If only......

Another day just swoops by and the typical Leo that I am, I just master my skills at nothing productive but procrastinating. The constant fear of turning 21 always gripped me, ever since I turned an adult, around 3 years ago. Responsibilities and the hunt for a job just makes me grounded to reality that I have to spruce up my spirits and get going. Okay, back to the current situation. I get up early and it just seems like another day at the office. Well, yeah, not when you are up all night long, trying to finish half a season of HEROES, which was my latest addiction around a month back. So, the question of my getting up is out of the question, I was awake the entire night, watching episodes after episodes. With every ounce of energy and courage that I had running in my blood, I dare to face my accounts exam. It starts with me running behind the 385 that passes by my place every 15 minutes. I sprinted till the signal post, finally catching some breath and then, I finally make it to the college without sleeping the entire night. Sometimes, I feel that I am plain crazy, yes, this feeling sinks in as my mother often rebukes me for the same.

With the CCTV being installed lately, we feel very conscious to copy and so I just sat down, poring over my accounts book but in vain. I just sat down with my fellow classmate, talking about random things. I myself could not believe how nonchalantly I behaved at the eleventh hour.

The paper begins. Keith, our supervisor cum office clerk drops in with a weird smirk on his face. I knew he had a major plan to bamboozle us. And my gut feeling turns into reality. Apparently, we were so skilled at copying, given the small time frame to understand 17 complex chapters of Managerial Accounting in a span of 3 months, we had to resort to copying, obviously. The deal was simple, we would first access our e-mail account, download the darn ready-made answers and voila! the paper is done. We would then access our web ct account on the college portal and download the question paper and act as though nothing has happened at all. But, yes, copying is an art in itself. Some morons would save the answer paper on the desktop. Even though all computers are equipped with *document erasers, Keith spotted one of the answer papers right before the exam and hence the smart move by him. I cussed my fellow classmate left, right and center for his folly.

Yeah, morality goes for a toss when your marks are on the line, so do not try to harness nerdy thoughts as I thought copying is equivalent to a major crime of sorts. Not anymore, at least for out of the world and demanding subjects that require a lot more time and comprehension. We always slog in other courses but there are exceptions. Accounts is one of them. ;)

He had got the question paper on the pen drive as he disabled the Wi-fi connection right before the exam. There goes our plan out the window. We had to pull-off something in order to survive the test of time. I just wished that Keith lets us download the paper off our inbox and the next thing I see is the internet working and our dear clerk also gave us the liberty to copy! Strange, I thought but nonetheless, I did not hestitate downloading the paper. Again, I wished that Keith lets us download the file without squealing to the director, Mr. John and he just announced so. I slowly realized that I could read and control minds. WOW! That would multiply into so many things right now, but I had to focus on the exam. I was so excited to use my power. After all, destiny has chosen me to weild this power out of so many odd people on earth. We all stayed low on the radar. But, there was a problem. Our beloved director is always agile to notice even a speck on your screen when he comes down for supervision or even on surveillance, thanks to the morons who tried stealing RAM sticks that would not even fetch 200 bucks. We all thought that the feeling was pure angst against the college. So, I wanted him to just go to some other planet, from this college. My friend just exits the examination lab, heads to the office. Apparently, he was a time-traveler and since I wanted him away, the next thing Mr. John remembers is typing on his laptop in a dense forest with weird tribal people around in the Amazon basin. He froze time too, allowing just our classmates to appear for the exam peacefully. I could have myself made them work to "our" benefit but delegating task is all about teamwork. Aint it? The joy on the faces of the people was similar to that of prisoners when the Correctional Officer was not around. Such is the persona of our director. Too good to be true and I jolted back to reality, reality with all its harsh hues and blues with the director entering in with his trademark "I do not give a flying f**k look". He sticks around until the last ten minutes of the exam.

The exam was a nightmare but I managed to score 19 on 20, somehow, with a bit of tactics and street-smartness. At least I acquired a new skill of maneuvering tactics to pass exams without being pulled up for copying. That is a miraculous power in itself, considering how nerdy I was before joining this college. Time takes us through.

*Document Eraser: A software that erases all your documents every time you either re-start or shut down your computer. Anecdote: Keith apparently has expressed his frustration by turning off the computers during exams, I pity two of my classmates even today.

*In the pic, Keith Kurien, the great during the faculty versus students match. Faculty lost 3-2.

DISCLAIMER: The above story could land me in deep trouble, so all the characters and the story-line are totally fictitious. Just in case, hard work always pays, cheating is just a way to defy the system when some mature people are headstrong to pull you to the abyss, no matter how hard you work. Work hard, in fact, harder! We always recommend that for the long-run.