I have to keep my belongings including my wrist watch I mean cuh..mon how the hell am I supposed to know the time.. ( isn’t it critical factor), then I was taken to fingerprint analysis [yes for first time in history of any exam held in India.. I think.] Fingerprinting...followed by photo-op…
The anxiety on everyone’s face was apparent. It was CAT after all, the
photo-op person asked me smile twice, but I could be least bothered
[I think my smile might have resembled similar to Chandelr’s :-S ]
In my mind: dude.. CAT isn’t funny!!!

After the stringent procedural checks I am allotted a computer desk with a chair.. and a thin sheet of “cardboard” separates two computers..
[The irony of it all.. fingerprinting and cardboard paper separators, voila!!!]

Highlights of situation:
Oh yeah !! 10 mins after reading the instruction note stapled on my desk I realized, my computer doesn’t have a CPU…
okay now I was nervous.. I checked around ,others did have CPU in place..
[Since the pre exam drama was so techie.. thought they must have a centralized unit with just monitor on desk.. but yeah that wasn’t the case]
After bringing it to the notice, I was told I’ll be shifted elsewhere

In my mind:.. You better.. I don’t want to return without giving the exam

Well to my surprise, I was taken to another lab,where I was allotted an LCD monitor, a brand new desktop set..[ my apparent love for computers made this happen I guess .. :P]

CRUCH Time :

15 mins to go for the exam- screen greets me, antivirus scanner also greets me.. my worst fear.. not a virus.. please not a virus.. I don’t want to come back all the way to give this exam..

My PC is rebooted 3 times, my nervousness reached its highest crest.. and so did my anger..

Finally, the screen changes to “start exam”..
[ Yeah mayn.. I have been waiting for this forever]

5 hours of anticipating this moment.. goes.. PUFF

2 hrs 15 mins.. seemed only 15 mins..

I hit “End the Test” that’s it I am done..


Results :
Good they don’t give results immediately after the test..
But yeah what the hell..
A month after the exams….results out..
I successfully managed to screw it up once again..



Conclusion: I never really liked Grapes !!!!

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Posted by PRACHI...... in


Metaphorically speaking...........

The one thing that I religiously follow every night is keep stuff for download be it movies, series, e-books, software’s etc on my precious computer.... :)))
The reason being, there is absolutely no time to watch television these days.. or the strength to fight over a remote control and my work allows to me spend so much time in front of computer screen that I am practically glued to it.

So downloads work for me…. I can watch, read the stuff I like.. any day... anytime.. for a cuppa entertainment.

But today, as I was lining the torrents for download…

If you are netizen you'll know what I am talking about, I lined up 4-5 torrents at a stretch combining a total of some 4-5 Gb of downloadable content which I know, will not get downloaded in one night's span.
Yet I kept it. Hoping....( to be lucky) that all of it might just get downloaded..

The thing that struck me was sometimes our lives work on similar lines...

There are too many things you want to do at same time and you are subconsciously aware of the fact that you won’t be able to finish all those things at that very instant.

Yet to do it.. you involve yourself in too many things hoping that you'll be able to do everything, hoping that maybe you will get it all.. hoping that you will succeed in every sphere.


The next day I woke up and saw that none of them had completely downloaded (as I presumed, each one was showing 40%, 60%, 80% etc downloaded content).
So I wasn’t able to view any of the stuff that I had kept for download.

Well...

At times you fail.. you fail to achieve everything at that very instant.. You get depressed, annoyed at not being able to do it, at not being to achieve it …..
Although subconsciously you were aware of the fact that there is very rare possiblity of you being able to do it all.

The next night again, I kept only the unfinished stuff for download.
The day after that, all of the stuff was downloaded, I was able to view everything that I had planned on watching.

So sometimes, if you have patience and persistence to wait little longer... try a little longer... you might just come out victorious.

But its always a win-win situation, if you know yourself well and do things that you know you’ll be able to.

Now on, I keep only so much stuff for download that I know will be completed in a night’s span. So that the next day I have it all..

I believe the fact that “Impossible is nothing ” but sometimes hoping unrealistic things to happen takes the better of us.

So I guess, knowing what is possible is sometimes a better option.

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Posted by PRACHI...... in

Of an End & a Beginning......


"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day".
-Edith Lovejoy Pierce

I was wondering what would be the first word of the first page of my book; it had to mean a lot for me, sum up everything for me and the word that came to my mind was ……Thanks

Hmm, for all the things that happened for me last year and for things that are yet to come...
For all the loved ones, for all my friends, colleagues old &new, for all those who have guided me, helped me, supported me, encouraged me, motivated me, inspired me… my thanks
And if I was to list down the names of the things & people I would thankful to, it might l just fill my entire book.

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
 -Lewis Caroll

Well so.. I’ll move on to the next thing that comes to mind … A wish

A dream, a desire, an ambition which I have wished for, to attain, that will be the driving force for me for an entirety to achieve and accomplish the things which I have planned for myself. Chalking out a roadmap to know where I will be when I get there.

Some aspirations to fulfill, some desires to nurture.. looking forward to all that in coming year

"A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other".
-Anonymous

The dawn of New Year is incomplete without… Resolutions.
I have never made any before, not because I am afraid I can’t follow them but because you don’t really have to wait for whole New Year to start off something…
If you wish to you can, anytime anywhere…

But since I have wished to do something’s now.. I might as well scribe it down, so each time I visit my blog I am reminded of it.

1. My first resolution would then be to follow my resolutions.
2. Read books as much as I can & increase the size of my little library.
3. Get rid of my addiction....( Oops read as spend less time on my precious computer)
4. “Observe, Learn, Reflect, Share ,Write” (yeah I am gonna make that as my resolution)
5. Act more and Think less
6. Dream more and Visualize

Well I guess these pretty much sum up for me, to look ahead…


“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
Maria Robinson

Learning from past experiences, cherishing all good memories and taking in stride all the bitter ones.. Lets start afresh with new hopes, new ideas, new dreams….

I wanna start today..this day of an End and a new Beginning…

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