Sunday, October 19, 2008

Life is full of surprises!!

Osman is my childhood friend. He is 3 years younger to me and was my brother’s classmate. He doesn’t have any siblings and always considered me as an elder brother and calls me Bayya. During his graduation in Bangalore he was living with me & my colleagues. After completing the graduation school he flew to Dubai, the land of opportunities to join his family business.


We were not in touch for quite a long time. One fine day he phoned me and informed that he has got a back paper(failed exam/ supplementary exam) in the final year. He was very sad as he has to leave his business & travel to Bangalore for the sake of writing exam. When he came here he lived with me for one month and cleared the examination. He apologized for not paying attention to my advice and it reminded me about the heap of advises I used to give.


He completed more than a year in the business and off late he was not very happy about the work culture. He was not in a position to make drastic changes also. One day I heard from his mother that he is going to Pune for doing MBA. I felt happy to hear this decision. As the CAT(exam conducted by IIM) for that year was over he decided to join a new B-school in Pune where he was offered a management quota seat.


Two weeks later I got a phone call from Osman and he said he is flying to Bangalore in 2 days and enquired whether I can arrange for accommodation. This surprised me as the MBA classes usually start in June and it was 5 months far. He said he changed his decision and he plans to go for one year entrance coaching and then join a better B-school. In India, more than 250 thousand people attempt CAT exam every year and the exam has literally become a lottery system as the number of seats is very low. He said he will talk to me once he reaches Bangalore.I couldn’t agree to his decision of spending one entire year just for preparing for an exam whose pattern is completely unpredictable. I waited at the airport and I couldn’t resist asking him the reason the moment he came out of the airport.


He said, ‘Life is full of surprises!! Only when I was filling the application for Pune BSchool, I realized that I have one more back paper in the second year of graduation.’


17 comments:

Karthik said...

ROFL!

Welcome back to blogging sir and please be more regular :-)

Arun Jose Francis said...

hehe, that was a good twist in the tail! :-)

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

The story of your friend is quite tragic since he seemed to not know where he wants to go and could not find his bearing. What is amazing is that he has a friend and a big brother like you who supported him all these years in all his problems not to mention the countless advices you gave him. Truly, you are a remarkable friend and big brother to this person. God bless you and may your tribe increase.

Deepti said...

Nice one .. and great to see you back after a long time Al :)

Alameen said...

@Karthik,
Thanks for the comments..
Trying to be regular.. But off late not much of sharable incidents happening in life.. :)

@Arun,
Thanks for the visit. This was one moment where i was confused whether to console him or laugh..

Alameen said...

@Mel,
Thanks a lot for the visit and nice comments..

@Deepti,
Thanks.. Yeah it was really a long time..

Rajoottan said...

:)
nice to see you back in action!

Anonymous said...

oSMEEN.. FUNNY guy he is

Anonymous said...

i guess u came to my page some 6 months back.. where were u all this time?

Alameen said...

@Rajoottan,
Thanks for the visit buddy..

@Chriz,
Some other priorities forced me to stay away. You shud've seen Osman's face while he said this dialogue. hehe

Zahid said...

haha... But on a serious note pray for me....I am gon to write CAT this year...

Macadamia The Nut said...

:D
Finally, another post from ya

Alameen said...

@Zahid,
if you're seriously writing CAT, prepare for GMAT also which is lot more predictable comparable to the lottery CAT system...

@Macadamia,
Thanks for the visit..

confucius said...

This same thing happened to many ppl I know..in this case u were there to advise him...but some doesnt have that luck also..:(...Good post

Alameen said...

@Confucius,
Many ppl?
Osman realized that he has a back paper only when he was applying for his master studies..
You know many others?
Another surprise.. :)

Thanks for the comments...

confucius said...

@Alameen...Yes many ppl ( I can count 4 of them ... and heard abt some others whom I dont know ). This happened in MG university...one year they decided that they will fail half their students for one subject...in the final year....Out of that 4 ppl ...3 got for masters in US and one in Australia...and after clearing back papers...only one went for higher studies...

workhard said...

Hehe..

That was funny...


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