"When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
When little mumu read this she knew what Peter Pan was talking about.That little girl grew up into a little lady but in her heart she was still like Peter Pan....the boy who refused to grow up.Here she is now, typing away her crazy thoughts! (Yea...I know mumu isn't a conventional nick name!Apparently my mum decided to call me mumu as I made similar sounds as an infant!!)
All my life I have believed in the fairy tales i read as a Kid...one day you get up to find yourself amidst magical beings trying to figure out your life and helping you make your dreams come true!Be it Pinocchio...looking for the Blue fairy to turn him into a real boy or the little girl whose flowers kept blossoming with magic!As I grew up I was rebuked and told now and then that real lives are not like fairy tales.At times I told myself..maybe they are right, there is no magic in the real tales.But I am happy to declare that they were wrong!I do have a Tinker Fairy of my own she goes skipping about when Im happy & tries her best to make me smile...sometimes I can hear her ball ringing in my ears.maybe if you too hear closely you might hear her bell!
Wondering why am I romanticing this post?Well, Antheia my readers, has reached a new platform.Remember something about me appearing for NIFT 2010?Yes, I cleared it with AIR 28!!I was a long way through the written & Situation test but I finally made it to the top!YE ME!YE my tinker! Believe it or not I can feel her sittin on my shoulder cheering for me!After four solid years I will be professional fashionista!!Tell you what even a designer like Ritu Beri has been a NIFTian.So far so Good...now I am waiting for 19th June..the Counselling day.I wonder where my life will take me next?Wow!I might find myself beside people from Dior!
Okay I ll tell you the story...it was in mid December last year when i asked my dad if i could appear for the NIFT entrance.He said yes but he wanted to know if i was really interested.I couldn't say exactly if i were interested, but yes who wouldn't wish to be in the league of Gorgio Armani & McQueen! But the hitch was that the exam fell rite ahead of my board exams in the last week of February, my school farewell just on the second day.The mist soon settled down and I found myself filling up the entrance form.
Days passed & soon I could count the day till my entrance. A week before I scrounged the net for sample papers and tips.Thanks to some blogs I had a vague idea about what to expect from the paper.There are two papers, the GAT (general ability test) and CAT( creative ability test).I was kind of certain that i can crack the General ability test as i had no trouble with the kind of maths they asked, the English they have in the paper was comprehendible plus i have a knack for GK.But I was not sure if mt drawing skills were impressive, as a typical science student, I knew how to draw a cyclotron but I had no idea how to get a Female face right on a blank sheet of Paper.The damsel in distress needed help and to her pleasant surprise help was not far behind! Thanks to a few meetings with my lovely neighbor Sangeeta Aunty, I could put the pieces together for my written test.
The day before the exam me and dad were off to Jaipur, the exam was at some Bal Vishwa Something school! The next morning I dressed myself in my lucky highneck floral top and my good old blue jeans, I hopped into the car ready with my pencil colors!Daddy activated his GPS and we were off to make History! As we finally reached the center, I saw a huge crowd of girlies plus a few guys here or there and their mum dads.Interestingly, all i said all of them were dressed to impress as if they were to be awarded marks on the basis of their attires!As it was late feb, the sun was warm enough though the last remnants of the chill had not yet left but still you could find chicks sporting spaghettis & short skirts.I am the youngest among all my batch mates, as you see i started school earlier than others and on top of that my baby chub has not left my face, if you were me you shouldn't be surprise if a 12 year old comes your way and flirts with you at the local swimming pool! (yes this has happened!)So, in that crowd of matured faces, Kohl lined eyes and extra slick cell phones all the eyes looking at me were shouting out loud "What are you doing here Kid?"Haah...there I was, a little misfit amongst the mature faces!The first paper was better than my expectations but i was still dreading the CAT! I picked up some home made lunch in the car then dad and I decided to explore the nearby mall.I had some yummy Blackcurrant ice cream (my good old favorite flavor!) and soon we were headed back to the exam center.
My most dreaded moment was here!The paper had three questions in all, first was a grid of plain boxes in which you have to illustrate the given emotions, the kind of fire cracker I am, i naturally went ahead with the word ENTHUSIASM and piled the whole grid with bright colors with full vigor, I became so excited that I could see someone was staring at me!Second question, draw a postage stamp on given themes...I was missing my mummy by this time so I went ahead with the Mother's Day Stamp & drew all I could relate to it, I tried to make it look like its really me and maa in the picture.Last, draw a pencil sketch on the given scenes, detailing is important.Wow!That was panic time!I had no experience of shading & pencil sketches!O Hell!Now I really wanted my mommy!But then I took a chance on the theme Magic Show...the next half an hour was like Tug of war!I could feel sweat trickling down my neck and my palms went red.Thankfully by the end of the paper I was convinced that this was the best that I could have done.After the paper we went home bade goodbye to my granny and her pug daisy and headed home.I told maa i did well but the truth is I still didn't know what to expect.(its normal for me, after every exam i come out totally blank with no idea what so ever)
By April the result for the written exam were out, I was jumping up and down the moment I saw the green colored word Shortlisted next to my name!Next stop was NIFT Delhi, the Situation test on 24th Apr.OMG! AIEEE was on the next day...what was I to do now?We decided that i could chuck that exam as I never fancied being an engineer.Now this situation test thing was new to me, we were asked to bring stuff like tape and glue along with us to the center.More research over the net cleared the air....we would be asked to make something out of the stuff they will provide with the help of the stuff we have.SOS!What now??I told myself that there is no possible preparation I can do now with just some days left plus I am a mess with things like Paper Knife and PVA glue so just leave it on lady luck.I left for Jaipur for my summer vacations
Apr 23rd was here before I could wake up.It was me and Dad again scaling the Delhi-Jaipur Highway, my buddy Avikant was more than just surprised to hear i was doing something like this, he asked if I had planned this beforehand, obviously I hadn't!It is very typical of me to end up doing things I never planned and even more typical of my destiny to land me in situations unthinkable.The next morning we somehow survived the irritating Delhi traffic and reached NIFT,Hauz Khas after losing our track many a times.
I was welcomed at the larger than life NIFT campus with the same feeling, my friends back home even commented that Ill possibly be kicked out of the campus by the guards who will say "This place is not for kids, silly!" but fortunately THAT did not happen!Once again I was among well dressed youngsters dressed to certainly kill the onlookers!After the last experience I tried to look good too, again in a floral A-line long sleeveless top along with black leggings.I was looking chic!(at least I thought so!)
I was soon seated in the basement, I could see some familiar faces around, the people I saw at my examination.Our syuff was in place and we were soon handed over the question paper.I attempted the one which wanted us to make a mask on NATURE CARE and then write down our ideas on the given sheet...hmm..I thought for a moment and all I could remember was Antheia, the Goddess of Blossoms.I made a simple yet practical mask showcasing the elements of nature, the flora & fauna, the sun and water.Jotted some sentences about what I was thinking, made a table telling what i used where and why and lastly a string of key words related to my masterpiece alongside a rough sketch of my model.Like i said before I wasn't sure even this time if I did well or not but still I told everyone that I did well!!
On 18th the result was out...shockingly the baby faced underdog made it! ;)