THE DREAM THAT WAS'NT

Every bengali student has surely dreamt of  studying at the prestigious presidency college and  If not that then atleast they have atleast  heard about the college.  Presidency is india's oldest college where for the very first time western style of education was introduced. Some very eminent scholars and scientists have been associated with this college , Amartya Sen, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Satendranath Bose,Michael Madhusudhan Dutt,Meghnad Saha, Rabindranath Tagore , Sukumar Ray to name a few. After seeing such  heavyweight names associated with the college  I too had this desire to be a part of  this legacy  though I in no way whatsoever  a genius or a high flyer student . Today I had the admission test for this college and I was more excited about seeing the college than taking  the exam .  After kerbing in the traffic for a frustrating 30 minutes which seemed like a lifetime, I finallly reached my dream place. The place where the college is located is quite apt as well. It's called the college street, where one can find any, and I  emphasise,  any book. After passing through a lieu of neverending book stalls, I reached the main gate. It  was here that  I came to know that 4500 students have exactly the same dream that I have. All the  students were asked to make a line and get in, the moment I entered the campus, I thought I would smell the glorious past of this place but all I could smell was ......my sweat and other's too , everyone was standing so close to one another that it was getting hard even to breathe and the scorching heat right on top of our heads only added to our suffering. The senior year students nearly cracked their vocal cords by screaming, they had to announce the roll numbers and the candidates were asked to rush in as if it were some military boot camp.  Isomehow completed this leg and went one step ahead, were another bunch of senior students stood and were literally hollering over your head  '' faster! faster! faster!''. Dude what was I  , Milkha singh!. if I could move one bit faster I would have been selected for the olympics.  Luckily I was nimble footed enough  to complete this daunting leg too. Finally,  I was inside. I took a scrutinizing look at everything though  I was completely drained out after that mayhem. I keenly observed all the classrooms and the washrooms too. Then came the highly awaited part, we were given the question papers and omr sheets.  I  intelligently took one fine look at it, I have this innate talent to pass extremely intelligent looks when I am confronted with a challenging situation even though I might be totally clueless about how do deal with it .  I went through the paper and encircled the right options but here was the catch, it was clearly mentioned that 25% marks will be deducted for every wrong answer.  Wasn't 63 seats for 4500 candidates lousy enough that they had to come up with this. I held the pen firmly in my hand  to begin ,  only to realise it was of the person sitting next to me ( I  somehow am programmed to goof up at crucial moments).  The negative marking part was still creeping me out. Everytime even if a single tiny, micro tiny blot of ink spread over some question I shrieked, in my head ofcourse. 1 hour into the exam and a final year student came and told us that no negative marking was there. I felt like punching that guy for coming so late but resisted after taking a clear look at his grotesque physique. Now atleast I had one less thing to worry about . I answered all the questions , even the ones I didn't knew . The bell rang and I came out of the room to be a part of that enormous queue again.
All in all even if  I dont get admission in this college,  I am still content  to have come this far ( I cant come up with anything better to mask my disappointment!).

PS: I saw one really nice graffiti on the college walls that I could not  stop sharing
'' Stop racism, be like a panda
It's black and white and asian too plus it's chubby aswell:)''