City youth strike gold, 30 make it to IIMs

Parul Bajaj, Saumitra Singh make it to IIMsJAIPUR: At a time when Kota is recognized as the centre producing the maximum number of students for IITs, the Pink City has earned the rare distinction of sending 30 students to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) this year. Not only this, most of the selected students have more than one choice and are yet to decide on which IIM to join.
"Selection to IIM was like a dream come true for me," said Parul Bajaj, alumni of Maharani Gayatri Devi School, who is one of the successful students. She said that after completing graduation in microbiology from St Xavier's College, Mumbai, she decided to take the Common Admission Test. "Fortunately, I received calls from five IIMs, including Bangalore, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Indore," she said.
Having opted for IIM-Bangalore, Parul said that the personal interview was so relaxed that she never felt like facing an interview session. She also informed that she was among the top 25 students and has been nominated for Aditya Birla scholarship. Her elated mother Amrita Bajaj said that selection of her daughter to the premier management institute was the result of hard work.
Sweta Pachlangiya, a graduate in Biotechnology from Rajasthan University, who was quite surprised with her selection, said that she had to see the CAT result thrice in order to make sure that her name exists in the list.
"I had come to Jaipur for the graduation whereas my father, who is a businessman in West Bengal, stayed back" she said.
Telling about her journey, she said that she joined a coaching institute, which offered proper guidance. She also said that her interview was based on questions related to computer knowledge, subjects in graduation and family background.
With three IIM options with him, Saumitra Singh says: "Being an engineer in Electronics and Communication from MNIT, Jaipur, I wanted to go for Masters from some US university and had never thought of doing management". He said that he appeared in CAT only after his father insisted, it was sheer luck that he got through but is yet to decide whether to go for MBA or MS. He further said that his elder brother Ashish and sister-in-law Akansha were both IIM alumni and therefore he might also go for it.
Kuldeep Meena, a railway clerk and a resident of a small village in Dausa district who got selected to IIM-Kozhikode in his second attempt, said that he had a dream to get into IIM, which came true this year.
He said that he attended coaching in a city-based institute but could not make it in the first attempt as he had to appear for graduation examination and also had some family responsibilities. "In the second attempt, I worked very hard and cleared the examination" he added.