RATs and CATs

India is synonymous with the Sea of Humanity. In fact, I sometimes feel that the Indian population is so much that anyone attempting for a free fall from space over India can be rest assured that he will not fall on the ground. He's sure to bump into someone who's so busy with his everyday life that he's too busy to look up in the sky to notice someone falling through.
The Rat race is characterised by a day-to-day struggle for existence which ensures the survival of the fittest and elimination of the meek. Its a rather ruthless system which many-a-times values the means more important than the end.
How does one win the Rat-Race ? The answer although very ironic is : No one can win the rat race by taking part in it. The only way to win the rat race is by not being a part of it provided one is confident of his capabilities and not cowed down by pressures from peers and society in general. After all, its a fact that most societies dont glorify and forgive failures and in the process do not learn from them. We should remember that to Err is Human and to forgive is Divine.For every success that gets talked about, we can dig deep to find out 99 other failures from which we can learn 99 ways of not doing things.
Yet another mundane way to beat the rat-race is to become a CAT and start eating other rats so that you reduce/eliminate the competition and there-by create some breathing-space in the process. Towards this, every year on the Third Sunday of November, Lakhs of students take a shot at belling the Common Admissions Test (CAT), so that they can grab the most coveted corner office in companies.
Now, are these potential managers, really beating the RAT race ?
To answer that question in part, we need to look at the real statistics and numbers that prompt these people to aspire to become managers.
One thing which everyone realises is the fact that there is an acute shortage of time in this world and there is a ever increasing need for money and hence the demand for high-paying jobs which give you more money for the same time that others put in office. Now what makes these " Green-behind-the-ears" Wannabe-Managers pick up astronomical salaries in the job-stakes. Its simple economics in action which ensures that a total mismatch between demand and supply ensures that whoever comes out just get sucked into the big bad dirty world of Business. Its much less to do with the calibre or competence of the Institute or the student.
I read sometime back that we need to stop glorifying the entrance exams to IIT's/IIM's and tout them as one of the most difficult exams on the planet misquoting statistics to back our claim. Just because it is difficult to enter an institution does not make it great or necessarily talk about its excellence. We should always remember the fact that Mumbai trains and other public transportation in our country is even more difficult to enter and travel. There is nothing great to boast about that except that its a sorry tale about our infrastructure woes.
Want to question the real motives of all our Brilliant Manager Wannabes " Scale our institutions, recruit more faculty, develop the infrastructure so that 10 times more managers pass out every year so that entry level Manager salaries come down crashing. Then see who still wants to do MBA. We need to put an end to this GOMBA(Grossly Overpaid MBA) madness...
Coming back to the original discussion of whether the CAT solves the RAT race : I am afraid, that is not true.. It does definitely create a new race amongst managers which is the CAT race.
I will reserve my personal take on beating the RAT race for another post. In fact, it will be appropriate to say that my mission in life is to " Beat the RAT race ".
It does require a different plane of thinking, a bit of luck, a bit of talent and a bit of Hard-work..