Remembering May 1997

It was March 1997. For our batch of students, the most frenzied phase. Entrance examinations, college examinations, board examinations, examinations, applications, admissions. We studied and prepped and we were ready.

If only..

Starting from the day our Math paper was published on the front page in Deccan Chronicle, the iconic Hyderabad paper, our lives went on a rollercoaster. The entire Intermediate board exams were cancelled and re-scheduled to late April/early May. In what was a never-before-possibly-never-after, the IIT-JEE entrance exam was also compromised that year. Luckily the EAMCET examination was compromised just the year before so we were spared having to re-take that one as well. But the end result of all this was a medley of confusing mess of exams all sitting on top of one another, leading to a hectic May. Heck, I didn't even re-appear for the JEE since I was really exhausted and frustrated with this whole rigmarole. 

Then the results came - we basically had a fair/stalls setup in different places/districts where memorandum of marks were distributed. Students who needed them urgently had no choice but to travel to those locations to collect. If you didn't need them in a hurry, you could still wait for the usual channels. We had written umpteen letters to authorities to have the results delivered by the deadline for application to BITS-Pilani which was June-30. We got them ON June-30, thanks to then CM, Chandrababu Naidu really stepping up. From picking the marks to rushing to the only post office that was still open - Secunderabad HPO, to sending a telegram of the marks to BITS-Pilani before close of admission deadline (this was the only BITS at the time), we didn't even have enough time to look through the marks sheet and process the results and spend a moment to enjoy/relish the end of 15 years of hard work put in high school and +2. Such was the state of affairs. We went home exhausted and relieved more than anything else.

Then the local counseling got delayed. I had to make a call between taking the BITS admission or waiting for the local prospect. I had more or less decided to go to the US after engineering and so didn't want to spend even the engineering years in a hostel and so, my choice was simpler.

Local counseling started. I picked JNTU over OU - it was basically a choice between 20KM commute vs 2 KM and I picked the 20KM commute and I remember my Dad saying throughout the way back that if I have a chance, I should change it - why would I put myself through that pain for four years when I had admission to a college next door. But, I was sure I didn't want to pursue EEE, so wanted to at least give myself a chance to change it. Thank God, I was finally able to move to ECE for having picked this horrible commute, else, who knows, I might have regretted the JNTU decision big time. Or, in the very  least I would have had to listen to many "I-told-you-so", "You-should-have-picked-OU" lines. Given whom I married later, of course, now I can safely claim it was all pre-ordained that I rejected every other (and better) college to end up in JNTU - just to meet him ;)

Well, all that frenzy done and dusted. Now all set to start engineering, right? Hell, no. We joined on December-29-1997. Do NOT ask why. The local process kept getting delayed. And as if to stake a claim to being the batch of 1997-2001, we joined formally with just two days left in 1997 and went to college exactly for those two days before breaking for the new year :)))

So we ended up studying and clearing one year worth of first year engineering material in a record five months!

Anyway, rewind to that phase between July 1997-December 1997 - 6 months. A bunch of teenagers who finished college, were ready for engineering, knew which college they were going to and basically, HAD NOTHING left to do except wait. That was the time of our lives! We went to every eatery in Hyd, every movie theatre, saw all kinds of crappy movies, ate all kinds of food, basically hanged-out around the town like there was no tomorrow.

Thanks to that frenzied May, 25 years ago, we had a blissful 6 month following. The best time of our lives!

Of course, it was agonizing to live through those 6 months, not knowing when we will start (basically like our pandemic now), but thanks to being young and the advantages that come with it, we did manage to really enjoy ourselves thoroughly!