FIVE POINT SOMEONE

Masterpiece!!! No exaggeration here. Although I do feel good about most of the books which I read(Completely), this one is really an exception. I kind of felt all types of emotions reading this book. And yes, I am cursing myself now for not reading this one during my college days ( as if I would have implemented any of their pranks in my life ;-)... Well... You can never say... as you don't know me... ;-)) I can say this is the first English novel which made me feel "Che... Its getting over... Its finishing... as I reached last of the pages."
I generally have the same feeling when I read Tejaswi's Kannada Novels.

I thought of reading this novel when one of my friend recently said that she read it recently as I had to do something for the weekend, I bought this book by paying a mere 95 rupees(and not bucks)Its worth every paisa(and not penny) of it...
As I said I felt the pinch of not reading it during my college days... But no... It was fun reading it even after the college... I imagined myself in such horrenduous situations and My God... I did it only once...

As I start reading a book, I have this habit(Some may say Its Stupid... But I like it...) of mapping the characters present in that book to some realworld people whom I know. Same thing happened with this book also(involuntarily)... No sooner did I start it, I found a typical Hari(Or should I say... A Potential Hari...) Alok was an easy character to decide upon. A typical Indian lower middle class guy with lots of responsibilities... Let me tell you, Ryan's character was a bit tough to decide upon. I had almost decided on one person, but then too many complications came out and I left that character as a blend of some 2-3 persons whom I know(One person taking 50% of Ryan's character... :-)) And then came Neha's character. I actually thanked myself later that I didn't map this girl to anyone whom I know(Reason Unknown)... I just saw someone in the Shopping complex and thought "Perfect" :-).

And I had an IIT in mind also(You know guys what I am referring here) and I stayed in the hostel for one year also. And guess what, I had taken some ragging also (Not exactly what these guys had... Uff... :-) ) Well I must say, even seniors who call us for Intro have some fear... and my Height played a big role in rescuing me from some of the pranks I guess.
We were called on by the seniors(Karnataka guys... We had this strange rule in our hostel wherein only Karnnataka seniors can rag their karnataka juniors and Non-Karnataka guys are not suppose to get involved in this... And vice-versa was also followed). On my ragging day, my bad luck was that I had a senior who had a same name of mine and don't know for what... he got a bit pissed on me... He started asking my name's meaning and I frankly told what my mom had mentioned it to me someday but, no ways... He wouldn't let it go till I tell somemthing which is there in his mind. Finally I gave up and he enligtened me only after I went to mess and filled all his empty water botlles and came back. And there was this one squinted senior who was also in the gang to rag us. When he started asking me some questions, I just couldn't make out where was he seeing... So I kept quiet thinking its none of my business... But then when he raised his hand towards me, only then I realised that was for me and later got some sever scoldings from him for no fault of mine(What can I do if he is squinted???)

I don't even remember now who else was there with me on that day . But one guy was made to sing the same song 3 times in a row(Well... he took it with pleasure I suppose). I had another round of ragging next day with some other seniors where one of the guy was almost of my height but when the figures were revealed, I beat him by 1.5 inches. :-)... He wasn't at all amused by that fact. So he decided to take it out on me and for the entire half an hour duration of the intro I was made to stand in half leg posture(>).Not on kness mind you ... that would have been a lot better... And after that they let me go after telling some Non Veg jokes.

Nothing really exciting happened after that and I must admit I really had a sad ragging experience(as if I had longed for more then... ;-) )... One more simillarity was my first Internal marks... I must tell you this... :-)

I always did not like maths that much... Only when all hells break loose upon me, I used to study(STUDY... mind you and not workout problems) maths... I used to get ok ok kind of marks also in that... The whole of my college maths I just used to do it for the last 3 days as it used to be the first exam everytime. I had got some good marks in my PU and I was brimmimng with confidence and I DID NOT STUDY AT ALL FOR THE FIRST INTERNAL MATHS. And when I saw my marks I was actually surprised for a moment, 23!!! Cool marks I thought.... Then someone told(I had cursed him then...)," Its out of 50"... Then I came back to my senses and there I was, having 12 out of 25(Its still around 50% mind you...) But our college had this strange rule, Only 15 is considered as pass and I had actually FLUNKED for the first time in the my entire life time. Had I done a Alok for that,( I don't have that much guts I know... But still....it was an option for me... ;-)) I was told that my parents will be called upon and I will have to attend extra classes and all(None of them materialised though... :-) )
But I had to figure out something to say to my parents...
Naturally when the report card went to my home, Dad called up asking whether he has to come down or what... as it was mentioned in that card to contact the Head of the Department if the marks are below 60%. Even I didn't know what to tell... and I just ignored his question then. Nothing really happened for that matter and then I learnt to take things lightly in the college and after somedays one more situation came where I had to keep my cool to prove myself that I had grown up and not a "fattu"... But Did I?