“It smells of farts,” Sameer says as soon as we enter the chemistry lab. We have never been there, and nobody even meandered around because of the perpetual reek of H2S. “The worst part of being a science student,” Anuj adds. The two of them are my dear friends, good students with a funny bone and a penchant for sleazy jokes. “Will IITs also have such stinky labs?” I ask. Yes, I’m preparing for the JEE. I have been doing so since grade 9th. If you come to my home, you’ll find a big poster on the wall saying AIR 1, IIT-JEE 2007. It has been there since 2004. I'm driven unlike my pals Sameer and Anuj, who spend most of their time scrapping girls on Orkut. To me, they both are barbaad. For them, I am a baba—a respectable nickname given to nerds who are born to crack JEE. For the sleepy Dhanbad, IITs are the temples and IITians are the Gods. You find their photos adorning every nook, endorsing a coaching institute by flaunting their AIRs in 2 & 3 digits. My life goal is to be the first one in town to crack a 1-digit AIR and have my own little fandom in the city. Why so? No, not for prestige anymore, but to ask Smriti to marry me and have kids that ride bicycle better than me. Chapter 2. Chemistry Lab. Episode 1. Click #Amoeba to read in continuation. #Nanowrimo