No More Board-om

The recent announcement by the education minister(or is it the education council,I forget which) to have an optional board exam has thrown the students of India into great turmoil and apprehension.The parents are not far behind in their anxiety over such a revolutionary statement.Board exams optional????
I remember my own tryst with the boards.The years 2003 and 2005 will forever remain etched in my mind,for those were the "Terrible Two" in my life.Well,not actually.Tenth standard was a blurred film.I hardly have any idea what I wrote in the allocated time of three hours.I was neither tense about the exams nor was I in any way concerned about the results.Tenth just happened and faded away.
Twelfth,on the other hand,was a very different ball game altogether.For the first time ever,before the physics exam,I felt the stirrings of fear.Of course,I didn't know a thing about physics.I was too busy daydreaming and getting scolded by the teacher when the classes were on.I was troubled by the fact that if I failed,I'd lose a year of my life and I was not,repeat,not going to waste another year studying the same electromagnetic theories and Ohm's laws.I managed to write some sensible looking stuff and drew a few very neatly labelled diagrams which I drew,re drew and tampered around with until it was time to leave the exam room.My sigh of relief was premature,because the very next exam was chemistry.
Ah,chemistry.Kya mystery hai.All through 11th and 12th,I sat listening to our teacher,who misspelt and mispronounced every other word,droning on about polymers,stereochemistry and formation of crystals.I did struggle in vain to understand why were the reactions between sulphuric acid and hydrogen sulphate so important.Was I ever going to use the deadly acid anytime in my life?Was my learning the balanced equations the answer to reducing global warming and stopping the impending nuclear war?(Of course there is not going to be a nuclear war anytime soon,but it does sound scary,doesn't it).Organic chemistry was the bane of my life.It was my nemesis from the word go.The double and triple bonds with their menacing catalysts always threatened to strangle me.
Anyways,back to the examination hall.When I opened the paper,I was greeted by black words on white paper.I spent ten minutes just reading and re reading the questions,which were really devils in disguise.Then I wrote my name,roll number,date etcetra.That took another five minutes.Then,finally,taking a deep breath,I wrote 1 in the margin of the answer paper.Chewing the end of my pen for two seconds,I put a dot next to the 1 so it became 1.Gazing around lightly,I was unnerved to see all heads bent over their papers answering the monstrous questions diligently.Realizing that if I sat there idle anymore,I would be looked upon with suspicion,I began writing the simplest of answers I could recover from my memory.After about forty five minutes,my store of chemistry related knowledge depleted and I sat back reviewing my beautifully written(I am just referring to the penmanship) answers.During the next two hours or so,I put up a great show of writing busily and frowning when I had made a mistake.Ah,some acting that.
The rest of the papers went astonishingly well but as the time of the results drew close,I was almost positive that I'd fail miserably in physics and chemistry.But lo and behold,I managed to garner pass marks in both.Bless the examiners who endured my papers and bestowed their kindness on me.
Coming back to the original point,if this optional board system had been announced back then,I might have lapped it up.I really do not think that the boards are in any way a measure of a student's capacity,ability and ingenuity.On the contrary,the very mention of board exams sends off students and parents into a tizzy.Perfoming well in the boards is the life's ambition of many and when they cannot,they just end their lives.Why don't the parents realize that exams are just a very minuscule part of the very large picture called life.Failing in the boards is not the end of life.I think this optional board idea is fantastic.Wish I was in the 10th or 12th to have availed the chance.