Mother:Why did you get such low marks? Son: Because of absence. Mother: You mean you were absent on the day of the test? Son: No, but the kid who sits next to me was. Teacher: Well, there’s one thing I can say about your son. Father: What? Teacher: With grades like these, he couldn’t be cheating

It’s fine to resort to cheating once in a while, says Neelam Agarwal, a second-year economics student of Ranchi. Her argument is simple. “How does one expect an average student to remember all formulae and data and also apply them correctly at the same time,” she wonders.

She says it with the same innocence one found in a group of boys one met in Uttar Pradesh, who proudly huddled under a tree and took excited turns to narrate how they cheated.

“One doesn’t have to think of unique techniques. The school fixes the deal for us. We just pay an amount and we get the level of degree we want,” grinned one of them. When asked: “What about guilt?” the response was what’s guilt got to do with it. Now, that sounded scary. While the students one got talking to in Jharkhand didn’t report such mass scale cheating, they had mind-boggling tales of their own. Most importantly, they declared, it’s hardly a hush-hush affair.

Adnan Naseem, a former student in Ranchi, takes great pride in discussing the ways he went about it. “We would meet in the washroom to share notes,” he laughs as he recalls how during the exam most of them would keep nervously glancing at their watches, afraid they might miss the appointment time.

Pagers, mobiles, chits hidden in socks, even the duppatta ends, all were openly flaunted as cheating tools. “We are a hi-tech generation and know of ways these old professors cannot even make out,” sniggered a student in Jamshedpur, reacting to comments of authorities that instances of cheating had come down.

One of their hi-tech tools is the mobile. Last year, a squad from Ranchi University visited Jamshedpur Workers’ College and seized about eight mobile phones from students. When asked, each gave a smart answer:“We brought the cellphones to know the cricket scores.” College authorities admit hi-tech gadgets are a menace. “Students are smart and they hide it within their clothes and there is no way we can catch them,” admitted S.S. Razi, principal of Jamshedpur Workers’ College. Hi-tech tools are in doesn’t mean that old and time tested methods like handkerchiefs and paper chits are passe. “Handkerchiefs and paper chits are common even now. But the best way is to write it within the folds of the duppatta and salwar,” giggled Aditi, a student in Jamshedpur. Suruchi Sharma, a student from Ranchi, agrees. The toilet walls, of course, still remain the popular choice. In fact, some colleges have now taken to appointing two peons at the toilet entrance.

The widespread stories notwithstanding, many feel they are exaggerated versions, something students resort to only to show off. “Today, students are serious about their studies and career and do not want to take a risk,” said Mudita Chandra, a Hindi teacher in Jamshedpur Women’s College. Razi believes it’s much higher in places like Ranchi, Daltangonj and other rural parts of Jharkhand than in Jamshedpur. But if one is to go by what Ashutosh Roy, a faculty at St Xavier’s College, Ranchi has to say, it doesn’t seem so. “In the many years of my teaching in the college, I haven’t seen students use any blatant methods to cheat,” he says.

But just as one thinks that the cheating scene must be rather mild in the state, Vikram Kumar, a student of commerce, quietly whispers that it’s not as if they have never booked halls. Booked a hall means bribing the invigilator to let all the students have their way...and get away with it, too.

What the blog revealed to our survey to the question if they would report anyone they caught cheating...

Yes. It is our moral obligation to help one another, and correcting their mistakes is one way where we can be of service to them...
Make your grade, sweetie, and don’t be distracted by someone else’s wrong doing. They will probably copy the wrong answer!
No, because it’s the teachers duty to do so...
I was sitting next to a cheater and rather than telling the teacher, I wished he would share with me...his findings!