TACKLING THE ARREARS! A TRUE STORY!

The mind reels 4 yrs back to that day when i came out of our exam halls just having written my final 12^th std board exam. “no more school, no more failing and having to sit again in the same class” we said. Those were the times when we thought college was cool not because of the classes we could cut and the fun we could have or the experience of sharing a room (don’t mistake me, I meant CLASSROOM ;P) with members of the fairer sex(applies only to people like me who studied in an all boys school) but because of the novel concept of ARREARS.

Back when we were in school, we always thought that having an arrear was macho, u know, u had an arrear, u were a MAN. [don’t look at me like that! tamil cinema spoilt me B-)]. But when I actually did get into college, I realized that having an arrear was soooo not cool if u had even the slightest intention of getting placed. not that it mattered to me anyway but just saying.

Into my 4^th year of engineering(2 at veltech, 2 at srm, so technically speaking, it was actually my 2^nd legal year), I happened to get my first arrear, 3 in all. Why you ask? Well lets just say the timing of the exams went against me. ;D

June 10, 2011: walking into college for my first arrear exam, I realized how tough it is to actually write one. Well for one, you are never really able to get into ‘study’ mode and 2. It is very very difficult to remember something that u studied 5 months back(in some cases, it goes upto 3 yrs as well)!

And about the ‘study’ mode I was talking about, when everyone else is relishing the holidays, the last thing u want to do is study. But alas there isn’t really an option. Take my case for example, I’ve got an exam in 2 days time- a core paper and I am here happily typing away while I should be at my desk studying. Believe me, time isn’t a factor when one prepares for an arrear exam, it is the intent to study that goes missing.

One more thing I found lacking was the ATMOSPHERE. Walk into college during a regular exam and you see the place bustling with activity. the canteen happens to be the hub of all activity with people sitting in groups merrily chatting away, either discussing about a girl that had just walked past them or commenting on a lovey-dovey couple sitting across their table, or in some really rare cases, seriously doing some last minute revising(truth be told, i have done all three :D). But when I did walk into college on the day of my arrear, I was completely taken by surprise. A place that I had imagined to be ALWAYS full was completely empty save for a few brave ‘arrear’ans like yours truly. Agreed, I wasn’t really expecting students to be there what with the vacations having begun but what the heck, THE STAFF WERE MISSING!

The bag deposit hall which happens to be the most crowded place in Chennai after ranganathan street was totally empty except for the 3 airplanes and the old lady manning the desk(‘lady’ and ‘manning’- quite ironic, yes. but blame me not, that is the beauty of the language :P. as for the 3 airplanes, for those who don’t know-at India’s no 1 private university, the aerospace hangar doubles up as the bag deposit hall during the exams. And as some of my aerospace dept friends put it, the hangar atleast comes to use that way )

The exam in itself happened to be quite easy(well first one was, let’s hope the other two are as well. Touchwood). I ended up finishing the 2 hrs paper in around 35 mins. I wouldn’t really like to brag about it though, even my 2 yr old cousin would have found it easy. But ya, the FLYING SQUAD did seem to be in shock when they saw me. :D

The next two exams happen to be slightly tougher. And because of that, I am expecting a sizeable crowd at the canteen on Tuesday and Thursday. Let’s just hope the gods remain as kind to me as they were on the 10^th.

Until next time,

Adios!