An unforgettable experience from college life... "its never too late"

I would like to share an experience that I will, hopefully, never forget in my life. It happened when I was in my Engineering School, CUSAT doing my undergraduation. We had a very difficult course to do. It was Heat & Mass Transfer. The syllabus was tough and it was a subject newly introduced for our batch. Even the faculty could hardly complete teach just 3 out of the modules. Hence, when the exams drew nearer, we were completely in fix on how to prepare for the exams. We had no previous question papers to refer toNo one had a clear idea. And on the previous night of the exams, I found myself in a situation where I had completed just one module out of the 5 modules. Same was the case with most others.

We had only two options. One was to leave this exam and concentrate on the next exam that was scheduled to happen within 3 days. Among 25 of us, almost everyone opted to leave this exam, and only 3 of us - Hari. S. Nair, Vipin Viswas and me - decided to give it our best shot. We went to a separate place, with all books and laptops, and started learning each module very slowly, but in a thorough way. Each of us tried to learn a different module, and whenever we completed a topic, we shared that with the other two. During preparations, we three used to keep asking each other "whether we will be fools, or those who left". Coz, most of them had left the exams and had gone for a movie, and yet some others had started preparing for the next exam. Where we stupid enough to try to crack one of the most difficult subjects in our engineering course, just by studying at night ?

We didn’t sleep that night, and finally when it was morning, we had somehow gone through the 5 modules, covering just the most important topics, and topics that we thought were important. But our confidence was very low, but the sportsman spirit in us was very much alive. We decided to fight. No matter what the result is. All that mattered was that we tried. And we tried our best.

We wrote the exam, trying to solve as many questions as possible. I remember, I rewrote many answers for a single question, because midway an answer, I doubted if it was wrong. Finally, when the exam got over, we knew we had done our best. But we were still not confident about the results. Because, we were not at all sure whether our answers were right.

Finally the results came after a month, and we were jubilant. The three of us had passed. And we did not pass just by a small margin, we had scored above the average marks. Our marks were high compared to other students. Among the nearly 25 students that day, only we 3 had passed. Even the toppers (read North Indian Buji's) managed to get very low marks. We were very triumphant that day. The exhilaration was evident in our faces. We had written many exams where we had scored more, but this was much more special. This was a thumping victory of our willingness to try our best till the very end, and not give up. Whenever I face a difficult situation in my career or personal life, this incident comes to my mind. And I most often take the same decision, TO FIGHT LIKE A SPORTSMAN.

This experience has actually helped bond the friendship between the three of us. It has been nearly 1.5 yrs since we left college, but still whenever we meet, somewhere in between the chat this experience crops up. And whenever we see a junior leaving any exam, we earnestly ask him/her to fight like a bull... "its never too late"