Anticipation.....Expectations !!

If I have to describe my Japan trip/scholarship in one word; that would certainly be “Surprising”!!! Its been almost three months since Anupama Sensei first broke this news to all of us including me! It took me some time to realize the gravity n magnitude of the same… And my first reaction was, ”This is unreal!” How can god be so kind on me? During that particular month, everything seemed to be working in my favor.
It all started when I took part in Speech competition in last week of January. And out of 5 candidates I was sort of average in terms of preparation; but when the whole round completed I was pretty sure of coming in top 3. Almost all of us did the same mistakes and repeated the same nervousness everywhere. So it was sort of equal competition amongst us as nobody was clear winner. I was confidant on my topic selection, after all ‘Smile’ is something which everyone invariably get connected to. Even though I was the most poor as far as remembering the speech was concerned but I more than made that up with expressions and intonation. And in the end it was a decent sort of a show. But when Anupama Sensei announced the 3 names, I did not find my name in that…ohh, I really felt heartbroken at that particular moment. For being my Birthday on that day, I was anyways on cloud no.9 n felt that this just has to work for me as it did last year. But all my wandering thoughts came to a halt n I just came downstairs all lost and dejected. That’s when Yoshida Sensei came to me and shared some inspiring words. He was quite optimistic about my chances of getting selected; but I lost in the end by the narrowest possible margin. Of course I did not believe that way and later went to Anupama sensei to ask what went wrong in my case. She also couldn’t give me satisfactory answer. All the more frustrated, I cut the cake and celebrated my not so special birthday amongst some of my very dear and close Japanese group friends.
There I felt it was all over for this year’s speech competition for me. And can you believe, I got a call from Anupama Sensei couple of days later to let me know that I got selected for west zone!! That’s the best thing which could have happened to me! This year, IJ decided to have 4 candidates from Ranade Institute instead of the standard 3 n I became the lucky looser! I knew in what situations I pulled that speech off so it was heartbreaking for me when I first got rejected. Later it was a usual story of working on minute details to get ready for the big day. And when the day actually arrived it was indeed big as I again found myself sitting with all the great orators and practitioners. Although I didn’t fare too badly as I won myself a consolation prize amongst top 10 candidates from Maharashtra!
Anyways, so coming back to the main topic, it was like dream come true for someone like me who is already working and cannot enjoy the language because of lack of time. This is an ideal scholarship for me as I can ask leave for 10 days which is not hard to digest for my manager. In fact he was quite surprised too know that there is something of this sort happens around and that his team member is into it.
I felt really special when sensei told me that I was the unanimous choice when this scholarship first came to Ranade. I have started believing of late that if u keep doing the good stuff, u are bound to get returns. I never worked in Ranade in anticipation of any returns and that somehow made my relationship with almost all teachers very cordial and special. Whether its organizing the exhibition in Ranade or to have fun in the class; I was always the front runner. I usually have some stand against everything; n that sometimes gives bad impression as well. But being vocal about anything is always better than to keep silence on any topic!! Of course with this attitude I made more enemies than friends, but I certainly have found some very special friends out there!
Now its been almost 3 months when things started off, and this scholarship thing took a backseat as nothing was happening on that front. I slowly started to worry about the whole thing as none of us had any written proof of us getting the scholarship. But the picture again changed when 3 weeks before we got some Japan related books from the consulate. And again the process of surprising news started flowing in. The very first of it was to get the reimbursement of flight tickets to and fro Delhi. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been easy traveling for 30 hours to reach Delhi. I am sure I would have lost half of my vigor about the trip inside the train only!
The other good news came right on the next day. We were told that they are going to take us to Kyoto, Nara and Hiroshima as well!! Well, this was the best thing that could have happened to us as all these 3 cities depict the true picture of Japan; modern and traditional. And who can forget the tragic atomic bombing on Hiroshima. The thought of it brings rippers into my body. And later came the BIG surprise. We are going to get 50000 Yen as the total wages out there!! This news is like BIG!....This is equivalent to almost 20000 Rs. And this is pretty handsome amount given the fact that the entire trip is sponsored !These things aren’t too big to manage for the Japanese Govt but it certainly helps them to build a very good impression in the student’s mind n that certainly is on their agenda. Being Japan Govt I always felt that they will take good care of us. And with all this goodies being showered on us; my faith has become even more solid now! Lets see, how things turn from now on and how big surprises await us…:)