When the Xth standard Board exam results were announced in early June, there was so much excitement in my apartment. Parents, even grandparents, congratulated one another and the children walked around self consciously with relief evident on their faces.

My sister-in-law was the first to call that morning dramatically announcing her daughter’s results and rattling off the marks with supersonic speed that I barely caught them for the first few minutes. Predictably, as soon as I put the phone down it started ringing with other parents declaring their progeny’s results.

The scenario back in March was different when the exams were about to begin – the same parents dreaded picking up the phone as calls poured in to wish children before the exams and the latter getting anxiety attacks from all the attention. I tried to recollect my own Board exams which I had written more than two decades ago, in Bombay. My parents had dropped me at the exam centre on the first day and my mother was waiting for me outside when it was time for my pickup.

Apart from the cursory, “Was it okay?” she had nothing more to ask. As I recall, she didn’t pay too much attention to my answer. I continued with my music lessons and watched a sitcom on the television for 30 minutes everyday after I was done with my revision for the next day’s exam. No calls, no neighbours dropping in, and before I knew it the holidays had begun.

As with any Board exams where there is enough coaching at school and several dry runs with preliminaries conducted by the school the children are totally geared up for it. In fact I remember my friend Rita giving me a puzzled look before I realised that I was the only one who didn’t ask her daughter’s exam results. I tried explaining to her, “I really didn’t ask anyone. Do a few decimal points make one child smarter than the other?
Does it even matter a year from now?” Rita gave me a disbelieving look and murmured, “Well, your turn will come in a few years when your child appears for the same exam. If the phone in your home is off the hook then, I’ll know why!”