Want some experience?

हिंदी | English

A memoir by Rashmi Kant Nagar

So, you want some experience?

Who, in their student days, hasn’t felt the urge to do something a little silly? You must have. I certainly did.

This happened in 1963, in my first year of B.Sc. Agriculture. The semester system had only just begun. In each semester every subject had three unit tests, a mid-semester exam and a final exam. Each unit test carried ten marks, so even if one unit test went badly, there was still a chance of passing.

We were three friends. All three of us are, thankfully, still in this world, so I won’t use names. My name begins with “R”, which is the second note of the musical scale (Re), so I will give each of the other two friends a note as well: “M” and “P”.

M and P had studied together at the same public school. Both were sportsmen. M played every game going. P cared only for cricket and music. I had studied at a government school and liked cycling best. I cycled about twenty-five kilometres a day, on average. In the first two years of college, Pre-University and Pre-Professional, we were in different sections, but in the first year of B.Sc. we landed together, and soon we were thick friends.

The slip stuck to the sandal, and two friends trying not to laugh. (Illustration: Grok Bot)

One day, during a unit test, we spotted a classmate, “D”, copying. This quiet, serious boy with the look of a dedicated scholar copies too? It astonished us. Now we understood why he so often got an A grade while we stayed stuck at B.

The three of us held a council. Our hearts were not in it, but to gain some “experience” we decided to try copying, just once.

But in which subject? We needed one where, even if caught, the consequences would be least serious.

We chose Dairy Science. Its professor, Mr Bhargava, was certainly strict, but he was also kind-hearted. We knew that if we were caught we would get zero in the test, but we would not be thrown out of the class for the whole semester.

The decision to copy was made, and the subject chosen. Now the question was how. We could not each make separate slips the way D did. So we decided that M, who had good handwriting, would make the slip. M anyway kept notes in little diaries that were always in his pocket, and he read them in the gaps between games. So the job of making the slip went to him.

P wrote with his left hand and wore reading glasses, so on test day he sat to M’s right. I sat on his left, because I never had trouble reading even small letters from a distance. The plan was that M would hide the slip in his jooti (leather sandal), slide it gently forward, bring his foot out, and begin copying first. P and I would copy by looking at his answer book.

But then came the accident.

The test began. M could not find the slip. We asked where it was, and he whispered that it was stuck to the sole of his sandal and would not slide. And until M began copying, we could not either.

The harder M tried, the tighter the slip stuck. In the end, the poor thing tore apart inside the sandal and gave up the ghost.

And the three of us burst out laughing.

Seeing us laugh, Mr Bhargava came over. “Why so much laughter?” he asked.

“Sir, the experiment failed,” we said.

“What experiment? Come to my room and tell me. First hand over your test papers.”

Mr Bhargava saw our blank papers, looked at us angrily and asked, “What is this? Why have you written nothing?”

“Sir, we could not copy,” the three of us said together.

“Copy? Why did you three need to copy? You are good students!”

“Sir, we wanted to have an experience.”

“Oh, so that’s it. Very well. You already have zero in this test. Try again next time. You will get a straight F grade, and the experience of repeating the semester too. Do you want that experience?”

“No, sir.”

The three of us came out of his room with long faces. That much experience was enough. Once the ghost had been driven out, we never had the courage a second time.

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Story: Rashmi Kant Nagar. Illustration and English translation: Grok Bot.