The CAT Centre Casting

After 3 years of writing CAT, I was just sitting and wondering what is it that I have achieved. As i thought about it, there were only 2 things that came to my mind. The first is what everybody gets when they don't get anything else .. Experience. The second is what i will be explaining in detail.

The first two times that I have given CAT, I knew there were 2 kinds of people who gave the exam.

The Normal: Now these guys are the regular Jack and Joe. These are the guys with bored looks and have nothing better than wait for the creepy looking invigilator to distribute the paper. Nothing out of the blue and no surprises here. You find most of them pursuing their individual trades. Here are some of them.

• Hair stylists: They find nothing better apart from meddling with their hair.
• Ornithologists: They are also popularly known as the "bird watchers". They critically analyze the demographics of the room. They are always on the look out for "chicks" (Birds aren't they?)
• Astrologers: The star gazers are most commonly found ones. Irrespective of whether they sit beside a window or not, they just have to gaze out of the room deep into the galaxies.. or so I assume!
• The Drillers: They specialize in blue color jobs and can invariably be found drilling inside their teeth, nose so on and so forth. I am sure its not crude oil that they are in search of though! No more questions on this
• Finally there are those who find nothing else to do but keep staring at others. Now i don't need to tell you who they are.

The Abnormal: Mama's Boys. You can always spot these kind easily. They are the most unstable elements in the room. Fiddling and fretting come as second nature to them. I actually found some queer characters in my exam rooms. Item pieces in short!

• I have seen people who have brought down their whole family including their distant 23rd cousin to the exam center so that they can wait there for 3 hours.
• This guy walks into my room who has got a bottle of glucose, A Lays chips packet (20 Rs Big Pack) and a box of chewing gum .. all so that he doesn't fall asleep which is quite ironical.
• The common among the lot are those who virtually set up a stationary shop within the exam room. They typically carry about 15 pencils, (3 less than pencils/2) number of erasers and 3 watches. (don't laugh... what if 2 stop working? They computed and there is a probability of 0.0000.....06) A little exaggeration wouldn't hurt!
• There was a female sitting opposite me who had photos of lord Shiva and Ganesha in front her. (A sensitive angle which i would not drill deep into)

Today i met the 3rd kind, The Eccentric. Fortunately there is no better word to describe them. Given a venue such as the CAT examination center, you sure don't expect them seen that way. Some of those bonkers that i have seen today..

• A huge guy wearing a skin tight T shirt, shades at the back of his head and finally khakis. Now these khakis deserve a special mention. I have known only 2 kinds of people wearing these. The LTTE Tigers of Srilanka and those who find the khakis disposed by the LTTE. I sure wonder which of them he belongs to!
  
• A pierced brow, near open shirt with 2 huge metallic skull chains hanging around his neck was the order of the day for another dude.
• I understand that we are advised to wear comfortable clothing for the exam. I never knew low waists, skin tights and sleeveless Ts were that comfortable. She sure made some of them watching her uncomfortable.