It was the May of 1988. I had appeared for my Class XII Board Exams and was waiting for CBSE to declare the results. My birthday was nearby and the joy of soon becoming an adult was overcome by the fear of whether my result would be on the expected lines and if I would make it to a North Campus college.
The result was announced 2 days before my birthday and brought with itself an assurance that all was not only well, but quite good. At 73.75%, I was probably among the top 4-5 percentile students 3 decades ago, when marks were more moderate and the possibility of not making it to a DU College was less severe.
I applied to all 7 campus colleges – St. Stephens for B.A. Hons. (Economics) and B.A. Hons. (English), and SRCC, Hindu, Hansraj, Kirori Mal, Ramjas and Khalsa College for B.Com. (Hons.) and B.A. Hons. (Economics), B.Com. (Hons.) being my first choice. With my marks, SRCC was a far cry for me and the only way I hoped to get in was if people with much more marks than me opted for some other courses elsewhere. However, I was quite confident that my marks would get me through to one of the other colleges for sure.
St. Stephen’s cut-off was the first one to be released and presented a huge dilemma for me – I had cleared B.A. Hons. (English) and was eligible to appear for an interview. For anyone in their right sense of mind, it would have been a dream come true but it wasn’t the same for me. The only reason why I had opted for B.A. Hons. (English) was the worry that if I didn’t make it to either of B.Com. (Hons.) and B.A. Hons. (Economics) at the other campus colleges, I would then pursue English Hons., but only if I got into St. Stephen’s. English, otherwise, was my favourite subject but I was placing my career ahead of my passion. However, given that the other colleges were yet to announce their first cut-off list, I had no choice but to appear for the interview at St. Stephen’s and take it ahead from there. And so, I prepared myself for the inevitable and reached for the interview on the defined day. I don’t know what the panel saw in me, but I got selected.
This compounded things even more as many people known to me told me to quickly take admission at St. Stephen’s, and stop being a fool in trying to go to any other college, even if it were SRCC. By that time, the other colleges had also announced their first-cut off. I had made it to B.A. Hons. (Economics) at Hansraj, KMC, Ramjas and Khalsa & B.Com. (Hons.) at Ramjas and Khalsa. Hindu was out of bounds as yet.
Happily, I took admission to Eco. Hons. at Hansraj, and was even more happy to realize that 17 other students – including 3 out of 4 of my closest friends from my school – had got admitted to Hansraj. The fact that I wouldn’t miss my friends at college was also quite heart-warming and, so, the decision to go to Hansraj became a no-brainer. It is pertinent to mention here that I decided to choose course ahead of college and decided not to take admission to the most prestigious St. Stephen’s College. While it may seem to be the right thing to do, this was my first mistake.
In choosing to go for my second choice course ahead of B.Com. (Hons.), simply because I believed that Hansraj was better than Ramjas or Khalsa, I chose college ahead of the course. How confused can one be! This was my second mistake.
Life at Hansraj was quite interesting. I got selected for the college cricket team & table tennis team. I was also chosen as a part of the Debating Society as well as the Quiz Team. Additionally, being someone who enjoyed acting and dancing, I decided to become a part of the Arts & Culture Society. I was soon busy with all the affairs of my co-curricular activities and studies took a back seat. Not that I wasn’t attending classes. I attended almost every class but I also spent all my spare time into the wee hours of the evening playing cricket & TT or working on plays every single day. This left me very little time to study and, while I always managed to complete all my assignments, I was merely taking care of the minimum that required me to complete my degree.
One day, many months later, one of my seniors decided to enlighten me about what it takes to do Economics Hons. He told me that an Eco. student can have the luxury to indulge himself in only one thing throughout college – his course books. He added that even at a college like Hansraj – which consisted of school toppers – routinely about 6-8 students fail in the subject in the first year itself. What I was doing was hara-kiri, and even God won’t be able to save me from failing unless I corrected my ways and returned to studies in right earnest. Else, he advised me that it was better to change my course and pursue something else.
Now, this was something that gave me a jolt right from the skies. Being someone who enjoyed my studies but also enjoyed other things equally, I wasn’t able to come to terms with the fact that I will have to give up everything else for my studies. I decided to change my course instead and opt for B.Com. (Hons.). There was one problem though – it was already October and Hansraj didn’t have any seats left for B.Com. (Hons.). I would have to try at another college. My efforts at Ramjas went vain as they didn’t have a seat available. Khalsa also refused to entertain me. What could’ve easily been my first-list colleges refused me admission later. Desperate, I decided to somehow get into B.Com. (Hons.) somewhere, even if it meant leaving my prestigious campus college. This was my 3rd mistake.
Zakir Husain College was near my home and I decided to try there. As luck would have it, they not only had a vacant seat in B.Com. (Hons.), they were only too happy to grant me admission because of my Class XII marks which were almost 10% higher than their first cut-off list. And finally, I was only too happy to get admission to ZHC – which wasn’t considered to be a half-decent college as compared to the campus colleges – even after I had already made it to St. Stephen’s, the topmost college of the country.
Anyhow, 3 decades later, I have no regrets. God has been kind, life has been good. I made it to the world’s best ad agency, JWT, very early in my career and never looked back thereafter. What I lost in college, I regained quickly through some very good luck and a lot of hard work.
Today, 30 years later, as my son gets ready to go to college, he has been lucky to get through to SRCC. My advice to him and others is simple – follow your heart. It is difficult to choose between college and course. I made 3 big mistakes; you don’t.
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