Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Nerdville

My boss has been away for umra for the past two weeks. A day before he left, he called me up and told me that this new kid would be coming in to teach SAT/GRE/GMAT. 'At the moment, he's being trained for both Math and English, so please help him out with anything related to English. He's very bright,' Boss vouched. 'He was a student with us last year and scored a 2300 something in his SAT. AND he's topped the IBA test this year.'

Any new addition to the prep center's staff is always looked forward to, and a smarty-pants would be all the more interesting. But when I finally met the alleged the IBA test topper, it turned out to be totally unclimactic.

I was sitting in the reception area talking to Sohaib (another teacher and one of my seniors at university) when Smarty-Pants strolled in.

Sohaib had just been praising him 'Yaar he has a great SAT score too.' I rolled my eyes inwardly- coming from KGS, SAT scores fail to astound me anymore. 'Hey, what was your score in the IBA test?'

Smarty-Pants adjusted his askew glasses. 'Um, I got a 345 out of 400,' he muttered in an embarassed tone.

I looked on impassively, unaffected. I mean hello, I've never even bothered to ask about my IBA test score in the past three years.

'So? That's good!' Sohaib chirped, noticing how downcast he looked.

'Not really,' mumbled Smarty-Pants, shifting from one foot to another. 'I could've gotten a better score, it's just that the Math section was really tough.'

Sohaib cocked an eyebrow. 'Dude, you topped the test. What else do you want?'

His tone immediately got Smarty-Pants all flustered. 'No, I just meant that it could've been better,' he finished lamely.

That very instant, Smarty-Pants' past and future flashed before my eyes. I saw him getting mini awards for coming first in primary school, mugging up stuff from exercise books and crying if he didn't get a full on a test. Getting a world distinction in Add Maths and cursing himself for not getting them in a couple of other subjects as well. I envisioned him having a heart attack on getting a GPA of 3.99 in his first semester at IBA.

What a wimp.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aww. Bechara. I feel sorry for him. :P

-Amal.

Anonymous said...

You're not in the marketing department for Anees Hussain by any chance are you? =P

Mehtaz Sultan Khan said...

I was like that back in school.. a long time ago :(

Bilal Saeed said...

he's an acha bacha :P

S.Sohaib Hassan said...

hahah=D maryam, i din know u were that impressed by d convo we were havin that u took out time to write bot it =P i know u din hav a good sat score or din do well in d iba test, buh he did..really good! so jus let him brag bot it around a lil =P

Maryam said...

Sohaib, I do have a decent SAT score, so too bad :P The emphasis in this post is not on his achievements (he wasn't bragging) but the fact that he was so fussy about them. Seems like this is the first time you've met someone like that :P

Maryam said...

@ Bilal: I don't think he's a bad kid, just thought it was odd of him to say so.


@Anonymous: No,do you see 'Samosa Freak is brought to you by Anees Hussain'? anywhere? I don't think so :P

Faizan Yousuf said...

hahahaha these are precisely the type of people that motivate me NOT to study =D

Maryam said...

Haha, nahin, Mashallah his achievements are really commendable. It's just that one shouldn't be obsessed about things like these.

Anonymous said...

MK, I went to high school with a GRADE FULL of these kind of people. They would argue with the teacher for one point. REALLY?? I get your point. It's annoying, and they should just be thankful for the grades they got.

Maryam said...

Roxie: I can so relate! I have to bear a number of these people at university, and half the time I can't decide between killing myself or them :S