Board exams, virtue of crows and More...

With most of the states in India pushing their 10th & 12th standard students to the ultimate torture called Board Exams beginning this week and with my own little Kishore drudging for his Class X Board, I could not escape thinking about my exams...

My Board exams happened quite a while ago and I was fortunate enough not to be tortured like the kids these days. But I remember how uneasy, troubled and tortured I was, the last time I sat for an exam - for my Diploma in Sanskrit. I did score a decent 89%. But whatever prose, poetry and grammar were so difficult at that time, are so relishable and easy to understand now, three years later.

Even the toung-twisting subhashitam (proverbial verse) like the one below, flows on in my mind with absolutely no stutters, every time I go to the terrace to feed the crows before food-time...
काक आहव्यतॆ काकान् याचकस्तु ना याचकान्
काक याचकयॊर् मध्यॆ वरम् काकॊ न याचकान्
Kaaka aahavyate kaakaan Yaachakastu na yaachakaan
Kaaka yaachakayor madhye Varam kaako na yaachakaan
Meaning - a crow beckons other crows [to share whatever little food it found], whereas a beggar does not beckon other beggars; in a comparison between crows and beggars(humans), crows are the better and not beggars!

The point of reflection here is not the crows, beggars or exams but the cause of unease before an exam or in a similar situation? Dawns on me - if I can recite the verses now, I must have known it three years ago also. Then why was I cracking up before the exams? And this applies to the daily exam of life.

What is the invisible pressure that makes life so difficult? IGNORANCE (will I pass, how much I'd score)? FEAR ABOUT THE UNKNOWN (what if I score poorly and fail)?

Ignorance and fear are inseparable and hence happen to be the precise reasons for ANY trouble. Now I understand what this means.."Only the fearless achieve freedom." After all, Swami Viv would not bluff.

Let me remember this at the next "exam" time...