May 20th, 2008, a memorable day in my life - memorable...,
well, that is not quite the word, perhaps you can call it a day which was truly
remarkable, a day which deserves to be sculpted on one's 'memory-rock'. You
must be wondering what really happened that day. To end the suspense, let me
bring back to your minds, the fact that it was on that very day, the results
for Higher Secondary Examination 2008 were declared. It was an opportunity for
a lot of students like me to prove themselves right and to prove 'some others'
wrong. The night before, I hardly got any sleep, as tension, like always, had
got the better of me. I had set a target on my mind and I knew that if all went
right, it would not be too difficult for me to reach that target, the target
being to score 350 out of 500. But deep inside my heart, there was a dream, an
unfulfilled dream - to get 75% i.e. Star Marks in the Aggregate. But that was
surely going to be difficult.
Results were announced on the time as mentioned earlier and
I stayed glued to the television-set to catch the press-conference after the
declaration of the results. After the declaration, I checked my result on the
SMS service, to find only that I had passed - no marks no nothing. Then I
called up one of my friends to ask him to check my results online as he had the
internet connection at home. He also gave me the news that I had passed, and
that was the only part of result that was being displayed on the websites. My
marks were not yet known. Thus, I realized that I will only get to know my
marks, once and only I reach school to collect my mark-sheet.
It was a journey full of anxiety, nerves that I and mom had
on our way to school. Oh, what tension! On reaching school, I got the news from
one of my class-mates that I had scored the highest marks in Computer Science.
But I could hardly believe that, as the Computer Science exam had not gone as
smoothly as expected and I didn't even think of coming close to the highest
marks which was surely to be obtained by someone else.
Though I could hardly believe that I could get the highest
marks in Computer Science, I was really hoping that I get it. The adrenaline
was pumping out at the thought of obtaining the mark-sheet within a few minutes
and seeing for myself how I had fared.
We all settled in the classroom just adjacent to the
Principal Sir's office and the news was that we had to go to the office in a
queue and collect our mark-sheets. I stood in the queue and waited for my call.
It was a long wait which was not going to end easily. Behind me were most of my
friends. Fear was increasing manifold, more so because my mom was waiting back
at the classroom, expecting that her 'good-for-nothing' son would 'finally' bring
some good news back.
My call finally came and I went straight to collect the
mark-sheet without showing any nerve. I collected the mark-sheet from our
Bengali Ma'am, who just after taking a quick glance on my mark-sheet told me
that my Maths needed to be better. Oh, what a moment it was! Hard to describe!
I got my first touches on my mark-sheet.
Getting my mark-sheet, I just shot a quick glance on the
Aggregate Column of all the subjects. But since the report had come that my
Maths needed to be better, I could not help looking at my score in Maths. Oh,
it was really bad! It really needed to be better. But it was not meant to be
like this. I had gone through some rigorous practice of Maths before the exam.
Yes, I admit that I had not appeared for the best Maths paper, in H.S., but the
marks really a bit too low. However, I quickly turned my attention towards the
other subjects to see how I had fared in them.
Oh, it was a relief to see that the marks had not come too
bad. 60 in Bengali was really hard to believe for me, as I had never obtained
such marks in Bengali. Clearly, I had the luck on my side this time. But I was
a bit down seeing my English marks. It was only 75. Well, to be honest, I had
expected LETTER marks in English as the exam had gone quite good. Next came
Physics. Though for this subject also, my exam had gone quite OK, the marks
weren't certainly reflecting that. 69 in the cumulative marks of the Theory
Paper and the Practical exam is not too good. Then the moment I took a look at
the next subject, my heart was broken. Missing the LETTER marks in Chemistry by
just 1 mark was really a huge disappointment. After my exams, I had sincerely
believed that if there was any subject in which I could get LETTER marks, it
surely had to be Chemistry. But I was proved wrong. I saw that I had obtained
60 marks in the Theory Paper and 19 marks in the Practical exam. The best I
remember is that I had successfully taken all the readings and measurements on
my Practical exam, but still 1 mark was deducted, keeping me away from the
glory of LETTER marks by the smallest margin possible.
Then I turned my eyes towards the next subject which was
Computer Science. My heart was beating very hard at that moment. And, there it
was! I had obtained 95 in the subject, which I surely did not expect after the
exam. But, whether I had obtained the highest marks was yet to be confirmed.
Later on, however, I came to know, to my great delight, that yes, it was the
highest marks.
The last subject on the mark-sheet was Environmental
Science. I had obtained 95 in this subject too. And yes, this was very much
expected.
The moment I got my results, I started adding the totals of
the best 5 subjects to calculate the Aggregate, as I had my target on mind. 60
+ 75 + 69 + 79 + 95 = 378. 378!
I rechecked the total once again to see whether I had really
reached that total. And yes, I really had. 378… I thought… 375 was 75%, I had
already calculated; that meant I had crossed the barrier of the Star Marks and
to my great pleasure I discovered that I had really obtained Star Marks. Oh,
what a relief!
All these calculations and observations were going on inside
the Principal Sir’s Office. Some formalities were to be completed before I
could come outside. I, like every other student was required to collect two
certificates from my teachers which would certify that I had passed H.S. from
Techno Model School on 2008. Also, I was required to collect the certificate
from the H.S. Council. After collecting all these, I went to Nandi Sir, our
Physics teacher, who was then the Acting-Principal and he sealed on my
certificates with the school-stamp. After sealing on the certificates, he
scrutinized my report card. I told him that I could have done much better in
the Physics Paper and he admitted that saying that I deserved more marks in
Physics. But overall, he said, the marks were quite OK. I took his blessings
and came out from the office. My friends were still standing in the queue. On
seeing me, they started asking me all sorts of questions. “How was your result,
Sayan?”, “Have you obtained 70%?”, “How many LETTER marks have you obtained?” –
were some of those questions.
Then came the moment of truth, when I handed over my report
card to my mom, who was anxiously waiting outside. Her reaction was quite OK,
as if she had been expecting such a result, and why shouldn’t she. So much of
hard work had gone into my preparation for the Higher Secondary Examination.
There had to be success for me. But things don’t always happen as you have
planned, just like as it happened during my Madhyamik Examination. My mom
looked quite satisfied, which pleased me greatly.
We didn’t wait at the school for long. I informed my father
about my result on my cell phone. I remember on our way home I received phone
calls from a few of my relatives, all asking about my result, and
understandably so. All my relatives, all my friends love me, they expect me to
succeed and excel in life. When success doesn’t come, they are as disappointed
as me. I am really blessed to have such relatives and friends. Thank You, God!
On our way back home, I calculated the total marks of the 5
subjects on my mind a number of times, and to my great disbelief, the totals
were coming up differently each time and none reached 75%. I was greatly
worried because of the fact that I had already informed some of my relatives
that I had obtained more than 75% and now if I notice that I had not obtained
75%, even by 1 mark, which I am very good at, you can well understand that my
prestige will go to hell. So, I rushed to home and quickly took out my
mark-sheet and calculated my total once more. But this time the total did com
up correctly and yes, it was 378, which meant that I had really crossed 75%.
Relief at last!
That day was definitely one of the most memorable days of my
life. After all, I had got what I really deserved. Months of tremendous hard
work had gone into the preparation. Though I was confident about performing
well, yet there was always a bit of doubt, a bit of fear – whether I would
reach 75%. And, after what had happened during Madhyamik, fear was sure to
come. But this time, nothing untoward happened. This performance gave me a lot
of confidence. It showed that I really belonged to this place, which I think
was doubted by somebody. Though my marks were not really very high, yet I was
happy, happy because the belief that even I can do something, which had almost
vanished after the Madhyamik, was again regained by me.
I was very happy the entire day. Though I don’t remember
exactly how I spent the day, one thing that I remember is that on that very day
there was an IPL match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Rajasthan
Royals at the Eden Gardens, which I went to watch. Kolkata Knight Riders did
lose the match, putting a black mark on an otherwise bright day. Really, had
they won the match it would have been a perfect day. But nevertheless, it was a
great day which had already put a permanent impression on my heart.
Though the result was mine and due to my hard work, credit
must be given to my teachers, friends and family-members, without whose support
this day would have been an impossibility. Special mention must be made of my
parents who did not lose hope and faith on me and were always beside me during
my times of need. They had the belief on me, that I could really perform and I
really felt great that I was able to give respect to their patience.
