Sashank's exam.... a real test

March is the month of exams. Parents are more tensed about their kids exams. Moreso, if they are Board exams. I remember the days of 1982 when I was in 10th class. I was staying alone at Vizianagaram as my parents were away at Guntur following my Father's transfer. No mobile calls, no sms wishes, not even land-line calls, no one to boost the morale before the exam, none to soothe pre-exam blues. Nonetheless, I was successful in scoring a reasonably good score.

Now see the contrast..........

My daughter is now in 10th class and appearing for CBSE exams. The kind of pampering she gets is amazing. On every exam day her aunt comes all the way from a distance of 100 Kms, (where she is employed) and accompanies her to exam hall. Her chacha and chachi who are permanent residents of Canada, invariably , call her before and after completing each exam. Needless to mention about the care showered by my parents on her , particularly during exam days. She is just the cynosure of their eyes. I take leave from my work place on her exam days and drop her at exam centre and pick her up after the exams. Nonetheless, she is care free about her tests, though she is otherwise very intelligent and trendy.

Now see another twist.....

It was a fresh Thursday morning. The day of crucial maths exam. I dropped her at the exam centre, gave her necessary guidelines to attempt the paper , wished her good luck and started towards my vehicle when I saw a boy hurriedly moving out of the exam centre. The boy was too tensed to control his stride and was about to be hit by incoming vehicles. I wondered why this boy was going away. He stopped by my vehicle and started sobbing. Knowing that he had left his 'hall ticket' at his house, I offered to take him on my vehicle. He was too worried and readily got on to my vehicle. The boy said that his house was located at a very distant place from the exam centre and it would take atleast 45 minutes for him to get back to exam centre and expressed that the examiners do not allow the candidates 15 minutes after the commencement of the exam. I asked him to keep his cool and soothed him by diverting his attention from the tense situation.We started for his house on my vehicle. During the journey I learnt that the boy' s father was a government officer and posted at a distant place and that his mother was a home-maker. The boy appeared to be harworking and brilliant too. Such lapses, once in a while are common to everybody. Despite heavy traffic I managed to reach the boy's place in 10 minutes . The boy rushed into his house and was back with his 'hall ticket' in a few seconds and I dropped him back at the exam centre well before the stipulated time of the examination. I wished him good luck and in return he thanked me and hurriedly entered the exam centre. His name was Sashank. While I could glance at the shining gratitude in Sashank's eyes, I wholeheartedly thanked God for giving me a nice opportunity to help a brilliant boy save his career.

Overwhelming

Later, after the examination my daughter told me that a boy in her room, who had forgotten his 'hall ticket', was explaining to the invigilator that a 'nice uncle' helped him in getting the hall ticket from the house . When I narrated Sashank's episode to my daughter, i could see a sense of pride overpowering her.