The wait increased tension

SURAT, May 5: They gathered in small huddles, wondering about the advances science had made. Throwing oblique glances at the monitor, the...

SURAT, May 5: They gathered in small huddles, wondering about the advances science had made. Throwing oblique glances at the monitor, they strained every nerve to indicate they were calm and at ease.

The very idea that HSC results would be available on the Internet had fascinated them. For each one of them, it was a test of their life, and never had they depended on computers so much as they did on Wednesday.To while away their time, students, parents and relatives deliberately avoided referring to the dreaded thing called results, and instead talked everything else: from ragging in engineering colleges to exorbitant donations in nursery classes.

As time ticked by they grew restless. They all knew it would take some time for the great experiment to come off, but it never did. From the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry to a vernacular daily and from the S V R Engineering college to cyber cafes, students had taken their positions by 3 p.m. The local cable channel had also made arrangement to beam the Internet results live!

By 5 p.m., they were all cursing the Gujarat Secondary Education Board and the State government, and even the people handling computers for what they thought was a collective system failure. The Great Internet Experiment had come a cropper in Surat.

Only 36 connections can be activated simultaneously in Surat, which boasts of at least 500 connections. If you add the persons who can access it from outside, getting hooked on to the Net is not the simplest of procedures. It was worse on Wednesday. Many simply could not get connected, leaving students, parents, relatives and everybody else high and dry.

For most the effort was simply not worth it. 8220;Papa, chalone kale result avanoj chhe,8221; said an exasperated student, unable to suppress his discomfort at having to stare at a terminal, which seemed to be in no mood to enlighten him. The operator kept on trying and gave up after a couple of hours.

The SGCCI, which managed to get connected around 3 pm, lost the link midway never to get hooked again. No one knew how the results were to be announced; whether a hard copy with all the numbers would be available or if individual numbers would be displayed. It remained a mystery for many.

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A vernacular daily was the worst sufferer. Droves of students had assembled outside its office and remained there for hours. In between came the merit list, which was duly prompted on the nearest walls. Anxious students would make a dash to the wall and return disappointed. Many passers-by stopped because they announce results of HSC General stream in the third week of May and SSC results would be declared in the first week of June.

He said the Board has changed the colour of the mark-sheets to a light green and laminated them in order to avoid tampering.

Vyas said the last date for submitting application for re-checking and re-assessment was May 20. He said the Board intends to complete the entire process of re-checking and re-assessment within three weeks from the last date of receiving applications.