DU professors say marks ke liye students kuchh bhi kahega

It’s that time of the year when students are rushing to meet the deadline to submit assignments for internal assessment process.

In Delhi University (DU), out of the 25% marks kept aside for the tests and assignments, 5% is reserved for attendance, which plays a crucial role in deciding the fate of the students and their final per centages. However, it’s the teachers who have a tough time dealing with faces they haven’t seen in classes during the entire semester and beg for marks. Creativity runs wild when the students, in a desperate attempt to explain their absence in the lectures, come up with funny and hatke excuses. Some professors share with us the most ridiculous excuses they have heard:

SISTER RAN AWAY FROM HER SHAADI

“A girl didn’t show up for an important test. When she came back to college after a week, she said her sister had run away from the mandap, and all this time she was searching for the runaway bride with her family,” laughs Saguna Puri, history professor at Ramjas College. But did the student get marks? “The excuse just didn’t stand any chance, but I lauded the creativity,” says Puri.

AAG LAGE LAG JAAVE

“Students go to great lengths to not do assignments and take tests. Crazy ones break their hands on purpose. Some even say that their room caught fire and the assignment they were working on got burnt”, says Amrapali Basumatry, professor of English at Kirori Mal College (KMC).

SOMEONE WAS ILL, SOMEONE DIED

And of course, there’s the quintessential ‘bimaari ka bahana’. “A girl short on the required attendance told me her mother had been unwell. Out of concern, I enquired what happened to the mother. Clearly not expecting me to ask this, she thought hard for 5 minutes, and still couldn’t tell me. I asked her to take some more time and come up with an illness. An hour later she said it was a blood pressure problem,” recalls Shweta Sachdeva, professor of English at Miranda House.

Abhay Kumar, who has been teaching Political Science at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) for almost 10 years now, says, “The competition is pretty tough in our college. So normally such a scramble never takes place. But some daredevils say that their relative(s) died, when the poor soul/s in question, is/are in fact, alive, fit and healthy!”

SHAADI or CHIKUNGUNYA - SAME THING?

“A student I never saw in class said that he was suffering from chikungunya. However, I later came to know that he had got married and wanted to spend time with this wife rather than come to college,” says Gagan a professor at Ramjas College.

COURSE HI DECIDE NAHI KIYA

Sanjay Kumar, associate professor of English at Hansraj College says, “We expect that sensible excuses toh denge college students. But no! A student once came up to me and begged for attendance marks. Upon asking the reason why he didn’t attend a single lecture throughout the semester, he said that he wasn’t sure about the course... Till 10 days before the exams!”.