Miss,
June was enthralled when she told me that you were asking about me and I was a little more when I concluded that you still remember me. Last time it was a hand written letter but since I'm spending all my day with the computer nowadays I thought I'd type in the letter this time. Well it has been two years almost since I last wrote and what a tension changed yet eventful these years have been. Now before I start blabbering all that was and is up with me, I must ask if you are doing fine ? Must be. How is everybody else at St. Agnes' doing?...Now this "everybody else" endearingly includes my teachers, sisters, the didis, the Rainbow children, the happy meal project, the chapel, the hall, the stage, the computer lab, the ground, the passageway that leads to the chapel and the connector between class X and the passageway to the chapel, which according to me is the best and most memorable part of the school. I'm assuming everybody is in the "pink of their health"….Mrs. Dhiman used to get so very angry when we wrote this particular phrase in our informal letters !!!....Now it is time I update you about me and my life….
Past two years have been a learning experience for sure and what is coming up is going to be so as well. There is a little nostalgia because I'll have to leave this place where I've been since my birth and settle down in a totally new place. But the excitement of going down south for engineering overrides the nostalgia. There's absolutely no longing for friends, you know why…..they come and go, if I'm leaving behind some here I'll get many more there. Moreover we are done with all the crying, when we left St. Agnes'…..litres of tears overflowing on the last day of school. We are still in touch…I mean all my Agnes' friends courtesy "internet". It will remain the same between us, we were in separate schools but now we'll be in separate cities. Pallabi's going Cuttack for architecture, Niti's going Gandhinagar for law, Sharmistha and me to Bangalore for engineering so we have a pan India friend circle now…..With mobiles and the internet we'll still be in touch, same with my Modern High friends. Now after so much of preparation and the tough time giving strings of mock exams, the ISC exams started. They got over soon and the big and bad ones started…the competitive exams ! After all the exams got over the results were due. 20
th of May, 3pm IST I came to know I scored a 94% in my ISC. And I was jubilant not because of my maths, phy, chem or computer marks but because of my English !!!! When I got my ICSE results I was all blue because I got an 88 in English so this time I knew I had to get some unbelievable marks…..Its true people say the boards generous one year and strict another but I knew my 25 marks answers were brilliant and my 97 was well deserving. Computers were not bad as well with 95, maths was on 94. But because I was sure not to study anything other than engineering the ISC results were of no use. The wait continued. Then one after another the entrance exam results were declared, my position is well poised with not qualifying in IIT (as expected), bizarrely bad ranking in AIEEE (totally unexpected), well deserved 5707 (All India Rank) in Karnataka Joint for non- Karnataka students and something that doesn't matter a 1143 in WBJEE. My first preference was NITs through the AIEEE but since I won't get them I'll have to access my second preference that is going to Bangalore and getting into a college there. With my rank I'll probably get M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology which is the best college in Bangalore and it has been a long time dream to actually be there. My stream will be Computer Science without question. So that is it …..I'm going to Bangalore where future beckons.
You can't imagine how tough a battle it is to surge forward when it comes to the entrance exams. My Karnataka Joint score was 83 and you know how many people had the same score? More than 600. When 600 students are tied at the same score they rank them preferentially …. By first checking physics marks, then maths , then chemistry and finally if everything is same they consider your age…the one who is older gets the preference cause he will not be able to appear for the exam once more and you will probably be. After all this the rank list is prepared. It's a tough system. And now that I'll be in a college there…..I've talked with a few from the College community on Orkut and they say it's a stupendous schedule with regularity being a must. Not like colleges here when you can think of giving college a miss if it either rains or is too hot ! So I'm up for the challenge and I'll try and keep good CGPAs (Cumulative Grade Point Average on a 10 Scale basis is used to describe the overall performance of a student in all courses).
I had gone for my Karnataka exam with one of the many agencies that conduct tours especially for exams. Sharmistha and me….first time beyond the city all alone without parents…was one fantastic escapade with us learning how to tackle situations on our own. It was an exam special train and the entire compartment had not another girl except the two of us. The students were mostly from Bihar and Jharkhand, who traveled to Kolkata and took the train from Howrah Station. On a general note, if you check out most of the rankers in all these all India exams are from Bihar and Jharkhand….they complete +2 move to Kota (in Rajasthan) and learn up all that can ever be and vomit on the question paper…..you'll find they have the whole of H.C.Verma learnt by heart. They were students as well so we had no problem…….but there way of communicating with each other is bizarre with continuous cheap humor and slangs coming at a frequency of 10 hertz ! Nevertheless we had something to learn from them …… how much they could study…we were influenced so much we didn't sleep for a moment on the train…..all night the whole train rang with the squalor of MCQs ! But all in all great experience …. Doing all the packing and cleaning on your own….studying as well. On the 4th of May we had our exam, after a whole day of tedious exam giving, we returned to our hotel to suddenly realize all our books and clothes and accessories lay scattered and we'll have to pack them right before 5 o clock the next morning…cause that's when we were scheduled to leave. We had to eat, pack take an bath and be ready…so we had our dinner and started packing at around 12 at night, it took 2.5 hrs then Sharmistha went to take a long bath cause we'd stay in the train for 2 days…..She was done in an hour and it was my turn. I took almost an hour and by the time we were ready all our luggage packed it was 4 o clock in the morning. No sleep. All the seven days including the train journey we hardly slept. So, we realized to stay alone and do all your daily chores and at the same time carry on with studies and exams ….its a must to skip all your sleep !
Since there was ample scope to be studying in the engineering colleges here acquaintances are considering going to Bangalore exceptionally crazy and unrealistic. They have a point to make……..that is students usually go the wrong way in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore. But I have my reasons as well, if I had to go the wrong way I could very well have done so right here……cause Modern High School offered all possible ways to do so. And I had my classmates doing so but it's all upto me, isn't it ? My sole purpose of going down south is the prospect that it brings along with it. I had enough freedom right here I thought, and I can very well say I lived upto it…..My parents never sneek-peaked and I didn't give them reasons to ! So whether it is here or in Bangalore it is totally upto me ……. If I toil hard I get the returns and that is enough to keep me firm on the ground and focused in my work. No it isn't eying the fruit before the flower, it is just keeping a fixed aim.
You know what I realized …..life is really different from what it used to be in St. Agnes', it was perhaps the safest shore to harbour and the securest umbrella to take shelter…..it was a place where every wish is granted, every desire fulfilled, where every one loves you…..very different from actuality. That is why I sometimes feel I'm far far away from the school now……yet pretty close cause it is etched in memory as one fairy tale land….that I was in but will never be again..!!! It was good that I had 2 years of Modern High before going to college…..even this seven day trip to
Bangalore …..as if a trailer and the full length film is about to begin ! Life is all about new experiences ….and last two years I've had many. So will I keep on having….may get bogged down sometimes ……cause when it is a do-or-die situation for India in a cricket match it heightens the excitement but when it is a do-or-die in life ….it has to be overcome ! But at the end of the day you perform or perish……so with the zeal to outperform every obstacle I'm leaving for this happening city…."Four hundred miles away from home" !
I hope to come to school once before I go away,
Quite a long letter, sorry if there were any spelling or grammatical errors !
Priyadarshini.
19.06.08
5.47p.m.
June was enthralled when she told me that you were asking about me and I was a little more when I concluded that you still remember me. Last time it was a hand written letter but since I'm spending all my day with the computer nowadays I thought I'd type in the letter this time. Well it has been two years almost since I last wrote and what a tension changed yet eventful these years have been. Now before I start blabbering all that was and is up with me, I must ask if you are doing fine ? Must be. How is everybody else at St. Agnes' doing?...Now this "everybody else" endearingly includes my teachers, sisters, the didis, the Rainbow children, the happy meal project, the chapel, the hall, the stage, the computer lab, the ground, the passageway that leads to the chapel and the connector between class X and the passageway to the chapel, which according to me is the best and most memorable part of the school. I'm assuming everybody is in the "pink of their health"….Mrs. Dhiman used to get so very angry when we wrote this particular phrase in our informal letters !!!....Now it is time I update you about me and my life….
Past two years have been a learning experience for sure and what is coming up is going to be so as well. There is a little nostalgia because I'll have to leave this place where I've been since my birth and settle down in a totally new place. But the excitement of going down south for engineering overrides the nostalgia. There's absolutely no longing for friends, you know why…..they come and go, if I'm leaving behind some here I'll get many more there. Moreover we are done with all the crying, when we left St. Agnes'…..litres of tears overflowing on the last day of school. We are still in touch…I mean all my Agnes' friends courtesy "internet". It will remain the same between us, we were in separate schools but now we'll be in separate cities. Pallabi's going Cuttack for architecture, Niti's going Gandhinagar for law, Sharmistha and me to Bangalore for engineering so we have a pan India friend circle now…..With mobiles and the internet we'll still be in touch, same with my Modern High friends. Now after so much of preparation and the tough time giving strings of mock exams, the ISC exams started. They got over soon and the big and bad ones started…the competitive exams ! After all the exams got over the results were due. 20
th of May, 3pm IST I came to know I scored a 94% in my ISC. And I was jubilant not because of my maths, phy, chem or computer marks but because of my English !!!! When I got my ICSE results I was all blue because I got an 88 in English so this time I knew I had to get some unbelievable marks…..Its true people say the boards generous one year and strict another but I knew my 25 marks answers were brilliant and my 97 was well deserving. Computers were not bad as well with 95, maths was on 94. But because I was sure not to study anything other than engineering the ISC results were of no use. The wait continued. Then one after another the entrance exam results were declared, my position is well poised with not qualifying in IIT (as expected), bizarrely bad ranking in AIEEE (totally unexpected), well deserved 5707 (All India Rank) in Karnataka Joint for non- Karnataka students and something that doesn't matter a 1143 in WBJEE. My first preference was NITs through the AIEEE but since I won't get them I'll have to access my second preference that is going to Bangalore and getting into a college there. With my rank I'll probably get M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology which is the best college in Bangalore and it has been a long time dream to actually be there. My stream will be Computer Science without question. So that is it …..I'm going to Bangalore where future beckons.
You can't imagine how tough a battle it is to surge forward when it comes to the entrance exams. My Karnataka Joint score was 83 and you know how many people had the same score? More than 600. When 600 students are tied at the same score they rank them preferentially …. By first checking physics marks, then maths , then chemistry and finally if everything is same they consider your age…the one who is older gets the preference cause he will not be able to appear for the exam once more and you will probably be. After all this the rank list is prepared. It's a tough system. And now that I'll be in a college there…..I've talked with a few from the College community on Orkut and they say it's a stupendous schedule with regularity being a must. Not like colleges here when you can think of giving college a miss if it either rains or is too hot ! So I'm up for the challenge and I'll try and keep good CGPAs (Cumulative Grade Point Average on a 10 Scale basis is used to describe the overall performance of a student in all courses).
I had gone for my Karnataka exam with one of the many agencies that conduct tours especially for exams. Sharmistha and me….first time beyond the city all alone without parents…was one fantastic escapade with us learning how to tackle situations on our own. It was an exam special train and the entire compartment had not another girl except the two of us. The students were mostly from Bihar and Jharkhand, who traveled to Kolkata and took the train from Howrah Station. On a general note, if you check out most of the rankers in all these all India exams are from Bihar and Jharkhand….they complete +2 move to Kota (in Rajasthan) and learn up all that can ever be and vomit on the question paper…..you'll find they have the whole of H.C.Verma learnt by heart. They were students as well so we had no problem…….but there way of communicating with each other is bizarre with continuous cheap humor and slangs coming at a frequency of 10 hertz ! Nevertheless we had something to learn from them …… how much they could study…we were influenced so much we didn't sleep for a moment on the train…..all night the whole train rang with the squalor of MCQs ! But all in all great experience …. Doing all the packing and cleaning on your own….studying as well. On the 4th of May we had our exam, after a whole day of tedious exam giving, we returned to our hotel to suddenly realize all our books and clothes and accessories lay scattered and we'll have to pack them right before 5 o clock the next morning…cause that's when we were scheduled to leave. We had to eat, pack take an bath and be ready…so we had our dinner and started packing at around 12 at night, it took 2.5 hrs then Sharmistha went to take a long bath cause we'd stay in the train for 2 days…..She was done in an hour and it was my turn. I took almost an hour and by the time we were ready all our luggage packed it was 4 o clock in the morning. No sleep. All the seven days including the train journey we hardly slept. So, we realized to stay alone and do all your daily chores and at the same time carry on with studies and exams ….its a must to skip all your sleep !
Since there was ample scope to be studying in the engineering colleges here acquaintances are considering going to Bangalore exceptionally crazy and unrealistic. They have a point to make……..that is students usually go the wrong way in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore. But I have my reasons as well, if I had to go the wrong way I could very well have done so right here……cause Modern High School offered all possible ways to do so. And I had my classmates doing so but it's all upto me, isn't it ? My sole purpose of going down south is the prospect that it brings along with it. I had enough freedom right here I thought, and I can very well say I lived upto it…..My parents never sneek-peaked and I didn't give them reasons to ! So whether it is here or in Bangalore it is totally upto me ……. If I toil hard I get the returns and that is enough to keep me firm on the ground and focused in my work. No it isn't eying the fruit before the flower, it is just keeping a fixed aim.
You know what I realized …..life is really different from what it used to be in St. Agnes', it was perhaps the safest shore to harbour and the securest umbrella to take shelter…..it was a place where every wish is granted, every desire fulfilled, where every one loves you…..very different from actuality. That is why I sometimes feel I'm far far away from the school now……yet pretty close cause it is etched in memory as one fairy tale land….that I was in but will never be again..!!! It was good that I had 2 years of Modern High before going to college…..even this seven day trip to
Bangalore …..as if a trailer and the full length film is about to begin ! Life is all about new experiences ….and last two years I've had many. So will I keep on having….may get bogged down sometimes ……cause when it is a do-or-die situation for India in a cricket match it heightens the excitement but when it is a do-or-die in life ….it has to be overcome ! But at the end of the day you perform or perish……so with the zeal to outperform every obstacle I'm leaving for this happening city…."Four hundred miles away from home" !
I hope to come to school once before I go away,
Quite a long letter, sorry if there were any spelling or grammatical errors !
Priyadarshini.
19.06.08
5.47p.m.
