Hi. What can be more boring than to sit at home a day before the exam and try HARD to cram as much stuff as you can, and that too, just after a disaster named "Statistical Mechanics" paper happened.
Well, what happened's this - I entered the exam-hall with the hope (actually, prayers) that last night's worth of cramming must be of some good (Please God!). And there enters our supervisor of the day, an amazingly sharp lady who informed us that there is no use studying now. "Either you know it or you don't"! (Quite true, but you can't deny a student his rights). She goes on with a sadistic smile, "Its going to be the same in your prelims". (My, she really hates us, doesn't she?) Well, getting back to the event, the lady hands us the papers, or rather threw us the paper (she actually tossed the papers to Dhanesh 'take 2 and pass on the rest'). Then comes the question paper....(drum-roll). A quick scan through the Classical Mechanics ques, okay, i know chaos! hurray!!! I turn the page over, Statistical Mechanics - hey! there is nothing I know! Look again, more carefully, NOTHING!!!
I stare at the board for a minute, as if something hit me on the back of my head, this can't be...2 nights spent cramming, all the tension, all the cramming(again), this is gotta be a joke. A very cruel joke.
Anyway, the optimist that I am, I start with classical mechanics, all I know in this part is 25 marks worth ques from Chaos. God knows how indebted I am to Chaos and sir's notes. I draw graph-after-graph for the Quadratic map (Am in love with Quadratic map). Spent 75 out of 120 mins on the beloved question. Then, another ques on chaos. Done with chaos and nothing else to do, I got stuck with harmonic osc and decided it just wasn't worth it to waste my energy anymore. But a problem...it's the first time I am leaving a paper blank...andI notice that The Lady looks at all the answer papers that have been submitted and smirks. Also, since last year, I ve forgotten how to walk out of an exam early. But, I get inspiration in the form of Devdatta and Rahul, if they can do it, so can I. And, the blank paper? well, i copied one ques onto my sheet and duly returned it to The Lady. (If my paper makes anyone happy, so be it).
Just walk on, I tell myself, don't look at her, don't look back, just get away. Back in the foyer, I meet my fellow-sufferers and ...well, we make merry out of our own misery.
BTW, I ve got a paper tomorrow. The way things are going, I don't see any change in the situation. Especially since I realised that studying is not gonna help (trust me, i studied 1 and a 1/2 out of 3 chapters, and there was nothing in the question paper that resembled anything I had seen in the text).
Just hoping I pass....