A Day from my Diary!

(13^th sept 2020)

 

Hey, today is different from yesterday. Wait what did I just say? Isn’t it so obvious?

But it was a different day for me. It was Sunday and everyone was putting stories about how beautiful the Sundays are and here I was murmuring to myself that why on the earth this day has arrived.

As we all are aware of the NEET exam was going to be conducted on 13^th sept 2020.

I was one of those aspirants (it sucks to give the exam for the 4th time in a row)!

I woke up with thousands of lines over my forehead and a dull face which was screaming, ‘I don’t want to gooo’ (like Joey wanted to goo, F.R.I.E.N.D.S thing).  I took a bath and got dressed up in the dress code, ‘all light colors with no single button over it’. I mean it doesn’t make any sense either! I was so frustrated that I took a picture of my admit card and put it on my story. What happened next was beyond expectations. That very moment after uploading my NEET admit card, within 10 minutes my WhatsApp was full of messages. It was around 80 texts asking me, ‘tu phirse NEET de rahi’ and ‘chal all the best then.’ I really was thinking how beautifully people can do that, ‘jale par namak daalana ‘ just by a simple text. It was like even for the people I was dead for a very long while, I became the most wanted person of the Sunday (something to gossip about at Sunday is best to sip tea with!). I didn’t reply any of them and switched off my phone, put it in my bag and took cab for the centre, Narela. I was travelling with my elder brother. He told me that the centre is just about an hour far so I was enjoying the ride at first. I love to notice things passing by from the window and so I was distracting myself from the exam worries by doing it with more excitement.  I saw a lot of things through that window.

The first thing that caught my attention was a big green and green garden that is too rare to find in Delhi and the next in the row was totally heartbreaking. An area started with a few huts sheltered by plastic sacks and some were just having the shelter with no ‘chaar diwaari’. This was breaking my heart the more I was moving forward as the slum area wasn’t confined into a small area but was spread like a long-long chain of ants. The kids were roaming around with garbage bag at their back and some had roses to sell on the road.  Moving forward I saw a big ground which looked more like a theater ground but was actually a cricket ground (every open area with step stairs looks like an open theater ground to me). There were these kids of age 10 to 12 who were playing excellent as if I was looking forward to see them playing for our country.

I saw my watch and realized that one hour had passed away just 10 minutes before. I gave a look to my brother and he laughed saying, 'just one more hour.' That was the moment I lost my whole patience thing and started cursing the education system, ‘ bol rhe the ki paas centre denge aur utha kar do ghnta dur fek dia mujhe. Inke liye ye pass hai to pta nahi ye dur kise kehte hai. Covid to gaya tel lene, ab bahut control mein hai na, bas din ke 1 lakh cases hi to hai! My brother burst out in laughter and said, ‘give a revision to something till then.’ That moment all I wanted to say, ‘ chaar saal se wahi kar rhi hu’. But then I stopped and took my phone out, plugged in the earphones and started looking out again. Now nothing seemed wow to me as I was bored of this long trip but then my cab got stuck in traffic in front of a cemetery. I tried to peak in from my window (one of the stupid thing I tried) but could see nothing. When we passed the gate of cemetery I could see smoke going up in the sky and all I could imagine was the person had finally ended up with the pain and happiness of life and had gone where he came from. I just closed my eyes and prayed for the soul. But something was still hitting me inside after passing that cemetery and that was the thought of Sushant Singh Rajput. Yes! I too think about him every day knowingly or unknowingly because losing him felt more like a personal lose to the whole nation. What was weirder to me that I wasn’t sad, instead I smiled and laid my head down on the bag and slept in actual.  My brother woke me up when we reached the destination and we waited out for 30 minutes and when I entered, I realized that we still have an hour for the exam to start so I took permission for washroom and roamed around the whole building for like 45 minutes and came back. The invigilator just said one thing to me, ‘bas ab itna nahi ghuma’. All I was thinking to reciprocate, ‘ covid mein pehli baar bahar aayi hu, main to ghumungi’. I looked around in the class and saw a man of around age 32 and a married girl of age around 27 years were also there, who wanted to be a doctor now. It felt weird to me because even at the age of 22 I feel like I can’t study for more 8 or 9 years and there those two were looking forward to start study again. The examination started and after 2.5 hours I felt like I got rashes on my back due to high temperature of room. I went to the loo along with a teacher so I asked her to look what it looks like. At first she gave a look at me and I said, 'I am sorry I thought there would be a mirror', she laughed and said, 'it is a school'. She realized that I am much older than to be school kid. We walked in together. At sharp 5pm, I was done with my exam and so the other kids except for one who created a damn chaos in that hall.

He just had encircled around 10 to 12 answers in his OMR sheet and asked for more time so the teacher said he will collect his at last but he failed to encircle and asked for more 5 minutes. So the invigilator checked his question paper and he had ticked not even a single answer so the teacher asked him to submit it as much he had done but that boy was so stubborn and disrespectful that he got into sort of hand on hand with the teacher and also misbehaved with the another lady teacher. The situation got so worst that the head members had to come and had to ask the boy to leave or else they have to call the police. I was also losing my temper with that behaviour of his but didn’t say anything loudly. But said him, ‘bewakoof sala’ loud enough that my nearby kids could listen it clearly. Because of his drama they released us 30 minutes later and I was dying of appetite. I rushed to my brother as soon as they asked us to leave. We caught an auto and while going back I saw the things that were on other side while coming to the centre. 

@persoanl cam.

I saw so many beautiful banquets with such royal names like, VICTORITA and LAS MANTION. Some historical temples like Shani mandir and Kaali mandir. The most interesting was that dump area where the whole Delhi throws its garbage and was 40 feet high after being cleared 40 feet(in total it was of 80 feet but Gautam Gambhir did work on it with his helper and made it to 40 feet). There were countless eagles over that huge mountain of garbage. While having appy in one hand and lays in another we stopped at the petrol pump. We walked out of the auto and a man of my father’s age asked me that how was your exam. I was happy that a stranger asked me this and I reciprocated, ‘ bahut acha.’ He then blessed me, ‘alhaa hai, college mil jayega tujhe,’ and he walked away.

@delhi dump area 

Me and my brother got into the auto and started the “going back to home journey” again. I saw the DD national tower that was too-too tall and I realized why only DD comes even in the corners of our country.  I saw a couple on bike that made me remember of someone I love (thinking, ‘are ye to humne kiya hi nahi and now we are over!). 30 minutes before reaching home, I swtiched on my phone and replied  few as I was damn tired and updated my story which told everyone that I am heading back to home and once again my inbox was getting filled with texts, ‘kesa gaya?’ ‘iss baar nikal legi na?’ and I ignored all because in that moment I was happy that I no longer have to study or I can say have to pretend that I am studying. I was actually happy seeing those hundreds of texts..!

@ddtower.

I guess I am the first ever person who gave exam and prayed for not to get selected..(Funny enough, right? But true at the same time).

                                           

                                                                                     

                                                                                             Nidhi Prajapati.