Chapter 6

Sashi was this guy who had come to PS from PSBB after class 10, another well-known school in the city. It was a school known more for stuff like the extra-curriculars than the mainstream studies. The students from there were expected to be 'flirtatious' studs of the first order. Rajesh was a PSBB product till class 10, though he didn't look an inch that way. Another guy of PSBB till the 10th in PS, was Sairam.S, another topper there, but a PSBB guy in and out, a pervert of the first order, a guy who made great friends with all of us as soon as he came. Sashi held a reputation of a nerd, one of the first order when he came to PS. But after one year at PS, he had drastically changed. The change occured in the holidays between class 10 and 12, when his dad bought him a cell phone.His exploits began with Vidya, when he started messaging her full time. Initially, the messages were kind of mutual, but at some point of time, Sashi started making a mockery of himself. The messages were sent way too often to become a matter of public ridicule. Not only that, it was quite obvious that Sashi was flirting. He didn't stop with Vidya, his flirting went on to all the girls in school. No one was spared, Vidya, Priya, their friends Parvathy, Saraswathy, Sandhya and everyone else.The school was following all this when something even bigger happened. Sashi started Orkutting. And what was big about this?? He again flirted. Nothing new,right!! No buddy, there was something new!! He started flirting with Portugese girls!! And even worse, he started learning Portugal to please them!! It started getting funnier everyday, with him doing this, and the half yearly fast approaching. During the half yearly, Sashi was at his peak, trying to impress anyone and everyone, with what else, but his Portugal skills. Sadly, no one in Chennai was willing to listen to him speaking even Tamil.
In the meanwhile, our mock JEE tests were going in full flow, and this was one avenue of some great fun. There was this invigilator named Srinivasan, whom we had named 'Billa' Srinivasan, for he spoke just like the actor Ajith did, and there was also this female, who bossed over the students there. So we named her Billi, or the female Billa!! By this time, our school was almost over for the second term, and we were going to have our revision tests beginning. Therefore, having some time out in this way, was a boon for us all. Other than the 6 hours of examinations, we had some time to chat during lunch breaks. The feeling of having to leave school soon, was slowly sinking into us then. But then, we were enjoying our last few days as school students.
The preparations for these tests were simple. The recipe was this. Don't study hard for any revision, if it is not Physics, or Chemistry. Just give English and Computer Science a decent read. Don't touch mathematics. On the contrary, get your basics right when you prepare for the JEE. First get the theory touched up really. Solve as many problems as possible from the reference books. Keep yourself awake in the night till 3, by listening to the FM and messaging Priya and Vidya.
Either Vidya, or Priya, or at times both, used to be awake till 1 every night, and then there was Rahmania, a collage of A.R.Rahman songs on Aaha, 91.1 FM. So, staying up into the night became an integral part of my life. I became a pro at staying awake all night, no match for me. It was quite some fun staying awake alone, as I believe, spending a lot of time with yourself, does you a huge deal of good.
At around this time, our school stuff had to become serious too. We slowly had to shift gears, and the concentration had to be divided between school and JEE preparation climax. It seemed like a movie with the protagonist having goals, one which had to be achieved only after another was done, in a particular order.
The revisions were on in full flow, and I was beginning to perform much better now. This was probably because, I had deserted the overambitious techniques I had applied in the assignments to score high. I stuck to the basics, wrote with my eye in my paper, and went on with the exam. And, it was a success.
A nice way to start the full tests in the JEE mock test schedule, and the pre-board examinations. They were all scheduled to start very soon, within a week of the revisions or so. That would take me to another crucial part of my life...