My Nitro Booster

I graduated from De Nobili in the year 1999. It was a very short span I spent there as I was from DNS Sindri but shifted to FRI after my 10th. I was always a below average student and lacked the Nitro buster to speed up my career. The incident I am going to narrate was during 1st terminal exams I flunked in the Bengali paper along with a few more so there was a "love letter" sent to my parents. Guys, it was really humiliating but rule is a rule. I asked my dad to accompany me to school I never told him the real reason. I took him to the different teachers and all were mechanical no real input or discussion. I still think what was the real reason to call the parents if there is no discussion to formulate a plan to rectify the errors in the students. Anyways after all the marry-go-round it was time to meet Miss USHA GUPTA. I feared her the most as she may speak something that may not be pleasant to my dad and I will be the medium to bring out the anger for both of them. It so happened Miss U Gupta started speaking at length how useless I was, But something unexpected happened my dad, thoroughly educated from Shantiniketan, asked for my answer sheet. After giving a look he said I don't deserve to flunk the paper but Miss told that she was the teacher and she has to determine who is to pass.

My problem was I started studying Bengali from Std 6 as DeNoblili Sindri started the subject when we were in class 5 but I vehemently opposed my parents that I am going to have Hindi but after a pressure of one year I did what they asked me to. So my basics were weak and I lacked the confidence to ask the teacher to help me as I thought that will attract unnecessary attention from my fellow classmates and I become an object of ridicule. So the usual backbenchers story my queries kept piling and I started fearing the subject.
The parent-teacher meeting left a deep mark upon my psyche. I started working on my subject without realizing that Miss U Gupta was steadily helping me reach my goal. I never realised that she was my Guiding Star and hated her for being rude to my father. At last the judgment day came and I got a respectful score in my 12th exam. I ran to her to show that she lost the game and I won, I had to prove that I was not worthless. She saw my result and said "I don't want to see my boys loose ever". And the whole story was crystal clear she had realised that my basics were really weak and it was necessary for me to really work hard so as to excel and her harsh words worked like "Nitro Booster" that for the time being burnt my soul but gave me the speed and the edge to excel in my life. During my days in Delhi University when I scored the highest marks in my Bengali paper my professor asked me to say a line. I said Miss its only for you I was able to get this opportunity and narrated them my story. Miss, I still thank you for becoming my Nitro Booster.

Biplab Goswami (ISC 1999) biplab_1999[at]yahoo.com