I asked the conductor twice and he assured the bus goes through Triplicane.I took the back seat with a girl who looked at me as if I was in the news for stealing some question papers.
I was on the way to attend an exam and the center of exam was at the other end of the city.Neethu, the culprit ,who forced me to attend the exam had got a nearby center and another friend to accompany her.Once again I felt my bag to make sure the pencil,pen,sharpener and eraser I bought few minutes ago are in place.I held the Rs.5 ticket in my hand and kept glancing at the conductors face every now and then.When most of the boards showed off 'triplicane' on them I started looking for the school name.Then the girl who was sitting next to me asked, "where do you want to go?".I told her the street name and school name.She nodded in helplessness.Bus drove past the Marina beach and entered a busy lane.At last the conductor turned his head and said Triplicane.I wondered that I travelled this long with Rs.5.It was easy to spot the old building of the school and find out my seat in the last row.
My previous experiences made me go through the instructions once again.Yes, I have a ball point pen and HB pencil , I relaxed.(Once during the CUSAT entrance exam I had darkened the bubbles in OMR sheets with a pen and when I realised it was to be done by a pencil, I tried my best to keep my lips curved in a smile.The invigilator exclaimed ," This careless, how are you going to be an engineer!!!").I kept the pencil and pen on the desk .A glance and I ,with a whirl in my stomach ,realised its not an HB pencil.I checked the pen, it was clearly written as Gel on it.I felt .....( I don't know a word to describe what I felt) .I turned my head .A girl whose face revealed her tensions was doing the final minute sharpening of her HB pencil.She said she don't have an additional pen.I asked the guy who sat in front of me.He threw a weired look and felt from his legs to feet and found a ball pen from one of the countless pockets of his cargoes.I decided to carry on with the non -HB ,extra dark pencil.I used the pencil in a very light manner so that it makes the effect of an HB pencil.I sat alone in my bench.Invigilator cross checked the hall tickets.I was not wearing spectacles in the photo.He stared for one more second and mapped the signature and confirmed my identity.
As the bells rang to open the question booklet seals , some one shouted an 'excuse me' from the door.A guy who definitely was a fan of Rajnikanth (his attire and shaving pattern...thats the only clue) came and sat beside me. Behind him entered a girl who was dressed as she was attending a party.All the candidates eyes including mine followed her even after she settled in her place.Invigilator asked the guy with a geometry box to leave his calculator away.He stood from his place and walked out , careful to avoid any wrinkles to his Peter England trousers.He came back and had a sip of water from the fruity bottle he was carrying.
After going through some pages of the booklet I was wondering , what are they going to do with all these circuit diagrams and mathematical equations. I was aware of the time distribution , so I started slowly . Once during the IIT JEE ( No,I din't over estimate me...another friend needed company ...thats why ...I got a result card after some months stating " Regret to inform you that you are not eligible...Your rank is One Lakh Twentyfive...") , I finished all the questions in half an hour and some how passed the three hours.The general knowledge section was the only relief.
None of the questions in the other sections made any sense to me.I could identify the zigzag figures as symbol for resistors, two parallel vertical lines as capacitors, a coil as inductor.But nothing more than that.
I glanced at Mr.Peter England.He adjusted his soda glasses and was busy doing some thing in the space for rough work.He had kept his geometry box open and the fruity bottle close to him.There were two fans in the room.A dusty Usha and another old Crompton Greeves.They worked hard to keep the Chennai heat away.
I began to brain storm on the terms ....where did I hear all these? Transducer, Self induction,Gap,dielectrics,impedance,characteristic plots,planes,omegas,waves, angles,diodes...........When diodes appeared in the paper , I thought there was some diode starting with Z.Ohh..yeah next question is about Zenor diode.Mnn...not that a week memory( there are some occasions, I get impressed by myself).Then came the coefficients with all the scientists names as prefix. I replaced all those names with Bhavya in my mind.Bhavya coefficient of dielectric, Bhavya constant, Bhavya wave length, Bhavya's Theorem,Bhavya temperature of boiling......not a rhyming set of words.Good , that there is no constants or coeff named after me.
Miss.Party had already closed her questionnaire.She tried to adjust her loose hair locks and started admiring her own nail polish.I looked at my nails and wondered , what colour will look good on them! Mr.Rajnikanth rested his head on the desk.The orange colour of the old building reflected on his face( Once one of my cousin had told me , if you take photos facing a bright orange wall ,the pics will be warm).
When it was past half the time , a press photographer entered the room .The invigilator adjusted his shirt collar and wiped his face with a kerchief.Photographer suggested some posses and the invigilator was so keen in following his instructions.He clicked some ten snaps. In all the photos invigilator stood exactly in front of me and my hope of appearing in a Tamil news paper faded then itself.
I started a game of rolling pen and pencil on the desk.The one which reaches the farthest on the desk wins.Always pencil won, pen was not a perfect figure to roll.Once the pencil fell off the desk and invigilator noticed and Miss.Tension smiled at me with a yawn.I gave up the game.
When it was half an hour left I had 5 questions to finish.I formulated another game.Do one question and take a break of 3 minutes.But I finished marking it in next two minutes.I dint even looked at the answers.Just darkened the circles in OMR sheet.When Invigilator started collecting the answer sheets , Mr.Peter England hasn't finished.His rough work space might had got over. I have to return the pen to Mr.Cargos.The pen had 'Infosys' embossed on it.I returned the pen with an unintonated 'thank you'.
Just after the exam I got Neethu's SMS saying she enjoyed the 3 hours.Travelling back was easy . Back at home while having my lunch ,I got a call from my friends ,"Hurry up,we are planning to go to Besant Nagar Beach".Some how I answered "Now? I can't join you." and within five minutes I was sleeping like a pig( I don't know what I look like when I sleep, may not be a pig , I hope).
