Sunday, 31 August 2014

3 hours


“I just bowed my head so that the home minister of Ker ala could put a gold medal on my neck for completing my b.tech without supply!!”. Unfortunately this things happens on dream, for that reason I had to wake up . Passing out without supply was the most adventures thing a human could do in Cali cut university, but I think this greatest thing has neither carefully considered nor rewarded. May be someday will come!!
                  But the actual thing is that, I don’t need to think about “that award” anymore , but I have to think about award for the largest supply scorer. I will think about it after, now the time is 7 and I have an exam today. Don’t worry , nothing is so special about this day , because these things are those things we have done many times before and I have written more exams than others did (you know what I mean , ryt???....)
            On the exam time everything else in the world will become interesting than the material we need to study. Suddenly on a row, creative ideas will bloom; we will be able to make sms’s which are great and bestselling. Even the sleep on those days will be much better than normal days. I still don’t know how to explain this phenomenon scientifically, but I don’t like the very idea of people calling it laziness. Yesterday, I was waiting to start at night; at night I thought morning 4 am is the best time to start anything and slept keeping alarm. But what happened was when alarm rang I got up and started studies and ended up with winning medal for full pass and got up actually at 7 .  Now the game is fixed and I had to do nothing. Yet I took text and walked to and fro, as my mom bought tea. I was like, I had completed this subject 1 year before and I was revising it every 365 day waiting for this day. I had no worries, no tension, everything ended yesterday itself. Still I just checked out two figures, hell with that, I bet I will draw the great Picasso painting with less time than this. Figure, formulae, and theory everything was freaking me out. I do agree they are of great use but so cruel to study.
              Anyway I reached college now; I had a 2kg book in hand as if I was a great student of all the time in world history. I bet no one (girls specially and a boy in ec , 2 in mech , 2 in eee) could take such a book for more than 20 minutes , it raised my status at least till the results came. Everyone around me was preparing like for a war not so far. Just like the Pakistan army is 50 meters away from us and we are the only one left to be conquered. There will be many groups here and there; ‘1 text book and 5 around it” group, they will be people who had to pass ; now there will be “ 5 library books plus 4 notebook” group…they are mark hunters , I think they wanted more than 100 out of 100 , God such a show of !! We can see some kind of high spirit and eager enthusiasm in them, the same we see in the people who haven’t seen food for 5 or 6 days ( some will be like it is their first time experience in life for food , they will run between groups , I think they wanted a 500/100). Also there will be many people sitting alone with both fingers deep inside ears, I always took a special care about them, coz I doubted they will put a hole in ear and will touch the brain and die instantly. They will have no interest to talk to us. Some will be busy telling , how well they didn’t study yesterday; some will be busy with explaining about the TV program or  the last night match between “ Chelsea and Liverpool” , or may be about padmarajan films that happened to be in Asianet plus. Now that is also a showoff!!! But I will always encourage it keeping the gratitude that they didn’t took textbook that time. Some will do just opposite, they will blah blah about the program they missed , they didn’t slept till 3 pm like that . There will be few who woke up at that time also!! Some will stop studies by 9.20 pm , some will start by then , and will carry on like a formulae 1 race ,hanging on the most popular 15 mark question , among them there will be normal humans , who can’t read ,” cow gives us milk” without studying English alphabets ,and they will fail to  understand. But some will have a canon scanner in their eyes and they will photo copy the entire thing , they are superhuman with brains to memorize ,  and brain that could prevent from logical thinking that you need to know what you write.!
          Now the bell will rang by 9.20 am , telling us like “time for action folks , am your full stop and am going to teach you a lesson you never forget” , but the facts remains the same that we are invincible for any lessons. Now next 10 minutes is known as teacher show off time, they will shouting like to their pet dog to get inside, “jimmy, I will kick you, get in, get in I said…ooohh you filthy dog just get in!!!”…they will walk; they will stare and appear around the corner to make us scream. But every one give less care for that and that will make them more destructive. Then some will start begging for a single minute , such that it will change the exam just forgetting the fact that they had such 24*60 minutes before. There will be some who will hide somewhere to study till 9.30 and they will get in at 9.30 in special consideration of..”i didn't knew anything, I was not here” !!
              Some will enter the hall with a prayer,  some will be already inside , they are “blending in with the atmosphere”!! Once seated some will turn around or call the one sitting before and will ask “daaa , what is the 16th pin of 8086???” ..then the reply will be “ txdi!!”....then the one who asked will reply...”noooooo , it is of 8087!!!”...then the other one ,”8087?? , it is not in my syllabus book...telll me about it plzzz”..the other...” there is no need to study that...i just had a look only”...then other..”ooo god..i dint even know the block diagram”. By that time , some of show off teachers would have already noticed and they will shout like , be silent inside the exam hall such that a bomb with a sound sensor is kept , above 118 db , it will explode. Now one of the teacher will close the door like else all are going to escape. And they will stand in attention , the tension will rise exponentialy! I had to do something , but seriously I cant discuss about out of syllabus , truthfully not even syllabus , so only thing to do is to give best of luck to everyone. Now I think you remember the guys who were hiding , now they will try to get in forcefully , when negotiation going on between them and teachers , some of already seated guys will jump out of seat. They have forgotten something , and will rush out with escuse to door keeper. We “nothing to do guys” will keep an eye on them , we all will be expecting a hall ticket or a fx991 es , but she will come back with cover of her apsara rubber.
             There is more interesting things in exam hall. There is a big girl sharing row with me. SHE is a good girl , well I don't know; she used to come like she was going to pilgrimage , a big photo of God ,and there will be a “kontha”! I always thanked God in photo for not giving her idea to bring in a candle,  she would have burned my exam paper. Now teachers will start distributing question paper , I forgot to say , answer sheet will be given 10 minutes before so that we can save time for exam. All will be cailm and silent for a short period , and then it beginssss!!!!!! just like in the film “127 hours” , titling is when we are in a trap
                                              “3 hours” 
      the most inevitable “3 hours”!
      The cold blooded dare to do “3 hours”!!
      the most screwed “3 hours”
the three hours of blankness sometimes , sometimes its wild , sometimes its satisfactory, sometimes it surpasses the excellence , sometimes it will dig a pit and put us inside it , sometimes it will be as expected , sometimes unexpected , sometimes a mixture , as in engineering we  have pin point division of 4 modules with 25 marks each , that division is the real reason for all the uncertainty.
  ( So the point I had to focus was that the exam has just begun. So was trying to increase the pressure of situation and want to make you sit in exam hall , then only I can proceed with the story. So if anybody is still outside , read the para once more , if the result is still negative , please get in !!! and take seat.  )
    I just looked at the question paper. Yes !!!...i do agree the that I can read , and am familiar with all letters too , but all together doesn't seems to make any kind of sense for me!! it simply doesn't map to my memory! I just remembered my first day in school , we were so innocent and unfamiliar with every thing , we used to blink and look around; same thing happened to me then. At this time what boys usually do?? in boys , what about the cool guys?? did anybody think that we will pray to God for mercy and shower answer to head from nowhere..never! The first and foremost thing will be a five star rated bad word!! if it was a Hollywood film ,expect a four letter word there , and if movie was in star movies or HBO , we will here a “beep” sound and subtitle with “****” in it. In Malayalam films , shaji kailas ,may be some others also have successfully bought the critical combination of words in the most apt moments. In delhi belly though there was no such apt moments , the film is so rich! Yeah, “shit happens”! Ha! Ha! Ha!...so by now you have got a clear idea why I haven't started yet. Its almost 5 minutes by now since exam start.
        Then next step was to find,” who was real friend”!, the one who haven't started yet. I just checked the first and second row , all are writing..i didn't lost hope , yeah, got it , roll no 3 was smiling at me. Not only him , roll no 14, roll no 40 , 43 , 50 was smiling at me. I was happy. But by chance , I turned to girl in my side , she occupied almost 3/4th of table for writing and the portion left to keep photo , kontha and all . There was hardly some apace left for me , I remind you if there were any space , she would have kept a candle too. I tried reading questions again , but still I have no idea , I had no chance to step out. The day before exam we will have lot to think , lot to do and pass the time. But in that three hours nothing will come. Then the only thing to do was , just to design a script for fight back , on first year when I had a similar situation , I thought that time about hard work , using library...etc and to become university topper. With all this experience I can tell you that was bullocks , “once thief is thief forever”! Half an hour was passed , and now I was seriously thinking about taking pen , and I also feared if the girl noticed I was not using the pen , she will plan to write for my pen too! So I took pen , but I don't know what was   next?. Am not going to debate on this , but I hope you will agree me by now I can write! And what I did was to answer with all the exposure of my analytical intelligence. The question will be about burj khaleefa ?? ,then my answer will be like this!! “ Burj Khaleefa is the tallest building in the world. It is situated in Dubai; it is also the tallest building in Dubai. Dubai is the place were the tallest tower situates. It has height more than other tallest towers around the world.( I don't know any other towers name , so we should pretend we know their name by telling them together). Many Indians are living there. Many other nations are also trying to make tall towers!!” and I will wind up with that. I know this is totally weird , but there are situations which make us do those things we normally never wants to do. The question was about Burj Khaleefa and the only thing I knew was about it's height. I drew pictures, I haven't heard of! I had no trouble to do so. By writing two 15 marks questions using same protocol , I managed to complete first hour of examination successfully. I almost finished 7 pages of answer booklet and still a 1 and half an hour was left. Then I looked back to my “friend” for a '”confident booster” , but shocking was the seen , he was writing vigorously. Then I myself filled with regret . I was blaming myself at least a 1000 times( I know blaming myself won't hurt me).
     This are the times we do have lot of philosophical advancements. I thought about the great BHAGWAT GITA, in that Lord Krishna says , “its not the way that is important, but the aim , (here it is passmark)”. That was made for the people who do malpractice , many fools including me have thought like that , or act like that. So I attempted to peep into answer paper of my friend sitting in my front bench. Actually she was a nice friend ,funny and of coarse beautiful , she always liked to help ,but unfortunately I couldn't tell her to help me before exam neither I could see her paper as she was sleeping above that (I mean she was writing like that). With a hard and almost thrilling try I saw a figure , I was so happy it had some peculiar similarities with figure I drew , but I was sad that I can't drew it anymore. “Life is like that buddy ,live life as it comes”, I said myself. Next 10 minutes I was busy with playing gimmick of rotating pen with 2 fingers. I bet those who do this things , are those who had similar situation like this. Then I again tried to do something productive in answering . I just made me belive that I was participating in essay competition for youth festival . I was born expert and very good in good for nothing writing. I decided to use this element which was rich in my blood to save myself from a pothole. And I started writing and writing , Liapunuv became my legend , microprocessors became treasure islands of mysteries ,  diodes and resistors became  high voltage heroes and cool ampere villains , likewise I wrote stories , thereby my  future. Actually that really made my time was not wasted , but it ensured my solitude will be far more creative and fearless. I was sure when istarted this violent and wildest writing many of the faces in the exam hall would have undergone a climatic change. I can even hear the thoughts of one of  my friends , mostly some bad words. Let him do that I thought , because it was not an hour ago he was doing the same thing to me. It was last half an hour. The tension in the atmosphere increased. That was just like watching English action movies. The last 30 minutes was the final lap , the game strategy will be entirely different. Performing a 15 marks question very well will change to attempting maximum number of question . Heavy load explanation changes to points and figures . Thus the whole exam hall will be in the middle of a race not less than 100m sprint. Now number of hands will rise for extra sheets , while many other will look them with surprise and will murmur angrily that “what the hell they are going to do with extra papers , dont they know for a sheet of paper we have to cut a tree!”. This peoples will still have a 5 or 6 pages left in main answer booklet. When some people will be eating the paper , or more like raping the answer paper , there will be many kind hearts who will just give back the answer paper and leave the hall , such that they can't tolerate it any more. There will be girls whose eyes and hands will be super glued to paper , they will ask answer sheet before their page is completed , they will not look teachers or any other physical structures other than answer paper. They will just raise their hands , the teachers have to come to them and they have to hand the paper. Some will raise both the hands , while some other ,mostly girls will be ready to raise their legs. The exam hall will be the scenario with full of violence. Now many will start to hit the air ,as their hands are getting pain. They will never give up as it is the matter of their life. The last 15 minutes will be nothing less than a war front! Now the chances for walk out is no more available in the market. The examiner will close the door again , such that by closing the door ,at this particular time will allign all the planets in the solar system in such a way that , the cosmic energy will flow from unknown sources to the exam hall , the students thereby will get magical powers and they will get passed. But nothing will happen. Still I found this door closing is meaning less as no change is going to happen , and all the discomfort they feel is just what they felt. The examiners will start shouting the by hearted words which has been passed from generation to generation from the moment the concept of extra sheet and a twain to tie it was introduced,” all of you tie your answer sheets”. This was just like “ this is the right time , if you tie your paper now , you are going to win a maruthi swift else you will only get a tata nano” . If we plot tension in Y-axis and time in X-axis for the last 30 minutes and plotted the graph am damn sure it would have been exponential. The peak of the graph in a range of last ten minutes , it should be marked as “climax show off effect”. Typically this effect will be occupied by the behavioral crisis of girls , and some of the boys. Specially those who think that , this time calicut university may give them a 110/100. and that is how its ends. Surprisingly the examiners will snatch the paper from us just like it was their personal property. The point is I was already willing to give them for free , then why should they snatch it from me(the gal who wanted 500/100 was still writing and begging for a minute).
 “shit” “shit” “shit” “shit” ….............................
Now the time has come for the redemption , all of you please think about the “3 hours” that just passed. Isn't it for this “3 hours” we pay our fees in college??(22,500 rs,for juniors it was even  bigger). Wasn't this “3 hours” a race for marks?? to secure a job , status , high profile , degree???. We studied , wrote assignments , seminars , internal exams in a particular subject in the back ground of hard work and show off was just to get a bigger digit in between 0 to 150( max mark) , just to write proportionally and efficiently for this “ 3 hours” and never to think about in our whole life?? after this exam, may be in later life we will face questions regarding the same subject which we frighted well in last “3 hours” , how many of us will be able to answer it?? Very few I think, if the question tests our knowledge than our memory. Then what was the meaning of all this??what are we gaining when we are doing like this?? we have been dragged on to being fools by this system as we are focusing only on percentage. But there are many peoples who don't even try , and by telling philosophies like studying for mark is disgusting(including me, I was like that). That attitude is not justifiable for  any reason. This will not be a question of your marks anymore , but how can you waste the money of your parents by wasting an examination. So this “3 hours” means a lot than we see what it was. This “3 hours” should be designed to be a stage to express yourself to the subject , what knowledge you gained from it , how much you know about it , and that should be rewarded by marks ; neither the similarity the answer has with the reference text book nor the beauty of figures should be the criterion for rewarding marks , but it should be considered as a positive element for with weight age. Therefore the whole system should be changed to something better , a system that ensures the students to be good engineers , more than the crap they are now. We should not study for just “3 hours” , but we should study for whole life . We should use our knowledge for our society , nation , family , for science and give least importance for money , no matter if we gain more after doing all this , and we will gain it.
          So far in life I was a loser , I have know authority to make this point , but this is what I know to do. My friends know that I have improved at least a bit , as I stopped scoring backlog. So am writing this. I respect my friends who score good marks by their hard work and I feel sad about my friends and me who score less. Still I wish if this system changes and a better one replaces , the attitude of teachers ,students and university changes towards the engineering education , and engineers who comes out becomes assets of our society. I wish this from core of my heart , am dedicating this “3 hours” to my friends who had the spirit to challenge the hollowness of the system and became good engineers.

This is HRK ,still to become an engineer signing out.....



 HARIKRISHNAN.M

 

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