A Night before an Exam

“The Consequences of Boiler Corrosion are:- 1…”, as I am scanning through my chem. notes in my room, on the very important eve of chemistry 2^nd internal exam, the partially closed door suddenly opens and in comes a handsome, neatly shaven, 5ft 10 inches, brown-black haired ‘Anuj’. He is the very much talked about stud of my division and excels in almost everything he does. So as he entered, he fired on, “Hey tomorrow’s chem. paper na? What’s the course?”. Well…..Almost .. I thought again.

So I welcome the dear reader to an almost wonderless and a disoriented experience of a night before the examination.

Exams in our college are one of the most exciting phases of the curriculum. Well not because they are an evaluation of our study and grade us into our cgpa (That’s Bullshit!!). But because they are symbolized by the weirdest of experiences and fun filled nights. Among the many things are night long studies, exam hysteric sms’ing, last moment copying of notes, querring for important questions to all the toppers of the class, night time teas, midnight basketball and table tennis, no baths for the entire stretch, multiple alarms and over that not waking up in time when all ring at the same time. So let me continue with the story about the night before an all imp chem. exam.

I had started my studying at 5 in the evening. After chem. I had physics the next day (assume it). I still had Corrosion, Pollution and Drugs left along with physics revision. I continued with the studies. I had dinner later in the very lively mess where the food was precarious as usual. I remember the dialogue of Himesh Reshammiya in his super flop movie when I think of the mess food. “Come lets witness the agonies and ecstasies of being in a mess.”. Suddenly, Mitesh comes there. Well for those of you who don’t have any idea who mitesh is, let me enlighten you. He is a 5ft 6’ bespectacled boy who is serial brilliant mugger (sbm) . But he irritates me like hell. Comes to my room every now and then to ask me about how much I have studied, whether to ask the course or to explain some weird topic from Albania!! Trust me, he makes Karan Thappar and Oprah winfrey look saintly. So here he was ready to fry me to death. Thankfully he came and apporoached my roomie and I was saved. Well after lot of endurance and concentration from me I could manage to finish almost all major topics by 11 pm.

It has been said that India is a fair of 12 billion people with diverse values, ambitions and culture. The case of our hostels is no different apart from the fact that there are 150 guys clubbed together under one roof. It is a proven fact that the hostel never sleeps whether it be day or night. People come from all over the nation with different eating, sleeping and staying habits. But its chaotic sometimes. My roomie puts on his music when I am not used to it while studying. One of my other roomie wakes up 4 in the morning and studies.

Now almost midnight I realized I didn’t know one topic in the subject. One should never bunk the classes I thought, but suddenly from some part of my brain there was an instantaneous answer as if to say its better to sleep in the room then in the class. It was that void feeling of nothingness when there is supposed to be a very big thing. The diff. is that the titanic was going to sink that time and rose had left the ship instead of coming back. Poor me!! I had some big doubts in reactions and numericals. So I went out in search of my friend who could explain me that part. By the time I learned it, midnight gong had gone off. There was some movement upstairs and within seconds there was an announcement that it was Manmohan’s and Praveen’s Birthday that day. Well their birthday matters to less than half of the people there and even half of the remaining half actually care to wish on any other day. But it was the eve of the exam. Contrasting as one may feel, people from all blocks came down within moments of the announcement to give their wishes. Hey I forgot to mention how we wish the birthday boy. We give him GPL. So it was actually the exam frustapa that pushed all to come. Imagine being kicked by 150 people and that too any number of times. Atleast we made sure that they never forget it in their lifetime. Praveen on the other side turned out to be extra smart. He had escaped from the hostel just few minutes before the announcement. After the enthusiasts were done with manmohan, someone suddenly spoke out sachin’s name. No one had actually noticed him to be there till then. Sachin who was adjusting his slippers suddenly realized that almost a 100 faces turned towards him in a flash. He was shell shocked, that feeling which harry potter has when his name comes out of the goblet, just couldn’t believe his luck! How he must have imagined his name would not have been sachin. The rest as they say is history. But I do remember him cursing all on the top of voice and threatening to personally kill them painfully but I doubt anyone would have heard it. All of us happily and merrily returned to our rooms. We had got a great piece of entertainment.

Back in the room I scanned the notes again and revised the portion. It was me and adi studying together, listening to songs, chatting our time alongwith the study. Eventually I completed the revision at 3 am in the morning which I should have done it 1 am ideally. Well I felt quite hungry then, considering the fact that I had studied 6-7 hours sitting in a room and straining my neuro cells to the brink (and also the fact that I gave a few kicks to sachin ! ). So I thought about going to ‘chamunda ’. It is a night or rather early morning time roadside Indian café near the station where generally our college students go after 2.30 if they are hungry. The amazing thing which non collegians would find striking is probably our sense of timing!! So eventually me and adi mustered a scooty from a hostelite and found ourselves eating there after 15 min. I precisely remember feeling drowsy only after drinking 4 teas and adi pointed out to at 4.30 a.m. in the morning that it was now time we go to bed otherwise the ‘arse’ which was to be burnt the next day would not be in time to get up at all. One more interesting thing is that I told almost everyone I meet in block to wake me up. In the morning I woke up at 7.45 when the exam would start at 8.30. And the best part is that as soon I woke up, I started cursing all present there. Later I came to know that I had woken up at 6.30 in the morning, washed my face and started reading. In a few minutes I was back to flirting with a girl in my dreams. Well that night had assured me one thing and that was I would never underestimate the night before my exam……