BENGALURU : As summer draws to a close, a select population of the country is tensed. Tenth standard students will spend the next few weeks in fear, tension and prayers. For students, the madness of March is better than the anxiety of April, followed by the misery of May. You get to make calendars and countdowns to March, you go through text books, guidebooks, YouTube videos, and previous years’ question papers. You’re prepped up with pre-Boards, mock exams, along with the entire universe around you preparing you for the exams in March. But the summer is filled with prayers and hopes.
As it is, I feel bad for the kids appearing for their tenth Board exams this year. Just when they entered puberty in eighth standard, the pandemic robbed them of innocent, teenage love. Eight standard is when we become aware of genders, our bodies, and attraction to the opposite/same gender. The age when hormones compel you to borrow a pencil or steal a glance.
My memories take me back to when I had just finished my Board exams. The world was a different place in the summer of 2002. Without smartphones or apps, you simply waited till 4 pm to sneak out and play with friends.
The biggest blockbusters were released in summer, or you could simply cycle down to the nearest cyber cafe to discover the joys of the newly discovered Internet. Unfortunately, I did none of the above. I spent the summer of 2002 cooped up in my room, pouring over the question papers, trying to calculate how much I would have scored. I’ve never prayed as much as I did in the summer of 2002, and I’m positive that all the gods in heaven must have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of prayers that came flying up from my home. I guessed, and second-guessed, and spent the month hoping and praying that my life isn’t ruined in the coming weeks!
To the boys, girls, and friends beyond the binary who appeared in the Board exams this year, I’d suggest — just chill. I’m nobody to preach that marks do not matter. But I can vouch for the fact that the 10th Board exams aren’t the life or death matter that they’re made out to be. If you aren’t in the top 10 or bottom 5 per cent of your class, the exams won’t really be life changing. You’ll be given many more opportunities to change your life, and today’s world offers careers in sports, music and entrepreneurship as rewarding alternatives.
If you know anybody who appeared in their Board exams this year, show them this column. Remind them to spend the summer eating mangoes and drinking buttermilk. Honestly, there’s nothing better than having NOTHING to do for an entire month.
If you absolutely HAVE to pray, pray that a new variant of Covid doesn’t land at our doors. Else, you’ll have to read another variant of this column, after having spent your +2 years in your home too!
(The writer’s views are his own)