India, a huge nation filled with diversity and uniqueness. While optimistically diversity might look like a nice thing since it would be a bore if everyone would be same. In reality, diversity gives rise to differences which in turn gives rise to problems. One such problem is its educational system, centred at the infamous competitive exams. One such competitive exam that every Indian knows of is the prestigious JEE Advanced or the entrance exam for getting a seat in IITs.
Due to the unprecedented COVID-19, the effort required to secure a seat in IIT has quadrupled, making it tougher for the new students who aspire to study in the premier institutes of the country.
One such student is Rahul, who has just completed his 10th grade since the government decided to cancel the exams due to the second wave of pandemic.
While gazing at the starry night in the city of Hyderabad, the 16-year-old whispered within himself "Would I ever be able to reach my…" and faints down.
As he slowly started to gain consciousness he hears "Rahul! Wake up!!" as his mother screams. While whimpering Rahul uttered "Where... Am… I..?".
"Oh..., I passed out again." realises Rahul after opening his eyes. This wasn't new to Rahul. He faints occasionally for an unknown reason, mostly when he reacts too emotionally to anything.
To relax, Rahul then walks on the quiet street in front of his house. The street about 40 feet wide coated with black tar with houses tightly packed between each other and is decorated with sparsely spread freshly bloomed cherry blossom trees with the rosy, pink petals falling from it as if it was snowing petals. The crescent moon with the sparingly spread stars in the sky added to the beauty of the night.
In the quiet street, there was another person to Rahul's astonishment. A girl who was almost of Rahul's age and about 5 feet 9 inches tall with her hair left free for the air to sway it and her eyes sparkling with the light from the lamp she was lighting and smooth lips of the colour of the cherry blossom petals which smirked with mischief. She then carefully removed a plastic package with yellow coloured powder written TNT on top of it.
Surprised Rahul: Wait, What?
TNT abbreviation for Tri Nitro Toluene is a popular explosive used to demolish buildings or in mines often as a bomb too. She then connects the TNT to the live fuse wire and throws it away. "Bombs away!!" screams Mira. The package then rotates in mid-air with each second giving Rahul a flashback of his short 14-year lifetime. A 1 kg of TNT can have up to a blast radius of 3 to 4 meters and produce a deafening sound. While Rahul might not get killed, he might suffer from hearing loss.
Disclaimer: Manufacturing explosives is illegal, don't try this at home.
"Argh, it's late night, Mira!!" shouts another girl with a bucket of water while extinguishing the live fuse.
The other girl on street: Oh my god, Mira there's someone else on the street!
Anxious Amaira: Hey, are you okay? I'm Amaira the older sister of the girl who just threw a live TNT on the road."
Scared Amaira: Mira! You are done this time. Someone has spotted you!
Rahul: I'm fine just a bit shocked. How did you even secure some TNT?
Mira: Oh, I made it
Rahul: Hey, are you joking? It's a literal explosive no way I would believe you made it.
Embarrassed Mira: Ah..., I just wanted to celebrate my first day at my new house. So, I just made some TNT since I had some stuff left over from things I have done before.
Scared Rahul: Oh, so you are going to be my neighbour from now on.
Embarrassed Mira: Yeah...
Rahul: So, when did you move in here?
Amaira: Oh, we moved in today.
Rahul: Oh, that's nice.
Anxious Amaira: Oof, my phone is running out of charge, how will I chat now!!
Rahul: Oh, by the way I am Rahul. Do you happen to have any accounts on Discord or Whatsapp or Instagram?
Amaira: Yeah, in all of them.
Rahul: That's great.
Mira: Oh, I only have a Discord account…
Rahul: Oh, that's nice. Can I get your discord ids since we are anyways neighbours?
Amaira: Sure!! Mine is Yuki Hime#5789.
Mira: Umm okay. Mine is Mira-San#8631.
Discord is one of the premier social media apps. It is mostly popular with gamers for its features of group voice chat, screensharing, compatibility with games and its unique group chats called servers. In pandemic, its reach extended towards non-gaming users and thus made a wide variety of userbase.
Rahul: Kay!!, I have sent you friend requests.
Amaira: Yep! Here you go accepted!
Embarrassed Mira: I... accepted you...
While checking for messages, Mira sent a message to Rahul with magnificent ocean of stars in the night sky as her profile picture.
Mira-San: Hii!!, I'm really sorry for almost exploding you.
Rahul in Discord: It's okay, but how did you actually make it?
Distracted Mira-San: Oh, it was just preparation of benzene from acetylene in a copper tube with some heating on my stove.
Rahul: Huh?
Still distracted Mira-San: Which I then did some Friedel craft's alkylation to turn it to toluene.
Rahul: What?
Totally distracted Mira-San: After that I just took some concentrated nitric acid and then added some concentrated sulphuric acid to make a nitrating mixture.
Rahul: HELLO??
Distracted at peaks Mira in Discord: Which I just used to turn the toluene into tri nitro toluene which had some impurities such as ortho nitro toluene which I just removed through fractional distillation.
Mira-San: See not that tough.
Sarcastic Rahul in Discord: I like your funny words, Magic woman.
Angry Mira: ITS REALLY NOT THAT TOUGH YOU KNOW?!
Rahul: Yaa let's talk about it being easy after I understand any piece of the whole paragraph you have just texted
Angry Mira: HMPHH!!
Mira then searched for something near her. While Rahul was busy laughing at her response, Mira brought a knife and a packet filled with unknown material.
Angry Mira: HERE!!, THIS IS TNT!!
Amaira whispered to herself: Such a crazy girl.
Mira: So, this yellow powder is TNT which is made of benzene ring bonded with 2 different functional groups which are nitro group and methyl group.
Scared Rahul: Okay…
Mira while staring dead right into Rahul's eyes with anger: Are you understanding it?
Scared Rahul: Yes!! Madam!!
Mira while staring into Rahul's eyes which looked like a myriad of stars on a summer night, gleaming her image in his eyes as he trembled, she was mesmerised by looking at the young man with glamourous eyes with dazzling eyelashes which protected those eyes from the dismay of this world. This was accompanied with his teeth which sparkled with light while he trembled with fear. Thus, Mira was completely distracted with his appearance.
"Hey, go easy on him. He would be dying out of fear." said Amaira while being concerned about Rahul.
Blushing Mira: Ha! Yeah, sure thing.
Mira in her mind: Shit!!, I was too busy watching him.
"Thanks! Amira" Rahul sighed in relaxation.
Blushing Mira: Sorry, I just got too immersed in talking about it.
Rahul: Looks like it is something you like.
Mira: Yeah, I do like science a lot that I try something new every now and then.
Rahul to Mira: Alright. Ask me if you need help with anything, though I might be not of huge help but I might be helpful in anyways.
Mira: Thanks a lot!!
Meanwhile Rahul sent a link to Mira but before he explained what it was…
Rahul's Mother: Rahul!! It is late night.
Rahul: Yeah, I'm coming.
"Well then, good night!!" Rahul wished Amaira and Mira.
Amaira: Yep, same to you.
Mira: Good night, Rahul!!