For the first rank

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!!!