chapter 7

The results weren’t petty impressive, but Anirudh was happy with them. He ranked somewhere in 1800’s in EAMCET and somewhere in 5700’s at the national level in AIEEE. Which according to him were relatively ‘good’ ranks in comparison to the ranks of most of the friends from his circles. The old classmates in Bombay were no where near his rank in AIEEE, but had the advantage of passing their high school from a state where competition for a national level entrance examination was less than from that of the place where Anirudh passed his junior college from.

Anirudh was a bit worried about the college where he would get into and the branch he would need to opt. He planned to pursue Mechanical Engineering and then specialize in robotics and then work or DRDO or ISRO. Some people, acquaintances and family friends  were kind of depressing. While, most of them felt there’s no meaning to life unless you graduate from IIT or unless you are a software engineering in USA. Any other person other than his mother or father, if tried to talk Anirudh into Software or dropping an year to prepare for IIT, he attacked them back with his look – enough you loser, this is my life and I will live it my way, even if I have to grow down the drain. If ever I would have to, I will rise from it, myself.

But, then again his standing in the state during the AIEEE counseling for seat allocations was too low to get him a seat in any of the branches of any REC. But, Praatik got into IIIT, Hyderabad and Anirudh was happy for him. Anirudh got a call from DA-IICT, and he was happy to have it. At the day of counseling at DA-IICT, there was a Aptitude test, which later turned out to be a formality. Anirudh’s dad was very much impressed by the campus and the faculty, and as any other concerned parent there, he felt this is the best for my son to be. Anirudh, felt he still had a few options open, though he had a gut feeling that he would land up at DA-IICT, very soon.

The month of August had come, and the joining date for DA-IICT was close and as the counseling for the state engineering colleges wasn’t even close by. He took up the admission at DA-IICT and landed up in Gandhinagar on the tenth day of eight month in the fourth year of the twenty first century.

And then the life started for Anirudh.  New place, new college, new friends, new roommate and it was a NEW LIFE.

chapter 6

The board examinations of 11th were more fun than Anirudh expected. He was told that there would be hot chicks in most of the centers. And there always was a war between the different colleges. They threw eggs, rotten tomatoes and anything rotten they could buy, at each other. Anirudh had his examinations in Maris Stella College, the girls college of the city. He was elated, when his batchmates were giving him the jealous look. Well everybody forgot the fact that, as they had been assigned a different center, the girls of that college too would be alloted a different center. They realized that later on the first day. They were dropped off at the center one hour before the examination began. Most of them brought along ‘bags’ of books to study even before the examination. Anirudh kept to his two pens and a pencil.

To his delight, he spent most of the time looking at girls passing by the gate and on the streets, while others tried to cram up as much stuff as they could. The examinations were over in a couple of days and he had two weeks of vacation and had to report back in college for “IIT” coaching. “yeaaahhhh, it would be fun time” thought Anirudh.

It was the summer. Anirudh was happy to be in a quite deserted college, where there only some 200 odd people. While most of them kept themselves to the studying thingie, Anirudh and his friends and vela time. They sat under the trees and stared at the branches and leaves, till one of them was whacked by the passing by warden. The warden’s worked in shifts. When sun got high in the sky and when the heat build up, they move to the comfort of classrooms and fans. Well then again, he dozed off with the support of his hands on this cheeks, till the warden again whacked him on the head. Most of the times Anirudh would give a stern look and get back to his posture. And when the chief warden was not around he would pick up an argument with the warden over the authenticity of his posture, helping him to concentrate better.

While Anirudh was busy with his arguments, sleeping and staring; Praatik studied. Though he too had good time, he studied too, too keep up pace with the others.

One day, during his usual naps, the warden decided to have his time with Anirudh and whacks him hard. Seeing the chief warden go away before he slept, he assumed he wouldn’t have been back; Anirudh sternly denies sleeping and shouts back at the warden for whacking him too hard. The warden smirks and goes away. Feeling the sense of victory, Anirudh gets back to his nap. A few moments later, he hears the chief warden calling ‘Anirudhhhhh…’ from the door. For a moment he thinks he was day dreaming, before he realizes the chief warden was actually there. The chief warden was already fuming. Anirudh goes – ‘ewwww..i am dead today’ and the chief warden takes him out of the class into the corridor. And the rest of them in the class giggle, whisper and lay bets. The chief warden, a five foot guy stands on the elevated platform and pushes Anirudh down into the hot sun. Putting a hand on Anirudh’s shoulder, he starts his lecture and how to be studious and obedient and concentrate on studies blah blah blah blah blah blah……and goes on for a about twenty minutes. It’s already 5 minutes into the lunch break time, the chief warden then decides to end the conversation with these words – “Chudu, Anirudh, warden ante evaru anukuntuna…? okka student study hour lo nidra potunte, bujjam tatti lepi chaduvukomane vade warden, babu.” (“See, Anirudh, a warden is a person, who wakes up a student sleeping in a study hour and tells him to study”. Without a pause, Anirudh shoots back looking up into the eyes of the chief warden – “Sir, mari warden nidra pothe bujjam tatti nidra lepe vade chief warden a Sir ??” (“Sir, is the chief warden the person who wakes up the warden sleeping in study hours??”)

The chief warden’s eyes go firm and then angry and they his hand moves from the shoulder to the head and grabs Anirudh’s hair, bending him down and then – “Dhaaaad……….Dhaaaaad……”. Anirudh gets up – “Ouchhh….!! that hurts”. Jumping off the platform the chief warden leaves, shouting back to let the students to go for lunch. All of them rush out of the class, while Anirudh stands there, massing his back. Praatik passing him gives Anirudh a smile and asks – “Was that you??”, embarrassingly Anirudh nods and they both go to the hostel, laughing all the way on Anirudh’s debacle.

The summer passed. There was another screening test. When the results were given out, the chief warden looked and Anirudh and said, you didn’t make it. He looked back and said, I wasn’t expecting to. And the chief went blank.

And after a few screening tests, Anirudh made it to the third section in the hierarchy. He moved to another campus, a kilometer away from the main campus. And then again the final year of residential junior college started. It was fun right from the first day. Classes began at 6 in the morning. There were the regular study hours and in addition there were one or another type of objective tests. Weekends he played volleyball and spent time on the terrace with his new found friends. Sometimes, he used to get away to the main campus to meet Praatik. But, they had their bi-weekly quota of movies in the new campus.

Months passed by. It was January, most the students around Anirudh were already tensed about AIEEE and EAMCET. Well, it made him nervous and he started dusting his books and finally sat down to write the practice tests and solved every objective question he could find. Revised all the old test papers, picked up random stuff to study and went on for three months. The examination dates got postponed due to the central and state government elections. While the EAMCET was over my May, AIEEE was postponed to May end. And it meant a month more in the college during the summer.  He slogged and dragged away time. And finally, he was done with the system. He went back to Bombay, learnt to drive, caught up with his old school mates and then came the results and the rains of Bombay.