Before IIIT

Looking back in the time ok lets give it a timestamp, the year 2001, I was just another engg aspirant, not very brilliant, but was struggling very hard to get admission into any one of those famous engg colleges in India (namely IIT, Roorkee, IIITS). I already had a bitter experience of being a dropper and wasting some precious time of my life. But like many Bihari guys like me I had no other choice but to continue this fight untill my goal was reached. I was staying in Keshavpuram Delhi with my friends Yashvir, Mukesh and Arun. Don't know why but I always wanted to be a computer engineer. May be computers were a buzzword at that time [remember I am talking about 2k1 and .COM Boom]. But I guess it was my fear from the core courses, especially chemistry which got me attracted towards IIITs. These colleges were getting very popular (even though they were barely one or two years old only 2 yrs ago) among the students. But getting admission into any of the IIITs was considered very tough, even tougher then IITs because they had very limited seats apprx 100 and almost 50000 student were appearing for that compared to IIT JEE where almost double or triple number of students were fighting for some 20-30 times more seats... Anyway, getting admission into IIIT-H was considerd as next to impossible. But somehow after the papers I was quiet satisfied because I felt that I had done well. But when the results were declared I was not in top 500. I was very upset because I hadn't made into any other exam by then [No luck in IIT, Roorkee, very poor rank in DCE, hadn't applied for the state engg ], so I was at my lowest. Well a few days later I got one good news, I had secured 97th rank in IIIT kolkatta.. This news gave me some relief that atleast I can do something ... by this time we had changed our flat and shifted in a nearby flat... Some 2-3 days later I got call from the previous land-lord saying that I have got some letter from IIIT Hyderabad. I said him that it must be from IIIT Calcutta because I was expecting the letter from IIIT Calcutta and not from IIITH but he again said no its from Hyderabad. I was a little puzzled then I thought that may be they have sent marks. So that evening I went to my previous landlord who gave me this letter and surprisingly it was from IIIT Hyderabad. I opened it and read the letter and what was inside the letter, I only had dreamed that.. don't know what the actual content was.. but it was something like this : Dear Mr Rakesh Kumar You have secured a rank 634 in the entrance exam conducted by IIIT Hyderabad and are requested to attend the second counselling session of it. There have been already many seats filled up in the first counselling and this letter doesn't gurantee your admission. Directions to reach IIIT Hyderabad: From Secunderabad railway station you may take the buses numbered 5,5M or 5C. From there you come to Mehdipattnam. From Mehdipattnam you can board buses numbered 216,217 or get into some 7seater for IIIT. The nearest bus stand is JNIDB stand. Signature: Commandar M. V. Raman Well, I hardly had any time to think about anything as I had to attend the counselling in 4 days. The next 3 days I spent in travelling. Next day morning I left for my home. I reached my home in evening. Slept in the night, the next morning I went to my college to issue some certificates, I came back at the time of lunch had my lunch and left for Calcutta stayed there in night with bhaiya. He already had booked tickets for Secunderabad. In the morning I left for Hyderabad for a journey with a Dream... A journey which gave me a new life and gave a new meaning to my life...