For the first rank

, , 24 comments
Room-la fan sadhi panni erichala irukkarchey ezhudinadhu.... epdi irukumo therila! :P

Swati and Sathya were competitors. For everything. For the first rank in the whole of class two. For being the overall sports champion. For being the one teachers call to work out the math sum’s answer on the board. Being the first to finish eating lunch. Or the first to finish the test. In short, everything.
Sathya, short for Sathyakumar, was one jealous boy. Every point Swati scored against him left him fuming. And especially when Swati beat him in the joint class II sports championship, he blew up. It was too much for him to take. He had to get the first rank this time. Not only for the section, but the whole of class II.
It’s surprising how such a little boy gets so much zeal to study – Sathya was studying at an almost maniacal fashion that his parents got anxious. They begged him to go out and play, ironical in that they always used to pester him to study before that. But Sathya paid no heed to any of his parent’s pleas. He went on resolutely, cramming things into his little six year old brain.
Four exams did go well. It was the annual paper, and he had just one more left. He was sure he would get a 100 in each of the papers he had written till then. Science was the last exam.
Sathya finished the paper early and was looking around. He looked at the big onion he had drawn for the last answer. It was perfection at its best, at least at the hands of a six-year-old, with the right shade of pink. He surveyed it with pride and smiled.
He looked around the classroom once more. Seniors from classes four and five were also in the room. He looked to his left and saw Swati writing something furiously. He was surprised, despite himself. Had he left something out?
After frantically searching the paper for any answers he might have left out, he looked back at Swati. She was still writing.
He had to know what. And it was easy.
He casually stood up, but peered into her paper in such an obvious way that the invigilator came running to his bench and whacked him hard on his back.
‘What are you doing, Sathya?’ she thundered.
Sathya was shocked. He was just trying to see what was taking her so long! He had completed his paper, he explained, he was not trying to copy.
Despite his breaking into tears, the teacher decided to take him to the Head Mistress. The HM saw his paper and told the invigilator to just take the paper and let Sathya leave, saying she was sure Sathya hadn’t copied.
That was correct, for Sathya got 99 in the paper, while Swati got a 100. Sathya had made a mistake in the answer Swati had been furiously writing at that time.


Updated: Discovered the perfect temporary solution: poo poatta plastic visiri! :P
Latest update (01/03/06): Hall office has been kind enough to give us a table fan (the longer version of it, I don't remember its name!) for the time being till contractors come to change the ceiling fan. Yiipppeeee!!!

24 comments:

Asha said...

The weather is so bloody hot I couldn't wait to get back and now, I'm in my room with the A/c on. Oops. *zips mouth*

Nice story.

Unknown said...

padikkara pasangala pathi story...enakku allergy pa :)

Aravind said...

Sathya = Vani-aa??
illa,
Swati = Vani-aa??

Vani Viswanathan said...

the woman,
hmph!

draj,
no unmai sambavam or anything!
and as for the library, seriously thinkin' about it....kulurra range-ku air con poattu reading rooms irukkey...

Vani Viswanathan said...

praveen,
hehe!

aravind,
rendum illa...
swati madiri i'm not good at sports...sathya madiri etti paaka enakku deiryam illa ;)

Harish said...

mera naam chin chin choo nu paadu! :)

Kausikram Krishnasayee said...

fan seriyalandu hostel ila strike panu ...

Ramya Shankar said...

Bommai poatta visiri vaangiko.... other hand kku! Swati apdi enna thaan ezhudinalo andha paper la!!

Vijay Ramamurthi said...

ore padips...bayangara padips!!:D

Anonymous said...

started off like a typical kollywood masala movie .... expecting them to grow up and fall in love or something like tat ..... but then u go and screw up the climax .... *grin*

//swati madiri i'm not good at sports...sathya madiri etti paaka enakku deiryam illa ;)

sooo guessing tat u are trying to say u are a cowardly nerd, huh .... *wink*

(p.s why dun u try sleeping during lectures .... i always did tat and look how well i turned out to be ... now is 2+2 equals 3, rite ??? )

Vani Viswanathan said...

harish,
hello mister how do you do? :P

mark,
complain panniyachu...eppo vandhu fan-a paathu tholaipangalo!

Vani Viswanathan said...

ramya,
hehee...solution daan namba discuss pannitome! :)

vijay r,
hmm...swati side of the story ungalukku theriyadhey!! ;)

dante,
grow up and fall in love?! ayyo, you're spoiling the characters i created!
cowardly nerd, oh god, what a deduction :) ...first, being scared to peep ain't cowardly, it's about,...forget it, you'll never understand lah!
and you tellng me about sleeping in lectures? duh! i've mastered the art of sleeping without getting noticed! :p

Vivhyd said...

as far as competiton goes.. it reminds me of school days.. oh i wasnt any close to being a part of competition :D.. as far as swati writing and writing.. girls do that all the time.. if there was ever a problem with paper becoming endangered in the world and more and more trees being cut down for the pulp.. it has to be cos of girls.. they take additional after additional.. god only knws wht u write in the papers.. same case here..

Vani Viswanathan said...

vivhyd,
actually, no idea...was in a girls' school most of my life, so have no comparison standards! :P i have this friend who used to take so many extra sheets that my teacher always used to scold her for writing a 'thesis'!!

Ricky,
>>>Is it just becoz you are a female, you wanted to describe Swati smarter than Satya?
I see...haha...I've seen a number of guys who'll go to great lengths to do anything just because some girl has overtaken them in some aspect...and it's my personal opinion that some guys are stubborn not to let competition go on in a healthy way, especially if it's with a girl...beat it, almost every guy does have a bit of chauvinism in him!!!
It's nothing significant to me if Sathya had been better than Swati...i think it would've become another staid, boring story, because girls are usually thought to slog more than guys...it wouldn't have been anything much different if Swati had slogged, coz that's not out of the ordinary...for Sathya, especially a 6 yr old boy to slog, felt more interesting to me! :)
Well, finally, I do have a bit of 'chauvinism' in me too. And that'll be there in most of what I write! :) After all, that's what makes my stuff different from someone else's!!

neighbour said...

hmm... 6 vayasula yen paa ippadi kulandhaigla kasta paduthareenga.. ungalay naan child cruelty casula book panna recommend panna pooraen.. enaku saadhagamaa yella kulanthaigal supportayum thiratapooraen.. soon you can excpect an FIR from Internation court for Justice..

Vani Viswanathan said...

neighbour,
andha sathya loosu paiyan vizhundu vizhundu padicha naan enna pannradhu?!

Sheks said...

story-la ethaavathu twist irukkum-nu paatha romba usual-aa mudichutte.

the longer version of the table fan is called pedestal fan.and arent there any electricians in singapore?is it the contractor's job to repair fans?

Anonymous said...

//beat it, almost every guy does have a bit of chauvinism in him!!!

juz coz i expect tat a female should cook for me and do the clothes for me as well as any other chores and menial work doesn't make me a MCP (male chauvinist pig) .... it juz means i am a lazy pig ... and personally i have never tried to compete with anybody female or otherwise for the same reason as mentioned above ... i am juz a lazy bum ... *grin*

//Well, finally, I do have a bit of 'chauvinism' in me too

well i believe they call tat being a feminist ... actually makes u wonder rite, why is there no female equivalent to MCP .... guess tat term musta been coined by some disgruntled housewife/feminist ??? ... hopefully vani kutty isn't going to be too angry with my comments ... wouldn't want a pissed-off "feminist" baying for my blood , would i .... *wink*

(p.s. i sorta had the feeling tat i remember reading a similar story to ur's ... it finally dawned upon me tat it had the same plotline as the short story "Old Love" by jeffrey Archer ... believe ii was in a short story collection aptly titled "A quiver full of arrows" ... unfortunately i am unable to provide the story here but if u have the chance, do try to read it ... witty, humourous, sentimental, touching and ultimately heart-wrenching ... a fine piece of writing, if i might say so ... one of my all time fav. short stories ....)

Anonymous said...

by the way, any chance u are taking part in NTU vertical marathon ??? u are studying in NTU, rite .... or is it NUS ....

Vijay Ramamurthi said...

swathi side of the storyaa?? athu ennathu??

Vani Viswanathan said...

dante,
yeah, fine...whatever, feminist!!!
and my plot line is similar to something of jeffrey archer?! :-S lol!!!
vertical marathon-a? vera velai illa!

Vani Viswanathan said...

vijay r,
about how she was cool about her studies.... ;)

ricky,
lol...to think i've given the perfect answer to your wondering on how our thoughts are influenced by gender, just now!! :)

Ranajay said...

Nice story...a lil dry on the climax maybe :P
Inspired from real life ;) ?

Vani Viswanathan said...

Pyromaniac,
Thanks! :) Nope, not inspired or anything... :P Never had the guts to peep at another person's paper for such a major exam ;)