Let’s scroll back in time. Make it last Sunday morning. Yes, yesterday. I woke up from a ‘nap’ after Fajr. I tried to remember my plan. I realized that I had no plan. I looked around in my bedroom, searching for a plan. I spotted something else. A textbook. Wow, I thought, I have an exam tomorrow. I rolled my sleeves up to my elbows, dragged that textbook into my lap and opened it. I stared at it for about five minutes. Another realization came. This wasn’t the textbook that I was supposed to read. I concentrated, and then I concentrated hard. I wanted to search for the required textbook, so I concentrated really hard. Finally, a light bulb popped above my head, glowing its wisdom upon me. I then remembered that the required textbook exists in my possession, but in electronic format.

I took a deep breath and switched my computer on. I opened the file explorer. Instead, Mozilla Firefox appeared on the screen. Oh my, I am still sleepy. But what’s the harm in surfing the Internet for a while? Within a minute, I found my computer connected to the Internet. Then I found myself opening new tabs and new websites. Boy, I love the Internet. An hour passed. Then two. Something started to pinch me. Ouch, it’s hurting. What’s wrong? Another light bulb popped up, this time hitting me on the head. Ah yes, the textbook. I closed all the tabs. I closed Mozilla Firefox. I opened the textbook.

I started reading. I read, and read. And then I read some more. And even more. I deciphered each and every equation, each and every function, each and every variable. I didn’t miss a thing. I didn’t miss a dot. I felt proud. I reclined back into my chair. I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath. Deeeeeep breath. And then something started hitting me on my head. Repeatedly. Mercilessly. I opened my eyes. It was the light bulb again. What the? I looked at the textbook. I had been reading the wrong chapters.

I stood up and walked out. I grabbed the newspaper. I read the newspaper. The day passed just like that.

At night, I again switched my computer on. This time I browsed the textbook carefully. I marked the chapters to read. I noted down the points needing more attention. Then I went to sleep.

I woke up again in the morning. Today’s morning. Exam is at 1240 hours, I yawned. Crash. The light bulb smashed against my skull. All right, all right, I am studying. Don’t kill me. I opened the textbook. I grabbed my notebook. I furiously scribbled on my notebook. I reworked difficult concepts. I reworked difficult examples. I reworked difficult problems. I reworked everything difficult. And still the light bulb. WHAT? 1200 hours. I was running out of time.

I reached the university. “How’s your prep?” “It sucks.”

I entered the examination hall. I took my seat. Don’t worry. You practised everything difficult. It’s gonna be a piece of cake. Nah, it’s Ramadan. I don’t need no cakes. Our instructor entered. We looked at him. He distributed the exam booklets. I opened mine. I browsed the questions. Nothing was difficult. Everything was easy. I hadn’t prepared anything easy.

I couldn’t believe it.

And since all negotiation attempts have failed, I have switched to my war mode in order to face their beauty.

Farewell my dear countrymen. We shall meet again. Soon.

Meanwhile, your prayers can always find me.

No, I have not lost my mind. (Waisay who knows. I might actually have lost my mind and might haven’t come to notice about it. You miss a thing only if you are too dependant on it, you see.) So regardless of whether I have lost my mind or not, I wrote the starting sentence with all my will and intention. You might then ask the reason. The reason, my dear friends, is very simple: Exams provide you with a reason/excuse for doing/not doing anything. And the question which asks if you were studying for your exams can ruin the whole flavour of this reason, so I would prefer not to answer it.

So you see, I didn’t update because I was busy with my exams. *innocent look*

But just think for a while. Aren’t exams a blessing in disguise? You don’t have to go to the market and purchase forgotten ingredients (examples: hari mirch, dhania, etc). You don’t have to worry about your shave and haircut, since you are so busy in your studies. You don’t need to answer the door-bell every time because it’s understood that you are studying. You get so much time in front of your computer for working out with the coding examples. You get the luxury of being alone in your room and not disturbed by your younger siblings because you have to prepare for your exam. You can create a mess in your bedroom with your textbooks, notes, photocopies of lecture slides and all other junk and not have to worry about it, because it’s your exam tomorrow.

And many other things.

What happens after the exams are over, however, is another story altogether and beyond the scope of this current post. But it’s not much though. You just have to think of some other excuses then. Some valid excuses, that is, and none of which can come up to the validity of its-my-exam-tomorrow.

Which brings us to the starting line again. Exams are beautiful.

Imagine yourself in a lovely garden, perfumed with the refreshing fragrance of flowers, and echoed with the sweet chirps of birds. Imagine that you are feeling the comfortable breeze stroking your body. Imagine that you are lying down on the soft bed of fresh grass. Imagine yourself smiling at your own thoughts, and then imagine that your semester’s final exams have ended!

An even great thing to imagine with it would be that you have got a whole two-months vacation ahead.

So you see, it’s halla gulla time! OK, fine, I have got so many other things to do in these holidays of mine, but – there is a big and cheerful BUT — I don’t have to study. Well, may be I will. After all I won’t have to take any examination after this study.

So what are my plans? Just one: I don’t wanna make any plan. Plans are there when you need procedure, when you need accuracy, when you need efficiency, when you need speed. And I don’t want my holidays to be procedural, accurate, efficient and speedy. I want them to be spontaneous, random, care-free and slow. Not dead slow — I would be bored then!

May be I forgot. I have got one practical exam left, and one practical notebook to prepare. But who cares. Now are my holidays, and I’ll somehow manage to prepare them. Sometimes, you have to see the bitter face of life!

But not now. Now when I am singing the lyrics of joy, I want myself to keep on singing. Waisay bhi, the weather is quite perfect right now for singing. It’s raining. Fresh water pouring down from sky, and I am sitting here writing these lines?

Why am I not taking a shower outside!