BLACKI

My aunt told me that she had read on TOI that the CAT results would be out on Jan 8th. Three days to go and there were no "So are you all set?" calls thanks to my worst case hypothesis story.

The results are usually announced in the afternoon. This time they had even introduced a SMS approach to get your results.Not being near a PC with net connection is no excuse to not know your results. sigh.

My business unit director was to visit us and an all-hands meeting was scheduled in the afternoon that day.

I opened the chat window and messaged my friend

"Did you know that today was amavasya... haha!"

"Ya!"

"How co-incidental.. the results!"

"[expletive] .. it does not matter if results come
out on this day.. "
"You should not write the exam on this day"


"oh!..."


I was having lunch with my colleagues. There was an another colleague of mine who also had given the exam.We were joking about the numbers.

Then i went and sat in the all-hands conference. I had kept my cellphone in vibrate mode. I was getting lots of calls and i knew it was out.

I was suddenly so tensed that i felt i would die right their of a cardiac arrest. I was sweating profusely. The fact that the director had gone into a " I pick one guy and you ask me a question"- mode didn't help the situation either.

It finally ended and i came out to see my friend waiting with his cellphone in hand. He was downcast with his results.I took a look at the SMS. One look at him and i didn't want to check my results. He persisted that i check. I brushed him aside and went to my cube.

My friend came on over the chat and told me to login and check. I logged in and i could not.

He kept on persisting telling me to try the SMS. I told i don't know the format. He told me to send my TR number.I said no. He sent me the format.

I typed the message. Kept it ready. Read it again and again to make sure my TR was right.I kept the cellphone down on the table. With my face in my hands i raised my brows. Took one long breath , grabbed the cellphone and pressed the send button. Almost immediately i received an SMS. I could see my name and TR number, the first half of the message. I slided the message down to see the percentiles. That will remain the best SMS i have ever received in my entire life. Unfortunately its now property of the thief who stole my cell.

The SMS format does not tell you the places where you have been shortlisted. I was sure that i would atleast get an interview shortlist from one IIM and that was enough for me.

I just left the office the next instant. Back in the house, roomie was kicking ass with java packages and i told him to log into the site which was the only place to know. Server not found.

I told him to keep refreshing after every two smokes and let me know when the page loads.

After 3 cigarettes the page loaded and then i was a BLACKI!

Ok, BLACKI is one who has interview shortlists from all the IIMs. With shillong in picture now i dont know what happens to the acronym but its an awesome feeling to be a BLACKI. Altough there are two pronunciations, blackeye and blackeee, i prefer the second one and no, i am not a racist.