Hello, everyone! Welcome or welcome back to my blog. Today, I have for you an original short story, titled: “Exams!”. Now, just a quick disclaimer, the events described in this story are mostly fictious, and a trifle exaggerated. Anyways, I will not waste much time talking about other things. So, let us begin:
“Exams!”:
I usually pride myself on being good at whatever I do. Be it exams, Olympiads, or co-curricular activities, I never take them too seriously. This always keeps my hopes high and me, confident. One day, however, something happened that I, For the first time in my life, almost started doubting my intelligence.
I was idling on the sofa one afternoon, when I received a text from my friend. It was about some all-India Olympiad of sorts, which was supposed to be quite popular. I looked it up on the internet and registered for one of them – chemistry. Now they did have exams for other subjects like math, physics and biology too, but I had my tennis classes on all those days. Still, I did not feel like taking even my chemistry exam too seriously. It was just an Olympiad, not my terminal exams. So, as usual, I took it lightly. And then the day finally came, when I was supposed to and give the exams. It was then for the first time that I looked at my hall-ticket for the location of the exam center. It was some school whose name I had not even heard of. But anyways, I had already registered myself and decided to go along with it.
As the road wore on, my confidence about my chances of finding the school started declining; so did the condition of the road. I had now moved out of the city, just passed the outskirts, and had almost entered the fields. The tarmac had turned to a cemented road, which was now reduced to a cart track. Just as I started thinking about ditching the whole thing and turning back, a small, unassuming, single-storied building popped up against the horizon. It was the exam center!
The school was an L-shaped building with a small open ground in front of it. I pulled up beside the low compound wall and stepped out. A lot of students were gathered near the gate, where apparently, the names of all the candidates along with their roll numbers and block were put up. I had been allotted the C-block, which was a classroom housed in the longer side of the L. A man standing in the middle of the ground was asking all the candidates to hurry inside. I followed suit.
The classroom was big and spacious, with old wooden benches and big wooden windows that offered a view of the fields beyond. The roll number of each candidate was written on the bench allotted to him or her. I took my seat with all the other participants. The benches though old, were quite comfortable. Even the supervisor was a smiling old man with white hair and an impeccable set of teeth. Another teacher entered and handed him the set of question papers and answer sheets. The bell rang, and the supervisor started distributing the question papers and answer sheets.
I accepted the question papers with a smile and opened the first page. I almost forgot how to smile. The…whole…paper…looked…Greek…to…me! I could not understand a single thing that was written on the paper. It took a whole minute for me to figure out whether it really was chemistry. I flipped through the pages, my horror and bewilderment increasing with each turn of the page. In desperation, I even held the question paper upside-down in front of me praying hard to all the 33 million Hindu gods and goddesses at once, that it would make some sense. It didn’t.
I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself down, and slowly started reading each question carefully. I saw a few rays of hope here and there, when I finally came across some familiar words. Luckily there wasn’t any negative marking. Thus encouraged, I went full speed ahead, circling any option out of the four, that caught my fancy. Thankfully, the whole thing wasn’t a dud. I was sure of two full answers of mine being correct. But a two-percent success rate isn’t very reassuring.
Seeing everyone around me writing furiously gave me a serious inferiority complex. Everyone was either calculating stuff or mumbling something to themselves. Just then, I spotted a boy in the front of the room, chewing all his nails off, just like me. I have never related more to any situation in my life, than I related to this boy. He didn’t pretend to know everything and keep on writing, which he could easily have done to show-off. I then wondered what an honest person he must be; so humble and unassuming, that he could have been mistaken as someone who was not here to give the exam at all, but had come here just to pass time nervously. The only thing that threatened to blow his cover was the fact that he was acting so nervous. Which he shouldn’t have been, had he only been there to pass time.
With these thoughts, I once again turned my attention to chewing my nails. Not as much out of nervousness this time as out of boredom. This exercise having been finished, I started checking my paper. I again circled the options whose circles, I thought, were not perfect circles and hence could lead to confusion while the examiner was checking. After all, the instructions at the head of the paper clearly stated that one had to circle the correct option, did it not? But then again, they had not mentioned whether it was to be a perfect circle or whether an irregular one would do. While I was still mentally debating on the nuances of setting these papers and their rules, the bell rang. I handed my answer sheet in and walked out of the room a sadder, but wiser man.
It was then that realised that I was probably overconfident. I had grossly underestimated the difficulty level of the exam. The paper made me feel underconfident, but maybe it was for the good. It humbled me way beyond my expectations. I learnt not to take everything as a joke, and not to be overconfident about something you have never even seen in your life. I resolved to go home and study hard and attempt the paper once again; once I felt ready. And then, I would sit down with the paper, and confidently take the bull by its horns, and ace it. I also promised myself and myself well for everything.
It has been three months since that day, now. I start with my final exams tomorrow. My mother is after me, trying to get me to study. But as I always tell her: “I have already finished my studies weeks ago. A bit of revision before the paper tomorrow, and I will be all set.” I really am not worrying too much. This will be an easy paper. And I will do nothing but pass with flying colors. Well, what can I do about it? If old habits die hard, they die hard.
Outro:
So that is it for todays, guys! I hope you enjoyed the story and found it interesting. If you did, please subscribe to the blog and stay tuned for more updates. Until then, au revoir!