Remembering “Vamana”

This story is about a student who was very good in extracurricular activities. He was looking like “Vamana” of Vishnupurana in size, talents, etc (except studies). He used to sit in the first bench listen to all my lectures, but in sessionals he was getting single digit marks. In semester exams also one or two backs were common. He was not a below average student. He was good in literature, singing, dancing, acting, even in script writing and direction of skits! During the cultural activities of the college I never missed his acts. It was amazing that such a talented guy was getting very low scores in studies.

One day he came with a request that I should ask HOD regarding grace marks for his extra curricular activities! I said it is not possible. If I agree with your theory then people like Big B or Kishore Kumar would have given engineering degree without even a primary education. By observing his attitude one thing was clear that he was not interested in engineering subjects. He joined engineering not because of his own interest. I tried to convince him that in life atleast a bachelor degree is must for any person. Even if he fails in his area of interest (in his case it was Showbiz) to lead a good life he should have another option. I gave him the examples of cricketers Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath. Once in Mysore I saw students of SJCE celebrating arrival of Javagal Srinath (Alumnus of SJCE) and taking him around the campus on their shoulders.

After hearing all these he asked me, “Sir, do you expect a first class or distinction from me?” I replied, “Not necessarily a very high score, but after the completion of the course you should not curse yourself in the later part of your life.”
Some how he got convinced and he cleared B.E. with second class (4th to 8th sem, all in first attempt). Then he went to Bengaluru, met some music directors. A Mangalore guy helped him to work under a famous Kannada music director of Mangalore origin. A few months back I got a call from him saying that he is independently giving music to a new Kannada movie. Now days instead of calling him Vamana, we call him “Thrivikrama” (the one who can be the size of an atom or the size of this Universe).