188!shouted ravi in a triumphant tone.194! i said with a mischievous smile signalling his end.this is the game of the cricket trump cards.here,everyone is distributed these cards which carry the details of a player and u try to get others' cards by shouting a field which u suppose was the best among all the face cards of the other players.the magic numbers above were the highest odi scores of gary kirsten and saeed anwar. ravi,i and 2 others used to be the naughty backbenchers in class 4 playing these sort of silly games!!there is not a single day when we were not caught playing this stuff and thrown out of the class.but little did this help the teachers in setting us alright!but then these events HELPED us to get into the bad books of the head master.one day i left the class on the pretext of drinking water.i was lingering at the drinking place chatting with few other friends not willing to go back to the classes.here came a shock my dear fellows!the hm(headmaster) was on rounds and we were spotted unaware.the next thing he did was to take us with him and ask us to stand with hands raised in front of his room.this,i say was THE most embarrssing moment of my life.people would pass around with a smile that was enough to humiliate me very badly.meanwhile one BACKBENCHER friend of mine came to know this.he felt so bad that he came to the entrance of the room and stood there with his hands raised!!the hm couldnt make this out for he was deeply involved in some gossip in the next room.here,i say,my dear readers came 2 powerful truths onto me.one-that my insincerity towards acads would do me no good.second- i realised what good frends i ve.this very moment i promised to myself that i wud grow sincere.i started working very hard and also convinced my friends to do away with those silly games.now,there was one teacher who had observed this change in mine.one day he was teaching us some fundamentals abt prepositions.currently,i was so intent in studies that i read all that for myself frm the textbook.not only that ,i started reading abt conjunctions frm the book.the teacher spotted me and admonished me instead of doing otherwise.i grew sad.it seems the world is always against me no matter what i do.i was lost in all these thoughts when a unison shout of the class "GOOD MORNING SIR" shook me.ohh!!my god!!!it is the same hm again,this time here to on a surprise checkup.i avoided eye contact with him for i knew the embarrasment that will come up in me as soon as i do it.he asked the master to put some questions to the class.to my surprise,the first question was fired by my master towards me!what is even more surprising was that he asked abt conjunctions!!the topic still being afresh in my mind,i answered it very well even giving some examples.hahahahahah!!!now the hm was happy and asked if anybody else can repeat the answer. nobody cud.the hm praised me very much for my brilliant reply!after posing some other questions to which i was the first volunteer,left the class advising us to work hard.i cud hardly keep myself calm after the class and erupted with joy.the master later said he has asked me the question deliberately.it was,he said, to show me what good memory and intelligence i possessed and how it feels to be the only person in the entire class answering questions!!this i say,my dear fellows is the best feeling that i could ever enjoy.this very incentive was sufficient to make me work hard for the rest of my classes.little wonder,it helped me place myself in ,what the hm called when i was leaving the school,"UNSHAKABLE FIRST POSITION".i kept my work with years and finally, my friends,i recollect my old,fond memories from the position that was gifted to me by this very incentive which i described above-----"IITIAN!!"