A HURDLE RACE

You are very focused on your job ahead and you start from the house. You feel very positive. You have to be always positive because you are training to be a Psychologist. The rental contract for your flat is going to end this month, and also the money that your father lent you is on the brink of getting over. You just wish to finish the exam and go back for a while and find some temporary job in your hometown to keep you afloat until the result of your masters in Psychology. You take a deep breath and climb down the stairs and hop into your third hand Maruti 800. In spite of everything you are positive. You keep reminding yourself.

You cross a distance of 10 Kms and you see a cart of strawberries. You mentally reach Mahabaleshwar and are flooded with the memories of the weekends spent with friends, roaming the markets, gambling, drinking and eating strawberries with cream. If only you had time, you would have bought a box or two of those strawberries. But you suddenly realize that you have completely forgotten to take your wallet with you and now you are penny less and card less. 

After that you start observing everything relative to its cost in rupees. Bloody hell, even the parking at your destination is going to cost you 10 Rs! What are you supposed to do? You prepared for the exam all year round. If you cannot appear for this viva and practical, you may have to vacate your flat and would have nowhere to go. Now you are going to go through a hurdle race. As you cross the square, you feel as if the cop at the signal is looking to stop you and you get a cold sweat; your driving licence is at home in the wallet, the realization comes in one sudden lashing wave. Now you get jitters at every signal but you keep driving.

You reach there because you just want to finish the job that you started. As you near the huge wrought iron gate, you see the watchman, and he gives you a wide smile. You know his smile means you have to pay 10 Rs to park and go, but as you approach, he says," Madam, fast jana, paisa baad me dena, exam shuru ho gaya hai...mai kya aapko janta nahi kya? " ( go go fast, the exam has started, pay later, don't I know you? ")

It's a Psychology Viva and you must have a subject. Actually you were supposed to bring your own subject but one of your friends had promised to send her maid as a subject. You sign the register and wait for the subject to arrive. After 15 minutes, you ring up your friend and ask," What happened, where's the maid, idiot?"

And your forgetful friend answers," Oh shit, I forgot to tell her. Can't you take the exam tomorrow?"

You flinch and say," I am going to kill you after I finish this."

She says apologetically," I am so sorry, I could have come but I have a meeting."

You frantically start calling as many friends as you can, but all of them are busy. It's a working day, how could anyone spare a full day answering questions which are actually meaningless to them. In utter despair you enter the examination hall, but to your relief you see that there are plenty of subjects. You think you could borrow from one of them.

But your relief turns to despair once again when you find that you do not have a shortage of subjects as there are too many subjects who are below 16, but you need someone who is a parent of a child.

The examiner is a stern lady in a crisp white sari and black wire framed glasses. She says,"No repetition of subjects. I will postpone the exam if there are no adequate and suitable subjects."

You start shivering at the thought of having to vacate your flat. Your parents are going to lash at you from every side because you have decided to become a psychologist against their wish, when they wanted you to become an engineer. You had promised that you would get a decent job. You curse yourself once again for not being particular about bringing the subject.

Suddenly, one of the students, who is appearing with you, picks up the phone and rings up her sister and tells her to come immediately, and become your subject after asking for permission from the examiner. Actually you had an impression that she is fat and stupid and extremely talkative, and good for nothing whenever you came across her during classes. You had tried to tell yourself to be non judgemental but in vain. You look at her with grateful surprise. Angels are for real after all, you accept. Then you start your job of asking questions to the subject and noting down her responses. Your answer sheet is finally ready for the viva. Thankfully your subject is an angel too.

At your viva the examiner now smiles at you and says," Excellent job !

Now you can't believe your ears..dreamily you walk out of the hall and then you think about your next exam and remember some study material that you have not been able to find out even after searching the net for five days, but out of nowhere, your co student ( another one) who you had thought to be too high handed, stands in front of you and hands you a pen drive and tells you,"Hey , take this, I heard you mentioning that you did not find these topics and so I thought that you can copy it from here."

Now you have serious doubts about your judgments and are in a complete daze..you sit in the car for 5 mins musing ( the watchman Uncle has already waved off your parking fees)

You are now sure, if you are positive about your task, the whole world becomes kinder and comes to your aid. You still jitter at every signal looking at the cops but sigh with relief as you have completed the hurdle race.

Maitreyee