How I got my Board Result

Parasailing, also known as parascending, is a water sport where a person (two or three people may also ride at the same time) is towed behind a speedboat while attached to a parachute. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air, to about 200 meters above the ocean. The parascender has little or no control over the parachute.

The beach from which our speedboat started is called Mue Suasi, supposed to be the longest strip of sand in Mauritius. The boat initially cruised over the shallow coral waters, and then we were in the deep blue ocean. The sea was rough- our little winch-boat bobbed up and down as it sped towards the horizon. The instructors strapped a life-jacket over my chest, pumped it with air, and then buckled it to the parachute. I was made to sit (rather, bend my knees) on a harness. The whole thing was connected by an extendible rope (later found out to be a total of 200 m in length) to the boat.

When everything was ready, I stood on the the small launchpad of the boat, said bye to Dad, who would remain in the boat, and suddenly, I was off. At first, it was fun. Hovering a few feet above the boat, I felt a rush of cool sea wind, and looked around. Before I could realize and shout to make them stop, I was up, up, and up. The boat grew progessively smaller in size, until I could see it no more. I was all alone up there, hanging on for dear life. My feet swayed struggling to mantain the sitting position that I had been warned to keep. The parachute swerved to one side, and then the other, and as Wikipedia so kindy pointed out in the opening lines of this post, "...the parascender...," had "....no control over the parachute." Fortunately, the sun was hidden that day, and i could easily look around. It was all water till the horizon on the left, all water till the horizon on the right, a little belt of trees and beach at the horizon straight ahead (the boat had reversed its direction, and was now travelling back towards the beach), and I'm sure (though i didn't dare look), all water behind me as well.

It was lonely up there- and uncomfortable. I have never practiced a more difficult yoga aasan than the position my body was in up there, 200 m above sea, and another 100m above the sea-bed. It was then that I felt the tug. The coaches had warned me before take-off that when they'll be "landing" me, there will be a slight tuck-tuck. But up there, I was convinced that the rope had snapped. It hadn't; I have lived to tell the tale. But it became so uncomfortable just before the end, that I shouted into air, "Get me back FAST!"

When I was just a few feet up, i shouted, "Hi Papa!" I had made it back, torn, broken, but safe. Dad's voice was breathless with emotion: "Karan," he said as soon as I stepped out of the harness, "you got 95%! Mummy just called (mummy was in delhi)....I told her I'll call her back again, but she said you've got 95%! Congrats, beta!!!!"

I had a lot of difficulty in restraining myself from jumping in the boat with joy...No, of course that wasn't how I got the results. Of course, I did do parasailing, but that was exactly 12 hours before they came. Here's what happened:

In the wee hours of Friday morning, the couple in the room adjoining ours- in mauritius- called up the hotel reception, to complain about "the extremely unruly behavior of the Asians next door, shreiking and fighting in the middle of the night." They were badly mistaken. Dad and I weren't fighting; he was laughing and I was shrieking with joy.

The time was 2.30. Extremely nervous, I had laid down to sleep barely 45 minutes earlier, and had dreamt that I'd got 40% marks in all subjects in the board exams. I cannot describe the relief I felt when my eyes opened and i realized that it was only a dream. The lights were on, and Dad was not in bed. I heard him in the toilet, and went to hug him. "I had a very bad dream...I had only 40 in all subjects." I felt almost like crying, and didn't tell him what else I had seen: in the dream, i saw dad tell me, "I wish you'd studied harder, you took it all too lightly."

He had difficulty speaking with all the emotion in his voice, "beta, don't worry. You've got 95%."

Seriously? I asked

He said, "Haan beta. Mummy just called. Your aggregate is 95. I had to go to the toilet immediately, so I told her I'll call back to get the break-up."

The tenth board result, though different in almost every conceivable aspect, was same in atleast one: Dad, on the phone, writing the marks on a very ordinary scrap of paper, and I, disbelievingly looking as the result appeared in dad's illegitible handwriting.

Mom had the marks corresponding only to the subject codes. I didn't want it to be that inexact; i took the phone and shouted across the indian ocean, "ma! admit card nikalo! admit card nikalo! Codes and subjects are written in that! Jaldi karo!"

Here's what came out:

English: 91
Economics: 91
Physics: 95
Chemistry: 98
Math: 97

I kept hoping that eco was not one of the 2 91's....i had been expecting nothing less than 98 in that. But it was. It was the only thing that wasn't what i wanted it to be that morning.

I tried to make myself happier by telling dad, "Kya pata? maybe the whole class's economics result is kharaab. Maybe in that way I'm lucky to have even got that much.

I was right. Nothing short of a disaster. 55, 77, 84, 82, 86, 69...and these are the marks of our class's toppers. People who'd otherwise have got 92, 96, 97...Luckily, Delhi University understands this, and that's why they consider only best of 4. So those friends who had been counting on DU, can chuck economics and submit only their english, physics, chem, and math marks.