Its not everyday that you feel like praising yourself. At least not me for sure. Most of the time I am pre-occupied thinking that there is something wrong, something missing. That something which would have made me the best among the lot. It is in pursue of that ‘THAT’ that my idle thoughts are mostly concentrated upon. But no, not today. Today is the day of celebrating me, celebrating my very essence. Today is the day of giving my ode to AVINASH OJHA.
Take out any page from an average Indian student’s diary and it would very well describe me. I have been an average student right from the word ‘GO’. I have always believed that there are two kinds of students in this world. One, who are gracious enough to have been bestowed upon a great brain by the almighty god and two, who have to fight their way up without having the luxury of having a five-star brain. These students in my language are the underprivileged lot and ones who are in dire need of the so-called reservations of some sort. (Un)fortunately I was destined to belong to this second category. But Avinash Ojha decided never to bow down. He knew that he would have to wage a war against the world to claim his share of the pie. I know the above two lines are quite melodramatic and cheesy so I would request you to ignore it but I must admit I couldn’t resist penning them down. But somehow or the other I managed to get decent scores in almost all the exams I ever wrote.
My parents always knew that I was an average student and they never really had any sky-high expectations from me unlike my more illustrious sibling who was the rockstar of the school. To be really honest my introduction would be grossly incomplete without mentioning my brother. By ‘rockstar’ I don’t mean that my brother was some kind of a ‘don’. In fact far from it. He is the kind of guy who Gandhiji would have loved had he been alive today for my brother is a complete non-violent soul. He was the class topper and the cynosure of every teacher’s eyes. But his being a rockstar had nothing to do with his being a class topper. It was his personality that set him apart from every other soul I knew. Even when he was a grade 5 kid everyone in the school knew him, right from the principal to the peon. He was an artist when it came to delivering speeches and he possessed the aura of a leader. In my school I was never known as ‘Avinash Ojha’ but always as ‘Amit’s brother’. Not that I didn’t like it. In fact I loved it for it got me the attention I would otherwise had not been able to afford. Right now he is in a different college to mine and I always wish he were here.
Things however began to change as I completed my class 10 board exams. I was one of the lucky guys who had the honour of being called a ninety percenter. To this day I credit my neighbours and over-zealous relatives for my class 10 heroics. Had it not been for their constant sarcastic comments about my abilities I would never have got the inspiration for climbing Mt. 10. Now began the hunt for a 10+2 school for me. My parents luckily zeroed down to DPS Mathura Road, one of the most celebrated delhi schools where the sons and daughters of the who’s who of delhi study. It was here that I began the most memorable two years of my life. It was here that I realized I was more than just ‘Amit’s brother’. It was here I began a roller-coaster ride of self-discovery. In my subsequent blogs I will talk more of these two years but the time spent in DPS gave me back my self-confidence in ways I couldn’t even imagine.
This wave of self-confidence had just reached its crest when a term called ‘entrance exam’ triggered its downslide. Now let me tell you this- even though I had regained a bit of self-confidence I always knew in my heart of heart that ‘AVINASH OJHA IS NO IIT MATERIAL’. This was one thing I always knew about myself. So I had to search for easier alternatives to become an engineer. Not that I had a desire of becoming one but my mother always wanted me to be one. So I thought ‘what the heck’ I will get in an engineering college. But it was not as easy as I had thought it would be. Finally with a very small bit of hard work and looooaaaaadsss of luck I got into one. The college was KIIT and I felt lucky to be able to get into it. It was here that I finally understood the famous line which Batman as Bruce Wayne says to his lady-love Rachel-‘Inside I am more’. I found out that Avinash the underdog is a bit better than what he thinks he is. Initially I kept a lot to myself because its always difficult to adjust in any city after you have tasted delhi. But I guess I opened up slowly and was very lucky to have the company of crazy, good-for-nothing but gold-hearted friends. I was a nobody in the first year of my college. I didn’t have any prized possession (read girlfriend), didn’t have a heart-stopping SGPA and neither was I a DON. But to be honest I was at peace with myself enjoying the company of my friends. It was however the third semester that winds of change started to blow. With the support of my classmates(read classmates with balls), I was somehow elected the CR. Now howsoever hard I try to deny it to my friends, it really felt good after I got elected. But the final straw was yet to come. Avinash the underdog had climbed Mt. 9. A staggering 9.38. More than I would have ever bargained for. It was like a windfall. And I hope this continues……………………forever………..
