Oh! The Trip!!

“You have WON!!!!” yelled my cousin. She was talking about the contest I had entered two months ago. The prize offered was two tickets to Paris. All we had to do was write out a funny slogan and the best entry wins. I had fancied my chances of winning, since, as everyone does, I had judged my slogan to be unique and eligible. But when I actually heard the news I first couldn’t believe it. The actual thought of winning didn’t occur to me, and I had just fancied going to Paris quite a few times.

I would check my horoscope everyday to see if there were any predictions regarding foreign travel mentioned. I would collect every little information about the tourist spots in Paris. I would even secretly observe everyone around, to see if anyone looked at e with envy. But nothing did happen for a long time and finally when it did, it happened in a big way!!

Everyone of my cousins was eager and anxious to know which one of them I would take with me to Paris. They did all they could to please me in every way and I enjoyed every bit of it. I actually wanted to take all of them, but that wasn’t quite possible as the tickets were only two. Anyway, there is still time, I thought. There were two months or so before I had to fly.

I got special treatment even at school. My friends fought to sit next to me, share their lunch or even to lend their books. I enjoyed it all. It wasn’t my fault they didn’t win, and I don’t get this treatment everyday!! So I made the most of it!

My little sister too would go out of the way to make me hapy. Once she even bought me an ice-cream, which for her was quite expensive. In fact I did consider taking her along with me. But that wouldn’t be fun, as I would have to be responsible for her and act as ‘Big Sister’. Nah. That wasn’t my idea of having fun. Okay maybe I could get her something really nice from Paris.

My parents, were just happy for me, they didn’t want to go with me, as they knew I would prefer taking a friend or cousin along on such trips. They just kept saying, I must take someone responsible with me.

“Wow!” I thought my first trip abroad. I sighed and visualized and. . . .


T R R R R R . . . . . . . I N G!!. . . . . . THUD!!


Ouch!! What was that??!!
It was 6:30am, and end of another dream!
Ouch my back! Ouch my trip to Paris!!

Exam Fever!

WHACK! Got him. I had finally managed to eliminate the mosquito, which I was aiming at for the past few minutes. It was 10:52 pm. Sunday. I was at my desk with my books open in front of me. I suppose, I was studying.

Yes! I was doing maths, not one of my best subjects. I had my exams – BOARD exams, in two days. BOARD EXAM. Those words used to scare me until a few days back and now,… I was actually going to experience it.

I wished that I could fast forward my life, by a month, when I would be free of exams and could have fun. But that was fantasy. Coming back to reality, I had my MATHS BOARD EXAM the day after tomorrow.

The atmosphere was so silent. I could picturize people in my neighbourhood cozily cuddled in their beds, asleep. “Then why do I have to study?”, I wanted to ask. But to whom? Everyone went through this phase in life once too, so I am no exception.

MATHS. MATHS. MATHS. The open books kept saying, or so it seemed. My mind kept wandering and now I decided I had to solve some problems.

I kept hearing, “And the Oscar goes to …” quite a few times, which crept through the closed doors to my room. I tried so hard not to think of the Oscar Awards Ceremony that was going on, on television. Not fair that my little sister gets to watch it when I cant. She was the only one, beside me, awake at that hour. Studying in class 7, she was enjoying life, while I sat and slogged with Maths. Trigonometry at the moment.

After sometime, I decided to get serious and care les about the happenings of the surrounding. Just as I pondered over a mystifying problem, my sister barged inside and started chanting, “My Hero got an Oscar, my Hero got an Oscar.” Huh! Do I care? I would have if she had solved my problem for me. Thanks to her, I got distracted again. This time, I gave up and decided I would continue on the morrow. It was 11:45pm. Almost an hour and I had managed to do only 6 problems.

Well, that was how my life was when I was in class X. I still remember that day – 3rd of June, when our results were put up on the net. I sat up till midnight to check my results. I couldn’t believe my marks and rechecked to see if it really were mine! I had managed a 81% in Maths... after all that!! I was thrilled and overjoyed. I made the most of it in my class XI. I watched as many shows as I wanted to compensate.

But in spite of all this, there is still a fear of BOARD EXAMS inside me. There ought to be, this year, I face it all over again. This time, it will be more scary.