IInd year............Resolution for ‘Movieng’

I was weeping in the second class railway compartment when papa came back wearing sunglasses (in order to hide his tears) to encourage me for my goal. I was at home for more than three months and during this phase i almost forgot that i have to go again to AU to complete my Bachelor Degree. This homesickness was the reason why i was weeping (not my marks, 51.8 %, as Pankaj Yadav had told me on phone). Now the journey for Allahabad was questioning me for my existence. I was jerked inside out. This stroke was sounder because my friends who used to roam with me were quite ahead in digits on mark sheets. I had started counting my mistakes of I^st year. My first mistake was avoiding study after classes. Second was extra social activities and third i listed my movie schedule. I saw Bad Boys II as my first movie without telling my parents. This start accelerated my frequency of visits to cinema hall and i started finding that size of TV was very small. This much addiction placed me in the elite group of movie buffs. So i decided to do something to overcome my Project B.Sc. and achieve at least 70 % marks to make an average of 60. This was strategically goaled as it was eligibility for many entrance and competitive examinations.

Anurag: Kas be, what exactly are you doing?

Me: Nothing man, just trying to show others my relevance to study.

Anurag: Great. Come; let’s have a cup of tea at the University road.

I put a shirt and went with Anurag.

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Till now I had made some good friends. Apart from Lalit, Rajiv, Bhaiya and some hostel batch mates, I had Ashish Pandey (from Allahabad), Pankaj Yadav (from Allahabad), Manish Rai (from Azamgarh), Alok Singh (from Sultanpur) and Abhishek Singh (from Gorakhpur). They were actually spotted by Rajiv and being a room partner i got to interact with them. This friendship worked as chain reaction. There were so many people who suddenly got written into my good book and eventually i into them. My prime focus was on increasing marks. So i talked to lalit for tuition. Lalit had joined tuition classes last year and offered me for the same. I talked to rajiv and he agreed. We reached to Mr. Deepak Dubey (Research Associate under a renowned Professor of Physics). He was residing 1 km away from our hostel. Earlier he was in Hindu Hostel but later he shifted to that lodge. We were impressed with him. He also suggested us teacher for Chemistry on our request. We joined Rajiv Mishra for Chemistry. He was an inmate of P C Banarjee hostel. Rajiv also could not score well. So we had long way full of difficulties. I and rajiv had decide to keep these classes secret. Now we used to attend only Maths classes and that too of selected teachers. Hence we had jam-packed all the three subjects. This step was hard but it’s tougher to maintain overall 60 % when you score so badly in first year.

Whole year was full of events. There were many ego problems among us for many times. Up to December we enjoyed a lot. Sometimes Manish and pandey used to come to our hostel and we all together made food for thought for all for work and for sleep as well. Similarly we hostellers used to do. I had to make balance in the relationships between me – Rajiv and me – Lalit. Sometimes i used to go to Prayag with Alok Singh. Bhaiya and Rajiv accompanied us a few times. Rajiv lured me a lot of times for free movie. But i had decided, so i controlled my emotions. Finally we started playing under pressure from January onwards. That was the time when electricity starts playing and teasing us for our rest of the year relaxation. This time we got better schedule for examination. There was some movement run by Student Union behind this comfort. In holi this time again i and rajiv rocked and shocked. We went to Rajiv’s friend’s room with some fruits, Parle – G and necessary items to spend a night. That night was supposed to be full of study but.... Next couple of days we strived for food. Finally we decided to cook it ourselves. It was Rajiv who called his mom to ask how to prepare Daal. We made rice and tadka was on the heater. Against my instructions, rajiv poured daal earlier than the desired time. This made daal really horrible. Somehow we managed those days. Exams were academic tests for most of us but once you are far from your house you are compelled to learn a lot of things. After the exams were over, a satisfactory smile was crossing the faces of all friends of that group.

Abhishek: So dhruva, finally where do you zero in?

Me: Sangeet Cinema, Mumbai Express, Evening show.

Abhishek: Ok.

My room was looking at me while i was planning for movies and all. It must have been thinking of human attitude. I was somewhat confident of my marks in the examination. And now i wanted to enlarge my screen view through regular visits to cinema hall. I watched around 10 movies in those vacations. Khaki, Kya cool hain hum, My wife’s murder, mashooqa etc. Finally we all set ourselves to hang out at home with different delicious cuisines and lot of care and love.