You Don’t Know An actual Adrenaline Rush Till You’ve Heard The Invigilator Say ‘5 Minutes Remaining’

We’ve all heard that time and tide wait for none.

But we only experience it when we sit inside the examination hall.

Yes, that dreaded place that determines our immediate future and whether our parents will kill us or not.

*Laughs nervously*

Let’s face it. Giving an exam is never an easy task. Irrespective of how well prepared we are, we can never be sure about what the examiner decides to give us.

It’s like scratching a lottery ticket.

A lottery ticket in which no matter how hard you try, you’ll still have a one in a million chance to win.

As a student, my concern never used to be the syllabus.

It never used to be the result.

It used to be that one invigilator…

That one invigilator who used to be extra stingy about time.

That one invigilator who used to say those 3 words we all dreaded.

“Five minutes remaining.”

Trust me when I say this, but I think that the invigilator took special, sadistic pleasure in uttering those words. It gave them a power trip of sorts.

I could see the build-up on their faces. I could see that they were dying to say those words ever since we entered the hall.

While we would be slogging it out, the only thing the invigilators would do is have chai and samosa right in front of hundreds of hungry kids.

And you know what used to be the worst part?

That we would remember an answer as soon as the invigilator would say it’s time up.

I mean, it could be the answer to a 10-mark question. We would be sitting idle throughout the paper and that would be the only time we would remember that answer.

And at that point of time, I swear our fingers could’ve outran Usain Bolt. Looking back, I’m amazed at how we used to scribble answers so fast the moment we used to realize that time’s about to get over.

Yes, our wrists used to hurt like anything for days to come, but I think we all used to die fighting in those last 5 minutes.

I mean we weren’t especially fond of the invigilator waise bhi. Considering they used to roam around all over the examination hall, thus minimizing our chances of cheating.