First week at College

When I walked into my class (I PUC A section) I saw that the class was jam packed (about 85 students). As usual there were no takers for the first two benches. I promptly went and sat in the second bench as all the other benches were occupied. After few minutes another girl walked by and sat next to me, her name was Soumya and she was from Vasavi vidyaniketan. We had 3 lectures and it was 2 p.m when we were done for the day. My school would get over at 5 and here the classes were over by 2! I was really thrilled and marvelled at the change :).

I also found out that out of 85 students there were 12 of them who were rank holders. I was getting ready to head out when I spotted my Websters school class mate Harish, I was atlast happy to see one familiar face. His dad was an MP so he had somehow managed to get into PCMB in National college inspite of getting 54% over all. I did meet him and his wife when I went to Bangalore to attend my sister's wedding 2 years ago.

There is this pastry shop called "Butter Sponge" which is right opposite National college and they have yummy cakes and puffs. I simply enjoyed gorging on the goodies whenever I got a chance.

After a week or so I got a notice from National College Jayanagar that there was a seat vacant for II PUC B section and that I could take a transfer if I wanted. I was really happy about this and immediately jumped at the offer. I hated travelling in those crowded buses and had to deal with those "accidental brushes" here and there by fellow commuters (men of course!), so this was a welcome solution.

Hunt for the right college

After I was done celebrating my 10th results, it was time to move on. All my neighbourhood aunties and uncles started interrogating me by asking me "Estu percentage bandide? Namma Sureshange 98% bandide, yava college ge admission hakiddeeya??", I would get really irritated on hearing this. I would say "not sure uncle, I will join whereever I get a seat" and scoot off. I guess this is the Indian mentality to be curious about everything :)

The application process started off with a gusto, I started queing up in lines in front of National college, Vijaya College (Main and PU collkege), BHS, NMKRV and BMS college.

My dad wanted me to join National College, Jayanagar as it was a good college and every body had spoken positively about it. I was fine with it as it was close to my home. I had made up my mind that I would take up PCMB. Now when I think about it, I feel I made a big mistake opting for Science. I guess when you live in a environment where everybody judges you based on the branch you opt for (Science - good, Arts - useless, Commerce - Ok, so -so), the percentage you get, the college you join, one is pressurized to toe the line, and that is what I did. I blindly opted for P - Physics, C - Chemistry, M- Maths and B- Biology.

The admission results (as though the 10th std results were not enough!) were announced in the month of May. I realized that I had got admission for PCMB in National college Basavangudi and BMS college for Women. I opted for National. I realized that my school friends Vasu, Pari and Uma had got admitted to BMS college. I was really disappointed that I couldn't be with them. Now I had to not only get accustomed to a new environment but also make new friends :(

10th standard results - II

I must have calculated my mathematical score atleast a 100 times and was quite confident that I would surely pass. 10th standard ranks were already announced on April 9th itself and a girl from my school had got 12th rank. This was the first rank to our school. I was going crazy with nervousness. Finally the dreaded April 10th was there and I got up in the morning and asked my father if he could go and check my results. He asked me if I wanted to accompany him and I refused with a firm "No". My dad and his cousin Praveen went to my school to check the results. In those days a cell phone didn't even exist, forget a cell phone we didn't have a land line too. I kept chewing my finger nails and kept saying "vakrathunda mahakaaya..." mantra in my mind. After a good one hour my dad and Praveen returned home. The first thing my dad did was shake my hands and pat my back, phew! I was relieved thinking that I must have passed in Maths. Then he started rattling off my score in all the subjects one by one, however, I was all ears only for my Math score, Pappa said "Maths nalli 93", for a second I was too numb and shocked to react, I asked him to repeat and he said "Maths nalli 93 bandide, thombatthu mooru", meaning you have scored 93 out of 100, I asked him to check my register number again, and he repeated that he was sure it was my score. My overall percentage was 83%. I was literally on cloud nine at that moment. Finally I thought god had answered my prayers and my efforts and hardwork had finally paid off.

I went to meet my guru Kaduru Ramaswamy with a pack of goodies. He greeted me and I saw that his house was packed with all the students from my batch. I saw the carmel convent and vijaya high school brat pack too. They were all giving me sympathetic looks thinking that I had either flunked or got a just pass. The first thing I did when I saw my guruji was touch his feet. He blessed me and asked me what my score was. The moment I told him I had scored 93 in Maths and my over all score was 83, the brat pack leader G's eyes popped out, she just couldn't believe her ears. My guruji on the other hand was very happy and he looked at the brat pack and said,"You students were always over confident about your abilities, look at her she has got a better score in Maths than you! Her score in preparatory was 24 now she has got 93". Sandhya who hadn't expected to pass this year had passed with a second class and she was also extremely pleased.

I realized that this was just a stepping stone, I may have to brave through many such challenges in life, the next one being II PUC :(

Exam results

I was done with Maths exam, Phew! I was happy because I had done well. If I said I had done well it always meant that I would get more than 36 and probably less than 50 out of 100. I breezed through my other exams and was finally done with my exams. My sis and I went to our ajji mane (dad's mom, my grand mother) in Madikeri to spend the summer holidays. My ajji mane is not a typical ajji mane, what I actually mean is my ajji is not a typical ajji. Now who is a typical ajji? that gets me wondering. Hmm.. let me think, a typical ajji is one who pampers you silly, indulges you with great mouth watering delicacies, and doesn't say a word for all the mischief you have done. A typical ajji is one who never ever gets angry with you. In one word, she is my ammamma, my mother's mom who is the most lovable creature in this world, I simply adore her !!

Coming back to my "not so typical" ajji, she has never ever hugged me or my sis, never ever planted a kiss, I don't remember her speaking lovingly at all. I remember my mom telling me sometime that, when I was a 6 month old kid I had wet myself and my ajji called my mom who was busy doing some work to come and clean me up. Never once has she held me or my sis when we were babies. However, she was a totally different person with her daughter's kids, especially her eldest daughter Bharathi's kids Archana and Prashantha. For her grand children meant archana and prashantha, it was always archana this archana that, prashantha this prashantha that. This would hurt us a lot, and I used to hate my ajji very much for this.

At the same time she wasn't a monster. She would barely tolerate our visit at a minimum. We were kids then and wouldn't really mind this at all. Our ajji's house is on a hill and you can see a beautiful hill called Suswagath betta, you can also see beautiful rice fields called Kannandamaane. My sis and I were only concerned about the great weather and beautiful scenery and didn't mind our ajji's lack of love or affection. We would go out for long walks in the morning and come back really famished for lunch. Our ajji was a stickler for timeliness. She would serve us food only at 1-30 p.m, immediately after some "ceylonese" program on vividh bharathi (All India Radio). God knows the reasoning behind this. We used to sit on the floor and my ajji used to put these goni cheelas which are nothing but hay stacks on the floor and that was our mats. The moment she would say goni haaki meaning put the goni, it would signal lunch or dinner or breakfast. She was an awesome cook but she didn't really cook many varieties. It was always one sambar (melogara) and one chutney or one rasam and one sambar. We didn't complain as we were famished after long hours of playing with other kids.

I used to call her "Colonel ajji", there used to be a kannada program called "crazy colonel" and I decided to coin the same phrase for my ajji. We had a friend called Venu he always used to hang out with us. After a month's stay at Madikeri we headed off to Bangalore. My results were to be announced on April 10th (once again I don't know why the schools in Bangalore always chose this date). I would pray to god every day to help me get good marks. I guess when we were kids we would rely a lot on god for some miracle regarding our results :).