How I Met Her
Ever wondered how fishes feel if they jumped out of the lake and couldn't just go back in to
the water? The sheer exhaustion it might feel, the breathlessness, the struggle, the angst, the
nervousness- well, that's how I felt on my admission day into college. Before we get into it,
let's back up a little bit.
When I was in the 6th grade I saw my elder sister prepping for her Class 10th Boards and had
kind of gotten used to my mom claiming to my sister- "it's just this one year of hard work and
determination and you have a whole life of enjoyment to follow". I do feel bad for my 15 year
old sister now and if I could go back in time and tell her how it all panned out, well I would
have done it within a second. Well, that's not how it works. To quote my father (who through
years of hard work, dedication and passion had risen up to the ranks of a Lieutenant Colonel in
the Army)- "Life is a book and every event a chapter, so you simply can't skip chapters or
read the last chapter and then come back to how it all started".
So I bought into the theory that life gets mysteriously amazing and beautiful after 10th grade.
Well it didn't. See, me and my sister were students of one of the coolest schools in Trivandrum
City. In the world of teenagers in Trivandrum, it meant a lot if you could say "I'm a SVian"
and even more cool if you understood what it meant. SV was not like any other schools I've
known of. Freedom at its best. No restrictions, amazing crowd, best teachers, beautiful
infrastructure and everything you could ask for in a school. Being brought up in an Army
Background, this school was the prefect escapism an Army Brat could ask for. The school had
a way of bringing out the best in people either academically or in co-curriculars or at frequent
occurrences, in both. Well, it's kind of a shame that despite being from an army background, I
quite didn't associate myself with sports (something I regret till date). My dad would try his
level best to lie his teeth off that he was okay with me not being good in sports but even he
couldn't resist the occasional sports related banter of which I was a concave recipient.
As for my mother, she was happy with me for the reason that she had found me something to
compensate my non-participation in sports. I joined SV when I was in 2nd grade. Before SV, I
was in Assam with my father where I did my schooling from Army Public School, Jorhat. APS had prepared me for something that I was oblivious of till my first Hindi and English classes
in 2nd grade. It is a well-known fact that Kerala has often been titled the most literate state in
India. The image it paints for the non-Keralite is of 5-year-olds practicing greatest plays in
English or reading out Shakespeare's sonnets or practicing to nail "Et to Brutus". That was my
image of Kerala till those first classes. For every child born and brought up in Kerala, the first
horror is not of a ghost or monsters under bed, but having to speak English and Hindi in the
respective classes.
I wouldn't lie that I didn't enjoy the unfair advantage I had above all the other kids in my class
and other divisions too, but I was blooming with confidence and need I remind you that I was
only seven. This advantage of languages gave me the first shot at attention I required. Little
did I know that I had a price to pay? When you have the spotlight on you, you are expected to
deliver the best for all those looking at you. Luckily my mother had found the perfect occasion
for me to show my metal- the Art's Fest '07 at SV. My mother had me participate in events
like Recitation, Elocution and Story Telling. I happen to win prizes in all. That gave me ground
to stand on, a horse to gallop forward which I did for the next 8 years up until I reached 10th
Grade.
What happened to my sister 4 years ago was happening to me. My Mom going forward with
the same monologue she delivered in front of my sister and this time it was me who had to go
through all of it. Well I did graduate fairly from the 10th grade only to have been changed to a
new school which was a whole new world altogether. I was in Arya Central School (or as
students in Trivandrum call it Arya Central Jail). This was a school known for its strictness,
rigidity and results. Most of you can visualize Amitabh Bachchan from Mohabbattein saying
"Parampara, Pratishta, Anushasan" while I describe my new school. The kids in the movie
at least had a saviour, as for me, I was all by myself. This school was every child's nightmare
of how CBSE schools would be like in the 11th and 12th grade. No PT periods, 8-hours-long
working days. Most Saturdays as working days and practice exams every once in a month. The
students there got accustomed to the idea of not getting fresher's day, batch trips or even
farewells at the end of the year. I knew right then these were going to be the longest 2 years of
my life and it still is.
My years in ACS were rough. With my way of speaking and language and a need for showing
off, I got picked on the most in the entire school and that too in a language I sucked, my mother
tongue, Malayalam. 2 years in ACS was preparing for better comebacks in Malayalam for the next day in return for a roast I faced each day. In pursuit of the same I lost touch of both English
and Hindi. Well I could speak but lost the fluency. After 2 long years in the school and various
entrance examinations (NEET, JEE, KEAM, KLEE, KLA, CLAT) it was time for me to start
picking colleges and career paths.
As a surprise to most of my batch mates at ACS, after 2 years of roughhousing in the PCMB
stream I opted law as a career path as I got into Army Institute of Law, Mohali. AIL, Mohali
was not my only option in law though. I had the option of studying law at Government Law
colleges in Kerala and also the prestigious Kerala Law Academy, but the idea of being in
Mohali with Chandigarh right next to it had me make a biased decision although my version
of reason for the same to my parents was that AIL would be the best as it was kind of an Army-
run institution. I got my family on board and as fate would have it, I was in the Legal Aid cell
of Army Institute of Law waiting for my name to be called for the interview with the Principal
and Registrar and that's where I met her for the first time.