Tale of Kopy Kats!!

Again, I would like to go back to my school days, but this time location changes to Jawahar Higher Secondary School, Ashok Nagar, Chennai. First time in life I had the option of leaving out the subject "Hindi"(if you want to know why i gave up hindi read this Hindi$#@! ). In 11th standard, I chose Sanskrit to be my second language (a dreadful decision if you are a Hindi student :( . In Sanskrit the grammar part was crazy!! You can say word "ram" in so many different tones and at last you completely forget what the original pronunciation is!!! Yes you are right again, I never learnt how "ram" was supposed to pronounced or written in so many crazy ways! I copied!! A gentlemen named Mr. Wine (name changed to protect the identity of the person) who was behind me in exams helped me.

I didn't blindly give up Sanskrit grammar, I tried hard but I was tough job to mug up so many simple words pronounced so different and written crazily!!! On the day of exam I did study well, just before entering exam hall there is a ritual among friends to say this line: "Machan dei exam le helps pannu da"(Dude! Help me out in exam). I didn't skip the ritual that day; I turned to Mr. Wine and said the exact same line. He shook his head in agreement. I did the paper well till the grammar part, I was stuck half the way through! Time was ticking; almost entire class has finished the paper, seeing this invigilator sat down. This was it! I had to do something; I had no idea how I was going to write the entire grammar. I turned my head, my eyes met with Mr. Wine, I pointed to grammar section on my question paper. He nodded his head and started writing. I was like "ada cha! Waste fellow! vidu adutha exam le paathukalam" ( Damn it! okay, I'll try in next exam). Just then I felt a pinch on my shoulder. I saw Mr. Wine passing me his question paper; it had answers writing in it. I had an adrenaline rush. I grabbed his question paper and threw mine to him. Yes everything was done in fraction of seconds. I came out of exam hall with his question paper. He smiled at me. I saw my guardian angel in him. I couldn't stop thanking him!! We followed this classic old but trusted style of copying for many exams, only the swoosh of the question paper would be heard!!

I was not always the one who copied, I helped others too! I'll always remember my 11 standard, Quarterly Computer Science paper. I was good at Computer Science, always managed to score well. In Tamil Nadu state board syllabus, Computer Science was for 150 marks and in it you have 75 objective questions (one mark). People lost their mark on this, but not me ;) (I know you must be saying "look at him blowing his trumpet!" after all, these are few things I am damn good at. so no compromises). Exam started, I got the question paper and I started reading the first question. Mr. Wine poked me, what???!! So soon, the invigilator hasn’t even finished giving out question paper to all!!!!! I turned my head, Mr. Wine gestured me to move. Okay for understanding this you people have to know that I am left handed. So when I write my paper is positioned in different angle, and if I move my body a little the person behind me can see my paper clearly. Back to story, Wine had decided to copy my entire paper. I don't blame him! It is not that he didn't study but at times even though you know the answer you don't feel like straining your brain when answers are just a glance away. (I am saying this cause I have done this!!) But copying entire paper was difficult job. He has to keep up to my pace and copy it into his paper. But he did it! We walked out of the hall with big smiles as though we have accomplished an impossible mission! Mr. Wine “Machi! Full paper I copied da!” “dei how da you wrote that fast?” “athu ellam talent da”(that’s called talent) with a victory smile! I said “dei mattika motom le” (we won’t get caught right?) he said “athan paper koduthachu le” (we have submitted the paper man!) “ama da next two week vacation!! Dei raga team oda match sollitangala...?” (Yes! Two weeks’ vacation!! Have they told raga team about the match…?)

Vacation was good we were back to school sitting next to each other, paper was being distributed. My name was called, I got good marks. Mr. Wine name was called he went to get his paper. When he came back he had a strange look on his face, I asked what happened? “I got 2 marks less than you da. How is that possible? We copied entire paper right?” “I don’t know da, you think she reduced for handwriting?” he said “rightu vidu… who cares? ;) “. The class got over, before leaving the teacher called our names alone and asked us to come and meet her in staff room. We knew we were in trouble. Me: “dei we need a plan, if she asks why both papers look same we will say we studied together for exam. And never agree to her that we copied.” Mr. Wine “Oki da done!” she was in staff room talking with another teacher, she look at us and signaled us to wait on her table. My mind was racing, was she telling the other teacher about us? Oh! Man now every teacher will re-check our papers alone! Why is she doing this to us!! She came to the table and looked at me in the eyes

Teacher: “why did you let Mr. Wine copy from you?”

Me: “What? No madam! I never let him copy”

Teacher: “Mr. Wine, why did you copy from him?”

Mr. Wine: “Madam! God promise I didn’t copy!!!”

Teacher: “I can take both of your papers and pin point on stupid mistakes you did. Take you to principal after that!”

Me: “Madam! We studied together may be that is why we did same mistakes” I knew she was not going to believe us.

Teacher: “Mr. Wine has struck off the same words you have struck off in your paper”.

I felt “pochu da! Soothapitan” I kept silent! Mr. Wine also kept silent.

Teacher: “Copying is very bd. You are not in small sections to act like this. You’re in eleventh, act matured (I heard this on every class of mine so the dialogue didn’t have an impact). Shall I take you both to the principal?” Again silence from both of us. “Your English teacher was just now saying you both were very good students” (we knew that was a cold blooded lie). Again we reminded silent and kept looking at the table. “I didn’t tell your English teacher that you guys copied”

Me: “Madam we never copied” my friend gave me a glare which meant “shut up! Or else we are going to be in deep trouble”.

Again we both went back to silence. She kept looking at us and we never looked back. She must have gotten bored “Next time if you guys repeat this, I am going to take you both to principal and call your parents.” We surrendered, “Yes madam! We won’t repeat this.” Again we did a triumph walk out the staffroom! We knew that we lied to her. Highlight was that invigilator never found out we copied but the teacher who corrected the paper did.

But everything changed in my 12^th standard. When it came to academics I changed a lot in my 12^th. I had lots of tuitions in 12^th. Even during school exams tuitions were never cancelled. I had my physics tuitions on Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning 5 AM; chemistry tuitions on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 5 AM and my Math tuitions at 9 PM every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Though our monthly or any school exams were announced at least two weeks earlier my friends circle was not geek enough to study early. We studied only before the exam and we are proud of it! :P So it meant that we had to go to tuitions come back home and study. Also we had to write tuitions exams as well! Most of the guys were frustrated, some of them failed in exams. But I wanted to pass badly. One event which I had in past is enough for me. I started doing night outs. I would come back from tuitions at 10 PM, study till 3 AM. Sleep and wake up at 4.30 AM to attend tuitions and come back home at 6.30 AM. I slept again and went to school by 8 AM. My aim during night outs was to pass. I wanted only 50% anything more than that was just a gift. I always got lots of gifts. I dare say I never copied in my 12^th exams. When I say copying I mean I never took help of my fellow student or any paper. But I did continue the noble act of helping my fellow class students to get the answers right. It involved more serious acts of passing my answer sheets to my fellow student. Sometimes it just not single sheet, I even passed my main answer sheet (which has 12 pages) to my fellow student. I never regretted any of those. I am happy that I went through all this in life. If copying is done at right amount and at the right time then it is not going to affect you.

For all those who have never copied in life, you are missing something in life!! The adrenaline rush of blood, your sense starts working extra sharp; it even starts reading the movement of invigilator. Your sixth sense knows when the invigilator is going to turn and which way they are going to walk. You can calculate at what speed you can write and what speed you have to turn to snatch the paper from your friend. You start inventing sign languages. Your eyes start talking. Your eye brow becomes your mouth. You execute time management to perfection (which you might have never done in your life). You start seeing a person in new light which may lead to blossom of new friendship. You are doing a noble and helpful act by helping a person pass in exam, if you don’t he might be in sorrow and misery “Nallu peruku nallathuna eduvum thappu illa” (An act done to make 4 lives happy is never immoral). Above all you know how to look calm and composed when you’re looking down the barrel. So, have you copied?