They Said It Was Just an Orientation…

Came across the title track of Kal Ho Na Ho today—out of nowhere. And just like that, I was taken back to that one day...
The day I left home to chase the dream I’d been holding onto for years.

That song still holds a special place in my heart. It was on loop when I was on my way to Delhi, leaving behind my parents, my home, my comfort zone - for two years of tapasya. A journey that was going to demand everything.

I still remember-Pritam, Nilendu and Diganta came to meet me. Swarup da (Dr. Niladri Deb) had come to see me off. It felt emotional, because we knew we wouldn't be meeting for the next two years.

I was nervous. And excited.
On one side, I was finally stepping into a new world, the one I had dreamt about for so long. On the other hand, I was leaving everything familiar behind. All my friends. My city. My routine. Everything was going to change.

And I know many of you might be going through the same phase right now.
Maybe you just shifted to Agartala for your studies.
Maybe this is your first time in a coaching institute.
Maybe you're sitting in a classroom full of strangers, and some faces feel a bit intimidating.

Been there.
I remember when I first went to FIITJEE Delhi, I looked around and saw these intense faces. Everyone seemed so serious. For a second, I wasn’t sure if I even belonged there.

We were all waiting for our orientation class, when the first shock hit us—
“There’s a test tomorrow to decide your batch.”
WHAT?! We were so not ready.

Me and Mriganka rushed back, started flipping through our notes. Panic mode: ON.

Then walked in Rahul Jain (IIT Delhi, Mechanical). He took our orientation. I still remember that moment - he had this aura. The way he spoke about the exam, his clarity of thought - it just hit different. That was the first time I met someone who had cracked JEE and was now guiding us. And you could tell. The way he explained things, it was sharp, direct, and real. We literally forgot we had a test the next day.

And then came the second bomb.
“Kis kisne Irodov kiya hai aane se pehle?”
Me and Mriganka looked at each other and laughed - who does Irodov before class 11?

But then, a hand quietly went up.
“Nimesh Dash,” he said.

That was the moment we realised—we weren't just competing with our school or our city anymore. This was national level.
This was real.
And things were about to get serious.

That evening, back at our flat in Munirka, we were on beast mode.
We lived in a 2BHK—me and my mom in one room, Mriganka and his mom in the other, with a common balcony where we sat for hours quizzing each other. Concise Chemistry (ICSE), First Step of Physics (Arihant)—we turned every line into a battleground, trying to ask what the other couldn’t answer. That’s how we prepared. That’s how we pushed each other.

The next day? The test went surprisingly well.
Mriganka topped, Nimesh came 2nd, I came 3rd.

We felt pumped. For the first time, we thought—yes, we can do this.
But we had no idea...

That was just the first page of a very long, very unexpected story.

   
 "One among the thousand embarrassing photos from the archives of Super Sankalp"
From Left: Shailesh, Rajat, Mriganka, Nimesh and Me