B.C.S to U.S

The summers were almost coming to an end. And it was time for the inevitable. The first year results were going to be out. We were all a bit tense as we had a lot of fun the previous year and that meant the obvious during results. For me, It had been a great year. I had moved out of my house and living on my own which was a great high. I was not a great fan of intoxication, but 18 is the age when you try a lot of stuff.

A friend of mine, vinod had come down from Mumbai for the same reason as Dhaval. You could not help it, It was 1997, IT was booming and everybody wanted a piece of the pie. Vinod was a friend of mine from junior college days, and we had been through a lot of shit together. It worked fine for me , him being there and all. Both of us had a tough time in junior college. Coming in with good results in S.S.C, leaving with terrible performances in H.S.C. All of our other friends had stuck to their tasks, put their heads down for two years and gone on to do another four years of drudgery in an engineering course. We had tried to be cool, Bunked classes, fallen in love and smoke and by the end were both lost in translation. Looking back, it seems fun now, but it was really tough at that time.
It was a tough system. You had to slog for a whole year in Tenth grade, Slog harder for another Two years to get admission in an engineering college to slog for another four years. One slip along the way, and you were lost into oblivion. Me and vinod had done rather well on the first step, but had lost interest along the way. And I takes only that much to be rejected from every possible engineering college in the state. 75% would not be bad in most parts of the world,
But in our situation it would be better if we would have not given the exams at all. But there we were, clueless about what to do next. The both of us spent another year trying our hand at Bsc and considering our options. In that time, we had figured out that we had expensive taste and would need the big bucks really fast. I.T seemed the only feasible solution at that time. At the end of the year, I enrolled in BCS but vinod just missed the bus. He was back again after a year, and I was hoping he would get in.

I got up early on the morning of the result in anticipation. Vinod was up before me. We got ready and went to college.I didn’t have the heart to go in and collect my result straight away. We lit our cigarettes and went and sat outside CRUMBS.Crumbs was a small bakery on F.C.Road bang opposite the girls hostel. Why it was a popular hangout is evident. Actually, Hardly anybody would go inside crumbs and grab a bite. But lazing on the steps outside, getting some local gossip was a favourite pastime. It was unusually empty at that time of the day. It was the summer and everybody was at home, but on
result day it just felt creepy.

And they started pouring in. The song by queen “Another one bites the dust” kept playing in my head. Some of my college friends passed, some failed. When I could not take it any longer, I stepped in and slowly walked up to the line. When I was second in line I tried to peek , but could see nothing. And then came my turn. As the clerk looked up my name, I could feel my feet melt.He handed out the piece of paper to me. I took on look at it and ran towards the gate screaming. I had ducked 3 subjects,but more importantly not missed the year. Anybody looking would have guessed that I had topped the exam. For all you know,I had the same feeling. I came out of college to crumbs and gave vinod the thumbs up sign. He was as relieved as me, I could see that. Sid and the gang came to crumbs in some time. None of the guys had done well, but everybody had moved to the next Year. This called for a celebration, which at that time meant butter pav bhaji at shiv sagar.

With the results out of the way, I had a lot of other things to focus on which I will come to later. Vinod and Dhaval got along well With each other, which was strange considering the fact that they didn’t get along with any body else. But a few days later, vinod left Without getting admission, and Dhaval got in at new modern college. I met vinod a few times after that when I went home to Bombay, But have completely lost touch now. If you ever read this iyer, you gotta get in touch.