23rdFeb'08LateMorning

Examination

I saw myself with my parents and sister in a new city where we were tourists. We were roaming about, trying to kill time and at the same time, trying to reach the railway station lest we should not miss the train. We reached the station and I saw myself holding on to something with my arms and hanging in the air while my mother and sister were pulling my legs, one each, and I was shouting and asking them not to do so while they were laughing. I had a few bags hanging on my shoulders and it seemed that I was hanging there in air to get those baggages across to a large store room. I saw a coolie (porter) come to me, and I left one hand free, to give him the air-bag that was hanging on my shoulder. He took the bag, dumped it in the store room and took the other one from me which was hanging on my other shoulder. When I came back down, I asked my mother and sister not to pull my legs again when I'm hanging in the air !
My parents, sister and I caught a bus and we came to the place where I was supposed to give my exams. The place looked familiar. It looked quite like some part of NDA Khadakwasla, Pune or IMA Dehradun. Many of my batchmates were there and we were supposed to give two exams, C/C++ and Algorithms. I was highly unprepared for both, but was more afraid of Algorithms. My parents left me at the entrance, all three of them wished me luck and I walked inside, through the open gate into the campus. I saw the soft sun-rays of early evening fall on the campus. I walked through the long corridors until I reached a long hall. I walked inside, only to find my batchmates and a few other students who had come to give that exam. I knew that I had very little time and that after giving both the exams, I have to rush back to the railway station.Interestingly enough I had my laptop with me and the hall where I was sitting had Wifi facility. I thought I still had some time before my exam starts, so I opened my orkut account and was surprised to find a scrap from someone who'd hardly come online. She had replied to my scrap and for the first time, her scrap was three lines long. She had written something philosophical, but I was excited enough to have received a scrap from her after a very long time that I was pleased to read whatever she'd written. She had also kept a few pics of her on orkut which were very attractive and sexy. I had never seen her like that and I was totally taken aback by whatever I saw and was perturbed and a bit disturbed. My thoughts and mixture of extreme emotions suddenly vanished when I realized Rahul Jain walking towards me from behind. I quickly changed the tabs on firefox (but my fingers were still numb after whatever I'd seen) and asked him, "Hey what's up? Ready for the exam?" I asked him as I kept my laptop on a seat and got up.
Rahul was surprised at my statement and said, "I never saw you in the exam hall. Were you sitting in some other room?"
"What do you mean you never saw me? Did I miss my slot of exam?" I exclaimed as nervousness started making space for itself in my mind, displacing all the other emotions.
"I guess so. We are both dual-degree student and so we might have been given same slot. But you can still talk to our server admin, Mr. Ganesh. He is one of the persons in-charge for the exams conducted today and he's sitting right over there." He indicated where he was sitting by pointing at him.
"Yeah, right. Ok I'll go and ask him. And what time is Algorithm's exam."
"After one hour."
"How was C/C++ exam?"
"I'd rather advice you to go and talk to him and clarify things. You'd not want to miss your exam. You can give me this laptop for now. I'd also like to check my mails." He sat where I was sitting and took my laptop in his lap.
"Oh no... uhm... wait. Okay, I'll give it to you." I almost snatched my laptop from him and closed firefox. I gave it to him and went to talk to the server admin.
"Sir, I missed my exam. I was sleeping." I said and tried to pursuade him a lot. Finally he agreed and gave me the immediate time slot and asked me to join it. I took my documents, writing pad etc. and rushed to the exam room, and gave a glance towards Rahul and my laptop from the corner of my eye while leaving.
I saw myself sitting with my juniors and other strangers and giving exam. The exam was not a simple one. When I returned to the long hall after the exam (it was getting dark and the long hall looked quite different and beautifully illuminated with yellow light bulbs and candles etc.), I saw that the feast had started and that many people were enjoying themselves. I also felt like eating something but I had to meet Mr. Ganesh to get the slot for Algorithms exam. I met Vivek Prakash as I entered the long hall. He asked me how were my exams and I said that I still have to give Algorithms exam. He adviced me that I better do so at the earliest because all the slots would be over otherwise. I met Mr. Ganesh, quickly took the immediate available time slot and went for my exam.