I belong to a village in western UP, where there was no formal school when I started my schooling. I started my education from a school running in a house, and I studied there until 7th. For further education, I joined a school in a small town a few kilometres away from my village in class 8th moved to Bareilly city in class 10th.
I had no idea why I was studying and passed 10th, 12th & B.Sc. without any vision to life. English was just a subject to pass, and I never thought this would be a communication medium. There was no vision/mission in life; I was studying for the sake of getting literate.
After getting a B.Sc degree, there was nothing to do. So I thought to move to Delhi to get a job so that I could run my hand to mouth life, but I didn't get any work, as every good job needs a skilled person or at least a good communicator. Finally, I decided to teach as a private tutor. And this was even more challenging, As CBSE/ISCE board had a lot of English, and parents wanted a teacher who could speak well in English. After investing a good amount of time in learning communication spending, I was able to equip myself with the teaching practices.
By now, after 22 years of my age, I knew what I wanted to do in life. I decided to do something in life. I started preparing for CAT/GMAT while teaching and decided to study further, and I sat for CAT/MAT in 2005 and took admission in MBA in IILM Gurgaon. During my research in 2004/5/6 & during my IILM days, I got to know about IIMs name the brand value of IIMA. Since then, I have had a dream to study at IIMA. I knew I would never be able to get into IIMs because of my average academics, and then getting into IIM-A was a dream of dreams.
After my first MBA in 2008, I started my corporate life and built a good network. I kept teaching as a private tutor. And I did another distance learning MBA from Punjab technical university in 2012.
Now, I wanted to do something good in academic, so started preparing for the GMAT exam. I wanted to grow, so I decided to do an MBA from a top tier B-school and got admission offers from 3 good UK universities and 1 Canadian university. IIMA was just a dream but not on the list because I knew I would never be accepted in IIMA. I have seen people with 99+ percentiles in CAT, and 740+ in GMAT with excellent academics don't get admission, and I was nowhere. I applied to EPGP just for the experience and forgot it after submitting my application and gave my GMAT. I received a call from Hughes to submit my test scores, and I did it at the last moment.
The real spirit started when I got an email that I qualified with the test scores and was asked for the interview round. I was highly excited that I received a call from IIMA. Again, getting admission was still not in my mind. Because I knew the IIMA admission process & rigour. I thought there would be people with excellent academics with IITs, NITs names and some great corporate and good experiences. But I dared to be confident and prepared myself for the IIMA interview. To feel IIMA vibes and see the campus inside, I opted for my interview on the IIMA campus instead of Delhi.
When I landed on the IIMA campus first time, I felt there was a different wind. I touched that land at the entrance gate. I thanked God that he gave me an opportunity to enter 'the IIMA'. I took lots of photographs and bought an IIMA logo T-Shirt. Being a social media guy, I wanted to publish pictures on Facebook and other social media platforms. But, I realized that If I don't get admission, I won't be able to answer to the people. So I didn't publish any pic on any social media and kept that t-shirt in my wardrobe with the intention that If I got selected, I'd wear that t-shirt. Else will keep in the closet only as a memory that I went to IIMA someday.
On 6 August 2018, I received an admission offer email from IIMA's program chair Mr. Biju Varrkey. It was like a 440 volts shock. I called my family and started crying. It was like I got everything. I got wings, started flying in clouds, and could experience the breeze touching my body and tickling. I could feel it, and I was super, super excited.
And that's how I got my IIMA dream come true.
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