Profs and their ways........

Once you cross puberty you start assuming that you have become wise. And beyond engineering unless someone comes up with a compelling logic, its difficult to convince you or change your viewpoint. Its more like there is system of knowledge and your way of thinking which gets hardwired into your brain.

But there are profs who can truly change the way you think. Partly the reason is the wealth of experience that they have accumulated over the years. Having seen so many like you they have become wiser with each passing year.

Of late I have had some really interesting experiences. Let me share one of them....

It was a busy day and i had too much of work. I was in no mood to attend the class. But the fear of a surprise quiz made me drag my feet to the class. So I made a plan (Now its too simple to call it a plan..but still). I decided to go till the class and check out if the admin staff was around. With them being absent, it was certain that there would be no surprise quiz.

Hurray!! today is my lucky day I told myself. This is the standard thing that everyone follows. But i wanted to make sure the plan was watertight. So what i did was I choose a strategic position where in I can see the prof in my direct line of sight but the prof can see me only if he raises his head at a particular angle. It was my vantage position.

(The set up was similar to what kings of yore had in their durbars when prosecuting criminals. The king would sit at an elevated position and would look down at the proceedings through a gap that exposed him only till the upper chest. The logic behind that was that any object thrown would have to follow a projectile motion to hit the king. A straight throw would bang against the upper beam and fall down)

So in this strategic position I waited for the prof with my eyes focussed on his path towards the classroom. It was five minutes past the class time. I was getting nervous. Even if i see the prof walk in he would close the door behind him. i would have to run downstairs to catch up with him.

My purpose was to check out if he brought any quiz papers to the class. The prof finally showed up. I saw some charts in his hand and no other handouts. Yes!! I can safely bunk the class. I had sealed all possible loopholes. I went back to my room and resumed my work. I had a deadline to meet.

It would have been nice had the story ended here. But after half an hour i receive a message from one of my friends. It read " Dude !!! the prof is holding a surprise quiz. He got the paper wrapped in the chart!!!"

I read the message twice to make sure i was not hallucinating. I sent back a reply : "Well there is only so much you can hedge against :)"

You can anticipate somethings in life and plan for it but not everything. If I was good enough a planner, it would not have been necessary to bunk the class in the first place :P

So the next time you think you can out out smart your proof (????) think again....

PS : I later got to know that the Prof announced in the class that he wanted to it to be a real surprise. Hence he did not ask for the admin help and hoped that the students would not disappoint him (with an evil grin!!)