absolute nonsense

The Board Exam scores just came in. By that, of course, I don't mean that they were actually displayed online, because as of now, the BIE isn't capable of things so advanced. Online you would only be able to find out what grade you've scored: as in A, B, C, D, and so forth. (I don't know if they have a Z, as well, but there's no trusting the BIE: if they had a Z, they'd probably misspell it, so there is no way of finding out.) If you wanted to know your actual scores (only if you wanted to, of course -- no compulsion) you had an option of dialing a certain number that was mentioned in the newspaper. An automated voice would answer, and after all the formalities ("Hello!", "Would you like a doughnut with your coffee?" etc.) the voice would ominously ask you to dial your 10-digit registration number. Occasionally the system would break down, but after multiple attempts and multiple tests of your patience and perseverence, the voice would eventually find voice, and begin to recite your scores one at a time.

I think I did pretty well -- not outstandingly well, but well enough not to give my parents the urge to whack me around the head with a floorboard. My scores are as follows: English: 93%; French: 94%; Math IA: 70/75 or 93.3%; Math IB 71/75 or 94.6%; Physics: 57/60 or 95%; Chemistry 56/60 or 93.3%, making a total of 441/470 or 93.8% -- precisely 1% higher than my total score on the 10th grade Board Exams. Improvement in any form is something that US colleges like to see when considering applications, so I'm well off insofar as these scores are concerned.

Now all that's left to see is how I've fared on the Reshuffling Tests. Parents will be informed of their kids' scores, ranks, and batches directly by SMS -- something that would stifle the average student's ingenuity beyond measure. Personally I don't really understand why they're laying so much emphasis on these tests. Aside from forcing people to study, they really achieve nothing, the nonsense explanation the guys at school always give about reshuffling helping both the teachers and the students by making teaching and learning easier (and more fun!), being, precisely, nonsense.

And now they tell us that we won't be getting a summer break, either. I mean, they haven't actually told us anything explicitly, but my math teacher has made several not-so-subtle allusions to that effect. I imagine he's all ecstatic about it. He has always been an advocate of the more dubious methods of teaching, and of using torture as a means to get students to do whatever he wanted them to do. Most people would disapprove of these methods of his, but in India, where the end always justifies the means, there are no questions asked. Besides, I would imagine that being the vice-principal has its perks. Anyway, the math teacher, in collaboration with the disciplinarian (I think he's since been promoted to a position with a more sophisticated name, but for all practical purposes, he's still the disciplinarian), who, I suspect, is a pedophile who just can't control his urges, continues to terrorize all. Although it's true that we students are more than immune to the his inane blathering. A year is, after all, more than enough time to get over the intial awe anyone would feel on being subjected to one of his classes without warning.

I digress. The main thing is that we probably won't be getting a summer break at all this year for reasons that the guys at school (this is getting annoyingly cliched: let's call them the GAS from now on) haven't bothered to tell us. I don't think the GAS know themselves, and are only acting on one of those random impulses that visit everyone from time to time and make them do irrational things that they can't comprehend for the sole reason that they can't comprehend them. They're probably sitting in their houses right now, cackling maniacally at the thought of how much mental torture they are preparing to subject us to. It's too bad that they don't know that most people (being sensible, rational, normal and all that) would be going on vacation regardless of school being open or not. Summer break is generally accepted as being a basic human right, to which everyone, living or dead, is entitled. It doesn't matter if psychopaths tell you that you are denied the right, because they don't have the power to deny you in the first place. It would be too mean, perhaps, if someone destroyed the air-conditioning system before going away on vacation (because the obdurate GAS would be determined not to abandon the building, even if it were being nuked), but the least one could do is send an anonymous letter to the disciplinarian, accusing the math teacher of sleeping with his wife, and another to the math teacher, accusing the disciplinarian of sleeping with his wife. Conflict, after all, resolves everything. Okay, fine, that was way too mean.