The room was silent. The only sounds heard were the scratching of the pen on paper. The invigilator moved from one row to row, alert, agile. He had to, you never knew what tricks the children came up with to copy.
Nisha was tense, Chemistry was not her favorite. And today the paper was tough. When the question paper had been distributed, everyone had been disappointed.
She began the third answer when her pen stopped working. Thinking that maybe the ink has run out, she picked out another pen, that too was not working, so she picked up another. But whats this.. that also is refusing to work. Panic creeps in. Beads of perspiration glides down from the nape. She runs the pen a couple of times on the last page of the answer sheet. The pen starts working and she heaves a sigh of relief.
But she has wasted some time and there is a lot to answer yet, she starts writing fast……..
The invigilator announces that only 10 minutes are left. Nisha is on the verge of tears, she has not completed her paper and she knows she cannot.
When the invigilator snatches her paper, Nisha jumps up…….
….and sees that she is on her bed.
Her mother sees her jump up and then notices her noticing her surroundings. Then she sees her rushing to the bathroom.
Nisha freshens herself and returns to her bedroom and then notices that there are absolutely no books in her cupboard. Instead there are bibs, powders and what not.
‘Maa, you again cleared up my cupboard. How many times I have told you not to touch my cupboard. Now tell me where are my books.
‘Maa where are you’, she yells.
Maa comes near and looks at her quizzically.
‘Where are my books Maa. It is March 1oth, exam starts in 10 days, I have to study’.
Maa still keeps looking at her.
‘What?’, asks Nisha.
Maa clears her throat. And says, ‘As far as I know you have passed all the exams that you had to pass. You have done your degree, your post graduation. And whats more you have also got married and had a baby’. And she gestures to a bundle on the bed. Having been awake for the major part of the night, the baby is blissfully sleeping amidst the commotion.
Nisha then remembers that yes she has cleared all her exams including the delivery of her first-born and is at her parents place recuperating.
Some fears like exam fear remain with us for a long time and can even come and haunt us in our dreams. 🙂
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A real life incident which happened with my sister and is written for the prompt DREAMS.
I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013.
Today is the last day of the festival. Had a good seven day of writing and basically juggling between writing, reading and housework. Hope you all had a good time reading through my posts. Thank you for being a part of this festival.
A scary dream no doubt but the story as it ended left a smile behind
Glad about that 🙂
exam fear do haunt some people throughout their life,nicely narrated.
I do get panic atatcks when my son has exams, though he is quite cool about it
My mother still gets dreams of giving her exams too! In her case, she always wanted to go in for higher studies but couldnt do so due to the then circumstances!
Oh… But she can still do some courses right, I think there are some institutions having adult education. She may have more knowlegde then all of us combined but just to fulfill her dream…
Exam dreams are really scary when it is just before the day your exam is on. Good for me, after exams I completely erase what has happened in the exam. Result will tell what has happened and what will happen. 🙂
True. I never panicked on exam day but I did no results. Whereas when sonny goes for exam, I am nervous
Yeah, I can see that in the parents eyes. Makes me nervous too.
🙂
Ha exams can give you a scare even after education. Another lovely post.
For some it scares even after years 🙂 Thank you
Something similar has happened to me in the past. There have been days when I have woken up in the morning suddenly wondering what subject I need to study. Not because of the fear of exams, but because I probably hadn’t even touched those books in a long long time 😀
Ha ha ha .. really…
These fears never end! Nicely narrated, Bhagya!
Some fears never do…:)
Hi Bhagya, that was a nice narration. Everyone is afraid of the word EXAM. Our mind is tuned in that fashion. It is like training a young elephant with a rope on its leg.Even when it grows a chain replaces it. Does it know it can break it with ease . We are chained like this.happy to be here:))
Ha ha that analogy is quite correct. Even though now there is a grading system, no ranks given nor any awards, the fear of exam persists
Ha ha…so true. But I don’t know how I am going to react while my daughter starts having exams at school. Got to wait and see 🙂 well written 🙂
Best of luck for then 😉
lol.. this happened to one of my friends.. :)..
Really 🙂
Haha so good!! I could picture my sis here….she is a nervous wreck in any exam of hers…
Same pinch then 🙂
Quite realistic and does happen in varying degrees. Thank you 🙂
Thank you Dilip and welcome to SS
I absolutely love the final twist in the story. I do dream of school and exam halls plus the scare that we have only 10 days before exams..love this one:)
I have visions of what happened during my exams when sonny goes for his 🙂 Guess the fear will never go away
Lolzz… good one!
Thank you 🙂
LOL. Very true. In my case, the dreams aren’t scary exam dreams but dreams which make me feel like there is still some studying to do or something that I have left incomplete. When I wake up, it takes me some time to shake off that feeling! 🙂
Ha ha ha.. some sort of emptiness is it? Happens with me too 🙂
Happened to me many times, Bhagya. 🙂 Somehow, these days they reduced. I am always in tension when I get those dreams 🙂
Ha ha… do those dreams still make u tense?