There are three types of students in every classroom.

1. Kids – The ones who start studying even before the date sheet is out.

2. Adults – The ones who don’t study at all & flunk in the exam.

3. Legends – The ones who open their books just one day before the exam.

Needless to say, I was a legend throughout my school and an ultra-legend in college (opened books an hour before the exam) and you wouldn’t believe how handy the last minute studies have come in my life. Yes, I didn’t top any exam but I was in the top 10 and most importantly I never flunked.

There is something exciting about studying at the last moment that gave you the thrills of being in a movie like Mission Impossible.

Brain: 12 ghante baad exam hai.

Heart: Fuck ab toh fail, mujhe toh sabji bechna bhi nahi aata!

Brain: *singing* Lakshya ko har haal mein paana hai…

And I don’t know how but at that time everything looks so easy, it’s like God is smiling upon us and saying, ‘Le ab toh pass hoja, chu***e‘. You are finishing chapters like a single desperate engineer finishes a box of tissue paper and your brain is like, ‘Oh yeah, I can do this’.

Pulling those epic all-nighters while playing the radio in the background has to be one of the fondest memories of my childhood. And sometimes when we accidentally sleep early, there was always your mum yelling at you, ‘Uth ja nalayak exam hai, aaj bhi 10 baje tak soyega kya?’ at 4 AM. 

Either way, those few hours of study is all I needed to get through my exams and let’s not even talk about how accomplished one felt after passing that exam.

But, the biggest challenge was anxiety. No, I never panicked but I have my parents, desi parents (who panicked for me, and maybe my neighbour’s kid too).

Well, for our desi parents, the key to scoring good marks is literally licking every page of your textbooks. You know why they got furious when we just ‘thought’ about falling in love? Because they just wanted us to sleep with our books and no one else!

What was especially discomforting was when they asked if I had revised enough.

Dear parents, if you are reading this…I never did my revision! Sorry.

The point is, if studying at the last minute works for me then why should I go through the pain for the rest of the days! Yeah, my parents might disown me after reading this.