FAULT IN MY STARS, JEE AND THEREAFTER

Crossing the hurdles of rigorous schedules of Kota, JEE(joint entrance examination),seat allotments to the most coveted branches, the ups and downs of IIT the end seemed nearer. It was finally the placement season on IIT campus.

Fortunately, I have been a witness to two seasons .One tends to learn a lot as one grows and that’s why these four years made me what I am today.

Season II did not start with a big bang and all the advertisements were missing. I was not well equipped with the knowledge of the uncertainties of applications, interviews and selection criterion. I was not aware of the companies participating in the Grand Finale of IIT.I attribute this to my younger son not being very communicative and his knowledge of Season I’s issues. All the notifications had been intentionally blocked from our calls and hence the lack of excitement was predictable.

Nevertheless, I got a glimpse of Season II only when my son was too busy to take our calls and sent us a text “in presentation”.

Finally in December a late evening call from our son electrically charged the atmosphere saying “Ma aapke ladke ne pehle hi din thok diya ”what was implied was that he had been placed on the very first day of the placement season. While my husband talked of the details, I busied myself in making calls to his elder brother and grandmother. Congratulations from our staff filled up the air all of which he could hear over the phone.

“Why are you all so excited, were you not expecting I will be placed” suddenly gave me a knee jerk. In Season I my elder son was very much upset over our not being excited. He thought we were prying too much and making more enquiries about his friends. It took me a lot of effort to explain to him that if his friends would not be placed, he too would not be as happy as when they would all stand together to celebrate. Lessons learnt it is not easy to make amends.

The two seasons were though four years apart had nothing in common except the final outcome “A JOB” and me wondering about “fault in my stars”.

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