Exams and Snowfall should Never Concide

It was the month of December - January in Shimla of the year 2002 - 2003 when i had my First Semester Examination of PG. U can imagine the chilled weather at that time of the year. It used to be cloudy all the time making us keep our heaters on 24 hours. Being a Governmet University we had free supply of electricity (THank God!!) otherwise we would have had frozen in that minus degree temperature. We had to study mostly all night, but I never was able to keep up for long and slept soundly inside my warm quilt. I had my examination centre at the Evening College at the Mall, just near the Post Office, where we had to reach by 1:00 pm daily for the exams. It is a very Old building with wooden stairs and wooden floors and it was more or less cold inside (thou not chilled).

The weather was going nearly minus everyday and the sky was always overcast. But things were going normal as it can be in that numbing weather.

And then one day "IT HAPPENED". It was the 31st of December 2003. We woke up early in the morning and what we saw was breathtaking. Everywhere and Everything had turned into WHITE. It had Snowed HEAVILY all night and the temperature was below zero.

Few of our hostel mates whos exams were over wanted us all to go out and play in the snow. (An opportunity which comes once in a while) but......... we politely refused and cursed the examinations. Ah! So Unfortunate for us (me and my roomie) that we had to study for the exams.

I left for my centre by 12:00 pm from the hostel. Studies was out of my mind and I was busy looking around, the path, the leaves, the foliage, the sky everything seemed to have worn a cloth of white. (Imagine Santa Clause walking the path down with a baggage if gifts!!)
Well thats what was going on in my mind.
Boarding the bus from Summer Hill to Shimla Proper and then climbing up the stairs towards Mall road was tedious in that cold. Even our breath seemed to freese just after blowing it out. I reached my destination, attempeted my papers and came out of the Evening college centre after 4:00 pm.

Evening was more wonderful than the morning. The mist and cloud was shielding the Mall and the Ridge. The Snow and Cold was everywhere. People had everything they could gather on their self. Sweaters, shawls, mufflers, cap, gloves anything that can keep us warm. The beauty of snowy evening was slowly coming to an end, and again Unfortunately we had to return back to our Hostel to prepare for the next day's exam.
Coming back we pacified ourselves heard how others had enjoyed the first snowfall of the season and how they are going to celebrate the next day "New Year-2003" ..

We just said to ourselves : Well Better Luck .. MAY BE NEXT YEAR ???