Exam Hall Blues

This one is dedicated to all the folks who have been distressed in an exam hall, and that should be quite a hefty number.

The notice board uncoils and the dates are up,
You look at it and hope to rope in some luck,
You take a good look at the time-table,
To study you try to get ride of the cable,

Sheets are distributed and the bell rings,
In anticipation what the paper will bring,
You look through what questions you can solve,
It suddenly turns into a test of your resolve,

It is the end semester paper of full three hours,
Unlike cricket, you can't even hope for showers,
Given the time, you are slow to get off the blocks,
Saving your fastest and illegible writing in the stocks,

Two hours are gone, and you find yourself stuck,
Start to look around furtively for a stroke of luck,
You find the look of strife on your friends,
It kind of portends how this finally ends,

You take a break only to find 30 minutes on a drained clock,
40 marks still left, its time to give the inner engineer an unlock,
Going through the questions you are suddenly leaping,
Handwriting and ethics are taking an absolute beating,

You come out of the exam and the memory of it turns hazy,
Friends flock together to discuss solutions which sound flaky,
You do pass the exam, how? you begin to look for clues,
But all you can remember however, are the exam hall blues.

                                                                          - Rajmohan Yadav