june,23,2006

One whole year has passed since the fateful day- June, the 23rd,2006. I remember the day as it were just yesterday. There was i, a dazed and confused soul trying my best to find my room where iwas going to sit to write my admission test,which once cleared will open the gates of Jadavpur University Department of English (JUDE) for me. Efficient,as i am i finally managed to find my room and quite confidently took my seat in the DSA Seminar hall on the fourth floor of the UG Arts building. There were two volunteers with weird headgears sitting on the teacher's desk. Their attitude (and also their headgears !) advertised that the JUDE country was meant for people who are somewhat "different" from the "rest". i looked longingly at them and thought how extremely lucky they were to be JUDEans. i looked outside the window and could see the jheel and after staring at it for a couple of minutes i realised that i had fallen in love with JU. i insanely, desparetly,whole-heartedly wanted to be a part of this university. i wished 'it' to be my university. i wanted the piece of roddur on the jheel to be mine, i wished to own the ledges outside the classroom, i didn't want to leave out the chairs and tables from my wish list either. i was shaken from my reverie by a firm but a kind voice and turned to see that a prof. had entered the room. He had a very impressive look. Most of his hair was grey but his face showed that he was only in his late forties. After instructing the volunteers he turned to us and curtly told us to switch off the mobile-phones. i was half amused at the way he did so. This is because his eyes became ardhonimeelito (half-closed) while he spoke. Needless to say i liked him very much and thought it would be great to be taught by teachers like him. i suddenly noticed my watch. It was 11:15 by my watch. There was exactly 15 minutes to go before the exam started. Suddenly a girl,a candidate like myself entered the room and to my annoyance came up to me . She said that i was occupying her seat and suggested that i check my roll-number with the invigilator on duty. i thought that the poor girl was making a nasty mistake and tried to argue by showing her my form number. At this she politely replied that we were supposed to sit according to our reference-numbers and not our form-numbers,as i had done. Cold sweat ran down my spine. i realised that it was not she who was the "poor'' girl but it was i. In utter horror i hurried to the prof and told him my plight half fearing that he would shout at me for my callousness. To my relief, he very kindly said, "Na baba tumi bhool ghore chole eshechho. Tomar room er neecher floore. Shiri diye neme dandike.Volunteerder jigesh koro dekhiye debe"(No, child you have mistaken your room. Your room is on the third floor,on the right hand side of the stair-case.Ask a volunteer to show you the way). i looked at my watch. Only five minutes were left. I started running downstairs. This time i finally managed to find the right room and was just in time to grab the answerscript which was supposed to be filled with important informations like ref. number etc -a task which my fellow examinees had already accomplished and had started reading the question paper. i took a deep breath, glanced at the paper and dived in . After a year i am in a room with a prof. from the Comp-Lit deptt. trying to assort the forms of the candidates who are willing to enter the JUDE country and telling her my expirience as an examinee, a year earlier. i am looking keenly at the scared faces and shouting out instructions to them. Yes i am a volunteer today. i have half a mind to scold a "poor" little girl who has mistaken her room and has made me run after her to see that she makes it to the right room- but i refrain from it. i remember that another"poor" girl had done exactly the same thing a year earlier .