Know more about On Your Marks- The Book of Crazy Exam Stories
On Your Marks- The Books of Crazy Exam Stories from Talking Cub (an imprint of the Speaking
Tiger) is a collection of short stories by new and veteran authors of children’s
books.
The
anthology has been edited by Sudeshna Shome Ghosh. Some of the contributors to this
anthology shared a few details about their stories.
Title: The Happy Birthday Exam
Song
Description: Anandita has
crammed for her Chemistry exam but when she enters class, someone sings a song
that instantly gets lodged in her head and she forgets all the equations she
has learned. What will she do now?
Inspiration: Sometimes a song gets
stuck in our heads and nothing can remove it. Imagine if that were to happen to
during an exam!
*
Title: Gorilla and the girl
Author: Menaka Raman
Description: It's about a young girl who's very bright but doesn't really
test well.
Inspiration:
There are many children out
there with wide and varied interests and intelligences, but feel they aren't
'smart enough' because they don't do well in written exams.
*
Title: The Magician Who Had a
Cold
Description: A girl with a cold turns
up unexpected results in an exam.
Inspiration: Sometimes mistakes lead
to the most unexpected results and prove that knowledge is far more than
blindly following instructions.
*
Title: The Bestie Test
Description: Exam fever turns the prim
and proper Apeksha virtually into a zombie, her besties Anandi and
Abhiri try all kinds of crazy tricks to bring her back to normal, thus
clearing the "Bestie Test".
Inspiration: When my granddaughter ruefully shared that
her best friend forced her to eat her vegetables in school, I found the
seeds of a comical story about friendship.
*
Title: Lakshmi Perumal's New
Label
Description: An alchemist is convinced
that the fabled Philosopher's Stone has been discovered by accident, during a
class 6 chemistry exam.
Inspiration:
I've
always hated my chemist practical exams -- habitually mixed the wrong salts
with the wrong acids. I figured I'd take that and channel it into a fun story.
*
Title: The Exam Ghost
Author:
Lavanya Karthik
Description: Three boys discuss a
school legend right before a dreaded exam
Inspiration: The story
is inspired by fear - of exams, of teachers, of failure, of parents and
their insane expectations - and the power of a good laugh in dealing with it
all.
*
Title: A Zgnogir in Mumbai
Author:
Shabnam Minawala
Description: It's about a breed of undead creatures called
Zgnogirs who want to be as feared and hated as vampires and zombies -- but are
held back by their awful, old-fashioned examination system.
Inspiration: I am a mother of three. I see how
counterproductive exams can sometimes be -- and that is what I wanted to convey
in a funny way.
*
Title: The Final Itch
Author:
Chatura
Rao
Description: It’s about a ten year old
Golu’s tryst with the first final exams of his life…made harder by the looming
presence of his grandfather, a
celebrated alumni of the boarding school
and made somewhat inconvenient by an it itch in Golu’s pants!
Inspiration: I wrote this story
because I know how small and stupid I’ve felt
before every final exam, and how I’ve prayed for divine intervention
which mostly didn’t come , but …I got through them okay. My sympathies are with
the Golu’s of the world.
*
Title: The Boy with Four Names
Description: Disgusted with classmates ridiculing his long
name, Satwik (etc) decides to leave his school, but exams and weird dreams
derail his clever scheme.
Inspiration: The
given subject was exams. When I thought up the boy’s name, I lost myself in the
possibilities of a long “family” name. That became the crux then. Since I
generally let myself go with children’s stories, this one became more than what
the one-liner had bargained for.
*
Title: Welcome Home, Sugar
Author:
Harshikaa
Udaasi
Description: The story is about how an AI is an inevitable
part of our lives and …well, read the book to find out more!
Inspiration:
kids
around me always seem to know more than the adults around them (Yours truly
included!)
To buy a copy of On Your Marks- The Books of Crazy Exam Stories click here.
(PS: The book contains stories from a couple of other authors who couldn't be reached when this post was published.)
Very interesting book. The kids and their parents too should read this book.
ReplyDeleteDidn't realize that exams can be such a great inspiration to wonderful expressions. Great reviews and thank you for compiling them together.
ReplyDelete