Schooldays!!!

102 out of 100

I was in class VIIth. Our half yearly exams were over and we were eagerly waiting for our answer sheets. Our Mathematics teacher entered our class room with a bundle of papers.


“GoOOOOOod MoOOOOrning MaAAAAduum”… (A group of 40 young westlife, boyzone, backstreet in unison)
“Goodmorning …sit down….”

Gita Madam (Athanni – 50ps) - One of my favorite teachers. Tall, handsome…oops sorry……tall, huge….no not huge….how about... Tall, monstrous (now that sounds nice), lips ‘smeared’ with lipstick, big eyes, hardly smiles and rest you can assume. It’s better if you are on her good students list, else “Life ki aisi ki taisi”. I still don’t know why she was called “athani”, it was one of those nicknames that you learn from your seniors and you pass on the knowledge
to juniors. A perfect knowledge transfer (KT).


-Pin drop silence-

Legs were shaking. I can hear whispers “Our answer sheets”…”No not ours, she doesn’t correct it this early” ...”Nahi yaar, look at that big handwriting, that Sids’…definitely ours”.

“Hmmm…hmmm…” Geeta madam clears her throat.

-Pin drop silence-

“I thought I will give your answer sheets before Christmas. You can go through it during vacation and solve the paper correctly.”

“Ek aur Christmas barbaad”. (The whole class burst out in laughter)

“Who said this??...Tell me who said this??” Her eyes trying to search the culprit (obviously someone from the back bench)

No use.

-Pin drop silence-

“Ok, NUTZ let’s see how did you fair in your exams”. (In her dictionary NUTZ means Nuts, for us NUTZ means Newton).

“Arun kumar – 45”
“Ashish Pathak – 38”
Hush... hush…. “How come this less? I thought you did it well?”

“Ashwin – 48”
“Bharat – 65”
“Derrick – 70”
Hush…hush…“Thought derrick will get above 90, its maths paper or social studies paper”
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“Harsh – 45”
“Karthik- 99” (That’s me...Lucky me….yah...that’s me….)

Hush…hush..“Karti, show me your paper”
Hush..hush…“Let me see it first yaar”
Hush…hush…“What’s the use, just show me… want to see how you solved Q.20. I think my answer is correct.”
Huh!!! Either he will argue and get marks for Q.20 or he will find some mistakes in mine….
Oh God...Why???….Don’t you know I love marks in 80s.
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“Sapna- 80”
“Sneha-38”

“Swati – 95”

Yessssssssss!!! She got 4 less than me…yahoooooooooo…’Swati ki aisi ki taisi’…I told you, not to challenge me babes.

On her way back to her bench, she looked at me for a moment. I looked at her and grinned.
A nice start to our half yearly competition. Now it’s 1-0. (Just 5 to go)

Geeta madam finished distributing papers. She stood up again from her chair

-pin drop silence-

“See, I don’t want anyone to come over here with answer sheets. There are no mistakes. Just go through your papers and see if there are any calculation mistakes. And I don’t think there will be any”

And with that, I can see lots of disappointed faces around me. Legend says, she never gave any extra marks to anyone after awarding the marks once. I again looked at Swati. Poor gal, she will definitely cry today. Man!!! It will be great to watch.Wicked me!!!! ha ha ha. I can already see some tears in her eyes.

Anyways let me total my 99 once again…
93 +3 …96…+2...98 + 4…102…What???

I must be crazy…..96…+2...98 + 4…102...now what is this…..

“Okay, so I think you guys don’t have any problem, And I can go now, finish the asssignmen…….”

I shot up my hands “Excuse Madam”

“What happened karthik?”

“Mam’ I think there is a calculation mistake…”

“And what’s your total now?”...

“mmm….102”

The whole class went silent. They were all looking at me. Their eyes saying, “This fell has gone nutz…”

“What??”

“It’s 102, I counted it again and again”

“Swati, Can you just calculate his marks”.

Oh God, why?? If I am wrong...I can’t even think what will happen.

She takes the paper from me with a smile, as if saying, ‘Wait you moron, I will show you how much you really got’
But nothing happened, she took a while to count and then said, “Its’ 102 Mam’”.

Oh God!!! Thank you..Thank you... Thank you…

“Show it to me”

I went towards teachers’ desk. All eyes were following me. I was about write my name in history book, ‘The guy who got extra marks from athanni’.

I handed over my paper to her. She started calculating it. “96....102...what?? this is impossible”. She calculated it once...twice…thrice…Then she sat down again and started going through my answers one by one.

“Karthik, I think I did a mistake. I actually gave you same marks as VIth std., you see, for Q.10, I should have given you 4 instead of 6, similarly, for Q…… “

She started giving me correct marks. And after a couple of minutes she raised her head, “Karthik here it is…you are getting 94…..this time there is no mistake….”

I looked back, the class was not even paying attention to what was going on.
But, there she was, looking straight at me, her eyes glittering and I can read her mind, which says, ‘Now howzz that buddy…take a chill pill…’

A bad start to our half yearly competition. Now it’s 0-1. (5 more to go)