By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Aligarh: Three years ago, Fazle Karim, 21, like many bright Bihari non-medical students, had dreamt of qualifying JEE for admission in IIT. Even though he was first coached in the prestigious Rahmani 30 and then in Abhyanand Super 30, he failed to clear it. However, instead of feeling bad about his inability to clear the exams, he decided to write about his experience of ‘failure’.
Yes, you read it right. We usually come across various success stories with tips and ways to follow their path, but rarely do we get to read the stories on ‘failure’.
Karim, who hails from Kishanganj district of Bihar, is currently pursuing his engineering at Zakir Hussain College of Engineering of Aligarh Muslim University. He has penned down a novel talking about his experience revolving around Super 30 batches for preparation to JEE, the drop year for students and failing the expectations of parents.
The novel, “A Hundred Nights Dinner’’, talks about a simple boy who, after class 10 exams, earns a seat along with other young talented minds. Happy and satisfied with his life till then, he hardly paid heed to the lurking storm that went on to shatter his bright futuristic hopes. Failing to peform in the race he was plunged into, unable to perform up to the expectations of his family, and the fear of failing combined and conspired to ensure his doomed failure. Yet he tried again, against all hopes, only to fail again.
“The book unravels my journey and the journey of everyone who has ever feared failure. The story accounts for the so-called drop year of a student, his psyche and the complicacies he suffers at that age. It’s a failure story, failure first and failure last. However, not all stories can be summed up as such. There are a lot of happenings in between; hence this story,” said Karim while briefing TwoCircles.net about his novel.
Talking about the reason which pushed him to write the novel, he says, “I completed my tenth standard from a private CBSE affiliated school, competed for Rahmani 30, stayed there for 2 years and in first attempt cleared JEE mains but failed to clear the JEE Advance. Then, I was sent to Abhyanand Super 30 for one more year. However, the past didn’t let me recover perhaps and I failed to clear even the JEE Mains this time. Then I decided to share my experience regarding the drop year and a Super 30 centre.”
He adds further, “Every one of us likes to read success stories. Stories of people, who laboured, worked hard and succeeded. For instance, every year over a million students sit for engineering entrance tests. And every year around this time we get to read about students who top various tests and exams. What about the ones who couldn’t make it? Those whose labour didn’t pay off? Highlighting successful students is not bad. But, it often pushes students (of weaker psyche) to the oblivion. This story is simply to encourage them to come out and tell the beautiful story of their failure without any shame.”
“I wrote the novel, published it unedited with some attempted mistakes to get over such mistakes and to tell friends that writing (doing something) is more important than avoiding things to not to commit mistakes,” he added.
Karim says that ‘Super 30’ is a very misunderstood concept now-a-day with high expectations from people, often forgetting that students residing in such institutes are also humans.
“They err, they fall and they fail. You can’t always blame an institute for underperforming. I stayed in Rahmani 30 and Abhyanand Super 30(Delhi) for three years and know the ups and downs of such institutes better than any outsider. I noticed the good, the bad and something which was beyond rationalization. People aren’t aware of such institute, their day to day problems and still expect unreasonably what’s beyond the scope of it alone,” he said.
As of now Karim is looking forward for career in social entrepreneurship. “Writing is my hobby and I write only to satisfy myself. Of course, I’ll write in future but not without a cause. For now along with my studies my focus is to cover some more failure stories and the less heard NGOs that are working towards the social good,” he said.
The novel is available with all major national and international e-retailers. To buy a copy, click here