Client Crash at CAT

UN-disclaimer: I’d have loved it if all the characters and incidents in this story were fictional. But unfortunately, it’s all True.

I had not given even an hour to CAT preparation in the last three months. I’m talking about just three months because that is the period I am certain about. As a matter of fact, I had not done any preparation in complete year. At least when compared to my first attempt two years ago.

After the reports of server crashes in the past three days, I was expecting one. But what crashed was not the servers. It was a crash at client side.

Let me start from the beginning. It was the day before last for CAT application sale. I got up early and reached my nearby Axis bank, which happens to be some 10kms from  my home, only to know that it was October 1, and the bank would be closed for half-yearly closing. I was also told by the guard that the forms were over and I could get one only at the MG Road branch which was some further 10-12 kms.

Next day, I got up early again and reached the Branch with my friend. As per the previous guidelines it was the last day of Application form sale but the same day I read in the newspaper that the date of sale of forms was extended due to many bank holidays in the past week. Anyway, I got the voucher (the form was online only), came to office, filled the details and selected Vishveshwaraiya Institute of Technology at the Airport Road as the CMRIT center, next to my friends’ house, and quite close to mine too, was available only for first slot of day one and last slot of last day. So I decided to keep the center at Airport road as it was not very far either and I had seen the Vishveshwaraya colleges too.

A few days before exam, I got an email from the Prometric saying there was possibly some error in the online form filling and I could change it by the day before CAT started. Later, near the last day, I got to know that the date was again rescheduled to December 11 because there were people who could have misplaced the vouchers which were necessary to make any changes in the form and so they didn’t want to help people by not keeping things at a short notice. You guessed it right. I was one of the people who had kept the voucher so ‘safely’ that I was unable to find it in a day.

And then, finally, the day was there. I had bought a ball pen for the exam the last night after leaving from office because there was no need of a pencils anymore and my pen had stopped working only the day before. On the night before CAT, I slept at 12.30 instead of my now regular 2-3, and got up at 7.15 in the morning. And though I was expected to reach two hours before the exam as per the admit card, I took lessons from old exams and decided to keep the gap around an hour and fifteen minutes, leaving at 8. The start was OK. I left my home to find no autos and decided to walk the 1200m road to Whitefield bus stand when I found an auto at the middle of the road. I got a bus, found it slow, saw another bus, caught it, found it stopping too much in traffic, caught an auto, found it slow too, but reached the college. It was almost touching nine.

And what I saw was a bit confusing. I couldn’t see a guard and no students. I asked him if that was the Vishveshwaraya College and he said it was but there was no CAT center. I saw around and thought it would be one of the three Vishveshwaraya colleges there, but this Vishweshwaraya Institute of Technology wasn’t there. Finally I got out and started asking people if they knew where the college was, showing them the address whenever I got somebody ready to help. People told it would be somewhere nearby only. Finally I found a DHL frnachise and went in, thinking somebody there would have better idea of nearby addresses.

The guy inside saw the address, asked if that was not the Vishveshwaraya College I had been to, thought for sometime, and finally told me that Airport road the address talked about was the one going to the other Airport, the new one at Devanahalli.

And that was the end of my CAT without a server crash, because reaching a college at the other airport was only possible if I had a flight ready from this airport to that.

Then, searching for a cyber cafe to confirm this, I found myself standing outside the Shiv Mandir and simply walked in. There I decided that it was my fate and while I was thinking of rejecting CAT by playing it cool, it had outrightly rejected me for my delays and my slight negligence.

The only thing I can be satisfied about is that I had not prepared for the exam. Else, the story would be much, much sad.

Tags: me