Friday, September 22, 2006

The first time I cheated

I really don't know why i remembered this episode from my childhood. But here it is open to all for reading.

I am going to say an incident that happened during my 5th standard. I am from the southern part of the India from a state called Kerala. Though Hindi is our national language, Malayalam is our mother tongue and the widely spoken language. Hindi used to be taught in school as a secondary subject.

I had started learning the Hindi language before it was made compulsory in school and naturally I was good in it (the only subject I was good at). I always used score high marks and do well. In my class there was another student named Abhilash, an absolutely brilliant student who was simply superb in studies and an absolute gem of a person. I used to be really envious of him as he always used to top the class.

In one of our examinations I got 24.5/25 in Hindi and abhilash got 24.75/25. I could not beleive my eyes...How can he score more than me where as in my head I am the absolute as far as Hindi was concerned. I checked my paper to see what was the mistake I committed and noticed that I had spelt a word wrong. I also noticed that if i change a wee bit I could say that the teacher is incorrect...I did not think twice corrected it and showed it to the teacher. She was not convinced that she got this wrong...But what to do...she also gave me 24.75 and not 25/25.

Though I got the high score and became topper, I felt hollow in my heart, in my soul and in my mind...Now I did not have the courage to tell the teacher that I lied and I let it be as it is.... the first time I cheated in a test...

But I did learn a lesson that day and promised to myself that I will never cheat again....Fortunately I have been able to keep up the promise...I also learnt that you should give credit when it is due for someone...Abhilash had to work extra hard to get his marks where as I did not deserve it. I understood that you should give credit when it is due, accept defeat nobly and learn from your mistakes.

An important lesson I think.

2 comments:

Balaji said...

That is so very true srinidhi...

Hip Grandma said...

i also have a 6th std episode to share.maybe i'll do it soon.