Sunday 9 November 2008

The WASE Days: Bringing down the average

What do you get if you put a tough semester, a tougher end semester exam and the toughest post-result alcohol session together? If it were me, it’d be a classic theory. And that is exactly what I would be mentioning this time. The theory stands for the greater good. And it’s christened as “Bringing down the average”.

By nature human beings are very peace loving creatures of God. They love sharing and caring. They love laughter and happiness around them and wherever they go. They want to spread happiness, love and peace even if it comes at a cost. But how many of us are ready to bet on that when it comes to spreading happiness at our own cost… Contributing to that greater good?

Though we all know how our grading system works, let me still mention it – that it’s all relative. That means that if majority of the class scores above 50 out of 100, the average would be above 50 and vice versa.

Flashback: 3rd Semester WASE 2003 batch.

We were lucky to have a teacher like Jura for Object Oriented Programming concepts. I hope I have brought back the memories, -- good or bad, we have our own versions of the same story. To start with our teacher was “Ultimate”, but we had a lot of “buts” about his teaching style or rather his examining style, and believe me when we saw the examination paper a lot of butts were in the line of fire. Mine included.

When I came out of the examination hall, in 45 minutes instead of the 180 minutes, I was not alone outside. We were all in the same boat, which apparently was sinking. But we were ignorant of the fact then. That day I promised Debu and Panky that if I escape an E grade [fail grade], I would throw a party on it. As God had cherished, his chosen ONE, was safe. That day, evening rather, God had touched me again… this time not with the blessings but with a thought. Well after half a bottle of Blue Label, you see God in everything and everywhere. Anyways.

That evening not many were lucky to be on the safe side of the “E” grade… a few of us could not make it. And that is because a few of us wanted to reach for the stars. I’ll tell you know.

Take for example a class of five students appear in an exam for a maximum of 100 marks. Lets say A and B score 50 marks each while C, D and E score 90 marks each. The average of the class is 74 marks. A and B have scored below average and both are sad. C, D and E are happy but they have made A and B sad.

Let us see what happened in real life. Our class had around 90 students and a lot of them had participated in the race to reach the top and in doing so, have taken the average up, very up. But at the same time, there was a Sourav, who was the chosen one of the God [after half a bottle of Blue Label that is]… who knew how difficult it would be to bring the average down single handedly. So what did he do? He scored below average, much below the average and hence his contribution brought the average down.

For example, consider a class of 100 students and the average score is of 52. Say Miss A. scores 50, and since she’s below the average she’s sad. Then comes Sourav and scores 10 or a more realistic 5 :-) and the class average comes down to 48. Miss A. is now happy and who knows might as well kiss Sourav… a thank you kiss… [Please remember, it’s the half bottle of Blue Label].

Whether you are the Miss A or not I do not know, but remember that you got an A grade because there was a Sourav, who brought the average down. Sourav busted his own ass so that you could be where you are now.

Now, whether Sourav really wanted to be in the who’s who list of the scoring list is a different track. I just hope that we would not forget the innumerable Souravs who have contributed in we being where we are now… and we owe them a lot of our successes. Everything is relative… whatever comes in, goes out…

Let us slow down a bit, let us score a little less, let us allow someone else to run the show…let us be the Sourav for someone else. Take care friends, believe me, there is a Sourav because of whom we are where we are today.

By the way, I am currently looking for my Sourav, to thank him… I got a QPCL of 116%

5 comments:

Bhav said...

Kundu Da, Tussi gr8 ho. Tussi phir se cha gaye... Dont worry, in that 3rd sem, even I was one of the Sourav's. I still remember my score which was just 6 out of 60. and total was 24 out of 100 and E grade was less than 18 I suppose. Even I had a party that time when the results were declared.

Pankil said...

Thank you Sourav da...Because of you and the likes of Bhav I got B in Jura's Subject;) I am so lucky to have you guys..

LostinDreams said...

He he... I do not remember what I got, but I am sure I was above average, a Miss A as Sourav would have me called (A very bulky Miss A for that matter). So here is a big thanks anyway.... THANKS....
By the way, I thought this blog of yours lacked the brilliance of the previous ones... Bad dinner I guess.. Come on Sourav, we all know you can do much better....

Unknown said...

kundu da .. bas yahi yaad aata hai....the fammous dialogue...
"we are running an entirely different race on a different track" :)

SWEETS said...

I still remember that disaster Sem. I was home when the end sem results were announced & can easily recap how Fakhru was rolling over with laughter on the phone...probably the first one digit mark of our career...which opened a door of one digiters in the later Sems..hehe...well gone are those days & thankfully we are much above the "5 point someone" ;-) Well kundu da I too agree that you were better in your earlier blogs, guess its the Blue Label effect.