Tuesday, May 22, 2007

crazy things parents do.

ever reached ure exam centre and seen parents all around u better versed with your syllabi than ureself?

ever come out of one only to be thoroughly "interrogated" by some parent u dont even know just coz their kid hasnt come out yet and they want to "predict" how his/her exam would have gone.

well been giving alot of exams this past week and seriously if you leave the nervousness of giving the exam ureself aside its a pretty interesting atmosphere to absorb. so this is what my ma and i do, chills me out and gives me a few laughs(and pointers) before an exam, we watch everyone around us.

i've seen everything from teenagers hanging out with their friends and catching on the lates gossip without caring less about the exam or its prep, to hyper active kids rattling off god knows what not trivia and getting proud smiles from their parents.

one girl was very well dressed looked ready to hand over her pencil box and partayy! with eye liner, lipstick , open hair , trendy clothes the works . she was standing with her parents. well her father was one of those over ambitious for my children types and kept "refreshing" her math formulas and GK trivia and generally giving her pointers on everything. i was overhearing rather enviously wondering how come my daddy doesnt ever teach me how to solve questions of boats moving upstream and downstream.(i sure could use all the help i get) so i turned to ma to give her one of my looks and she sniggered. so i asked why..... and then i noticed the poor girls expression, she couldnt care less and her fathers repeated "refreshing" was making her terribly nervous.she kept fidgeting and hinting that she really should go nearer to the gate, and so they did father daughter all. ;-)

the other category is the outstation parents with their children. the fathers speaking rather hollering into their cellphones poised near their mouths rapidly moving to and fro from their mouth and ear."hum dilli main hain baad me phone karenge" well that and various variations of it in different accents. with very festive ringtones on full blasts.
the children with their parents standing right in front of the gate usually doing some last minute revision from a thick book with their mums looking on dotingly. as soon as someone resembling a guard would come near the gate thinking they were going to be opened the kids would dive towards their parents feet for a final blessing and many times it would be just the guard getting his 15 minutes of fame, brandishing his stick in a crisp uniform donning sunglasses (it is the scorching summer u know) showing off, that he controls the entry to our future. due the many bogus calls, it would be around the 8th or 10th time that he would really open the gates. well resulting in those lucky ones in getting blessed 8 times before an exam. no wonder they are so thing( great ab work out) and feeling very confident coz unke pas ma ka ashirvaad hai.

and then they are people like me, who were erstwhile nervous wrecks before exams but now due to extensive counselling dont even get the good nervousness that is normal before an exam and usually is standing at the centre looking and everyone else, living in my own universe where everyone else sucks and i m the queen of the world.

well whether all the looking and getting secondhand pointers really helped me or not i dont know, the results are yet to come out but i do feel confident and feel ive done well. but whether or not im thru i thank god i dont have parents who block other kids ways preventing them from entering the exam hall coz they want to make sure their kid gets in alright creating a mighty ruckus, or one of those who stand holding the railings of the gates as if they were in prison and undergo the vilest pain when their ward gives and exam, or one of those who tutors me and will ask me to immediately vomit out all my answers to estimate how i;ve done.

thank god ive got normal parents who well the maximum they do if there in town is to drop me off at my centre, kiss me luck on my forehead and meet me back in the car after the exam and ask whether i m hungry.

my dad though has a tendency to get a little crazy so he no longer comes, my mom has a principle each one taking responsibility of their own life so no major interferences atleast never during the exam time, i want to score i will study and well it is my exam and she can do nothing really about it.

but i guess each person has their own idiosyncrasies, i refuse to enter without my goodluck kiss and even though i may not lunge for my mums feet i do keep bending my forehead for a kiss, very embarassing but i works wonders. so as a chronicler of life i am completely biased and snooty but hey i am sure one look at me and u'll never guess!

love
anon