At night, when all life falls lifeless, time halts and distances grow infinite,  dreaming offers you a window to recall and relive all the beautiful moments you cherish. It brings back people from the dead and shows you how time could be.

It discards reasoning and that’s what makes it appealing. Impossibilities cease to exist. However, the most wonderful gift of all is the gift of memory. When you wake up, all details are washed away, providing you an opportunity to revel in your humdrum existence until you return to its loving care.

I love sleeping because when the eyelids meet, imagination takes flight and reality loses ground. And in that blissful state of unawareness, magic happens.

I felt my options;
too bad I couldn’t take both.
It was my life at stake –
that’s something I loath.

Too many parameters –
Branch or college…
Was I willing to adjust
to life in a village?

The decision was agonizing –
to make or break it all.
I wished to procrastinate
but hit a brick wall.

I thought long and hard
and finally figured –
‘What’s the brand name
But success of alumni considered?’

‘How would that help me?’ –
I couldn’t see.
My competence, after all,
was up to me.

It was over
I had thought a lot
I finally decided
to give it a shot

No more running
for second-hand glory.
It was my life,
my own story.

I am not cattle
to be branded.
So I went
where I wanted.

It may not be as famous.
Well, that’s too sad.
I had got BITS Pilani
but chose IIIT Hyderabad

I was instead assigned mechanical at IIT Mandi. The thought of spending biting chilly winters throughout the year and return to Delhi just in time for the summer wasn’t appealing. Definitely.

More importantly, mechanical as a branch holds no fascination for me. I simply abhor drawing and I have a vague feeling that drawing complex machines in 3D wouldn’t be much fun either. Lab work runs along similar lines.

I do think that in the second counselling, I will get something more acceptable. It only needs a few dissatisfied souls, from four thousand, to do the needful. But it won’t be much different – electrical at some new IIT or mechanical at IT BHU/ New IIT. No, thanks.

BITSAT doesn’t offer much hope at 330 either. IIIT Hyderabad CS 4 year is still the first option.

Let’s see where this goes.

The AIEEE results were on the expected lines. They weren’t in the top 500 and nothing spectacular. No institute, including career point, TIME and Narayana which focus on it, is claiming me. And the thrill was negated by the fact that in AIEEE, AIR 1200 is just as good as AIR 1. But it still felt bloody good after the debacle of JEE to rank 674 (Delhi 70) and score 318.

At this rank, I am getting B.tech in comp at IIIT-H and all the branches at  NIT Surathkal, Warangal and  Trichy. I will very likely go for IIIT. It has stellar packages, excellent reputation and most importantly, a no-reservation policy.

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In spite of my best efforts and ample preparation, JEE just didn’t go my way. It was a paper fraught with too many tedious calculations and too little time to do them the proper way. The use of log and antilog tables simply accentuated this fact. One didn’t need to know the theory well enough as long as one knew the direct formulae. At the end of the day, it’s the IITs who decide which meritorious students they will teach.

The irregularities in the paper have been discussed to death and all the righteous rage over it has boiled over and disappeared. The corrections simply scorned educated public opinion and were only directed towards wasting enough time to prevent a re-exam. The Hindi aspirants, however, are a happier lot. In spite of a completely messed up paper and apathetic remedies, their selection trebled from 175 odd last year to over 500 now. I wonder how that happened to be.

On a separate note, JEE abolished the EML altogether this year granting a measure of relief to the thousands who got selected for the main list. The cutoff, as per my expectations, shot up and probably crossed 195 for an 8500 rank in the CML. We’ll know the exact figure in a week.

My rank, 4222, was in the range I had expected it to be. It could have got me something in BHU till last year but now that it is an IIT, it will be prefered over the newer institutes.

So much for a guy who was ranked 9 in the last Bansal test.

I will just fill in my counseling choices and wait for the AIEEE results.

The feast started at 0930 sharp and had the usual fare – parathas with sauce, kachodis, chips, muffins et cetera – all at one place. As expected, there was a lot of talk, and we were told a lot of history of BCPL. We got to know that Pramod Mishra, the owner of Career Point was a Physics teacher at Bansal – the best ever, he said – and taught Ninja (ex-HOD, Physics; now at vibrant) and Amit Gupta sir (present HOD, Physics) among others.

The sumptuous feast ended by 1030 and we left for home feeling  good about ourselves. This certainly was something to boast about. Besides, we were also told that we (Xl) will get to see a movie on the Fourth of October. In an auditorium at Gaurav Tower.

Comments would be appreciated.

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Following this, I, along with 9 others have been invited by Mr. Bansal, founder, director and Chairman of Bansal Classes Private Limited, to his home tomorrow to have breakfast with him. This is amazing.

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My score, 177 (P-73, M-70, C-34) fell one mark short of the cut-off. Damn. There’s no end to the number of questions that I messed up under pressure. Some of them were questions that I had done previously or were too easy to err, but I did. I simply lost my cool and made mistakes in basic arithematic. Imagine. And I couldn’t even make it to CML. Apart from that, I really don’t think that 95 people who had the same marks as me could have scored better than me in Physics. My Chemistry score is really low, which means that my physics score should be comparatively higher. Judging from my Rank (EML 96), I might be ranked the last among candidates who scored 177. Can someone please explain?

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My batch is X01, the best there is. My last six weeks have brought about a paradigm shift in my grasp of physics and I am beginning to understand chemistry. The teaching here is testosterone for the mind. We are encouraged to see questions one way, then the other, understand the common mistakes and conduct their autopsy. The chemistry faculty, though doesn’t let minor issues like curriculum restrain the immor(t)al fountain of learning. Things are done in great detail.

There are some 50 rankers in total at Bansal and some guys are really good. It comes as a surprise that people with such a good command were turned down by JEE, but that’s life for you.

We have had two tests and it would necessitate gross exaggeration to call my score exemplary. My rank was 67 in the first test and 33 in the second, giving me a cumulative (calculated on basis of net marks) of 40. That’s 40 in a bunch of ~5200 IIT rejects. So, my batch concerns have been resolved. I am going to remain in X1. I will be one of 120 people to have this ‘elite’ tag. Life wouldn’t really be worth living otherwise.

Our batches will be reshuffled on Monday and we are expecting to see some new faces from the former X3 and maybe others. The 2009 JEE info will be released tomorrow and I will definitely check it out. There will be another post shortly along related lines.

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the content is little.

Is that why

the readership is brittle?

They come through Google,

they come via Yahoo.

They find what they want

and then bid adieu.

Eighteen posts and

One Thousand views later:

Twelve comments?

Shouldn’t it be better?

Is the language too high,

or the posts too long?

Why so shy?

What went wrong?

I give you e-books,

I give you analysis.

What’s the issue?

You suffer paralysis?

A word of gratitude,

some appreciation,

would go a long way

to ensure my dedication.

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