First Professionals: The Exam Preparation

First Professionals: The Exam Preparation

The news hit us like a ton of bricks. Punjab University had announced the date for the first professional exam. This was not a good news for most of us. Sure, there were a few ‘overachievers’ like Mannan Babar and Aamir Ali and others, who studied regularly and could take the exam tomorrow and pass easily.

However, the rest of us studied for exams like an old car with engine trouble. We lurched forward on all four cylinders for a day or two for the sub-stage and about a week or so for the Stage. The rest of the time, we simply stalled.

Therefore, for most of us the news meant that the party was over. We would have to drastically change our lifestyle for a couple of months, if we had any hopes of passing the professionals. I realize I am applying the term 'us' rather loosely and that some of my readers would be exception to this generalization. Please let me know via your comments if you would like to be excluded from this group I call 'us'.

Since we were no longer going to college, some of us formed small study groups to study. My study group was with Saroosh and Afzal Saeed. Saroosh’s dad had passed away at a young age recently and the whole class felt the pain. When he asked Afzal and me to form a study group, we agreed.

We decided that Afzal Saeed’s house would be our place of study. I was living without my parents at my grandfather’s house on Temple Road. I drove everyday from Temple Road to Model Town Block A to study with Afzal Saeed and Saroosh. Altogether, it was about two hours round trip for me each day but I did not mind. That was two hours less I had to study. Another big attraction was the home cooked meal I got at Afzal Saeed’s house and his mom was a great cook and a gracious host.
To take a break from studies we watched ‘Mind Your Language’ on TV or played Chess or Carom with Afzal’s younger brother Jami.

Sometimes after studying at Afzal’s house, I would go to Saroosh’s house. Understandably, Saroosh was deeply affected by his Dad’s passing away. I did observe a few changes in him. For one, he had greatly increased his smoking to a level where he was chain-smoking. Secondly, Saroosh would play the song ‘Dufli waalay dufli Baja' repeatedly. The song seemed to soothe him. This song is forever etched in my brain along with memories of our preparations for first professional.

On my way home, sometimes I would stop by at Shahid Bashir’s house. Not to study, but to chat. Another attraction at Shahid’s house was of course the home-cooked meal. It was a very big deal for someone such as myself, who was neither at a hostel nor at parent’s home.
Thus, the next two months went painfully slow. My mind felt like a pail of water with hole in the bottom. The more I filled it with knowledge, the more seem to leak out from the bottom. Mercifully, the preparation time was over and it was time to take the exams.

I realize that mine is just on many different stories on how we prepared for the exams. I hope you will share your stories. How did the people in boys and girls hostels prepared for the exams? What about the day scholars?