Rookies day out !

Indian Institute Of Technology, the Mt.Everest for those in pursuit of greatness… And two aimless fellows…

I got down from my Uncle’s car and waited near the entrance of IIT, Madras- a place which has proved to be a heaven for some and elusive to most other aspirants.
I stood rethinking whether or not I should enter the premises. IIT Dept of Management Sciences quiz event, 25 grand at stake and a top official from Tata hosting the grand finale, so a big event, but felt I was the biggest misfit in there. Govind, my team mate, equally hopeless about the quiz arrived finally. We waited for the Eco-friendly bus that goes around the college in loops the whole day. And during our ten minute wait for the bus, two guys from some B-School got down from an auto, paid their overpriced fare and walked past us.

I gave a smile to Govind, he reciprocated.
~ still not too late to leave~

But we dint chicken out, and we were hoping to get atleast one question right in the whole competition to just induce some confidence so that we come here again !
The bus had inadequate space and I had to bear with my hunchback like posture all through the journey.

~being a six footer sometimes sux~

An IITian offered to guide us to the quiz rendezvous and on the way, he asked us if we were IITians !

~ Dude, I never wrote JEE all my life ~

He lead us into the wrong building, apologized and he finally found his way to where we were supposed to go, some auditorium.
We were the youngest of the lot in the arena, as no first year will be so stupid to be present in a national event. All the quiz teams, which had flown in from all parts of the nation were ready and eager for the curtain raiser, with their final magazine current affairs revision and had rough sheets other than those provided by the organizers.

~ Shit, We dint even have a pen with us ! ~
Govind borrowed one from the event manager.
And the show began. We guessed some 15 out of 25 questions put forth. And got just 10 right.
We went over to the seniors from my college, heads down. He queried if we got atleast 3 questions right. Ten we replied and got a big pat, but little did we know the essence of the pat...
Presuming that all the other teams would’ve got 20+ right, we silently bolted out of the arena and headed for CCD within the campus proximities.

One pm – Me and Govind hoggin at some cakes and sandwiches, and also drinking ( soft) to our Successful Mission, having got more than one question right. And we checked our mobiles to find that we had missed calls from two numbers which were in a CUG. Strange. I called up a number to find some geek telling me that our team had qualified for the finals. I replied, who is playing this bloody joke? The voice urged us to be there at 1.20 !
And so we had got TEN questions right, not 'just' ten questions !
WE QUALIFIED !!! IIT MBA QUIZ FINAL, defeating all the stalwarts from B-Schools...PHEW!!

We indulged in a suprise merriment at ccd and ordered more stuff. And after paying the bill, one look at the watch left Govind bewildered. 1.40 pm !!!
We ran like mad to the auditorium. Just in time for the quiz.
~ thankfully the quiz master was late as ever ! ~

Subadesh Kanna and Govind of SSNCE, the quiz master announced, as we took our seats on stage and while floating in euphoria.
And no blank sheets with us! I walked over to the organizers and got one.
The stage set for a grand finale...

~ Now, wheres the pen? ~

I borrowed it again from the organizer cheekily.
The quiz kicked off. After two hours of utter bewilderment, with momentary nuances in our attitude, the quiz was finally over. The scorecard read 65,50,37,25 and then meekly in the end, it read SSNCE Govind and Subadesh - 15 !
A T-Shirt and a certificate is not all that we got, but some gasps from the winners on knowing that we were first years and first timers to the competition.

Call it an underdog's day or a nohoper's moment of greatness or an overdose of serendipity but nothing can take the two hours of unalloyed glory from us !

And this is just the beginning...