Surviving till batch 2

Eventually, we were at a stage where we had nothing. All money we had was already invested. Our neighbor was a competition to us (he also had his own academy). Our location was off-road whereas there were many other academies proliferating in the main market of Vishrantwadi. And now we didn't even have kids to be taught. Only 5 were left with us. It was a critical situation. Indira Gandhi must have put emergency in this situation.

Soon, Raj started getting annoyed of all this stuff. Not because we had no money. But because the students were the worst we have ever seen. All five of them. Raj used to say "Yar wo Shweta, Meghal vagairah kitni sahi bandiyan thi. Kam se kam dekhti to thi meri taraf jab main padhata tha". Long back, when I used to teach the same 5 students in USA, they seemed to be brilliant. Now we came to know that that lusture of these non-metals was relative. They were graphite, not diamonds. Now you can imagine what sort of kids were left there in USA - "all ace".

Vinit added to this irritation of Raj. Vinit usually used to irritate Raj willingly (in humor) for money we have lost. And I used to buck him up. But the fact is, all this was just internal humor of friends. In reality, we all 3 were feeling the same thing "have we lost everything in this public-service work?" We were not hungry for money. But we were bursting to teach to good students. Money was important, I agree, But it was secondary.

And one day, two of those 5 kids gave us the full fee all of a sudden. We had 16000/- in our hands. We were undergoing a critical financial crisis and here it was : water to thirsty crow. It gave Raj a chance to pay his debts, and Vinit to enjoy with his pseudo-fanti. Well, for me, I was yet to pay 10,000 to my dad (which I did within next 10 days). And it was such a relief.

One thing we three used to discuss was "why these kids are so ignorant about studies?" And the reason was that there was zero awareness about future life and competitive exams among them. None of them really knew how AIEEE and IIT-JEE exam was going to affect their life. They were just like "Aaaahhhhh! what a life? We are cool dudes and punks". So, overall, there wasn't any fault from the student's side. Moreover, neither the parents were that much aware. All these kids belonged to middle-class families. So, it is quite expected that the parents won't be knowing much about the world going around education systems.

Even my mom-dad didn't know. Parents come to know only when one of their children has gone through these times. My sister was elder. And my dad didn't even have the slightest hint of competitive exams. Result of this ignorance was the loss of 2 years for my sister preparing for PMT exams. Though for me, dad had enough experience by this time and I had already seen year-drop of my sister. So, I was more aware and conscious  about the competition.

Now, the parents of these 5 kids - all they could do was put them in good schools, academies and hope (and believe) that the school is gonna take fine care of their child. But actually this APS Pune was one of the worst schools I have seen in terms of studies and its related environments. Most students were spoiled wards of Army Officers, and the wards of JCOs and ORs then try to adjust and imitate with those rich kids. Parents do everything their children demand but in return the kids get lost in their own world. Neither the teachers payed attention to such a drastic change in the youth towards being cool, listening to Enrique & Brittney, wearing sweat-shirts and converse shoes, and enjoying the chill life without even knowing that there is something known as "IIT-JEE". Students from whole nation were busy preparing for that 'one of the toughest' exam every single minute of every single day for continuous 2-3 years.

We introduced that face of the world to these 5 students. When Raj used to tell them his stories how he used to study in Kota, they used to listen in amusement like "Wow!!" It effected them for few minutes, instigated them with new enthusiasm and by the time they used to go home, they forget that story. Daily we tried to fill these student with zeal, but soon these things started fading away. Now scene has converted to such a situation that whenever we used to tell how we used to study, they had to JUST listen reluctantly and thinking "ho gaye shuru apni raam-kahani batene, roz-roz ek hi cheez". They never cared what we really wanted to convey. Many times we used to tell that the world is not waiting. Every minute they lose in eating ice-creams, waiting for bus at bus-stop, enjoying in malls, going for piss, that minute someone is practicing objective questions somewhere in India, to take a lead of 2 marks.

Wait a minute! What if we have told them so much that they have been demoralized? So lets make their morale up  again. "You still have sufficient time to through the whole thing if you do it the way I am telling you". And we used to tell them the methods. "Daily wake up at so-and-so time, at least this-many questions per day per subject, so many chapters within so-many days, and you will get not only above 90% in boards, but also a very good rank in AIEEE".

And this trick worked exactly opposite like "Hey! we still have a lot of time. Why not enjoy a little more?" WTF?

Somehow, we finished the batch one month prior to board exams and called kids for just random classes and doubts sessions. I blame no-one but to ourselves for all this. We wanted something good, but it turned out to be so worse. We did exhaustive hard-work those days. And at the end of the day, all we got was blames "It was you who made us so. We were doing fine in USA. We used to be the best there".

Oh c'mon! What's the use of being the best among fools? Compete with the top-star baby. We just opened your eyes. You used to think you were gonna crack every exam easily. Now here is the mirror. Look at your inner self and now you have come to know how far you still are from your target.

How it all started (part 1)

The roots of opening an academy goes back to my TE when Raj shifted to my room. It was only me and Nandal that used to live in that triplet (a room for three). So obviously the space for one more guy was left. Me and Nandal decided to get a doublet in SE. We failed! So we decided to keep our triplet only as a doublet - no intruder. Still, when Raj intended to come to our room (due to the difference with his own room-mates), I felt a bit happy. He resonated with me. Ideas, views, attitute, and most important - the wish to open an academy.

We were in our BE. I was so excited regarding placements but my marks were low. I never studied hard in entire engineering span. So, somewhere I knew that I would never get a job. Moreover, I didn't want either. So, me and Sachin (my flankmate since 2 consecutive years) tried a part-time teaching at Vishrantwadi. We approached a guy named Anil. About 40 year old, typical healthy fat Indian physique, blunt mustache like any Marathi and an owner of a science academy since 20 years. You can say, he was a pretty good experience holder in the field of education. He named his academy as USA - Universal Science Academy.

He asked us to give a demo class next sunday. We asked for little more time as placements were going on. I got placed in Mu-Sigma and Sachin was to wait for another 6 months for a job in Codewalla. The day I reached USA for second time was Sunday, and it was more than 1 month since my last meeting with Anil. But he recognised me instantly. Gave me a class and asked to teach the students. "Nitin Sir, Physics for 2 hours, and then Biology for 2 hours, with a half an hour break inbetween" - he said.

Students were from XII, both CBSE and State Board of Maharashtra. Students had good knowledge - but nothing from books. They knew how to shout in class, how to irritate a teacher, how to ruin their life by not studying BUT they knew nothing about electrostatics - the very first chapter in their syllabus. And whatever they knew, as mentioned above, they were practically applying that in their life. Exception to this category of students were just 6 among them - Narendra, Prashant, Seema, Rishi, Shivani and Shweta.

For 2 months, I taught them (October and November) - going to classes every alternate day (including sundays). I was paid INR 200 per hour of lectures. Time just went with those badly educated students whom I was trying to improve. Most of my lectures used to be less about the topics, and more about making them realise the mistakes they were making, the crime they were comitting by not studying. Anil had nothing to do with the results of students. Actually there were about 10 academies in that area. And none of them cared a s*** about the students. Sometimes, Anil also used to cheat with me regarding my payments.

I shared the condition of the kids with my friends. Nandal gave the idea. "Lets open an academy of our own. If you can attract the students out of USA, we may also earn something. In turn we will provide much better education. What say?" - he said.

It was me, Nandal, Vinit and Raj who were to be partners. We made a division of labour as follows:

Me - Physics and Biology
Raj - Mathematics
Vinit - Chemistry
Nandal - Management

Now, there were clashes. Both Raj and Vinit argued that we don't need a manager. Hardly 10-20 kids will come to us. To manage such a small set of children, we don't need a dedicated manager. We can do it. I did agree. So decided to keep the team of three - me, Raj and Vinit.

-(to be continued)

How it all started (part 2)

So now, we were three. It was early December. PLs were encountered and we went to our respective native places (Vinit went to Hyderabad instead). Nandal went to SSB, Allahabad.

We had a limited time. College was to reopen in Jan and it was December 9. We had a deal to reach Pune on or before Dec 15 and open academy before 20th. The first step was to collect study material. I went Behel to my cousin brother who had all study notes of my didi (didi had a coaching from Akash Institute, New Delhi and got admission to Army College of Medical Science). Later I collected all the notes I could find with 'Theta Sir' for Rs. 500/-. On the other hand, Raj was looking for all the notes of his younger brother who had coaching from Motion IIT-JEE Kota. Though Raj himself had coaching from Bansal, Kota. But after getting selected in EML for subsequent two years, he burnt all his books in anger.

Now we had to decide the name of our "to be academy". We came up with many names. List had about 15 names and later we narrowed down the list to only two names: "Amigos" and "Competition Island". Finally, Competition Island was the winning name. Vinit and me made the logo overnight by merging whatever we could get on Google-Images, and after a little fine Photoshop by Vinit.

Next step was to attract all the students. I had phone numbers of all the kids studying at USA. I messaged them all, and a CC to Mr. Anil also. Anil replied that "if you are coming to us as faculty, it is not good to send such SMS to me as well as my students."

On 18th of December, I left Bhiwani to Delhi. My train was waiting for me. After two hours, Raj joined me in Mathura. We had a seat side by side. On December 19, I called all the students confirming the admission and asked them to wait at Dominos in Vishrantwadi (Vinit says, that was the the most stupid thing we have ever done in our so called "Academy-Career") at 5 PM.  Vinit reached AIT at 2:00 PM and We all met at Dominos at 5:00 PM as scheduled. Students were told that "tomorrow on 20th, we have the opening, BUT we still don't know what is the address :)". We ordered Pizza for all of them that did cost us arount a 1000 bucks and there were around 10 students there out of whom, only 5 joined.

Raj says "those 5 would have joined us anyhow. Pizza didn't help at all in attracting them". On December 20, me and Vinit went to Manpa and baught a whiteboard marker worth 1080 INR. We kept it at AIT hostel that night and made payments to a 1 BHK ugly room which was to be renowned. It would take another day so we told students that the opening is delayed by one day.

Next day, we ran all the day for furniture. We got a donation of about 9 chairs from a "TO BE KEPT SECRET" source which in return asked for us to have a bit physical pain, shoes filled of mud and a cost of fare to a Sixy-auto at 11:00 PM. So we decided not to buy anymore, and make a sustainable development. But that donation surely . The same benevolent source also gave us some curtains.

Now, it was the final day. On one hand, we had to get our documents for room-at-rent completed by a Govt. Notary. On other hand, we felt that the chairs were less than required. Then, on one side, me and Raj made a leap to Bhosari for cheap chairs. On other side, Vinit was making arrangements of a tube-light in the inner room. We were late. Students were waiting for us since 5:00 PM near Dew-Drops. I went to receive them at 5:15 PM. First class was of mine and I was not in good attire. Parents were also with kinds. Vinit escorted dew students beforehand and other I handed over to Raj. Then I ran to college to change my drapery. At 5:30, class was ready to go on with a rickety arrangement.

Rooms were stinking. Toilet wasn't clean (And Raj says : "Get back to the class. Why the hell are you girls standing outside?"). Mosquitoes were destroying the scenario even more. So, vinit made a quick arrangement of a coil. He made a podium. And finally, we were done with a temporary academy like environment, with our only wealth : the knowledge we had.

That was our first batch. First day, around 15 students arrived. We taught well, and to our full potential. Got all forms filled by students along with their parent's signatures. Fee was very optimal. And most of them kept on attending the classes for around 8 to 9 days until we asked for fee. And as soon we asked for money, they started leaving with excuses. We were left with just 6 students (with a doubt whether they will give fee or they will also run away). But, luckily 5 of them were still retained by us and they performed better than who remained at USA, as far as we know.

This was the story of "The Origin of Competition Island".