It was this rule abiding nature of his that got me into quite a muddle. During the last semester, with me chasing CAT… I skipped several lectures. In my defence, it was for a noble cause. But I guess it was against the law of the land. And the sheriff declared me to be an outlaw and I was a wanted man. I knew I would be facing these issues. What with me bunking all the lectures, and me then having to go to Delhi for a GD-PI and then to Kharagpur… my attendance was taking a bad, near fatal hit. And amidst all the trouble Ritesh lent me his encouraging words… “You are attending the GD-PIs, your attendance is going to be bad, if you do not get through any college, you are totally screwed. Thanks for the words of encouragement, dost.

Well, in an engineering college you don’t get REALLY screwed. Meaning, you are not thrown out of the college. They do make your life miserable. But it wasn’t exactly a bed of roses in the first place. Being a guy with a clean track record, I knew that the consequences of me bunking would be manageable. But things were not going as planned. Punishment assignments, scolding from prof would have been manageable. The first unexpected turn was when I was asked to meet the principal. I was not really worried about that. The new principal did seem to be a guy who would support academic endeavors. He kept talking about us having a positive outlook for the college and being in touch with our alma mater. All in all, seemed to be a man of reason. So we, me and Sagar, went and talked to him. He gave us things like… “it’s good that you are doing well in CAT preparation, but you have commitments towards your engineering too, etc. etc.” Awrite. That went off coolly. And the principal did manage to earn respect in our minds.

But then, the utterly unpredictable Patil, made a demand that made me cringe with disbelief. He wanted to meet my father! “Come on… why do you want to meet him?” Till that point, I had kept my parents out of my academic loop. And though they knew I was studying hard for CAT and my brain was delicately walking on the edge of sanity with all the pressures, they had no clue about me bunking lectures for CAT. Patil wanting to meet my dad meant that I would have to tell my parents the whole scheme of things. And regardless of my parents’ practicality, they still see bunking lectures as a criminal act, unpardonable under any circumstances. And my image of an assiduous student turned into an irresponsible youth when they came to know about my crimes. In any case, my dad had to meet up with Patil. And riding gallantly on my Bajaj Saphire, I and my dad reached Patil’s home. There, for the first time, I witnessed Patil in his shorts, and it was definitely not a sight for sore eyes. My dad and Patil got talking. It started of with what possible unthinkable outcomes could happen because of my low attendance. There were talks about me getting expelled, etc. etc. I didn’t miss a heart beat as these threats were being unleashed. For one thing, I could still attend the remaining lectures and keep my record satisfactory. And even if I didn’t do that, there were several precedents to bolster my belief that students get to give exams even with a 25% attendance.

Soon the talks got personal. Dad must have hit a chord with Patil. He (Patil) unloaded his childhood stories, the struggle of reaching a school 10 km away on a cycle, the pain of reading in the light of a lamp, the daily meals (discussing even the recipe and method of cooking), attire, and all possible aspects of ones life. He further elaborated on his college and graduation studies. He equipped us with enough information to write a full blown biography. He might have got me to write it as well; thankfully the idea didn’t come to his head.

Anyways, the meeting dragged on till he finished his life story, in chronological order, till the day he became the HOD of PCT-EXTC. Then he went of on a tangent and started talking about his son. Thankfully he was only about 10 years old. So his story, though painfully (especially for me) detailed, was shorter than the father’s. We eventually left, with Patil instructing us to ‘write a written application’ (precisely his words, an example of redundant words used plentifully by profs. at my college) for the leaves I had taken. I duly submitted that, knowing fully, that it would have joined the immeasurable trash produced daily by any average engineering college.

Apparently my sins committed during my pursuit of MBA have been pardoned. Last heard, Mahajan was telling someone that Himanshu has been the most successful students of all. Of course he didn’t know about Maurya’s successes. Patil had gone to my dad’s shop and was praising me no end. Sadly none of this love and support was exhibited during the four years of engineering. Thankfully so!!!