Once more, with feeling

A coach who teaches aspiring MBA students by sitting for competitive exams himself, that makes the grade.

India never ceases to amaze. After serial kissers, we now have a serial exam-giver. Mumbai-based Patrick D'souza, who teaches aspiring MBA students for what is considered one of the toughest examinations in the world, has found a novel way of keeping himself in top form in these competitive exams. To ensure that the changing patterns of these examinations don't catch his students unawares, the master himself sits for the competitive tests and till date, his scores have never figured lower than 99% in any exam. D'souza never joins any institute though because he had finished that difficult lap in 1998 when he joined a top-notch MBA institute. But since D'souza was keen to do his own kind of thing - running marathons and playing competitive chess - he decided to give corporate boardrooms a miss.

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Among all the quirky hobbies people have, this must figure somewhere at the top. But hold on, does this really sound like a hobby? It doesn't because there is some bread, butter and jam tale tucked away here, in a nation that is so obsessed with putting its children through the paces in a tutorial. There are tuition classes for everything the country - from entering playschools to cracking difficult exams like the MBA or the Indian Administ-rative Service. The craze is so strong that a second-tier city, Kota, has not become specialised in the craft. Its economy is preponderantly dependent on students who come here from all parts of the country. While in different parts of the world, there are education hubs and university towns, only in India will you get a tuition town.