Morung Express Review Title: Chasing 33% Author: Jitendra Jain Publisher: Notion Press Pages: 175 Price: Rs. 210 Paperback, Rs. 120 Kindle Edition Going through Matriculation/Class 10 Board exams in the Indian Union can bring trauma and turmoil. Scarred, some of us have spent the better part of the rest of our lives unlearning ethos imparted through the education system. Jitendra Jain, author of a 2017 book titled ‘Chasing 33%’, however, is at the top of the game, embracing the world of competition as a senior executive at a multinational firm. Much like his protagonist, Jain grew up in Golaghat. His book traverses the life of a fictional 16-year-old and his friends in Dergaon, Golaghat, Assam, on the cusp of their Class 10 board exams. Like many of us, these kids have the itch of doing something completely different on the eve of the next paper. From playing cricket to watching movies in shady theatres or even creating their own technology, the protagonist makes it clear: that he is up to no good. He promptly attracts insults from all quarters for not keeping up with the most important event of his life. The book is divided predominantly into subject-wise chapters. They tell the story of how the young elements deal with life before every paper, with some aiming to score a pass 33 percent and be done with the torrid affair. Narratives exist galore from the North East region but rarely one that tells of how a non native of the region experiences the annual rut of an imposition. The most exciting bits of the book, thus, are the ones where the author tells us the geographical or economic-socio-cultural aspects of the non native protagonist’s life— escaping on a train from Furkating, regional news that affects him, friendships that squeeze him and his friends through situations, or expectations and bottlenecks faced by second generation migrant families. But these contextual, even funny, bits are just that. Bits. They are few and far in between. The author seems keen to keep the book short and easy to read even for those who may not have won the board exam-battle. This does not make us any less or more than who we are, is the message. Unabashed fat shaming and degrading elders throughout the narrative show how ruthless children can be when values of respect, love, kindness or empathy get left out of education; similarly corporal punishment gets its moment in the spotlight. Awaiting excitement though, we wonder till the end if three random dogs featuring more than once will find parallels with the three friends in the story. Alas, no such moment appears as lectures are delivered, and institutional injustices corrected by way of ‘clever’ answers to exam questions. It scratches the surface of what its hero feels is an unjust system but puts a full stop at the ‘judgmental’ aspect of the score card. It does not attempt to rescue those less fortunate, those who may never even get a chance to study till class 10 or those with no option but to do well, nor does it want to overhaul the system. The dilemma raised is left as it is, at the level of a dilemma. But that is alright as the first time writer remains uniformly focused on the message he tries to portray—Board exams results, as his hero puts it, are “as good as shit.”