Tuesday, July 29, 2014

X: A tale of exams. Part 1

Note: This is a post where fiction has been mixed with  facts. It is clearly understood that given the costs of testing the enormous number of students who enroll in schools and to make the system uniform and consistent exams may be one of the better ways. Also this is only about the exams with pen and paper or viva's and not the other types, definitely not the exams of life!

A friend of mine X recently appeared for an exam which he thinks and prays is the last one of his life. The day he and many others of his era in his country die and their soul is asked to show its resume to someone above, their exam count would definitely acquire a big weight.

It started with Chatterjee Miss, his first and perhaps the best teacher who never took his exam but did prepare him for the first one of his life through Nursery, KG and Prep: getting into the first standard in a reputed missionary school in the town. His written test went well but because of a stammering problem he got rejected in the oral. Then he got through the exams of two other schools and chose the one where classes started at 7 in the morning. It was 5 for the one he did not go into.

The real count starts from here. From class 1 to Class 6 in his new school, it was class tests, Viva’s, half yearly’s and final exams every year just like the seasons summer, winter and rains come and go. He kept studying and kept passing like most of the students of his generation would be doing all around the country and like many young people are doing it now. It would have been fine if such a cyclical schedule would have continued without much fuss but the funny thing with exams is that they are not absolute. As they say the devil lies in the details.

Once results are out, you get a rank. This rank one gets is a public property free to be used and discussed throughout the school and the Uncles and Aunties of your colony. For a few days you become the rank and the rank becomes you. But that is not enough. Some people take it upon themselves to predict the future of young children and go to the lengths of dissecting the report card for subject wise marks “This girl is good at math. Maybe she should sit early for the Olympiads.” “This boy has performed brilliantly in Social Sciences. Make sure he takes economics as it’s a booming subject.” And so on. All this happens over a cup of tea which the elders are enjoying while the subject (child) can only sit and listen to.

In class VII, X shifted to a new school considered among the best in the area. Of course through an exam. He had already given an exam last year for admission into the same school but had failed. At that time there were only two seats. This time they were opening a whole new section. So the word which every student nowadays is well aware of was much less. The word as you might have guessed it is the hail and mighty ‘competition.’

Competition for this, Competition for that! And how does competition manifest itself, through exams. So to all the kinds of tests from the last school was added another one, Monday test. Every Monday there was a test on a subject which meant that the Sunday’s more or less went for a toss.

Exams are a victim of their own doing as well. Just like they produce ranks, they themselves get entangled into ranks. Moving through 8th and 9th standard, the rank of exams like Social Sciences and humanities decreases whereas those of science and math increase. For the bright students Olympiads are the immediate toppers. But in general as you move through your 9th, everybody in the world slowly and silently, in the loudest but most discrete of ways makes you aware of the devil in disguise. The first exam of your life which they say will stay throughout and if you do well in it you have made a wonderful start and secured your future. It’s the big daddy, the class Xth board exam.

Throughout Class Xth, speculations of how to write the best answers, which books to consult, what kind of questions have been asked in the previous year’s, where to take tuition classes etc. rang in the ears of my good friend X. He gets scared very easily and hence got scared of what the hell is happening. Still out of habit he kept appearing for all the exams in the run up to the big daddy exam. In pre-boards he secured above 90%. But big daddy was not satisfied with his efforts and in the boards he got just above 80%.

These creatures ‘percentage’ and ‘rank’ are brothers/sisters in arm. One cannot exist without the other. X got a percentage close to being considered failure among the people he was with. The board results had gone helter skelter as if ‘rank’ and ‘percentage’ had decided to have a bit of fun. X had a pretty bad time as it was the lowest percentage he had received in his whole academic career. And naturally the lowest rank as well.

Promoted to Class XIth, X had already understood that things had just warmed up. Big Daddy was out only to make way for ‘God Superior.’ The exam which is or was (at least in his times) the father-mother of all exams: IIT Joint Entrance Examination. It had to be taken at the end of two years and because it was a ‘very tough and competitive exam' and because X had shown ‘promise in Math and Science’ he had to start preparation after Class Xth results had come out.


These two years or three in the case of X deserve a novel and dedicating a small part of a blog would be gross injustice and cruelty. Hence it would be fair to say that only if there are sufficient readers can the story be continued. Basically if this post has more than 20 different user comments, next parts would be written. In either case thanks for reading the post.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice one Sid!!!

Anonymous said...

Brilliantly written! I could relate to a lot of things you touched upon. In fact, it took me back in time. Great read.

kalu said...

sahii hai dude !!

Anonymous said...

Well written. Hope there are 20+ comments so we can read more!

Unknown said...

Would like to know what happens next.

Anonymous said...

Ab likh bhi do...

Anonymous said...

Well, I am a very close friend of the author :). And I could associate with most of the incidents if not all. The story is extremely relevant to the times when we grew up and may be even today. Waiting for the sequel ...

Neha said...

Sequel sequel ! Bada bhaiya jaldi se come up with the sequel. If you need 50 comments, wo bi karwa denge kyuki 20 toh you will get here aram se. :D

I can literally see you in that green and blue mis-match tshirt and three-fourths now, you know ! :)

sourabh said...

siddharth yaar u had memories rushing back after reading it, one heck of a time that was (X D)

Anonymous said...

i love the way u expressed a student's emotions while he is on the brink of giving his xth board examination ! A sequel is required not only to see whether 'X' can crack IIT but also how he manages to balance his social life with lots of books. #waiting

Anonymous said...

Sunny, 1 # Dost!!!

Manas Pandey said...

Waiting for Part II !

Unknown said...

please write the second part soon...it feels the intermission will really bring a climax :)

Anonymous said...

Really nice! enjoyed reading it! Hope there are more parts coming soon!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I remember the first day of boards when my father took me to Ram Mandir before going to the Examination Centre..... God! half of the batch was there.... at that place, praying for 95,96,97 percent. Mila kya- Baba ji ka tthullu... So vividly related to the incidence... Hats off

Anonymous said...

brilliantly put!
its written so simply that anybody who has appeared in exams can relate. waiting for the sequel!

Unknown said...

Nice One Duru !!!!!
Waiting for next part ......

Unknown said...

I had never read ny books or blogs...n den dere was sunny bhaiya's blog...
#fan#follower#sunny bhaiya

Sudip said...

Great writing sid..makes me remind of those early days.
Sequel to banta hain boss

Unknown said...

Nice. Direct and true. What made me smile is the number of times we have told ourselves..."Bas ye exam nikal jaaye, life set hai aage.."

Part II laayo.. :)

Siddhartha said...

thanks for ur comments everybody...will write the next part nd share as soon as possible..

Anonymous said...

daru, psychologically anyone who has seriously been through this ritual, will keep on getting highs thru exams throughout his life

Siddhartha said...

I think 'high' is not the right word here..exams can't get u high..nd why r most ppl commenting as anonymous!

dr paromita said...

very well expressed..i can relate to our childhood days..waiting for the second part