Drama Queen

Stress is an active element in everyone's daily life. It can be mental, emotional, physical, tension resulting from challenging circumstances, or 100 things that one can think. Each person deals with the stress in their way. For some people, stress is a daily routine. They accept it as part & parcel of life. For others, it's equivalent to moving mountains. Either one prefers to work on it & find some relief or to accept it & move on. What about the recurring stress that one has no choice but to go through with it? No one thinks of stress in students' life. Student life stress begins from which course to take up & college to join. After admission, it's an endless list of daily chores & rituals, starting with the stress of waking up & choosing clothes. The next part is self-grooming, beating traffic to reach class, not missing out on attendance, attempting to make an impression on an interested person & whatnot. Apart from these, their common stress factors are an infinite number of assignments, assessments, laboratories, examinations & then agonising suspense of results!

The stress of last-minute preparation can give a student a heart attack. A heavy textbook named "Artificial Intelligence" strained Kanika's lean hands. She looked around & witnessed a whole bunch of students who held books of various sizes & colourful covers. She looked at either side; Arjun & Vihaa sat with stern faces & poured into their texts. Kanika was certain her answer booklet would have quite a lot of blank pages. She rhetorically asked, "I don't think I have the intelligence to understand basic logic & coding syntax. What do I do with Artificial Intelligence (AI)?"

Arjun promptly stated, "Oh, this one started again! Stop wasting time & study." Vihaa closed the massive textbook & announced, "Finally, I finished the last topic. I'm ready for the exam." Arjun gave a threatening look to Kanika & said, "We have only two hours left for the exam." Kanika muttered under her breath, "I'm the last bencher; I still don't know how or why I'm friends with class toppers!" Arjun & Vihaa discussed a few topics which Kanika hadn't even heard or seen in the syllabus book, let alone the gigantic textbook.

Kanika tried her best to skim through the new topics. She forcefully fed the information in text into her head. Though a couple of hours flew by, a large part of the textbook remained unvisited. Kanika sighed & walked into the examination hall with almost no expectations. She knew the result of the exam, even before looking at the question paper. After three long hours, Kanika came out brightly. Whatever she had force-fed into her brain was neatly dumped onto the answer booklet. It was a surprise to herself that she had not only filled the answer booklet but had used a few additional sheets too.

Arjun & Kanika discussed the questions they had answered. Vihaa hardly spoke & seemed very unsettled. She confided in her friends, "It was so bad. I don't think I will even pass." Kanika exclaimed, "What? How? How is that even possible? I studied at the last minute & you had studied cover to cover during the study holidays. You had completed several revisions too." Arjun added, "Questions were on the topics we discussed earlier. How can it be so bad?" Vihaa explained that despite revising, she had not answered the paper well. Kanika pacified Vihaa, "Don't worry. If I am confident of scrapping through the paper, you should too. Let's see what happens." Kanika did not dare to mention to the topper, "You can attempt it in next semester."

For once, the girls walked in silence towards the bus stop. Suddenly, Vihaa stopped & stated, "We paid exam fees on a Tuesday, during Rahu Kalam. That may be the reason for such a bad performance." Kanika swiftly turned at Vihaa & asserted, "Oh come on. Don't tell me you believe in such stuff!" Vihaa replied, "I told my mother, after paying the exams fee & she yelled at me for paying on a Tuesday." Kanika groaned & stated, "Usually, there is a mad rush at the administration office to pay fees. Since there were no people on Tuesday, we paid." Vihaa responded with melancholy, "Everyone else did not pay fees as it was a Tuesday, only we did."

Kanika wanted to bang her head to the nearest lamppost. She attempted to reply calmly, "In that case, you should have performed badly in all previous exams of this semester. AI is the only exception. Also, if exams are held on Tuesday or during Rahu Kalam, will people stop attending or writing exams?" Vihaa could not beat the logic. As they continued to walk towards the bus stop, Kanika thought, "Not bad; I can apply some logic in real life; God only knows if I will ever use AI."

The rest of the exams went on every other day; Vihaa only thought about the AI exam. Every day, she would pull out the AI question paper, check & re-check. Her mind was at high turbulence & she lost sleep worrying about it. During semester holidays, each time she spoke with Kanika over the phone, she brought it up. Vihaa's result worries bothered Kanika too. Yet, she tried to keep Vihaa's spirits up. Kanika knew that Vihaa could not even fathom scoring less, let alone failing. After a couple of months, the results were out. Kanika was ecstatic, for she had achieved distinction for the first time in her course. Then she jumped to Vihaa's marks & her face colour drained.

Kanika looked at Vihaa & enquired, "Of all your subjects, you have scored the highest in AI. How is that possible?" Vihaa cheerfully replied, "I don't know!" Kanika was furious & yelled, "For once, I was more worried about your results than mine. I spent the semester holidays worrying about your results. How can one score so high after being confident that one will fail? You tell me?!" Arjun added, "You tell us one thing & the opposite happens. What is this, huh? What is this?"

Nevertheless, she could not explain her reasoning for the initial low self-evaluation or the reason for scoring so high. Kanika thought for a while & said, "The only conclusion I can think of is that you had more in mind to write. Due to lack of time, you could not write. If badly answered paper results are like this, then what would happen if you wrote it all?" Vihaa was speechless & Kanika walked away. Kanika was happy for her friend but infuriated at the pointless stress.

A few weeks later, Kanika flaunted her new gold bracelet to Arjun & Vihaa. Kanika pronounced, "Amma got me a gold bracelet for scoring distinction this semester." Vihaa said, "I score a distinction every semester, never have my parents got me anything." Arjun added, "Yeah, same here." Kanika smirked & said, "You score every semester, so it's usual. When someone who has consistently scored first class gets a distinction, it gets recognition." Kanika raised her eyebrows twice & grinned. Arjun & Vihaa exchanged stunned looks. They wondered how to extract perks from their parents.

The next semester was a repeat of fun days, skipping class, shopping, birthday treats & watching movies in theatres. An infinite number of assignments, projects & the whole package repeated. Within no time, it was time for exams again. The last-minute exchange of notes & preparation was typical. The last exam was the System Software (SS) paper. Vihaa claimed she hadn't done it well. Kanika's eyes narrowed & she questioned, "Really? You said this the last time for AI." Vihaa assured Kanika that this was the worst paper ever. She was not sure of any of the answers written. Looking at Vihaa's pale face, Kanika's heart melted & she believed her friend. Kanika said, "This was the last paper; it's alright. Who knows, you may sail through. We can give it for re-evaluation. We will figure it out." Arjun gave her the benefit of the doubt & supported her. Vihaa's mind was again in turbulent mode. She was full of doubts & she reached out to Kanika for support. As a true friend, Kanika stood by Vihaa, gave enough assurance & boosted her morale.

After a couple of months, the results were out. Again, Vihaa had scored highest in SS, compared to all other subjects. Kanika was on the verge to breathe fire. She warned, "Dare you ever say you did not perform well in a paper. I'm not going to believe you. You are such a nautanki (drama artist)." Arjun added, "Yeah, say that again!" Vihaa tried to justify it; neither Arjun nor Kanika lent an ear to it. Semesters went by & Vihaa never raised a syllable about any paper being difficult or that she performed poorly in it. The trio completed the course & joined work through the campus recruitment drive.

Over a decade later, while Kanika sipped Chai, she received a call from Vihaa. After exchanging pleasantries, Vihaa revealed in a tense voice, "Tomorrow, I have an online technical certification." Kanika confidently stated, "Give the test. I'm sure you will come out with flying colours." Vihaa stressed, "I have been studying for only two months." Vihaa's conversation was interrupted by Kanika's yelp. She had spilled hot tea over herself. Kanika enquired, "What did you say? Studying, two months? I never studied that much during school & college put together."

As Kanika tried to clean up spilled tea, Vihaa added, "It's so crucial for my work. I hope I pass the test." Kanika said, "After 2mons of studying, you, of all people, aren't confident? Then what do I say?" Vihaa added, "I'm so stressed about the certification." Kanika replied in an irritated tone, "I have known you from college days. I still remember AI & SS papers. So don't try this stunt again; I'm not falling for it." Vihaa reasoned, "That was college; this isn't the same." Kanika sharply declared, "Oh, enough of it! Let's talk something else." Vihaa longed for Kanika’s support. But for once, her friend denied it & would not hear any of it. Vihaa was dejected & was in deep self-doubt.

A couple of days later, Vihaa called & asked, "How did you know? I would pass." Kanika replied, "Tell me about it, drama queen."

Take Away:

• A person's core traits do not change over time. Once a first bencher, always a first bencher.

• Beware of the last bencher friend who has the heart & mind of the first bencher.