"Wasnt this supposed to be my day ? " i asked myself ... the locked grilled shutter's silence was stoic, somewhat ...... the fact remained that the decade old schedule of starting the service at 3 on a sunday afternoon wouldnt change for my convenience .... damn the metro .... i'll take the bus .... i took the bus . The second last seat at the back accommodated me even though i was not handicapped .... five rupees and 25 minutes saw me at the Mother Teressa Sarani , and as i walked down along with other smartly dressed individuals i noticed that the front gate at St. Xaviers looked more of a fest venue than an exam centre !! this was the first AIMock CAT I would be attending . i entered and the moderator signalled us to the third floor ....
Now the problem was to find a seat ... not THE perfect seat but ANY at all ...... the third floor , it seemed was occupied to full capacity ... each one of the 6 class rooms alloted was full !!! .... it was about time the test began , i had to find a seat , i had to make a move .... turning right i took to the starirs and climbed ... there it was, another classroom.... spotting a couple of seats at the back i dashed , ran into the man carrying OMR sheets, fell on top of another guy ,scrambled but secured my place ... being used to the occassional bengali swearing, his english ones were music to the ears :) ...taking the omr i said i was sorry... ultra-superficially .... another man in a bright red tee came in at 10:26 and green signalled us with a wave of the hand Billy Bowden would have been proud of...... we tore open the seal and begun .
Several things happened as the sixteenth minute ticked off .... i realised it was DI in the opening section, that i had chosen the wrong question, flipped to see that there were no questions on tables and a girl on the next bench was sent off to the first bench on account of playing unfair ......." Welcome to the Mocks !!! " .... SAG's voice was crystal clear .... i raised my head but he wasnt there ... must have been someone else ....who cared ? now that the damage counted sixteen and a half minutes .....
Two deep breaths werent enough to regroup my thoughts ,but i had to try .... i had to do sumthing about it ! the test was already 17 minutes old and not a single lead .... making my move i flipped to the last section, English ... and as my fingers flickerd through the 57th question the lock was finally picked !!! i had my first answer ..... my shaky pencil darkened the 3rd hole from the right ,beside the number 57 ..... i can do it , i thought ... i flipped back to DI with renewed confidence ... still some 20 minutes could be spared for it before i ate into the buffer time ....
the bus-stand was full of us !!! conductors made sure that they picked up as many as possible..... i wasnt in much of a hurry ..... only i knew how it felt to be ME, today.... Today I had surprised myself again , as if for the sake of continuity i bought a fag and lit it..... it felt like ... like.. the right thing to do at the moment ..... "Wasnt this supposed to be my day ?" I thought as the conductor helped me up the steps.........
