Chapter 14: Junior College (FY).

The results were not good, they were good by my standards, but they were not enough to get me into a decent college, that and the fact that I had filled in the form for Kelkar college supposedly the best around Mulund, strengthened my dads belief that 10^th was the standard where my studies would end. But thre were other plans for me as I would soon know.

For some unforeseen reasons, my Uncle B and uncle C had a fight, and Since my dad was already up on his terms with Uncle C, my uncle B joined hands with my dad (its because of such dealings that I get to see at home, that politics seems less interesting) , Now uncle B as we all know was an influential figure and when he was made aware of the fact that I wasn’t able to secure a seat in the only college that I had applied, called up his connections and my admission was done in the ministers Quota (pity seat) in a jiffy.

So I joined FYJC Science + French at Kelkar.

My destiny took a good turn from the day I kept my foot on Kelkar, as you might have realized I used to study in a school that catered to students living in and around Ghatkopar, and the shifting prompted me to take a seat in Kelkar that operated out of Mulund, so all of my vicious friend circle was broken and I was left with a clean slate to begin with. Now if I only had a chalk.

The first year was a drag, no good looking decent girls to ogle at, introduction to trigonometry, solid state geometry, integrals and derivatives. Did not understand what was being taught except for French and English.

The quality of professors that we met here were better than the ones at school, except for English, I am guessing he came in on a pity seat as me, he used to come to the class and make everyone who were naïve enough to attend his lecture, to read out never ending paragraphs from the assigned text books. I, for a change, had an impeccable 100% attendance in the FYJC (11^th standard), and also suffered the most at his hands. The results of which are well evident.

Here in Kelkar I made one good friend by the name “Rajesh”, he used to hail from a middle class family in Vikhroli and had the same financial condition as mine, so the natural order of selection chose him to be my guide.

While I was sitting my ass off thru all the lectures my cousin (who had managed to get into Somaia’s , a college of repute around Ghatkopar) was busy preparing for his IIT entrance. My parents were not even vaguely aware that getting into IIT required one to give an entrance exam, for them IIT was akin to any college offering a BE degree. No one was aware of the fact until my Uncle B asked me if I would also like to try for the same, an idea that I politely refused. Agreed that I was on a positive roll, but targeting IIT was a bit too much.

I passed my FYJC and moved on to SYJC or the crucial 12^th standard whose scores dictate if you are fit to be technically groomed.

My rechristening with an “I” instead of a “y” in my name actually set the vowel consonant vibration right in my name and I improved. My approach to studies were never the same again and I still, to this day believe in numerology… (but adding an extra K… I am plainly against).