Fear, tears, struggle: View of CUET from the front row

When Richa Kumari, 19, left her home in west Delhi’s Shadipur for the CUET examination centre on Friday, she had little idea about the chaos that was waiting to greet her.

New Delhi: When 19-year-old Richa Kumari left her home in west Delhi’s Shadipur for the CUET examination centre on Friday, she had little idea about the chaos that was waiting to greet her. The Class 12 student had been allocated the examination centre at the Netaji Subhas University of Technology in Dwarka where she was due to appear for the CUET in six domain subjects —Hindi, Home Science, Economics, Business, Accountancy and general tests —spread across both the first and second slots. Excited yet anxious, she reached the centre around 7:30 am, well ahead of time anticipating long queues.

Students arrive to appear for the first slot of CUET-UG at North Campus in New Delhi.

On reaching Dwarka, however, she got a rude shock when she learnt that the centre allocated to her had been changed at the last minute. A day prior to the exam at 5.47pm., Kumari’s father Manoj Kumar Chaudhary had received a call from an unknown number informing them about some change in the examination centre allocated to her. “I was at work when I got a call from someone. Since I am not familiar with the modalities of the exam, I shared Richa’s number with them and asked them to inform her about the details they wanted to share. However, when my daughter tried calling back on the same number, she was unable to do since the number did not allow incoming calls,” said Chaudhary.

After failed attempts at reaching the number from the testing agency, Kumari once again checked the admit card but found no change. Until Friday morning, there was no change in the examination. With written proof mentioning the examination centre, she did not see forsee any major troubles while appearing for the exam.

“The security guards posted at the Dwarka centre told us that the paper had been cancelled. He asked me to check my email and it was only then that I found out that the centre had been shifted to Maurice Nagar,” said an incredulous Kumari. Racing against time, the father-daughter duo took a rickshaw to the Dwarka Mor Metro Station. “The rickshaw charged us ₹40 from the Dwarka centre till the metro station. The metro took ₹100 for the two of us and we reached the Vishwavidyalaya station from where we took another rickshaw till the new centre,” shared Kumari’s father. The two only managed to reach the examination at 9:02.

“She cried throughout the entire journey from Dwarka to Maurice Nagar. With time running out, she asked me to do something but there was nothing I could do. I ensured that she reached the centre somehow but what can one do if they are not allowing her to enter even when the mistake is hers,” said Chaudhary, who works with a food delivery company. While she was initially stopped by the gaurd at the gate, she rushed inside the stadium after the guards reopened the doors on receiving directions from higher authorities. She did not have the printout of the updated admit card, the guards allowed her to enter the premises.

The relief of making it to the examination centre did not last for long though. While he was sharing his ordeal, the conversation is interrupted by a call from Richa, who was calling from inside the examination centre at 9:10 am. While ten minutes had elapsed since the beginning of the exam, she and others were yet to enter the examination room.

“They are not allowing us to go inside. There are many girls and we don’t know what to do,” Richa said while speaking to HT over the phone on Friday morning. The next second, she cut the conversation short and disconnected the call. “They are now allowing us to go inside,” she said. “They were stopping me initially but for some reason, they opened the gates eventually and by 9.20 am I was inside the exam hall,” Kumari informed post the completion of the exam.

Around 1.10pm, she stepped outside the examination centre and greeted her father, who was by now visibly stressed since she was among the last to exit the stadium where the examination took place. “The paper was good. The general knowledge was a little tricky but not very tough. I was able to complete it but I have no time and need to get ready for the remaining papers now. I am exhausted,” said Kumari. The father-daughter duo left the examination centre around 1:15 on the lookout for a place where Kumari could eat something before the initiation of the remaining exams. However, on account of exam-triggered anxiety, she eventually skipped lunch. “I just couldn’t get myself to eat,” she said.

After a break of nearly an hour, she queued up once again to sit for exams in the second slot. The exam lasted from 3pm till 6.45 pm, this time without any glitches and delays. She reached home at 7 pm after a day of mixed experiences. “I hope I get through the exam after all these challenges,” said Kumari, who aspires to become a teacher.