Maher Singh was widely known in our school (6-12th Standard) for his moronic faith in Discipline and Good Hand writing. Fortunately, my batch got only one course with him in seven years of stay in school. Hey man, it so happened with my batch even during Engineering that we din’t had to endure moron Profs – you got it what I meant to say.
Anyways, so it was Geography Class - 8th. I was never among class topper - I never even dare to dream about it, but there used to be a healthy competition between three of my friends who used share same bench. So it was our first test with Maher Singh and sprits were high to get best marks (there was an unsaid bet that who is going to crack the moronic test), test was of 10 marks and most of class got numbers in the range of 2-4, somehow I manage to get 6.5 and that was highest on my bench. A friend (if I remember correctly best friend during that year) got 6.0 and he was really frustrated that I have beaten him, I must tell you when it comes to History or Geography - man was among ulti tellu junta of class. He scanned my paper and pointed out a very obvious mistake (ok, ok it was not that obvious and I got convinced only after checking back twice with book and lecture notes) which was marked as 1/1 points by Maher Singh. Now my dear friend told me that I won it unfair, I always hated to be called as cheater, regardless of I have done cheating or not. Maher Singh was famous for beating students if you try to cross with him, but I took a risk and went to him to remark that question as it looked to me unfair. Man that was the time I felt that I have courage of the world. I was ready to be slapped to beaten by plastic rod that he used to keep in almirah, I went upto him and explained about incorrect marking in short, to my surprise he gave me a rare (probably the first and last time I have seen) smile and spoke aloud to the class that he is rewarded me that 1 number for my good handwriting (mind you in that test, I have really made up my hand writing to look really good). I came back to my desk smiling and my friend was cursing Maher Singh for giving away unfair marks to me, but deep down I was sure that I got that 1 mark not because of my handwriting but because of my innocence.
