The Real Joy of Togetherness

We live in a world that has been spiraling towards digitization at a maddening pace. Out on the roads or indeed inside the homes or even the schools and colleges, wherever we cast a glance all we can see is people of all ages and genders immersed in their mobiles or laptops. School children, instead of playing on the streets or playgrounds are spending more time with their heads immersed in a mobile phone. College students, when they should be enjoying their best days talking and interacting with their friends in real time are instead wasting time 'Liking or Re-Tweeting or Updating their Status' on various social media sites. Colleagues in offices are submerged in either writing long drawn e-mails or worthless chatting.

Two of my very close friend's celebrated their birthdays just last week. The best that I could do for them on this special occasion was WhatsApp them a 'Happy Birthday' message. Throughout the day, I thought about calling them and wishing them but office work had consumed me so much that I kept putting it for later. By night I thought it was too late to call anyway and dropped the idea finally. And they were my very close friends, people with whom I have practically lived in a single room for 4 straight years.

Last night, I remembered what birthdays meant to us in those heady engineering days when we lived in a hostel and when upcoming birthdays meant an almost festive like atmosphere amongst us. I remembered those Birthday bumps where the Birthday boy co-operated with a large heart. Those dinner parties where the amount of cake applied on the faces was much more than what was left to eat by the end. Those short trips to a beach where we would spend time playing cricket or just sit on the warm sand, watching the sunset and saying nothing as if silence and nature was everything that was needed to magically transfer our thoughts to each other. Ah!! How I miss those beautiful days, when we connected with each other by talking to one other and by being there physically in times of both joy and sadness or indeed madness!!!

Today I feel both, the warmth of happiness and the pang of sadness inside me - happiness because I have been lucky enough to have lived a life when we were not slaves of technology and sadness because I know that however hard I may try I will never be able to replicate those good old days again.

It is imperative that we give more importance to face to face communication, where we spend time with our family and friends and where we laugh and cry together, where we increase our happiness by sharing them and reduce our sadness, where we discuss our problems and try to lend a helping hand to others. We must live a life where we are still connected to people around us as indeed with our own selves!

Do watch this beautiful video of Kissanpur that talks of bringing back the 'Real Joy of Togetherness' :

Because Together We Can and Together We Will…

‘Because #Together We Can and Together We Will’ This was the motivational tag line between me and 2-3 of my friends who were also my roommates while I was doing my engineering. There were times when we felt down on confidence, when we felt as if the world was against us, when we felt that the forces of nature were conspiring to defeat us. It was in those dark moments, that we would hold each other’s hands and repeat our magical mantra and instantly would feel the negativity around us dissipating in thin air.

I remember an incident very vividly when this little motivational gig of ours had a big influence on the way our engineering life panned out. Engineering exams are laced with poison that every student has to swallow and life often becomes lonely and tedious while studying for those exams which will in all probability, will shape the careers and determine where life will take them in the future. A single blot on the scorecard is frowned upon by prospective employers and the scorecard is supposed to be a mirror of the students’ abilities which is often not a correct reflection of the same.

It was before one such exam, the name of which was enough to strike fear in the heart of students, to paralyze them with dread and terror, EMT which was shortened for Electro Magnetic Field Theory, that I was very low on confidence. The vast nature of the field and the absurdly difficult problems posed by the subject had me all sweating and feeling the heat just the day before the exam. It was not as if I had not studied for the subject but I was not confident at all if I could reproduce the goods in the exam. That was what mattered at the end, everyone remembered and gave importance to the scores not how hard or how many hours one put in to studying.

The night before the exam, as before every exam I and 2 of my roommates went for a short walk around the hostel campus after our dinner. That was the time when studies, at most times took a back seat and we just chatted about frivolous things. My friends knew my anxiety of the upcoming test and decided to give me a nice little pep talk. While we were lying down on the green grass of our lawn, facing the innumerable stars that twinkled without a care in the world, my friends made me look in the direction of the star which was shining the brightest and seemed a little bigger than the rest of them. I tilted my head slightly to get a clear view of that large shining star. My friends said to me that I was like that star and that I would be alright in my exam. They reminded me about how I had done well previously as well when the chips were down, they told me about the time I had topped my CS exam while studying in the jungle all night, they harked about how I was one of the few guys who had passed the very tough Math paper the last year, etc… We often saw shooting stars in the sky when we were lying down facing the night sky and we saw one just as my friends were talking to me. We all became silent for a moment, closed our eyes and as always made a little wish. When we opened our eyes, and looked into one another’s I knew that there was only one wish that they could have yearned for that night.

Just then, as we were getting up, holding on to each other’s hands for support, we said in a chorus ‘Because Together We Can and Together We Will…’ That little time spent with my friends fired me up and approached the exam not with trepidation but with a renewed confidence. I managed to scrape through that test and really had my friends all to thank for as without them, I would surely have been tense and made a hash of things as a result.

My Journey From Home To Hostel ... #StartANewLife

My 12th standard HSC board exams had just got over and I had decided that I will do engineering just like many of my friends. The wait for results was an excruciating one but that time gave many of us friends some time to contemplate about our future and the choices that we were going to make. The results were announced and I did not get very good marks, not that I was expecting to top the exams but the results left me disconsolate and worried if I will be able to secure admission in a good engineering college in Mumbai. The admission process for engineering stream is a long drawn one which can go on for several months.

We had to fill up a form in which along with all our personal and academic details, we were required to fill in the 'Top 50 Colleges along with the Field of our choice' in descending order. So that was it, everyone filled up that form like their life depended on that sheet of paper. Since many of us friends had got similar marks we filled up the form in the same way. The best 40-45 Colleges of Mumbai were filled at the top and then the last 5-10 choices were filled keeping in mind our moderate marks. They were supposed to be the fail-safe in case we did not secure a place in the top 40 colleges, the chance for which was minute.

I filled up colleges only from Mumbai itself as I did not want to relocate and live in a hostel. The mere thought of it made me uncomfortable. Nobody in our whole family had ever done engineering, forget about staying away from the family in some hostel. My friends, however had no such tough decisions to make and they included some colleges which were situated out of Mumbai and could take in students with a little lesser marks. As expected, I did not get selected at any of the top colleges of Mumbai and time was fast running out. I had to make a decision soon.

One day, suddenly, out of nowhere, I received a call from one of my childhood school friends who told me that he had taken up engineering at a college in Ratnagiri. We had not been in contact since school as we had taken admission in different colleges. When I told him about my current predicament, he told me that his college still had a few seats left in the field of my choice and that I should try over there.

I told him that I will tell him in a few days about my decision and also asked him about how was the college, its environs, its students, etc. He told me that many of the students were from Mumbai and the college was located at a good place. Then we talked about our good school days and the mischief that we used to have together.

I had a talk about this with my Father and together we decided that in order to progress one has to make sacrifices and live away from the family. Change was the only thing that is constant in the world and without change the world would stagnate. My Mother was not approving of me going away to live in a hostel but me and my Dad persuaded her. I told my friend about my decision and he was elated, he assured me that all would be fine. I paid the fees and took admission in an engineering college that I had never heard of before.

I was very circumspect about this whole 'Living in a Hostel' affair and set out from my home towards my destination with a heavy heart and perhaps with a tear in my eye. When I reached at my college, my friend was there to welcome me. He showed me around the campus and I was delighted to know that he had arranged for us to be room-mates! 

I remember that I could not sleep for many days at that place, the room was too small as compared to my house in Mumbai and the bathrooms stank. The food at the mess was the worst, it was insipid and tasteless. I was homesick and badly wanted to return home. With Diwali approaching, we friends were involved in a dare devil act to escape from the hostel, my first of the very many adventures that I would have during my engineering days.

Slowly, I settled in at my new home away from home and made new friends. The hostel life gave me so many experiences to savor, so many memories to cherish. I learnt so much during those days; how to do my own work, how to enjoy while studying, how to take decisions independently, how to survive without sleep and food, etc. I and my friend remained room-mates for the next four years and had a blast. Those late night vada-pavs, the mid-night birthday parties, spending the whole night playing card sessions, playing cricket on the terrace, studying in the jungle for an exam!!

When the time came to leave the hostel and return back home, we were all very very sad. I remember that we did not want that time to get over, those days spent at the hostel was the best time of my life. That was nearly 13 years ago. Even today whenever, we talk, the talk invariably starts from our college days and proceeds further. Change, as my Father had rightfully said, was the only constant and changing for the better was the only way to success.

Hostel Memories - Story of Optimism about Life!!

The last semester engineering exams are going on and everybody is so excited. The students have spent four long years in a hostel, miles away from families and friends, slogging away day and night to realize the dreams of their parents and to build their own career. Plans are being chalked out every single day, we will do this, we will take a vacation there, we will shout like crazy in a chorus after the last exam, etc… There is a ‘Days to Freedom’ counter that has been set up on the wall of my hostel corridor. The last 31 days are written on the wall and with each passing day one number is stricken off by a member of the hostel with his autograph. The hostel is a mixed bag of emotions; everybody is excited and nervous, sad and anxious, some are confident and assured while some are apprehensive and confused… There is that strange sensation of impending joy and happiness mixed with a tinge of anxiety and sadness which is just around the corner but which is very difficult to put in words.

Only the last two papers remain now. Last 9 days before a new batch of engineers graduate and join the grind of corporate lives. Just a day before the second last exam, a friend and fellow hostelite suffers from what appears a heart attack and dies while on the way to the hospital. Let us call that friend ‘Amar’ because he will always remain alive in our memories and hence is immortal. Amar was a friendly and jovial boy; a little shy and quiet, always ready to help other students in times of their difficulties. He was not spectacular with his grades but he was not a failure either. The whole hostel was in a state of shock and pain. We had lost a friend, a friend with whom we had spent the past four years and someone who was on the cusp of being an engineer. There was speculation that he may have had a bad paper and might be under stress but I had seen Amar for 4 years and he was not the kind to be distressed over fewer marks in a subject.

We did not know how to react to such a loss; I guess none of us had seen death from such close quarters. The hostel which was always buzzing during the exams was silent as a morgue. Almost all of us attended his funeral later that day with tears in our eyes. Yes, we had to study for the exam slated for the next day but that was the last thing on our mind. Sometimes, something’s are just more important than studying for an exam. We tried to comfort his parents but they were inconsolable. His mother cried non-stop and we told her that she may have lost one son that day but she has surely found another 20.

It was over the next 8 days that made me feel so much like a human being. The loss of a fellow student and friend had brought the rest of us closer to each other so much more intimately. We all stood united in the face of adversity and we behaved like mature and responsible people. The boys engineering hostel is a boisterous, raucous and messy place at the best of times. But it was all very quiet in the corridors since that incident. It was decided that the ‘Days to Freedom’ counter would not be updated in the memory of Amar. Where Amar had signed, we wrote messages for him. After the last exam there was no wild celebrations or chantings, loud music which was a norm after each exam was conspicuous by its absence. There was a heaviness hanging around the hostel and the eyes seemed weary. There could not be any victory party after a comrade had been left behind.

It has been more than 8 years since that fateful day but it is still very much clear in my head. It took a death as we students came together, showed solidarity and just the way we conducted ourselves in the face of grief is something that makes me proud even today. There were some heart touching scenes throughout the incident and it filled me with so much hope about our future. The love and emotions that flowed, the moment when we all observed a two minute silence for him after the last exam got over; those moments filled me with optimism about life, about love.

My hostel memories came rushing back recently when Phil Hughes died after being stuck by a bouncer at SCG. The way the whole cricket fraternity came together was just in a way that we had done. Cricket actually took a back seat and when it resumed it was a better place to be in. When Johnson stuck Kohli flush on the helmet in the first test, he seemed petrified. All the Aussie players seemed genuinely concerned and surrounded Kohli enquiring about his well being. In the normal course of events, they would have sledged him and giggled but death teaches us all so much. Remember Venkatesh Prasad once hitting Ponting on the head down under in the 90’s and rushing to inquire about his health but Ponting had just waved him away with an abuse. Yes, how times change and change for the better. Sometimes, it just takes death to teach us how to live.

Tell us your favourite story of optimism - optimism about life, about love, about the world and its future.

The Late Mid-Night Fiasco

‘Aarghh!!! What was that??’ Jiten screeched in the dead of the night, flicking on the lights at the same time.

He lay on his cot just near the door, a half tattered blanket barely covering him. He scrambled for his spectacles which lay somewhere near his pillow and adjusted them furiously on his now-wide open eyes! In the meantime, Amish who slept on the ground besides Jiten’s cot and myself were also half-sitting, half-slouching on our bedding’s, shooting curious glances at each other.

‘It was surely a crab’ Jiten spoke again, his eyes shuttling between the toe of his leg and all around his cot, under the blanket as also under his flimsy pillow.

‘It can’t be a crab!! It must be a frog! There are so many out here!’ I said, to which Amish just nodded halfheartedly, letting out a disgusting yawn at the same time. ‘Does a frog bite so hard? See my toe; the skin has been peeled off!! There is a small puncture too!’ Jiten retorted.

‘Whatever it was, let us sleep now! We can search for it tomorrow morning!’ Ajit bellowed, the frustration quite palpable in his quivering voice. Ajit was a giant, who got angry easily and someone who was very serious most of the times. Even we, his room-mates, rarely messed with him! He laid at an angle of 90 degrees, in the space between the cupboard and us, his head starting at my bedding and his legs splaying near Amish’s head!!

But Jiten had already decided that he was not going to let whatever it was, to stay in our room any longer. He had already launched the search operation in the room and as if on cue, I and Amish too looked under our sheets and shot glances here and there trying to spot the mischief monger. Ajit had already resumed his snoring after giving his verdict which he must have considered was set in stone!! After a futile search lasting few minutes, Jiten mustered some courage and began to ruffle around Ajit but was given such a terrorizing look that he immediately abandoned any further search in his perimeter!

Finding nothing, we all went to sleep again as Jiten finally switched the lights off.

10-15 minutes later

A shrill cry broke the momentary calm and Jiten put the lights on again.

Jiten looked surprised by what he saw, but at the same time had an I-told-you-so look writ large on his face. I and Amish were almost on the verge of having peals of laughter but we somehow managed to rein ourselves in. We saw a bewildered Ajit crouching on the arm-rest of the solitary plastic chair which lay next to the computer table and near the cupboard. I saw fear in his blood shot eyes. His bald head shone with thick beads of sweat giving him the look of a treacherous fugitive. Never before had I seen Ajit like that, he looked meek and petrified.

I, for a fleeting moment, imagined what would happen if the fragile arm-rest (it had already bent dangerously) gave in under his weight, a slight smile beginning to form around my mouth at the thought! Amish gave me a questioning look as he must have caught my smile and he whispered in my ears, ‘Ajit will bury you alive if you have any hand in this!!’ I sobered up quickly, put on a straight face and replied, ‘No yaar, I am not that mad to put my hand in a lion's lair!’ Amish did not seem entirely satisfied by my answer and stated in no uncertain words, ‘That if I had anything to do with this, then that was certain to cause further mayhem and certainly elongate the late mid night drama that was playing out at 2.45 am in our hostel room!!’

‘S… S… Some... Something just crawled right over my legs. I… I think it’s a snake!’ Ajit managed to croak, looking more and more like a hapless frog that might have sensed the presence of a dangerous black cobra in its vicinity.

At the very mention of a snake, both I and Amish got up with a start and jumped on Jiten’s cot as that was the only high ground available in our room, apart from the chair which was already occupied!!

‘I told you there is something in this room but you would have none of it’ Jiten almost shouted at Ajit, even as he came down from his cot and walked over towards Ajit’s bedding. Jiten was quite a fearless character and he had obviously decided to put an end to this nonsense as early as possible.

On higher ground and feeling relatively safe, I and Amish were almost choking on our laughter looking at how Ajit was perched up precariously on the arm rest of the chair!! I told him, perhaps a bit too loudly, ‘Ever seen a lion scared by a snake?’ ‘Witnessing it live, right now’ pat came the reply from Amish! If Ajit heard the comment, he ignored it.

Suddenly, Ajit shouted, ‘There is something under the cupboard!! I think I saw a shadow move!’ 

All the eight eyes were now transfixed under the cupboard. But it was so dark underneath that we failed to spot anything there. The solitary tube-light in our room flickered for a moment, adding to the tension and perhaps enjoying the bird’s eye view it commanded from the high ceiling.

Jiten picked up Ajit’s pillow which was lying nearby and swept the space under the cupboard. On any other day Ajit would have eaten him raw for such a horrific crime but today he was silent, watching intently!!

We heard a squeak and a small rat bolt out from under the cupboard and before we could make head or tail of it, scuttled out of our room from the narrow opening near the base of our wooden door.

Jiten tried giving a chase and locate its hideout but by the time we opened the door, it had already disappeared into the darkness of our hostel corridor. We immediately sealed the slit in the door with thick cardboard and reinforced it with cello-tape.

Discussing the event, we all had a nice laugh about it. Even Ajit, the Mr Serious, managed a wry grin and laughed at his own behavior!! Even though Ajit always accuses us of exaggeration, but to this day he drops his guard, loses his seriousness, and laughs unconditionally whenever we reminisce that night again, knowing fully well that what we say is the truth!!

PS – This is a true story which happened during my engineering days and all the characters are real. The names have been changed.

PPS – If you like the post and are on Indiblogger, then vote for it on Indivine here - http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=329385

WeChat -- Connecting friends!

Recently a close friend of mine got married. We were roommates for 4 years while we were doing our engineering and were staying in a hostel. I and Jiten (another roommate) travelled almost 500 kilometers, taking a whole week off from work, to attend his wedding. Three other friends could not make it as they were not in the country.

As our train pulled out from Mumbai station towards the wedding destination, it set in motion a series of thoughts about true friendship, OUR friendship ... somewhere, in a compartment of my mind. Life is filled with so many people we meet and greet each and every day. Some of these go on to become our friends... hi-hello friends, casual friends, fair weather friends and so on and so forth. But only a few graduate to a higher level... whom we can call our true friends. Those with whom you can share any of your feelings and can never have enough of their company. Staring out of the window, I thought everyone has them. Just like me.

We were six of us, Room-mates during our engineering days. How and when we became friends... we never realized. I still remember those days when we would kill time chatting even during exam days or how we would play cards all night when the next day we would be having our vivas, how we once spent a whole night in a forest to prepare for an exam scheduled for the next day, how we would stay awake in the name of exam just to eat hot Vada Pav at midnight in canteen or the fun we used to have in our regular jungle excursions!

Perhaps these things brought us closer. We were in the company of each other all the time. Our day started with each other and ended with each other, no one could pretend to be someone that they were not. We observed how each other dealt in various situations, under different circumstances and this in turn helped us understand each other better. Perhaps, this is how it was always destined to be. Whatever the reason, we all had that spark that helped us glue. And thus, a strong friendship was forged while staying with each other in the hostel.

Exams went by, months turned into years and we had to finally part ways. As luck would have it, much to our disappointment, we landed in six different cities, spread across 4 different countries. In the beginning, we spoke frequently but even that, gradually reduced to a trickle with the passage of time. E-mails became rare and phone calls were almost redundant. The fact that none of us were too active on facebook (well three of us still do not have accounts) did not help matters either.

Occasionally, we would plan weeks in advance to have a conference call at times suitable to everyone! I remember how excited we would be when at last, all the six of us succeeded in joining in, in the conversation! It felt like we were all in college again. Time would come to a stand-still that day. The old lingo permeated into our world so very easily. We would talk for almost an hour, sometimes listening carefully to a single friend about his experiences, sometimes all six of us chattering away to get the upper hand, sometimes pulling someone’s leg reminding him about some incident at college, sometimes having multiple talks within a phone call (six talking at a single time but having two on two talks! Sounds confusing, I know but we did that too), sometimes everyone went silent for a couple of seconds though just quietly reminiscing the old days!!! We finally, one by one, bid good bye and the moment I disconnected, I could feel a vacuum in my life.

But scheduling the conference call was hectic and we were all too lazy to try skype. It was fun to attend the wedding and to have a mini re-union. The moment I met my old pals, we started chatting from the point where we had left in college even though all of us today were so many years older, both in age and in experience. But at heart, we were still the same.

That’s where WeChat got me excited once again. Separation was inevitable but this time, I had done my homework. So when I suggested WeChat to all my friends, a new mobile communication tool which supports sending voice, video, photo and text messages and is absolutely free to download and easy to install; they all had reason to get excited as well! It lets us chat in a group and help us share photos within our group!

When IndiBlogger came up with the same question - If there were 5 people or more who you could connect with in WeChat and why, I knew my answer. I would love to connect with five of my closest friends scattered all around the globe via WeChat so that we could relive our college days again!!

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To know more about this contest click here – We Chat with Anyone, Anywhere!

To vote for my entry on Indivine, please click here - http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=246048

Links to my other two WeChat contest posts:

Hello Happiness
A Chat with my inner brats

My Incredible Cricket Story

The Following guest post is by Ratika Chauhan who is a Doctor by profession, a Writer by passion and a Cricket Lover by obsession! You can read more of her beautiful writings at her blog - Asteria's Canvass

Read the following account of her coming face to face with an external examiner during her Medical Vivas who was, like her, a die hard cricket fan too!!

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Most of you would be wondering, "What the hell is a girl doing on a cricket dominated blog?" Well let me clear the air and burst the mythical bubble that cricket is for guys, girls (and I have seen many) equally crazy after this so called gentleman's game. To be honest I think majority of them are just crazy after cricketers which makes them sit patiently to watch them unleash the primal fury, even if its hitting the ball.

Well my love for cricket originates from World Cup 1996 (I know my timing to fall in love with the game was just impeccable.) when my Mom finally relented and got  a cable connection. I have been a fan since then, I howl, I whistle, I abuse, I cry and like every other Indian forget my woes during those 50 overs (20 now a days) and live the game. There have been many instances when my love for cricket landed me in hot soup (hooting and whistling for my batch's team in ragging time and getting thoroughly ragged , organizing an unauthorized rain dance party in hostel after India won first ever T-20 World Cup and other 1000 such instances.) but those stories are for some other day. As I always say truth is stranger than fiction similarly cricket saved me in my final year viva. Yes you heard me right cricket, the game responsible for many students failing actually saved me in my viva.

But first let me burst another golden bubble that medical vivas are exciting and adrenaline based, they are so not, they are as scary and as mundane as any other field. Our final year exam was no different than yours, after a grueling session of theory exams we were ready to be thrown in the lions' cage (errr, I hope none of my professors is reading!!) We were royally exhausted, thoroughly starved and disgustingly scared just short of crapping our pants. My A batch or the sub-batch was the first to face our medicine practical, and adding to the already scary scenario was the fact that our external examiner was known as "The Terminator" owing to his previous record of deliberately failing 49 out of 100 students.. well the shit had already hit the fan and we were just waiting for the poop to fall.

Did I mention that in my whole freaking batch I was supposed to be the first girl to face the terminator??? Well the wait finally ended and I saw the terminator, he was a 6 feet tall turban clad Sikh, with a heavy moustache and an equally heavy built..."God save me" was my first prayer as I entered the room.

The cases or the patients were decided by a chit system and there was one case we all were praying not to get, it was the mother of all neurology cases we had ever seen, with the most unusual complications. But as God was busy somewhere else, I was the inglorious student who landed that case. That was the moment I apologized mentally to my Mom and Dad for failing in advance.

I know that all my batch-mates were praying for me rather than their ownself as they knew I had the monster of all cases. When my turn for bed side viva (the viva is taken in the ward itself in front of everyone ) both the professors , my internal HOD and the terminator sat in front of me and stood behind them all my senior interns ready to prompt me the answer if I faltered. God bless the seniors.

As my viva was proceeding smoothly, I realized they haven't left any possible question on the case, but I guess the support of my seniors, my HOD's faith and my batch-mates prayers all joined together and I was able to flow through the viva without drowning. The moment my professor Dr.Gopal Shreshtha got up with a smile on his face I knew I will not flunk at least but my momentary joy was about to crash and burn because we were still to face the terminator alone for short cases.

I don't need to describe the scenario for short viva, the hallway is strewn with nervous students, the person ahead of us becomes a God as he tells us what was asked to him, our brain attains some super power and we remember every word we lay our eyes on in those few minutes, we become extra polite to the guard sitting outside for he is the one who rings that dreadful bell...

As I went inside the cabin, I suddenly developed never-existing claustrophobia as the walls seemed to close in on me.

"Yes Dr. Ratika, how are we doing today?" boomed his gruff voice. I wanted to say you might be enjoying the torture but I am about to faint with fear.

"Sir, I am doing well, thanks for asking." I managed to croak.

"Well, what was your long case, Dr. Ratika.?"

"Sir, the neurology one with aphasia."

"Of course, of course how could I forget?? Even I have not seen such a twisted case"

And that moment my empty stomach decided to play games with my already ill-fated viva, and it rumbled, not those inaudible light ones, but a deep one loud enough to reach the terminators razor sharp ears.

"Have you not had your breakfast?"

" No sir, I did not have the time to go to the canteen."

"Never mind, here share my biscuits, they are hide and seek, the best biscuits, your college did not want to upset me in any way." and he laughed heartily.

If there ever was a moment of disbelief it was that moment where that hulk of a professor, having a reputation of terminator was offering me biscuits...his own biscuits. I definitely had tears. That defining moment allayed my fears just a touch and I felt a bit more comfortable about the whole situation.

But little did I know I was about to tumble in that pretentious whirlpool.

"So Dr. Ratika , since you have already given your long viva very well, I will not ask more questions. So tell me what is your favorite sport??"

"Cricket." I chirped, without even thinking about the scary consequences of such a question, the slight eyebrow raise indicating I have hit the proverbial axe.

"Its my favorite too...well along with most of fellow Indians. And who is your favorite cricketer?"

Now my glucose deprived brain decides to play smart-aleck and I start over thinking, why was he asking me this? Whats his agenda? Will he fail me if I say Yuvraj Singh because he is good looking.

"Sachin Tendulkar." I finally replied

"Playing safe? Are we? Ok I'll give you a gamble, if you can tell me 7 different ways how a batsman can get himself out I'll give you the highest marks in practical, If you don't ...well we will come to that later."

I did not like the sound of 'well we will come to that later' and as such Dr. Bedi was making no sense whatsoever, I mean I was there for a medicine viva and not a cricket viva.

But I had already put my big foot in my mouth so I started straining my mind.

"Caught, Leg before wicket, run out, hit wicket, stumped, bowled...."

"Yes, you are doing well just 2 more..."

I had mentally cursed him in every possible language, despite him sharing his hide and seek biscuits with me. I was scanning every nook and corner of my brain for those last 2 ways.

Suddenly out of nowhere, God himself made a grand entry in my on-the-verge-of-getting-a-stroke brain and I remembered a newspaper headline "Michael Vaughan - controversial dismissal."

"Sir, handling the ball.....and time out."

"Well done Dr. Ratika, you have gained those marks and you will see I will abide by my promise."

I was half expecting one of my batch-mate to wake me up from the dream and shove me in the viva room, but all I saw was Dr. Bedi smiling ear to ear and making some joke about himself, I was either too dazed to be happy or shocked as my mugging up those mnemonics just went to a waste. But somehow I mumbled a tiny "Thank you." and came out, as expected the other students who still had to face the terminator jumped on me like a pack of hyenas, but I knew they would not believe that I was not asked any study based questions, so I cooked up some tough random questions. Later after our results were announced, when I told them the incident, still they did not and said my extra creative brain is imagining things. What can I say truth is stranger than fiction.

That is the story when cricket gained me marks and that is the story from where I started believing in miracles!!