to Bell the CAT

Its that time of the year again… the biggest feline of them all is in the air…
no, this time, its not locked in the zoo or roaming around in the forests… its lurking around in the city…
among the 20 somethings in the country… the dollar salary aspirants….the future managers… the 3 lakh+ people looking to grab the 2000 something seats in the IIMs and some other ‘big’ B-Schools… its really amazing how almost everybody seems to be wanting to bell the CAT… starting from a final/pre final yr student @ a grad coll to a huge no. of ppl who’re already working…
actually i’m also one of the crowd… bought the CAF after waiting for about 35-40 mins, filled it up wit all my details and finally went and dropped it off at IIM-B just a week before the deadline… and then realised, i wasnt the only one to be doing it at the last minute… there were quite a few people doing this…
anyways… lots of people i know are taking up CAT classes at various training institutes, all of which seem to have had atleast one candidate who’s secured 100 percentile… many of them have given up chilling out on weekends… have taken long breaks from work to prepare for this…
from all the CAT stuff happenings around me, some of the observations i’ve made…
first of all, lets see the reasons people want to take up CAT…

1. First and foremost, for obvious reasons, its the salary… newspapers report of 23-25 yr olds earning salaries like 15-20 lakhs p.a…. well who can resist the lure of “ka ching”
2. Second, Dollar Dreams… CAT is the ticket to the US of A (or so most of them are made to believe) and there starts the dollar dreams
3. then there’re the people who say “Man i cant take stay in my current job… it’s driving me up the wall… just wanna take CAT and get a decent paying job which i enjoy” (everyone seems to think they’re businessman/managerial material)
4. and then there’re the category who’re giving it because mom and dad wanna see them give the CAT and settle well in life though they dont really dig studying for another 3 yrs (1 yr of preparation included)
5. and finally, there’re people who’re taking it up just because friends, foes and every tom dick and harry seems to be preparing for it… (my friends are writing it, so will i)

out of these, i’ve observed that the first 3 categories consist of the most dedicated candidates… and then those falling under the categories 4 and 5 are taking it up just for the heck of it… so that they arent left out of the discussions… yes, discussions… people (people here are the 20 somethings) seem to be discussing CAT everywhere… in coffee shops… in Pubs, over breakfast, over lunch… when stuck in a traffic jam… in the office bus… heck, i saw 3 different groups of ppl (including a couple of my friends) sitting at a Cafe yesterday solving some CAT papers over coffee… its not like i detest it… even i’m a CAT aspirant… my reasons are spread over categories 1,2,3 and 5… but man come on… give yourselves a break… i mean, even i prepare for it and all that… but CAT fever has spread like an epidemic… it seems to be the center of conversations everywhere… anyways… nov 18th is the D-Day (exam) and Jan 8th is the double D-Day (Results)… fortunes and hopes will be made or destroyed on these days… anyways, all the very best to all the future IIM and XLRI aspirants… excuse me while i get back to solving my CAT papers… cheers!