I did my B Tech in Computer Science from 1990 to 1994.
Those were the days without backup power, and hostel life meant late-night studying.
We had a test on Monday, and we all thought of starting our preparation on Sunday.
But as usual, our day began late. By evening, we knew preparing was out of the question.
We all gathered and discussed “what to do next?”
One student shouted, “Postpone, Postpone.”
With great delight, many students joined.
It was around 7 o’clock in the evening when we decided that about 15-20 students would go to the professor’s house and try to get the exam postponed on the excuse of a power outage.
I was one of the representatives.
We went to the professor and told him there was no electricity, and we couldn’t study. After much pleading, the professor delayed the test for one day.
We came back dancing and had a party in the hostel, hailing “Ab kal dekhenge“.
Then came Monday, and we studied the entire day.
We studied so well that we believed we were ready for the test (we thought so).
But then arrived Tuesday, and with it, the test.
To our surprise, it only had two questions:
1) Your Name __________ (1 Point)
2) What time did the electricity come? __________ (99 Points)
The result, you can easily guess.
None of us gave a standard answer because there was no definitive answer.
We thought we’d outsmarted our professor, but he outplayed us all.
He said to us: “Sahi time, sahi jagah dimaag lagaya hota, to agle din ki mehnat bekaar nahin jaati.”
Moral: Procrastinate today, regret tomorrow.
