Journey of Narayan- Class 12 battle
Life of Narayan is always exciting. Narayan is a hardworking guy, brought up in a small town called Alibagh. Alibagh is in Konkan, Maharashtra. Narayan’s biggest strength has always been his mom, who always believes in his abilities and keeps pushing him to do well in his life.
Narayan’s father has had a tough childhood and early party of his career and is doing well despite this. He works as an Engineer in a steel plant in near by Pen. But because of his tough past, deep with in he fears his kids will also have a tough life. He always is low on confidence especially about his kid’s future.
Naryan is preparing for his Class 12 board. Class 12 is the most important year in the life of an Indian student
Stereotype questions are asked by every visitor in the house, like Mrs Pandit - “o my God, your son is in Class 12.This is a very tough year. You would be tense, infact more than your son, is it not Mrs Iyer.
I remember when my Anusha was in Class 12, me and my husband did not sleep the whole year
Thank God, Anu is now in REC Trichy, Mechanical engineering. She scored 98% in PCM group. Especially after her brother Shankar joined Grant medical college in Mumbai after scoring 99% in PCB, she also wanted to prove that she too is no less.
Last year Mrs Phadke’s son made it to IIT, Mumbai. Phadke’s elder son is in IIT, Kharagpur.He wanted to make it to IIT, Chennai but he missed it. So he settled for IIT Kharagpur.
When Narayan used to listen to these examples from visitors like Mrs Pandit, his palms used to sweat. He used to think, am I heading in the right direction. Am I good enough? Will I go blank in the exam hall? Will I at least pass?
When he used to go into his deep thinking, Mrs Pandit would throw a salvo at him, hey Narayan, what are your plans- Engineering or medicine. If you need any help, ask Anu. She is coming home next week.
No Aunty, I have still not made up my mind, it depends on how much I will score.
Mrs Pandit would say- Oh, when my Anu was in Class 12 she would say Aai I m going to get nothing less than 95% in PCM. She exceeded her expectations.
Narayan, would then head straight to the Lord Balaji temple near his house. He would pray- O Lord, pl let me score good marks. At least for the sake of my parents.Otherwise how will my Mom face Mrs Pandit or Mrs Phadke. Let me at least make it to Lonere engineering college. I know I m not good enough for IIT or Medicine.
He would spend time in the temple and come back charged up. He would not sleep the entire night that day and burn his mid night oil.
The days passed by and the D day arrived. The board exams had come. Narayan’s father visited 12 temples in Alibag and offered coconut to all the deities. The coconut vendors in Alibag were not complaining. His only prayer to God was- Let my son do well in the exams
My Mom made lot of Mannat- 108 Modaks for Ganpati if he scores more than 75% in PCM. 208 modaks for Ganpati if he scores more than 85%.To walk bare foot to the Hanuman temple located 20 km from our house and offer vada mala if he scores 90%.
The day when I was leaving for my board exam, my father was a nervous wreck. As I climbed down the staircase, Mr Deshmukh’s family was standing outside their house. Hey Narayan All the best do well huh.
Further down, Joglekars were standing and they too wished, Hey Narayan do well for the sake of your parents.
By this time Narayan got confused if he going to write exam or going into a battle field to fight a war.
In any case writing the Class 12 in India is no less than fighting a war. For 20,000 seats of engineering there are 150,000 students fighting. The seats are further distributed as Payment seat, Merit seat, OBC, SC,ST, Open category and the list was endless
A probability check on getting the seat would have been a good exercise. But Narayan was hard working and not extraordinary so he left it at that.
The exams came and went by and Narayan gave his best shot .After the exams, everyone in Alibagh had only one question for Narayan, What percentage are you expecting. What are your plans.
Narayan got sick of answering this question. He would reply Let us see.
People would say, see this guy doesn’t have the confidence. They would say, this guy would end up scoring 65% and do B sc in the Municipal college of Alibag.
Sometimes Narayan would over hear this comment and think am I really worth only the municipal college.
The results were due and Narayan was nervous
He visited the Balaji temple and said, only today only today please bless me with 90%.I beg of you.
At 1500hrs Narayan and his father went to the college to collect the results. Narayan’s father said, I hope you will pass. He replied I hope so.
The mark list was distributed and Ahoy, Narayan read the following-
Physics- 87/100, Chemistry- 91/100, Biology- 85/100 and Mathematics- 80/100.
87.66% in PCB and 86% in PCM. Not as good as Phadke or Pandit’s kids, but a fighting total none the less
Narayan’s parents were happy but heart in heart the sentiment was, could he have scored a little more.
The score kept most neighbours interested to analyse Narayan’s next move
Now the big question, with this total what will Narayan do, Engineering, Medicine ( no chance with such low marks!), B Sc?????
What was the desire of Narayan’s parents and importantly what did Narayan want to do.
Let us wait for the next phase in Narayan’s life
