Part 9: How God helped me….

The time was 2:15 PM. I was in two minds whether to give the exam or not. I had studied very little for this subject. The examination was going to start in fifteen minutes. The subject was software engineering. After thinking for five minutes I decided to give the exam. I thought that if I don’t go I would fail and if I go I then also I am going to fail. I went with the second thought. It would be better to fail by giving the exam. Very sadly I locked my room and walked very slowly towards the examination room. On my way I saw student revising the subject. They were in hurry. They had the book in their hands. Some students were discussing the answers of some questions. They looked really happy as they are going to fight a battle which would result a win. I was still very sad. I reached the examination hall and went inside. I sat on my seat. I saw students talking. They looked very happy.

The bell rang at 2:20 PM. The teacher came with the answer sheet in which we had to write. It was of sixteen pages. He started distributing it. There was a rectangular box which had some labels. We had to fill the detail in front of the labels. It consisted of roll no, examination venue, date of examination, subject. I took my pen and started filling the details. I finished it in five minutes. Now the time was 2:25 PM. Five minutes were left in starting the exam. I looked around. Some students were shivering. Some looked anxious. Some looked fearful. Some looked confident. The student behind me always told me to show my answer book to him. In every exam he copied my answers. I was used to it. The teacher started checking the hall ticket of every student. When he was in the middle of his inspection a peon came with a sealed envelope. It contained the question papers which were to be distributed in a few minutes. Everybody waited for that moment very anxiously. The bell rang. We all students could hear the loud sound. The teacher opened the seal and took out the question paper. It was like somebody taking out some precious thing from his/her locker. He started distributing the question paper. I was 3rd in the second row and eighth in counting.

He gave the question paper to me. When we had it we had to write the paper code in the answer sheet. I wrote it. It was a five digit number. I had the habit to reading all the questions first. After reading the questions I used to mark the questions which I would be attempting. We had to write the answer of six questions from the total ten in the question paper. I didn’t know the answer of any one of them. I felt very embarrassed. I didn’t know what I would do next. I thought for a moment. I decided that whatever I have studied and remembered I would write in the answer. I thought it could pass me in the exam somehow.

Hardly, two minutes were passed. A student from our hall called the teacher. He told him that four questions were out of syllabus. In addition to that he told him that question paper was designed for the computer engineering branch not for information technology branch. These two branched had the same subject but the syllabus were different. All the students started supporting him. I was still quite. I had lost all the hopes because in any case I would have failed. The teacher in our class told us to be quite. He called the peon and told him to call the examination controller. The examination controller arrived after five minutes. He listened about the problem. He told us to continue writing the answer of the questions we knew. All the students agreed with him. A silence spread in the hall. Everybody was now busy in writing the answers.
I selected a question and started writing the answer. Not a single line of the answer was anyhow related to the question. I started filling the pages with what I remembered. I finished writing the 2nd page. I was writing very slowly. I was quite sure that I had to give the paper again. The teacher came to sign in the answer sheet. He checked all the details. When he was satisfied he signed on my answer sheet and went to the next student. I had put down my pen. I took the pen in my hand and started writing. I started remembering the old days of the semester. The teacher who taught the subject liked me. What would he think about me when he would come to know that I failed in his subject. It made me sad.

Two hours passed. A peon came. He told to write an application to the university that the questions were out of syllabus. Secondly he told everybody to sign it. Thirdly he told to submit it to the teacher in the end of the examination. A student in our class wrote it and passed the application. Everybody signed the application. Finally it was given to the teacher.
A few minutes were left for the examination to end. I was still very sad. I didn’t know what I was doing. In the final minutes I was going through the question paper. After a couple of minutes I started reading the answer sheet. Finally the bell rang. The teacher told us to stop writing. Still some students were writing. I had put down my pen. The teacher started collecting the answer sheet. First he took the answer sheet of the first, next from the second. I was staring at him. Now it was the turn of the student in front of me. I was ready. When he came to me I gave him the answer sheet. He took it and went away. I came back to the hostel and slept.

Three months were passed. The results of the examination were published. I started scanning the result. I was passed in the subject. It was unbelievable. The started thinking how I passed in this subject. The only conclusion I could have thought were the grace marks which were given for the out of syllabus questions in the software engineering exam. I passed in the exam due to God’s grace.