Jadavpur University.

I live in Jadavpur.So I practically grew up in its vicinity.Watching the big ominous buildings,peeping in through the gates cautiously,running away if I saw anyone looking at me from inside.That place was a source of wonder for me,evoking in me the kind of mystery from which only a 10-year old can derive pleasure.

I hail from a family of Jadavpurians.I've 3 brothers,one sister and an uncle who studied Engineering there.My mother completed her B.Ed from JU.So,naturally it was expected that I'd follow their footsteps(i.e. if I didn't flunk too badly before that).As a result,I often had to hear stuffs like....mon diye poro..Jadavpur kintu mukher kotha na.. The wide-eyed naivete that I was,I wondered how my not-studying would affect the place where I live in!Only my mother refrained from making such comments(bless her!).It was only too apparent that everyone had their hearts set on seeing me studying Engineering at JU.

I grew up,without much bothering about it.JU stayed at its own realms and never really veered off into my course of life.Occassionaly,if I was taking a walk inside with Ma,I stared curiously at the huge buildings and envied all the people who got to play and sit and talk in the lush green fields.Man! what splendid fields!I remember,there was no staff canteen then.But,overall,JU and I were blissfully ignorant of each other's existence and purpose of living.

Class 10. After Boards.

Our whole family happily sped off to Sikkim,a state we have visited 4 times so far and plan to do more.As I had left right after the Boards, I had no idea that...ei sir er kaache na porle Joint e pawa jay na..Everyone got enrolled to coaching classes in that vital 2.5 weeks I was away.

Now,this is the first thing that struck me about class 11-12.People joining tutions.This was almost a total unfamiliar territory to me.So far,I had just 2 tutions.One for Hindi(that was extra work.not school stuff.My Hindi teacher,Pallavi Aunty was not even from school.She was my kindergarten teacher actually :-)).And Mechanics in class 9.So I never had this tension hounding me that what would happen if I didn't get admission to this particular teacher's tutions.And all of a sudden in class 11,practically everyone started discussing tutions and competitive exams.It was a radical change of scenario overnight.

Taking up Science was a conscious decision.But I put my foot down when it came to choosing additional.I simply refused to take up Biology.I had been PATHETIC in Life Science throughout(it's an understatement).I loathed that subject with a vigorous passion which hurt my mother who's a Physiology glod medalist.She,for her whole life's worth,couldnt figure out just how can her daughter be so hopelessly bad at it.She coaxed me,tried to make me see reason...arrey Bio nile tor shubidei hobe..ami toh guide korte p arbo..tution lagbe na...But I was defiant.I knew I'd flunk it,because it never agreed with me.So in the end she had to give in.

Meanwhile we came back from Sikkim only to find that all vacancies were filled up in all tutions.A friend called me up.......ai!!!what have you done??why havent you taken admission before going away??..ebar ki hobe??...That was precisely my question.What'd happen now??I asked him..tui kothay bhorti hoyechhish re??...He rattled off the names.Each one sounded unfamiliar except Bidhan Bhattacharya(Chemistry).My brother took tutions from him.I turned to ma and said..ma ora shobai enader kaache bhorti hoyechhe.amio hobo?? My mother looked worried...dara re.ami toh kaukei chini na.Shubho dada ke jigyesh kor...

Shubho Dada was my cousin who was,at that time in 2nd year of Construction Engg at JU.He gave me a list of names and warned me that most of them wont take me because I was already running late.Late??You call two weeks late??...welcome to the new jungle ..he laughed.

I remembered calling up Deepak Bhowmik for Physics.Supriyo Ghosh was out of question as I was dreadfully late.And I didn't know Subhojit Bhattacharya's(SB) namethen.I put on a tone dripping sincerity and apology..sir..ami thik jantam na..maane ekta oshubidhe chhilo..so bhorti hote parini...After a 30 minutes verbal fencing match,he agreed to place me in the Saturday morning's batch.

Next came Maths.I knew I'd go to Kalyan Sir.He had taught me Mechanics in class 9-10 and I was familiar with his ways.He is the most humble,down-to-earth,kind,gentle and helpful teacher alive on earth.And what was good about him was,when he got stuck with some problem,he never made fuss of admitting it.I worshipped him.As expected,he didn't have a problem with me asking for admission so late but took me in.

Then I took the admission test at KCD's.I saw no point in going to two teachers for the same subject.Didn't they teach the same thing?(Mind you,I was completely naive in this subject.)The test had a few tricky questions.I remember getting stuck with a surd problem while KCD sat right in front of me staring at my copy.It was so darn unnverving.But I managed to do well.I came around 5th/6th in the exam.

I had decided to take up Statistics as an additional.Why?Because my father had Statistics in his graduation.And I liked the look of the book Giri & Banerjee!(Hehe....my future was to be decided by the look of a book cover!).We went to Giri Sir's class.He turned to be a very amiable,jovial old man with twinkling friendly eyes and a shimmering infectious wit hovering underneath his grey hairs.Getting admission to his tution proved easy.

The most harrowing experience was at the Chemistry tution.It was Narayan Chakraborty,more popularly known as NC.(I didn't get admission to Bidhan Sir's class,as it was already packed).

Thus,I came to get admission to all the tutions.And waited,not so eagerly for them to start.