The Corona Batch

Asshole 1 : Arav

It is that special day which occurs in everyone's life. It's 3:30 in the morning and everyone around me is hastily getting ready, I'm still half-sleeping wondering why are these people more excited as if it's their special day and I can hear my nephew crying out loud. I can't say how I'm feeling, to be honest I don't even know if I'm happy or sad or both, yeah I have mixed feelings about this.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, 'Are you still sleeping, you fuckhead? Get your ass off this sofa and go get a shower' he screams, as usual, I don't know why this man can't pass a single morning without yelling at me, seriously I'm thinking of recording his voice and set it as my alarm tone, it can be handy.

'Within five minutes' he orders, as I stand up and I just nodmy head and rush to the bathroom.

'You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime' I sing, feeling the water drops sliding through my body, I love this song like crazy and I feel one who can write a better lyric than Eminem isn't born yet.

'What's that noise from the bathroom?' I hear her saying and I immediately pause my voice and focus on shampooing my hair instead. She is my sister-in-law, the wife of my big cousin, the daughter-in-law of my big parents, I mean the daughter-in-law of my mom's elder sister. I know it's confusing, you'll get used to it.

I place all the luggages inside the trunk and sit comfortably in the front seat, a few minutes later, Appa slaps my head and orders me to go back, and I do, I don't know why this man likes to sit in the front seat so much. My big cousin drives the car, I'm not feeling comfortable anymore, I'm being pushed on my shoulders by Amma who is being pushed by my Perima (her big sis), on top of that I'm carrying my nephew on my lap who has been crying for the past two hours, for what in the world I don't know. We are going to Coimbatore, from Sivakasi, my hometown, through Madurai Highways, I have been waiting for someone to take in charge of my nephew so that I can feel less uncomfortable and after few hours, everyone except my brother doze off which clearly includes my nephew but I can't as I am busy with the numerous thoughts running in my mind plus I'm carrying my mom's head on my shoulder. The journey is longer than I expected, thanks to google maps we reach safely without taking any wrong turns and at the exact time.

At the entrance, the watchman tells us to park the car in the empty space just opposite to this big building which he calls the auditorium and we do as he says, I see a car getting parked just beside ours and a boy gets down along with his father, he gives us a weird look, of course any one in his place will, who in the world comes with these many people for college admission? I swear, I didn't ask them to come along, they came by themselves and I couldn't help it.

'Have your reached, macha?' Pravin asks me, through the phone as we stroll towards the auditorium.

'Yeah macha! I'm on my way to the auditorium' I reply him, tightly holding the file which contains all my certificates.

'I'm sitting in the fourth row, fifth seat from the left, with my parents. Hurry macha!' he speaks and hangs up.

When we reach the entrance, we find a group of people, standing neatly in the queue, to get lunch tokens, I go and join them after Appa orders me to, I see them all asking for two tokens or at most 3, but during my turn, I ask the token provider, for seven tokens and he looks at me as if I am asking all those tokens for myself and I shift my eyes to my big family, who are talking as if they are here for a picnic, he does the same and conforms that I'm not lying and places the seven tokens on my palm. Soon after, we enter the auditorium, it is damn huge with this big stage in the middle where the staff members were seated, I can figure out that bit by looking at their ID cards, they are busy filling out some forms, large LED screens are fixed in the left and right corners, the whole auditorium contained more than 10,000 chairs, mostly filled, there's this frilled cloth hanging in the middle, dividing the auditorium into two. Pravin waves his hand at me and we move forward and settle down beside his family.