While A student ,especially in India,has to give exams up-till almost his mid twenties ,there are certain things that change after his 10th standard. In the context of Indian education system ,it is “Open House” .“Open house” is the term used in India for the day when Exam Results are declared in school and the children along with their parents have to come and see their marks.

An Indian School “Open house” in one of the most nervous and fearful day for an Indian child. The thought of your parents seeing your exam papers and exam marks in school in front of all of your teachers and classmates is a thing that gives a lot of Indian children sleepless night on the day before the “open house”.

For me ,the day of the open house was started by waking up early . The situation in house is generally tense with both mom and dad using as minimum words as possible.While I was an above average student who always managed to scrap 80%+ in exams through last minute study ,”Open house” were still something I never looked forward to.

Generally each “Open house” has the same fixed format and the same types of “characters” who attend it .

Usually these are the the kind of the people who you can find at an open house:

The Adarsh balak : The Adarsh balak is generally the class topper or the class all rounder. He will be always called early in the morning by the class teacher to help her in doing the open house work like distributing exam papers to parents , guiding parents to their seats ,helping set up the class room for the coming parents.Generally the “Adarsh Balak” always scores high in the exam and thus is not stressed on Open house day. The Warrior Parent: The warrior parent is the parent who generally visits each teacher with the intentions of getting his son/daughter’s marks increased. He/She will ask the teacher ,”Why did you give X 4 marks for this answer but gave my son only 3 marks for the same answer” . Time will be sent haggling with teachers over 1-2 marks with some ferocious and intensity that will shame even the most hardcore Baniya over negotiation skills. While I do not think any less of such parents , I always wondered what is the use of haggling over 1-2 marks in an exam which wont be remembered or cared for by anyone in the future. Its almost as if getting that extra 1 mark will cause their son/daughter to get admission in Harvard or MIT with Barack Obama and Donald Trump personally coming to US airport to welcome them. The Commoners/ Peasants: The students who scored between 70%-85% were the commoners or the proverbial “Peasents” of the class. They generally occupy the middle and the back benches and keep quiet while the parents of the topper talk The Entertainment : Each class has that one parent that will scold and shout at her child in front of the whole class providing entertainment to everyone

I miss a lot of things about my childhood and school days .But “open houses” aint one of them.

Leave your open house stories below in the comment if you want to.

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