Times have Changed - 2

It hasn’t been long since I blogged about how times have changed. Now, the time has come for me to throw in yet another real life incident. This is a letter written to me by my friend Swathi, today morning regarding her son, Kashyap’s admission to Dilhi Private Paathasala (DPP). I am reproducing the letter here as it is.

Hi Ravi,

How are you? I am fine and Pavan and Kashyap are also doing great. I know it’s been long since we spoke to each other. How are things going at your end and how are your preparations going for GD and PI? Why don’t you come for lunch this Saturday? I am sure we can catch up on lot many things.

By the way, this weekend has been one of the most eventful days of my life since Kashyap was born. You know, how I have always dreamt of sending Kashyap to a World Class - International School like DPP. This Saturday, Kashyap and I went to DPP to write the entrance test for 1^st Class admissions. Though Kashyap is well prepared and of course very intelligent, I couldn’t hold my nerves and am feeling very nervous. When we reached DPP, I saw more than 150 mothers gathered there with their children. The scene itself is daunting. Most of them I spoke to are housewives and are taking best care and attention for their children. Since the exam is yet to start, all of them referring to notes they bought with them and revising the course syllabus. But, I didn’t bring any notes with me and couldn’t let Kashyap revise any of the lessons I taught him. The bell rang and I sent Kashyap in wishing him all the best. While Kashyap is writing the exam, everyone is talking about how well prepared their children are. When I heard all that, tears streamed rolling down my cheeks as I felt I have done injustice to Kashyap by not taking enough attention for his entrance test in DPP. As both Pavan and I are working, I though we spent less time with Kashyap than the mothers that have come here. I felt like I am a bad mother for Kashyap as I couldn’t prepare him at par with his fellow test takers. That 2.5 hrs of test duration were one of the most tensed moments of life. I thought about so many things raging from how bad a mother I am, from how difficult the test is, from how Pavan would react when I tell him what all transpired here at DPP to how well Kashyap is feeling inside the test room. Finally, after the exam is over, Kashyap came running to me feeling little exhausted and enthusiastic. From his face, I could make out that he wrote the test well. But, Ravi, you know that these are the days when good is not good enough. We have to be best to be good. After half an hour, a well dressed lady came to us and addressed the parents briefing the admission process post written test. She said that they would announce the results on Sunday evening on their website www.dpp.edu/admissions.

While driving back to our home from DPP, I asked Kashyap about the questions that are asked in the entrance exam. He said the exam is tough, but he could write well. You know, the questions that are asked in the examination are not what I have expected. Some of the questions are what is 13*12, Explain your father’s profession. My God, Ravi, I don’t know what DPP expects from their students. Pavan was sitting at our apartment balcony waiting for us and I narrated him the entire drama.

Next day, we logged in to their website and waiting for the results anxiously. Pavan is pacing in and out of living room, not able to contain his anxiety and I am refreshing the page every 2 minutes. Kashyap went to swimming class and Tennis coaching. At around 8 25PM, the results were out and I started searching for Kashyap’s name frantically all through. I scrolled the entire page and couldn’t find it. By this time, I am almost sobbing while hugging Pavan. Pavan took the laptop from me and scrolled carefully searching for Kashyap’s name. I could see his fingers shivering slightly while scrolling down. And then, all of a sudden he screamed loudly and started to dance. He highlighted Kashyap’s name using his mouse and started dancing again. We screamed with joy and happiness and distributed sweets in our neighborhood. I was so happy that I started dancing too. Kashyap made me proud. Real proud. I never felt as happy as I did on that day. May be, that’s an overstatement. But yeah, it feels so true. Couple of hours later, we received an email from the Head Mistress of DPP congratulating Kashyap and us for his achievement and asking us to be present for an interview, today evening. Now, Pavan is of course elated but slightly more tensed that we might put Kashyap’s future in jeopardy. Both of us have taken day off today and trying to stay as calm as possible and putting our best foot forward for today’s interview. To relieve my pressure, I thought of telling you everything!

I am sure you wish us all the best for what seems to be one of the most important interviews of our life. I am hoping they wouldn’t ask us questions like State Euler’s theory, Define Anachronism, what is the meaning of Asphyxiation. I will write to you tomorrow on what happened today. Got to go now. I am yet to iron Pavan’s suit for today’s interview. Catch you later. Have a good day!

Cheers,

Swathi.