Sitting at Cheddies after a night out at 90 degrees.
6 a.m.
Rickshaw pulls into Puri Gate.
IIT JEE starts here.
Very serious looking boy sits with his bag clutched to his chest.
His dad tries to maintain his composure.
The face betrays the tension in his mind.
The image of this kid needs some potraying.
Wax specs.
Ill-matching shirt and pant.
Shirt untucked.
Slippers.
Sounds stereotyped, doesnt it?
Stereotypes arent created out of thin air.
They exist.
Exam is to begin at 8 a.m.
The fellow and his dad are here two hours earlier.
For all the work put in over two years, probably these two hours never were an issue.
I wonder where he came from...
What time he woke up today to come here...
What time he's been waking up these last few months in his preparation...
I eat my Maggi while I ponder these...
Cheddies fellow probably actually gave me an entire Maggi packet's preparation.
Finding it too much to eat.
People shouldnt be too honest sometimes.
A white ambasaddor pulls in.
JEE aspirant sitting in the backseat by the window.
Lapping up every image he can of the place where he so desperately wants to be in two months' time.
His mom sits beside him.
Dad beside her.
Some uncle, turned backwards, sitting in the front seat and giving them some funda of some sort.
Probably a local friend or relative.
6 am in the morning it is.
I wonder how many nights that fellow's mom must have stayed awake while the son was burning the midnight oil.
3500 seats.
2 lakh candidates.
Probably 30 marks out of 180 that separate rank 1 from rank 3500.
Approx 115 ranks per mark.
One question here or there...
One brilliant crack in this paper or that...
One silly mistake in this answer or that...
Changes the whole bloody course of life, doesnt it?
A steady stream of students keeps trickling in.
Some with dad.
Some with mom and dad.
A select few braved it alone.
Another guy turns up with his dad on a rick.
Gelled hair...
Nice clothes...
Both son and dad trying hard to keep the cool.
Its impossible.
Not on this day.
No matter how hard you try...
This IS the make or break day.
7.30 am
Its already bloody hot.
Long queue of students waiting to get into the main building.
Parents hover around making sure everything's okay.
We tell the gateman we have to go to a lab and get in.
Students going in nearly a single line, disciplined as in school, from main gate to main building.
We click a few pictures.
Of the long line of two-wheelers.
The cars.
The students marching into the main building.
After six hours of exams and a sum total of 10 hours, the kids will finally be done and over with this two year ordeal.
Their parents, who'd been waiting in 40 degrees Celsius outside will finally have their wait over.
Now begins the other wait.
The wait for the results.
Every IITian had a story to tell about his JEE preparation days.
Every one.
Its like every soldier will always have some story to tell about his days on the field.
Some stories never end.
Probably never will.
Coz there probably never will be another time like that again in our lives.
I wonder if Mr. Arjun Singh knows what it'd feel like for people who've worked for something for two years to see their dreams being snatched away from them because their birth certificate wasnt bad enough.
Why isnt there a fucking 50% reservation for underpriviledged sections of the society in the union cabinet?
No?
Maybe the union cabinet is too high a body to act out such tomfoolery on.
Maybe the IITs and IIMs were the best guinea pigs available.
Institutes of national importance.
Yes.
Shine on you crazy diamonds.
By yourself, if you please.
Some bugger somewhere will get a rank of 2000.
Ranked 2000 out of approx 200,000 people in India.
Respectable.
But
Rank 2000 out of 3500 seats
Rather... rank 2000 over 1575 seats available for students who are ill fated idiots to have been born in a 'general category' family.
He'll go to some IIT for his counselling session.
He'll watch the departments close out one after another before he gets a chance to choose.
I wonder if he'll have the heart to send a postcard to Mr. Arjun Singh.
India shining.
Yes.
Indeed.
6 a.m.
Rickshaw pulls into Puri Gate.
IIT JEE starts here.
Very serious looking boy sits with his bag clutched to his chest.
His dad tries to maintain his composure.
The face betrays the tension in his mind.
The image of this kid needs some potraying.
Wax specs.
Ill-matching shirt and pant.
Shirt untucked.
Slippers.
Sounds stereotyped, doesnt it?
Stereotypes arent created out of thin air.
They exist.
Exam is to begin at 8 a.m.
The fellow and his dad are here two hours earlier.
For all the work put in over two years, probably these two hours never were an issue.
I wonder where he came from...
What time he woke up today to come here...
What time he's been waking up these last few months in his preparation...
I eat my Maggi while I ponder these...
Cheddies fellow probably actually gave me an entire Maggi packet's preparation.
Finding it too much to eat.
People shouldnt be too honest sometimes.
A white ambasaddor pulls in.
JEE aspirant sitting in the backseat by the window.
Lapping up every image he can of the place where he so desperately wants to be in two months' time.
His mom sits beside him.
Dad beside her.
Some uncle, turned backwards, sitting in the front seat and giving them some funda of some sort.
Probably a local friend or relative.
6 am in the morning it is.
I wonder how many nights that fellow's mom must have stayed awake while the son was burning the midnight oil.
3500 seats.
2 lakh candidates.
Probably 30 marks out of 180 that separate rank 1 from rank 3500.
Approx 115 ranks per mark.
One question here or there...
One brilliant crack in this paper or that...
One silly mistake in this answer or that...
Changes the whole bloody course of life, doesnt it?
A steady stream of students keeps trickling in.
Some with dad.
Some with mom and dad.
A select few braved it alone.
Another guy turns up with his dad on a rick.
Gelled hair...
Nice clothes...
Both son and dad trying hard to keep the cool.
Its impossible.
Not on this day.
No matter how hard you try...
This IS the make or break day.
7.30 am
Its already bloody hot.
Long queue of students waiting to get into the main building.
Parents hover around making sure everything's okay.
We tell the gateman we have to go to a lab and get in.
Students going in nearly a single line, disciplined as in school, from main gate to main building.
We click a few pictures.
Of the long line of two-wheelers.
The cars.
The students marching into the main building.
After six hours of exams and a sum total of 10 hours, the kids will finally be done and over with this two year ordeal.
Their parents, who'd been waiting in 40 degrees Celsius outside will finally have their wait over.
Now begins the other wait.
The wait for the results.
Every IITian had a story to tell about his JEE preparation days.
Every one.
Its like every soldier will always have some story to tell about his days on the field.
Some stories never end.
Probably never will.
Coz there probably never will be another time like that again in our lives.
I wonder if Mr. Arjun Singh knows what it'd feel like for people who've worked for something for two years to see their dreams being snatched away from them because their birth certificate wasnt bad enough.
Why isnt there a fucking 50% reservation for underpriviledged sections of the society in the union cabinet?
No?
Maybe the union cabinet is too high a body to act out such tomfoolery on.
Maybe the IITs and IIMs were the best guinea pigs available.
Institutes of national importance.
Yes.
Shine on you crazy diamonds.
By yourself, if you please.
Some bugger somewhere will get a rank of 2000.
Ranked 2000 out of approx 200,000 people in India.
Respectable.
But
Rank 2000 out of 3500 seats
Rather... rank 2000 over 1575 seats available for students who are ill fated idiots to have been born in a 'general category' family.
He'll go to some IIT for his counselling session.
He'll watch the departments close out one after another before he gets a chance to choose.
I wonder if he'll have the heart to send a postcard to Mr. Arjun Singh.
India shining.
Yes.
Indeed.
41 comments:
"I wonder if Mr. Arjun Singh knows what it'd feel like for people who've worked for something for two years to see their dreams being snatched away from them because their birth certificate wasnt bad enough."........Man ! the line Rocks :)
Btw is the govt. planning for 50% reservation for general category students by donating 50% seats?....I say scrap the JEE
amazing. awesome.
you've said it all and in so few words. totally awesome. godly.
i hope i don't get started on that topic of reservation...i'm sick of talking about it when i know nothing's gonna happen...its just too bloody a perfect move on the politicians' part...hats off to them.....a government will always give higher proirity to its own existence over nation building....there i did get going [:D]...
anyways...cool post...this was probably the last time we did have an actual unadulterated dream...without being too cynical about anything.....but then i guess life gets to us...
wait a few more years. then we'll have reverse reservation i.e. for the next 50 years or so the 'general' category will enjoy the benefits of reservation. and after that it will start all over again.
And what makes it all worse is that those who make it, general or priviledged, would be sitting at cheddis after a night out at 90D, and contributing to India shining by climbing the mountain of a whole maggi. Two years down the line, they'd wonder if this is the dream they were chasing.
Excellent post......the only thing which u cud have done better is shove this post up the Indian government's arse.
MMM
may be then they cud have understood what it takes to clear the JEE?
Excellent post dude! U got a comment frm me. Treat!!
naughty MMM, you never told us that this was how you passed JEE !!
Wow!!!
If this does happen , a few decades later we might see a doctor's name written like this
Dr. xyz
xxx specialist
M.B.B.S M.D D.M (GE)
@ Biswajeet:
Thanks :)
@ Sudhir:
Flattered! Thankew :)
@ Sandy:
Its something unpredictable, but in the end its right... I hope you had the time of your life
@ Whoami:
Puhleezz... I hope India doesnt remain so dumb forever.
@ Baffling:
Conscience pricking, is it?
Dreams change... evolve... and there's nothing that anyone does that he doesnt want to do.
@ MMM:
Thankew :)
Dunno how I could have done that though... [:P]
@ Krishna:
Thanks dude :)
You got a comment reply from me!! Bigger trt!! [:D]
@ Umang:
Thankew :)
We seem to be undoing a historical mistake by committing a monumentally more historic mistake.
Real nice blog !!! Even i personally think that the quota rule is utter crap especially in IITs and IIMs... I am also strongly against it because 'I' have been sweating it out for 2 yrs. for JEE 2006 and this idiot in my class says " Why should I worry, I anyway have a seat reserved in IIT" . This system Sucks man!!!
It is a tragedy, that one rank separates 100s of ranks. I wonder how tough it must be for the evaluaters to check these IIT-JEE papers. They must have to keep in mind that even half a mark will decide if the student will land up doing a PhD. in Harvard, or land up in pursuing an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. Tough job!
@ Anonymous:
If you've been preparing for IIT JEE 06, you neednt worry about it affecting your selection chances. All the best :)
@ GJ:
Umm... if the student finally goes to Harvard or IIMA, I guess there's nothing to worry abt at all!! [:D]
But seriously, it has to be a hell of a job distributing the ranks.
en i though ur blog was all about marvelous moments at kgp.... real nice cp!!
Wait till you have that '50-50' batch inside the campus....would prefer studying in the college down the street
Hope there is no such reservation in Scholar Avenue's team. Else, I would have to look for another blog down the blogland ;)
@ Bansal:
Thanks dude [:)]
@ Suneet:
[:O]
Ab yeh din bhi dekhna pad gaya :(
Our principles being questioned by our own... humare apne... our very own seniors...*sigh*
heyya,
tagged u.. pls check my blog for details... :)
twinkle twinkle little star...
dunno how u missed the stars n the sounds at 90D
waz goin to write the whole nursery rhyme, but some other time...[:P]
coming to the topic, its sad to see merit being overlooked ...can only hope that those in power see the sense, or the lack of it, in this move
and of course, nice post [:)]
@ Babushka:
Reply coming up soon :)
@ Dewdrops:
I didnt miss them! Remember tracing the Big Bear? North Star?
And thankew... given the weather's disposition these days, you'll get ur chance soon [:P]
Amazing article. My brothers giving his exam this year.I'll show this to him.
i was wondering where it would end......
and reached at a place where i expected it to .....
there are times when i feel that in india, I should have been born with a poor birth certificate....who knows ...
but then.....i am what i am and there is a pride when i get to the place i want without the help of my birth cetificate.......
well written
cya
Ash
@ Anamika:
All the best to him :)
@ Ash:
Hopefully there'll be some place left for ppl to get to once all the reservations are done and over with.
But yeah... self-dependence sure has its own charm :)
hmmmm... very....lionish...:p
forgive me, I know not what I say. but all in all very realistic, in your face.
keep walking buddy :)
Why doesnt this thing get into Arjun Singh's mind ?
i noticed you were subscribed to my blog via bloglines so i thought i'd pay a visit.
interesting read!
@ Singlewheatfemale:
Hmmm... lionish! Interesting [:)]
Cheers!
@ Curiousmoron:
Guess its so apparent that it escaped attention.
@ San:
Been sometime since I've been subscribed I guess...
Welcome [:)]
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