God created Man in his own image. He had a reference... Himself. It begs the question, "What about women?" By elimination, we are left with little choice but to consider women as His "original" work. Needless to say, it is left to each person's interpretation whether this original work turned out to be a masterpiece, a caricature or simply a disaster!
That He used Himself as a model and copied it is a given.... and in doing so, He set the trend for copy-cats in his creation as well.
Lord Shiva must be particularly relieved that copy-cats exist. In a moment of indiscretion, He had granted the demon Bhasmasura the boon to reduce to ashes, whosoever's head, the asura touched. Matters came to a head when Bhasmasura wanted to test the efficacy of the boon by touching Lord Shiva's head! Shiva was on the run. It required the guiles of Mohini,Vishnu's enchanting form to extricate Shiva from the crisis.
Taking a cue from Bollywood, Mohini engaged Bhasmasura in some mindless dance sequences. Bhasmasura was a copy-cat and smitten by Mohini's form, aped every pose and step. At one point, Mohini touched her head; so did the asura who had fallen head over heels. In doing so, much to Shiva's relief, he brought about his own doom.
Cats have reason to be miffed that humans have sullied their name when it comes to copying. Nothing can be farther from truth, the cats mew. After all, cats are curious and curiosity even killed one cat. Isn't curiosity the seed of originality, of invention? The curious never copy. In fact, it is the humans who strut around on cat-walks and copy each other in dress and step.
We're told that there are 64 art forms. Surely, "copying" has to be the Queen of Fine Arts. Students devised ingenious methods when it came to copying- always a step ahead of the invigilators in this perennial cat and mouse game!
The formulae would be scrawled in the smallest possible font on the "examination pad"- with a picture of Lord Hanuman to cover the crime.
Sometimes, they wrote out lengthy answers on reams of paper and neatly tucked the papers underneath their full-sleeve cuff. Once the invigilator was out of sight, the paper would be pulled out, perused and placed back ever so deftly!
At times, the notes would be stuffed into the socks or even the shoes. The modus operandi was simple, yet effective. Drop the compass box below the desk- get down to pick up the scattered contents, refer to the notes, rise up.. to write more. Some students were forever dropping something or the other- at times the pencil or the pen or the eraser and simply taking too long to pick up the contents!
Another common method was to slowly creep very close to the partner so that the two soon sat like siamese twins..... or surreptitiously glance at the paper ahead of you. Teachers did their best. They warned students- "Sridhar! Your eyes are shifty!" or they made students of different classes sit next to each other or in adjoining rows; but never quite matched the originality of the students.
The little devils timed their toilet visits with their pals. Once in the loo, they would discuss the answers and get back to their seats as saintly as ever. Suspicions were aroused when students suddenly wanted to go to the loo more often, at the stroke of the hour and always in pairs. Soon, the toilets required a sentry as well, but by then, the students moved onto other ideas, leaving the sentinel marooned in the smelly toilets!
Multiple choice question papers offered greatest scope for copying. All that was required was an oral recitation- 1-A, 2-B, 3-D etc. The method was error prone though. B and D sounded alike when whispered. Also, several such recitations went around the examination hall, rendering it difficult to latch on to the correct frequency. Some students got the entire paper wrong. They had carefully recorded their benefactors answers, only got the sections completely wrong! It was tough for them.
"Got you! Trying to be over smart, kyoon? Come to the Principal.. At once! Out!" thundered "Pandey sir" as he caught Valentino red-handed with the sheets of handwritten notes right in the examination hall. We felt sorry for Valentino as he was pulled by his ears and roughly marched to the Principal's office- a proverbial lamb for slaughter. The remainder of the story was filled in by Valentino himself much later, to a delighted audience!
Apparently, Pandey sir was exultant that he had finally nabbed the culprit with undeniable evidence to boot. "Father (Principal), this boy was shamelessly copying! Father, here are the papers where he has all the answers written down!" To his horror, Mr Pandey found that the papers were missing. Valentino had the papers just a moment ago, Mr Pandey swore, now they were gone- clean as a whistle! We were told Valentino was strip searched, but the papers were never recovered. Pandey sir shook Valentino violently and many times peered down his throat and even other orifices, but the case of the missing notes was never solved. Valentino had apparently gulped down five full-scapes of paper in a matter of seconds! The Principal now doubted Pandey sir's sanity and detained him in the room. Valentino was back in the examination hall... cool as a cucumber!
That He used Himself as a model and copied it is a given.... and in doing so, He set the trend for copy-cats in his creation as well.
Lord Shiva must be particularly relieved that copy-cats exist. In a moment of indiscretion, He had granted the demon Bhasmasura the boon to reduce to ashes, whosoever's head, the asura touched. Matters came to a head when Bhasmasura wanted to test the efficacy of the boon by touching Lord Shiva's head! Shiva was on the run. It required the guiles of Mohini,Vishnu's enchanting form to extricate Shiva from the crisis.
Taking a cue from Bollywood, Mohini engaged Bhasmasura in some mindless dance sequences. Bhasmasura was a copy-cat and smitten by Mohini's form, aped every pose and step. At one point, Mohini touched her head; so did the asura who had fallen head over heels. In doing so, much to Shiva's relief, he brought about his own doom.
Cats have reason to be miffed that humans have sullied their name when it comes to copying. Nothing can be farther from truth, the cats mew. After all, cats are curious and curiosity even killed one cat. Isn't curiosity the seed of originality, of invention? The curious never copy. In fact, it is the humans who strut around on cat-walks and copy each other in dress and step.
We're told that there are 64 art forms. Surely, "copying" has to be the Queen of Fine Arts. Students devised ingenious methods when it came to copying- always a step ahead of the invigilators in this perennial cat and mouse game!
The formulae would be scrawled in the smallest possible font on the "examination pad"- with a picture of Lord Hanuman to cover the crime.
Sometimes, they wrote out lengthy answers on reams of paper and neatly tucked the papers underneath their full-sleeve cuff. Once the invigilator was out of sight, the paper would be pulled out, perused and placed back ever so deftly!
At times, the notes would be stuffed into the socks or even the shoes. The modus operandi was simple, yet effective. Drop the compass box below the desk- get down to pick up the scattered contents, refer to the notes, rise up.. to write more. Some students were forever dropping something or the other- at times the pencil or the pen or the eraser and simply taking too long to pick up the contents!
Another common method was to slowly creep very close to the partner so that the two soon sat like siamese twins..... or surreptitiously glance at the paper ahead of you. Teachers did their best. They warned students- "Sridhar! Your eyes are shifty!" or they made students of different classes sit next to each other or in adjoining rows; but never quite matched the originality of the students.
The little devils timed their toilet visits with their pals. Once in the loo, they would discuss the answers and get back to their seats as saintly as ever. Suspicions were aroused when students suddenly wanted to go to the loo more often, at the stroke of the hour and always in pairs. Soon, the toilets required a sentry as well, but by then, the students moved onto other ideas, leaving the sentinel marooned in the smelly toilets!
Multiple choice question papers offered greatest scope for copying. All that was required was an oral recitation- 1-A, 2-B, 3-D etc. The method was error prone though. B and D sounded alike when whispered. Also, several such recitations went around the examination hall, rendering it difficult to latch on to the correct frequency. Some students got the entire paper wrong. They had carefully recorded their benefactors answers, only got the sections completely wrong! It was tough for them.
"Got you! Trying to be over smart, kyoon? Come to the Principal.. At once! Out!" thundered "Pandey sir" as he caught Valentino red-handed with the sheets of handwritten notes right in the examination hall. We felt sorry for Valentino as he was pulled by his ears and roughly marched to the Principal's office- a proverbial lamb for slaughter. The remainder of the story was filled in by Valentino himself much later, to a delighted audience!
Apparently, Pandey sir was exultant that he had finally nabbed the culprit with undeniable evidence to boot. "Father (Principal), this boy was shamelessly copying! Father, here are the papers where he has all the answers written down!" To his horror, Mr Pandey found that the papers were missing. Valentino had the papers just a moment ago, Mr Pandey swore, now they were gone- clean as a whistle! We were told Valentino was strip searched, but the papers were never recovered. Pandey sir shook Valentino violently and many times peered down his throat and even other orifices, but the case of the missing notes was never solved. Valentino had apparently gulped down five full-scapes of paper in a matter of seconds! The Principal now doubted Pandey sir's sanity and detained him in the room. Valentino was back in the examination hall... cool as a cucumber!
No comments:
Post a Comment