remembering the days of the exams,
now I laugh at the absurd pleas
to gain another minute, to print
some more illegible words,
on the rough parchment, smeared with ink:
.
(the stage is set, the play must begin)
.
I remember, I was a pupil of grade/class 8th,
sitting for a mathematics exam,
having forgotten my wrist watch at home,
wondering, whether I will be able
to solve all those problematic problems,
in a span of those three final hours,
I hurried, through every single question,
untying the quadratic equations,
solving HCF, through long-division,
calculating the profit from the loss,
and the hungry bank’s interest rates,
finishing the exam, in what I thought
was due time, and waiting for the bell to chime,
but it didn’t, I waited, but it didn’t,
morbidly asking the invigilator-
“How much time is left, Madam?”
she looked at me queerly, and uttered,
“Why! You have another hour and five minutes.”
.
(shed the curtain on the stage of memory
and jump to an act in a near future)
.
it was the 11th year of school,
the time of the final exams,
the subject titled: Business Studies,
name itself had an ominous sound to it,
theoretical to its core (which is very deep),
allotted hours were 3 and the questions 30,
I started with the surreal six marks questions- 5,
wrote, wrote, wrote… an hour gone, gone, gone,
then the turn of fervent five marks ones- 5,
spending yet another hour on these hefty ones,
what was left was just a simpleton hour,
questions:
frugal four marks ones- 5,
tedious three mark questions- 5,
and the ten obnoxious one mark ones,
began to inscribe letters and words,
die-hard attempt, to complete all the answers,
till the time the invigilator came,
to snatch away the exam copy,
my wrist still in motion spilling ink,
on the log of wood before me,
.
(leaving stage in between, I disappear)
.
remembering the days of the exams,
now I laugh at the absurd pleas
to gain another minute, to print
some more illegible words,
on the rough parchment, smeared with ink,
I think, and keep on thinking,
of those question papers, I never solved,
those answer sheets, that remained unfilled,
which could well have been the key,
to a future I will never know
.
* This poem is written in consideration of dVerse Poetics.
HA's Place 