“Sincere, obedient, decent, disciplined, particular”…”careless, carefree, latecomer, irresponsible”. These adjectives seems to describe two complete different personalities.
What if they come in a single package. This is what I have observed over the last year. The first set represents the image I have carried over the years but the second is what I have discovered in myself in year gone by.
There were many instances but I would restrain my self to only the major ones.
It all started in April 08, after completing the graduation two years back we were finally looking forward to usually a once in a lifetime moment, the Convocation day. Yes some people do amass 2-3 degrees but still convo of one’s first degree is bound to be a little special. In our case the two year gap made it a bit more special, as it would be a day where all college friends would reunite and re-live good old days. We all know it is an occasion where one wears strange kind of gown and hat, receives degree from a respected personality wearing similar but more pompous form of that dress code and then finally throws that hat in air with utmost joy. All in all, a very important day and on such days people usually take lot of care i.e. planning everything beforehand, getting ready quickly, reaching the venue on time etc. Somehow I underestimated the slow, laidback administration of my college. We were supposed to be at college by 10 -1030 am but I planned to reach my friend’s place by 11am, no worries whatsoever that too when I didn’t have any idea what all formalities we were required to do. When the most responsible person of the group is taking it lightly what can you expect from others, “chill chill just chill…” was the mode. After some time we came to know that we need to deposit 700 bucks as a security for that gown so a ride to ATM became imperative. Finally we got there and came to know that earlier speculations were correct that our CM Shiela Dikshit is the Chief Guest on the special occasion.
Now that’s the only reason I can think of behind every administrative activity of our college happening on schedule. Got damn it! I should have figured this out earlier in my calculations. So by then we missed the most important registration based on which degrees will be brought from the administrative section to the convocation hall. We believed that there will be a way out & we would be able to register somehow by hook or crook but realistically miracles don’t happen so easily. The next blow: gowns went out of stock. Everybody else was busy in posing for their orkut pic: “me in gown@convo” and we were just totally confused. What to do? One more myth we had was that only scholars will be called on to stage for collecting their degrees from Principal & Chief Guest and rest all other students will be given degree by someone else and in some other manner. Proceedings started and our myth was shattered within few minutes. No degree, no gown & no photo with principal, we were staring down the barrel. That was a terrible feeling. I was cursing my self for being so careless, so irresponsible and letting down my friends too. They were facing all this only because of my carelessness.
Then God came to our rescue and everything unfolded dramatically. Our wait for the fresh stock of gowns proved fruitful. So we were ready to get in the convo hall and look for a chance. Wearing that gown made me feel atleast “on par” with my classmates but was still not sure how we would go on to stage without registration. First idea that struck was to simply wait for the end and then request special favour from principal with the help of our dear friend ‘Mr President’. When all the good & responsible students were done a bunch of late comers were called. As you would have expected we were a bit late to get registered on the list of late comers as that too was finished before we had reached college. Now came the tricky idea; we will somehow make our way in the queue of late comers & go to the stage with degree of someone else and pose for the photo. Simple isn’t it! By God’s grace the only time when the people announcing the names of administration got confused and messed up the order of calling was when I was about to climb up the stage. After all the obstacles, Yes, we finally made it! Best part happened on the stage itself The Principal himself asked me “is this your degree?” I confidently replied in the affirmative and then the professional photographer clicked the ‘Kodak Moment’. I consider that pic to be one of my best photos, what if I am holding someone else’s degree. Hardly matters!
Good luck in the end really made that Convo ultra special. It was a sort of rag to riches story; literally I got richer as I got back my long pending hostel security.
Though late in the evening party was spoiled by the loss of mobile phone of Mr Thakur but, I remember that day for the plethora of emotions I went through in the morning.
The other two occasions are quite recent. After struggling for four long years I managed to get the coveted IIM gdpi calls this season. These calls are something which more than 250000 students dream of. I don’t need to tell anything else to testify the importance of the call. I was supposed to fill up a form and take that along with me at the time of gdpi process. More than a month was available to fill that form but thanks to my newly found carelessness and laidback attitude I filled that form by 0000hrs i.e. just 12 hrs prior to the auspicious gdpi. So everything was set, and I was ready to take on my First IIM Group Discussion & Interview. Got to the venue before time and was pretty relaxed. Suddenly a thought came to my mind to just check up my form once again. Pulled that out, turned the pages, all fields filled, all questions answered, yup everything was set according to me. The guy standing besides me very politely said “you have missed one thing” pointing towards the Photograph area.
Oh! A chilled wave went through my body. For the last 3-4 years I have always carried my passport photographs in my wallet so my hands went straight to the wallet to search for one in it. Alas! Only a day ago I took that small envelope out of my wallet only to leave it there itself. The process was scheduled to begin in the next 5-10 mins. I was completely puzzled, what to do? I would only attribute it to grace of God that the venue was within 15 min drive from my home. Had it been any other venue I was gone. Called up my mom to asked her to come to my rescue with my pics. Situation was further dramatised by the fact that my mom’s mobile was having a peculiar problem at that time; calls could be attended but couldn’t be made because there was no display at all. Keys were pressed based only upon guesses. Somehow my we managed to communicate and mom reached the place where I wanted in pretty short time. It was a very filmy scene I got that envelope from mom on a road full of traffic but right in front of the renowned Sai Baba temple. Couldn’t ask for more signals to believe that some divine power was there to help me out on that day. Within seconds I was running (dressed up in formal Suit and shoes, its mighty tough) back to the building. Fortunately process was not started by then. My messiah who pointed missing part of form was also carrying glue stick with him. In all normal cases who would carry glue stick with him/her for an interview? but that guy did. I got sufficient time to relax. My performance in the process was free from the repercussions of the incident. Although I still haven’t receive the result for that day but I will always remember how God rescued me from my yet another careless mistake.
But one cant get lucky everytime. Part -II will tell about the lessons I have learnt the hard way.
