The year that was
The year has come to an end, bringing with it an end to my holidays. Today happens to be my last chhutti. I don't have much to write about, so I think I'll look back a bit and write about the year 2004.
Just about over an year back, at the beginning of the year 2004, my life was in a state of complete disarray. Class XII pre-boards were about to start. VM classes (my JEE coaching classes) were becoming harder by the day. My marks at school, as well as at VMC were pathetic, and the boards and JEE-2004 were threats that seemed quite insurmountable. To make matters worse, school was on the verge of ending. The fact that in a few days I would no longer have a school to go to was just about beginning to sink in, and I was, understandably, not in the best of spirits.
Just as the clock had struck midnight , signifying the beginning of year 2004, I had thought to myself about the importance of the coming year (2004). About how it was going to be the most crucial year in my entire life. About how my entire life depended on it. Understandably, these thoughts did not make me feel much better.
January 2004 was perhaps the worst month I have ever had in my life. The pre-boards, which started about a week into 2004 were crappy. I got 79%. Not a disastrously bad aggregate percentage, I agree, but what pained me was not the fact that I had not done too well at my pre-boards, but the fact that for the first time in my entire school-life, I got less than 80%, and that too on the last set of examinations I was supposed to give at school. If I had only gotten above 80% on my pre-boards, I would have had the enviable record of never getting less than 80% throughout my stay at school. But it was not to be.
Things just got worse from there. The disaster of the year came in the 3rd week of January, during my Physics Board Practical examination. The external examiner, an irritable bitch from some small school on the outskirts of the city, had something against public school students. She was shouting incessantly during the entire practical. On a random whim, she started going through a couple of Practical Files, and mine happened to be the first one she looked at. She found something she did not like (I had lost some data relevant to one of the experiments, and to save myself the trouble of doing the entire experiment again, I had, with the permission of my teacher, stuck a photo-copy of the observation table in my file, which I got from one of my group-members, who had also done the experiment with me.), and all Hell broke loose. I was called from my seat, where I was peacefully trying to set up a meter-bridge experiment, and was shouted at for close to half an hour. She said a lot of things, and some of them were not pleasant. I had always been a good student at school, and when she accused me of being a cheat and a shame to the schooling system in India, I was, to be quite frank, hurt. I was also shocked. Surely she was over-reacting. I mean, I had just messed up 1 of the 11 experiments, even if you could call that messing up. But I patiently listened to her, and quietly returned to my seat once the tirade ended, having being told earlier that saying anything against the Board Examiner would not be an advisable course of action. The episode didn't end there. I later found out that I had been given 22 on 30 on my practical, inspite of turning in a perfect experiment, and managing an above average viva. And that is inspite of the fact that the Practical File is marked out of a maximum of 5 marks.
It was at that point that I had thought that things just could not get any worse. Thankfully, I was right. At that juncture I regained a bit of my lost luck. I started studying a lot harder, and things did get better.
The rest of the Board Practicals went pretty well, and I ended up with 30 on 30 in both Chemistry and Computers. The boards went well, and I managed a 90%. JEE-2004 was not half as difficult as I had expected it to be. It could have been a lot better, but I am not complaining. I got a decent rank, thanks to which I am in a decent branch at IIT, Delhi. I had an excellent month-long vacation when I visited mom at Winnipeg, Canada, immediately after taking the JEE.
Just about over an year back, at the beginning of the year 2004, my life was in a state of complete disarray. Class XII pre-boards were about to start. VM classes (my JEE coaching classes) were becoming harder by the day. My marks at school, as well as at VMC were pathetic, and the boards and JEE-2004 were threats that seemed quite insurmountable. To make matters worse, school was on the verge of ending. The fact that in a few days I would no longer have a school to go to was just about beginning to sink in, and I was, understandably, not in the best of spirits.
Just as the clock had struck midnight , signifying the beginning of year 2004, I had thought to myself about the importance of the coming year (2004). About how it was going to be the most crucial year in my entire life. About how my entire life depended on it. Understandably, these thoughts did not make me feel much better.
January 2004 was perhaps the worst month I have ever had in my life. The pre-boards, which started about a week into 2004 were crappy. I got 79%. Not a disastrously bad aggregate percentage, I agree, but what pained me was not the fact that I had not done too well at my pre-boards, but the fact that for the first time in my entire school-life, I got less than 80%, and that too on the last set of examinations I was supposed to give at school. If I had only gotten above 80% on my pre-boards, I would have had the enviable record of never getting less than 80% throughout my stay at school. But it was not to be.
Things just got worse from there. The disaster of the year came in the 3rd week of January, during my Physics Board Practical examination. The external examiner, an irritable bitch from some small school on the outskirts of the city, had something against public school students. She was shouting incessantly during the entire practical. On a random whim, she started going through a couple of Practical Files, and mine happened to be the first one she looked at. She found something she did not like (I had lost some data relevant to one of the experiments, and to save myself the trouble of doing the entire experiment again, I had, with the permission of my teacher, stuck a photo-copy of the observation table in my file, which I got from one of my group-members, who had also done the experiment with me.), and all Hell broke loose. I was called from my seat, where I was peacefully trying to set up a meter-bridge experiment, and was shouted at for close to half an hour. She said a lot of things, and some of them were not pleasant. I had always been a good student at school, and when she accused me of being a cheat and a shame to the schooling system in India, I was, to be quite frank, hurt. I was also shocked. Surely she was over-reacting. I mean, I had just messed up 1 of the 11 experiments, even if you could call that messing up. But I patiently listened to her, and quietly returned to my seat once the tirade ended, having being told earlier that saying anything against the Board Examiner would not be an advisable course of action. The episode didn't end there. I later found out that I had been given 22 on 30 on my practical, inspite of turning in a perfect experiment, and managing an above average viva. And that is inspite of the fact that the Practical File is marked out of a maximum of 5 marks.
It was at that point that I had thought that things just could not get any worse. Thankfully, I was right. At that juncture I regained a bit of my lost luck. I started studying a lot harder, and things did get better.
The rest of the Board Practicals went pretty well, and I ended up with 30 on 30 in both Chemistry and Computers. The boards went well, and I managed a 90%. JEE-2004 was not half as difficult as I had expected it to be. It could have been a lot better, but I am not complaining. I got a decent rank, thanks to which I am in a decent branch at IIT, Delhi. I had an excellent month-long vacation when I visited mom at Winnipeg, Canada, immediately after taking the JEE.
The past 5-6 months have gone by quickly. Classes everyday. Quizzes and debates once in a while. I am already a semester old into this place. I have griped a lot about IITD, as I am sure all of you who regularly read this blog would know. But I've had fun. All in all, it was a good semester, and the fact that I managed an 8.5 in it makes it seem even better.
I hope that this year goes well. I know that it isn't as crucial or important as last year was, but I would like to do well. If I can do half as well in the coming year as the last 11 months, I'll be a very happy person indeed.
Today happens to be my last chhutti, as I have mentioned earlier in this post. Tomorrow onwards, I will have to get back to the grind. Back to the terrible lecture theatres and workshops of IIT, Delhi. I still have not decided how to spend this last day of my holidays. Any suggestions? Feel free. The comments section is all yours.
And before I sign off, once again, a Very Very Happy New Year to everybody reading this.
posted by Manu Saxena at 2:33:00 am
2 comments
2 Comments:
"January 2004 was perhaps the worst year I have ever had in my life" ?!
Strange how cracking JEE was one of the biggest achievements of the year and yet you seem to detest/not look forward to the natural consequence of the exam (the classes).
Sorry. Meant "month I have ever had in my life."
As for detesting classes, who doesn't?
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