From "Spite" To "Together"

Being in college, you reach that supposedly independent state where gathering information on your own is as important as being in the good book of your teachers, both of which, supports your good marks and your college life.

And the competition?

Well, if that was a foreign word to you until then, leave that to your fellow mates to familiarise you with it.

It was the season of internal assessments and projects again, and by that time, we were already in the 2nd year of experience, by which, we had a good knowledge of our entire college campus, starting from the most happening place to the spookiest corners, our batchmates, from the toppers to the back benchers and of course, the professors, the different ranges of how strict they are while assessing our internals and deciding dates for our submission.

A good weathered day. The last period of the day. Classes of the strictest teacher.

Class ends. And he leaves us with the responsibility of completing a project, the dates of submission, which he probably forgot to mention.

Considering myself the type of student who would rather go personally to clear doubts and knowing the fact, that he, as a professor was not one of those who would give lavish amount of days for completion, I was curious if I had missed the detail of submission date and thought of asking him directly.

It was then that I was to know, that the next day itself was the last date, failing to which, would result in reduction of marks as usual, and that a few students were already informed about it.

Following the trend of "secret competition" I too decided to put on a false front and refused any information regarding the ongoing hot topic of the project, when actually, I also knew that it was not a morale thing to do.

While I was at a shilly shally state at that time, I was besotted by the fact that in this vying, why should I share something which I cared to ask, and that which a few refused to unveil too.

It was not an incorrigible habit on my part, just a reflex to the quote that "Help yourself before you help others" ,inspite of the dilemma that I was in.

But as the other saying goes " An eye for an eye, leaves the whole world blind" , I realised that the weightage of aiding others always outnumbers than that of forsaking them. Ascertained that I should be helping my mates out of this confusion, that day itself, I brought to the notice of the terms of the assignment and this, being practically impossible for us to complete within those 24 hours that we got, minus the hours we spent crying over it, we this time relied on our class strength and togetherness.

We planned to approach the teacher, all of us together, and tell him about how a little miscommunication happened and we missed the detail of submission and asked him if it's possible to postpone the dates. Looking much convinced, he agreed to us and it was a moment of high-fives as we left his room.

This little story, a little incident as it may sound, taught me a great deal that day. It revolved around how we students always have the tendency to spite others, but if we rise above that, we'll realize that, doing something together, as small as approaching a teacher to as big as moving a mountain, is always the best feeling!