Being Roll No. 1

“What is there in a name?” The famous Shakespearean dialogue may sound मिस्क़ुओतेद if your initials begin with the alphabet “A”. Once your name starts with ‘Ab’ or ‘Aa’, chances increase that you may suffer from the endless trauma of being crowned the tag of ‘Roll No. 1”. In my school days luckily the label was always beyond my reach courtesy a guy named “Aanand”. The mysterious ‘Aa’ in front of his name made him a permanent Roll No.1. Ultimately my fortune betrayed me, and I became the victim of such unexpected coincidence in RIMS.First time I got the task of being Roll 1 was in the 1st M.B. Exam. While everybody else were busy telling their next neighbour to cooperate during the exam, I had the uninvited opportunity of having invigilator sitting in front of me. The situation just prevented me from even moving a bit to the right or to the back (oo left side I had the wall). Then I came to know of a ‘Golden rule’ — No matter whatever be the sitting arrangement, the only person in front of a Roll No. 1 would be the examiner. At the end of the exam (the moment the bell rang), my answersheet was confiscated with exceptional time accuracy.

After the exam my next headache was ‘Viva’. Viva always seemed more dreadful to me as one never knows which question from the endless no. of pages is made to trouble you.Being first one to experience the viva, a Roll No. 1 serves as a ‘Guinea Pig’ and everybody just learns from your encounter with (or by) the examiner. My fear turned into reality in the biochemistry viva. Fully energised from a cup of tea, I got a volley of 20-25 questions from the external sir in specs. The torture continued for more than half an hour. As if this ordeal was not enough, he asked our HOD Sir “Sinhaji!Ap bhi kuch puch lijiye?”. Sensing that I had got more questions than deserved he replied “Ap to kuch chhore hi nahi. Hum kya puchhe?”
I was relieved. My problems (of being Roll No. 1) are short lived and would disappear after the exam, I thought. This seemed to be a gross misinterpretation and the nightmare continued to haunt me. I have to be over cautious during attendance as it starts with me. A slight delay & you can easily end up in the absentee list. But practically more heart wrenching situation arises in the case of proxy. Once I acquired the uncoveted position, I lost the privilage of proxy. My proxy became the most risky affair. Either a teacher identifies (A Roll No. 1) or is hyper attentive at the beginning of attendance. My fortune might turn against me at any moment, even in between the lectures. Nobody knows when an obscure question will mysteriously emerge in an otherwise calm professor’s mind in between a boring lecture. Unable to point at a particular guy – as nobody looks towards him at that time – he would say “Anybody in the Class”. When no one
volunteers, a more familiar sentence echoes “Roll No. 1, Stand up”. This is the frequent scenario with myself at the receiving end.But there are a few positives too. You may be the first one whose answer sheet is taken but also receive the question paper before others.Ultimately (unfortunately) your marks and attendance is yours (No proxy) only. One learns to adjust to various situations with time, the better option being to enjoy the ‘Numero Uno’ tag.

– Abhishek Pandit
2007 Batch,RIMS,ranchi