Our English Professor, Mrs Vimala, was the funniest of all. Oh! She was a double Ph. D in Linguistics, and blimey, her English was no better than a second standard kid - replete with blunders.
With a wig dangling down her waist, and English awfully wrong, (a noticeable Tamil accent to it, and with Tamil words interspersed here and there), wonder how anyone controlled laughter in class.
“Pa, this koshin is very impartant for the egjam. If you cannot concentrate, you jus get out of my class I say”
Srini used to ask me little things – textbook, pen, shoes for Electrical/Mechanical lab, match box for Chemistry Lab, etc, etc. There was no better reason to spark a friendship, and of course, no better reason to start teasing a boy and a girl. Devi started teasing me with him. And, every time she teased, I dutifully rejected it, while secretly enjoying the feel
My Chemistry professor and class in-charge developed an immediate liking for me, and she made me the class representative for girls. Mind it, we had two leaders for boys, and two leaders for girls!!
Engineering Graphics was one subject that broke my spine. No matter how many times I tried, it just wouldn’t penetrate that skull of mine.
Ellipses and parabolas and hyperbolas, orthographic projection, Perspective drawing, so on and on and on. It simply did not make any sense to me.
‘Cycle tests’ came and went. In a few I scored more than Divya. In few, she scored more than me.
Reactions at home:
“Look at your marks. In English, Computer Engineering and Digital Principles, you have scored more. But what’s the use. She surpassed you in Physics and Maths. You could have done better. I really don’t know when you are going to become responsible.”
Scoring more than my cousin means being responsible!! I’ll note that one down. But the problem is, people conveniently change the definition of “responsibility” as per their needs, so much so that it’s so tough to tell what the ultimate goal of being responsible is.
Exams were fast approaching. Fear of an arrear was fastest approaching The fear of lost dreams was comfortably residing within me.
Practical exams were fun. No one studied anything (except, of course, the toppers), but everyone wished to clear it, somehow or the other, by luck or chance, call it what you may.
We had different batches separated based on the alphabetical order, and hence, second and third batches had a lot of time, while waiting for the previous batch to finish.
In the acres of green land that our college was built on, if you are not found studying under the trees, the only other place one could possibly locate you was in the canteen, not particularly to eat or study, but mostly to gossip / meet and watch guys (provided spies were not around). You are most likely to see most of the handsome picks there, in case they weren’t the studious types.
Main exams came and went. Study holidays were fun. I was expected to do nothing other than study. Of course, locked up in my little cozy room, and engineering books – ANSI C Programming by Balagurusamy, B. S. Grewal, Higher Engineering Mathematics, R. K. Gaur, and S. L. Gupta, Engineering Physics, Anand and Chatwal, Instrumental Methods of Analysis, English textbook written and published by one of my own college professor who speaks amazing butler English, Bhargav Gupta, “Basic Electronics & Linear Circuit”, and Engineering Drawing, all dutifully displayed in front of me, I seamlessly embarked on the ship to dreamland.
France was a dream destination, with beautiful clouds, greenery and well-lit streets…
Tonight I am on the beautifully lit Bateau Mouche sailing across the Seine, alone, peacefully, with no one else on it. The boat cruises across the river, the sun hurriedly hiding behind the buildings, before drenching me in the final shreds of black. Against the moonlit sky, the Conciergerie, the Notre Dame de Paris, the Monnaie, the Louvre, Orsay, the Pont Neuf, the floating restaurants - all magically apparated before me. Wow!! Paris is mesmersing. I wish I could live in my dreams forever.
Suddenly my mom shouts from outside, “Are you studying Karthika?”
“Yes mom”
I am urgently transported back from the Seine to my single room haven - surrounded by the wall behind me, and books on the other three sides
Every morning, I diligently study on the bus. After reaching college, Devi would quickly run me through all the important topics. And hurray, I finished my exams – pass or fail, I had no intensions of thinking of results just yet.
“Mom, exams are over. Can you enroll me for the French course?”
“Score more than 80% in your exams. We’ll think of it”
Bah!!! 80%
I just wish a miracle would happen somewhere.