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Recap: Power cut, lots of pranks, phone calls and music followed in the chronological order. Although nothing much was done for the project, A was confident of making it up just as he does for other exams. They went out for dinner. Even H looked tired after all this. He waited for the power to be back. But why on earth would A care for all these? He set an alarm for 4am, convinced H that their project is going to rock at 9am the next day. He glanced at Lex and Yacc programs for 35 minutes and slept peacefully. H frowned and challenged A that he would add lot more features and study the back-end of the code and sleep only after finishing that. A wished him luck and slept :)
Few hours went by. A heard someone giggling and he woke up fresh. The sunshine was bright, birds were chirping and the air was warm. Next to A’s cot was standing H’s room mate with his watch pointing towards A’s face. A gave him a smile, and looked at the watch. The minute hand didn’t surprise him. It pointed towards 4. But he was straight away on his knees when he saw the hours hand. It had just crossed 9. Effectively, it was 9.20 AM !! They were just 320 minutes late in getting up!!
When A got up quickly, he realized that H was sleeping on his lap till then and he was thrown down to floor. He got up yelling at A and saw the time. He was equally shocked. In fact, more shocked. He muted himself for 2 minutes. With eyes red and full of tears, he started showing his mastery in using “kind” words. He threw everything available in the room over A (don’t know why). A was as confused as.. err.. Well, nothing would be as confused as he was at that moment!! The theory which he believed in all those days had just slapped him :)
H had fallen asleep soon after A did the previous night. He consoled himself. He looked as though he had made up his mind for something. Few minutes of silence and then he declared. It would be the last day he would speak to A and he never wants to be friends with such a casual, lazy and the most irresponsible person. He decided to make a call to his home that night and apologise for his mistake. A remained silent. Time - 9.45.
Room mate suggested them to give a try. He asked them to convince and take it up with 11am to 2pm batch. A felt it was worth giving a try. H didn’t disagree. He went to get ready asking A to copy the project into the cd. A did it and both were ready. Time – 10.15. They sat on different seats in the bus, although it was not crowded. They never spoke or looked at each other. Ohh yeah, H gave a wicked look at A when a girl sat next to A in the bus ;)
They decided what to speak, how to plead and what to do for the next 3 hours at the college gate. Time – 11.25. H rushed into office to take help from the office staff he knew. On the way, he saw the notice board and smiled. A rushed to him to see what was written there. Their exam was actually at 11 am and effectively they were just 30 minutes late. Fortune favours the brave !! A was already accustomed to such 30 min delays in theory exams (which was a strategic time out according to him..lol)
They entered lab. Heard few comments from examiners. Some smiles from batch mates. But they were too excited to listen to anyone. A got an easy lex program. H seemed to be happy with his chit as well. A showed the output by 12.10 pm. He was asked to get the project copied into the system. He winked at H and raised his thumbs. H followed him at 12.20. But both of them were on floor the very next moment. A had copied an older version of the Text Editor in the cd – the one which was demonstrated during lab internals !! Aaah, all the changes made after that were vanished and H seemed to be crying :)
They told the examiner that the system has virus and they need to run the virus scan. Examiner agreed and these two started it all over again. Everything was re-done except “Search and Replace”. They couldnt remember where to change. The examiner came and had a look at the features. She then asked them to go through the code, which they did. She then saw the “About” part. It flashed with bright colors –****Rohit Editor ****!! :)
She immediately took out their project reports and neither of their names was Rohit. Before she could ask, A came forward and told that Rohit was his nephew. He was born on the day they started the project. Hence, the project was named after the baby :) H winked and nodded.
The "Search and Replace" was still present at the main menu. Upon asking, the two said that they had developed the Editor from scratch and couldn’t find enough time to implement this feature. Examiner looked surprisingly happy. She then suggested them to work on it further and told that the project was excellent :) They both shook hands. They came out of lab by 1.10 pm. Both burst out of laughter. H told he would love to work further with A in the remaining projects and treated him with some chats and Maaza at MTR:)
Such was the terrible 5th sem project experience we had, Huthesh and me. Thanks to his patience and tolerating capacity.
PS Juniors : None of the actions mentioned here must be imitated in your student life!!
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