Yesterday while I was at my cousin’s place, I chanced upon to see this item in Deccan Herald, issue dated 27/03/2009.

Image snapshotted from Deccan Herald 27/03/2009, Bangalore Ed

Sripathi and I were classmates from 4th standard all the way upto 2nd PUC. But more than just classmates, we were fierce competitors and used to compete with each other especially in General Proficiency and Debates. As far as I can remember, till the 10th board exams, I could only manage a close second in general proficiency, while Sripathi won the first place. It was only from the 10 board exams onwards that I could finally get past him!

In debates, I guess the contest was more even. Both of us have won most of the debate competitions at the district and the state level. In the contests where we contested as a team, we hardly lost.

He won the Best-outgoing student award in High School, while I won the same in the Junior College.

After the PUC boards and CET ended, when both of us were volunteering at the Karkala Rathotsava, one of the townsfolk asked us about our future plans.  I guess that person was expecting me to follow my dad’s footsteps and take up medicine, and Sripathi to go for engineering, like his father did. But the converse happened!  I joined the engineering stream, while he opted for medicine. Since then, we hardly got to meet each other, let alone compete! And whenever we met, it was mostly catching up with stuff and chatting about those good old days of “comparison and measurement” which are long gone.

To hear about him winning the gold medal is indeed heartening. The medal definitely does justice to the man’s abilities and the dedication which he puts in to whatever he does. Also, it feels good to hear that he’s planning to settle down in Karkala. That way, the tradition of having good doctors around will continue!

Once again, Congrats Dude! You’ve made us proud!