Maths Woes

I tried so hard (to study maths)
And Got so far (flipped the whole syllabus)
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter (abe yaar abhi kuch nai samjha, lagne wali hai)

With the Big, red Thick book of monsters (Engg. Students don’t require more hint to name the book) on my bed I am still trying to figure out what are the chapters in the course. It’s already two days since I asked Ashesh what’s the syllabus and his “thodi der” is still not over (According to someone, it’s the antaheen apekha!!). Sabya stated “the syllabus is from chapter 10 to 15”. My heart said “Manti just 5 chapters!! You can do it!”. But my unused brain soon figured out 5 chapters means around 375 pages!!! Even my never-say-die attitude remained unborn to at least start the course!
After convincing me that someday I have to begin and it’s the last time I will be studying maths I opened the book. The first topic stated “Fourier Series, Integrals, and Transforms”. The chapter sounded familiar as I had already read it in the 1st Sem (only because it was in the course and not because I am some geek who completes course of 3rd sem in the 1st one itself) but the familiarity ended there only. I could recall as much Sanjay Singhaniya(btw, he was using cheats) could in Ghajini about the chapter. Frustrated, I decided to move on.
The next chapter was “Partial Differential Equations”. I could recall some concepts which I had read some part during mid sem test. So I decided to move forward to the untouched part of the topic where I could see the words “Fourier series”,” Fourier Integrals”,” Double Fourier Series”(as if people were not satisfied to see the students suffer with Fourier series only, they formed even Double one!!!),”Laplacian something”, “Fourier-Bessel”(not again Fourier!!). I straightaway knew “Bahut buri lagne wali hai!! Kisi se samajhna padega!!”. The sight of Complex Chapter was smoothening in the next chapter and my heart elated with joy which soon was deflated by Conformal Mapping and etc.
Mr. Cauchy was waiting with his theorem and formulae in the next topic of Complex Integration which looked at least manageable (thanks to some excellent crash course teaching by Kushagra during mid sem). Theinitial names of the next two chapters looked cute (like Taylor, Laurent etc.) but their surnames were “Series” i.e. the sign of a skull with two crossed bones for me!! So I didn’t even dare to open the chapters as I knew all things there would be having everything alien about them (thanks to the numerous proxies in the maths classes).
I now slowly closed the book shut my eyes and said ”Bhad me jaye, kal dekh lenge!!” and started watching new episode of HIMYM.

My Rendezvous with Exam

For the first time in my life I gave my exams sitting on first bench sitting directly in front of the invigilator! On raising my eye level, I could see only two things:
1. The eyes of the ‘Devil’ seem to be saying “Dare to Cheat??” and
2. The rules and regulations pasted on the board with its last line saying “DON’T EVER THINK OF ADOPTING UNFAIR MEANS. YOU ARE A TRUE NITIAN. BEHAVE LIKE ONE!!
The sitting position cost me around at least 20 marks in the total, 2 Grade Points!! Phew!! Only engineering students can know the true value of Grade Points. We rub our asses off studying (the night before exam) to secure one more Grade Point and here I dropped two! God made man a social animal. It was not our fault. Then why don’t these invigilators understand there’s no harm in taking helps from others, it’s our nature not desire. Knowledge is gained on spreading. I don’t ask answers in the exam for my sake but for the sake of my classmate in his process to gain more knowledge!
First Exam: 1st day, huge shock:
After preparing as much I could, I went to give my first paper only to find out I was allotted the 1st bench and straightaway I knew, I am gonna get f***ed badly this time(I still have no clue for which sin I paid such huge price). But thanks to our beloved and respected Mine Surveying Prof.( yes I know, this is an endangered species and he is one of those rare ones present) and his question paper I could sense that my doom day was not on Monday!
Second Exam: Went to be slaughtered:
The second exam was the nightmare for all mining mates and I was no exception. The Prof.s Hitler-esque behavior in the class was enough for us to ensure we were mere lambs to be sacrificed to his paper. I knew the doom day had arrived. But somehow( I dunno it was the prof. showing proof that he too had a heart ,though filled with anti student thoughts or my good preparation) I think I manage to escape the inevitable one more time.
Third Exam: The Trauma of Maths:
Since entering NIT maths has been a trauma for me. My three semester grades read like a extension to a C++ file! I this time was sure that my good luck had finally ran out but the crash coaching institutes of my friends really worked and ensured this time too I had managed to beat the odds!
Fourth Exam: Good Luck turns Bad:
I knew that I knew nothing about exploration but the Xerox copy of my friend’s note suggested that the syllabus was only 18 pages( how wrong was I because each page was scaled to four pages of the original copy and each page was supposed to be mugged up!) and also Tendulkar’s superlative effort meant I was overwhelmed for few hours and started my syllabus very late night. I tried my best to remember as much as I could but it all blacked out. Sweating each moment out I really missed out my little small scribbles of papers containing knowledge of almost encyclopedic volume which had accompanied me in so many exams earlier(though still I managed to push one small “trick” up my shirt’s sleeve and have a look even sitting at the front!). My one friend even told me that he had left class notes in bathroom. I rushed there only to find some son of a b**ch had already removed it! I knew that finally the day had come and I accepted my fate calmly like a braveheart!
Fifth Exam: A Silver Lining:
As soon as I checked the seating arrangement for OE exam on my mail, I knew I had been given one last chance of redemption. I was allotted on the second last corner bench. I paid my full attention in writing my sweet little tiny encyclopedic information on a 12.7cmx10cm paper whose snap I have included here so that u can see how an engineering student can write the whole syllabus in such a small manuscript!

It helped me adding 14 marks question into my kitty but still I left 10 marksquestions but that wasn’t my fault, it was the fault of the girl whose notes I had Xeroxed. Had she written them, I could have included those information too in my manuscript.
But thank God because the exam has ended. I am over those hellish days and wanna begin fresh. Friends please pray that I never get the 1st bench ever again in my life.

P.S: This was also the 1st time that I had attended exams in jeans! Earlier I would have preferred cargos with 12 pockets so that the manuscripts are indexed chapter wise in each pocket but this time I found that jeans pants are useful when folded at the bottom in the last exam!!!