It has been raining heavily for the past two days at Chennai.  Yesterday, Vignesh had school, but the younger one, Karthik, whose school is comparatively at a better place than Vignesh, had holiday, as he was in smaller classes. Today when I got up around 5:30 a.m., it was pitch dark outside, and there were heavy showers with lightning as well as thunders.  So, thinking that both the kids might have holiday today, was doing my cooking in a lethargic manner.  At around 6 a.m., made Vignesh to wake up with great difficulty, and also heard from the school’s Porur Campus, that the school was functioning today.  Both of us had a heavy heart and Vignesh was slowly getting ready for the school bus. I had made vegetable biriyani for lunch, and packed the same.  Once Vignesh, left for catching his bus, my next job was to wake up Karthik, whick is more than a Herculian task.  My husband too got up early, as he was to leave early for his work today.  I thought I will check the school website to find out whether Karthik had a holiday today too.  The school website did not say anything about that.  But at the same time, my gmail alert popped up a new message, something regarding the results of HDFC Meritus Scholarship Exams 2009.  I immediately checked my inbox, and to my sweet surprise I found that Vignesh has been declared as one among the 3300 winners, out of 4.2 lakh kids, all over India, who participated in this competition.  Kudos to Vignesh.  Really feeling great today morning.

P.S. Vignesh, still doesn’t know about his feat, as he is off to school.  Waiting for the evening to come so that I can convey the news to him…

The path to his success:

This Scholarship competition was announced in Feb. 2009.  I am a salary account holder with HDFC Bank for the past 4 years.  One day, while logging on to Netbanking, I saw this contest and wanted Vignesh to participate in the same.  The rules of the contest said that there will be two rounds of telephone quiz,  which, after qualifying will lead to the final round of written test.  The final round will also take into consideration his other interests, extra curricular activities etc etc.  I had registered my mobile number and Vignesh was waiting for the first round of IVRS(Interactive Voice Response System), which will ask 10 questions, each of different level, totalling to 30 marks.  There can be a maximum of 5 attempts, but the marks scored in the final attempt will be taken as his final score for that round.  In the first round, he took the first attempt, the score was 19/30, and the second attempt resulted in 28/30.  My husband said that it is better that he stopped there, because it would be the second best score.  We waited, and got a message stating that he has qualified for the second round.  The second round, he took through the internet, and got 30/30.  We knew that for sure, he will receive a call for the last written test round.  It took place on August 16th, 2009 a Sunday, at Sri Ramakrishna Mission Boys Higher Secondary School, T. Nagar.  Actually, it has been a long time (a very lonnnnnnnnng time) since we had gone out of station.  That was a good weekend, as Aug 15th, Saturday was also a national holiday.  One of my colleagues was getting married at Trichy.  I has asked my husband, and we were of the thought, that we four, will drive down to Trichy and spend the weekend over there.  But by, Thursday, we received a message from HDFC, that the final written test was on Aug.16th.  We thought that Vignesh, should take up the final test, as he had come up to that level.  But, by Friday itself, he developed high fever, and was down.  We had taken him to the doctor, and was under medication.  That was the time that the first case of swine flu was diagnosed in India too.  SO, we were all the more worried.  On Sunday, as he looked a bit better, he said, he will take up the test, and Vignesh and myself, went to the exam centre, around 9:00 a.m.  There were a good number of students, who had come to take up the written test.  Vignesh, was as cool as he usual self.  The exam was for two hours 10:00 to 12:00.  My husband, came around 11:00 and once the exam was over, we both were pestering Vignesh, the whole way back to home, about the questions, that were asked in the paper.  He couldn’t even recollect 5 to 10 questions.  He said, overall, atleast 30 to 35 questions will definitely be right, and the rest, he had done some guesswork.  We spoke to a few officials of HDFC over there, who said that the written test was conducted at various parts of the country, on different dates, till September end.  We knew that the results would be out anytime after September.  Today was that D-day, and we are all very happy for Vignesh!!!