Her family asked mine 'ladka karta kya hai' and I felt myself shrink to the size of my roll number. Love is patient, sure, but relatives keep loudly checking the clock over its shoulder.

Upper Lake at midnight doesn't ask you what your rank is. Sometimes I just sit on the wall and let the water pretend everything's fine for a while. Cheaper than therapy, though colder in winter.

Reading twelve hours a day but my brain retains samosa stall locations better than the Constitution. Anyone else revise a topic thrice and still go completely blank in the mock? Asking for a very stressed friend, who is me.

Four marks

Missed the prelims cutoff by four marks. Four. I've replayed those exact questions so many times they live rent-free in my skull. Still trying to believe the attempt failing isn't the same as the person failing.

Devansh, Bhopal. Third attempt at MPPSC, second-hand books, first-class dreams. If you're also living exam to exam and pretending it's fine, pull up a chair here by the jheel with me.