In my first year in college, Manish lived just two rooms next to me in the hostel. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall, very friendly and very smart. In the first semester, he scored 98.8 percent and was ranked second in the institute. It wasn’t a small feat considering that the institute was IIT Bombay.
I knew his work ethics and diligence in studies so his academic performance wasn’t a surprise. Getting up at 4 am for studying and attending all the classes regularly came naturally to him. Maybe he made it look that way. But there was one thing very unusual about him. On the day of the exam, he always used to wear his favourite pink shirt. People admired him for his intelligence, hard work, and focus but his superstition about pink shirt just didn’t make sense. It even earned him a nickname – Pinky.
Not to mention, there were few other, less irritating, peculiarities about him. For example, both his table-clock and his watch were set 15-minutes ahead of the actual time. He couldn’t tolerate seeing a footwear upside down. And he never missed his 30-minute afternoon nap, come what may.
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