CHAPTER 4-EXAM FEVER

The exams were here. Class 9 had passed us by in a jiffy. We did not even notice that a whole year had gone and all we had done was masti. 15 days before the exams and everyone was finally paying attention in class to all the important questions that were given but Hardik and Andy who missed a lot of classes due to basketball tournaments and other reasons of unnecessary absenteeism were still busy completing their notes.

The mood in colony was glum too; all of us came for our tuitions, met for a bit but did not have our late night rendezvous. The exams were getting to us. All everyone talked about now was why the fuck had Pythagoras made his theorem and how remembering Newton’s third law of motion gave us loose motions. A cloud of sadness had descended upon us. The thought of exams was not scary but the scary part was how much pressure our teachers and parents put on us. All the parents expected their wards to top the class and the height of optimism was when Muez’s and Tarun’s parents expected that too. Late night pots of coffee were served so that we could stay up and study. But all the caffeine in our system made us even more sad and depressed. I hated exams then and I hate them now. Who the fuck gave them the right to judge us on how good my handwriting was, how well did I understand theory of relativity when I was going to do nothing related to that ever in my life. Who gave them the fucking power to rank us and grade us? I passed class 9, all of us did but nobody remembers even a single thing we studied. Education should make us better equipped in understanding the world around us better. It should help us in making us better human beings who are happy and progressive. Education should be able to make the world a better place but I don’t think our education system does that.

The results were out all of us had passed, some of us like Jogesh with flying colors but the biggest surprise was Tarun. He had worked his arse off done better than most of us. But this joy and relief was short lived. Because waiting for us with open arms and waiting to smother us with pain were the Tenth class Board Exams and nobody missed a chance to rub it upon us. I sometimes felt that even our parents got a sadistic pleasure out of reminding us about the so called ‘most important year of our lives’ because they had been through that phase and their parents had tortured them then and they had waited all their lives just to see us complete class 9 so they could get their sweet revenge and attain mukti. But all that could wait because right now we had the summer vacations and the vast expanses of the Nizam college cricket grounds beaconed. My cricket bat that had began to feel lonely and neglected finally got some much deserved attention. Cable connections were back in the houses; Mango juice replaced the coffee and Billu’s internet browsing history showed webpage’s other than Google which he used to search “how to pass your exams without studying”. Treasure Island was our second home thanks to Hardik and the late night meetings in colony went on, all night long.