The School City : 1

"Wow! This is the school I always dreamt of studying in", this was NOT my reaction when I first entered DPS. In fact, I had never dreamt of studying in any school. My dreams were busier with riches I was about to discover in my future. IITs were the sure shot way of amassing the vast fortune of my dreams and DPS, Bokaro Steel City was the best possible way to get into IITs. So this was the mundane reason for which I decided I would study in DPS Bokaro(as the school is better known as).

The Interview

I still remember my interview with the grand jury of DPS. They had a huge oval desk, on which sat the then "acting" Princi, Hemlata Mohan, and the HODs of different departments. They had a way of instilling fear in you. Each one questioned me one by one and I answered them to the best of my capability, which was not that great, mind you. To the date, I am embarrassed about one answer which I gave to the Maths HOD. I'll replicate the conversation for you to better understand the situation:

Maths HOD: "What is the curved surface area of a cone?"
Me:"Pie*r*l, sir"
Maths HOD: "Hmmmm... what is 'l' here?"
Me:"The slant height sir"
Maths HOD: "Good, good..."

I thought that "Well that went fine". But could it be when the person in question was me. The Gods up there never liked me being easy and confident. They instigated the HOD that he should test me further .

Maths HOD: "Achcha.. tell me... how many slant heights are there in a cone."
Me:"1 sir"

One!! What the hell was I thinking about? The HOD looked devastated. It seemed he was more disappointed with himself for asking such a stupid question. The tension was quickly dissolved by me stuttering the right answer and he went again to be his tortoise self.

One more thing I remember about my interview was the English HOD. He was a self conscious man, to verge of being a dandy. I was impressed with this man. Little did I know that this man would be my mentor in life in the future. Well, not exactly a mentor but a huge influence, none the less.

Anyways, somehow I fended all the questions they had to put forth, and I am sure they had a great many, and came out pf the torture chamber. ( English is a very funny language. I have never understood why there are these two distinct words : interview and torture. They seem to mean pretty much the same to me.) Apart from the 'slant height' debacle, the interview went fine. Now the wait started for the results to come out.

Two weeks later I received the call. I was chosen for the PCM plus economics stream. Economics!! WTF! The first class I did for economics was the last one in my class 9th. I had hoped, literally prayed to God, I should never ever be forced into it again. But how could it be, remember the skewed relationship between me and the Gods.

However, what has to be done, has to be done. I joined DPS and was assigned to the C sections. Damn it! the school had 6 sections for each class. Last school I studied had only two. So you can understand my predicament. I was not ready to be a small fish in a big pond. I had always enjoyed being the Shark in the small pond.


Note :

Yesterday night after a long and unwieldy discussion with Appu, I told him about the story of my life in DPS. This reminded me of the fun I had had in those two years. This chain of posts is a dedication to all those people who made it possible. All these incidents written here and yet to be written are true to my knowledge and perception. Remember its one man's view point on a large landscape of different incidents.

I will only add some fiction to remove some of the gory details ;). Most of the names will also be changed to protect the privacy of my friends. Of course, they and the people related to the incidents will be able to find out the who's who but that's what there is to it. No names will be revealed by me. At any time, if anyone feels that this is going to mar their present, then please tell me. I will remove all the references to the person from my posts.

I will try to post one story daily, for as long as possible. I am not sure how long this will run but one thing is for sure it will be a hell lot of fun. At last, all I would say is enjoy the stories and relive your school days.