Arunava Bhattacharya, Class X C (2019 – 20)

This is the story of a History Exam, termed as the ‘Third World War’ and the ‘Second Cold War.’
Please pay solemn respect to the martyrs.

It was a hot and humid Friday
But for that, we weren’t sweating,
Tensed, sweaty faces were all around
Because the History exam was waiting.

Number of chapters? Only six
Four from History, two from Civics.
Marks of the exam? Fifty, no more
How to mug it all up? No one was sure.

The Civics part seemed less, overall,
Only two chapters were there,
But in reality, it was way more than
The four chapters of History elsewhere.

Seeing that, different pupils had
Taken various approaches,
However, in the end they were left helpless
Crying, ‘Buenas noches!*

‘Where do we go? Which part should we study?
The syllabus seems so immensely vast!
Do we first learn the Composition of Parliament?
Or how the Allies won World War II at last?’

These were our thoughts, as we
Tried to thoroughly grease our minds,
So that they work faster, and we
Could somehow memorise the lines.

The entire summer vacation? Ha!
We were procrastinating then!
Only when school reopened, were we
Forced to study again;

The last day before the exam came,
It was the eleventh hour,
And we were mugging up furiously
The tale was turning more sour;

Studying the whole afternoon, the whole evening,
And then, even the whole night,
We had mugged up all that we could manage
By the time there was day’s light.

The scene I encountered in our class next day
Was one, extremely tense,
People were running, asking questions, reassuring,
The nervous excitement was immense!

Finally the eight o’clock bell rang; it was
The time, when an exam starts,
The questions were coming towards us like
Pointed, extremely sharp darts.

The total time allotted for the exam
Was an hour and twenty minutes, exact,
Within that time, we had to write all we could
Be it fiction, or proper fact.

The Civics part came first; the marks
It carried, were twenty full,
I felt I could get all twenty there
So up my sleeves I pulled.

When I happily finished the Civics part,
I suddenly heard a bell ringing;
I then realised that I still had
Thirty marks left for answering,

And that time had taken to its wings
And flown steadily by;
Forty minutes had passed, so I
Sped up, and gave it my best try;

Writing at the speed of 100 words a minute
I littered the pages with herds of words,
Later which I found just capable
Of being checked, though it was blurred.

Never did I look up from my copy
Not even for one second;
To complete the exam, I felt, I had
Not a single moment to lend.

The end of the exam was drawing closer
The finishing line was in sight;
A few moments or so after I finished writing
The final bell rang with all its might.

The post-exam mood was a confusion
Of all the possible emotions;
Some were happy, some were sad,
Some felt good, some felt bad.

Most of the people had finished the paper
But many others, had not;
They ran out of time, but to finish the paper
Valiantly they had fought.

The general conception about the paper was
That it was lengthy, but easy;
But the paper had been enough to make
Nearly everyone go dizzy.

A friend of mine had sacrificed
His entire sleep the night before,
So dizzy and tired was he, that in
Class he began to peacefully snore!

Mixed emotions flew, but there
Was one emotion no one could cover,
We were all heaving sighs of relief, that
At last, the History Exam was over.

*Buenas noches is a Spanish phrase which means Goodnight.