As I stated in my previous post, my dad got posted to a small place in Punjab called Faridkot.
I just hoped that the place had a table-tennis table and a swimming pool. I just loved swimming and even more jumping off the diving boards.
There were not many schools in the vicinity of our house, so I was admitted into Kendriya Vidyalaya. I had always held a low view point of KV's. It was just a preconceived notion but it was very strong. The results of the boards hadn't come yet. Some of the students like me still attended school as the classes had started already. I made a few friends. Since i was a quiet chap, most of the people left me alone and went on with their businesses. But soon when they discovered that I was sharp in class, they befriended me. I loved it when i answered something in class and a few jaws dropped here and there. I still cherish those moments.
The star of the class, as they called her was Dipti. She was supposed to be the brightest in class, and hence was my target to be. (muhuhahahahaha lol). Her first shock came when I had scored better than her in boards. She was the best speaker in class, and was good looking(I feel like killing myself for falling for her looks, even though it was for a very short period). It was when i found out that she was not good by nature, i realised the fact that looks can be quite elusive.
As far as tuitions were concerned, I joined a maths and a chemistry tuition. I didn't join physics as the physics teacher's first impression was really good. It was after that, that i stopped relying on first impressions. Maths tuition was taken by the same teacher who taught us in school. For chemistry, i went to the son of an ex-army personnel. His name was Mr. Jassa. I liked him as a teacher very quickly. Although he wasn't very experienced, he was a good teacher. I learned very quickly when he taught. Maths tuition was also attended by Miss 'Superstar' and her friend(i hope you understand by now).
Then came the new guy. His name was Rupesh and he immediately fell for miss superstar. And incidentally, they both were together for quite a time before Rupesh realised his mistake.
I made a lot of friends in class. Some of the closest were Ackshat and Ashish. I had the time of my life with them. Our whole class was so fun loving that we used to bunk n number of classes and play football and cricket. Sometimes we were so cheeky that we used to ask the teacher to give a free period!! It was then that i discovered another talent of mine. I was good at football goalkeeping. If I was standing at the goal, the opponent strikers thought thrice before deciding the direction of the ball, coz I didn't bother about the consequences of a dive. In cricket I was one of the good bowlers. I remember, I had once defended 2 runs for my team in a 5 over game, taking 4 wickets in one over.
In the evening we used to play cricket outside our house. My brother and a few others used to come. It was fun. The biggest disappointment was that there was no swimming pool. Still we had a good time, playing badminton, table-tennis and pool.
The session was about to come to an end when a mock CET test was held. Many of us went to take the test. The test was over and we started discussing. I thought that the test was pretty easy and estimated my score at a good 150 out of 300. When the results came out, I was shocked to know that I was the highest scorer. I hadn't prepared a thing and still topped the test in the whole the city. It was exhilirating.
Since I hadn't been taking any professional help for my studies, dad decided to move to lucknow for the sake of my studies. We had our own house in lucknow. The word spread in class that I was leaving. Some people were sad, good friends were going to be separated. Some were happy(:D).
The final exams had arrived. I did well in all except maths. This was because, before the start of the paper, our teacher had come and told us to start from a particular question. I always had the habit of starting from 1 and going to the last. This gave me confidence. But the change in order forced me to leave some easy questions unattemted. I had score perfect 100's in maths all the year round. And now had got a meagre 86. I wasn't pleased at all. Inspite of this, I stood first.
Bidding fairwell to my friends, we moved to Lucknow- The city of Nawabs!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
The Golden Year
I had passed class IX and gone into class X. It was a good feeling. Dipanjan and I had become quite good friends. And it was evident that due to this Navjot and I had drifted apart to a certain extent. I Used to sit in class with Dipanjan and we used to talk a lot. This was so annoying for the teachers that almost the whole school knew about us.
As the year started, we were supposed to be divided in houses and given appointments. I was given the duty of the Vice-Captain of the green house. But that was not to be. Later I found out that the Vice-Principal had reccomended me for the post of School Vice Captain for my good behavior and attitude. Well back then i used to be very sincere and humble. So i got two badges stating "Abhinav Thakur" and "School Vice-Captain. I was delighted! But I also understood the magnitude of my responsibility. Due to my frequent visits to the stage for collection of various certificates, the school had started to know me. And now I was Vice-Captain. I decided that i would not let the school down by any means. I wanted discipline to be the foremost virtue of the students.
The first tests came by, and the whole of the class faired badly. Even I couldn't score much(what can you do when a bunch of teachers are hell-bent on making you look like losers?). Well the talk of the class was that the Principal wasn't happy and had decided to split the good students among two sections. This meant Dipanjan would be gone to the other section. We tried very hard to convince the Principal that she give us another chance. Finally, we succeeded. That was a big relief for everyone. Friends would have separated if such a sorting took place.
Class X was fun, we knew none of the tests had any weightage, so we didn't care much about classes. Many a time, a few of us would convince the teacher that we had to prepare for a quiz and stay away from class!! I wonder how they believed us!
Tuition was great as ever. I still remember that we had finished the maths syllabus till July. I was so well versed with maths that i used to do any kind of problem given to me(no kidding). Even my tuition teacher sometimes found it hard to keep up with me.(okay now i am exaggerating! :P)
It was in that year that my father got promoted to the rank of Colonel. It was a big achievement for him. One of my achievements was that I had grown taller than him!! It felt good.
As you know everyone has a bad side to themselves. It felt bitter when i found out. Dipanjan had been taking tuitions for hindi and english. What was worse that he told me that he played badminton during that time. But i eventually found out. As it is I hate lies. I simply can't stand liars. So i discussed it with my mom. She told me that it didn't matter. We were very good friends, we used to be at each other's side for the smallest and the biggest things. But it seemed that he wanted to beat me. That was fair enough, but he could have atleast told me. I surely wouldn't have followed him to the tuitions.
The year went by, we had lots of fun. The boards were round the corner. It was a different feeling. I had heard lots of stories, 'its difficult to score in boards..'; 'teachers are very strict..'. I didn't care about all that stuff. I just gave my best. I remember it was the night before the maths test. And i was scared to death from the feeling of it. I wasn't able to solve the easiest questions. I felt like crying. Then i called up Dipanjan to ask some doubts. He asked me whether i was ok. Some of my doubts were the easiest questions. I told him that i wasn't able to solve anything. He asked me to calm down and take it easy. I decided that i had studied maths with all my heart. It couldn't slip from me. So i closed my book and watched TV. I went to sleep early. Next day at the centre, as the paper came to my hands, I felt the usual rush I had always felt while solving maths papers. It was a weird feeling. I started off like a rocket and within 2 and a half hours, I had done the paper. Then i saw dipanjan getting out. I though why not get out and discuss the paper. It felt amazing after finishing the paper. I went out and within 5 minutes i was cursing myself. I had commited not mistakes but blunders. It was the graph question and the taxation question. I felt as if i was going to die of grief. It hurt like hell.
Dipanjan tried to console me. I went home and cried. My mother comforted me. She told me it didn't matter as long as I believed in myself. I guess those words of advice are still imprinted in my mind. I firmly believe that it doesn't matter what others think of me, or how they judge me as long as I believe in myself.
Well my dad got posted elsewhere again. It was a small place in Punjab called Faridkot. The board results were out and i got 88.8%. It felt good, I had topped the school overall and individually in 3 subjects.
I take this opportunity to thank the readers for visiting my blog. Do keep reading!
As the year started, we were supposed to be divided in houses and given appointments. I was given the duty of the Vice-Captain of the green house. But that was not to be. Later I found out that the Vice-Principal had reccomended me for the post of School Vice Captain for my good behavior and attitude. Well back then i used to be very sincere and humble. So i got two badges stating "Abhinav Thakur" and "School Vice-Captain. I was delighted! But I also understood the magnitude of my responsibility. Due to my frequent visits to the stage for collection of various certificates, the school had started to know me. And now I was Vice-Captain. I decided that i would not let the school down by any means. I wanted discipline to be the foremost virtue of the students.
The first tests came by, and the whole of the class faired badly. Even I couldn't score much(what can you do when a bunch of teachers are hell-bent on making you look like losers?). Well the talk of the class was that the Principal wasn't happy and had decided to split the good students among two sections. This meant Dipanjan would be gone to the other section. We tried very hard to convince the Principal that she give us another chance. Finally, we succeeded. That was a big relief for everyone. Friends would have separated if such a sorting took place.
Class X was fun, we knew none of the tests had any weightage, so we didn't care much about classes. Many a time, a few of us would convince the teacher that we had to prepare for a quiz and stay away from class!! I wonder how they believed us!
Tuition was great as ever. I still remember that we had finished the maths syllabus till July. I was so well versed with maths that i used to do any kind of problem given to me(no kidding). Even my tuition teacher sometimes found it hard to keep up with me.(okay now i am exaggerating! :P)
It was in that year that my father got promoted to the rank of Colonel. It was a big achievement for him. One of my achievements was that I had grown taller than him!! It felt good.
As you know everyone has a bad side to themselves. It felt bitter when i found out. Dipanjan had been taking tuitions for hindi and english. What was worse that he told me that he played badminton during that time. But i eventually found out. As it is I hate lies. I simply can't stand liars. So i discussed it with my mom. She told me that it didn't matter. We were very good friends, we used to be at each other's side for the smallest and the biggest things. But it seemed that he wanted to beat me. That was fair enough, but he could have atleast told me. I surely wouldn't have followed him to the tuitions.
The year went by, we had lots of fun. The boards were round the corner. It was a different feeling. I had heard lots of stories, 'its difficult to score in boards..'; 'teachers are very strict..'. I didn't care about all that stuff. I just gave my best. I remember it was the night before the maths test. And i was scared to death from the feeling of it. I wasn't able to solve the easiest questions. I felt like crying. Then i called up Dipanjan to ask some doubts. He asked me whether i was ok. Some of my doubts were the easiest questions. I told him that i wasn't able to solve anything. He asked me to calm down and take it easy. I decided that i had studied maths with all my heart. It couldn't slip from me. So i closed my book and watched TV. I went to sleep early. Next day at the centre, as the paper came to my hands, I felt the usual rush I had always felt while solving maths papers. It was a weird feeling. I started off like a rocket and within 2 and a half hours, I had done the paper. Then i saw dipanjan getting out. I though why not get out and discuss the paper. It felt amazing after finishing the paper. I went out and within 5 minutes i was cursing myself. I had commited not mistakes but blunders. It was the graph question and the taxation question. I felt as if i was going to die of grief. It hurt like hell.
Dipanjan tried to console me. I went home and cried. My mother comforted me. She told me it didn't matter as long as I believed in myself. I guess those words of advice are still imprinted in my mind. I firmly believe that it doesn't matter what others think of me, or how they judge me as long as I believe in myself.
Well my dad got posted elsewhere again. It was a small place in Punjab called Faridkot. The board results were out and i got 88.8%. It felt good, I had topped the school overall and individually in 3 subjects.
I take this opportunity to thank the readers for visiting my blog. Do keep reading!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Bale Balle Srinagar to Amritsar!
As i stated in my previous post, we left Srinagar as my dad got posted to Amritsar(Punjab).
I was quite anxious to see what my new school would be like. I was admitted to the Army School inside the Army Cantonment. The first day in class wasn't very bright. Although I knew no one, I made friends quickly with a few people. They seemed nice to me. Others were a bit rowdy and looked much older than me. As usual I had only one aim in mind, to top the class.
Amritsar is a nice place. We were given a flat in the army colony. I made friends with some of the people in the neighborhood. Me and my little brother used to go to the club and play badminton and table tennis. But since we had shifted in mid year, we had to cover up a lot of portion of our respective courses.
The mid term exams came, and I topped them. Although the next best wasn't far behind, it was a good feeling. The thing that struck my mom was that i had done poorly in maths. She advised and later forced me to join a tuition for the same. A teacher in our school used to teach a group of students after school time. He used to take maths and science for a very nominal fee.
Till that time I had been totally against tuition. My dad had once told me that he never studied an tuition. Also when my grandad forced him to take extra chemistry lessons, my dad asked him such difficult doubts that his tutor left the job. This made me think that tuition was for slowpokes and duds. But i wasn't a dud. I resented but eventually had to give in to my mother's sayings.
In the meantime, i made a very good friend. His name was Navjot. He was a very friendly person with a very good sense of humor. We used to laugh in class irrespective of the fact whether the teacher was present in the class, or not. One day it got too far. We were caught laughing around 10-12 times in a gap of 10 mins by our maths teacher. She was furious and to make the situation worse, we were hysterical with laughter. Even her threats of taking to the principal couldn't wipe the grins off our faces.
It was towards the end of the year that we got to participate in the much talked about "Limca Book of Records Quiz". It was hosted every year by Mr Barry O' Brien. I was very excited. There were three of us, myself, Dipanjan and Anjani. The latter two were 2nd and 3rd in class respectively. We mugged all sorts of books for the quiz. The day of the quiz arrived, we were a bit nervous but we knew we couldn't do much. The quiz had an elimination round from which only the first 8 teams would get a chance to go on stage. We were all the more releived that we didn't stand a chance now that we were competing with 250 schools from all over the country.(we didn't want to get on stage and look like dumb people.) Anyways, the quiz started and we started searching the answers on each other's faces. We hardly knew anything. Finally the tormenting elims was over. We were almost ready to go, but the teacher accompanying us wanted us to look at the results once. So we stayed back. We were shocked to hear that we were the third team to qualify for the finals. But on stage we couldn't hold on. We came 7th out of the 8 teams on stage!
The year came to an end and I topped the finals too. This time much more convincingly than before. I was contended with myself and my studies. My parents were happy. I also started to take the tuition more seriously as it helped a great deal. We were about to be promoted to class 10th but then, a rumor went around that good students were going to be equally divided between two sections. This hurt me and many other students. As i had made a lot of friends which would go into the other section if this sort of thing was implemented.
I was quite anxious to see what my new school would be like. I was admitted to the Army School inside the Army Cantonment. The first day in class wasn't very bright. Although I knew no one, I made friends quickly with a few people. They seemed nice to me. Others were a bit rowdy and looked much older than me. As usual I had only one aim in mind, to top the class.
Amritsar is a nice place. We were given a flat in the army colony. I made friends with some of the people in the neighborhood. Me and my little brother used to go to the club and play badminton and table tennis. But since we had shifted in mid year, we had to cover up a lot of portion of our respective courses.
The mid term exams came, and I topped them. Although the next best wasn't far behind, it was a good feeling. The thing that struck my mom was that i had done poorly in maths. She advised and later forced me to join a tuition for the same. A teacher in our school used to teach a group of students after school time. He used to take maths and science for a very nominal fee.
Till that time I had been totally against tuition. My dad had once told me that he never studied an tuition. Also when my grandad forced him to take extra chemistry lessons, my dad asked him such difficult doubts that his tutor left the job. This made me think that tuition was for slowpokes and duds. But i wasn't a dud. I resented but eventually had to give in to my mother's sayings.
In the meantime, i made a very good friend. His name was Navjot. He was a very friendly person with a very good sense of humor. We used to laugh in class irrespective of the fact whether the teacher was present in the class, or not. One day it got too far. We were caught laughing around 10-12 times in a gap of 10 mins by our maths teacher. She was furious and to make the situation worse, we were hysterical with laughter. Even her threats of taking to the principal couldn't wipe the grins off our faces.
It was towards the end of the year that we got to participate in the much talked about "Limca Book of Records Quiz". It was hosted every year by Mr Barry O' Brien. I was very excited. There were three of us, myself, Dipanjan and Anjani. The latter two were 2nd and 3rd in class respectively. We mugged all sorts of books for the quiz. The day of the quiz arrived, we were a bit nervous but we knew we couldn't do much. The quiz had an elimination round from which only the first 8 teams would get a chance to go on stage. We were all the more releived that we didn't stand a chance now that we were competing with 250 schools from all over the country.(we didn't want to get on stage and look like dumb people.) Anyways, the quiz started and we started searching the answers on each other's faces. We hardly knew anything. Finally the tormenting elims was over. We were almost ready to go, but the teacher accompanying us wanted us to look at the results once. So we stayed back. We were shocked to hear that we were the third team to qualify for the finals. But on stage we couldn't hold on. We came 7th out of the 8 teams on stage!
The year came to an end and I topped the finals too. This time much more convincingly than before. I was contended with myself and my studies. My parents were happy. I also started to take the tuition more seriously as it helped a great deal. We were about to be promoted to class 10th but then, a rumor went around that good students were going to be equally divided between two sections. This hurt me and many other students. As i had made a lot of friends which would go into the other section if this sort of thing was implemented.
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