The Board Exams of 2008 - 7. History, Civics and Geography 2 AKA Geo.

So it's finally over.

The farming.
The late night slogging.
The maps.
The topos.
The soils.
The physical features.
The commercial and cash crops.
The HEPs.

It's finally over, and I couldn't be more glad. This is one subject I am HAPPY to bid goodbye to. GOODBYE GEOGRAPHY. I don't think there's anything to miss at all. I never had fun during the periods, I never had fun studying it, I never had fun doing my exam, I never had fun getting my paper back ! It was all boring, boring, nonsensical, useless stuff. And now it's gone ! Gone ! Gone, gone, gone ! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :D

Yesterday was torture. I don't know why everything got dragged out and went ever so slowly. One chapter rambled after the other, but at the pace of a mango being shoved down my throat (VERY slow, I hate mangoes). But it eventually got over, and I'm glad. I didn't want it to go on and on and on like some other exams did. History. And then when the exam paper came, I read it, it was okay, I wrote it, it was okay. It was good. I finished JUST on time, not because I was slow, but because I mixed two questions up and then had to redo the ENTIRE question. I attribute that to sleepiness. Not my fault ! It was not that bad, but still.

It's over !!!

And now I (along with the commerce batch) have 10 days of no-board days :D :S

And now I party !

It's almost over. 2 more exams. It's almost over.

Hehe, sorry you science guys :P

The Board Exams of 2008 - 6. History and Civics (HISTORY, CIVICS AND GEOGRAPHY 1)

Wow okay. Yesterday and today was trouble and chaos and confusion and panic. Really, I was supposed to finish a considerable amount of portion during the half day I had, when French got over, which CLEARLY did not happen. I had finished only a chapter. So I made far fetched plans of waking up at 5 in the morning and finishing by around 6 in the evening. Which did NOT, NOT happen. The whole day went by pretty fast, pretty much dissolved in studying, and by aruond 1 o' clock in the morning, I STILL had around 3 chapters. I fell asleep while studying, and woke up at around 3 45, decided to go back to sleep and study when I woke up. Which wasn't too bad, I finished my portion, did a decent revision, and then went and sat for the exam.

Which wasn't bad at all :D I'm so glad all the franticness of studying paid off, it feels good when all that hard work pays off (well technically, mine really wasn't hard work), but still, I really hope the marks reflect what I think I did.

Another 'last exam', I don't think I'll miss History ALL that much, but I'll miss all the lame jokes and all the stuff we used to do in class. Not to mention, the infamous interpretation thanks to SK. All in all, the trouble is gone, but the fun is gone too. I'm hoping that there will be loads of fun in the new things to come in Grade 11.

No more Executive, Legislature, Gandhi's Movements to be mugged up. No more dates ! That's for me, though. The people taking Humanities still have to study it ! I somehow feel a sense of pity swelling up within me =P

Oh another awesome thing that happened was that yesterday, Reshie called me up and told me to look in the Tabloid, where I saw SK in his infamous tongue-out, rock-on pose. Oh and surrounded by girls. I wonder what his mum said 8-) And right underneath that was a part of http://nishantmehrotra.blogspot.com/2008/03/there-and-back-again.html, "There and Back Again", my blog post about Desert Rock. Both these things surprised me, but what surprised me MORE, was that both were there at the same time ! I mean, what are the chances of someone you know making it to the newspaper, and not only that, at the same time making it to the newspaper yourself ? With BOTH of you not knowing ? AND when both of you are best friends ? Scary.

Anyway that's all for now, Geography awaits. *AGH !*

6 over and 3 left, we've done double what we have left !

The Board Exams of 2008. 5 - French

It's strange how I have to keep looking at my previous posts to see whether it's "The Board Exams of 2008" or "Board Exams, 2008".

Today was one of the subjects I had to bid goodbye to. As much as I am glad that I'm not going to have to study the conjugations of verbs or pronouns anymore, I'm gonna miss the fun periods, the boring periods, the periods we got screamed at.

It all started in Grade 7 when my parents and I finally decided that it was better that I moved to French because Hindi wasn't going to well for me. I remember taking the beginner's class, and going to Mrs. Law for tutions, to whom I owe everything I know, and getting an astounding 97. Little did I know that the next exam would be the exact reversal of that. Well, not the next exam, but it's strange how French always goes down, not up. Third term French has often been on my Birthday, I think this is one of the few times it hasn't. I wonder what the new Birthday exam will be for me. Maybe Accounts ? I don't know. I remember having Mrs. Wafa Khaleel as our second teacher, after Mr. Abdellah, and then we had Mrs. Poonawala. I'm gonna miss all the accents, the "What iz zis, boyzs ?" and the "I veel tell Mistoor Mayoor !" and something, which I already don't remember, that the substitute teacher said to us when Mrs. Poonawala was on leave. Then there was the "I-kin" and the "You're a quoique !" Oh, and now I remember, after asking Shaun - "Bulgary" How could I forget ?

All those won't happen anymore, French is over.

I got to school ridiculously early - at 7 40, and I didn't revise much after that. I went into the hall and wrote a fairly successful paper, and came out satisfied. There were shouts of joy from both the Hindi and the French boys, I wouldn't blame them. I was overjoyed too, but then again, no more French periods. I won't stop learning French, it's an awesome language. But then again, most of it's over.

And now, finally, I can say that we've done more exams than we have left. We're almost done breaking these chains.

There and Back Again.

An ocean between us. As I Lay Dying, my first metal obsession - Dubai had the privilege of witnessing them live, but I missed. A year back, I would've done anything. I used to brood - "What if they ever come to Dubai ? How will I ever handle the excitement ?"

The excitement came, and was disappointed, and almost left. I'm holding it's tail. It won't escape me. So far away from me. My ears heard them paint harmony. My ears loved it.

The next day, I heard harmony being painted again. In front of me. Live. There. Right there. An entrance, walking through the big gate, white banner overhead, steel bars ahead. The body scanner. I didn't have any armaments. I came to watch harmony being painted, not to destroy it. Walk front. Wait. My band tied around my hand. It is still tied. Faded. Black in colour.

Main Arena. Desert Rock Festival. 8th March 2008.

Enter. Drunk people, drugged people, fun people, serious people, musical people, the music, groups of people. So many people. Walk, look around. I know that person. Music brings us all together. Find my escort - Siddhesh, he showed me around. New arena.

There's a left crowd and a right crowd. Left crowd wasn't fun. They were standing and waiting and watching and doing nothing fun. Go back around, Marky Ramone finished his set with Blitzkrieg Bop. Hey ho, let's go. Go to the right side, push your way through. I smell alcohol. I smell smoke. I smell sweat. I love it because the medley reminds me of last year. Push your way to the front. The first row is where you want to be. I'm stuck in the 5th. There's a push ! Law of rock concerts : When people push you back, find an opening and go in front. That's how you progress through rows. I'm in the second row. Someone loves Slash. I let her come in front of me, she would enjoy it more than I would. Someone loves Velvet Revolver, I let him come in front of me. Last song. Slither. Music, HEY !. Music, HEY !. Slash's brilliant improvised solo. A prayer :

"God Almighty, if it be in Your Will, please may I be in the first row for Muse."

Within the next minute or few, I was in the first row. The railing, the cold, now warm because of body heat, railing. The security guards in yellow jackets and black caps. The pushing against the barrier, the embracing of the pushing. The long wait before the band came on stage.

There was a boy in a blue shirt behind me. He loved Muse, I let him share the first row with me, and he took a couple of pictures of us and the crowd, because he was happy I let him through. It made me feel nice.

There was a blonde girl there from last year. I remember her - she had a bodyguard and three friends, the bodyguard kept pushing people, and we kept screaming at him. She was standing next to me, right next to me. Music brings us all together. She had seen Muse 4 times. This is what music does to people. Love and the adrenaline. And the music. We sang every Muse song together, except Fury. We didn't know what song it was. We knew what song was coming the moment he started his whammy/effects on the guitar. We shared a couple of conversations. Music brings us all together.

It started. And I can't describe the performance. The jumping. The singing though you can't sing. The screaming. The "Thank you Dubai", the clapping of hands. Wow.

Knights of Cydonia, Hysteria, Map of the Problematique, Fury, Time is Running Out, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Invincible, Starlight, Stockholm Syndrome, New Born, Plug in Baby, Feeling Good. What a set. The guitars of his. Wow, I can't describe it.

Then it was over. So quickly, it was over. Why so fast ? The crowd poured out. The frantic searching for picks left untaken, on the floor. For memorabilia, for ANYTHING. It was gone. Already. Memory is fresh, though. It will be fresh for long.

There and back again.

The Board Exams of 2008. 4 - Environmental Education

There are very few things that are stupid like knowing there's a very important thing about to happen, and not doing anything about it. Very few things. Or maybe more that I don't know of, but anyway, that's exactly what I did. On the 6th of March, the day before my Environmental Education exam, I didn't study.

Okay I did study, but not properly. It's weird, you know. I mean, I wanted to study, but I just couldn't concentrate ! I had this song in my head, Achilles' Last Stand by Led Zeppelin. There's this riff in the middle of the song, that is just brilliant. That kept repeating in my skull, and everytime I sat down, I would start tapping my feet in the rhythm of the song. Wow, the song's STILL stuck in my head, even when I'm listening to another song !

But that's not the reason I didn't want to study. There are many reasons actually. It was a boring subject, it was pointless, and my birthday had just gotten over, and I couldn't believe that I was going to miss As I Lay Dying :( One of my favorite bands. They're playing today. Enjoy yourself Skay. Tell Tim I love him for me. *sniff*

So anyway, the day slowly rambled on, and I ultimately finished studying my 30-chapter huge portion. I'm so happy it's over.

I woke up a little early to do a little revision, but it turned out that I woke up a little early to sleep a bit more. Anyway, I got to school and started revising. The first few minutes were good, I revised efficiently, but as the day went on, and as more people filled the Quadrangle, I started chatting more than studying.

As we received our papers for reading, I kept looking over to see if there was a question that I DID know. There were :) Actually, the whole paper on first reading was a little weird, but once I got down to writing, it wasn't that bad. It was actually quite good. And long, again. I seriously need to tell the Board to compensate the Examiners for reading my paper. I remember something funny - there were these halogen lights on either side of the Auditorium, which I'm grateful for, because they kept me awake. Some people requested the examiner to move them away, or put them off because *I don't know what*. But anyway, that's enough of that. The next exam is French, and I really, REALLY don't feel like studying. I'll probably do History or Geography or something less boring than French.

Another exam down, wow. I still can't believe I'm doing my boards.

The Boards of 208. 2 - Zenglish Bliterature and 3 - Zeconomics :D

Okay so yes it's the return of the ZB Brothers :P (I told you so)

Okay this is my plan. I'm going to start each paragraph with an 'okay' for fun :D

Okay. On the day the English Language exam got over, I totally partied because I had this weird misconception that all the board exams were over and I could waste as much time as I want. I roamed around Karama, sat on the laptop and watched half a movie. (The Curse of the Ring - It's really good) However, I did manage to finish a few short stories.

Okay I shouldn't have done that. I know. But the next day was okay, finished off a bit of stuff and only had like 4 chapters left to do. For the next day.

Okay I should have finished those, because the next day was panic ! I remember not taking a break from 3 in the afternoon to around 10 in the night. And then the only I break I had was when I answered a phonecall, but apart from that, it was terrible. I was frantically going from Sparknotes to my textbook to the workbook to my notebook trying to revise all the littlest details which I am prone to forgetting. It was worth it, because the next day, the paper was good.

I'm not starting my sentences with 'okay' anymore. So, on the next day, which was the day of the exam, I made it a point to go to school a little earlier than planned, just to revise a bit more thoroughly. The first part worked, the second - notsomuch. It's the case with all us guys. Whenever we're together, we cannot study. We HAVE to joke around and waste time. Which was what we did, until our English Teacher came and we cleared our few last minute doubts. I'm beginning to look forward to go to school and do our boards, not because I love studying (I don't) and all that jazz, but due to the tremendous amount of fun that we tend to create for ourselves to loosen the nerves. And it works pretty damn well too, because while we're doing that, we're revising. Like we'd be revising a chapter, let's say, Martyr's Corner, and we'd start accusing someone or the other of being Rama's favorite customer. Which is lame, I agree, but when you think of the person we did, you'd laugh. Not because the person's weird or anything, no, just because it's funny. Sorry, I'm totally contradicting myself.

The exam paper was good, a little long, but good. The whole while I had this obssession with drinking water and I kept asking for more. One cup, but still. I'm not even sure if it's a cup. But that one got knocked down while I was getting my extra paper signed, so I had to get a new one. I did make a few silly mistakes here and there, some VERY silly, like the very first question. They asked us where the speakers (Titinius and Messala) were speaking. It was on a part of the battlefield in Phillipi. I wrote that they were on a hill far away from Cassius' tents and whatnot. I wrote EVERYTHING except Phillipi. Oh well, can't do anything about that.

That day at home and the day after that went really fast, because I really got into my economics swing. I managed to finish the portion 4 times before the exam (proud moment) and so, I was pretty much okay with it. I still made it a point to go to school early, because there was this book of sample papers with loads of questions that we hadn't learnt. So, when I reached there, ridiculously early, I was surprised to find people there too. I went to the staffroom and called our Eco teacher out to clear my queries. I had earlier planned on glancing through every page of my textbook, just to put an idea of everything back in my head, but that plan went waste, because I spent the entire time clearing doubts. Which I am very thankful for, because one question that I had stumbled across, Giffen's goods, it wasn't a question, but I had this little itchy nagging thing about it. Sir remember that this was an important question, and he then gathered all the students around to explain it to them one last time. The question was asked in the paper.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, it was my birthday (:D) ! And at midnight, I had received my parents' gifts, and I was really happy and LOVE them. So, I kept thinking about the Creative Zen waiting for me at home, and I couldn't get that out of my head during the exam. I have a feeling I randomly wrote 'Zen' somewhere in the paper, in some random answer. Haha it would be funny, "The total expenditure of the Government has increased recently, due to many reasons: 1. Zen" I hope I didn't do that. That would just be terrible.

Anyway, the paper was actually really good, except for I think a question or two in Section B. I didn't attempt those, so I can't really say that I didn't know an answer. It wasn't nice to see that the paper was terribly long, and quite a few couldn't manage to finish. That would have been horrible for them, I feel bad. Also, there was a controversial question about the tax slabs and that's getting on my nerves, along with another silly mistake I think I made, but again, it's over now. What can I do ?

I got home and I wasted the entire day doing things like 1. sitting on the laptop, 2. sleeping, 3. talking on the phone, 4. American Idol, 5. exploring my new mp4 player :D

Oh and eating cake.

However, from today, I plan to blog on the same day as the exam, because I'm sure I'm going to forget something, and I don't want to forget anything, (that would just defeat the point of blogging) so I'm going to blog on the same day as the exam. Anyway, I desperately need to go study EVS/EVE/Environmental blah, so, this is the end of my post.

3 down, 6 to go ! (Somehow, it doesn't feel good saying that)