He went to College to get a job!

There was only one motivation in life. He should get a job as soon as possible. Should support his mother and younger sister, should repay all the aid he got from relatives and stand on own legs, erect with head straight. For a plus two student things looked like a Himalayan task. This pushed him to one of the best engineering colleges in India.Well, battle was not over. He got into the prestigious branch where he was surrounded by all ranks starting from single digit and not extending beyond double digits. Rank holders, kids of doctors, lawyers, CAs ... Oops this is not where he belongs to! But he has to get his degree.

He had 3 room mates, 2 were from outside the state, from North India and Karnataka. The other mallu was a nice guy but too busy in his own friends circle, he doesn't have much time for him. He doesn't speak English well, this limited his interactions with non mallus.

Left wing of the hostel was filled with 'padipists'(studious guys) and they are all those belong to single digit guys who doesn't want him to be included in the gang.

From whatever he heard in the class he realised that there was a lot more to learn and lot more hurdles (exams) to cross before you get the degree! Job is still far away. Jacob sir was teaching maths, but it sounded like rocket science to him. This is not the maths which he knows! Narayanan sir was teaching a fairly closer version to what he thought was mathematics. Then it was Ramachandran sir with pulleys and fulcrum. Mechanics was more close to his heart, for a guy, who wants to be a mechanical engineer and drop the idea at the last moment, on somebody telling him you will have to draw a lot of pictures, it was natural. He solved only difficult problems; this brought him once to left wing of the hostel, single digits asking him about the solution. That was the happiest day till then in the college!

The computer center was always a hiding place for him. He had seen computers before, at school. In knowledge of computers he was ahead of most of others in his class. He want to show off his skills. This kept him in CC (computer centre). It made him learn Fortran, C. He started programming. And was amazed to see he could make computer to do matrix multiplication. He also started playing pranks on lesser privileged ones, many of them where those single digits. He was away from the class, sleeping with CC having his siesta and night outs in CC. At night the baldy (centre in charge) didn't allow him to sleep with CC, and he was thrown out at 11 pm when it get closed.

In lightning speed the first year was over, he realised that he hadn't learnt much of the subjects that was supposed to be learnt. And his exam results showed it. He got scared, because degree was more important to him.

Second year was more fun. There were no single digits now, everybody started mingling. It made life easier. He had a good taste for electronics. Circuits fascinated him. Idea that electron is responsible for an LED to glow was unbelievable and it made him dig deeper. Jacob sir made the situation worse by teaching SSD, the core subject for electronics circuits. It made him spent more time in library. He divorced CC and married library. He started exploring his new wife. Unsatisfied by the usual pleasure that married life gave him, he searched for more exotic ones. He started reading a lot. He had read lot more than what was required. Now he knows much more. He started spreading his knowledge. For the second time (first time was when he done his mech. problem) he had people asking him doubts. Then it became a habit. There was no fun in that any more.

The language he used to explain things was not plain English. Only a few of his close friends could understand him. So he needs a translator many times to explain the doubts. He couldn't understand why others do not understand him. It was so simple to him! It also gave him a mask. Many things he doesn't know but tried explaining, people concluded that he know it but was unable to explain. He went back to his new wife and find out the answer and explained it again. To keep the mask strong, he learned new things. He was growing!

In second year exams he came out with flying colours. He had a position below five in the class. Now he also belongs to elite single digit.

Third year was busy year. A lot to study, planing for project, viva, forming project team, finalising project guide, everybody looked serious and busy. Each day there was news that, that teacher is booked. Everybody was getting panicked of not getting good guide. He also has to do some project. He wanted to do hardware project. For that he had some brilliant ideas too. But he over estimated his hardware knowledge and underestimated what it takes to do a project. Finally he blamed it on college infrastructure and teacher's support and agreed for a software project, which all his team mates want. Well by this time he had lost all his interest in his first wife, computer. But he went along the group and learned the project. With his performance on the stage and answering some crap to the questions from the reviewing comity, for which nobody in that room knows answer, he got marks better than the one who has done the project!

Mean while he got a software engineer job. It was a nice relief. He is closer to his goal. But the job was not satisfying since he have to sleep again with his old wife. The thought of that made him vomit. With the help of Internet and his teachers he found a new job. It was something like a dream comes true. He got a circuit designer job. He was the happiest person in the campus. He had the maximum salary that was offered in the campus. He was the first guy to grab job from two MNCs. He was enjoying his popularity!

It was all over. Time for final exams. Under sedation of the new offered jobs, exams where wrote for the name sake and getting the degree. He was waiting for his first salary to start repaying his debts and buying sarry for his mother. Sister was not happy with both sets of churidhar he bought. But she didn't show it to him, she knows how much her brother had toiled to buy them. After all passing all those 50+ public exams and 200+ internals were a life of arduous toil :)