It was a morning like any other. Shreya was preparing for school. Shreya kissed her mother goodbye and left for school on her bicycle.
She was an above average student and a ‘good girl’. She obeyed her parents, lived her life abiding to the values that had been imbibed in her by her teachers and did all the other usual things that good girls do. And like any other 12year old, she too hated just one part of her school life, ‘The morning Assembly’.

Shreya rushed her bicycle in the stand as she heard the school bell ring, signaling the start of the morning assembly. She passed smiles to familiar faces as she joined her classmates in the assembly.

The assembly began with the usual prayers and anthems and the tiring and endless prize distribution. After all this was done. The sports teacher came to the dais for an announcement. Though the assembly was torturously boring for all the kids, yet this was the part of the assembly that usually had all ears. “Good morning children”, said the sports teacher. “Good…. Morning….. teacher…” went the students in a sing-song manner. “Here are a few announcements about the upcoming competitions. We have an exam organized by NRIKD, National Research Institute for Knowledge and Development, Chennai. It is an All India Computer Knowledge Competition. The interested students can submit the examination fee to your respective computer teacher. You’ll be getting some material from which you have to prepare for this exam. The participants will also be getting certificates. There are medals as well as cash prizes to be given away. And children, this is a deemed examination that could help you in future so participate munificently.”


Shreya looked at her friend, Alefiya, “What say? Wanna go for this?” “Computers are not my thing, Shreya. You go ahead.”, she said. Shreya had expected this. Whenever she was game for something, her friends had to be reluctant.
She signed up for the exam.

The exam was 2 months from that day. Shreya was very excited when she got the material for the exam. But she closed the books as sincerely as she’d opened them. She found the books exceptionally mind-numbing. ‘Maybe computers are not my thing either.’ she thought.

The days went by, with Shreya trying to struggle with the study material. Finally the exam day arrived. There were around 10 students appearing for the exam in Shreya’s class. Their computer teacher made the seating arrangements and the exam began.


After half an hour through the exam time, Shreya looked around to see her classmates. And to her relief, she was not the only one sitting idle and wondering what to write. She looked again at her paper quickly for the fear of being accused of cheating. The good girl that she was, Shreya never cheated in her exams. After another 30 minutes, their computer teacher who was invigilating them went for a round around the class. Shreya noticed that their teacher was stopping at each student’s bench for a little more time to be considered just invigilation.

She came to Shreya’s desk and scanned through her paper. “Internet Service Provider”, she heard her teacher whisper. Shreya thought she’d imagine it. “Internet Service Provider”, said her teacher again, this time pointing her eyes towards the blank that Shreya had left in her paper against the abbreviation, ‘ISP: ’ Shreya looked at her teacher, confused as to what she should do. Her scruples told her she shouldn’t, her ‘guru’ told her she should. Shreya looked at her paper again, meanwhile, her teacher slid away to the next bench.

Shreya decided not to write it. She glanced through the class again and was horrified to see that the boy sitting on the bench adjacent to her had a book open below his desk. It was one of that study material books. He was cheating. Hell broke loose for Shreya when she noticed that the teacher, despite knowing that the boy was cheating, took no action against him.

The exam finally ended and Shreya told her friends how everyone was cheating.

Another month passed when the results arrived. (The students had almost forgotten about the exam.) The students were listening to the announcements expectantly. Shreya’s name was announced finally and she went up to the podium to get her certificate. She looked at it. She’d got a ‘C’ grade.

She looked at the guy’s certificate who had copied during the exam. He had got ‘B’grade. And by the parameters of the exam, B grade was not bad at all.

Shreya came home and narrated the entire incident to her mother. “Life’s like that, child.” her mother said. “I wish I’d written the ISP thing. After all, it was my teacher telling me to do so, and besides, she was telling the answers to everybody. Well, I’ve learnt something today, mom.” said Shreya. That honesty is still the best policy, but with a little bit of common sense!”