6 long hours!

“6 ghonta! More jabo to.. Kichhu tips dao na. Diyechile to exam ta. Kamon approach nebo?”, said Sunny.

I was overcome by fits of uncontrollable laughter.

“Amar teke tips nibi? Taholei tor hocche. Arre chap nishna, kete jabe. Kichu na kichu beriye ashbe. Trust me. Amar etar experience acche.”

“Dhur!” exclaimed Sunny, “Bishon e boring byapar lagchhe.”

The memories came flooding back.

“10 mins more. Start wrapping up your answers.”

I scribbled away furiously. Putting in the ending touches to a wonderfully scripted story. It was a crime thriller with enough twists and turns to put some hollywood movies to shame. It took me a good  part of the 3 hours that was allotted to finish it, but it was worth it. Proud of my effort, i lifted my head triumphantly to look around the room. Some were frantically turning pages, hoping for a last minute inspiration, while others sat still with vacant expressions, twirling pencils, while some slept. Whatever suited them best.

“Times up. Pencils down. Sit in your places while we collect your answer scripts.”

10mins later, as i walked upon the sun baked lawns of the school, i reflected on how it all went. I had spent the first half of the IIT exam writing a crime thriller where the IIT director is a smuggler, running his black trade from the sea facing IIT, Mumbai, and kills off a student who chanced upon his dark schemes and passes it off as suicide. It was then upto the dead chaps best friend to uncover the dark secret behind his death and head into the earth shattering finale.

“Neat”, I thought, “That was fun. Who says IIT exams are boring?”

2 hours later, as me and Arjun  headed back to our classrooms, late by 15 mins, for the 2nd half of the exam, “what now?” i wondered. And there it was, the sly voice in my head, cackling away to glory, saying “how about cartoons?”, and so ensued the next 3 fun hours of the most difficult engineering exam in the country.

Who says IIT exams are boring?

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