Ch. 7: Exam ends part 1

With a smile on her visibly relieved face, Riya meets her father, who has come to receive her at the examination centre. Next, she handed over her bag to her father, and moved to the car door. She opened it with a bang, and in no time that she got in, she had her headphones on. Her favorite podcast; she managed to prevent herself from listening to all these ‘exam days’; is being played on her phone.

Her father, a rather indifferent person cum loving father, got to his driving seat. In no time, they hit the highway to their building.

“Your exam go alright, didn't it, Riya beta? ” asked her father without turning back from his seat.

“Riya, do you hear me beta? I asked you something” reiterates her father on not getting a response.

“Haa, yeah yeah btw what we're you asking? ” asks Riya, rather startled.

“Exams.. Paper.. Good”

“Oh it was fine. Today we had business studies, you know. Paper was super easy… Couple of questions repeated… Predictable paper” answered Riya.

“Umm.. ” Her father don't seem to listen the whole part of it. But surely he did what he wanted! In about half an hour, they reach home. Right at entrance was Riya's Mom. “How did the exam go? ”, she roars as soon as the car gate opened. “ Good good”, came the reply. “How much? 90+ or 100”

“The former stays some chance the latter a distant dream, choice is yours”, answers Riya.

“ Sumit, did you look at this girl. She can‘t understand how her mother feels. ” says Riya’s mom addressing her father. “Oho you two don‘t start again. And Smita(Riya’s Mom), don‘t mind her yaar. She’s tired. She needs to chill out.”, says her father in a rather calm voice. Now, no sooner they enter their home, did Riya meet her Grandma and two neighbouring aunties and her aunt having a chat in the courtyard. Elated to see Riya, they yells in almost a chorus, “ Riya, how did your exam go”. Rather disgruntled to find them, she replies nonchalantly, “Fine”. “Then what do you plan to study next, B. COM or business”, asks one of the aunties. However before Riya could clarify, another voice roared, “Why not engineering? ”. “ Yeah cloud engineering my relative‘s pursuing, it’s a good choice.”

“Aree Riya leave these.. You do UPSC. Then you'll have engineers working under you” said her aunt jumping into the debate. Getting into such fruitless debate after completing her month long exam is the last thing Riya wanted. But there she was in the middle of a debate that centered her but without her voice. To be sure, she did try to register her voice into the debate but without success. Fed up by this futile exercise, she heads to her room. Her parents disappeared from the scene long ago. Just as she moved to her room and closed the door with a bang, she could hear her grandma‘s voice, “what rubbish you all say.. For a girl, it’s just teaching if anything”. That intervention did not change anything, if only, it added to the power with which she banged the door to her room.