The “Final” Hurrah!

I slowly trudged up the stairs and walked towards the exam hall. Boys were huddled near the steps and talking about everything except the exams. Near the room, sitting along the balcony, were the girls, immersed in their books. It was the last exam of the final semester, my final B.E. exam. I did not feel any difference. Probably, it was due to the fact that it was a management paper or maybe it was because I was so much used to writing exams for the past four years. Whatever it was, I banished all the thoughts out of my mind and sat down to wait for the exam to start. The invigilator walked into the hall and, as was the norm, started shouting at the girls to come inside. The girls hurriedly uploaded some more data onto their non-volatile memories and hurried into the exam hall. The question paper duly arrived and I gave it a read. The questions were easy and I started writing. Halfway through the paper, I looked back to see what others were doing. Almost everyone were duty conscious, heads down and hardly a twitch as their arms raced across their answer papers in response to the queries printed on the questions paper. A few of the students were stretching out, already in a party mood and not willing to jot down the answers beyond a certain limit; the limit here being, “Pass”. Some were furiously thinking what to write next as their pens went on an elliptical orbit. I turned back and found myself smiling. I thought of my previous exams and memories flooded back. The ‘Signals & Systems’ paper had tested my tear glands to the limit and the ‘Digital Signal Processing’ had sent me on a leather hunt. Fortunately, the results had turned out to be favorable for me! I shook off the memories and resumed my attack on the answer paper. I finished the exam five minutes before the deadline, but did not feel like leaving the hall. I blankly stared at the question paper as I struggled to come to terms that this was going to be my last engineering exam. My previous exam had been a core paper and I had jumped up and hooted with angry joy at finishing it off. I felt quite the opposite today. Later, everyone’s answer papers were collected and they stood up. I unintentionally made a mock bow at everyone in the class and smiled. The scenes outside the exam hall were reminiscent of the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Silence pervaded the atmosphere as many of the students struggled to talk sensibly. I tried to act normal and conveyed greetings to everyone on my way to the hostel. Some of the guys were already packing their stuff. One of the guys, who arrived late to his room, found the door open and realized that his roommate had left. A normally jolly go guy, he started crying. In a sense, it was a revelation to me. Appearances can be so deceptive. My close friend left for her home the next day accompanied by her family. She was wearing the necklace I gifted her a week before as a remembrance. I noted it only when she pointed at it as she was boarding the jeep. I turned back and started the long walk back to the hostel. I felt my eyes turning moist, but did not bother to disturb it. My first innings as an engineering student, had come to an end.

I wrote the article primarily for my college newsletter and felt like sharing it on my blog.