Lack of sleep, constant sweating, rapid heart beat, high blood pressure, stress, anxiety and loss of appetite. No, its not hyperglycemia. Parents, if u notice any of the above symptoms in ur child, he or she is suffering from an acute case of Result phobia. That’s right fear of results, fear of underperformance and fear of not living upto a sea of expectations.
           Just today morning I received a call from a family friend in Mumbai. Instead of the usual (and more courteous) “How are you?”, I was greeted instead with “How were ur results? How much did u score??”. And asked with such anxiety that it would seem like a matter of life and death. Frankly, it is nearly a matter of life and death for many. But the problem is that the ‘many’ here doesn’t really refer to the students, it refers to their parents and the rest of the family who in many cases show more pronounced symptoms of result phobia than the child itself! Mrs. Raghavan, the family friend was not the only one. I happened to receive three more calls enquiring about my board results which are still a day away ( Thankfully!). With the Maharashtra board results so close, it is not a good time to be in my shoes or for that reason in the shoes of ne of the thousands of students who’ve taken the exam. It is during this time that u suddenly realize how many relatives and friends one has! Calls keep pouring in to enquire about our results. It makes me wonder why anyone beyond my family would be or should be so bothered about My result? Something tells me, its not genuine concern. Perhaps, people get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of it. In any case, it only makes me look forward to my results even less.
          My point is this- It is us, the students, who take the exam, who are forced into attending ever so many classes, who have to handle the stress of competition and the pressure of living upto the sky-high expectations of parents, each of whom believe their child to be a genius! We are the ones most affected by the results. It is our future at stake. It can make or break our self-confidence and indeed our careers. Parents of course are also equally affected and that is justified. The rest of course have nothing to do with it! Nothing at all! Then y must I be obliged to inform each of them of my result?! They didn’t bother to wish me Best of luck, no, but they’ll be there to offer their fake sympathies and give their clichéd advices on life and career. They don’t really care what happens to me, they just have to satisfy their curiosity n hope that I fare a bit worse than their own child so they can feel better about it. Now that is simply evil, if u ask me! I am answerable to myself and to my near family. People who sincerely care and who want the best for me. So I’ve decided I’m not going to take any calls tomorrow. Even if I get a ninety percent ill celebrate it with my near and dear ones because I know itll mean the world to them.
        In fact, me and my pals, we made a pact yesterday. We are NOT going to ask each other about our results. Results aren’t going to change nething for us.….cuz between us, nothing else but friendship matters; between us, we don’t need to give ne answers or explanations; between us, its just Us- us having a good time together and being there for each other as we have been so far. To our parents, if we don’t perform well, we promise we’ll put our heart and soul into whatever we do and make it up to them. And as for the rest of the world- u should jolly well learn to keep ur annoying nose out of other people’s business!