D day

So finally the "D day" is over. I always wondered why any such auspicious day is called a D day, why not some F, G or Z day. Whatever the heck, why am I bothered... just use it. Though the cat(the exam should be rather called tiger or anaconda or something more frightful) fever has somewhat subsided for now but I still cant seem to forgot those dreaded two n half hours when I was sweating inside the exam hall and the clock was ticking(sorry running..no infact leaping)by. I believe time has its own way of manipulating itself and, most of the times, I feel, that manipulation is not in my favour. I dont know whether its only with me or every soul in the world experiences this. Let me just explain that.

I reached the exam venue a full one n half hour before the exam like every diligent mba wannabe but I realised that there was no dearth of diligency in this country, a big crowd was already present there. Gosh..when will guys learn to come on time rather than coming before or after? Anyway i just strolled into the college gates and went straight to the notice board where the details of candidates respective classes were put up. I scanned the whole list but couldnot find my roll no. The panic bell rang. I was already getting goosebumps seeing the flood of people pouring in and now with finding my roll no absent from the list, I got real panicky. I checked and rechecked my admit card to confirm the venue. Just then one blessed soul showed me that the list mentions only the group-lot sitting in one class and not individual nos. A swell of relief passed through me and I saw my folly. He must have thought what all morons write this exam. Even after this whole event my watch told me that barely some ten minutes had passed. Then I met a colleague from the office and we tried to while away the next one hour, watching the chicks pouring in and chatting which was also invariably about chicks. In between all this every now and then I used to see my watch and it seemed to amusingly tell me that barely 20 seconds had passed since your last visit.

Anyway the time seemed to crawl along and only my eyes seemed to be the ones having a good time on this bright sunny morning. So after this seemingly endless stretch of about more than an hour, the bell rang and we were allowed into our respective rooms. Even after this there is still one more hour to go before the test starts but now atleast you can sit through this period. But soon I realised that it wasnt much of a relief as again the dreariness associated with the tortoise paced time followed.

So after this long wait the paper started at ten thirty and every head in the room sunk into most dreaded paper in the country, some into passages while some into quants. Well I started with english. Apparently the english section was tough and I skipped a couple of questions but soon realised that I cannot skip more than 25 questions as there were only 25 of them. So I decided to digg into some of them. After some time and few question, I checked out the time and the watch told me that a cool 45 mins had passed. Shit. 4-5 questions in 45mins. It cant get worse than this. Sometime ago this same bloody(infact bloodless) watch was crawling like a tortoise(even tortoise was faster than that) and now all of a sudden it was running (infact, rocketing) its way to the 1'o clock mark. I suddenly felt some murderous intentions swelling inside me towards two people- inventor of my timex watch and that english paper creator. But then that can wait another hour or so. So I just rushed. Well after this I was just watching my watch all the time.... literally and, in turn, it kept telling me that I am running a loosing race. But I kept running nevertheless. At the end the clock struck 1 and it was time which won the race. I looked around to find some solace in some other faces and found a few and I dared not look at the smiling faces. Anyway I was happy that the god-damn paper is finally over..

Nine to Six

I hurriedly pay the auto guy and walk into the office gate and flash my card at the punching machine which recorded my arrival full ten minutes late. As I walk into my office, I see many heads rising as to take a fine look at the gentleman who has entered the office a gross ten minutes late. I walk past those staring glances and into my cubicle and get seated. I open up my little monster and it starts its religious process of booting while I wonder that I will have to spend the next 9 hrs minus 10 min before this 14 inch screen. I raise my head just to look around to see how many are looking around but found every head glued to their monitor with lotus notes(official mail), yahoos, direct.coms and these days some orkuts also. As soon as my machine woke up from its slumber, I too join the bandwagon.

Now after about an hour when all the possible inboxes on this earth had been checked and rechecked and forwarded all the forwarded mails, some blokes arrived at the seat, ting tong...time for tea. They showed resentment over my missing the 9'0 clock tea. Promising that this grave error wont be repeated, I march along with them for the most ubiquitous timepass in any company or brainstorming as some people like to call it. Well the tea break stretched for a little more than half n hour, I was back at my seat, reopened all my mail boxes just in case somebody has forwarded me back my forwards.

So somehow I killed time or may be the time killed itself, witnessing its such usage, with the aid of F5 and the intermittent chais. Anyway the time hobbled along and the most awaited lunch break arrived- a sureshot break for atleast one and half hour, not because of anything else but because of the long queue at canteen. I am least bothered though, as this is the only time when I wholeheartedly get involved in something. After lunch, some strolling around and then back at seat.
Now after doing some hardwork at foods table, the need to take a short nap becomes evident with the first yawn. But the fear of disapproval from boss drives me to look for alternatives. And everytime my search invariably ends at none other than chai and thus starts the second innings of tea. In this way I while away time treading back and forth between tea and seat. Everyday it seems as if we are challenging ourselves to break the previous days chai record. The most disappointing character in this whole story is my bloodless watch which always lets me down and tells me I have more time to take care of than I think. So finally after so much struggle and patience the time arrives and just as I start packing things up, I see my boss stealing a glance at me and then at his watch and then turning away. Pretending to be unaware of his impressions, I decide to sneak out. And as I walk through the office corridors I see those morning heads rising once again and those helpless faces watch me walk out as if the prisoners of a jail is witnessing the release of one of their inmates. I flash my card at the punching machine, walk out of the office gates and spread my arms as if to hug the newly found freedom, ephemeral though......