Sneha studies for her pre-boards on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Sneha Ghosh sat by her books and studied for exams. Neither did the sky fall nor did the seas rise to inundate the world on Friday.

The anticipation of adventure (made more appetising by the hope of not having to take exams) ended in a laugh. The Class X student of Mount Carmel High School will still have to take her pre-board chemistry exam on Saturday as the world did not end on Friday.

Sneha, a subscriber of the Apocalypse predictions, said: “You will laugh at me if I tell you that I was hopeful the Apocalypse would occur today (Friday) and I would not have to take my exam.”

Some people all over the world had braced themselves for cataclysmic events that were supposed to end the world. The “believers” had based their conviction on the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, created by the American Maya civilisation, according to which a 5,125-year-old cycle ended on Friday. Astronomical, meteorological and political experts, though, had dismissed all apocalyptical predictions.

The desire and hope for the end of the world was not merely the fantasy of an adolescent. Even adults had subscribed to it.

Dr Amulya Kumar Singh, an orthopaedic surgeon, had told The Telegraph on Tuesday that he had begun to believe in Doomsday predictions on the insistence of his religious mother and wife. But Friday was another day at work for him: he performed an operation at a hospital.

“I woke up around 4.30am as my son arrived for his winter vacation from New Delhi. Then I went to St Xavier’s High School to attend a programme and reached my clinic around 9am,” he said.

Singh, too, had a moment of concern during his otherwise normal day, when he thought that the world was on the brink of destruction. “There was a critical moment during the operation. I thought the Doomsday predictions were going to come true. Thankfully nothing happened by the grace of God. The operation was successful,” he said.