I just left the main road: and began strolling along the lane within the neighbourhood.towards home. A neighbour was in his first floor balcony looking at the virtually empty lane that afternoon. He asked me, " Hi, Basu, have the school got the results of the last Higher Secondary Examination today?" I replied to him in the affirmative. He inquired, " So you have passed". I nodded again to indicate that I had passed. He further inquired, " You passed in the third division?" I knew that he had known me as a smart footballer and cricketer and would have expected that I could only be weak student as good players generally were. I did not want to disappoint him but I had to say, "No". He promptly commented, " So, you got Second Division!". I had to say again. "No.". He exclaimed, " That great. You passed in the First Divion". I nodded in the affirmative. He congratulated me on my success achieving a First Dision (Class) result.
I knew that he did not see in my face the glory of a good success and was wondering. I was returning from the school after getting to know the results and getting congratulatory remarks from many classmates and teachers. But deep inside I felt cheated for shortchange. I was unhappy with the marks that I had got. I thought my productivity had got a jolt. The time and effort that I had put in was disproportionately much higher than the results that I have got in retrun. It was certainly bad economics of the project of giving higher secondary examination: this was the first project with low expost return and,later I would experience similar bad economics projects again and again. I had no assessment of what I could have aspired for but what I had got could have been secured with much less effort. I had gone through the marksheet by then and found that the scores were no better than what I used to get in the school with much less effort and time. I knew that I am an instictive participant in any thing and now how to display my qualities through my actions, moves and expressions. So, I could not fathom how I had failed to entice and lure the unknown evalators of my answer scripts into giving me extra-ordinary marks. I would certainly get an understanding of this later. But this issue bothered me even as I had carried the message of my first class success at the Higher Secondary Examinations to my parents, siblings, everyone at home, the relatives and close neighbors and friends. There was thrill, excitement and happiness in the air.
But now I had to get busy in applying to various colleges for admission to the three-year University Bachelor of Arts examinations. I selected for colleges to try: the Presidency College (the most presitigious one), Moulana Azad College (which at that time had the best Economics Faculty), the Scotish Church College and the Belur Ramkrishna Mission College (fully residential). The last one was of course not my choice but my father felt that this college would be able to train me up properly as a human being. I picked up the forms from the Moulana Azad College and the Prsidency College and the Scotish Curch College and filed the forms in the first two colleges. The Presidency College however would not go by the marks we had scored in the Higher Secondary Examinations because it would admit some students who had passed the Indian Schools Certificate Examinations. So the College would take a test in English for screening: not clear as to why they did not think of taking a maths test as well since the College would not admit to Economics honors course any student without having passed in Mathematics at the schoo; leaving examination. I appeared for the examination that apeared to me as a simple affair. Dad took me to the Belur Ramkrishna Mission College. The Pricipal looked at the marksheet and said this was fine. Took an examination in English essay writing on the spot and after evalating gave me the form for admission. We went back home sayin that we should returnl soon with the monies required to get admitted along with all that I needed to stay in the college hostel. Meanwhile the Presidency College published the first list of students to be admitted which did not inclufe my name. But the first list issued by the Moulana Azad College included my name. Without dalay I took admission there and settled for the same as final.
The college would start in a few days. So, I decided to meet my school teachers. They were happy with my results but some of them felt that I could have done better. The Economics teacher met me separately. He said that he was happy also but felt that I have not been assessed properly. He also said that this was a matter of luck and depends on how the students in my school scored on an average and the evaluators general tendency of being cautious in avoiding too much dispersion in the marks alloted students coming from the same svchool. Besdies, unless one is from a school recognised for having outstanding students, the evalators could be conservative. This is what he called the school effect. Then he wanted to know what books I would like to have in the forthcoming prize distribution ceremony for having topped the list in the school. I told him that I will tell him after I find out from the College what books would be worth acquiring for a long-term student of Economics.
I have to get prepared for newer projects in the years to come and succeed irrespective of the economics of the costs and benefits.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Schoolboy Marathon - The Last Leg: My Unfolding Voyage 35
The last leg in the Marathon race, participants run or walk the fastest. The time flies as did the ten weeks prior to and during the Higher Secondary Board Examination. It was three sessions of study of three hours each daily with an hour and a half play between the morning and afternoon sessions and afternoon and evening sessions and six and half hours of sleep at night. The study sessions were tightly scheduled with morning and evening ones staffed with alternative subjects and the afternoon sessions of mock examinations with model question sets. The first 30 days were for going through the entire syllabus of the five subjects (English, Bengali, History, Economics and Mathematics). The next 20 days were for 4 days each for each subject and the finally 10 days allocated to the same subjects @ of two days each in the reverse order of the subjects scheduled for examinations. Bengali was the first subject to appear for in the Examinations: so you studied Bengali for two days just before the examinations. Examination was over in 7 days with two days off in between and two papers of the subject tested for 3 hours each in two sessions with an hour's break for lunch.
Two days before the examinations started I took a bus that traveled for 15 minutes before I alighted, crossed over the road and walked for two minutes to reach the examination center. This trip was just a rehearsal so that I had no problem in reaching the examination center in time. During the lunch break father or brother of some students would come. One day, one such passerby stranger showed interest in the examination question paper. He quickly glanced through it and commented " very easy paper".
My cousin who had come to provide mental support to his younger brother and my classmate immediately quipped," Question papers appear easy to those who are not to appear for the examination". The passer-by quickly quit the place. We generally had a very light lunch at a restaurant nearby, had a last minute look at the relevant books and notes before entering the examination hall for the post lunch session.
The marathon of schooling had at last come to and. We became free for a few months with nothing to worry and a new phase of life to look forward to. We have now to spend our time till the examination results would come out and get busy in getting admission to the university undergraduate course in an affiliated college. That is about another 7 weeks or so- plenty at disposal. Football and other games would get the highest allocation of time for about 4 hours a day in three sessions, one in the early morning, late morning and before dusk would set in. Evening roaming and loitering with friends would take another one and half hour. Two to three hours in the afternoon would go in reading story books, listening to radio, and things of that kind. Night sleep, bathing, breakfast, newspaper reading, lunch, evening snacks and dinner would consume another 10 hours. That would still leave 5 to 6 hours of surplus time available to something or the other: indoor chat/ games session, new hobbies, an occasional movie.
Fortunately, an uncle visited us at that time and proposed that I come with him to visit one of our relatives in Durgapore. I bought, for the first time, two full-length pants for me and some travel kits and went with him to Durgapore by train. He stayed there for a day or two and then proceeded to his base in Burnpur (about 3 or 4 hours journey by bus from Durgapore). I stayed with my cousin who lived there with her husband, two daughters (slightly younger to me), her son and my elderly aunt. Though I had been missing Mom being away from home and her, I did enjoy fun, frolik and food and special attention of my aunt who loved me much and my cousin. The neices had their annual cultral show programme at the school during my saty there. The invited me to the show. Bein an uncle of two participating girls, I got direct entry behind the stage in the green room, till a lady teacher questioned my prsesnce along with the girls. I had to quietly slip out into the balcony seats to witness the show from the front. I had very good time there for two weeks' gossiping and playing with the neices before returning back to Kolkata on a Saturday afternoon that witnessed a terrible gale resulting in trains running behind schedule. For quite some time, I thought traveling on a Saturday was not good.
Playing tricks was under exploration during the last days of the long holidays.. My cousin and classmate used to buy butter from a particular shop while shopping for groceries items he was entrusted to purchase by his mother. On these purchases he had been managing to have some few coins a discounts from the shop keeper who had a small horse-shoe shaped magnet that he used to test if the the high value coins (like a quarter or a Rupee) were genuine of spurious becuase the genuine ones would have metals that would be easily pulled in by the magnet, while the spurios ones would not stick to the horse shoe. A number of times, some of us accompanied my cousin on his shopping rounds. The discounts that he would obtain while shopping were his own earninh. He uwould occasionally buy us some cookies to eat with his shopping earnings. That was a common practice among friends to do. But he was also using his earnings to play the gambling wheel game peddeled by the roadside vendor. The gamble-vendor a wheel a person needed to turn with a push with the side of a finger. The light-weight weal would rotate with its marker facing a circular dial pad marked with 1 to 24 along the circumference. When the wheel would stop its roation, the marker would be close to or on the numbers marked on the circumference of the dial. The player would pay an entry fee of a quarter of a rupee and get a chance to push the wheel to riotate with the push of a finger. If the marker happened to face certain pre-specified numbers on the dial when the wheel comes to stand still, the player wins a prize.: if the marker happens not to face any of those pre-specified lucky number, they player gets nothing.The value of these prizes in the form of a pencil or a pen or an untensil or a framed picture, varried from less than a quarter of a rupee to about two rupees. My cousin had been trying his luck rotating the marker-wheel made of steel but in most occasions he had got no prizes or at best win something that was worth less than the quarter of a rupee that he had pay for each try. He shared a plan with us to win the highest prize by making the wheel stop its rotation when the market just faces the specified number for that highest prize. Three of us knew what exactly we had to do. We were to cazole the marker to to come to the specified number as the wheel starts losing its strength for roational movement by shouting and directing with our fingers from a distance without touching the dial, the wheel or the marker. This particular evening, in the dimly lit street pavement, we kneeled down near the game vendor's wheel to [play.We tried but failed to achieve our objective and lost two quarters. This was part of our plan so that the game vendor did not suspect foul play. In the third atempt we succeeded in geting the wheel to stop when the marker stopped exactly facing the specified number for the highest value award. We rejoiced, just snatched the big prize on display and deserted the scene of the act. We would not know what the vendor or other spectators thought. But we knew that we could skillfully use the small u-shaped magneticdevice that we had borrowed for a few minutes from the butter-vendor's shop and kept it hidden with in one of our palms to control the final movement of the wheel and the marker so that it stops slowly but exactly where we intended it to stop. We did not try this again because we had no intention to cheat the vendor again and run the risk of getting caught. A winning end to the schoolboy marathon!
Two days before the examinations started I took a bus that traveled for 15 minutes before I alighted, crossed over the road and walked for two minutes to reach the examination center. This trip was just a rehearsal so that I had no problem in reaching the examination center in time. During the lunch break father or brother of some students would come. One day, one such passerby stranger showed interest in the examination question paper. He quickly glanced through it and commented " very easy paper".
My cousin who had come to provide mental support to his younger brother and my classmate immediately quipped," Question papers appear easy to those who are not to appear for the examination". The passer-by quickly quit the place. We generally had a very light lunch at a restaurant nearby, had a last minute look at the relevant books and notes before entering the examination hall for the post lunch session.
The marathon of schooling had at last come to and. We became free for a few months with nothing to worry and a new phase of life to look forward to. We have now to spend our time till the examination results would come out and get busy in getting admission to the university undergraduate course in an affiliated college. That is about another 7 weeks or so- plenty at disposal. Football and other games would get the highest allocation of time for about 4 hours a day in three sessions, one in the early morning, late morning and before dusk would set in. Evening roaming and loitering with friends would take another one and half hour. Two to three hours in the afternoon would go in reading story books, listening to radio, and things of that kind. Night sleep, bathing, breakfast, newspaper reading, lunch, evening snacks and dinner would consume another 10 hours. That would still leave 5 to 6 hours of surplus time available to something or the other: indoor chat/ games session, new hobbies, an occasional movie.
Fortunately, an uncle visited us at that time and proposed that I come with him to visit one of our relatives in Durgapore. I bought, for the first time, two full-length pants for me and some travel kits and went with him to Durgapore by train. He stayed there for a day or two and then proceeded to his base in Burnpur (about 3 or 4 hours journey by bus from Durgapore). I stayed with my cousin who lived there with her husband, two daughters (slightly younger to me), her son and my elderly aunt. Though I had been missing Mom being away from home and her, I did enjoy fun, frolik and food and special attention of my aunt who loved me much and my cousin. The neices had their annual cultral show programme at the school during my saty there. The invited me to the show. Bein an uncle of two participating girls, I got direct entry behind the stage in the green room, till a lady teacher questioned my prsesnce along with the girls. I had to quietly slip out into the balcony seats to witness the show from the front. I had very good time there for two weeks' gossiping and playing with the neices before returning back to Kolkata on a Saturday afternoon that witnessed a terrible gale resulting in trains running behind schedule. For quite some time, I thought traveling on a Saturday was not good.
Playing tricks was under exploration during the last days of the long holidays.. My cousin and classmate used to buy butter from a particular shop while shopping for groceries items he was entrusted to purchase by his mother. On these purchases he had been managing to have some few coins a discounts from the shop keeper who had a small horse-shoe shaped magnet that he used to test if the the high value coins (like a quarter or a Rupee) were genuine of spurious becuase the genuine ones would have metals that would be easily pulled in by the magnet, while the spurios ones would not stick to the horse shoe. A number of times, some of us accompanied my cousin on his shopping rounds. The discounts that he would obtain while shopping were his own earninh. He uwould occasionally buy us some cookies to eat with his shopping earnings. That was a common practice among friends to do. But he was also using his earnings to play the gambling wheel game peddeled by the roadside vendor. The gamble-vendor a wheel a person needed to turn with a push with the side of a finger. The light-weight weal would rotate with its marker facing a circular dial pad marked with 1 to 24 along the circumference. When the wheel would stop its roation, the marker would be close to or on the numbers marked on the circumference of the dial. The player would pay an entry fee of a quarter of a rupee and get a chance to push the wheel to riotate with the push of a finger. If the marker happened to face certain pre-specified numbers on the dial when the wheel comes to stand still, the player wins a prize.: if the marker happens not to face any of those pre-specified lucky number, they player gets nothing.The value of these prizes in the form of a pencil or a pen or an untensil or a framed picture, varried from less than a quarter of a rupee to about two rupees. My cousin had been trying his luck rotating the marker-wheel made of steel but in most occasions he had got no prizes or at best win something that was worth less than the quarter of a rupee that he had pay for each try. He shared a plan with us to win the highest prize by making the wheel stop its rotation when the market just faces the specified number for that highest prize. Three of us knew what exactly we had to do. We were to cazole the marker to to come to the specified number as the wheel starts losing its strength for roational movement by shouting and directing with our fingers from a distance without touching the dial, the wheel or the marker. This particular evening, in the dimly lit street pavement, we kneeled down near the game vendor's wheel to [play.We tried but failed to achieve our objective and lost two quarters. This was part of our plan so that the game vendor did not suspect foul play. In the third atempt we succeeded in geting the wheel to stop when the marker stopped exactly facing the specified number for the highest value award. We rejoiced, just snatched the big prize on display and deserted the scene of the act. We would not know what the vendor or other spectators thought. But we knew that we could skillfully use the small u-shaped magneticdevice that we had borrowed for a few minutes from the butter-vendor's shop and kept it hidden with in one of our palms to control the final movement of the wheel and the marker so that it stops slowly but exactly where we intended it to stop. We did not try this again because we had no intention to cheat the vendor again and run the risk of getting caught. A winning end to the schoolboy marathon!
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