Hindi.....Are you serious?!

So academics and me were never a great combo right from school days up until college. My mom being a private tutor, it was kind of embarrassing to say the least but I managed to sail through with average grades and some exceptions.....That's that!

Concluding high school i.e. S.S.C has always been a milestone for any child in India and the pressure that dwells on students is insurmountable. I passed and got my admission through sports quota at one of the suburban colleges in Mumbai. Yes, I was a state level sprinter.

So here I was gearing up for my first day of COLLEGE - New found sovereignty!

I opted for Commerce and was in my first year, happily enjoying the freedom to attend or skip lectures, celebration of various days in college, matinee show movies etc. That was the year when the epic block buster movie had released - Kaho Na Pyaar Hain. I probably went a little too far in my obsession for the movie.....but that's for some other time!

Time flies and it was about time to conclude the first year of college - Final exams started and the geeks, loafers, part-time students, pretentious students and freelancing students like me were busy with the last minute grind. And there came the judgement day, THE DAY - This day as I remember vividly, I was joyfully gallivanting with my only school friend & decided to take her along for the results, on the pretext of showing her my college. Must say, what a day I chose for this preview of my college, to her!

As I make my way, through the crowd that flocked around the notice board and look for my grades......little did I know, that I was in for a rude shock, everything else seemed ok but I couldn't believe my scores in one particular subject, Hindi! They were incredibly low; so low that they couldn't not even qualify for grace marks, which is generally used at discretion in certain hopeless cases by the college. This summarized my very first year of college as - FAIL. 

I froze, couldn't come to terms with the fact that I lost a year in FYJC because of this subject called Hindi - Our National language! I probably was the only one through the batch, who had flunked in this marvelous subject whereas others I saw grieved about Mathematics or Book Keeping.

I start sobbing beyond measure & right next to me I see another girl paddling the same boat that I was sailing in - Welcome Vaishu!

PS: I know you will be pretty upset to see your reference up here, as for both of us, that day was the darkest day in our lives which we absolutely hate to recall.

Like they say, when you share a common grief with someone, those bonds turn out to be the strongest and such is the one with Vaishu. Every cloud has a silver lining and she was the silver lining in those dark days, the one who sailed with me in the journey of life!

Now, how and why I managed to fail in Hindi is a different debate altogether. My understanding of why I flunked in this novel subject can be attributed to nothing but sheer laziness. To write Hindi or Marathi freely and fluently was always a challenge for me. I couldn't formulate, express or write elaborately to the best of my capabilities, which led to this disaster.

Back to the horrendous results, parents reaction and the punishment that came along for the rest of the year. It was decided that I am supposed to help mom by being a sub-tutor for the evening batch 4-7:30 PM every single day for the next one year until college restarts. That by far was the toughest punishment ever......dealing with adolescent kids and that it took away my prime socializing time - the evenings! Of course, to study Hindi for the rest of the year was equally tormenting or more......How much of Hindi can one study for an entire year?! Yet it did make me extremely jittery & nervous while I appeared for the Hindi paper next year.

..........Are you thinking, whether I made it next year? Did I get out of my 1 year quarantine? Hahaha

I leave you with that.....See ya!

PS: Mom still thinks I lost the year because of Kaho Na Pyaar Hain! 😃😃