Third Best

Book excerpt: Welcome to Shore Mount ? one of India's most prestigious co-ed residential schools. Here, short skirts reign and sports stars are revered, and skinny dips and sneaking girls into boys' rooms are as much a part of the curriculum as the cool Mr Gomez's literature lessons... Into this world arrives Nirvan Shrivastava, with tremendous expectations weighing on his shoulders. After all, he's following in the footsteps of three generations of brilliant Shrivastavas immortalized on every possible honors board in the school. As he hesitatingly negotiates the crazy roller-coaster ride that is life at Shore Mount, he finds true buddies in Gautam, an unlikely musical genius obsessed with all things edible, and Faraz, the slick ladies' man. Together the boys discover that in Shore Mount survival means much more than braving the chill of heater-less dorms, or scrubbing toilets clean with toothbrushes. And as they learn to stand up to vicious bullies on and off the playing fields and survive the agony of heartaches and broken bones, they find themselves hurtling towards adulthood far sooner than they could have ever imagined...