Aur ek din, mera bhi aa hi gaya. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to share it with you because my dad does not want the world to know his only child’s ‘actual’ 12th board results. And the editor of League has flatly refused to play the Goga Kapoor of ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na’ by printing my fake marks in this column. (Damn! Another opportunity to become SRK goes up in smoke.)
Last month I was asking for you to pray for my results. Funnily, this month too I’m going to ask you to do the same – pray for my results. Results of the many admission forms that I’ve filled up. And of the many entrance exams that I’ve given, giving and about to give.
Yeh jeevan ek pariksha hai. “And with this lifestyle, you are going to fail all of them” – my dad would say, when he is in a good mood. When he is in his ‘special’ mood, he generally drills me with his eyes and non-cooperation in conversations.
But hey, that’s going beside the point. The point here is – whether you like it or not, every activity of yours bears results for you! But its only the 12th board results that we GLOVADIs make hue and cry about. Curfew on films, friends, fun, freedom and everything even remotely related to the letter ‘f’. Ouch! Hey dad, I didn’t mean…what I hear from ALL my ‘best friends’ a dozen times a day! Ouch, again!
Anyway, if Bill Gates was killed on the basis of his 12th board results, you would not have been reading this magazine, writing e-mails or generally expressing yourself through computers. Ditto for Dhirubhai Ambani. And I’m not even talking of movie and ROCK stars!
Come on parents, give us a break. It’s just a 12th board result. Why is it being turned into a front page circus?
Yes, bad marks in 12th push back your chance to gain DIRECT entry into any medical or engineering college by an year or two. But there are all India open entrances for such colleges, donation colleges for the well-off and scholarships for the brilliant. And unlike previous years there are more engineering seats in Ahmedabad / Gandhinagar than there are students. Arts and Commerce streams too have similar options.
I’ll be doing B. Sc. Now. And I’m NOT going to get into a good college because of my marks. But don’t every college of Gujarat University read the same books of science? And that of arts and commerce? And do the ‘top’ science / arts / commerce colleges provide placements? I’m told even the government engineering and medical colleges (the most reputed ones of the city) offer that. So what’s the deal here, except the non-required noise?
My dad would not say that to me, but I know that he’s proud of the fact that I’m writing for a classy magazine at 17! It doesn’t pay me much (sorry Editor), but at 17, I feel I have many years ahead to earn. For now, I’m happy with my learning and the pass class.
