Confessions of a Cheater (Simplifying the moral conflicts involved in cheating during exams- II)

Startled by a rustling noise, Anand looked to his left. It was obvious; the college is surrounded by acres of greenery with a motley variety of reptiles and other creatures breeding inside the hollows of ground and under the withered leaves. Perhaps Anand thought he heard some creature rustling down the walls. He turned his head, and when he found nothing he continued with what he was doing.
Meanwhile I picked up the paper Mahitosh had dropped stealthily on my bench, which actually made the rustling noise that had startled Anand. I quickly swept a fleet glance at the invigilator to make sure he didn’t see us. Followed by a quick turn back and passing of my own paper to Mahi’s desk. We were executing the famous old school cheating technique of Paper-exchange for one last time. I wrote down the answers in my copy and cleaned the question paper with an eraser to avoid getting caught. Later on I was to discover that Anand was to ask me the same question and I would have to write the entire answer for him again.
During the early days of college, sometimes i used to be sceptic about the answers that mahi would tell me. Not that I don’t trust him, but the fact that we are equally mediocre on the academic scales. But as soon as he got his new Nokia X-6, the credibility of his answers shot to 100%. Now he was the James Bond of examination, using the most sophisticated mode of cheating- A touch screen with all the notes stored in it. Now it will be only a foolish who would doubt the credibility of answers told by such a guy.
Still the major hurdle lied in communication; in finding a method to receive the answers from him. For this we have tried all sorts of methods, The bend-back, The lean-forward, the casual-talk, the quick-turn-and-talk method and the most memorable of all THE ERASER method. The last method will ever remain in our memories for it was the only time we ever got caught. I still remember, it was the majors and we were taking the exam inside the ED hall, a place which I considered haven for unfair means. The ED hall, isn’t constructed on stairs like other classes are. So it is easy to escape the eyes of invigilator. But that day I was going to be proven wrong. I was stuck in first question, as usual and was waiting for the invigilator to turn back so that I could ask for answers from Mahi. Soon the opportunity arrived,
‘Bhai, Centrifugal pump ke types bata!!’ I whispered
‘Ruk...’ a pregnant pause followed, ‘Abe kaise batau?’
I tossed the 3 inch Apsara non-dust eraser to him and said wryly, ‘ispe likh haraami.. tu kisi kaam ka nahi hai’
Mahitosh wrote the answers and returned it back. I noted down the answers and rubbed my thumb on the eraser to destroy the evidence. Once again a few minutes later, I asked him ‘Bhai Soderberg aur Gerber equation likh de.. jaldi!!’
He complied and wrote the answers on the eraser. But this time I wasn’t as lucky as I was a few minutes ago. While I was destroying the evidence, the Invigilator noticed and came to my desk. I clenched the eraser inside my fist like a kid unwilling to let go off a candy bar, by hiding it from the bully. But it was too late, he had already seen the candy. He placed his palm in the air in front of me, and made a ‘give me’ gesture. I gave him the eraser. My heart thumped on my ribcage as He looked at it. After a brief glance, he looked at me, smiled and returned it back to me. The entire world appeared to me as if it danced in ecstasy. There is no greater joy than being released without being punished for a crime for which you got caught red-handed. That guy, an Mtech Scholar at that time,( I am not sure what he is now) later on became a headache for exam cheaters. He could make the Scotland yard drown in a pool of shame with his accuracy in nabbing cheaters. His name was RAVIKIRAN!
Apart from the collaborated cheating techniques, we had to adopt self-sufficient techniques as well. Since in the former method, most of the time is consumed in ensuring that nobody is watching. If you ever enter a MANIT classroom, you will see loads of things written on the desk. No they are not Love-letters written by love birds. They are topics that might appear, have appeared or might have appeared in exams. Make a note that in MANIT, writing on desks is considered a sign of your porcine sense of public responsibility unless you are writing exam notes.
Table is not the only place where we stored data. Majority adopted the conventional technique of ‘farra’ or micro-sized notes. A few other wrote on their legs. But that required clean-shaved legs. So you have to devote extra 5 minutes before exam in shaving the fibres off your legs.
The list of modus operandi doesn’t end here, it goes and on and on and on. Every year more research scholars add more and more techniques to the list. An extensive research is being done in the field of ‘How to ask for answers from your neighbor’. Scholars have developed various models to solve this problem like turning back with your own pencil and saying ‘BHAI TERA PENCIL GIR GAYA... 2nd ka [b] bata’
In the end, I don’t know if I’ll go for a PG or not, but even if i do I won’t find guys like Mahi, Anand, Deepak Palecha and Jadhav for cheating in exams. We were seriously an awesome team!!! All these 4 yrs I always cheated more sincerely than I used to study because Mahitosh taught me a valuable lesson, however involuntarily, ‘Pointers aur Ladkiya... sab moh maaya hai... college se nikalne ke baad dono hi apni importance kho dete hai.’