Having faced this monster of a phenomenon for more than two decades, it was not until the recent past that I could have confidently said, "It is just another test". I somehow feel, with a grandfatherly air, that exams are no more than a bugaboo, created by none other than immature, academic children driven by egoistic parents and encouraged by partisan teachers supporting their favorite frontbenchers. I may very well have, voiced an opposite opinion if only my mother would not have given up on me after the 4th grade, or had I been able to sustain my 'good boy' image beyond a week in the new class.
Nevertheless, I guess it is more rational to despise people not on your side. So let me introduce real life characters MJ, AT, VC and even PP much later, who are still very good friends of mine, but deserve the charges of making my life miserable at some point of time. To begin with, I claim that I used to reign supreme in my class till my 4th grade. Probably because I joined school a year late and of course my mom. I guess, that was the culmination of my academics. Never ever after that, have I either got a perfect score, and nor have I ranked in the class.
With subjects like history and hindi, devised just to ruin my life, the decline of my reign was imminent. Somehow I could neither get the hang of dates and nor could I distinguish the gender of inanimate objects. To add insult to injury, the others who had claimed screwing up their tests would come out with flying colors. To make things worse, some of my teachers would simply grade the papers but not total the scores. They would redistribute the sheets randomly and ask us to do the job. By some conspiracy, I would land up totalling my worst enemy's top score. Thinking this is not enough, the teacher would publicly announce the grades in the class. I guess there was little to do than to congratulate the topper by putting up a pretentious face.
By the time I was in the 8th grade, I was wise enough to realize that the end of semester exams were no more than petty league games. The boards are like the World Cup and that is what I should look forward too ( I am sure not many would have depicted this level of maturity at that age :D). Anyway, I somehow managed to regain part of my glory by doing really well despite the pre-selection test grossly projecting me as a goner. I basked in the glory for three full months to realize that the worst was yet to come - the IIT's. For reasons, I would not like to mention, I ended up screwing it up big time. But in the process, I met this AM in class who was smart and intelligent, and like me would often screw up his tests. So after one particular exam, I went up to him and asked how his exam went. Instead of the usual groaning and crying which people normally do, he cheerily said he screwed up. Not a word more. And that, I thought was a really 'cool thing' to do.
IIT and the JEE were the toughest tests I had to take. In engineering, in a stark contrast to the 'fist pumping' for scoring the highest, junta would rejoice to failure. Food and alcohol would flow, whether you win or you lose. Now, at a stage where a good GPA does not necessarily fetch you a better job or a better salary, the importance of exams have diminished to an extent of making me writing blogs like these. For those who still crave a 4.0/4.0, the last thing that it signifies is higher intellect (or am I just defending my score ;) ).
