Five Minutes

Well that is all I have for you dear page. Five minutes. Thoughts jumble out, words fly out of my ears, my nostrils flare in anticipation, fingers fly on the keyboard (thank god I can keep my eyes on the screen).

What do I tell you in these short, too short, five minutes? Why not this, that today is the last day of the monster's exams. And yes, before you snort and smirk, it is true. Mine child has exams. Around six days of it. And today is the culmination of it all. The acid test so to speak. If the rest were small fry, this is the big kahuna. Hindi! (Watch me exclaim thus next year and say Tamizh!). Little fingers on the 'ksha' move this way and that and forget the route and come back in the wrong direction. The big picture view is hilarious, but the small picture one is occasionally bothersome. I have a big chart, right in the living room, driving my mum crazy, so ugly it is hanging on some electrical box type thing of yore. She might read it in her mind, is my argument. When she takes a break from Calvin & Hobbes you mean, sarcastics (go with it, worse people than I have invented worse words such as irregardless) she, putting away my collection, locking the cup-board, and throwing away the key (there IS someone in my head and its not me). I do accept her argument however but retort nevertheless with some acidity.

Studying for exams was always an 'exciting' option. No one sat with me. No one 'egged me on' back then. Now I wonder why it should not be the same here. I think what is missing is an iota of mental maturity (the vocabulary belies the lack of this maturity, but still, I am the mother, I should know). Not to mention the fact that this generation of children seem to rebel and exhibit angst about ten years earlier than we did (as teenagers, that was what we did for a living is it not?). Still, compared to some other stories mothers at school spin, I think I see a spark in her eyes which I recognise.

My five minutes are up, in fact more has transpired. Time to go. I mention in passing that I think exams are wonderful, though meaningless when it comes to evaluating ones abilities for anything. They give you the chance to show off your knowledge, that is true, they let you identify the lacuna, that is also true, they give you closure, so that is something everyone should like, not just us mad-caps. But yes, marks are meaningless. I admit it. Even as I mark across sheets with thick red lines.