Sameer Tiwari hails from the holy city of Varanasi. He was born right before the turn of the century, in 1999. His name, Sameer, means ‘cool breeze’. He thinks his parents chose this name with the hope that it would provide them with that effect of a cool breeze – a cool and soothing sensation - from his actions and achievements. During his school days, he excelled in his studies. Since childhood, he had an interest in GK books, encyclopedias, informative books, etc. He took part in many quizzes, competitions, and Olympiads, always aiming to improve knowledge on subjects and trying to be better each day.
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Another passion of his is cycling. Since childhood, he estimated that he has cycled for more than 7000 km! Keeping fit is important to him - hence he works out every day and tries to eat as healthily as possible. This is because he believes that a healthy mind requires a healthy body, and if you work out you remain energetic for the day, and being active helps you in the long run.
After his initial schooling, he pursued a bachelor’s from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in BSc Computer Science, a dream that he had for a long time. Sameer is a person with an avid interest in learning new things, especially anything about IT and Computer Science. He likes watching videos and keeping an eye on the new happenings in the tech space. Not only that, but he also enjoys imparting that knowledge to others as well. So considerable is his passion that he even takes time to write answers on Quora, an online platform for discussion. He shared, “I believe that knowledge increases when shared with others.”
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The typical Indian family expectations are for their children to go into medicine or engineering - Sameer was lucky that engineering was his choice and it was his willpower and dedication that got him there. “But as they say, we don’t know how the future is set and where we will land. And the same thing happened to me. My dream changed with the times.”
He identified his major end goal and that was to get into what interests him. For him, the answer to that question was computers. Being young and naïve, it took him a long time to realize his true interests in this field of study. Comparing the options of MSc, MCA, and a path that he had not considered till then, an MBA. He pondered over the aspects of an MBA, his father being one the proponents of him pursuing this degree. Through his research, Sameer found there was room for his passion for IT. This was the moment of realization for him that his interests were all along with the applications of IT, not the creation of software or coding. He found that since businesses are the backbone of any country’s economy, there cannot be a greater application of IT/computer science than in business.
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This pushed him towards the MBA and CAT examinations. Now there was the question of how to go about preparing for the ever elusive CAT. The kicker: the exam was just 2 months away. He prepared, not giving any mocks or taking any coaching center’s help. He chose to prepare by himself. While preparing, a motivational tool he stuck by was that he would not give CAT again next year as he did not want a gap in his studies. This pushed him to work harder. He studied in ICSE Board school for 12 years which laid the foundation for good command over English. Sameer had prior experience in Quantitative ability and the DILR section so he didn't have to prepare much in that. Also, he had given some other exams of the computer science masters e.g. NIMCET and MSc exams of some universities so those areas were revised earlier. For the VARC section, he took a guide from Arun Sharma's book. Apart from practicing from the book he also read articles, stories, watched videos and movies which supported him a lot in making the VARC section stronger.
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He gave CAT and got 97 percentile on the first try with 99.29 in VARC. He converted to IIM Rohtak and is now happily pursuing his MBA. His parents are proud of his endeavors, but one thing they may have not gotten exactly correct is Sameer being a cool breeze - with his grit and determination to succeed, he is a roaring storm, preparing to make his impact at IIM Rohtak and beyond.
