For months, i was thinking of doing something worthwhile. i was not liking the idea of going to office at 730 in the morning and coming back at 8 in the nite from Monday to Friday. Weekends passed as if somebody drugged me and i felt like i slept on friday night and got up on Monday morning. Couple of months passed and finally i shortlisted couple of things i can pursue and after drlling down more and decided to take up CFA as my goal.
Decisions are like seeing cobras to me, as soon i have to make them i freeze, things start moving in slow motion. I took good two months and still i was nowhere close to deciding whether to take it up in Jun or Dec.
Finally , one fine day, my partner decided its now or never, her theory is till you dont cough up the money for your exams , you just cant start studying. She asked me to enroll and i did. She paid 1000 $ and was happy ,worried i was. The day was 28th Dec, 2008.
A week later, i was delivered a carton full of books or tomes, six of 'em, scared i was would be an understatement. But my partner's theory worked like magic, once the money is paid, you know its not going to come back, i started studying to get the best ROI.
She prepared my timetables, routines and i started diligently working towards my goal. I was tracking my daily progress and i had full plan till the exam day.
I will get up at 5 am in the morning , study for an hour, hop in the office shuttle and study, during lunch hour, i will revise formulae, come back at 8 pm , have dinner and study for 2-3 hours... daily , non-stop for weeks together.
Till i started, i rarely remember a weekend without a PVR Cinemas movie and/or a lunch/dinner in some fancy restaurant, everything stopped. i was putting in 6 hrs each on saturdays and sundays, sometimes wondering will it be worth doing all this. I stopped living for 5 months, no movies, no outing , no friends and my partner will see to it that i adhere to the rules.
I had planned to go to Nepal and appear(for the uninitiated, we cannot appear in India, everytime Supreme Court has to give permission) and this time also SC ordered it to be conducted in Mumbai and i was happy.
During this time, my partner went away on ofice assignment and i stuck to plan, she came back and again went, i was panicky .... ...... exam was just round the corner and my confidence was dipping , i was doing all i could.
I went to Mumbai, on the bangalore airport, i cut my hand(thankfully it was not the right one), stayed with couple of friends, slept for 3 hours , woke up , ran to the examination hall.... none good signs.
Exam consists of two 3- hour sessions, morning and evening, as soon i came out of the first session, i knew it will take a miracle for me to pass. It was like all India has coverged there in Mumbai, no doubt that was the lone exam centre in India, it was crowded couldnot get anything to eat . As usual i was not carrying any study material there , caught hold of a poor soul and revised something.
Evening session, i realised after 30 mins seems to be easy, i saw the clock after 2 hours and was behind schedule, increased my speed and was just able to complete in time.
I came out , searched my friends and went home, nobody spoke how the exam was, nobody asked, all were happy , finally ordeal was over, whatever may be the result. Same evening i caught flight and came back to Bangalore, not so easily, flight was delayed again ..... for 3 hours , mind you it just takes around 2 hours to reach bangalore from mumbai, reached home at 0230 hrs.
I thought i will sleep like a dog for days together, i was so wrong , was up at 7 -- my office was waiting for me. Everyone had questions for me , how it was and i just said .... i dont know... wait for the result. I, myself didnt know how it went but i was dreadful of both the outcomes, passing also comes with a rider, u have to study for the next level.
Result was to be declared on 28th July, there could not have been a better day, it was my partner's , my fiancee's birthday. I decided one month earlier , i am not going to check the result till 28th passes, i dint want to spoil her day, she had put in so much, sacrificed so much time. heard my tantrums, gave me moral support, boosted me, no way i could have checked my result that day.
It was the day, 28th July, i wished her Happy Birthday and went to office, she too went , result was in the evening(US morning time), i was preparing myself for the outcome, came home early , not for the result but for her birthday. Somebody called me from office and told that result is out and i can check it.
I and she sat to check, i could not just stop myself from checking it then and there. i keyed in the details and asked her to press enter and it was a wrong password, not a good sign.
I entered the correct details and asked her to click Enter again, she did n i prayed harder..... and i just saw a big
PASS
and my eyes swelled, could not read the scores, who cared till the time it was a pass.
Now once again , its cobra time(decision)......for level II, i m still in freeze mode.... will need my better half once again, sooner the better.
Hoping i will be able to write one more pass next year.
Till then See you !
