I looked at his face, sitting at the other corner of the room, both exchanged the same glance as the sheet of illegible signs was being laid in front of us which was to change our lives (supposedly). Our thumbs went up with a smile, as we drowned ourselves into the black eerie sea of words which was crammed into the head the night before. The first thing i have learnt to check out when i came to the college was whether the paper could be forged enough, our minds being the hammers, to reach that holy margin of passing marks. The next look we exchanged was devastated, our eyes as helpless as the eyes of a lamb at the slaughter house which was fed fully before snatching away the life. My eyes met the girl sitting diagonally next to me, and the helpless eyes suddenly showed confidence. How could I let her know that this boy was dazed off after seeing the questions? With a smile, I was ready for the war.
Collecting all the strength, concentration and all the ‘X-factors’ required for passing I was set to get lost into that 3 hours of time. Red bull for the night continued its work and equations started popping up. Diagrams started orbiting the head of which I needed to catch the required ones and trace into that blank paper I was provided to write down my zero state of mind. Slowly, with passage of time as my hands got tired, the mind was brought to a little relaxed state. Being sure enough of passing, the next goal was to score well. With ample amount of remaining time, I saw the next question. It seemed too long to answer. I looked for an alternative, but it contained some equation I was not even bothered to check. Still time was in hand, so I started checking out the things that surrounded me. It is truly said, ‘everything else seems so interesting when you are trying to study’.
The wall outside the window was painted recently. On the opposite window, the grey spots of spills of paints on the glass, with all tails down, spoiled the transparency. The orphic symbols could be sensed pointing at something on the upper part of the wall. The laden mind of mine forced me to bend down so that I could have a better look on the wall. Still the upper part was far beyond the reach of the rays reflecting in my eyes. I bent more. Next thing I saw was green with red spots in shining bright borders. It was too close. I straightened to realize that my invigilator was standing close to me. She made me stand, checked my pockets, checked under the table and all possible places she could around me. Giving a dirty look, she went to the other row. I smiled. You could very well construe her behavior. With invisible eyes behind the specs, her lips were pressed against each other. It seemed someone had kept them between the parallel plates, hammered to check the malleability and came out with good results. I looked at that girl again, she was staring at me amused, I tried to give a ‘I am so cool’ smile but by the time she was already looking down at the paper.
I looked at the question again, “there are no secrets, only hidden truths, hidden beneath the surface”, the lines of the popular series Dexter was running in my mind. “Somebody give me a tool to dig it out!!” I thought and smiled on my own sense of humour. The lady was looking at me again. With a sigh I again was ready to fag out my hands. I wrote till I reached the saturation point where the graphs of all the states of my mind met and I lifted my pen. Not caring enough to revise the paper, I got up. Packing my things, I looked at that girl again, she was still writing.
I don’t know what girls write in the paper. I have never seen a girl coming out of the examination hall before time (exceptions are always there). Scribbling from the first second, they still beg for more time. How in the world they get so much to write? Not having enough patience to wait for her, I took my bag, came out of the room to see two groups of people discussing the paper.
Group 1:
“What macha, I came out in half an hour only. Don’t know which piece of shit made the paper.”
“Chill da! Screw the paper!! Come we will have a smoke.”
Group 2:
“Hey you did this question? This was amazing man, what answer did you get?”
“It was 874.583 degree celsius. I think I did it right. Yeah! I want ‘S’. Hey, do you have the notes of spur gears for KOM? Dude I don’t have 3 pages of it. was absent.”
Passing a smile to both the groups, I walked past all the rooms to see people staring at me from inside. Reaching the road I put on the earplugs. Humming to the tunes of solo guitar of Slash, I made my way home. On my mind,
‘One more down….. Knock knock knocking on heaven’s door..hey..hey…hey hey yeah…’
