I hate Greater Kashmir. But lately I hate something much more. The JKBOSE.
Heres a true life story rather my own life story.
OK!
Not a full life story only some days of it.
The Picture Shows the grand board office at Lal Mandi in winter..
I have passed 12th. Nowadays my life is nothing but just full of tuitions and umbrellas and snow and forms-Forms for admission to various colleges. Rather forms to give their entrance exams. Forms to get out of Kashmir real fast.
The local colleges, however, have started admitting students on provisional grounds. And they want the marks card and the provisional certificate from the respective schools. Yes, now I have to go and get them in this terrible weather. So I called up my friend and together we went to get the marks card from our school: Burn Hall School!
Little did I know about the Board and never believed in the so called things which have been, time and again, said about the board. But it was destined to change and I am writing this as a much enlightened boy.
Now, my marks card: it will tell me about my achievements in different subjects part wise. My marks in practicals and different papers. Entering the school, we were reminded of the good old days. The smell was familiar. And so was the silence. This time it was not for any punishment but we were still heading towards the office. After some Hellos and Good mornings and Thank yous I managed to mumble out my roll number “Eight four zero three zero one”.
The guy there smiled.
“I know”, he replied and started to open some drawers. “Let me see, hmm 8-4-0-3-0-1, Yeah this is it. Qazi Mamoon, here, sign here”
I signed and quickly peeked into that sheet of white paper.
“Qazi Mamoon, yes that is mine.”
I started looking at the marks.
English, I had 121 marks. Grammar had been done well and most of the marks were cut in the prose and poetry section. Quite normal if I was giving the papers.
Looked a bit down and pondered about the marks in chemistry and physics.. Acceptable.
Then came Maths. My favourite subject.
I had 73 out of 75 in maths A, was expecting full but maybe some objectives went wrong somewhere. As my eye wandered ever so slowly into the column where the marks for my maths B paper were written, I knew something was wrong somewhere. 48 marks out of 75. Looked very bad indeed. My mind went over to the day when we were giving the maths B paper. I remembered that I had a mild fever that day. I also figured that my body was suffering from fever not my mind. 27 marks are equal to 6 long type questions being wrongly done. Meanwhile my friend got his marks card and I had a look into his achievements. Expected!
Later at home, after coming from a tuition I sat in front of the TV and started surfing the three channels which our TV can manage to show clearly. (We dont have cable TV. Now that I have passed 12th maybe we will). Pa entered the room and said, “Tse ontha marks card schoole peth”-{did you get the marks card from the school?}
Yes, I did. The marks of the B paper for maths flashed in my mind for the hundredth time that day, “Ake Be Wale heri peth”-{Wait, I'll bring it down}
And the next fifteen minutes were spent upon what had happened to the Mathematics B paper. Pa said to get its photocopy from the board. I agreed.
Next day, making sure that I had enough money and my ID card with me I stepped out of my house. Its was raining slightly and I put my left hand inside my pheran. My mind still in thought of what might have happened to the paper. I boarded a bus and reached Lal Mandi.
At the board, I had to buy a form, get it attested at my school as well. There was also a visit to the bank where I had to empty my wallet a little bit. This fees permitted me to submit the form. They assured that the Photostat will be available within two days. Then after my six days which were his two days, I then had to come back to their office to it back.
I went to the clerk and inquired about my paper. It was available. I took the Photostat neatly wrapped in a envelope and rushed back home. I called my friend over to my home too..
We nearly reached my house at the same time. He started talking about the cricket match which had been washed out due to rain but I was not interested. Who would? We quickly went into my room and opened the envelope. Surprize. Okay no surprize the paper was there.
I had a 12 out of 15 in the objectives. Pretty good. The examiner couldn't have messed up there.
Some pages turn and we had the first question in front of us. Question number five to be more exact because that was the question which I could do in a second. Now the surprises started. The examiner had given it 4 marks out of 5. I wonder why? It is maths. If every step is correct and answer is too it means full marks. But I dont think that the examiner knew about such a rule. My writing was a bit like that boy in “taarey zameen par” because of the fever that day but I dont think that he cut the marks off because of that.
As we turned a few more pages, we clearly knew what had happened. 1 or 2 marks were just not given in may questions. There were two questions totally wrong and he had scribbled a big zero on them. There were some questions having 100% marks. Hello, this is mathematics and if everything is right then that means full marks. Thats fine but the fact that atleast six questions were the victims of his prejudice is still bothering me. After some quick calculations I had already 8 marks more.
.
48 + 8 = 56
So adding up both the math papers' marks
73 + 56 = 129
That means my grand total would have reached
648 + 8 = 656
that means 87.4 %
that means 2nd in my school.
And now if I have to get those five marks which I deserve I have to empty my wallet by 5oo bucks. Strange isn't it. Had the guy checked my paper properly the board wouldn't be getting rich. The administration wouldn't be getting rich.
And now I think I am quite lucky to pass. The Board could have done anything. Once the title reappear comes no matter if its wrongly put there the society comes to know about it. I am so happy I have passed. I am so happy that I wouldnt have to deal with the JKBOSE again.
The first part of this article can be found out at.
With Good Intentions:
~QM