FMS

The season has come to an end. A bitter sweet experience. A sigh of relief. Pangs of anticipation.

The first one ever to be in the afternoon. The least active part of my day.I enter the room. Search for my seat and go sit and look sidewards. A college friend of mine (a hotshot photographer in the making) is sitting.(Hi)s are exchanged.

A quick run up through break-ups, mash-ups and patch-ups, wannabe NRIs, and all the usual gossip. When one starts gossiping, the space-time continuum defies all equations and before i realized it was 15 minutes past the scheduled start time and i don't see any invigilator.

I ask to another guy sitting next to me if he also has come to give the exam or is it some classroom we are sitting in!.

Finally one guy walks in. Starts handing over the papers. 20 columns of 10 guys each. Me in the 6th. He starts and then after he is done with the first column he says "Please don't open the booklet". Five seconds later "Ok Open!".

The look on the faces of guys in the 15-20th columns.

The guy sitting next to me pats my hand "Hey what do i fill here"

"They had sent a letter along with the admit card where they had the instructions to fill it"

"Oh is it?"

"Wait i have it". And i handed it over to him.

Trust me it was free for all.

Halfway through the exam one guy comes and puts a stamp ink pad in front of me. "Your left thumb". I am clueless. "Fast! fast!". I give him my thumb impression.

(After the exam me and my friend discussed about this. But why on earth?. To prevent impersonation. Like they will have my records to match. But they can atleast check the guys who get selected later right?. Hmm.. he had a point)

When 10 minutes are left a guy walks in and with a very loud and clear voice

"If you have mobile phones, pagers and any other gadgets, please hand them over. Keeping them switched off is not sufficient. You will still be disqualified"

The bell goes off on time and the guys in my room lost time. It really would not have made any difference to my chances.