Confession

It was 13' Oct 1993. I was in 5th standard and the day was assessment day on the subject 'SANMARGA', a subject which teaches the moral values of life, social values of life, do's and don't s of life etc..

Every year our school authority used to change the books of this subject. In 4th standard, we had read all of funniest tales of Tenali Rama. And in 5th standard we were reading the life history of Swami Vivekananda. In the playful age, one can't tell us to read biography of some prophet, can they? It was considered to be one of the toughest subject of all. Every student have trembled to catch up with this subject. But amazingly/surprisingly I used to do well in this subject but used to tremble in drawing. Unknowingly I had crafted a strategy to do very well in SANMARGA and do average in drawing so that I can keep my top position in the school. I exactly knew, others will do average in SANMARGA but do very well in drawing. The strategy always worked for me and it had kept me in competetion. As far as I remember, the strategy failed once or twice when someone got clicked on both SANMARGA and drawing, throwing me out of competetion.

Questions came to our hands and everyone started answering questions. The assessment went fine for me as I answered all questions of the paper and finished 15 minutes to remain. Jovially, I turned around to look at others of my class. Shoba who had sat just behind me was still writing on the paper, Sudarshan showed his inverted thumb to tell me how miserable his paper was! Seeing my jovial face, Shoba must have understood about my paper. She looked at me questionably and asked me if I could help one of her question. And to tell you the truth she was one of my competitor. I agreed and asked the question with which she required the help. It was a bit lengthy answer and I could not possibly read everything for her. So I kept my answer paper to the edge of the desk so that she can clearly see my paper and started writing the answer. Suddenly, my strategic mind started alerting me about the possible impact of this action. I started thinking in terms of what if she does very well in this subject? My cautious mean mind told me to do something about it. Without my effort my hands started writing wrong answer to the question. She just copied everything without a hint of my treachery. Once she finished, I brought my paper back to the center of desk and crossed the answer with a big smile.

After evaluation we received our answer papers back, and teasingly I was observing her from my seat. I could see the change of expression in her face. Such a smiling beautiful face suddenly demised and seeing that instant expression I could neither see my paper nor score. Disgust surged in my heart and I throwed my paper to the bin.