Last day of exams! Not any ordinary exam, this was the life deciding II PUC (Pre University College) or for people not from Karnataka the 12th standard. This exam decides if you become an engineer, doctor or fall down and disgrace yourself by doing basic sciences. Did anyone say, isn’t it the choice of the student? Well where were you for the last 20 years? Everyone knows that your marks in PUC decide what you become in life, like the students choice ever mattered.
So as it happened, the last exam was English, and everyone had English (it was compulsory), so here we are Mallikarjun (Malla), Tejas (Mickey), Jeevan (Bhogle), Krishna (Bandu), Ananya (Pilli), Yashashwi (Pashu) and me going to Mickey’s place after the exams. We had huge plans, we were going to play cricket first, then go eat ice cream and then probably go watch a movie. No one wanted to ask the questions on everyone’s mind, how did the exams go? How much marks we will get? Where will we end up? What will happen? With these questions weighing upon us, we went to Mickey’s place.
So on the way (we are walking), you ask why we walk? The vehicle stand guy charges a rupee per day to park the vehicle. A rupee is a huge amount; I mean it is 30 bucks a month, 365 rupees a year. So Mickey’s place is like a kilometer from college and it was our parking place. At anytime there would be at least 10-15 vehicles parked in their house. Coming back to the story, as we walked we talked this and that. We talked about girls, argued who was the most beautiful girl in college, talked about buying new vehicles for Degree College, the latest bikes and everything boys usually talk about. But this day the zest was missing. As the exams were over it was now time to contemplate and review how you had fared for the last one month.
At this junction, I got an idea (my ideas generally cause trouble almost always) to cheer up the mood, so that we could enjoy the moment. When we reached home, I said ‘we will do one thing, we shall throw the ball really high and who ever catches it first will get the highest marks in the exam. Pilli said, ‘I don’t catch and play cricket well, so the odds are against me, so I don’t agree’. Mickey said ‘whatever I don’t care, but I don’t mind trying it.’ The rest of the guys were OK with it and there was a lot of arguing about the rules of the competition. But, whatever said and done Pilli didn’t agree to the rules, he still maintained that he was at a disadvantage. So I gave him a big disclosure about fate and here are some excerpts from it,
Me: ‘this is pure fate, if fate is on your side you will be the guy to catch it. It’s the ultimate test.’
Malla: ‘I completely agree, see what will happen will happen, this is just an indication of what is going to come.
Mickey gave his expert comment, ‘anyway, we can always play best of three catches and see what happens, then it will be real test’
I gave the concluding remark that if Pilli doesn’t agree then it means he is chickening out, no guts and he is a chicken heart. Totally irrelevant, but when you want a guy to do something, just hurt his ego and he will be ready.
Finally, Pashu added, ‘we will let Pilli, throw the ball high and let him decide where he wants to throw, that way it will be fairer. Which everyone agreed and for once even Pilli was game for it.
So the scene was set, we were standing on the footpath, it was a pretty big footpath and we worked out where each one should stand and last minute rules that hitting isn’t allowed but pushing is allowed and things like that. With baited breadth we anticipated his throw, where he would throw? What height it will go to? How much time I will have to run there? By now it wasn’t just marks at stake but a reputation too. This will go down in the annuls of history. So Pilli had his back to the road and then, he put in his effort and threw the ball up, there was a sudden rush, everyone tried to follow the ball and tried to run towards it. But, fate had meant otherwise, the very fate I had mentioned sometime back made its decision, the ball went not only up, but due to the lack of physical abilities on Pilli's part, it travelled towards the road and on the road a open top lorry was travelling and the ball went and fell into the lorry and before anyone could realize the lorry was at the end of the road. Fate had made its choice.
We all looked at each other and kept staring at Pilli, this fellow had single handedly jinxed out results. He might have done it on purpose as he had no chance of catching it, but knowing his abilities at cricket everyone doubted that. Then suddenly all of us started laughing and that broke the ice. We laughed till our tummy started to ache and there were tears in the eyes. All of a sudden the exam was a distant thing and all that mattered was the long holidays ahead.
By the way the laughter didn’t last long; the results came a month later.
So as it happened, the last exam was English, and everyone had English (it was compulsory), so here we are Mallikarjun (Malla), Tejas (Mickey), Jeevan (Bhogle), Krishna (Bandu), Ananya (Pilli), Yashashwi (Pashu) and me going to Mickey’s place after the exams. We had huge plans, we were going to play cricket first, then go eat ice cream and then probably go watch a movie. No one wanted to ask the questions on everyone’s mind, how did the exams go? How much marks we will get? Where will we end up? What will happen? With these questions weighing upon us, we went to Mickey’s place.
So on the way (we are walking), you ask why we walk? The vehicle stand guy charges a rupee per day to park the vehicle. A rupee is a huge amount; I mean it is 30 bucks a month, 365 rupees a year. So Mickey’s place is like a kilometer from college and it was our parking place. At anytime there would be at least 10-15 vehicles parked in their house. Coming back to the story, as we walked we talked this and that. We talked about girls, argued who was the most beautiful girl in college, talked about buying new vehicles for Degree College, the latest bikes and everything boys usually talk about. But this day the zest was missing. As the exams were over it was now time to contemplate and review how you had fared for the last one month.
At this junction, I got an idea (my ideas generally cause trouble almost always) to cheer up the mood, so that we could enjoy the moment. When we reached home, I said ‘we will do one thing, we shall throw the ball really high and who ever catches it first will get the highest marks in the exam. Pilli said, ‘I don’t catch and play cricket well, so the odds are against me, so I don’t agree’. Mickey said ‘whatever I don’t care, but I don’t mind trying it.’ The rest of the guys were OK with it and there was a lot of arguing about the rules of the competition. But, whatever said and done Pilli didn’t agree to the rules, he still maintained that he was at a disadvantage. So I gave him a big disclosure about fate and here are some excerpts from it,
Me: ‘this is pure fate, if fate is on your side you will be the guy to catch it. It’s the ultimate test.’
Malla: ‘I completely agree, see what will happen will happen, this is just an indication of what is going to come.
Mickey gave his expert comment, ‘anyway, we can always play best of three catches and see what happens, then it will be real test’
I gave the concluding remark that if Pilli doesn’t agree then it means he is chickening out, no guts and he is a chicken heart. Totally irrelevant, but when you want a guy to do something, just hurt his ego and he will be ready.
Finally, Pashu added, ‘we will let Pilli, throw the ball high and let him decide where he wants to throw, that way it will be fairer. Which everyone agreed and for once even Pilli was game for it.
So the scene was set, we were standing on the footpath, it was a pretty big footpath and we worked out where each one should stand and last minute rules that hitting isn’t allowed but pushing is allowed and things like that. With baited breadth we anticipated his throw, where he would throw? What height it will go to? How much time I will have to run there? By now it wasn’t just marks at stake but a reputation too. This will go down in the annuls of history. So Pilli had his back to the road and then, he put in his effort and threw the ball up, there was a sudden rush, everyone tried to follow the ball and tried to run towards it. But, fate had meant otherwise, the very fate I had mentioned sometime back made its decision, the ball went not only up, but due to the lack of physical abilities on Pilli's part, it travelled towards the road and on the road a open top lorry was travelling and the ball went and fell into the lorry and before anyone could realize the lorry was at the end of the road. Fate had made its choice.
We all looked at each other and kept staring at Pilli, this fellow had single handedly jinxed out results. He might have done it on purpose as he had no chance of catching it, but knowing his abilities at cricket everyone doubted that. Then suddenly all of us started laughing and that broke the ice. We laughed till our tummy started to ache and there were tears in the eyes. All of a sudden the exam was a distant thing and all that mattered was the long holidays ahead.
By the way the laughter didn’t last long; the results came a month later.
Posts
3 comments:
Attach mickey's house and pillis pic :)
hahahah...good fun! btw how were the results?
Manu: Sure I will
Shubhika: The last line says it. The laughter didnt last long, the results came a month later.
Well all of us are doing well!!
Post a Comment