Motivational story:
A Life Saved
A not-so-close friend of mine called me up the night before the JEE exams to talk about something important. I was extremely annoyed and couldnât understand why the hell on earth would he disturb me on such an important day. After a lot of convincing on his part, I decided to meet him. But to my shock, all he did was talk about his life and how he was going through a bad phase in life. He went on and on about his financial problems, his parentsâ impending divorce and why he couldnât concentrate on studies. I was sympathetic but obviously was furious too. He could have waited for this discussion, at least, for one more day. But I didnât say anything to him and slept for just 3 hours at night. His talks and no sleep severely affected my concentration during exams, and I landed up with real bad scores. Until a few months ago, all I did was curse this friend of mine to trouble me that night. I just met him after a year or so and he confessed to me that he was about to end his life that night and wanted to talk wholeheartedly before taking this extreme step. I canât forget his words. âHad you not talked to me that night, I wouldnât be here.â Never before did I ever feel so proud of myself. I actually saved a life in spite of having my JEE exams the next day. Both the exam and the incident will forever be etched in my memory.
New Bathroom Rules, Please
The upset case of JEE exams. I mean, this is the case of an upset stomach, if I may say so. There was this student who started perspiring and felt sick when he walked into the exam hall. By the time he got to the 10th question, he knew that he was going to spew out the tandoori chicken he had last night. As silly as it may sound, but the invigilators had scared everyone and told them that no one is allowed to get up to go to the bathroom during the exam for any reason. So, obviously, this guy in question was unsure what to do.
To give you the context, he was sitting against the wall on these long, conjoined desks with drawers and cabinets below for keeping bags and books. He put his head down to hopefully get the attention of the teacher. But the teacher just gave him a stern look. After about 3 minutes, he just couldnât take it. So, he opened the desk drawer and spewed into it. The funny bit? It made such a loud âsplatâ sound that it was like an old man with a hernia while spewing. Everyone in the classroom heard it. Yes, even that pretty girl sitting five benches away from him. And the stench? Outrageous. The entire batch of students was shifted to another classroom. He certainly got a decent score, but the teacher took this incident far too seriously. Now, apparently, the institution has changed their âbathroomâ rules and children are asked to go to the bathroom even at the slightest coughing sound. The doors have a note, which reads, â Please maintain silence & inform the teacher if you need to go out of the exam hall for urgent reasonsâ. The teacher will remember that urgent reason all her life. Wouldnât she?
Finding Love
Talking about JEE exams and students and whatnot, I had to include this cupid-struck love story. How often do we get to hear such fairy tale stories anyways? I read it on a blog a few days back.
The moment this guy in question walked into the exam hall, his eyes fell on the beautiful face of a girl. Her wavy hair rested on her moon-like face like dense black clouds, and her eyes were a bewitching mix of moonshine and twinkling of stars. For some time, it seemed that he had entered a trance state. While all this was happening, the papers were distributed. The guy understands that the paper is easy, but he could not concentrate. He could not take his eyes off the girl. Somehow, he managed to finish the paper. However, he was not happy with his performance in the examination. He tried to find this girl after the exam, but she was nowhere to be seen! Finally, the results were declared, and the guy scored a bad rank. People around him were disappointed. Later, he took admission at [IIT Roorkee] and went there. And to his utmost surprise, he meets his lady love. There, the world of joy opened for our guy. He was the happiest person on earth. They went on to become friends and one day she apologized to him, for, she thought she was the reason for ruining his JEE. But this guy just proposed her instead. What next? These guys are happily married today and canât help but thank the cupid called âJEE.â
A Story of Courage
Now this JEE aspirant wanted to be an Engineer since her childhood days. She was fascinated by computers and learnt C programming (Basics) in the seventh grade itself. She was so interested in robotics, aerospace engineering and artificial intelligence that she used to stay awake and read about them the whole night. A.P.J Abdul Kalam, Sergey Brin, [Larry Page], Pranav Mistry, Raj Reddy, Vijay Kumar (Roboticist), etc. were her childhood heroes.
So, right from 9th standard, she started preparing for engineering entrances. However, she failed to clear the exams in the first attempt. After a year of patience, she decided to give another and final attempt. During the second attempt, she fainted in the examination hall. Her mum took her to a hospital, and doctors advised an MRI scan. Reports came out and confirmed that she had a brain tumor. So, she was not able to give her JEE mains. Her dream was not shattered yet. She decided to wait for a year and give the JEE exam again. It was not at all easy, but whatever happened in the past, gave her more strength and made her stronger. The day finally came. When she reached the exam centre, her dad told her only one thing, âLook, I know you have worked very hard. It will be all good. Donât worry.â She went to the exam hall calmly and gave the exam without any tension. It went well. Result Day. That moment was undoubtedly the happiest moment of her life. Everyone was happy. She was in tears (tears of joy, of course).
She secured 212 marks in JEE Main. Like every story, her story also ended happily. What do we learn? If you are determined enough to achieve your goals, no one can stop you. No person, no pain, nothing. Life allows us to experience the low points of life to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way.