Cultural activities and I PU exams

I was always interested in taking part in cultural activities or co-curricular activities within school and college. I have learnt carnatic music for 7 years. My sister R and I were enrolled in music classes at a very young age.

There was a very talented singer in our class and her name was GS. GS was a pretty girl with curly hair and sparkling eyes. Her voice was very melodious and sweet. The cultural committee has announced group singing competitions in 3 categories (light music - Bhava geethe, Folk - Janapada, and patriotic songs. GS was holding try-outs at the auditorium, she asked me to sing and immediately liked me. I was happy as my other friends A, and DG were there. We had a guy called Janardhan who had reluctantly agreed to play tabla for us. He was a very shy guy and we were 9 girls. We had to bunk some of the classes to practice for the upcoming competitions and I was only too glad to oblige. The lecturers had a certain kind of respect for GS as she was quite well known with the cultural committee members, so we always got attendence even though we missed attending those classes.

We practiced atleast twice a day for 10 days. I liked our group as all of us were able to coordinate our voices in a beautiful manner. Needless to say we got first prize in all the three singing competitions. We became known as GS group. The overall prize money was 450 rupees and we split it equally among ourselves. I went to 4th block Jayanagar and brought a nice cotton salwaar set with that money. It was a big thing for me.

My friend B's cousin was getting married so B invited myself and my friend A for the wedding. B's cousin was getting married to a software engineer who was based in Los Angeles. The wedding was in Belagodu choultry(kalyan mandap). A and I went to the wedding and saw that every body were dressed in really expensive outfits while A and I were in simple cotton salwaars. B was also dressed in this really pretty dress and I asked her how much she paid for that and she said 2000 rupees. I was shocked thinking that the most expensive salwaar that I ever had at that point of time costed 350 rupees! A and I both felt uncomfortable at the wedding, every body were dressed from head to foot in gold, diamonds and what not and were giving us dirty looks. B really tried to make us feel comfortable. A and I gobbled our lunch quickly and immediately left. B had taken 3 days off due to the wedding and returned to school the following week. She told me that her cousin's wedding was annulled as she had eloped with her boyfriend 2 days after the wedding. I was shocked to hear this. B's cousin looked perfectly happy when we saw her at the wedding. She kept blushing every time somebody teased her about her hubby to be. B's uncle had spent 18 lakhs for the wedding and he was devastated. In the end B concluded her story by saying that her cousin's boyfriend is a very rich guy so she did the right thing. I was apalled to hear this from her. Is money that important?? I never knew that B was that materialistic.

B and I were very close to this girl called Nandini and she also knew B's cousin. I casually mentioned this to her about how the wedding got annulled. Nandini promptly went and spilled the beans to B. B was mad at me for sharing this info with Nandini and swore not to talk to me. I was hurt but it didn't let this bother me too much. The first PU exams were nearby and I hadn't even touched my text books. My friend Anand would always tell me that every body passes in first PUC no matter how badly they perform. I was relying on this statement to a great extent. My friends Mayura, Chaitra and Arundathi would always discuss Math problems, syllabus while I was least bit interested in any of this. Our hall tickets were issued. I was quite confident about English, Sanskrit (thanks to professor satish kumar karanth kota) and even Biology to some extent, however, not so confident about Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics.