Crazy sparks a thought

San called me to watch Crazy Mohan on "Coffee with Anu", on her laptop. He was hilarious as usual. We grew up in the same area. We used to live across the cemetary and he was a few houses away. Their gang would be watching us play cricket while they had their discussions.

A funny thing he said in the program was about how his entire joint family decided which group he should choose in Engineering college.

That brought back memories of my own dreaded IIT-JEE counciling session. My mom and dad were there right behind me. Given a choice, twenty other people would have piled on to decide what group "sundaram" should choose.

If you are one of those kids who is independent and has been raised to know the world better when you are 16 or 17, the councilling session would be a piece of cake. If you happen to be one of those "agraharam types", who has never made a phone call in your life, never reserved a railway ticket, etc., this councilling session where you decide which IIT you go to and what branch of engineering you pursue, can be quite an ordeal, especially if your parents are there right behind you, every step of the way!

I love my parents.(that was a big "period" if you got my drift!)

The professor at the councilling session hands me a form, explains the rules and says, you fill your choices and we tell you where you go based on what all the other guys above you have chosen!

My parents ask him "We want him to stay in Madras? What group will he get in Madras?" to which the Professor explains "He will get Naval Architecture"

The parents are shocked!

What the hell is Naval architecture? We dont want our son studying female anatomy, especially in an architectural context! Then they realize that it has to do with the Navy and start asking if this has anything to do with the defense department.

There is the worry about guns being involved, you know!

Then a comment somewhere about "we dont want him going on ships. they probably only give fish to eat on ships" etc. etc. We did not raise a vegetarian boy to go on ships. How will he survive? etc. etc.

I could have bet money that not a single person in our family had ever been on a ship and the entire collective experience of the family, when it came to ships was restricted to making "kappals" out of the standard 192 page notebooks to float in stagnant rainwater in and around the Sringery Mutt Road. The only exception being an aunt, who would make what was called a "kaththi kappal", a ship with a knife edge. At least if that aunt had raised the question of defense, ship etc. she would have been vindicated!

So there went Naval Architecture. Not that I would have liked it anyways, but the rest of the IIT locations and the merits and demerits of various engineering disciplines were analyzed much along the same lines.

What they wanted, I would not get, and what I would get, they would analyze it to death. The professor found the whole thing amusing, not because of the questions, but because he told me that this was nothing new. Apparently there were lots of kids in my shoes at the IIT Madras counciling sessions! He had this look on his face which said "God works in mysterious ways!".

Finally we must have filled in the entire form from beginning to end! "There is no harm in choosing everything possible in the order of choice" agreed the Professor. If your choices are limited to around 60 combinations out of 500, you fill in the sixty, or maybe another 40 combinations which you might just get or miss, provided someone else screws up on their choice list. Not all 500!

Filled out the form till no group was left out in any location! The ordering was adjusted, more when it came to locations and groups I was likely to get! The professor who was rapidly training my parents in the art of picking groups, was enjoying all this immensely. If I protested, he would lecture me on how I should be listening to my parents, as they knew what is best for me!

Finally made it out of that place in one piece, after half a day of form filling. I made some friends that day in those four hours who are still by buddies to date! That was the big plus. Things have changed a lot over the years, based on what I hear.

If you are someone who is going to counciling, and have just visited the temple just before going to the session and your face is painted in the tricolor, NO, not the saffron, white, green -Indian tricolor, not the red white and blue American tricolor but the Gray, Red and Yellow - Temple tricolor! composed of Vibuthi, Kumkum and Sandalwood paste, and you could prompt Avvai patti to start singing "Gnana pazhaththai pizhindhu...." impromptu by just taking a quick look at you, worry not! Just come to me for advice.

There are plenty of people before you, who went through this ordeal and are living to tell the tale!

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