Meanwhile...

“Please God! Just ask that bloody prof to produce a lenient question paper for this Major. I need few more marks to pass this course. Please help me this time, one last time. Please!” I talked to my God in a whispering voice with closed eyes, sinking into my favorite third bench from the right in the second last row. There was a whole bunch of guys going through the same process. I looked around and the nervous look on their faces made me feel a bit better. I was not alone in that terrorizing Ex-hall. I looked at one of my mates and we shared an anxious smile. There were few girls as well, with apprehensive looks and I was badly trying to avoid fronting them, for I was there to debar a probable F grade while those maidens were concerned about their inevitable A grades. My classmates were assaying to seat themselves in a definite, plotted arrangement in order to write their papers with a collective effort, using every bit of available resources. It is one of those rare events while the most barbaric foes conduct like trustworthy allies.

The examination hour started and I tried to figure out the known words in the question paper. It hardly took me any time to sample out the questions which I could attempt in my bare answer book. I commenced tardily, for I knew that my fast pace could result in ‘completion’ of my paper in half an hour or so. Despite my best effort, I couldn’t carry on for more than three quarters of an hour. Even after innumerous verifications of my neat attempts in the answer book, I have had more than an hour left to spend. And this is usually the time when my philosophical mind generates weirdest doctrines, my mechanical brain points out the ‘Centre of Mass’ of each and every fan attached to the roof, my secular heart criticizes those useless examinations, my athirst taste buds desire a cup of really hot coffee and my heavy eyelids seek a nap.

I looked around if others had also hit the same patch. The murmur in the air affirmed that my mates were busy catching the informative waves from each and every corner of Ex-hall. Periodic cautionary outcries from the prof muted the mutter. But, every single time prof left the arena for one reason or the other, it regained its lost intensity. The students tried every trick in their Holy Book to gain few more marks which they can boast of. The apt use of calculators for ‘mugging up’ formulae, the ingenious practice of copying each and every letter of bulky books to mere pieces of paper and summing up the juicy facts on the palm can bring shame upon the smartest cheats.

In the meantime, there were few students who served as the centers of scare and hopelessness for guys like yours truly. Their frequent demand for extra answer sheets created furor in the hearts of rest of the examinees. The speed at which their pens slipped on the paper made me wonder if the answers were so lengthy. They wrote as if they would be stoned after the examination.

The end of the examination was more of a sigh of relief for me than anything else. As soon as the prof snatched the answer book from my hand, my eyes started searching for my mates whom I believed had fared more or less like me. Every eye contact was followed by spooky smiles. We gathered at one corner of the Ex-hall.

“Fuck yaar! Despite such puppy questions I couldn’t answer them because I had not mugged the formulae”, one of us tried to explain the toughness level of the questions.
“Oye! Will you keep your mouth shut? We all know how much you knew”- another one among us shouted at him in frustration.
“Yaar”, uttered another fellow, “you didn’t help me at all in the paper. It wasn’t expected of you.”
“I myself was clueless yaar! Moreover, you were sitting too far from me to pass the answers in any form.”
“Will you all stop all this nonsense? It is now past and there is no point talking about it. We should be thinking about the next paper. Why don’t you people understand?”-- I came up with my practical philosophy.
“Haan yaar, you are right. We have a fighter paper to face tomorrow. And I haven’t even looked at the course content. I might be awarded a fakka. Let’s move.”

We headed towards our hostel knowing that we all would enjoy a long session of sleep just after reaching our respective rooms, no matter how fighter the next examination was!