I LOVE SPORTS TOO

And the ball fell into the hole! Oh my God, did i manage to do that?Wow! No, i'm not playing golf here. I managed to actually hit a cricket ball. My brother just bought a new cricket bat, a pair of cricket gloves and this lovely new ball. So, at 12 in the noon, with the sun glaring at us from above our heads, we were out trying the new goodies he bought. I had my cap on, i was holding his new bat, i was wearing his new gloves (I didn't even touch that thingy he called an abdomen guard. Yuck!) and i just hit his brand new ball into a hole which lead on to the gutter...Guess he was too shocked to see

a. me actually hitting a ball he threw

b. his brand new ball going down the drain

Anyways, he didn't run after me, but went to fetch buckets , garden hose, a long rod, etc etc. I was safe.

It was funny, watching him sticking his head into that hole, getting his white t-shirt dirty(for which he'll get a firing from mom) . Ah, for things like these, i love sports.

Most people in our school loved the sports day because they wanted to participate in the events and wanted to win. Most people who didn't like sports, or had those blue/pink books from PC TC would bunk sports day. I don't like this competition business, but i really love sports day.Since our school's play ground shares a wall with the Lourdes Cathedral cemetry, someone or the other always had to climb over the wall, give the dead a visit and get their ball back. As our little playground wouldn't be sufficiant for all the events, we go to Thope stadium for sports day. There's a lot of things that you could do besides sports!

Like, howmany icecreams can you eat without getting tired of it? That was one 'sweet' thing about sports day. There would be an icecream van and you'll have to fight your way through the crowd to get to it. And before that, you'll have to decide who would go get the icecream because walking from the gallery across the stadium to the icecream van was a tiring sport event in itself. And to decide who's purse would be emptied out first...

Most of us wouldv'e got atleast one pinch, beating, spank on the head etc etc during school days, but has anyone hit a teacher? Well, one sports day I did. Just for the sake of participating, i had signed up for discus throw. A calm and quiet event with no running around. I was sure i wouldn't even get past the qualifying round, so all i had to do was to throw this discus thingy once and then i could go back and 'relax'. I didn't make the qualifying mark when i threw the discus, but poor Preema Miss gave a high pitched yelp and clutched her bu, her dorsal side. Is that why i got low marks for Malayalam in the first couple of exams in eleventh?

That reminds me, why do teachers detest some sports and games even on the sports day? It was all about having fun , wasn't it?While most people were on the ground, running and sweating, some of us were having fun on the gallery playing our games. Like cards? Annie had bought a brand new pack of cards and Vineetha, Annie, Francis, Jimmy and I were playing bluff. (just a harmless game of bluff!) Enter S.M.S (a.k.a Shan Maria Sister). She gave us a biiig scolding (jus us girls, coz the boys were no where in sight then. Hmph! But it was better coz girls playing cards alone was a less serious crime than girls and boys playing cards together), next was talks by Hipson Sir and finally we had to go over to Stella Miss, our Class teacher and apologize. And she wanted us to go and apologize to SMS if we didn't want to apologize to the Principal herself. Thankfully sportsdays are conducted on saturdays...no one seemed to remember the rougue girls on monday, so that was the end of that.

Still, i love sports days...you walk around the whole place, make friends with people of all classes, cheer for players from your house, cheer for friends from any house, the games you play there changes from 'charlie chaplin went to the market' to name place animal thing to dumb charades to anthakshari to truth or dare to cards...Or you could even go back to childish games and be your silly self.

Anyways, my brother couldn't find his new ball. But he did keep a brick or two at the opening of that hole.

THE CALL

'We could check it at coimbatore too, you know...'

'No, i'm staying home. '

We had to attend some function at coimbatore the day the SIMC merit and waiting list was to be published. No amount of coaxing could make me move an inch away from the computer. Well, the scene was pretty much like that on the day when the shortlist was published. Except that my parents wouldn't be home this time.

They had said they'll put it up by 5PM. Both the Merit and the waiting lists. Would i make it to the merit list? Was my GD and PI good enough for that? May be the waiting list...But if i fall in that, would someone from the merit list choose not to join giving me a chance?What am i thinking? Why would SIMC call a kid like me? As if i'll get to go to Pune. I hadn't even gone out to Ernakulam alone until a couple of months back and here i'm thinking of Pune. Like That's gonna happen!

But i couldn't help wishing that my name would be there in the list.Those quotes which are written on the blackboard and read out in the morning assemblies at schools , like, 'Hope for the best and prepare for the worst' etc etc popped in my mind. Didn't feel like talking to anyone else right then, so i was busy talking to myself and make me feel okay. Crazy.

Just like the last time, the MBA lists were out first . Around 4:45. Any minute now...Either you'll be in, or you won't. It's as simple as that. You can still apply to IIMC, IIJNM, etc etc etc....Some place would accept you...

Excuse me, me, would you keep quiet for a while?

The lists weren't out yet, but my parents were back. And just when i looked away from the computer for a second, the latest scary Adobe pdf files were out.

MMC JOURNALISM FIRST MERIT LIST

Okaaay....Now here it is, go on click on it......Me? Shut up!

Lord, it'll be nice if i would just scrape through like last time, it would be wonderful if i was the last person in this list...

7??? Oh my God, i was 7th in the merit list!

'I got in!!!'

'Really?'

'Yes! My name's 7th in the merit list, mom!'

'Go open that cover on the table'

'What?'

'The cake box. On the dining table'

Wasn't she supposed to give the cake to cousin Anju at coimbatore? Never mind, i love her cakes....

CONGRATULATIONS!

Just that word on golden brown pinapple pieces over the cake. That cake was sweet. And i didn't have to taste it to know that. Hmmm....grown ups are really hard to figure out at times. But i wasn't going to tell her that.

'But i like chocolate cake..............', I whined.

Well, calling up everyone i knew on this planet filled up rest of the day. Including Priyanka and Varun.Both of them made it in too. I love stories with happy endings! There is nothing more i can write about this . I was happy as i could be...I got into SIMC, I was going to stay in Pune for two whole years( maybe longer than that...who knows?). Right from that trip to write SNAP, till this day when i found my name in the list....everything that happened, everything i did, everything everyone else did for me...it all fit in perfectly to make my dream come true.

THE DAY

Cramming a lifetime's knowledge and 'Current' affairs into my grey cells in some five or six hours was what i was trying to do at the hotel. All my texts and notes, 'The week', ' The outlook magazine', 'The Indian Express' and all those printouts on those subjects which i had mentioned in my SOP or those stuff that i'd be likely to be asked on were all strewn round me. And the T.V was continuously on CNN-ibn. If knowledge could enter the human brain by osmosis, i'd be a genius.

Falling asleep was tough. Only a few more hours. And i'll be in SIMC in the morning. GULP! What if they ask me all current affairs stuff? Will i start yelling if they ask me about my college? May be i should just quit and not go for the GD/PI. I seriously stink at GDs. What if i don't open my mouth like at T.I.M.E?Is Rajdeep Sardesai still speaking about the Bt Brinjal at this hour?...The talk on Bt Brinjal was the last thing i heard before falling asleep.

In the morning, dad and i made a concoction which we called coffee. Though mom and i don't see eye to eye on lotsa stuff, i really cannot live without her coffee. She's got me addicted to it and i can't bring myself to drink coffee made by anybody else. So instead of ordering a coffee from the hotel, Dad and i were struggling with milk and coffee powder at 5:30 in the morning.

Pune is not a hill station. But that morning, i felt i was on Mount Everest;eventhough i was wearing a freaking coat! We reached the campus they had told us get to . From there the SIMC bus would pick us up. Some candidates were already there.

'Make a small talk. These might be your future classmates...'

yes dad, i hope so too. There was a small circle already. A nice and friendly circle. People from almost all parts of India seemed to be there. We struggled with eachothers' names.

And the bus arrived. It took around half an hour to see the Symbiosis emblem atop a hill. I think dad was trying to talk, make me feel not nervous but i dont't think i was even listening. I'm finally here...today's the day...Wow! this place is really cool! Really wish i could spend two years of my life here...

After a small presentation and registration ( after whispering to eachother in the midst of the whole talk and getting acquainted), we were put into groups of ten and assigned 'buddies'(seniors) to take us to our GD/PI destination. Our batch had PI first.

'Ooh! And i thought we'd have GDs first...'

Some of them didn't like the idea of having PI first for they had mentally prepared themselves for a savage GD. I didn't like the whole idea of GD and PI. Why don't they take in the whole lot of us? I could bring a nice chair from home...I'd even settle for a mat on the floor if only they'd let me!

I was No: 8 in my group. That meant a looong wait. Next to me a girl was reading the newspaper. GULP!. She had two newspapers. Another girl contemplated on whether or not to wear her coat while going in for the interview. Was she feeling hot? I was shivering.

'Are you tensed?'

'Yeah, a bit.You?'

'Likewise'

'What do you think they'll ask?'

'No idea...'

' Oh, by the way, i'm Reshma.'

'I'm Priyanka'

Talking to Priyanka was nice. She was from Rajasthan. And a T.I.M.E student too. As we chatted, candidate No:1 came out.

'What did they ask?'

Everyone attacked her with the same question.

'It was too quick. Bad...'

'Did they check your certificates?'

'They hardly spoke to me!'

Candidate No:2 didn't complain about less time, but she chanted 'I'm screwed, I'm screwed, I'm screwed' for a long time since she came out so we didn't have to ask her how it went. After a couple more candidates, finally, someone came back with a happy face.

'How was it?'

'It was easy. They quizzed me on current affairs, the present political scenario and the like.'

GULP! GULP!GULP! Current affairs? Politics? I need to use the rest room!!!

Priyanka and i didn't ask anyone else how it went. But the word 'current affairs' was spoken of a lot. Another friendly person, Varun, joined us. When i told them that i didn't know Hindi, Priyanka and Varun spoke only in Hindi to irritate me. Reminded me of my dear old friends some 2000 kms south.

Soon it was Priyanka's turn. And with her gone, i guess my fears were back again. Poor Varun had to get a glass of water after giving me a pep-talk good enough to make me walk till the interview room and not sit glued to my chair. Thank you God, for sending nice people to help me out...

Priyanka came out. With a smile.And then, it was my turn. Buddy was outside the door.

'Go in only when they call.'

'Okay....um...would they grill me?'

'What?'

'The interviewers, would they grill me with questions?

'No, they are nice , it depends on the candidates.'

'Oh.'

It was time.

'May i come in?'

'Yes, take your seat.'

There were two of them. A ma'am and a sir. They smiled. Smile back, Reshma, don't show them that you're about to wet your pants...

'Her e-mail id is "cute_lil_resh"...', the ma'am intoned.

Oh my God! Joseph sir had told me to change that the moment he heard it! Why did i forget?

'I made that up when i was a kid...'

'So, Reshma, tell us something about yourself.'

Well, the interview was nothing like i expected. After a few questions in the beginning , like, what sort of news would i put in the front page, this was almost like a cozy chat. I was just telling them about the things i like to do, the things i wanted to do...Somebody, get three cups of coffee , plz...I thought interviews ended with 'Thank yous' but here it was

'Bye, Reshma!'

And they were still smiling! Wow. That was a nice 'interview'. If it was an interview. Didn't we just sit and chat? And no damn current affairs questions! Ooh, i was lucky. It was my turn to be attacked by the "How was it?'s.

Varun was the last person to be interviewed and after that buddy took us to another chamber- the GD room.

Lubb Dubb ...Lubb Dubb... Okay, the interview wasn't scary, but may be they just felt pity towards the poor little kid who wandered in and had a talk with her. But the GD was something i was sure I'd flunk in. I don't know if anyone else could hear my heart beating, but i sure could. And if i thought Pune was a hill station earlier, i was wrong. Stepping into the GD room was like walking into the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. Why were my fingers making movements of small amplitudes in a high frequency?

There was a rectangular table. A Ma'am sat at the far end of it.

' Come in, please. Sit wherever you like.'

All of us sat down. There were notepads on the table and each of us took one.

'Now take a deep breath. Don't feel tensed. If you've not done well in the interview, this is where you make up for it, okay?'

Deep breaths. Yes. But why was i still shivering? And who turned the AC on in this frigid zone?

'Topics are written in these envelopes. I'll choose one and read it out. You'll all get to state your opinion on this first and then we'll have the discussion.........The topic is "Moral Policing in India". Jot down your points and i'll ask each of you to state your opinion.'

Wow! This was something we'd done at T.I.M.E a fair few times! Chey, too bad Joseph Sir wasn't there to see me talking in this GD. I did speak this time. I was at SIMC...

After that, we had a small walk around the campus. It was too big and we couldn't see all of it for we didn't want to miss the bus back to the town. But it was a grand, lovely place to be in. Just like i'd always dreamed of it. I felt good. Everything seemed so fine...I made it till this far, i cleared snap, i came to Pune, I met a lot of people here...and they were all friendly and nice. I thought people might be all mean and competitive, but they weren't a bit so...the interview wasn't scary, it was more of a nice cozy chat, i got the GD topic i was familiar with...

It was a lovely feeling. Maybe i won't get in but i was glad i came this far...but it would be nice, no, what am i saying, it would be absolutely fantabulous if i made it in. Anyways, one thing is for sure. I'm having Pizza for lunch. (I'd told dad that we'll go to Pizza hut if i was in a good mood after the GD/PI.)

'well, daddykins, we're going to have Pizza for lunch! '

ARBORIAL LIFE

Maybe Darwin was right about man being evolved from monkeys. I was literally living up my berth during the Pune trip. To get a multiple of eight as your seat number is lucky. You won't have to sleep on the lower berth( where everybody sits, eats, spills stuff) or the middle berth ( where you can't sleep to your heart's content because someone would want to sit in the lower berth) or the top most berth( where it's sorta claustrophobic, with a fan right over your head). With a multiple of eight, you get the upper berth on the side where there are only two seats. And that's the best place one could get. You can sit, you can lie down, you can lean against the pillow and read...Yup. This was the best place in the train.

I was glad i got this lovely berth, but my dad wasn't quite thankful for getting a multiple of eight too. 'cause now he'd be 'too far' from his precious little daughter. He talked to a bunch of people around while i got up my berth and traded seats. He gets the middle berth( and the corresponding place to sit) and i get the top most berth, right above him at night. How about asking me if i wanted to shift?

"I'm staying here. I've settled down here so well and i don't want to move(yeah, this was my very own sea-front villa). And i've got bits of lays and stuff all over the sheets and i don't think that uncle would want to sleep up here."

Of course, on hearing that, 'that uncle' didn't want my berth. So more lays, more music and more sleep...I could do it as i wished. Another activity during the arborial life was the GD practice with dad. I had taken that book where i'd scribbled the points from various GDs i had done at T.I.M.E and dad and i talked about all that. Those poor vendors who walked through the narrow space between my side and his would've found it a bit hard calling out 'chai, tea, 'etc etc with us discussing 'If two years of military rule make India a better place'.

Dad settled with his V.K.N books for most of the journey and i was hooked onto my mp3 player. And sleeping. There was nothing much to do awake, so why bother? Listening to sweet music and drifting off to sleep was nice. Waking up to read friends' messages wishing good luck was great. Some people did want me to be happy...Nice...

Mountains and hills in Kerala are really pretty. Honestly. They are green, covered with a sheet of grass and filled with trees. But the mountains i saw on my way to Pune were like....rocks piled up? Where did all the green go? One thing i liked were the peacocks. We passed through some fields and it was lovely to see some royal blue between the yellow-green.

But not nice enough to make me get down from 'home-sweet-home' for more than five minutes. I was up there mostly. Me and my mp3 player. Maybe i was trying to crawl inside my earphones 'cause i was tensed about the GD/PI. What if this was my only trip to Pune?

"SOCKS"

"This person's speaking in Hindi, I can't understand a word, you speak!"

I shoved my phone to Hrishi.

The popular doubts of the day:

1. What should i wear for the GD/PI? Is there a dress code?

2.Should i carry my original certificates, or would attested copies do?

3.Are there any home assignments?

Since my pondering over this wouldn't help me in anyway, i was forced to call up the SIMC people again, to ask. They still hadn't learnt English. How sad!Hrishi got another number from this national language lover. Thankfully the lady who picked up the phone in this number was not quite as patriotic as the earlier guy, so i could communicate with her.

"Ma'm, is there any dress code for the interview, like, one of my friends, who's been shortlisted to SIBM said something about..."

"Haven't you got the courier yet?!"

"Courier? What courier?I've not got any.."

"You have to wear formals."

"And certificates?Should i bring the originals or..."

"All original."

"And Ma'm, I have heard of home assignments..."

"You haven't got the courier?It's your SOP.It's published online too"

"Oh, that? I've submitted that. Thank you!"

Finally, the courier did come. It clarified the dress code- Western Formals or Saree. Since there was no way I was gonna wear a Saree, I had to get Western Formals.

"Your aunt says that it's really bad of you not learning to wear a Saree after three years in your college."

That was mom. Why the Hell did she have to bring up that goddamn place into the picture?I totally hate that HELL. That's the place where parents send their girls so that they'll become good, proper girls, 'ready-to-marry' by the time they are out of it. That i hadn't mastered the art of wrapping a long piece of cloth around me after spending three(MISERABLE) years in that hell was totally outrageous. CRAP! Why am i even speaking of that hell?

Anyways, back to western formals. So what exactly did they mean by western formals?A Diana suit thingy? Or the pants n coat thingy? Would i need a tie? Joseph Sir, S.O.S!

After getting a new pair of 'formal' shoes,a wonderful deal of getting a coat, a sleeveless t-shirt thingy and pants, all for Rs 1040,( the shopping spree was a quirky story in itself. To be elaborated upon later), i had to get another shirt because what they gave me in our lovely deal was something i'd prefer to wear only while sleeping.

'What sort of a shirt are you looking for?'

Good question, mom.

'Hello?Hrishi, i've got another stupid doubt today.'

'What?'

'I'm at this store, and i have to get a shirt to go with my western formals thingy. Should i get a striped one or a plain one or a checked one or, i know it shouldn't be polka dotted, so...'

'Either plain or striped, don't get anything else.'

'And, like, is there any particular colour that'd suit interviews, something formalish?'

'Get blue .'

There weren't many blues to choose from over there, but i chose a light blue shade. Now i had Western formals, formal shoes...what else did i need? Oh my God, socks!

' Sir, what colour socks should i wear for the interview?'

This question was posed to Joseph sir after the GD session one evening at T.I.M.E. No reply. Amused/slightly taken aback/ 'you're really asking this'?/'chorify'ing look.

'Guys, Reshma has a problem. What colour socks should she wear for her interview?'

Now this question was posed to everyone who happened to be in the vicinity.

Laughter.

'And thank goodness she stopped with socks...'

More laughter.

Is it necessary to mention that i was called 'socks' ever since that?

But my doubts were never ending. Should i take all my certificates, like , even the ones from pre-school? Should school level certificates be kept? In what order should they be kept, ascending or descending? What sort of a file should i get to keep them?

Well, i never asked about the file question. But i hunted in almost all the office stationary shops in the area to get a perfect file. And i didn't. With a little help from Jisha and Jyotsna, i managed to get one from the one shop that i had missed while i'd gone file-hunting.

So...

Western formals?

Check.

Formal shoes?

Check.

Socks?

A BIG CHECK

Certificates and a file?

Check.

Now all i had to do was to actually go to SIMC, do really well in the GD and PI and make sure that my first trip to Pune won't be my last.

SOP

" The SOP is something dreaded my most students because they lack the 'P'"Courtesy:A conversation at T.I.M.E

My next step towards getting into SIMC was writing out a perfect SOP.

"I waited for two hours and you didn't turn up, so you've gotta write two whole answers for me."

i was trying to get Joseph Sir write out the answers for my Statement of Purpose. Just like he handed over the responsibility of helping me fill the forms to Hrishi, this cross was also to be borne by him. We 'discovered' or rather 'invented' my strengths and weaknesses, talents, etc etc.

'Confused' is only an understatement for my state of mind back then.

"Should i write about my books or my CBSE certificate or that University of Wales Certificate?"

"Should i write numismatics and philately, 'cause i used to collect them when i was younger, but i haven't given them a glance for quite a long time?"

"Should i...?"

A never ending list of "Should I?s". One of the questions from the SOP was given as a GD topic, even(Thanks to all those who pitched in their points) .And after a lot of writing, editing, writing again, checking, reducing the words to make it fit to the wordcount, putting in impressive words,together with a lot of scolds, help and taunts, the SOP was completed.

Now i had to mail this to SIMC. Pushing the send button once wasn't enough for me.

Dear Sirs

i have mailed in my SOP as required. Kindly let me know if it has been recieved.

yours fathfully

Reshma Raju Emmatty

SNAP ID 2008128

No reply after one whole day. What if they hadn't got my SOP?How can i be sure? I actually called up SIMC, talked, no, listened to a guy who spoke only Hindi, who (I guess) said that they won't be sending any confirmation mail, so i should just go check my sent mail.

Not good enough for me. On the last date for submission, Feb 1st 9 PM, the send button was clicked a(few) couple more times and i prayed to God that my perfect little SOP would reach the SIMC mail box.

SHORTLISTED!

" We need to read all that again and correct the spellings..."

"Allright, kiddo"

Poor Hrishi was roped into helping me fill up the online forms to SIMC and SIIB. Actually i had gone to T.I.M.E to see Joseph Sir( writing about this guy would take up a lot of space, so later) to clear some doubts on those forms, but he entrusted the great responsibility of helping me out to Hrishi. After an enjoyable session of formfilling, the story moves on to another important day, January 15th.

Snap result had already been published on 10th, but i already knew i'd be getting something around 80, 'cause i'd already checked it with the scorecalculaters of TCY oneline and T.I.M.E. All i wanted to know was whether i'd be shortlisted for SIMC. i knew SIMC didn't require scores like 100+ like SIBM , but still.........ah, i just wanted to know if i was in.

Ever since morning, my computer was switched on. Every five minutes, i went and checked if they had published the shortlist. But no.Sometime quite late in the afternoon, the shortlist for the MBA programmes were published. Crap! What's taking them so long? Put up the MMC shortlist!

"Your'e not going to get through, so why bother being tensed?"

Sweet mom. She walked up the stairs shaking her head seeing me pace restlessly all around the house. Hmph! i didn't give her 'comforting' words a thought. I was too busy being curious, anxious, worried etc etc that i forgot to answer back something rude.

Finally, at around 10, the MMC shortlist was put up. I'd never before been so scared to open an adobe pdf file. i scrolled down the list, searching, no, HUNTING for my name. It HAS to be there.

74. RESHMA RAJU EMMATTY

Wow! I made it! My name was 74th in a list of 77, but who cares, i'm selected!!

"Daddy, Mammy," I went to my grandparents first to reveal the good news, "I've been shortlisted for SIMC!"(jumping up and down, dancing about, singing out loud)

"Congrats! Did you tell your mother?"

"Nah, she's not gonna be pretty happy about this"

The next victim of my uncontrollably enthusiastic good news revelation was my dad(appa. i call my grandfather 'daddy'). He wasn't half, well..1/10th as thrilled as i was about this.

" Hm....Pune...shortlisted...You still have the GD and PI"

Wow. And now for Mommy Dearest.

She would've heard all my exclamations, songs, jumping up the stairs etc etc already, so she must've got an idea.

"I got shortlisted!"

"You can't go that far."

"I am going."

"What course is this?"

"Mass Communication. and Journalism."

"Some stupid course! Why didn't you choose MBA?"

As if she didn't know that i wanted to do Mass Comm. By then my dad entered the picture.

" Are you going to send her for this?" She snarled at him.

Me and dad smiled. He was supposed to be on my side on things like these

" I am going for this, okay?"

"Don't worry, she still has GD and PI. She won't get through", my dad reassured her.

How sweet! Et tu padre? Great. Here i'd been slaving away with books like never before for almost two years, digesting even math, my least favorite subject so that i could get into a good institution atleast for PG and this is how i'm 'congratulated'?

A part of me was mad and wanted to start shouting. But the other half was like SO glad about being shortlisted. So glad that i couldn't even be mad at them right now. I'm going to Pune! I walked away and messaged all my friends that i'd been shortlisted. Some 'congrats' and some 'wat's simc?' were returned and i was only too happy to explain.

I went and looked at that lovely pdf file again. Right then, it seemed like the best pdf file in the whole world. What was that on the top?

SIMC CUTOFF 60.25

SIMC SCORE VERBAL+LOGICAL+GENERAL AWARENESS

Oh my God! That means i barely scraped through because of that panama hat question! My SNAP score without the quant was 60.75. If i had got one single question less than i did, i'd never have made it. Thank God Hrishi read out all those questions. Especially the Panama hats question. If i hadn't marked Equador for that..............I didn't want to imagine that possibility. Really had to thank Hrishi. That guy turned out to be my lucky charm.

MY FIRST ADVENTURE

"Hello!"

"Hello"

"Hey, listen, would you mind if a little kiddo tags aong with you for SNAP?Like, we've both got the same centre and everything, so i thought may be we could go together...Do you mind?"

"Okay"

"Great! Hey, i'll call you later, okay, like, i'm at the church right now for choir practice and i can't actually hear pretty much anything."

"Fine"

"so i'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay"

"Bye!"

"Bye"

Phase one-over. I had to write SNAP- Symbiosis National Aptitude Test on December 20th 2009 and i've found myself company for the trip- Hrishi. That's short for Hrishikesh Varma. he's actually got a name quite longer than that, but i don't seem to remember it. Anyways, the point is, Hrishi agreed to go with me to Ernakulam to write SNAP. Now all i had to was to convince my parents NOT to come along.

*****

I was never happier about my mother's cake making business. She had to make around 20 cakes that day, so there was no way she could come along! I never thought i'd get to go all by myself, correction, i never thought i'd get to go with a stranger( I had seen Hrishi only twice before this fateful journey) to the next district.

Usually, when you are twenty, going by bus to write a test is not quite a big deal. But when your parents are...well...like mine, and if you're still being treated as a kid, it's quite a big deal. A very BIG deal. Which is why i couldn't stop exclaiming that i couldn't believe that my parents had actually let me go.

" Seriously, i still can't belive that i'm actually going to Ernakulam with you! i'm glad my mom got all those orders for today...You know, she's given me a long list of do's and don'ts in the bus, i shouldn't sit somewhere in the extreme ends, i shouldn't open the windows fully, i'm supposed to give a call the moment we reach Ernakulam..."

" Um...Could you talk less loudly? People around might actually think i'm kidnapping you"

" Oh! Sorry. But still, i still can't believe she let me go! You know what, maybe, she'll come following this bus, and maybe when we reach Ernakulam, she'll be waiting at the bus stop..."

"I've travelled with a lot of other girls, but you are really scaring me."

"Oops! Sorry! But still...I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I'M I THIS BUS WITH YOU AND THAT I'M GOING TO ERNAKULAM!!!"

Well, i really enjoyed the busride. Music, a bag of lays, the wind through the window...and yeah, those sample questions i had downloaded. I'm not exactly a G.K person and reading through all those questions was something i was never going to do if i were left alone with them. This guy next to me was different though. He not only read through the questions, but he seemed to know almost all the answers too! Interesting...So in the bus and at St Albert's we went through all those questions. ( Another character, 'Rajappan' , as he was called, entered the picture at St Alberts. He 'accompanied' me back to TCR)

SNAP seemed pretty Okay. Much better than the mock SNAPs i'd taken. But the irritating thing about the real SNAP was that the OMR had to be filled with ball pens. I knew i had made a mistake in the quant section , but i couldn't do anything about it. Sad. Anyways, after the test i called home and gave my location and the estimated time to return. Now i'm going to have my first adventure. The morning journey was a li'l adventure too, but this time it was going to be more adventurous. Hrishi had to attend his cousin's marriage, so i would be travelling back to Trichur alone!. Well, Mr Rajappan was there in the bus too, but we never talked and we were in two different ends of the bus and didn't care about each other's existance, so it can't be counted. I had my first ever long busride alone. Emphasis on ALONE.

But that's another factor my parents didn't have to know. Like 'Priya', who was to have been accompanying Hrishi and me for the SNAP trip.

Over two hours of standing in a crowded bus wouldn't have ranked high on normal people's fun scale. But i enjoyed it. Yeah, my feet were getting sore and my hands were getting tired clinging on the bars, but still, it was a nice experience - to see how people edged closer and closer to a seat from which someone was about to get up, the way men (young, old, bald alike) tried to move closer to the women( Having a backpack is a good safety measure), the way some people pushed everybody on their way aside to reach the door at their stops. I learnt all the rules for travelling in a K.S.R.T.C bus that day. I learnt that you couldn't keep the window half open, that you get in through the back door and leave through the front. ( I almost missed the bus because i didnt know this)

Having to take your mobile phone from your jeans' pocket is quite hard when you are balancing in a crowded bus. Since our choir had to perform at 7:30 pm and since that was the time i'd actually reach Trichur, every ten minutes, someone from the choir would call. I learnt the names of almost all the places between Ernakulam and Trichur because they kept on asking where i had reached.

I had almost forgotten this Rajappan guy, but i saw him as we got down at Sakthan. after a quick 'bye!', i walked on to get an auto. Wow! Here i was, getting down a bus when it's almost dark, with the street lights on and everything! I've ridden my Flikky(my scooter) at hours like 11 or 12 thanks to the carol competitions, but this was way different..........I had half expected my parents to be there, ready to escort me back home and i repeated to myself the little lie Hrishi and i had made up to explain his absence. But no one was there. I was doing this competely alone.......Such a lovely feeling. My first adventure ended blissfully as i took an auto back home, having a satisfied, happy, 'I can do things alone' smile on my face.