The Cheating Machine

         I was in class 5. My school didn't have many rich kids with it, neither in money nor in education. So, it was very easy to spot out those somewhat-richer kids, who atleast managed to wear ironed uniform clothes and those somewhat-brighter kids, who atleast managed to score 80+ in Mathematics. 

          Tony was of the first kind. But when it came to learning, he could never compete with me. Not because I studied better, but that the kid was not of my class. He was 2 years younger to me. Class 3, section 'B'. His thatched roof classroom was exactly opposite to mine. Tony's parents were abroad, and the kid grew up with his grandmother and sister. There were always talks about Tony and his new stationery things, those he brought everyday to school. Tony was the favourite to almost every teacher in the school. He was as cute as those kids who talk non-sense and get most likes in Facebook funny videos. He brought Magic slates, Multi-colour pens, Car-like sharpeners, Magic erasers, pencils that never get small, etc., to classroom. My friends and I watched the kid with great envy. Unlike the kids now, who learn A,B,C,D on their own iPads, we were the 90's kids who kept our jaws open when teacher showed Magnetic Alphabets getting stick to the iron board.

         That was the time when computers started getting into Indian homes. We didn't know much about Computers. To be more frank, we had never heard of that word. I am pretty sure neither my teachers heard of that word before. Tony was the kid from whom we learnt that word first. 

Computer! 

          We all started dreaming about how big that machine would be, how good would it be to have the machine with us, even though we had no idea about what a computer could do. And one day, Tony said that his father was getting him a computer for his next birthday. Not only he who was excited, it was the entire school (both teachers and students), who became very much excited to see that machine. I hardly remember any other word that I spoke with my parents at home those days, except "Computer". During break time, lunch intervals, travel time and even in that 2 minute-gap between two classes, we started talking about the machine that Tony would be getting in a week. There were a lot of rumours about the machine. Some of them were like:

         Computers can cook food for you, Computers can find whether you say truth or lie, Computers can produce a new thing if you draw and feed the picture into it (Shaka Laka Boom Boom effect), etc.

         And the day came. Tony took a week leave after his birthday. And everyone were waiting for the kid to come back to school. After a week leave, he came back to school with a colorful cartoon printed backpack, a hanging water bottle with attached drinking cup, a new magnetic pencil box, color pens and a multiple tip pencil in which tips are stacked one over others (Wow!), a square shaped Tiffin box, and a lot more. Even though we were seniors to the kid, we didn't feel ashamed to go to him and see all those things. Why should we, when our teachers were on the queue before us to see all those things? 

         And then Tony slowly started talking about the magical machine in his home, that he had got as birthday gift from his dad. Teachers, along with us, were around him listening to how good that machine was. When Tony said the machine would reply to us, if we talk to it, we were listening to him with mouth wide open. 

       Days rolled on with our excitement for seeing that computer growing up everyday, by the daily-rumours about it. And then this incident happened one day, all of a sudden. We could see from our class, Tony getting punished by his class teacher very severely. We were surprised, as the teacher would never beat him for his small mistakes. But that day, the teacher was very furious that he broke the cane while punishing him. If the school's apple kid gets punished, every teacher should gather and inquire about it - Unwritten law of my school. The same happened. Almost every teacher went into the class, asked the class teacher what had happened, then exclaimed, became furious, slapped Tony and left away. We were in a shock, mixed with some cruel happiness (that basic human character) inside. 

         After an hour we came to know the reason why everyone trashed Tony to the floor. The reason was a complete shocker: "Tony had asked his computer machine to do all his home work and the computer had done all his work for him, and hence he was punished on charges of forgery and cheating." When Tony claimed that computer can't do homework on its own, nobody was ready to believe him.

          I still remember the question that my class teacher asked his class teacher, "Ma'am, when the computer can cook food everyday, why can it not do his homework? And this handwriting is not of Tony's. This is very legible. That computer machine should have done it."

            It went on so... And till last, nobody accepted that he did those assignments. 

         Years rolled on.. And now, Tony works for Apple Inc. as a Strategy consultant, iOS Systems Team, California. Am sure, he would be thinking about all these stupid things and would be laughing. And yes, we are not still so under-developed, but we do have atleast the basic knowledge that computers don't cook food :)