It was a fine Monday morning in the month of March 2017. Okay, well, now I realize that the words fine and Monday morning are oxymorons. Add to that the fact that we were having our second Internal Assessment tests of the semester. So, all in all, very few reasons to call the morning a “fine” one. To add to my troubles, the hostel canteen people had cooked their infamous onion dosas which used to taste so bad that they came out faster than they went in. Sorry for the disturbing mental image but that is how it was.

Hence, I decided to do what any sane person would do in that scenario, quickly gulp down a couple cups of tea with a packet of Parle G biscuits and ran off to the exam hall, for if you were even a minute late for the exam, you would have to write an apology letter to the Head of Department saying how sorry you are and how you won’t repeat such a “rebellious” action again.

So anyway I greeted my friends and classmates and wished them good luck, switched off and kept my electronics in my backpack, took a pen and sat in my seat and the exam began. After a period of ten or so minutes of pin drop silence, a phone in one of the student’s bags started to ring. I recognized that as the ringtone of one of my friend’s spare old phone who was seated just a couple of rows ahead of me. Needless to say, the invigilators were furious. My friend sheepishly but quickly got up, hurried to his bag and switched off the phone. Well, no big deal.

After another ten minutes, the phone began to ring again. I was startled. I thought the guy had switched his phone off. I began thinking, well, maybe there is some paranormal shit happening in this college and only today we’re seeing it manifest. At this point I was completely zoned out of the exam. It was at that precise moment when the owner of the cursed mobile phone spoke up, “Sir, Can I take the battery out?” The irritated invigilators had to give him permission as it was distracting the rest of the students as well. The students however, didn’t look distracted so much as hysterical. Everyone was laughing like a hyena at that point at the absurdity of the situation.

After the test, instead of talking about how the paper went, I asked my friend, “What the hell was that all about?” He said, ” It was the my alarm going off. In some mobile phones, alarms can go off even when the phone is in the switch off mode. So I had to remove the battery.” “And what was that invigilator telling you after the test?” I further pried. “Oh nothing, he said ‘buy one better mobile bro’.”

Anyway, I thanked him for bringing a bit of humour into a dismal day.

Tell me about embarrassing situations from your school or college in the comments section. I’d love to hear about them.

Much love,

–SG