Exam Day Stories Part I

In life, there are some events one can't forget. Like for instance, once it happened that I had an exam one morning. It was 5:45 am in the morning when I woke up. I sluggishly got up from my bed, and went to get ready for the day, thinking that I still had one hour to revise(study) for the exam as the exam was to start at 8:30 am. I was in the toilet when the doorbell rang. My mother answered it. I heard Bhim and Sanchit greet my mother. I also heard that the bus would be leaving in next 10 min.
I was SHOCKED !! How can this be? What was I missing here?
And then it suddenly struck me. The timings of the examinations had changed(from 8:30 am to 7:45 am) and the announcement was made during the previous exam time. I hastened the process and left the toilet quickly. I changed into my uniform, quickly drank the glass of milk, grabbed my bag and left. It was still dark outside We walked towards the bus stand. I looked at the sky, colored in vivid shades of dark blue. I felt the coolness and freshness in the air. The street lights were still lighted. It looked like night time. I took out my notebook and started reading under the light of the lamp of the bus, as soon as I entered the bus.
Many of the students already seated in the bus asked, "What happened?", "Why so late?" etc. and the reason was explained.
I still wonder what would have happened, had Bhim and Sanchit not come to my house that morning...

At some other occasion, it happened so that I woke up late. It was my mistake, though. I had set my alarm for 5:30 am and kept the alarm clock beside me. Now, this has two disadvantages. The first one being that the person sleeping can easily shut the alarm when it starts ringing and sleep again. This one is still fine, because at least the alarm has done it's job. The second being that the person, in his sleep, because of some movement of his hands, might shut the alarm before it gets a chance to ring. This is worse than the previous case and this is what happened to me.
I slept, thinking that I'd wake up and revise (study) but I woke up at 7:00 am. I had to get ready quickly, and caught the bus at 7:30 am.

In this another story, no one woke up on time at my home. Generally my mother wakes up at 5:30 or 6 am every morning. But that day, she didn't. She woke up at 7:15 am. Bus leaves at 7:30 am. She quickly woke me up. I quickly got ready but I was late. My school at that time, Campion School was 14 kms away. The school started at 8:30 am and bus always took us at 7:30 am. from the bus stop. Luckily, one of my neighbors was my school mate, my senior and used to drive to school on his scooter. He used to leave at 8 am. My mother requested him to take me with him. He agreed. I didn't go to his house to request him because he had a big alsatian dog and alsatians are dangerous. We did reach on time, but he drove real fast and I constantly had the fear of brakes failing! :(

Exam days chatterings

It was the eve of our first end semester exam and Kapil suddenly walked into my room, disturbing the peaceful atmosphere, asking, "Hey Abhishek, did you understand what Prof. has taught in this topic?" Atul ( my roommate), as usual interrupted, "Looks like Kapil is all set to get an A in the course". After this followed a series of 'not so good' words and finally Kapil started with his story of the day (I have named it), "FYI, I've been sleeping in my room since the last two hours, didn't study anything", adds some more 'not so good' words and tries his best to convince Atul that he hardly knows anything and needs to study a lot. Meanwhile I close my ears with my fingers and try hard to concentrate on the book on my lap.
As if the noise and commotion was not enough, I saw Somani's legs entering my room. I raise my head from the book and look at him, while he still smiles as usual. He then speaks, trying harder than Kapil to prove in his own special way that he has not studied much and tries to pursue Atul to teach him. He says, "Teach me Atul, or else I'll fail! (though he never fails! :D)". And then Atul and Ajay start arguing amongst themselves and start taunting and teasing each other, along with using 'not so good' words. Kapil leaves the room immediately (sensible guy).
After five minutes of struggle with the external noise and disturbance, I finally give up and leave my room, and go to Bhanu's room, and ask him some of my doubts. "This is not correct, Abhishek. Every time on the day before the exam, you come to me and ask me this and ask me that." Bhanu who speaks this in frustration due to his lack of preparation, nevertheless tells me some things and asks me to come later. When I returned to my room, I saw Kapil watching a movie on my laptop, with Akshay accompanying him. On the other side of the room, on the other bed, I saw Somani, sitting in a relaxed manner watching Atul play pac-man.
As a result of such disturbances and my last day preparation for exams, I am often the last one to sleep in my wing in my hostel. To buy more time to study, I even reach the exam hall 10 minutes late (as a personal rule!). And then when I face the exam paper ....

After taking the exam, as usual, I walked towards my room, quietly cursing myself. On my way, I try to avoid talking to anyone. Post exam discussions make me nervous and I don't like it. This is the only time I like the fact that Telugu speaking people discuss the exam questions in Telugu, as I can not understand any of it. But as a matter of fact, I do overhear a few conversations now and then. Kapil, in his usual manner starts telling the mistakes he did during the exam (as if anyone is interested in it!), again trying to convince that he is the person who has suffered the most while taking that exam. Atul, though also tells his mistakes but in a more sober manner. Somani goes to an extreme saying his exam performance was disgusting and he won't get an 'A' in that particular course!! Bhanu, looks at me and asks, "How did you write your exam?" and without waiting for a reply or thinking, answers his own question, "I know you always do well in your exam."
Sometimes I wish Bhanu was right. That way I wouldn't have still been a 7 pointer.