A SCENE IN THE EXAMINATION HALL
Notes: After the warning bell after the invigilators distrubute the question papers. After one hour-some candidates found copying-expelled. ]
The scene in an examination hall is an imposing one. One hardly forgets it. As soon as the warning bell goes candidates enter the hall and take their seats. There is confused noise in the hall. The dreaded bell rings. The invigilators enter with the question papers. The confused noise suddenly ceases as if by the touch of a magic wand. Question papers and answer-scripts are distributed. Candidates hurridly go through the question papers, and then there is the seene of all scenes. Some candidates look happy, as though they have got what they expected. Some look blankly, now at the fans, now at the walls, now at the invigilators, as if they have been searching for something which has slipped out of their grip. Some go white in nervours excitement and cry for water. There is pin-drop silence all around.
An hour passes. The dead silenceof the first hour takes leave. Some candidates ask the invigilators for permission to go outside. Now and then a candidate demands a loose sheet of paper. The hall takes on a busy look as the two hours pass. Some dash their pens through the scripts; some sit silently striking their foreheads with their pens, as though they are at pains to dig out something from their heads. At times a candidate or two are found copying from a small piece of paper hidden beneath their scripts. The invigilator expels them: The examinees leave the hall when the final bell goes.
