The big deal about getting a driving license.

The family is eating out. Probably not the best time to ask my dad if I can get the car out of the garage and bring it to the porch… then you are, but, forced to think - “If its not now… then its never. ”. So with all the necessary preamble, I began the negotiation. “Where are we going to eat dad?” I asked with the most innocent face that I could manage. The answer seemed garbled in all the reflexes that my mind was generating. It didn’t matter to me anyway… so I gave a polite nod and resumed to the next phase of my master plan. “Nice weather isn’t it… perfect for a drive… don’t you think?” My question seemed to have been carelessly misplaced in the series of statements that ensued between my parents. BUMMER. I would definitely not get the keys to the car… not until I get my driving license… not until I’m EIGHTEEN… not today…! The car stopped in the porch of that not too famous 3 star hotel… and a chauffeur came forward to open the door. I walked away from the car jealously eyeing him roll the car away to a sprawling parking lot. Dinner was served. It was, however, consumed by me with not all my attention… my mind was busy at work… formulating plots… reviewing mistakes and refining my approach for the next time… when suddenly a thought seemed to hit me in the face out of nowhere. WHAT IF I JUST ASKED??!! Straight… instead of looping the loop and beating about the bush… Nah! Never… It just wouldn’t work. Well, atleast it didn’t work the last few times… so I wasn’t going to risk it this time. The desserts were about to be served… I was losing time… I boldly moved on to PHASE 3. “So,” I asked my father “do you really enjoy driving?” hoping to get a more decent response compared to what happened at home. “Yeah” he said “but not always… not when there’s too much traffic… not when driving a car feels like sitting on a snail.” “Do you expect to face such a situation today?” I asked in the most natural of ways (atleast I think so)… but my statement triggered a series of alarms and I knew that bells were ringing in my parents’ ears. The very keen and trained ears of my parents could ‘HEAR BETWEEN THE LINES’… Damn! It was best to leave the situation as it was… if not try and deviate from the topic! There was an addition in my list of ‘What NOT to say’ in conjunction to this very delicate and tricky issue.

Not until after a lot of this happened, that my parents trusted me with the car. I was allowed to park the car in the garage. A very big development as far as I was concerned. My only ‘competition’, if the term takes the right meaning, was my mother who had only recently learned how to drive, and whose LICENSE (I’m putting ‘license’ in upper case, because that was the only reasonably convincing thing that differentiated my from my mother, apart from the fact that she is much older than me and that she is female.) was still shiny and new. However, as time went by I gained the confidence of my mother too… whenever we (mom and I) used to go out, she’d let me drive till the end of the road… (a small distance to drive… a giant leap for me)

The Entrance Exam Saga

My alarm goes off, and I wake up to see a red circle on today's date. I have an entrance exam to go to. But strangely, that red circle doesnt hold a special place after all, because it only shares its place with all the other red circles that riddle the calender. I just stiffle that grin on my face aroused by all the irony that surrounds me... after all, I have an entrance exam to go to.

So there I am spank - 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the entrance exam (as all the entrances expect), all ready, with two ball-point pens-blue and black, and a HB pencil(in case the freaks behind the examining board change the 'RULES AND REGULATIONS' in the last minute), jutting out of my pocket. Not surprisingly, there's alredy a huge crowd gathered at the centre peering at the notice board to find out the room in which they'll be spending the next three hours or so shading the ovals that fit into a matrix in a sort of hypnotizing way. BTW, this only reminds me of those drawing classes I had been to when I was small. "Remember," they used to tell us, "never shade outside the outline.". Now all those hours with that pimple-cheeked, bespectacled lady, seemed to be paying off... but wait... I only learned how to shade the ovals... not which ones to shade!!! The horror of it all.

I come out of the exam hall, not all that confident about my performance, and thats when I see that geek fom the coaching class walking out like as if somebody told him that his place in that 'dream college' was his in all his right. Then you get home only to meet eager faces (your parents') whose hopes you dont want to shatter, so you find yourself saying "Ha, just watch all the colleges falling all over themselves to take me in."! Then the whole thing starts over again when I get up to find another red circle on today's date...

the great average indian's dream

All the entrances are over (atleast for this month!). Phew, what a relief... but wait before you can shove your books aside and get your party hat on, you suddenly realize that there's an envelope with your name on it waiting for you in the mailbox. So you drop the idea of a party and open the snow-white envelope. Inside is a letter that goes.." Dear candidate, based on your performance... we are happy to inform that your name has been shortlisted... the couselling will ne held on..." You heave a sigh of relief and make it to the counselling session only to find money-hungry officials asking you to pay through your nose if you want the seat of your choice... but most importantly... they're willing to give you a seat in a branch thats already full... IF YOU CAN PAY. Thats when you haughtily say to yourself 'Ha! for my brains' worth, I needn't BUY my seat! Hmph!' After your recent disillusionment you solemnly swear to study well for the next entrance exam, only to find yourself lying down on your favourite corner of the couch watching amateur poker players making big bucks!
Then comes along, an entrance exam that you've done really well in... but what the devil.. your 'really well' isn't enough... you end up with a rank thats not too bad... and thats the whole problem. All around you, you see that the guys who haven't done all that well in these medeley of entrances have 'BOUGHT' their seats... and all those who've done whoppingly well have royally claimed their coveted institutions, and you're left staggering for a foothold when the whole earth splits into two... with the geeks on the one side and the seat 'buyers' on the other... and your right in the middle... gaping down at that dark crevice opening up like an evil monster's mouth that will soon swallow you to your fate... you wake up to find your pillow wet with sweat... a glass of water should help...