"Your name is on the list." Arnav, one of the volunteers, informed me outside the canteen as Bajrang and I were sipping tea. The nervousness which was visible on my face for the past 2 hours disappeared in a moment.
"And yours too Bajji." He added.
"Cool. That means I have something in me. Now I know where I stand among the crowd..."
"28th" Bajrang was interrupted by Arnav "You barely cleared the cutoff" He said before leaving.
I couldn't suppress my laughter. So 28 students had cleared the written out of 30. The competition hadn't decreased as I had anticipated earlier. Clearly, everyone wanted to grab one piece from this last pie. The GD round was supposed to take place the next day and this round was supposed to be tougher for me since I never had much participation before in discussions even in classes. If it was difficult for me to clear the GD round then it was almost impossible for Bajrang to make it to the 3rd round since, in his own words, he hated GD.
"So will you be attending tomorrow's GD or not?" I asked him.
"You know I hate this thing. So I am not sure. What about you? Will you be attending?" He threw the question back to me.
"A... yes. Why not give a shot at GD as well? At least I would know where I stand among the cr..."
"Right. I am coming too."
Yet again I didn't tell him my real intention. 'He would understand' I thought.
Sonal was satisfied but not elated. The litmus tests were the subsequent rounds. Knowing about my weakness in GDs, she had made me practice the whole evening. She didn't want to take any chances so she put me in the group which had the least competition. On the contrary, Bajrang's name featured among the killers. He had the least chance to make it to the interviews but he wasn't worried at all. It was just fun for him but I was under little pressure. Total 4 groups were there. Mine was 3rd and that of Bajrang was 4th. Soon my name was called upon and with a heartbeat averaging more than normal, I entered the GD room.
Bajrang and I sat on the steps leading to the library munching cold bread-pakoda and sipping frooti when Sonal came hurriedly towards us with a baffled look on her face.
"What...happened?" I could hardly speak, thinking about what had transpired earlier in the day.
She took a moment to catch her breath "You have your interview tomorrow."
I expected a smile on her face but the confused look on her face puzzled me further. The mystery got clear within a few seconds though when Sonal slowly turned towards Bajrang and spoke slowly
"And you too...."
Almost an hour ago I had come out of the room dejected and a glance on my face was enough for Sonal to gauge that something bad had happened. She instantly grabbed my hand and pulled me in one corner.
"What happened?" She asked in a worried tone.
"Fish market." I replied.
"But how...I mean I had placed you in the easiest group....."
"Dunno. It is the last campus so everyone is trying hard to crack it, I guess. The moderator got frustrated within 7-8 minutes only and asked all of us to leave."
"Fine...Fine.. let me see what I can do...." she left quickly as someone called her. This was an unexpected setback for me as well as for her.
Bajrang emerged out of the discussion room 30 minutes later. He was the only one grinning among the seven persons coming out of the room. The rest of the guys looked dejected and a couple of girls were on the verge of crying. It seemed something terrible had happened.
"What happened Bajji?"
"Terrible chaos. The moderator became so furious that he eliminated the whole group from the drive. All 7 kicked out."
"Oh, God! I never expected such a mess. Did you get a chance to speak or not?"
"I didn't even understand the topic." He laughed " So I just kept on repeating please don't create a fish market here and let's give everyone an opportunity to speak. Though nobody listened to me, I at least said something in GD."
I just smiled at the naivety of Bajrang. Speaking alone wasn't sufficient to clear a GD round. But I had been proven wrong.
Luck had been in huge favour of Bajrang. He had cleared the cutoff of the written exam by one mark and was one of the two persons selected from his group without uttering any word on the topic given in GD. My path hadn't been so smooth so far though and now we stood on the same platform. I had a lot at the stake and Bajrang's newfound luck was worrying me. He was never expected to go beyond the written exam and if he managed to crack the campus then it would happen at the expense of someone else.
I didn't want myself to be that 'someone'.
