Chinni world

God proposes... Anand disposes...

2008-09-07T19:04:00.012+05:30

‘Yeah sure…you’ll get it by next Monday. Don’t you worry!” he assured the caller on his phone. A beautiful lady, introduced to him as his personal assistant, informed him that she deposited the cheque for Rs.5 lakh in his account. He looked at her stoically and she retired to her desk wondering why he did not give the expression of a happy man earning handsome amount. He didn’t change the expression, if there’s one that he’s wearing, but fixed his gaze at the blank skies through the window…
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Anand was considered a child prodigy by his parents as well as the teachers. They believed that he would make it big someday, given his versatility in a gamut of arts and studies. And he was never short of opportunities coming his way. But they could never read what he would do next... he displayed dazzling skills always but at the right time! He attended the selections for club level football team skipping his class 12 exams. The coach was so impressed with his raw talent that, besides picking him, suggested him to be regular so that he could be nurtured to make a great prospect in the game. After having trained for months under the watchful coach, he abstained from his first match in the league to appear for his class 12 supplementary exams!! He came out with flying colors but his coach pledged to see to it that Anand would never have to do anything with the black n white ball again.

Sciences and engineering were the subjects in demand for graduation and they would be obvious choices for anyone who had as good an aggregate as Anand, but our protagonist had other plans, as usual. Out of nowhere, the love for arts cropped up… and before his parents could raise their eyebrows in surprise he took admission in the city college. He continued to surprise them as he attended the classes religiously. Looking at his articles in the college magazine in his first semester itself his English professor, Dr.Rao, was quite pleased and started pampering him as he identified the spark in his writings. Dr.Rao, being a popular author himself, identified Anand as a great prospect and decided to groom him.

Sindhu, Anand’s senior and a member of the editorial team was curious to see him, as the professor, not very famous for appreciating his students publicly, repeatedly praised the young lad. She was bowled over by the hunk that he was. They worked together for the magazine in the times that followed and the inevitable had to happen. They could not spend much time away from each other, nothing unpredictable of course, but their need for isolation hindered the-systematic Dr.Rao’s timetable that he prepared for Anand. He wanted Anand to read Shakespeare’s works like Romeo and Juliet but this romeo had his own Juliet to look after. He wanted Anand to attend workshops on skills like articulation but Anand used all his articulation skills in finding excuses to skip the workshops and go to coffee shop with Sindhu.

The professor could only manage to catch more time of his boy when Sindhu passed out of the college. He used his own skills in successfully inducing some seriousness into the boy’s head. Anand, for a change, didn’t mind to be pre-occupied with work as he got his parent’s consent already for Sindhu.

“I’ve decided long back that your marriage will be with Mathur’s son”, asserted Sindhu’s dad. “And he’s your junior? Which means, he is still a kid who must be having no seriousness in life for me to believe that he’d take care of my daughter. It’s not for nothing that our tradition says the groom must be older than the girl”, he continued. But Sindhu was equally eloquent and adamant to convince her dad to take a decision after meeting Anand. She was confident that her father would be as impressed by the boy as Dr.Rao. “But I promised him that I’d heed to his word and be engaged to Mathur uncle’s son if he’s genuinely not impressed by you!!” she informed, rather pleaded, Anand to make sure he would come all prepared. Anand, never a man to feel pressure, could sense her anxiety and took her hand assuringly.

“Anand… my son!! Here’s a golden opportunity for you, the best gift that I can ever give you… I’ve got you short-listed for the “Budding Indian Writers” competition in Shimla. If you make a mark, publishers will come forward to sponsor your works! It’s up to you now to stand up and deliver. It’s your first major step in becoming a professional writer!!” Dr.Rao told Anand on phone, beaming with happiness. He told Anand that his itinerary was planned and he’d have to start the next day morning. He’d be away for 10days. Anand rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. It was 10mins past midnight! He woke up his parents and told the news. They wasted no time and he was all set to travel the next morning. Once he made himself comfortable in the train, he felt his heart in his mouth as he remembered that Sindhu must be expecting him that day!! He was restless for a while, but consoled himself, “I’ll meet her family immediately after I go back”. In the following few days he excelled in presenting his ideas, his works and his style. RK publishers selected Anand and five others and invited them to their annual ceremony where they would award them a sponsorship, explaining them the importance of making it, for it would be attended by their boss, a man famous for his short temper.

Anand was heartbroken…he felt the ground moving violently under his feet and wished the seismic forces suck him to the depths instantly when Sindhu’s father told him she had been married to some Mr.Mathur’s son and already left to the USA. “I always sensed that you are a kid, you don’t know what life is and how serious it is. Sindhu could understand it only when you left for some stupid competition knowing very well the consequences!!” her dad fumed. A few weeks passed by but Anand could not come out of the shock. Quite a number of phone calls were not answered, including those from the RK publishers. On a fateful day, Anand’s dad picked the call when he was just home from work and the voice on the other end summarized, “We’ve been trying to reach Mr.Anand for some time now. We communicated to him how important it is for him to be present at our annual ceremony. Our boss is miffed at his unavailability and we are sorry to inform that the sponsorship offer stands withdrawn”. Anand did not answer his dad. It seemed unimportant for him, but he was obviously late in realizing this. The other important thing he failed to realize was how miserable he made his parents' life to be. His father, crestfallen, suffered a cardiac arrest leaving Anand and his mother in dumps.

Anand had to find work. Dr. Rao, like RK publisher’s boss, didn’t want to see Anand again after all that had happened. But, like as usual, very prospective proposals came his way. And, like as usual, he disposed them all… When he was offered his father’s job, thanks to the persistent efforts of his dad’s colleagues, he was busy convincing his school-days violin guru to take him as his full-time disciple. After some months, when the guru was convinced that he could recommend Anand’s name for the upcoming events in A.I.R, Anand found himself too busy with an offer of writing the script for a film to be made by his college friend. And when the script was 80% complete, his friend found him teaching salsa dance!! And when……… the list seemed to never-ending!!

Fifteen years later Anand found himself in a printing press, doing the modest job of a proof reader. God seemed to get tired of his proposals so Anand hardly had anything to dispose… It may be because of the time that had slipped away quietly or the loss of his mother, who, despite spending ten years more than her husband with their son, hardly understood Anand any better, Anand mellowed down in the last few years. Anand was just surviving, not living, in melancholy having lost everything in life in his pursuit of… well, he never knew!!

One day, Dr.Rao visited the printing press and came across Anand. He thought it was someone he knew but could not recollect immediately…Anand identified him instantly, but just slipped away immediately feeling shameful of how he ruined his professor’s faith in him. Dr.Rao enquired who that was he had just seen and then recognized Anand. He spent more time and gathered as much information about Anand as the people around could give. “He always comes to me with a notebook in his hand, tries to convey something but shies away from telling what he wanted to say. I never tried to know what he’s struggling to say” said one man. The professor checked Anand’s table and found the notebook. “The talent that comes with birth, never fades away”, said the professor to himself after reading the first two pages and left the press with the notebook. Anand later found the notebook missing but it didn’t bother him.

“God proposed so many beautiful things to me, I disposed them all…”. It was the first line in the notebook, as well as the last one. Between these two, Anand poured out his life. Dr.Rao assigned the book as a case-study to his students and asked for their feedback. “He’s a loser by choice..” ruled one of the students in their next session couple of days later. “He’s just crazy!!” exclaimed another. “I’ve so far seen many works about how to create or win opportunities, this one tells how not to miss the opportunities” said one more student. “I fell in love with his love story”, “My elder brother realized he has more things to look for in his kid son!”, “Life is a serious business”, “Besides the content, there’s freshness and amazing skill in the articulation and presentation. It has every reason to be a great book” are some more reactions. Though the professor limited himself to distributing the copies among his students, slowly but gradually it reached wider circle. Two years later, he got a call from a renowned publisher proposing a deal to print and distribute the book. It was released with the title “God proposes, Anand disposes”. For a debutant, it became a decent seller to start with and gradually became more popular. A hunt was launched to trace Anand who, though less frequently, never stopped changing places and jobs. Anand had the reason to smile after many years. Not only that his book won laurels, but he was also handed over a handsome amount. Publishers queued up to release his next work. As irony would have it, he accepted RK publishers’ offer and started working on his next book. They were very confident, with the sample drafts that Anand had sent thus far, that a masterpiece and a great story-teller were in the making so much that they were prepared to offer him life time contract.
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Anand’s secretary came in to bid good bye for the day and found him still gazing through the window. She thought he must be plotting for the climax of his book and retired silently without disturbing him. Yes, he is in deep thoughts. He got to play soccer with some school kids near his home yesterday evening and one of the youngest came up to him and innocently asked, “Uncle, you are playing so well… would you coach me? I want to become a good player!!”. Anand got up from the chair. The book is not in his mind. He just said to himself, “Soccer is my future… I could not become a good player, but I will become a good coach” and rushed out of his office. God must be wishing, “Oh no… Not Again!!”

Stars of Chinni’s World – 1

2008-01-21T18:37:00.000+05:30

My uncles used to tell me the story of an inspirational man in our childhood. In fact, the man was a living example and there for all of us to closely observe and feel his greatness.

Once upon a time in a remote village, there was a couple Sriramayya and Mallamma. While all his remaining siblings were well off Sriramayya was one unlucky guy, loosing money in everything. These poverty-stricken couple lost their first kid within few days of his birth. In another couple of years, Mallamma gave birth to another baby boy, but within few months he was detected with small pox. Everyone thought the baby boy was no more but an elderly lady’s tantric methods brought him to life! Here he arrived, beginning his life with a struggle, making it his habit in the days to come…

Mallamma named her son Venkanna and her world revolved around him. But yet, not getting a penny of income from the head of the family made life really tough for them (single-meal-days were so common!!) and Mallamma had no option but to engage herself in some labour. She used to buy tobacco from the local merchants and roll them into cigars. Once Venkanna reached the age of 11-12years, he used to carry these cigars to the nearest town to get better returns (as the local merchants were not offering a better deal), walking all the way 13kms on either side… On the days he hadn’t had to go to the market, he took the cattle of his neighbours to the grazing fields and guard them, just anticipating a meal from their owner. All this, he did by still maintaining good aggregate and extra-curricular activities at school. Eventually, in the state-wide public examinations for class X, he was the only one to pass in first class in the entire mandal comprising about 40 villages, while his close friend Raju missed it by just 5-6marks. There were celebrations all over the village and Venkanna was hailed for bringing name to the village. But the real tests were yet to come.

Venkanna was not in a position financially to go ahead with higher education. He went to his uncles to plead for supporting his further education and faced the embarrassment of his life time. One of the uncles offered a permanent employment to feed his cattle, another one just made a mockery while another one made this kid stand in his corridor all the day without saying a ‘yes’ or ‘no’!! And before this young boy could decide whether to cry his heart out, the family had to move away from the village as Sriramayya had become completely bankrupt by now, owing money to almost all and sundry in the village. The family shifted their base to Mallamma’s maternal village. All the villagers who gave money to Sriramayya had given up any hopes of getting their money back. But this had a huge beating on Venkanna’s pshyche and left him heart-broken.

In his uncle’s village, Venkanna, along with his cousins, used to spend time in the local big-shot and politically influential Ammanna’s house. Ammanna used to engage this boy in activities like writing letters and other stationary work. Observing the boy’s spark, planning of activities and keen interest in things, Ammanna felt he could do more to the boy. He sent him to a contractor and the boy could start his career, finally, at the age of 17 as a temporary labor in a government company with a monthly earning of 150 rupees. But Venkanna told his parents that his salary is only 100 rupees. Venkanna continued to impress the management and cemented his place in the company, becoming a permanent employee within two years. He still continued to hide the actual earnings from his parents and build the reserves of his savings.

One fine day, at the age of 24, almost 8-9 years after they vacated his birth place, Venkanna landed in his village, his birth-place!! He carefully distributed the savings he accumulated all these years and went to each of the persons to whom his father owed money, politely told them that he could save money to re-pay almost 80% of the debt and requested them to write-off the remaining amount. For the people who have already given up on the entire amount, it sounded like music to their ears!! In the course of these re-payment meetings, Venkanna happened to meet Ramulu garu, a very hard-working and kind-hearted yet a rich-man himself. Ramulu was so impressed with this guy so much that he could see himself in Venkanna. He did a thorough enquiry about the boy and made him his son-in-law, by giving him the apple-of-his-eye, Roja!! It was a move of Ramulu which surprised many in the village… as Ramulu had already found rich alliances to his other daughters. And Venkanna was a man who did not have even a hut of his own!! But as they say, marriages are made in heaven, and so was this one.

When the new couple started, they were a family of four (including his parents) living in a house with a single room!! Venkanna realized that his job was far from over… he strived to improve their living condition, carefully planning each and every rupee of his income. Roja quickly read the situation and proved to be the real better half of her man, valuing every penny of her husband’s income. She was Venkanna’s greatest strength, understanding him to the core, although having come from a rich family. They had two sons in due course of time. Venkanna had set two clear-cut motives: 1. To provide quality education to his children (which he was deprived of in his childhood, and which his equally hard-working friend Raju, who went on to become a professor, got despite several difficulties of his own!!) 2. To improve their condition and standard of living.

The couple did the long journey together, taking some hard decisions and sacrificing their short-term fun moments for their long term goals. Venkanna was well known for his systematic and planned approach and he implemented them meticulously. He made sure his kids had absolutely no pressure on them and got good facilities. He continued to take care of his parents and the greatest thing was that he carried the responsibility of being the only son with aplomb, even though as-a-matter-of-fact, it was his father’s inability that led to almost all the hardships he faced in life!! Venkanna could certainly achieve his targets, although not in a typical filmy style, turning big over-night… Yes, it took time. Not one or two years, but a couple of decades!! I came to know recently from my uncle that he could own a double storeyed house and a small car. His sons settled well in their lives and gave the satisfaction to him that all he relinquished was worthwhile. He earned the status, respect and reverence with only one way he knew… HARD WORK!!

Venkanna is my hero because he is someone who I can really try to emulate to make it big... He is my hero, for showing what a sustained-hard work can result in. He is my hero, for exemplifying the value of character and values… And yes, he is my hero because I am what I am because of him!! Venkanna is none other than my ever loving dad, Venkata Rao!! Roja, is my sweet mom Saroja. Ammanna garu is the father of our ex-minister and senior congress leader Gudivada Gurunadha Rao garu. And lastly, my college friends will appreciate this, dad’s friend Raju is none other than late Dr.K. Appala Raju sir, HOD of Mathematics dept in NIT Warangal!!

Flight to Paris (Part II)

2006-05-30T19:56:00.000+05:30

I asked Santosh, my buddy in Mumbai, to come to airport so that I can spend the 3 hrs of transit chatting with him. But the airport folks told that I’d not be allowed to go out. I sat there, all alone, blinking into the darkness outside. My thoughts were lingering around the girl, my missed opportunity to meet Santosh etc.
Slowly, the darkness was thrown away, and so were my blank thoughts and petty disappointments, with rays of the glorious sun in front of my eyes and inside my mind…

And soon I heard the final call for my flight… I ran briskly towards the gate uttering in myself, “Huh..final call...When am I going to get rid of this last minute catching ups??” I was just sitting in the waiting hall doing nothing and was still late in boarding the flight!! I was also quick in consoling myself, “Okay, what happened now?? After all, you are a proud product of REC Warangal… not your fault you see” Hahahaaa…

As I entered the flight, I was soon searching for beautiful gals in the flight, very sure that my seat would be next to one of them!! The airhostess showed my seat. Alas… beside an old couple, in their eighties, with a suspicious look at me as if I came there to disturb their privacy!! With the balloon of my dreams busted, I took a deep sigh and laughed at myself wryly. As I settled in my seat with a broken heart, I remembered that I didn’t do something that I am so good at…sleeping!! I was soon into deep sleep. May be, in a way, I must be actually happy… had I been sitting beside a pretty woman I would have had to postpone my sleep by another 9hrs!! hahahaaa…

I must mention about the take off at the Mumbai airport. It’s an awesome sight and experience, at least for the first time flier… As you fly into the skies, you’d soon be over the Arabian sea within a few minutes.

There I was, stepping my foot on the foreign land for the first time… welcomed by a cool breeze at 10 Deg.C at 1.30 p.m local time. Exchanged my travellers’ cheques, took a phone card and went to a booth to call parents. But as I lifted the phone, everything was displayed and read in French. I went to the next booth to try my luck if it would be in English. But I came back like a ball hit to a wall… a young couple were deeply engaged in a lip-lock. Cough.. cough… so there I was, not taking too long to get the feel of “the most romantic city on the planet”. I quit my idea of calling home then and proceeded to the taxi stand.

“Residency Grand Arche”, I said. The taxi driver nodded in agreement, reluctant to see the route map to my hotel that I brought. And my eyes stuck to the window again for around an hour, until the driver stopped and signaled that we reached the destination. I was wondering how that place could be a hotel!! But I thought that fellow dropped me at the parking lot of the hotel. Paid him and as I asked for bill, he gave me a strange look meaning, “From which planet are you bloke??”. And zzzooooom.. he left. I stood there for a few minutes looking for my onsite colleagues. After a few more minutes I started searching for human beings!! Nowhere could I find anyone atleast to ask where I was, nor could I find any phone booth. I understood that I was lost… ha.. can anything get better?? Yes indeed… only in movies did I see rains at moments of truth!! And there I was, lost in alien land and standing in rain…

I saw some people walking on an over bridge, but I could not find how to reach there. I decided I should make a move and with all my baggage I crossed the speedway, jumped over the divider and climbed up the bridge. (Huh… that was an arduous task with all my luggage!!). All this while, the vehicle riders and the overbridge pedestrians were gazing at me strangely and I didn’t understand the meaning then!! After a 15mins walk, I felt I reached a place where I can give a clue about where I was to my mates. And after 30mins of waiting, there came Srinivas and Mayank. I could see the twinkling of their teeth from far across… and as they reached me, they rolled over laughter!!

Later I learnt that the place where the driver dropped me is the basement of The Grand Arche, a monumental structure in Paris, while my hotel was also named after it!! (Like in Hyderabad we have Golconda fort and Hotel Golconda..hahaha). And that we should say “ticket” instead of “bill” to the taxi driver(I lost 50euros for not knowing this) and that we have to cross the roads only on zebra crossings (such a rule exists in India too, but who cares about that??), and that too, only when there is green light for pedestrians!! All these realizations evoke laughter whenever I think about that…
What is so special, after all, going abroad without experiences like this?? :-)
I wonder about one thing though... While I was thinking all the while about what to do next, why did I not get frightened for having been lost in an alien land?? Hmm... another result of being a product of REC?? :))

Flight to Paris (part I )

2006-05-20T00:22:00.000+05:30

It was my first trip to abroad, and is memorable in all possible ways…
… including how the travel agent played hide and seek with my visa until the day of travel.

Yeah, I was sent for a month-long stay in Paris on a Business-Visa. So, according to the rule book, I was not supposed to work!! Okay, let me be clearer, I should not do any work that is supposed to be done by a salaried employee… So, I was given a tour by my manager about different ways of bluffing the emigration n the immigration authorities ( Aah, how nice of my mgr… I had thus far seen only mgrs preaching honesty n sincerety!!). And can you find any other specimen in this world who can better me in bluffing?? ;-)

My flight to Mumbai was at 3.30 a.m, and I reached the Bangalore airport by 12.30 a.m accompanied by Pradeep and thoughts of my family (they were very anxious for me, and even angry on me for not allowing them to come to Bangalore and send me off!!). Pradeep, having come back from Paris just the previous day, convinced me that it’s waste of 100bucks to take an entry ticket into airport for non-travelers. I entered the airport, for the first time in my life as a passenger, all alone and looking back at Pradeep as he was waving his hand from outside (I later realized how correct he was, Bangalore airport is one stupid airport of its kind!! In Vizag airport, you can see and wave at ur friends even as they are boarding the flight…).

After I checked-in my baggage and collected my boarding pass, I met the interviewer… the inspector of emigration dept.
“What r u?”
“I’m a software engineer with Infosys”
“Can I check your company id card?”
“Yeah sure…here it’s”
“You said you are working for Infosys Bangalore, but your id is of Infosys Hyderabad?”
“Yeah, I’m from Hyderabad.. but now working in Bangalore”
“You are from Hyd? But your passport says you are from Vizag??”
“Aaah… my home-city is Vizag, I’m an employee of Hyderabad Infy and now working in Bangalore!!”
“Ok..it’s so simple, why do u get confused??” (Huh.. so he declared it’s me who got confused… as u say sir!!)

“Why are you going to Paris?”
“To meet our client… on a project purpose”
“What is the purpose?” (Yesss… here’s my chance… go ahead Suddu, u r unstoppable!!)
“Actually, you see.. eh… we have an agreement with our client for phase one of the project. I’m now going to show a detailed presentation on how well we did in phase one and discuss with them the business we can have with them for phase two of the project…” ( Isn’t it the heights?? A mere software developer beating the role of a business manager?? But hold on… the big one is yet to come..)

“Then why do u want to stay for one month for just a presentation?”
“Because, my meeting with the client could well end up with signing the contract for phase two of the project…I need to discuss the logistics!!” (Gosh… can anything get better???)
Probably, he had had enough… he just asked me to proceed to the security check.

Done with the formalities, as I proceeded to board the flight… I saw a gracious gal walking in front of me, along with her parents in the aisle. I was sure she would sit beside her mom and leave her poker-faced dad beside me. But to my pleasant surprise, she showed the seats to her parents and sat next to me… we just exchanged a pleasantry look, and I’d be lying now if I say I could hide the smile, rather a grin, on my face!! It’s an odd time of the night (3.30 in the morning), she has fallen asleep. As I was amused at the tiny objects through the window… I felt some weight on my shoulder. For a fraction of second, I thought it’s the hand of the gal’s father!! But as my luck would have it, it’s the gal herself, deep in her sleep (or pretending to be so…) leaning her head on my shoulder!! Aaaaah… eureka kasa misa rasa basa… I was on clouds, both literally and even otherwise!! :))

But, as is it’s always, all good things end up so quickly!! And so was our journey… we reached Mumbai in an hour. We again exchanged the same looks and smile, only then I could realize how sweet a “hi” and a “bye” could be just with a look… And my thoughts were lingering, “if a flight to Mumbai could provide me with such a pleasant experience, how good the flight to Paris is going to be!!”

Stay tuned to know how good my flight to Paris actually was…

Yaadein.. my memories to cherish!! (part I)

2006-05-06T21:15:00.000+05:30

Hi friends... here's my first posting... about one incident for which I must have laughed at myself countless no. of times by now!!

This is such a cherished memory in my life... that I am making this my first post in my blog!!

I was in my 2nd standard when this happened...
I was busy in making the class room very noisy, of course along with all my other friends, when Ms M.Shakunthala entered the class with a bunch of green coloured cards which eventually put a red light to my noise. They were our Report cards or what you call the "Progress cards" for our quarterly exams!!!

I don't really remember who was the first ranker then... it must be Vijay, I'm not sure. But I remember only two boys failing... one, Mr.X and two... hahaha... none other than yours truly!! :))
Yeah... I failed in English, not by a whisker but by a few miles!! To be precise, I scored 11 out of 100...!!! I don't really remember how I gave the exam, but I remember the eleven, underlined with a red ink pen, in my report card...
And that was not the end of it... Shakuntala madam was very popular for the way she punishes... And I'm the one, along with my friend X, to share the limelight in that "moment of glory"!! She hanged a placard around our necks. I don't know in which subject X has failed... but my placard read " I FAILED IN ENGLISH... I'M A DONKEY". She made both of us go into each class in that corridor and made people (of course, other kids...) mock at us... So shyless creature I was, that I didn't even realize then that it was the time when I have to feel ashamed... instead, I was enjoying all the attention I was getting!! And that puzzled our teacher even more!! ;-)

But the real tough time came when I had to ask my dad to sign the report card that evening!! My elder brother, who got a high grade in his class, just managed to satisfy my dad to sign his report card.. When my turn came, my dad's face went colorless!! I can't help rolling over laughter whenever I think of my dad's expression then!!Actually he felt shameful to sign under Shankuntala teacher's remarks, which said, "Very poor. Hopeless performance"!! And once my brother told my dad all that had happened in the school that morning, he threw the card and told me that he was not going to sign that... it was the only time ever in my school life when my mom signed my report card!! :)) I love you mom!! :))

And the irony is, I was thinking to myself... "Why are all these people making a big mess of it?? Infact, I did quite well to reach 11 !!!" hahahaha......

PS: I was the topper of our school in Xclass, creating a new record by aggregating 93% while my friend successfully failed to pass the exams!! [Hey.. don't conclude that I'm being rude to him.. coz he's now a leading businessman in his own proffession, all b'coz his dad didn't encourage his further studies!! :-) ] And Shakuntala madam's kiss on my forehead after the results is something I can't forget ever... Thank you ma'm!!