Exam-hunger

Most people talk about exam fever, but does anyone talk about exam-hunger?

What’s that, you may ask! It is definitely not the ‘hunger to write exams’, rest assured.

Exam-hunger is the sudden and exponential increase in hunger exhibited by students, when they are preparing for exams.

What moms bake or cook or buy never seems to be enough. One of your children is at the refrigerator all the time, raiding.

Was I like this, I wonder. Yes…my thoughts go back to college and hostel life, where we would pool our money and treat ourselves to samosas and coffee. A small plate with 5 pieces shared by eight or nine friends.

Studying late into the night, shocked to see some chapters for the first time, wondering if we slept through the lesson.

Trying to stay awake with barrels of tea or coffee, feeling hungry, cooking instant noodles, wolfing it down, studying some more. Feeling world-weary. Battling sleep, compensating for the lack of sleep by eating. Small comforts as we plodded through exam week every semester.

My children now exhibit this familiar symptom as they prepare for their finals.

“Is there anything to eat, Mom?”, they ask every half hour.

I keep stocking up, trying to balance between healthy food and fun food (not calling it junk food lest I activate my mom conscience)!

Midnight meals, mini meals, mini breaks for snacks, all to feed the brain to do well in the exams.