On Your Marks

When exams are driving you up the wall and everyone around you talks only about books and studies, this collection of stories offers some relief. It treats exams as a source of mischief and fantasy rather than dread.

The stories ask the kind of questions only fiction would dare. Did Early Man and Woman make their children sit fastest-firemaker-first exams? What happens when a gorilla gatecrashes the examination hall and poses difficult Gorilla Pythagoras questions? Who is a zgnogir, and did he pass the hardest test ever when he was sent to Mumbai? Did Lakshmi Perumal really make the philosopher's stone during her Chemistry practicals? And how did exam day solve the problem of a boy with a very long name?

The stories come from some of the best children's writers in the country, among them Jerry Pinto, Shreekumar Varma, Deepa Agarwal, Shabnam Minwalla and Andaleeb Wajid. Expect a laugh on nearly every page and a good remedy for the examination blues.