Story Making ...Art or Science !!! .

It was the night before the Semester Exam . Those who have enjoyed the Engineering will know that you don't study the whole semester ( sem) and its only in the last night that you manage to enquire about the syllabus and if possible read a few hours to just some how get 35 out of 60 as passing marks.

So it was THE night before ME (Engineering Mechanics) paper. ME was the toughest considered paper not because of the equations and the formulas but because of the Prof being The Mogambo kinda character. "Jo Khush Hua" whenever we suffered. A sadist by approach.

Myself and Rajnish Singh were slogging it out at around 10 in the night when as usual Rajnish said
"kya hai yaaaaaar...kitne topics hai...chalo we will take a break..Lets go to Lanka on CBZ.." .

That break generally meant 3 hrs ..and with ME next day I wasn't ready.

But as always he convinced me. We went for a break of 4 hrs as he was more than his usual frustrated. Came back late ..tried to finish of some important questions..and then by 6 in the morning decide to have a doze off.

To our horror we never got up . Exam at 10 and we got up at 10.

Rajnish : "Lets bunk this one sem paper. We haven't prepared much by the way." It was a bold statement I thought but gelled well with his image.

I replied "yeah we will give re-exam..What's there". Sounding pretty fearless...but deep down fearing this may screw my career here.

Rajnish : "No...Lets go yaar...at least we will get passing marks..and no sem back..". Making pretty clear that the boldness in the previous statement was pretty much empty and he too was afraid of "Back Sem" .

That word "Back Sem" was now ringing loud and clear in my head like Hindi Film Temple bells.I hadn't feared of it ever since I always knew that I can manage my passing marks anywhere in any exam. But not giving any exam.Now that was new for me.

So we reached the dept by 10 : 30 but Lo!!! we were not allowed inside the department. Nobody except the Security fellow saw us.

There in lay my opportunity. No body seeing us coming late.

"What will hapen now...?? " Rajnish Asked ..a bit worried.

I consoled him .."Dont worry ...I will tell him some story ...and then lets see."

"He wont believe yaar..." His boldness seemed to have suddenly disappeared.

I thought its my turn to show some courage. "Story making is an Art ...buddy.."

I went alone to the prof after the exam and made up a story .
"Sir yesterday we went to get some notes photocopied...on Bike and we met with an accident. Rajnish was hit badly and his leg got fractured, I was with him this morning as nobody was there to look after him and hence we could not attend the exam . So sir is it possible for you to arrange a re-exam of sorts some time when he is OK and can come here."

I continued...

" Sir,I knew the importance of the exam sir...but there was nobody...near
the place and I had to take him to the doctor and get his X ray done and take him to Hospital and be there......Our career will get effected sir..If we fail in this semester sir we had prepared so well for the exam but unfortunately couldn't come sir but sir you tell sir how could I leave him there and come here...,blablablablablaaa.." .I kept going ...thinking the more I speak the more effective it will be.

"OK FINE.....When can he come to give the exam...?? and Mind you the paper will be only of 25 marks (not even passing marks) and question will be completely different and lot tougher..So be prepared well when you come next time for exam...and if You pass in that then there will be a Viva of the same of 15 marks." He said ...surprising me a lot...as I never expected him to readily agree.But still it was tough for us. Scoring 35 out of 40 to pass .

I agreed to tell prof the date soon after consulting the doctor (Rajnish ).
We came after 20 days to give a re-exam. 20 days was good enough time to prepare.
WE WERE STRATEGICALLY PLACED in different rooms so as to avoid us cheating.

Got the question paper.

Only One question was there.
Q. Which of the Rajnish's Leg Got Fractured ?

I sat there in the exam hall thinking Only one thing ...Was Story Making ...Art or Science ??.

The Fall......and the Rise...

It started off one Tuesday evening about 11 years back when WE came out of one of the Tuition Classes from our teachers Place.

'We ' here includes my friends and classmates . Friends are the boys and When I say classmates I mean girls because in our school culture you are not supposed to be friends with them . At least you don't call them friends even if you are one.We were like India and Pakistan. You have to defeat the Pakistani at any cost .

So when We came out after a Dravidian lecture( innings of dravid 200 balls(Min's) faced and 10(problems) runs scored...) on similarity topic from our teachers Place , we were trying to relax our self , taking our vehicles out. When I looked towards to the main way , I saw one of our friends who had left the school a year ago waiting for us to come out. I was excited to meet him for one I was frustrated after the 2 hr lecture.

Back Then I used to come in one of the Luna Super..'Turrruu..." as we used to call it. It was so light frail and old that some times YOU had to carry IT rather than IT carrying YOU. 'Self Start ' and 'Kick Start' are the terms we had never heard in those days. It was always a drag start .....at least for my Turrruuu.That means you had to drag it at a real high speed to some distance manually before its engine used to start. Drag start or Dhakka Start..whatever you like you can call it.

That was about the luna , now few facts about me.I was a healthy boy.(yes i am trying to be moderate to myself here...those who know me from those days will say...A bulky fat elephant...) But then that would be other extreme and I was somewhere in between those two versions...moderate and extreme version.....I was wearing a jeans ....a black jeans...brand was Killer ...I remember it so well because it was my first jeans... ... and that was the first day I was wearing it. It was brand new .Add to that a real tight one...

Now the visualisation,(a bulky..........wearing a black killer....).sitting on the turru (light an Old...) and trying to drag start it by running along with it. Suddenly it started and I jumped onto it and sat . But somehow I lost the balance . Very Difficult to explain how I lost it ,since the light frail luna was supposed to carry a modest healthy boy easily. I fell on one side and Luna on the other side , my black killer turning dark brown with dirt .

Indian and Pakis seeing from behind.

Were They Seeing?? I wasn't sure... Any spectators.... I got up before I became a matter of shame to my Nation . Dint have the time to turn around.

Tried to make jeans look black again as quickly as possible by beating it and picked up the Turru .It happened all so fast that turru's engine was still on.Fearing it might switch off again I hurried further lest I have to run that much again...Dhakka start...Moreover I had to save the nations pride and may be ...just may be...my own pride. After all who would like to become a subject of dishonour.I was successful in my attempts .Yes I Was. I reached to my friend and wished him 'Hi' thinking he might be the only one who would have seen it. Even he dint notice it.His reaction told it. My lightening rescue act was too fast for anyone to notice.I was too good.

I was happy . I did it. What was the happiness about...Was it Meeting the old friend or.. getting out of the lecture ... Or Protection of honour of THE nation... I think it was the last. I saved myself from being a matter of entertainment.

Then...

A voice...

"Anything Happened....Are you OK ?"...Asked the first friend coming....

" What Boy....be careful..." asked the next one...

Few smiles ,giggles...and laughs from the Pakis as well.....some comments..

" Hmm that was quick....how did u do that.."

Soon my happiness went off with the whole batch coming one by one and smiling ,some laughing, commenting.The realisation came soon ...Everybody had seen it....

Later they told it wasn't me falling that made them laugh but me getting up so lightening fast that became the subject of their entertainment.I had lost it.. and some of them even remember the incident even today and ask me about the turru and some even about Killer.