Wake up call!

Scene - A student was sitting on the last seat in a class of computer science professor who was supposed to be one of the most arrogant and shrewd ones in the campus. This was the second semester at IIT and the first course in computer science for the students from various branches. The student found it hard to comprehend what he has been upto now although one-third of the semester was over. It was all there in the notes which came in the exam and the lectures told something out of his zone. So he was not interested happily sleeping. And then suddenly like always there was buzz around. Papers of Minor I, the first exam in a semester usually responsible for 20-25% of total course were being distributed. Time to wakeup and wait for yours. People were getting different ranges of marks between 0 to 40 out of 40. He expected his to be somewhere in between. Paper was okay and expectations were average. The name came, paper stopped with different people, the red marks could be seen from a distance and stupid gestures were giving some anxious moments.Finally, it reached but unlike always it was a 1/40. Not the number to believe. Disbelief and shock. It could not be right. It wasn't so bad at all. All through IIT people share the same feeling which was not shared before. You always get marks below your expectations. But 1/40 when you expected 15-20/40 was a bit too much. The paper was structured in a way that you had 4-5 questions and if you could get through the first, then only you could answer the rest. It's a mistake the student thought. Ohh! these MTechs who act as teaching assistants never really understand our procedures and profs make them correct our papers. How stupid. So he went straight to the prof. Prof said aha, so you deserve more. Lets see. Check again, you've got the right marks he says. Student is even more shock confirms but cannot figure out whats wrong with the algorithm. Prof has his moment, can you tell me what does sum(a,b) does in your algorithm? Student - It adds obviously (now smiling). Prof - Where do you mention that? Student checks and says Gosh nowhere. Boom! So here you go. No more arguments, no more explanations. And so the poor thing goes back. And only in a week's time, one more shock. He actually misses the deadline for the second assignment as he mailed his on the wrong email id by mistake. Now on the brink of his first failure because the prof has a reputation of setting tough papers ahead. It was all too plastic. That is the way world is in IIT sometimes for no reason. The student finally passed the course with a bad grade, making one of the toughest assignments (which could not be copied as a software matched them while checking), but not before taking a lot of stress. Call it carelessness, call it his stupidity, call it bad luck that's what IIT does to you sometimes. Profs can be relentless sometimes, so can be the situation. Lesson learnt probably for him and others.