Bihar Board Examinations Vol 01

A million requests, a hundred discussions and incessant exhorting later, here I am posting my first blog on Freaks Inc. Opted for a beaten to death story about my experiences with the Std 10th board examinations in the state of Bihar. I divide the story (incident) into two volumes (a la Kill Bill). The first vol. with my experiences as a student appearing for the examination and the second about my experiences behind the scenes.

Chapter 1. Moving to the exam center

Not all the private("English medium") schools in Bihar are registered. So the schools encourage students to appear for the 10th exam through any other school run by the state government. This is a win - win situation. Private schools manage to get their students to appear for board exams and the government run schools get to show the good results produced by these "alien" students in their annual review to justify their existence. The result, if any, is that the students are allotted an examination center too far from their homes, which means they cannot commute daily and have to relocate to their centers. I received my admit card and came to know that my center was 50 miles away from where I used to study. So reluctantly I packed my bag and moved to this new place called Pakhnaha Bazar.

Chapter 2. The Motel owner

This small place on the outskirts of my town was literally a village (gaon) ( with all due respects..somewhat like the one in KR Narayanan's Malgudi).Its rustic look was characterized with unfinished muddy roads, lush green fields, a duck pond and an open-air theater. The most preferred means of communication for the inhabitants were bullock-carts or horse-carts (taangaas).The visitors usually rode motorbikes to get to their destinations. With great difficulty,I managed to find a motel(a bungalow) which wasn't too far from the center, may be a mile away. My motel owner was a nice old gentleman who had a proven track record of hosting many a Std Xth student over the years in his bungalow. A religious, God-fearing person, he used to get up at 4'o clock in the morning for his namaaz. For some reason, even after a proper introduction, he assumed that my name was "David" (David .. Pushkar..how phonetically similar eh ? ). Concerned and caring that he was, my daily morning alarm ( usually set for 5am) was substituted by the motel owner's call "David Utho" which was easily more irritating than the standard "tininic-tininic".Sometimes even now, I can hear those haunting words resound in my mind.

Chapter 3. The task force

A student appearing for his std Xth examination was accompanied by a lot of excess baggage..well literally ! Apart from his usual luggage, a task force for moral support in the form of eight(excuse me...8!) people. Each one of them had a well defined raison d'etre and they functioned with seamless integration. While No 1. would be busy pumping water from the borewell, his counterpart No. 2 would be enjoying a nice warm bath(in the open..absolutely no inhibitions) humming the latest movie songs.The third would be chopping onions while the fourth would have the frying pan ready for the "sautee"(tadka).The adventurous No. 5 and 6 would be on their customary visit to the nearby forest to get the banana leaves for the meal(plates were a luxury). While the seventh, the chef of the group, would be busy cooking rice in an open vessel, his eyes half closed with the fumes from the cooking pyre, the 8th (the psychologist of the group) would be giving pep talks to the candidate(candidate who ???), readying him for the test ahead.Each one could reverse their roles with consummate ease and still function with maximum efficiency.

Chapter 4. The examination hall

A typical gaon ki pathshaala, with a huge playground and a big front gate.The classrooms,with atleast five big windows so that people can come in / escape at will.The atmosphere is just normal, like any class test with students just hanging around in the campus having their usual talks..no tension, no nerves whatsoever.Once the bell rang the students ran into the classroom, carrying their notes and books with them inside the examination hall.(Technically a closed book examination..if you may).With a stack of books on their desk,a bunch of notes under, and several cheat-sheets on their body, the student gears up before the starting bell rings.Finally, by the time this preparation is done, the student is so exhausted that all he cares about is gathering his thoughts ( assisted with books & notes and external support task force) and vomiting them on the answer sheet and just getting it over with. The preparation for the examination is clearly much tougher than the examination itself. The exam is all about you, but the preparation is about skillful planning, resource handling, project management and meticulous execution,something which would leave Roger Pressman(Guru of Software engg) searching for words.

Those were the first four chapters. The gory details of the examination and what goes on behind the scenes will be the subject matter in Vol2.So I end this first account of my experiences with a tag line"...wait with bated breath for Vol2 (Behind the scenes) "

~Pushkar