The Ballad of Bomberman - Act 1

Act 1: The Printing Press
4:30 pm,November 15,2010

Location: Dept. of Mechanical Engg.

"Abey jaldi chhap! Aankh band karke chhap!"- Vikas, my room mate, and currently my saviour, was prompting me with hushes.

"Abey tu bas likhta jaa, maine yahan printing press khol di hai!" - Me,a topper of my times, currently at the mercy of others, was boasting shamelessly!

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I was blindly copying whatever Vikas was writing down in his answer sheet. His writing would have been barely legibly in normal circumstances, but this was examination time!

Desperate situations call for desperate measures! 

My head was tilted 60 degree away from Vikas's copy, my left hand was covering my roving eyes, and my eyelids had been strictly instructed not to bat. In all, I was 'in the zone'!  It's a term usually applied to sports persons when they are giving a performance of their lifetime.  Well, I considered myself not less than Sachin Tendulkar en route to a 200 there!

I had completed the practical file in the morning itself. So,being ready for the written exam was a deed I could think of performing in the next life only. I had just skimmed through the practicals and had half heartedly listened to another one of those 'enlightening GD sessions' of the 'genius' guys of the branch.Moreover, my room mate had prepared a day in advance, so by engineering college standards, I had prepared well for the exam!

The professor and his side kick research scholar were pieces of cake to get through while cheating. But my inquisitive a** was the only enemy in the field! I mean, I was prepared like shit, I had no F-ing idea what the answers were, and here I was, pointing out errors in Vikas's answer sheet. The guts!

We were literally having a discussion in the middle of an exam there. And Vikas had to convince me that his answers were right and I could copy them safely,without the fear of failing(like if I refused to copy them, the professor would pass me on account of my honesty and perseverance to copy only the 100% correct answer!) Finally, the honest cheater inside me gave in and I started 'Xeroxing' his answer sheet.

'WE' breezed through the 50 minute 60 marker. Actually it was Vikas who breezed through,I just hung on to him with tightly! In the end, it didn't matter that much, because rumour had it that the professor was not going to check the copies anyway and would give an 8 pointer to everyone,at the least! 

So much for being an adamant a** in the middle of an exam!

PS- There are two ways to excelling in an exam. Studying well. Or copying well!


Continued...