The sound of the commotion increased as I neared the examination room. 

I looked at the watch. 

8:30 a.m. it showed.

“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I increased the pace. The exam was to start at 10:00 a.m. but I was still late. 

Late for that crucial last minute revision. 

I was finally greeted by the sight of my classmates. Yes, there were a few daredevils who’d chosen to spend the extra time near the canteen but most of them were sitting around staring intently into their books.

I, however, was looking for one particular guy.

A guy named Amit who happened to be the class topper.

And also my best friend. 

“Hey man!” I threw him a greeting as I saw him. “Hi,” he said smugly as he pointed to his watch.

“Sorry yaar. I know we were supposed to meet at 8:00 but woh raat bhar revision karte karte subah neend hi nahin khuli. Isliye – – -“

“Kitna kar liya?” he interrupted.

“Bhai baaki sab toh ho gaya. Tu bas jaldi se law of diminishing marginal utility aur production possibility curve samjha de.”

“Haan woh important hai. Ab sunn…”

And for the next one hour, I paid more attention to him than I’d paid to my teacher in my entire term. 

Before Google.

Before Wikipedia.

Before interactive YouTube tutorials. 

There was that friend. 

That one friend who knew exactly whether questions from a particular chapter would come for 5 marks, 10 marks or 20 marks.

Who knew where the compulsory questions would come from. 

And above all, who not only knew the answers to all these questions, but also knew how to explain them clearly in a limited amount of time.

That’s why, I decided to write a thank-you note to that one special ‘teacher’ on behalf of all his/her ‘students’ today. 

Thank you for teaching me the difference between mitochondria and chloroplast.

Thank you for helping me distinguish between alternate current and direct current.

Thank you for explaining me the details of the co-operative society. 

Thank you for simplifying Shakespeare for me. 

And above all, thank you for doing this merely 30 minutes before the exam just so that I could retain most of it. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m definitely not trivialising the efforts and the contribution of that friend who used to make and circulate notes amongst all of us. 

But it’s just that while that person used to give us what we wanted, our last minute teacher used to give us what we needed. 

They were the ones coming up with helpful acronyms to memorise the periodic table and weird songs to help us learn the chronology of the Mughal dynasty. 

And friends like these weren’t restricted to school. They were there in college as well. Explaining equations and even giving mini practicals before an important VIVA.

Yes, even in the age of Google and Wikipedia, their importance failed to diminish. They were still the heroes we wanted, deserved and needed.

So if you’re one of those last minute teachers reading this, believe me, you da real MVP!