Mentos-Dimag ki batti jala de!

Superstitions are amazing.They have this kind of placebo effect on you where they make you believe that you will do well in an exam,an interview,a date(:P) and everything else that you do if you follow them.This might not be true but it gives a man strength to face situations which usually make him nervous.

I have a lot of superstitions.In the 2nd term of my engineering I failed an exam for the first time ever in my life.The paper was of Engineering Graphics or as we used to call it-EGR.Now this paper used to have 6 questions as all Pune University papers do.All these questions were do 1 out of the following 2 types.4 were of 16 marks each and 2 of 18 marks.

There was this rumour that no one could get less than 12 marks in the paper because you got 2 marks for every question if all you did was mark the x and the y axis.So if all you did in the paper was draw 6 xy axes you would be assured of 12 marks.

When I appeared for the paper,like always I solved all questions to the best of my ability.I have never really been very good at subjects like these which require you to be pinpoint when you are solving questions.People who have done the course will be shocked to know that I never ever used the DRAFTER!I always use to draw with the help of a simple roll-n-draw.

Anyway so the results came out and they were the worst results of my life.I had managed to get a princely score of 8 out of 100 in EGR.In effect,I broke the back of that belief that no one could score less than 12 marks.

I had bought a new T shirt and a new jeans before the next set of exams came around.Both were from the brand of Pepe jeans and when I started my 3rd term exams I wore them on the first day.The exam went quite well and I thought of wearing them again for the next paper.This continued and I kept wearing the same through all the 6 exams in that term(5+EGR).

After that term,I became so comfortable in those clothes that believe it or not,I have worn them in every exam season since.That would include the 4th,5th,6th,7th and 8th term papers durin engineering.I wore them during 2 or 3 of my mock CATs and I wore them on the most important day of my life on 16 November 2008 on CAT day.Since joining IIMC,I have worn them in all the 6 exam weeks so far.Even during the winters I used to wear the half sleeves T shirt and a full sleeves on top of it.

Another one of my superstitions is eating a Mentos chewing gum before starting any paper.Since I always have a good stock of mentos in my home,I had an easy access to them.I eat a mentos just as I receive the question paper.Have been doing it since the 6th term of engineering and the trend has carried on to the IIMC papers.

I know it sounds quite weird but that is how it is.The situation has come to a stage where sometimes I really wanna believe the Mentos tag line of 'Dimag ki batti jala de'!

PS-Thanks for the amazing response to the other blog.It has garnered more than 50 views on the first day and has more followers than this 2 year old blog.I hope you enjoyed reading the first post and that you will keep coming back for future ones.At the same time I hope that you will keep supporting this blog too.