"If you are named after a mathematician, it does not mean you will score centum in mathematics. Be happy with what you have got, instead of coming to me and asking for more marks", the teacher said.
Aged 12, I did not understand then, what my name had to do with my request! "I am not begging for more marks", I wanted to say! "I am only asking her to award me what I deserve!", I said to myself.
Things had become difficult for me to comprehend, ever since I had been moved from my primary school to another one, for my secondary education. The profiles of the two schools were so different that it took me a few months to accept the contrast! While the entire strength in my primary school was about 500, the strength of 7th standard to which I was admitted then, alone counted up to that number!
"There were twenty questions of five marks each in the paper. I answered all the twenty questions, all of which you have marked correct. Yet, you have given me only 95 out of 100! It's a totaling mistake", I pointed out to the teacher.
"Listen son! I am a social studies teacher. I came here only to distribute the math test papers because your math teacher is on leave today. If you think you are marked wrongly for a problem, you can ask her to verify your answers when she comes to your class next", she said. Apparently she did not even look at my answer script!
"Ma'am, please have a look at my script. If you can point me to a question for which my answer is marked wrong, I will withdraw my request", I requested.
"It's just a totaling mistake", I repeated.
She took my answer script and re-totaled, only to find that the marks counted to a centum. Not satisfied, she gave the answer script to a student who was sitting at the front desk, asking him to total again. "Centum Ma'am", he said.
Striking off the 95 marks against the total column, she wrote 100, while telling me "Let me see how much you will score in the social studies paper"
That evening, I jumped in joy as soon as I reached home and shouted out on top of my voice, to my mom, "I scored centum in math". After all, there was no way for her to find out that I would fail in the social studies paper, until she received my report card!
Aged 12, I did not understand then, what my name had to do with my request! "I am not begging for more marks", I wanted to say! "I am only asking her to award me what I deserve!", I said to myself.
Things had become difficult for me to comprehend, ever since I had been moved from my primary school to another one, for my secondary education. The profiles of the two schools were so different that it took me a few months to accept the contrast! While the entire strength in my primary school was about 500, the strength of 7th standard to which I was admitted then, alone counted up to that number!
"There were twenty questions of five marks each in the paper. I answered all the twenty questions, all of which you have marked correct. Yet, you have given me only 95 out of 100! It's a totaling mistake", I pointed out to the teacher.
"Listen son! I am a social studies teacher. I came here only to distribute the math test papers because your math teacher is on leave today. If you think you are marked wrongly for a problem, you can ask her to verify your answers when she comes to your class next", she said. Apparently she did not even look at my answer script!
"Ma'am, please have a look at my script. If you can point me to a question for which my answer is marked wrong, I will withdraw my request", I requested.
"It's just a totaling mistake", I repeated.
She took my answer script and re-totaled, only to find that the marks counted to a centum. Not satisfied, she gave the answer script to a student who was sitting at the front desk, asking him to total again. "Centum Ma'am", he said.
Striking off the 95 marks against the total column, she wrote 100, while telling me "Let me see how much you will score in the social studies paper"
That evening, I jumped in joy as soon as I reached home and shouted out on top of my voice, to my mom, "I scored centum in math". After all, there was no way for her to find out that I would fail in the social studies paper, until she received my report card!