"Hey genius, how do open-market operations work?" asked Keerthi, who was standing next to them. Both of them stared at her. "We have open market operations as well? Oh God, I am killed for sure. Please let the question papers be lost, please let them be lost..."
"Maybe it would have been better if we'd taken computers like Minnie and the others. Look at how cool they are," said Sheela, jerking her head towards the batch crowded in front of the next classroom.
Minnie, meanwhile, was cursing anything and everything related to computers. "I swear I'm going to throw my laptop out of the window when I go home. Stupid thing. Who the hell cares anything about lynx or Mosaic? I have Internet explorer and that's more than enough for me."
"Yeah, right. That damn thing is so slow, man. I have Google Chrome, but that hardly works as well. My computer is so useless, dude."
"Honey, if you're not studying those notes, could I have them? I need to go through those codes again."
"Look at the arts group. They're so lucky; I bet they have nothing to study at all. I've seen Shrishti's textbook, and it's so basic. And they have half the stuff omitted anyway."
Shrishti was gazing at the wall and trying to by-heart the definition of a floating population. She still had ten more definitions left to go through. Why, oh why, did sociologists have to define everything? And why, oh why, did she not study all this yesterday? Why did the school have to schedule a surprise test in the middle of the week for all the eleventh classes? The term had barely begun, and they were all pushed back to work like this. It was more than unfair, it was inhumane.
Ramya nearby was revising a paragraph. "The British glutted the Indian market with Manchester imports with which the poor weavers could not compete..."
"Why are you studying history? History is tomorrow!" shrieked Shrishti. Had she mixed up her time-table? Oh no...
"Yeah, I know, but history's my weak point and if I don't study it from now itself, I'm screwed. I'm not bothered for sociology. She'll give marks even if you write rubbish. You just have to include keywords."
"How long until the exam starts? I need to revise a bit more..."
Clang. Great, the exam had officially started. Everyone filed into their classes, stuffing notes haphazardly into random bags and still discussing furiously in undertones. Shrishti caught sight of Veena and Sheela heading into their classroom and gave them a big thumbs-up. Then she took a deep breath and went to her seat.
She was feeling nearly chilled to the bone. This was the important test. The principal wasn't happy with standard eleven's performance in the First term and had roundly told them so. "Just because you had the boards last year does not mean you can slack off completely this year. It was a very poor performance - the absolute worst aggregate I've seen. You need to be studying continuously; not just before the exam..." And so on and on and on. No one had attended to her really. They even ignored the principal's veiled hint about throwing a surprise test some time, the marks of which would be added to the annual exam scores. And she'd thrown a big bomb and gone and done it. It was a huge surprise since they'd got only two days to prepare for it. No class revisions, no extra study holidays... it really was inhumane.
Veena, in the next class, was wishing she could go under her table and take shelter there till the horrible exam got over. Her head was actually swimming. She'd been staring at the paper in front of her for five minutes and it didn't make any more sense to her now than when she'd first got it. In fact, even less. She didn't know the answer to a single question. This horrible nightmare couldn't be real. She shut her eyes. "Let me pass this test somehow. Let me pass this test..."
A buzz interrupted her thoughts. She looked around. No one else was writing anything either. Uma, who sat in front of her, told her what the problem was. "They've given us the twelfth-standard question paper. Remember, they're supposed to have a cycle test next week? Someone must have mixed them up."
It transpired that the papers were mixed up in all the classes. Students were asked to wait outside till the mess was cleared up. Some made a beeline for their notes, grateful for the extra time. Others chattered about the misplacement, and wondered how it happened.
Around half an hour later, there was an announcement saying the exams were cancelled; and the students could go to their respective classes for their usual lessons. There was general disbelief all around. One student, who could generally be relied on to know everything about everything that happened, recounted what had occurred. Apparently, the school had had a garage sale that Saturday, and someone had put out the box full of question papers instead of one full of toys: they'd just found out their error. However, the school couldn't get the box back, because the person who'd bought it had somehow sent it for recycling instead.
The exams were postponed for a fortnight.
Veena never neglected to pray again after that day.
