Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Pensive Peek - Part 2
The bell rang just as I put a double dash under the answer. The observer lady was collecting the papers very slowly so I stapled the supplementary papers together, checked my name and roll no. on the papers and gathered my things. I hadn't taken time to check anything else but resigned to "Jo hoga dekha jayega."
"How was it?" Harsh asked the moment I exited the class.
"Thank you. I shall be indebted to both of you forever." Shaun interrupted before I could reply and grabbed Harsh's hand, he was just behind me.
"I think I will pass. Thats all I want. If I get more than 60 my father will have a fit." Nili laughed following Shaun.
"I am swearing myself off maths from today onwards. Its not worth it." I said.
"Oh no, don't say that. You were pretty good." Harsh said.
Just as I was about to reply, some of Harsh's friends called and he left with a hasty good-bye. Shaun, Nili and I walked towards the exit. Not one of us discussed the paper, we had already discussed it enough inside the exam room. Instead we talked of the next paper which was a peice of cake for me. English. Especially the essays in which I would fill pages knowing fully well that no one is ever going to read them. On hindsight I was stupid to have worked so hard on them as today they would be lying dusty and hardly legible in some forgotten store house of the Education Board or in all probability fed into the shredder.
The rest of the papers were ok with a couple of bumps in science and social studies but overall it was good. I was an average student and didn't aspire for more, at least not in the 10th standard. We continued to share the short friendship that we had struck due to the permutations and combinations of our last names during those few days.
Every day Harsh, Shaun, Nili and I would leave together from the class. Harsh gustily discussing his answers and the rest of us giving polite responses before his more reciprocative friends came and he left. I liked him but realised this was no time for such an indulgence. I had a vague hope that after the exams I would get his number or something and continue the friendship but was not keen enough to initiate such a request mainly because i knew that such an action had a high probability of me making a fool of myself in public.
On the last day of the exam everyone jumped up from the exam before time. The narrow corridor of the school was flooding with joyous, chattering crowds of kids. I was more than anything else relieved. My other school friends and I had already planned the celebration and Papa was to drop me to my friend's place where I was going to spend the night. As we left the exam hall Harsh stepped beside me pushing Nili a bit to the side. He was out of breath. Shaun was walking a little ahead.
"I want to talk to you." He said, his voice was a bit low.
"Huh?" I could not understand in all the noise around us.
"Come out and I will tell you." He said and strode ahead to walk with Shaun.
Nili looked at me and raised her eyebrow. She nudged me and winked. Generally Mt. Carmel girls mature faster, she seemed to know something I didn't.
"What?" I asked a little indignantly.
"He is going to propose." She giggled.
"Are you mad?" I said, scandalised to say the least. When I was that age, believe it or not, it was an age of innocence. Though I did not accept Nili's opinion, my heart did skip a bit. If she was right, what would I do? What would I say?
"But you like him na?" Nili said. That girl knew everything.
"You are mad." I repeated.
"Its ok, all girls like him. He is cute, but not my type. Shaun's more my type." She continued imparting her gyan.
Thankfully, we reached the ground floor before Nili could explain what she meant by 'type'. The courtyard was filled with people. Children and parents. Most faces were happy but there were a few geeky once who were still tense. I looked around but neither Harsh nor Shaun were to be seen. Nili's elder brother had come to pick her up so she scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and after a hasty good-bye left with her brother.
I was about to give up and leave when someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around to see Shaun and Harsh.
"Hey. Its finally over huh?" Shaun said in an excited voice. "What are you doing now?" He asked.
"My dad is coming to pick me up. I will go to Municipal Market with friends later." I replied. "What are you guys doing?"
"My mom's here. I am going home and leaving for Mumbai tonight." Shaun informed and then added, "I want you to meet my mom."
It was then that I noticed the lady standing next to him. She was beautiful and dignified. Shaun introduced me as "my saviour" embarassing me quite a bit. All this while Harsh was standing there quietly. I was getting more and more curious as to what he wanted but couldn't be rude to Shaun's mom. She embarrassed me further by thanking me for all the help I had given to Shaun.
"It was nothing. I didn't do much, Harsh also helped." I said and looked around only to find him gone. "Where is Harsh?" I asked Shaun.
"Don't know, he was here just now." He was equally surprised.
"Will we go now beta?" His mom asked.
"In a bit, you get the car, I am coming." Shaun said.
I said good-bye to aunty and Shaun and turned away. I spotted papa beyond the gate astride on his Bajaj Chetak and started walking towards the gate all the while looking for Harsh.
"Listen Priya." It was Shaun again.
"Yup." I stopped walking
"I got something for you." He said in a shy voice.
"What?"
"I want to give you something." He repeated a little louder. He was blushing pink. He was so tall he had to bow his head while speaking to me.
"Huh?" was all I could say.
"This." He said as a he handed a tiny flouroscent green envelope. "To say thank you."
The envelope had a card with a cartoon on it and the words. Thank you. In his scrawny hand he had written a small message, then his name and phone number.
"This is really sweet." I replied quite stunned at his action.
"These is something more." His face had turned to a shade of magenta by now but he was smiling from cheek to cheek. Before I could reply he took hold of my hand and placed a cadbury 5 star on my palm.
"Hey thanks. This is literally sweet." I smiled, I am sure even I was blushing. It was the first time a guy had firstly paid attention to me, secondly acknowledged my help and thirdly given me a chocolate.
"Ummm, can you, ummmm, I was thinking if you would ... I mean, don't take it otherwise but, I ... your phone number. Can you give me your phone number?" His hesitation was obvious.
"Ummm, no problem." I said and rattled off my phone number and after a quick good-bye resumed walking towards the gate.
I think I had a big smile on my face. This was something I would repeat a thousand times over tonight at the slumber party with my friends. Harsh was still nowhere to be seen. Papa was waiting. I wanted to find Harsh before he became impatient but there was no sign of him anywhere. There was no explicable reason for me to hang around without alarming Papa, I was not sure how he would react if I said I got a card and a chocolate from one guy and was waiting because another guy wanted to talk to me. So I tucked the card in my jeans pocket and resignedly walked towards him.
"What took you so long? And who was that tall guy with you?" He asked immediately.
"He was one seat ahead in the exams, we became friends." I said quietly. My mind was still on Harsh.
"He gave you something?" Papa's vulture eyes had seen it.
"Chocolate." I showed him the 5 star. I was not going to show him the card as he is a stickler for discipline and copying in Board exams would be totally unacceptable to him.
"So ready to celebrate?" He asked.
"Totally." I replied smiling as I remembered that this was the last day of exams and it was my right to by happy.
Papa started the scooter and I climbed pillion. As we started our ride I turned my head to have one last look at the remaining students and I saw a hand waving to me. It was Harsh, he was standing beside a shiny blue Maruti Esteem about to get in. The distance between us was growing and for a second I wanted to ask Papa to stop but I didn't. I waved back and the next moment he disappeared in the car. I was to never know what he wanted to tell me. I guess thats how fate planned it.
Somehow even I didn't make any serious attempts to contact him either. Not that I would have come up with any brilliant plans had I decided to pursue him and not that it matters much now as life has taken its course and given me all that I hoped for but I still pipe up when someone mentions news of him from here and there. Harsh's life has taken him to shores far away, he is in London now the last I heard. Rishabh knows him via via some friends, coincidently, he is a CA and a lawyer.
Shaun on the other hand kept in touch with me for some time. When results came we compared marks, he had 67 and I had 74, for days he wondered what did he copy wrong. He took me out for ice cream on the day of the results. Then time and distance took over. He moved to another city and for years I had no idea what he was up to. Someone said he was trying modelling and acting in Mumbai. Then mom told me the news that he has returned to Ahmedabad and was married to her friend's daughter, "Didn't amount to much after all did he.", she opined. She never had a very high opinion of him anyways. Waise now-a-days for all she cares all guys except Rishabh are losers.
Today, as I write this and look back, I realise that some stories are never meant to end, they are just destined to linger, suspended in time bearing a question, what if? Mine and Harsh's was one such story. Till date I don't know what it was he wanted to tell me. But sometimes in nostalgic moments, that question does surfaces on the whirlpool of thoughts, what if?
"How was it?" Harsh asked the moment I exited the class.
"Thank you. I shall be indebted to both of you forever." Shaun interrupted before I could reply and grabbed Harsh's hand, he was just behind me.
"I think I will pass. Thats all I want. If I get more than 60 my father will have a fit." Nili laughed following Shaun.
"I am swearing myself off maths from today onwards. Its not worth it." I said.
"Oh no, don't say that. You were pretty good." Harsh said.
Just as I was about to reply, some of Harsh's friends called and he left with a hasty good-bye. Shaun, Nili and I walked towards the exit. Not one of us discussed the paper, we had already discussed it enough inside the exam room. Instead we talked of the next paper which was a peice of cake for me. English. Especially the essays in which I would fill pages knowing fully well that no one is ever going to read them. On hindsight I was stupid to have worked so hard on them as today they would be lying dusty and hardly legible in some forgotten store house of the Education Board or in all probability fed into the shredder.
The rest of the papers were ok with a couple of bumps in science and social studies but overall it was good. I was an average student and didn't aspire for more, at least not in the 10th standard. We continued to share the short friendship that we had struck due to the permutations and combinations of our last names during those few days.
Every day Harsh, Shaun, Nili and I would leave together from the class. Harsh gustily discussing his answers and the rest of us giving polite responses before his more reciprocative friends came and he left. I liked him but realised this was no time for such an indulgence. I had a vague hope that after the exams I would get his number or something and continue the friendship but was not keen enough to initiate such a request mainly because i knew that such an action had a high probability of me making a fool of myself in public.
On the last day of the exam everyone jumped up from the exam before time. The narrow corridor of the school was flooding with joyous, chattering crowds of kids. I was more than anything else relieved. My other school friends and I had already planned the celebration and Papa was to drop me to my friend's place where I was going to spend the night. As we left the exam hall Harsh stepped beside me pushing Nili a bit to the side. He was out of breath. Shaun was walking a little ahead.
"I want to talk to you." He said, his voice was a bit low.
"Huh?" I could not understand in all the noise around us.
"Come out and I will tell you." He said and strode ahead to walk with Shaun.
Nili looked at me and raised her eyebrow. She nudged me and winked. Generally Mt. Carmel girls mature faster, she seemed to know something I didn't.
"What?" I asked a little indignantly.
"He is going to propose." She giggled.
"Are you mad?" I said, scandalised to say the least. When I was that age, believe it or not, it was an age of innocence. Though I did not accept Nili's opinion, my heart did skip a bit. If she was right, what would I do? What would I say?
"But you like him na?" Nili said. That girl knew everything.
"You are mad." I repeated.
"Its ok, all girls like him. He is cute, but not my type. Shaun's more my type." She continued imparting her gyan.
Thankfully, we reached the ground floor before Nili could explain what she meant by 'type'. The courtyard was filled with people. Children and parents. Most faces were happy but there were a few geeky once who were still tense. I looked around but neither Harsh nor Shaun were to be seen. Nili's elder brother had come to pick her up so she scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper and after a hasty good-bye left with her brother.
I was about to give up and leave when someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned around to see Shaun and Harsh.
"Hey. Its finally over huh?" Shaun said in an excited voice. "What are you doing now?" He asked.
"My dad is coming to pick me up. I will go to Municipal Market with friends later." I replied. "What are you guys doing?"
"My mom's here. I am going home and leaving for Mumbai tonight." Shaun informed and then added, "I want you to meet my mom."
It was then that I noticed the lady standing next to him. She was beautiful and dignified. Shaun introduced me as "my saviour" embarassing me quite a bit. All this while Harsh was standing there quietly. I was getting more and more curious as to what he wanted but couldn't be rude to Shaun's mom. She embarrassed me further by thanking me for all the help I had given to Shaun.
"It was nothing. I didn't do much, Harsh also helped." I said and looked around only to find him gone. "Where is Harsh?" I asked Shaun.
"Don't know, he was here just now." He was equally surprised.
"Will we go now beta?" His mom asked.
"In a bit, you get the car, I am coming." Shaun said.
I said good-bye to aunty and Shaun and turned away. I spotted papa beyond the gate astride on his Bajaj Chetak and started walking towards the gate all the while looking for Harsh.
"Listen Priya." It was Shaun again.
"Yup." I stopped walking
"I got something for you." He said in a shy voice.
"What?"
"I want to give you something." He repeated a little louder. He was blushing pink. He was so tall he had to bow his head while speaking to me.
"Huh?" was all I could say.
"This." He said as a he handed a tiny flouroscent green envelope. "To say thank you."
The envelope had a card with a cartoon on it and the words. Thank you. In his scrawny hand he had written a small message, then his name and phone number.
"This is really sweet." I replied quite stunned at his action.
"These is something more." His face had turned to a shade of magenta by now but he was smiling from cheek to cheek. Before I could reply he took hold of my hand and placed a cadbury 5 star on my palm.
"Hey thanks. This is literally sweet." I smiled, I am sure even I was blushing. It was the first time a guy had firstly paid attention to me, secondly acknowledged my help and thirdly given me a chocolate.
"Ummm, can you, ummmm, I was thinking if you would ... I mean, don't take it otherwise but, I ... your phone number. Can you give me your phone number?" His hesitation was obvious.
"Ummm, no problem." I said and rattled off my phone number and after a quick good-bye resumed walking towards the gate.
I think I had a big smile on my face. This was something I would repeat a thousand times over tonight at the slumber party with my friends. Harsh was still nowhere to be seen. Papa was waiting. I wanted to find Harsh before he became impatient but there was no sign of him anywhere. There was no explicable reason for me to hang around without alarming Papa, I was not sure how he would react if I said I got a card and a chocolate from one guy and was waiting because another guy wanted to talk to me. So I tucked the card in my jeans pocket and resignedly walked towards him.
"What took you so long? And who was that tall guy with you?" He asked immediately.
"He was one seat ahead in the exams, we became friends." I said quietly. My mind was still on Harsh.
"He gave you something?" Papa's vulture eyes had seen it.
"Chocolate." I showed him the 5 star. I was not going to show him the card as he is a stickler for discipline and copying in Board exams would be totally unacceptable to him.
"So ready to celebrate?" He asked.
"Totally." I replied smiling as I remembered that this was the last day of exams and it was my right to by happy.
Papa started the scooter and I climbed pillion. As we started our ride I turned my head to have one last look at the remaining students and I saw a hand waving to me. It was Harsh, he was standing beside a shiny blue Maruti Esteem about to get in. The distance between us was growing and for a second I wanted to ask Papa to stop but I didn't. I waved back and the next moment he disappeared in the car. I was to never know what he wanted to tell me. I guess thats how fate planned it.
Somehow even I didn't make any serious attempts to contact him either. Not that I would have come up with any brilliant plans had I decided to pursue him and not that it matters much now as life has taken its course and given me all that I hoped for but I still pipe up when someone mentions news of him from here and there. Harsh's life has taken him to shores far away, he is in London now the last I heard. Rishabh knows him via via some friends, coincidently, he is a CA and a lawyer.
Shaun on the other hand kept in touch with me for some time. When results came we compared marks, he had 67 and I had 74, for days he wondered what did he copy wrong. He took me out for ice cream on the day of the results. Then time and distance took over. He moved to another city and for years I had no idea what he was up to. Someone said he was trying modelling and acting in Mumbai. Then mom told me the news that he has returned to Ahmedabad and was married to her friend's daughter, "Didn't amount to much after all did he.", she opined. She never had a very high opinion of him anyways. Waise now-a-days for all she cares all guys except Rishabh are losers.
Today, as I write this and look back, I realise that some stories are never meant to end, they are just destined to linger, suspended in time bearing a question, what if? Mine and Harsh's was one such story. Till date I don't know what it was he wanted to tell me. But sometimes in nostalgic moments, that question does surfaces on the whirlpool of thoughts, what if?
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Pensive Peek
If you read Harry Potter you know the meaning of Pensieve. Its the magical claudron in which Professor Dumbledore stores his memories. Non Harry Potter readers, consider it a peek into one of my pensive moods where memories roam unchartered and unchained.
This particular memory floated to the surface of my mind suddenly, a pleasant memory of that time of adolesence where the smallest of things seem epoch-making, when even an iota of attention from the other gender is made into a huge deal by giggling friends and when Shahrukh's poster on the wall gets a life of its own giving you the dimpled smile as you profusely believe and declare that what you feel for the peice of chart paper is actually love.
Yes... I did go through that phase, though I sometimes feel it was all a split-second dream. Anyway coming to the point, during a chat with my mother recently, she mentioned a name which brought this memory forth. The name belonged to a guy who is now married to mom's friends's daughter. Small world nahi but then Ahmedabad is a small city so this shouldn't really be a surprise.
It was the 10th standard exams. Board exams, made into a huge deal by teachers and parents alike. I had chosen the science stream due to an obstinate anger towards the subject of mathematics. I did not want to be a doctor or an engineer, my goal in taking 10th science was to once and for all show to myself and the world (as if it cared) that I could do maths. So after gruelling studies of the abstarct alphabets and arbit shapes, it was time for the exams. No other subject scared me as much as maths. Mom had given me the confidence and I had a good teacher both in school and tuitions but the fear remained.
The day of the maths paper dawned and papa dropped me to the exam center. Now, to give away the worst kept secret, in the school in which I was giving my exams copying was rampant. The understaffed education board could not fulfill the requirement of two observers per class, in some cases, rumours go that teachers would themselves come and write the solutions on the black board. Though I wasn't fortunate enough to have the teacher solving my paper, copying was still easy and common.
My neighbour was a light-eyed and fair complexioned boy named Harsh from St. Xaviers, he was cute and I had a tough time concentrating on my paper but had managed in the first two and had to in Maths as I had no patience to go through the damn subject all over again by failing. The guy in front of me was tall and very handsome. Even sitting he dwarfed me, his name was Shaun also from St. Xaviers. Next to him was a girl, Nili from Mt. Carmel, a sharp-featured, dark, Keralite. We had all become friends and discussed the papers before, during and after the exams.
Harsh was brilliant or so Shaun had told me and was obvious because his papers were amazingly neat and he asked for extra supplementaries in bulk. He hardly ever raised his head except to listen to our request for help or to place his answer sheets in a position that we could see them. Nili, Shaun and I were more or less in the same IQ band and were progressing through the exam echoing the song, "Saathi haath badhana."
The morning of the maths paper, Shaun was shivering with fear and nervousness, Nili's face had a stirken expression and she kept on twisting her fingers. I was furiously reading the stupid theorem written by someone who had too much free time on his hands. Harsh was the only one discussing with like-brained friends of his, the next day's paper.
The bell sounded and we reached our classes. I was feeling cold and my tummy was making noises like the Panvel local makes on the Mankurd bridge.
"Nervous." Harsh asked with a smile.
"Half-dead because of it." I replied truthfully.
"Don't worry. Let me know if there is a problem." He said.
"The whole damn thing is going to be full of problems." Shaun spoke in his husky voice and Nili giggled nervously at his pun but abruptly shut up as an observer entered the class.
My heart skipped several beats. The observer was a short, stocky man, dark as coal with bushy eyebrows and a broad forehead with such deep wrinkles that one would think that he was born with them. His voice was but a growl and he glared menacingly at the class.
"Safdar sir." a whisper reached me. "He is very strict. I don't think we can copy today."
"I am dead." I heard Shaun say. For once I was happy he was tall, his broad back covered most of my frame but the happiness was not going to last long.
"You." Safdar sir pointed to Shaun, move back. I can't see anyone behind you. "You girl. Shift to his seat." In quick strides he was standing next to me and I had to shift to Shaun's seat.
Harsh gave me a reassuring smile as I gathered my things and moved to Shaun's seat. Nili reached out a squeezed my hand.
"Saath mein jeena, saath mein marna." She whispered.
The bell rang and the observer distributed the papers. Black letters, meaning nothing swam across my eyes. I had no idea what the hell it was. Nothing made sense and I felt tears stinging my eyes. We heard a sniffle across the room, someone had broken down into tears. Looking back I feel the pressure was too much at that age. We didn't really deserve it.
"Do the arithmatic first." I faintly recalled my teacher's voice and I turned the page for the arithmatic section. Slowly, sense and sanity returned and I got busy. Supervisors came and went and after probably half an hour I noticed a lady enter the room. She was short and frail with a gait so slow, it seemed someone was pushing her at every step. As my eyes concentrated on her, I realised she was heavily pregnant. Nili and I exchanged glances both thought and hoped for the same thing. Nili quickly prayed crossing herself and God answered her request.
Safdar sir handed the supplementary papers to her and wordlessly walked out of the room. The lady adjusted herself on one of the empty benches and started pressing her ankles. The class relaxed, chairs squeaked and murmurs rose. It was time to get cracking on the paper.
"You ok?" Harsh asked me.
"Yup, just finishing arith." I replied.
"Gimme question 6." Shaun whispered, I shifted the paper a bit to the right and Shaun started copying.
Once I had got into momentum, things were much better. Confidence had returned. The teacher's instructions had been perfect. Finish arith, then geometry, tackle algebra in the end. Leave questions which you don't know, don't waste time on them. Things were progressing well, behind me Shaun was busy copying from Harsh and me. Nili was fine too and Harsh, well he had totally cracked it. The observer was too busy massaging her feet to bother about any of us. All around us students were busy helping each other. I am sure if an analysis is made of the entire class now, all papers would be identical.
The bell rang at half-time and I was on schedule. I started algebra with a little more than an hour to spare. Shaun touched my shoulder,
"Forgot the scale." he said.
"How are you doing?" I asked giving him the scale.
"Horrible. Harsh is not showing me enough." He cribbed.
"I have to finish mine too na." Harsh whispered.
"Harsh, algebra is bad. Don't know what to do with the 4th." I whispered.
"Its simple. They have combined two questions." He went on to explain as quickly as possible, I understood immediately and started writing furiously.
"Priya, if you don't help me I will fail." Shaun's voice had an edge.
"Which questions do you want?" I asked.
"All except 6th, 7th and 8th." he said.
"Ok." I slipped the paper to the side again.
Nili also started copying the questions she didn't know from me. At the 30 minute to end bell, I was behind schedule, it was difficult to write with half the paper towards the right and Shaun prodding me to move it further or write bigger. Three algebra questions were left. I could feel sweat forming on my forehead. One of those questions, I intended to leave so two were left. I had struggled with one of them for long. Harsh had already finished and was checking his paper.
I was on the edge of panic. Thoughts of failing the sickening subject were invading my mind. Concentration was fading and confidence ebbing away. I took a deep breath and checked my watch just 20 minutes left.
"Priya, you are missing one step." Harsh hissed from behind. "Here lean back a bit and see mine."
"Oh." One glance told me where I was going wrong and I scribbled furiously.
One to go and the 10 minute bell rang. My hand was aching, I was making mistakes, 'a' looked like 9 and 'b' looked like 6. Shaun had already reached where I was. Without waiting for me to finish the last question, he started copying from Harsh and murmuring the solution. He practically dictated the solution to Nili and me.
Almost at the last step, 3 minutes left ...
(to be continued)
This particular memory floated to the surface of my mind suddenly, a pleasant memory of that time of adolesence where the smallest of things seem epoch-making, when even an iota of attention from the other gender is made into a huge deal by giggling friends and when Shahrukh's poster on the wall gets a life of its own giving you the dimpled smile as you profusely believe and declare that what you feel for the peice of chart paper is actually love.
Yes... I did go through that phase, though I sometimes feel it was all a split-second dream. Anyway coming to the point, during a chat with my mother recently, she mentioned a name which brought this memory forth. The name belonged to a guy who is now married to mom's friends's daughter. Small world nahi but then Ahmedabad is a small city so this shouldn't really be a surprise.
It was the 10th standard exams. Board exams, made into a huge deal by teachers and parents alike. I had chosen the science stream due to an obstinate anger towards the subject of mathematics. I did not want to be a doctor or an engineer, my goal in taking 10th science was to once and for all show to myself and the world (as if it cared) that I could do maths. So after gruelling studies of the abstarct alphabets and arbit shapes, it was time for the exams. No other subject scared me as much as maths. Mom had given me the confidence and I had a good teacher both in school and tuitions but the fear remained.
The day of the maths paper dawned and papa dropped me to the exam center. Now, to give away the worst kept secret, in the school in which I was giving my exams copying was rampant. The understaffed education board could not fulfill the requirement of two observers per class, in some cases, rumours go that teachers would themselves come and write the solutions on the black board. Though I wasn't fortunate enough to have the teacher solving my paper, copying was still easy and common.
My neighbour was a light-eyed and fair complexioned boy named Harsh from St. Xaviers, he was cute and I had a tough time concentrating on my paper but had managed in the first two and had to in Maths as I had no patience to go through the damn subject all over again by failing. The guy in front of me was tall and very handsome. Even sitting he dwarfed me, his name was Shaun also from St. Xaviers. Next to him was a girl, Nili from Mt. Carmel, a sharp-featured, dark, Keralite. We had all become friends and discussed the papers before, during and after the exams.
Harsh was brilliant or so Shaun had told me and was obvious because his papers were amazingly neat and he asked for extra supplementaries in bulk. He hardly ever raised his head except to listen to our request for help or to place his answer sheets in a position that we could see them. Nili, Shaun and I were more or less in the same IQ band and were progressing through the exam echoing the song, "Saathi haath badhana."
The morning of the maths paper, Shaun was shivering with fear and nervousness, Nili's face had a stirken expression and she kept on twisting her fingers. I was furiously reading the stupid theorem written by someone who had too much free time on his hands. Harsh was the only one discussing with like-brained friends of his, the next day's paper.
The bell sounded and we reached our classes. I was feeling cold and my tummy was making noises like the Panvel local makes on the Mankurd bridge.
"Nervous." Harsh asked with a smile.
"Half-dead because of it." I replied truthfully.
"Don't worry. Let me know if there is a problem." He said.
"The whole damn thing is going to be full of problems." Shaun spoke in his husky voice and Nili giggled nervously at his pun but abruptly shut up as an observer entered the class.
My heart skipped several beats. The observer was a short, stocky man, dark as coal with bushy eyebrows and a broad forehead with such deep wrinkles that one would think that he was born with them. His voice was but a growl and he glared menacingly at the class.
"Safdar sir." a whisper reached me. "He is very strict. I don't think we can copy today."
"I am dead." I heard Shaun say. For once I was happy he was tall, his broad back covered most of my frame but the happiness was not going to last long.
"You." Safdar sir pointed to Shaun, move back. I can't see anyone behind you. "You girl. Shift to his seat." In quick strides he was standing next to me and I had to shift to Shaun's seat.
Harsh gave me a reassuring smile as I gathered my things and moved to Shaun's seat. Nili reached out a squeezed my hand.
"Saath mein jeena, saath mein marna." She whispered.
The bell rang and the observer distributed the papers. Black letters, meaning nothing swam across my eyes. I had no idea what the hell it was. Nothing made sense and I felt tears stinging my eyes. We heard a sniffle across the room, someone had broken down into tears. Looking back I feel the pressure was too much at that age. We didn't really deserve it.
"Do the arithmatic first." I faintly recalled my teacher's voice and I turned the page for the arithmatic section. Slowly, sense and sanity returned and I got busy. Supervisors came and went and after probably half an hour I noticed a lady enter the room. She was short and frail with a gait so slow, it seemed someone was pushing her at every step. As my eyes concentrated on her, I realised she was heavily pregnant. Nili and I exchanged glances both thought and hoped for the same thing. Nili quickly prayed crossing herself and God answered her request.
Safdar sir handed the supplementary papers to her and wordlessly walked out of the room. The lady adjusted herself on one of the empty benches and started pressing her ankles. The class relaxed, chairs squeaked and murmurs rose. It was time to get cracking on the paper.
"You ok?" Harsh asked me.
"Yup, just finishing arith." I replied.
"Gimme question 6." Shaun whispered, I shifted the paper a bit to the right and Shaun started copying.
Once I had got into momentum, things were much better. Confidence had returned. The teacher's instructions had been perfect. Finish arith, then geometry, tackle algebra in the end. Leave questions which you don't know, don't waste time on them. Things were progressing well, behind me Shaun was busy copying from Harsh and me. Nili was fine too and Harsh, well he had totally cracked it. The observer was too busy massaging her feet to bother about any of us. All around us students were busy helping each other. I am sure if an analysis is made of the entire class now, all papers would be identical.
The bell rang at half-time and I was on schedule. I started algebra with a little more than an hour to spare. Shaun touched my shoulder,
"Forgot the scale." he said.
"How are you doing?" I asked giving him the scale.
"Horrible. Harsh is not showing me enough." He cribbed.
"I have to finish mine too na." Harsh whispered.
"Harsh, algebra is bad. Don't know what to do with the 4th." I whispered.
"Its simple. They have combined two questions." He went on to explain as quickly as possible, I understood immediately and started writing furiously.
"Priya, if you don't help me I will fail." Shaun's voice had an edge.
"Which questions do you want?" I asked.
"All except 6th, 7th and 8th." he said.
"Ok." I slipped the paper to the side again.
Nili also started copying the questions she didn't know from me. At the 30 minute to end bell, I was behind schedule, it was difficult to write with half the paper towards the right and Shaun prodding me to move it further or write bigger. Three algebra questions were left. I could feel sweat forming on my forehead. One of those questions, I intended to leave so two were left. I had struggled with one of them for long. Harsh had already finished and was checking his paper.
I was on the edge of panic. Thoughts of failing the sickening subject were invading my mind. Concentration was fading and confidence ebbing away. I took a deep breath and checked my watch just 20 minutes left.
"Priya, you are missing one step." Harsh hissed from behind. "Here lean back a bit and see mine."
"Oh." One glance told me where I was going wrong and I scribbled furiously.
One to go and the 10 minute bell rang. My hand was aching, I was making mistakes, 'a' looked like 9 and 'b' looked like 6. Shaun had already reached where I was. Without waiting for me to finish the last question, he started copying from Harsh and murmuring the solution. He practically dictated the solution to Nili and me.
Almost at the last step, 3 minutes left ...
(to be continued)
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