There’s always a series of exams that everybody writes when they complete their schooling…You know for what they call “to pursue one’s career”…Well,I for one had no idea as what I wanted to become nor could I ,even after hours of pondering, think of something that I was good at.So,instead of getting into a vicious circle of thinking about it and feeling bad about myself,decided to take up engineering entrances,which from my experience I can tell you any tom,dick and harry can get through,well you know,as long as you are not a beautiful looking female.I am sorry to be making such a judgement,it might be because I spent the last 4 years in velammal,but then among the guys doing engineering it’s like an universal fact.
Getting on with the subject,I started off with what a true aspirant would describe as “The Biggest Disaster ever” ie the IIT JEE.It is probably one of the most difficult entrance exams there is for one to write at the UG level in India. People dream about it for years and make great sacrifices to get there.For me though,it was no bigger an event than probably a dumb essay writing competition where if at all you win,all that you’ll get is a miniature bat with saurav’s autograph on it.
So with nothing to lose,I got to my centre.As I reached there 15 minutes earlier,I decided to sit and scan around for good looking females.Well then,who am I kidding.Another ten minutes of confusion later,I was at my seat.Then came the tense moment where the hall incharge held the question papers that would change the future of many.Wow,what a moment.All around me were tense faces.People were praying hard hoping for an easy paper.Out of the blue,I myself started praying for an easy paper. Don’t ask me why.It must be something similar to when you feel like crying when an emotional scene in a movie comes up.Anyways,finally she distributed the papers.The moment of truth.Now that I had prayed and all,didn’t actually know what to make of it.So I decided the paper was niether too difficult nor too easy,and termed it as OK.Now having done all the thinking,it was time for me to get down to business.
I never knew I was this quick at solving papers,it barely took me about 2 hours to answer them all.Having done so,I had this urge to get out and go home.I raised my hand and called the incharge.She came up to me and made it very clear that I wasn’t supposed to leave until the end of three hours.So,I decided to go through my answers one more time and check for any mistakes that I could have made.The bell finally rang.I,pretty satisfied with the effort, submitted the paper and left.
It took me one whole day to understand the first mistake I had made.No,no it hadn’t got anything to do with any math problem and all.It was this simple sentence that read “Wrong answers carry negative marks”.But then,optimistic to the core I decided,so what, true talent comes out in the face of adversity.Don’t ever ask me what exactly “true talent” and “adversity” here really means.The results finally came.My rank was 175***.The *** doesn’t mean I have a note at the bottom of the page saying *** =”All India Rank”.It just stands for three non zero terms.And for those of you who don’t know how exactly that converts into performance, it just says “I sucked”.
