Gud'ol days

                     Hi, got transported (or is it timeported?) back to some good old days of my life......... Good Old Days when we, as students, would score 70% odd (if you apply the 'Time Value' concept, 70 of our era would gain at least a dozen and become a number, much higher in today's terms!) without even bothering to show our faces to our estemeed faculty; Gud'Ol Days when I, as a faculty, would follow a basic rule....! And the rule of that era was very simple - while setting a paper, contents would be so framed that at almost 100% of the syudents would be able to attempt 60% the paper with varying degrees of confidence and certainity (final results notwithstanding!); at least 50% of the monkeys (as they always appear to the faculties the world over)  would have some vague idea about 20% of the paper and then would be remanant (20%) that would be absolute waterloo for some and just a cake walk for others; there being very few guys in-between!

                      You may find that system of our days pretty funny! But it ensured a few things. As a student, I never realised it but as a faculty and a trainer, I came to appreciate this rule (can we call it 60:20:20;rule?). Firstly, it gave a fair amount of chance to students of all kinds. And in a country where fascination for marks, rather than quest for knowledge, has historically been the key, it suited the student community in particular and the society in general. Secondly, it kept the faith of many. Even with some preparation, students would feel confident of scoring respectable marks (and as I said a bit earlier, through Time Value concept, our 50% would be as good as 62 or 65% today). Thirdly, it gave a fair chance for the hard working and intelligent students to score on merit since they would gobble up middle 20% without any difficulty and then slaughter the final 20% as lesser mortals watched from a safe distance. So, at the end of the day, everyone came out with a certain amount of satisfaction or regret - depending upon whether  you had prepared well or otherwise - but never as a person lost in a Kumbh Mela. The system, therefore, hinged around the idea of pitching students v/s students and never students v/s learned faculty ( in latter case, monkeys stood no chance!)..............................but as I said before, those were some of our Gud'ol Days!

                        The land next to our School belongs to DDA (or whosoever) but as it stands today, it has become a dumping ground for most of us. Behind the thigh-high wall that separates our rear gate area from the ground (the parking lot!), lies muck of all kinds. While some garbage coming out of the school awaits its disposal there (fair enough since that stuff comes filled in big polybags that get lifted periodically), the real muck is spread by each one of us and on daily basis. Today, some very talented bunch from senior batch (as their silver Santro was doing the reverse act just at the mouth of the parking lot), dropped one pink napkin paper and some other disposable stuff right there in the middle of the road. Not one to await for right moment to say a right thing, I did point that 'dropping your manners' act to the person concerned but I am not sure if she could really get my point since the glass had been rolled up by then. This is painful, simply disgusting!

               Today, two of us were dressed in simlar attires! As it happened incidentally, the combination turned out well.........

(A cup of hot, tasty tea (not available inside the campus) on a rainy cold day+ company of a great pal = unbeatable!)

All the Best for Tomorrow.......(The elephant is almost through; it is just a matter of its tail!)