A school memory pops out of my amygdala.

Lil Sweety is in the 10th std. Unit test exam. Subject – English.

She receives a measly 0.5 marks for one particular 5 mark question. She anxiously goes through her whole answer and finds no fault with it. She approaches the teacher, proffers her answer sheet and politely enquires what went wrong with her answer.

The teacher peruses the answer once and jabs a triumphant thumb at the second sentence. “You wrote M.K Gandhi instead of Gandhiji.”

Sweety blinks in puzzlement and tries to establish her point. “Madam, M.K Gandhi is the same person as Gandhiji.”

“I know.” The teacher snaps. “But you cannot write M.K Gandhi. It’s insulting to the Father of the Nation.”

Sweety is even more perplexed. ”Why should he get insulted by his own name?”

“You wouldn’t understand. Don’t repeat the mistake next time.”

“Is there anything else wrong with my answer?”

“No.”

Finis. Sweety’s marks stay stubbornly steady at 0.5 out of 5.0

Needless to say, that is the end of her experiments with Truth. Since lil Sweety is not convinced by the teacher’s reasoning or reply, she decides that the best solution to this problem is to keep the entire M.K Gandhi chapter as optional.  Not just for the Final exam, but Forever.

P.S– It’s a true story from her childhood. Sweety is now grown up (relatively) but she remains as baffled as ever. What crime did she commit?

What would you do if you were lil Sweety? What would you do if you were the teacher?