Result Day

He woke up at 6:00 even though he had slept at 5:00. No, he hadn’t been up all night talking to his girlfriend nor was he pulling a Netflix all-nighter. Sleep had just refused to come to him as he spent every minute tossing and turning. The day had come. The board results were supposed to come out at 12:00. He wasn’t ready. Nobody was. Except his relatives, of course, who started calling at 8:00 itself. His dad had decided to skip office. All excited about the result, everyone had forgotten he existed. All they were worried about was his percentage.

11:59. It was almost time. Everyone sat in front of the laptop with eyes fixated on the screen, waiting for the clock to tick. The boy didn’t care about what was going to show. All he cared for was his father’s BP problem and his mother’s smile. 12.00. The hands went onto the keyboard. Trembling with nervousness. He typed his roll number. Put in the details. Pressed enter.

95%, result: pass. His mother cried with joy and happily replied to the flooding, inquisitive texts. His father hugged him tightly and said “Engineer banega mera beta”.

Somewhere inside, his dreams suffocated.