27th Nov: A crazy exam!

Yesterday I had my ‘Introduction to Linguistics’ exam. I had not studied anything at all…like all my other classmates (I kind of believed them…it feels nice!) It is that kind of a subject where you understand everything in class because Agnihotri Sir is a genius. He just makes it so simple but then you go home and don’t know where to start, what to study. So I decided not to study at all during the entire semester (I don’t recommend this!). Though this is one course I loved and looked forward to.


But exams are exams!! You are not evaluated for how much you love the subject (had that been the case I would have got 0’s in all my maths exams all my life…its not that I don’t like maths…I actually hate it!!) 5 questions 14 marks each…and no clue where to start! The only reassurance was that all my classmates were in the same dilemma. And yes…just one day to prepare!! I did whatever I could till 2.45 am…then woke up at 5.30 am to go through my notes and finally reached metro station expecting catastrophe (Katastrophe is one of my favourite German words coz it really sounds like disaster). Metro station is where the fairy tale began…yes u heard me right! Fairytale!!


I met Prity at the station. I normally don’t coz she always reaches half an early! Yesterday she was late and I was early...Hahaha!! Both of us were very scared. We had not read Sapir, Chomsky, Bloomfield, and Pinker…well actually everything that was important. In those 20 minutes in the metro we discussed 3 questions chosen randomly…Hockett’s design features, India as a linguistic area and constituency test. We just memorized every important point and we explained each point to each other…I knew things that she didn’t and she knew things that I didn’t…finally we understood all these topics!!


AND...(You might have already guessed!!) When I got the question paper all those 3 questions were there!! For a second I thought this could not be true! What’s even more interesting is that every question had an option but that turned out to be no option because I knew none of them. Had I not done those questions in the morning I could not have attempted 3 questions at all. The other 2 questions went pretty well too! This turned out to the best exam out of all the 4 courses that we were offered! What a last exam!! The day could not have been better! Now I can have a relaxed vacation.


After the exam Prity and I were literally thanking our stars! A shudder goes down my spine when I think had I not met her it could have turned out to be a nightmare…minus approx 40 marks out of 70 in a subject I like the most…sigh!!

Prity was so happy, she narrated this metro story to almost everyone…except the gatekeeper, the sweeper, the security guys at the metro and a few more people… ;)

I am looking forward to a comment on this post from Prity someday!!