THE HINDI TEST

“Praveen”

“Ma’am”

“Three out of Twenty Five, tujhe sharm nahin aathi? You are failing for the fourth straight time. You are not in class V or VI, you are at the turning point of your life. You are in class X … … …” The Hindi Teacher went on and on and on and on and on.

Praveen kept on looking at the floor, as our Hindi Teacher continued.

“Look at me!” She screamed.

“Lift your head and look at her. She will slaughter you if you don’t.” I muttered.

“Life moves on, Sai. Failure cannot be end of life.” That was Praveen, the philosopher, to me.

“Looking into the floor will not help you pass the exams.” There she goes!

“Looking at your face also didn’t help me madame.” Without raising his head he muttered, heard only by me and Sam sitting in front of us. We laughed out loud.

Phoosh flew the test note on Praveen’s face. We went mute. Our Hindi teacher went berserk. She was fuming. That was the first time when he was manhandled by any teacher for failing in the exams. What he lost in marks, he made good by receiving adequate “Laaffas”.

Praveen simply didn’t care.

Yet another test. Yet another failure. Yet another typical Praveen response. Failure had become his Partner for life. Both of them took the other for granted.

- - - - - -

One week later, our Hindi Teacher had announced another test, scheduled two days later. “Students who fail in this test, should bring their Parents to the school,” she said looking at Praveen, “samje.”

“Yes Ma’am”. He responded with a dead pan look.

After she left, Praveen told me “Sai, lets bunk Social Class, and go play.”

“Daei, just now she has announced a test, and warned you as well, and you, bloody bugger …”

“I will be the topper in this test.” His greatest weakness was Hindi.

“Seri, seri.” I said smiling at him.

“No, I mean it.”

"Now, how do you do that?”

“Wait and watch. I have a plan. Master Plan. I will play to my strength”. He said smiling.

I knew at that moment, that the King was reverting back to old ways.

Into his Class X, he had promised himself that now is the time to discard old style and approaches to exams. He decided to understand things properly, or else he knew that he will face grave risks with new questions in the main exams. But, till date results were not to his favour. Poor boy, what can he do? He’ll do whatever he is best at.

He had a good memory.

He always remembered “where a particular answer was kept in bit notes in his body” rather than the “what is the answer for the question” Praveen was a master copier.

- - - - -

The day of the test.

Our Hindi teacher, dictated the questions, five in all, each carrying five marks each. Totalling Twenty Five.

All of us were silently writing the test. Praveen was in his elements. He was smiling. Shaking his head like a rockstar.

At the ring of the bell, our Hindi Teacher collected all our Test Notes, and went to the staff room.

Praveen looked at the Big Three, “Hey, Amrita, Mary and Easwari, this time, I will be the topper. I will beat you hands down.” Praveen was excited and was challenging the class toppers. (Its true, the top 7 or 8 ranks were reserved for girls. We guys gave up for them.)

We, the guys, silently prayed the Almighty that the Praveen of the old, should get us back some respect and halo, which we had lost. (Well, we never had that halo)

The D – Day.

Hindi Teacher entered with the test notes, all the thirty two of them. She took out one by one, named the student, announced the marks and students went there collecting them. Anybody securing less than 10, would collect bonus points. “Laaffaas”

“Sai, tu kabhi sudhrega nahin. You focus only on Maths. You will secure 100 in Maths. But you will fail in Hindi.” I got 12.

Amrita got 22, Easwari got 22 and Mary got 21. Mary was devastated. She was running through the answers once again. We knew she will go begging for one more mark to overtake Amrita, her nemesis and arch enemy.

Praveen’s was the last test note. And that spelt trouble. He was unperturbed.

“And now to the King! What a transformation?” She read out the answer number one. It was …. “ek dum perfect, How much can we give?” She asked Amrita.

“Four.”

How dare she? We shouted five. Our Teacher declared “Five.”

She read out answer number two. Perfect again. It was Mary’s turn. “Five”.

“Five it is.” Five it was for Question number three as well.

“We’ll come to Question Number 4 later.” So something is wrong about question number four. She read out answer to question five. Perfect. “Five”

Amrita and Easwari were devastated. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Praveen had already scored 20. One more question remaining. Three more marks, and he will tease them to death! They were probably thinking, ‘Praveen, and Class Topper! This is Kalyug, and anything can happen’

The Hindi Teacher called up Praveen. Made him stand by her side. He was all teeth. Answer to Question Number Four. “Did you write all the answers on your own?”

“Yes, Madame”

“Did you copy Praveen?”

“No Madame. I prepared for this test very properly madame. You also saw that I was sitting alone for the test. How could I have copied madame?”

"Praveen, I am serious. Did you copy from any guides?"

"No madam. Not at all."

“So you wrote this answer to Question Four. ‘Chatra Kripaya Swayam Prayaas Karein.’”

“Yes, Madame.”

The Big Three felt relieved. We burst into laughter. Praveen had failed, yet again.

It meant “Students may please try this question on their own.”