Failed From Far
The most awaited result got announced, but
Internet hadn't landed the soil of my country then.
Televisions were tabled in few pocketed places,
Still they worked, minute and achromatic.
With huge audience circled, signal was word alien,
Viewers would holler in unison, "It's raining!"
I now understand the fluctuation of signal,
We'd leave the jammed hall. No rain outside!
Correspondences saw only typewriters,
That sounded a poll pecking by a woodpecker.
A single wireless station would be queued
With people waiting for, "Pom, pom, Tango, Charlie."
Communication gravely sought for transmission,
Three-band radio justified on its little way,
Only richer lots bought and owned pompously
And my country had a single frequency squeezed.
The announcement was radioed in a succinct brief-
"The result of ICSE examination, 1997 is out."
No more, no less, of the India-based examination,
I jumped on my toes only to feel crushed later.
My kiths were dejected with my abortive result,
From somewhere, a hearsay they heard, not an official.
Their dejection pierced my heart, agonizingly.
I'd have to visit my alma mater, whatever was the result.
A two-day-long journey, not by luxurious car
But on the hood of a truck on a bumpy roads,
Only the Indian highway would ease the journey
Like relieving the physical pangs of exhaustion.
The mental turmoil intensified as I neared
My school where the sheets would be displayed,
The wall would announce to a hundred lot of us.
The failure provoked sleepless nights and journey.
My heart thudded as I entered the school premise,
Lips dried, even a pool of water wouldn't wet them.
Shivering, perplexity and numbness, crippled me,
I just wanted me alone to declare the performance.
I walked up the staircase with thundering emotion,
The entrance seemed gloomily unwelcoming,
Saw I a crowd of my mates craning and giraffing,
On the either sides of the entrance were sheets full.
No greetings, no handshaking, I just shied away,
Waited for the crowd to be thinly populated.
Just in one particular column to refer, wanted I,
PCA or PCNA - the biggest summary of a year's toiling.
My comrades filed out slowly, forward I lunged,
Searching my name, throbbing took its tempo.
Found the name, from the wall, PCA grinned, gleefully,
Pass Certificate Awarded. So, it decided this fate of mine.
©?????Khachab Dorji????
Copyright © Khachab Dorji | Year Posted 2021
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