A fantastico memory

When I saw the word "fantastico" in the list of keywords for this competition, the first thing that came to my mind is the log of Friday May 10th, 2013 in my diary. This was the day I'd written EAMCET: Engineering and Medical Common Entrance Test, the test that decides your fate if you live in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana.

It was my second attempt, so the entire day was presided over by a feeling of deja vu. Except for one thing; I remembered each mistake I made the last time, and made it a point not to commit them again.

Both my parents were escorting me to the examination centre, and all three of us were trying to suppress the tension laden part our our minds, so that it wouldn't ruin the day. There still escaped a bit of fear into the atmosphere, and I tried my best to ignore it. We reached the exam hall well before time, and waited outside. I had every single book I'd need in the car right next to me, just in case I suddenly couldn't recollect something. I was already prepared though, and I tried my best to stay confident.

In the exam hall, everything went smooth, just as planned. The paper was rather easy, but I knew that I was predisposed to make tons of careless mistakes. Those were what ruined every practice exam of mine, too, so I didn't have my hopes up very high.

We had a nice lunch at a comfortable restaurant nearby after the exam, and went home, with my parents pressing for details about the exam. I tried to tell them everything I could recollect, but of course, any amount of detail isn't good enough when it comes to the exam that your entire future depends upon!

We went home, and I tried not to get too worked up about the exam. Around midnight, my father found a key to the paper online, and we decided to count my marks.

It was a wonder. I'd done everything with far more perfection than I'd imagined! It was absolutely fantastico! 37+39+32+34; 142. Those are numbers I'll never forget. After we rejoiced together for a while, I came inside to go to bed. But of course, I couldn't; I was feeling way too fantastico to quietly sleep! I really needed to find an outlet for the excitement. That's when I sat up, and wrote this diary entry.

"This is a day to remember. Right now all that's running through my mind is all the people who thought I wasn't good enough to do this, and how I've proved them wrong. It's true when they say, 'it all depends on ONE day'! And for me, that was a great thing! I'm a little shaken thinking of how close I was to doing so many things that could have messed up my score. All the hard work paid off; I don't believe it! This is surreal. I'm not just going to get an MBBS seat; I'm going to get an amazing one!

This feels amazing. I never knew what it was like to win, before; not really. I called up my entire family and gave them the great news! There's no limit to their happiness. Each one of their reactions were worth all the effort I put into this."

And that is the most fantastico page of that year's diary.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.