(Painting: Ms Joshita Rawat)There could only be one 1988 in our whole lifetime and momentous year it was! We had completed our board exams and middle class anxiety was taking its shape, only growth avenues we small townies knew was being a techie, few of us also opted for being medicos and this all opting depended on what you took as major during SSC ;Maths or Biology, we from CBSE were little privileged in that sense.
Being a engg was ultimate for good life you became Astt engg in govt and than earned loads of money(only vague ideas were available how this money came about)also we had our own classifications B Tech degree was considered superior to BE and Bsc engg was bit inferior, MNR was still a measure of success and IIT was passed only by students of St Josephs, parents took pride in fact that kids were ‘Tyyari kar rahe hain’ or ‘preparing for Engg’.
So with these fixed ideas we(Pintoo, Garg ,Rajesh & me tagging along , Mendi also joined sometimes,Alok had completed his preparation stint already ) in 1988 went scouting for mentors/ teachers who could make this possible for us, Pintoo had till now had developed that poker faced expression which to some felt like a calm exterior but I for sure could fathom the utter blankness inside, Garg & gupta were archetypal Banias(Trading class) who went looking for best bargains.
Our first stop was ‘ Krishna coaching’ near Bindal bridge towards Tilak road , the man in Kurta Pyjama for not even once to us seemed anywhere close being a educationist, his opening line “ Paisa phekhon tamasha dekhon” or “ Money does the trick” actually did it for us , back we were laughing all the way to Garg’s house on our cycles, in retrospect I realize maybe he was alluding to coaching clases racket prevailing wherein for money thay made sure you passed exams.
Jitender Sindhwani and Alok Saini our classmates enticed us to this new coaching centre in Karanpur( I cannot get exact location) started by school called ‘Ideal children academy’ again a one stop shop for all those just wanted a certificate of completion of formal education,Fathers of Jitender/Alok were DBS college (or was it DAV) teachers who started teaching in these new classes.Four days were spent there, Garg/Gupta felt it was’nt value for money and so ended the this tryst as well.
Garg soon paid Rs 40k and joined Shimoga engg college, Rajesh went to YMCA, Fridabad basis his Haryana domicile, Alok had gone to Surat.Mayank already knew that he did not need teachers and started preparing, Mendi/me as after thought too joined ‘prepration’ and continued preparing for two years in between I spent few months in Polytechnic whilst Mendi also did some ‘ Chit fund’ biz with his uncle.. you think that’s long , than ask Chauhans..our neighbour all of whom prepared for atleast four years .
So ended eventful summer of ’88 .
Being a engg was ultimate for good life you became Astt engg in govt and than earned loads of money(only vague ideas were available how this money came about)also we had our own classifications B Tech degree was considered superior to BE and Bsc engg was bit inferior, MNR was still a measure of success and IIT was passed only by students of St Josephs, parents took pride in fact that kids were ‘Tyyari kar rahe hain’ or ‘preparing for Engg’.
So with these fixed ideas we(Pintoo, Garg ,Rajesh & me tagging along , Mendi also joined sometimes,Alok had completed his preparation stint already ) in 1988 went scouting for mentors/ teachers who could make this possible for us, Pintoo had till now had developed that poker faced expression which to some felt like a calm exterior but I for sure could fathom the utter blankness inside, Garg & gupta were archetypal Banias(Trading class) who went looking for best bargains.
Our first stop was ‘ Krishna coaching’ near Bindal bridge towards Tilak road , the man in Kurta Pyjama for not even once to us seemed anywhere close being a educationist, his opening line “ Paisa phekhon tamasha dekhon” or “ Money does the trick” actually did it for us , back we were laughing all the way to Garg’s house on our cycles, in retrospect I realize maybe he was alluding to coaching clases racket prevailing wherein for money thay made sure you passed exams.
Jitender Sindhwani and Alok Saini our classmates enticed us to this new coaching centre in Karanpur( I cannot get exact location) started by school called ‘Ideal children academy’ again a one stop shop for all those just wanted a certificate of completion of formal education,Fathers of Jitender/Alok were DBS college (or was it DAV) teachers who started teaching in these new classes.Four days were spent there, Garg/Gupta felt it was’nt value for money and so ended the this tryst as well.
Garg soon paid Rs 40k and joined Shimoga engg college, Rajesh went to YMCA, Fridabad basis his Haryana domicile, Alok had gone to Surat.Mayank already knew that he did not need teachers and started preparing, Mendi/me as after thought too joined ‘prepration’ and continued preparing for two years in between I spent few months in Polytechnic whilst Mendi also did some ‘ Chit fund’ biz with his uncle.. you think that’s long , than ask Chauhans..our neighbour all of whom prepared for atleast four years .
So ended eventful summer of ’88 .
1 comment:
Very memorable years, those are indeed. Thanks, Dinu, for raising nostalgia. I will share my side of the story as well, but right now I am short on time. Need to prepare for interview this afternoon. The struggle that started in 1988 is far from over today. The preparation period goes on !! Tayari kar raha hoon.
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