Iceman

Being students we know the anxiety we have while going about preparing for an exam. As we get closer to the doomsday, we would love it if everything goes according to convenience- finding the scientific papers readily, not having to go to the college library just to get access to some journals that you have to pay from any other source of internet. What would be great is if you had a room mate who would love cooking scrumptious meals just so that you can carry on with your preparation! Last thing we want is something like your bicycle with a torn tube, or too much snow or rain that makes it hard for you to get around to library or even while shopping for groceries.
Well, this month was exam time for lot many students of biology. And many will concur when I say that biology exams are not just mildly unpleasant- the complex words involved, the statistics they use these days to prove work in research, the genius papers that you have to understand to write a well structured answer. I might have exaggerated a bit considering it was 'take home exam' in Genetics. But nevertheless, it means we have to be that much more accurate in finding the answers, even if they were just 10 questions with a fortnight to finish.
Personally, I take my own jolly time to get the '.pdf' files necessary for helping solve them questions. It took me 4days to just get me to look at the questions handed by email. On day 5 having looked at the questions, you feel confident that it can be done in good time before the due date, and so you relax. Only virtually when you start working on the first question (you are almost in the second week by then) do you actually realise that you need help. Since working with friends is allowed during this type of exam, I used to walk to my good friend Yonathans place. We used to share research material and talk how to go about a tricky question.
Once when I got to his house, he was trying to start his notebook. When I got by him, he tells me smilingly, "I think my laptop is bust". It was 4 days to submission then. He had no back up copy of the file with the answers he had typed in by then. He had lost all the .pdf files stored in it. He had to use the library (which was about a mile away) from then on to virtually start from scratch!
He said that to me with a smile! If was in his shoes, I would have flipped and panicked like I had to get married the next day.
He cool-ly gets ready- wears his layers of warm clothing, gets his gloves and hat on and says to me- " I'll walk to the library and you can join me there if you have problems with any question ".  I was blank. We had this other fella with us that very day when it happened, and I asked him, "Would you have taken it so well?". He says to me immedietly," Are you sh"%"$& me!".
Sometimes I would meet him in the library working on one of them library computers. I would discuss the answers and offer him research material that would accelerate his answers. What astonished the most was this- not once did I hear him say anything like, "man, I wish the computer had'nt conked up at a time like this". I was hoping he would. I wished he would. That would make me feel better.

He was a superman to me for having taken that crisis so gracefully.

He is a man of faith, I could tell that by all the religious bling he had in his room. Did it have something to do with his reaction? Did he have a special gene in him that codes for some kind of hormone that allows him to keep his brain serenaded no matter what? (not sounding like a geek, hopefully)

I don't know. I guess I will always wonder how he did it. He actually managed to finish the test a day in advance while I was still two answers away. He did it. He did it in style. What can I say, I hang out more with him hoping to induce myself some goodness from him. He is my personal hero- a man who stays 'cool' no matter what, coining a name 'The Iceman'.

I know what you might be thinking- are the results of that test out yet. No, they are not out yet.
;)