Ulta pulta
Caught red-handed
Jaspal Bhatti

Surprise checks are very risky. At times, they are more of an embarrassment to the checkers than the authorities under scrutiny. The Bihar School Examination Board Chairman was on one such tour to inspect various schools in his state. At Dumri High School, he asked a student, "Who built the Grand Trunk Road?" The student replied, "Shah Jahan!" The Congress and the RJD should be thankful that he didn’t say that the road was built by the previous BJP government.

The class VIII students of this very school had never heard of Jawaharlal Nehru. This should give some solace to Murli Manohar Joshi, if nothing else can.

I still remember in the good old days when surprise checks were made not only to gauge the academic standards, but also the hygienic conditions of the school. The Headmaster, with his great influence and the right connections, used to have a prior knowledge of these surprise raids. He would naturally strictly enforce a disciplined dress code and attendance for that day only. The nalayak students would be the privileged ones. They were often asked to be on leave to save the teachers and the school from any kind of embarrassment.

In one such class there were two such nalayak students – Gurdip Singh and Amrik Singh. They were popularly known as Deepa and Amrika. One day the word went around that the District Officer was going to be there in the school for a surprise check. The class teacher hurriedly asked Amrik to hide in the school toilet. In the chaos, the teacher forgot to give similar instructions to Deepa. When the Inspector entered the class, "Bachho, Amrika kithe hai?" (Where is America?), Deepa quickly raised his hand and answered, "Sir, everyone in the class knows he is hiding in the school toilet!"

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