t’s always a little depressing that the smarter guy grabs the glory everywhere, be it at school or at workplace. We resort to all sorts of things to beat the smart guy. The little green monster takes over and makes us do either of the following. We work harder and score better, or simply continue envying and do nothing about it or the worst, cheat.
Once after a particularly tough Maths exam I came home and dialled my sister seeking solace. She told something she had read somewhere. Every human brain has the same capacity. The smart people just keep theirs warm and working. I found this quite inspiring and ever since lessened the number of times I call myself stupid.
Even when I score low at school I feel guilty for not having put enough effort but I also feel quite happy about the fact that what I have scored is with me and my brains alone. The conscience centre in my head works better than most people I believe or else I would have virtually been suffocated by wrong doings.
We used to have a monthly GK test in my old school back in Muscat, supposedly to boost general knowledge among the otherwise ‘ignorant NRI kids.’ It was not part of the usual curriculum so nobody really paid attention to it. It was something like a monthly joke issue and those mornings were giggling sessions as people passed on silly answers. One day in my seventh grade I was bent over the GK paper raking my memory for something in the recent headlines. I was so close to the answer and was sure I would have got it in a few more seconds digging my brain. And then I got the answer. I had overheard it. Without a second thought I scribbled it down.
That night I tossed over side to side in my bed. I felt restless and guilt was eating me from inside. I had cheated, it hurts to say but that’s what I did. That was the first and last time I had done it. Of course after that there were many a time when I caught people hissing the answer to one another but I would stick to my answer so as to sleep better. I learnt that getting an answer wrong the first few times helps you to remember the right one for a long time.
‘Cheaters’ cheat not because they are less smart. If it were so they wouldn’t be able to come up with clever ways to cheat, would they? No, it’s because they cannot appreciate hard work and rather take short-cuts. They may as well know that such short cuts can just lead to a dead end. If people can spend hours making cheat concertinas out of dupattas and scribbling answers on the inside of drink bottle labels why don’t they instead use the time to study the actual thing?
It’s okay to be tagged “Harischandra” as long as you have your conscience clear. As Mark Twain says: “if you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”
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