The Dream

You always have few days in your lives which are worth remembering. Because these days are turning points in your life. These days are like strategic events. If there would have been a slight change in the event of that day your future may be completely different, something on the lines of 'Butterfly Effect.'

One of the turning points of my life is the day when I got selected in the most premier engineering college of India, The Institute of Infinite Tension. Yeah you got it right I got into IIT. And as expected,that day had its fair share of anxiety.
It was a bright, sunny May morning. The calmness outside was in stark contrast with the storm taking shape inside me. More because of what I had experienced a few hours back. The JEE results were scheduled to be be released at 9 am on 30th May,2008 . Since I was feeling anxious on the night before, I had retired to sleep early. But I had been counting rotations of the ceiling fan and then brooding over what will be my options if I did not clear JEE or didn't get a decent enough rank in it.

A dark corridor awaits me. There is jet black darkness around. A blanket of chillness envelopes me. It looks like it is the lull before a storm. When I concentrate hard, I can see light coming from the right end of corridor. I start walking towards it, trying to listen hard to any sound, any clue. My mind can't think of any place where I could be. I slowly reach the end of the corridor where it takes an abrupt right turn.
My heart misses a beat when I see what is waiting for me. There stands a huge figure something like half a serpent and half a horse. The statue is four legged and resembles the body of a horse. The neck of the horse is slender and it gives way to a snake like creature on the top. The eyes look like the abode of evil spirits. The eyes of the statue look cold, ruthless and are baying for blood. After examining the figure, I see the dais of the statue. And I feel dizziness creeping through me. Written on the stone dais in bronze is INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.

I start feeling something on the back of my head. Its not any kind of excruciating pain, but some kind of disturbance. I can now hear some sound, a similar one but I can't remember where I have heard it. The feeling behind my head now grew stronger. I went ahead to touch the engravings. But just as I am half an inch away from touching the 'I' in INDIAN, I feel that my leg is stuck. I try desperately to reach the engraving, but my leg won't give way. My heart is throbbing and I try frantically to free my leg, but I can't see the place where my leg is stuck in the pitch black darkness. Just then, I can feel something is humming a tune behind. Something is vibrating behind my head. And then I hear the words, " Pappu can't dance saala!!!"

Yes, you read it right.... I woke up with a sudden jerk. And then I heard my phone blaring this new youth cult song which was my ring tone that time. The phone was kept beneath my pillow and it was vibrating. Then, I went for my leg and I saw that it was stuck between the wooden bars on the side of the bed. I was panting heavily as if I had seen some ghost. It all slowly started coming back to me. The dark corridor, the bizarre statue, the stone engravings reading IIT. I guess it was a cumulative effect of Harry Potter movie which I had seen the day before for the umpteenth time and the frenzy of the JEE result that I saw this nightmare.

I woke up, cleared up my thoughts and went to room in which the desktop was kept. The clock showed 8.40 am. I logged on to Internet to check my result. The sites were already jammed but still I managed to get through net clog. I waited patiently for 15 minutes, checking mails meanwhile and surfing the internet. But just as, it struck 9, I got impatient. The link to results was not opening. Explorer was blaring "The page cannot be displayed" everytime I tried to get my result. I had told my parents not to come to the room to see my result. I would see it first and then let them know. Now, I was getting impatient and kind of crazy. My mind was clouded, different thoughts were coming into my mind. I was thinking how one moment can change our life. Thats when I realised the importance of a split second. The next moment , the page cannot be displayed message was not there. Instead on a green background, and in black font IT was written. I don't remember it exactly except my name and rank. But, it was close to this.

Name: Koustuv Roy
Reg N0: 5048243

Congratulations. You have been selected.
All India Rank: 2949
Counselling date: 7th June, 2008

I was relieved to see the result but disappointed to see the rank. I expected a better rank. But, God had other plans. I didn't know which of the seven IITs I will be going to. But, I was kind of relieved that my parents had their dream fulfilled. I came out of the room and went into Mom and Dad's bedroom. Both were ecstatic when they heard the news that I got through JEE. But, somewhere I could feel the disappointment in my heart. I told Dad that I was not happy with my rank. And then he said to me, "Son, you are the first from our whole family to get into IIT and thats the main point." It was true. Our families had people from every profession. All of them were highly educated, there were doctors, professors, bureaucrats, managers and engineers from other colleges but no one had gone to IIT. Dad further continued,"Son, this is life. You will never be satisfied with what you get. And this feeling should be taken in a positive manner so that you do better ahead in life. You should not get depressed by this. Always aspire for the zenith and even when you reach it, try raising the zenith." This was one advice which I always would remember and it has helped me numerous times in two years of my ongoing IIT life.

This was one of the days I would cherish for the rest of my life. Not only because I got into IIT, also because I started believing that we should look at the bigger picture ahead and should not be short sighted. The dream suddenly made sense. The creature half snake and half horse was a guy who had cleared JEE. He was smarter and quicker than others in JEE simlar to a horse. But, he had a weak eyesight similar to a snake. The person who goes to IIT doesn't have any clue what to do next. He is short sighted, his aim until now was to clear IIT and he is still stuck in it retrospecting about better ranks and better branches.

The dream might have been just an aberration resulting from Harry Potter movie, but it made sense to me since it happened on the night before the results.Whatever be it, this experience has helped me develop my personality and become far sighted.
I hope you would have enjoyed reading this and might have connected it to your life somewhere.