Pyrrhic victory of a 13 year old....

Not many things scare me… well, at least it doesn’t hurt to say so in my blog…but I have never been more scared in my life than that day when I walked up to the lone chair in the examination room….I was perspiring profusely… well, that’s a good thing then… dint some eccentric scientist guy mention somewhere that genius was 99% perspiration??? The teacher smiled graciously and motioned me to enter…. Like a cornered thief, I anxiously looked around for exit points…. As I took my chair, the tip of my nose went cold….yeah, that always happens to me when I am nervous… what the heck was she scribbling so vigorously?? I glanced at the question paper…nothing in there made me comfortable…. Question 1. Write a poem in hindi…. Sweet mother of all that’s pure and holy!!!! This is where I am gonna be cremated…. Ok, rishi…think!!! Aaha!!! I started writing whatever I knew about saare jahan se accha…. With generous additions and filling the gaps by mahakavi rishi iyer, of course…

It was a hot summer day in 1997… I was in goa, seeking admit in a CBSE school… but apparently there are only 5 schools in the whole state that don’t make u read Konkani!!! What is this place???

Anyways, test done…. Waiting in the hall outside for the result was even more excruciating, if thts possible… “Ah rishi…come on here…We’ve gone through your papers… and we are really impressed with yer performance…. ”

Oh cool, I swelled up in pride…. I towered over the 6foot plus profs with my 5 foot height…. Hmph! I had even beat their own students… that too in their home ground!!! Ha!

“But derz this one small thing…Yeah, u know in Hindi…. We don’t write ON the line, but beneath it rather… You may wanna look into it if you hope to clear the board exam next year”

I looked for a crack in the floor I could disappear into….