Friday, June 27, 2008

The Woman Who Picked Me Up: Part Two

This is a continuation of the first part which you could find by clicking here. Trust me, you don't want to read this until you read part one or it will ruin everything for you.

In the last post I stopped at when the woman shuts the door behind me so here is how it continues: The woman shuts the door behind me and I was a bit intimidated to be honest but before I know it, this woman brings me some papers and asks me if I could help her. I looked at the papers and it turned out to be a question sheet, the same exam which I've just came out from.
I asked her to clarify and she asked if I knew how to answer these questions, I said "yes, I do". So she started going question by question asking me for the correct answers to them and for every question that I've answered she goes to that man and give him the answers when he was also giving those answers to someone on the phone.
I asked that woman, "Is that your daughter on the phone that he is helping?". I knew that if they were helping someone, it would be have most probably been a girl since they could easily cover up while guys can't because of our clothing. The woman seemed embarrassed and said, "yes, it is. Don't embarrass me" with shame all over her face.
I later found out the the woman and the man were both the mother and father of the daughter who they were helping cheat the exam and in my part, I was giving them all the answers even those long article answers. I don't know if I was in some kind of a shock but I felt very obligated to give all of the correct answers and felt like it was a challenge. After giving them all of it, they thanked me and the woman drove me back to school.

It isn't over yet. In our way back to school, the woman asks me, "are you good at the other subject?" and I told her that I am OK. Then she took my number and told me that she might be calling me for the other tests and again, I said, "OK" like an idiot.
The test was the day after and at the very same day at about 12am, the woman calls me again and asks me if I am ready for the exam. I told her that I kinda am but not totally ready though. She said, "no problem, if I get the answers, I will send them to you via SMS but after you come out of the hall, call me so that I can come pick you up again so that you could help me".
That's when I thought to myself, what the hell did I get myself into?! Luckily, the exam was way too easy that the woman got the answers from somebody else so she didn't bother me on that day.

And as the days passed by when we had no exams for some time, I thought that the woman forgot about me but I was wrong. One day before an exam, she calls again and asks me if I am ready for it. And guess what! I said I am.
After the exam was done, she started calling me but I ignored her calls but she still kept on calling so I thought I would just send her some of the answers via SMS and luckily, that stopped her from calling.
I talked to her the day after and told her that I am not very good in all of the other upcoming exams and told her not to count on me. I thought that it was the best way to get her off my back.

It worked, she didn't call me to ask for any help but something even worse happened. At one night, about 11pm, the woman called me and just asked me how are my exams going. I said it was OK and all. I thought she was going to ask me for a favor or something but she didn't! that freaked me out. All she did was talk to me. And we talked and talked for about 45 minutes. Well, she did all the talking and I did all the agreeing just waiting for her to hang up. She started talking to me about her children, about how she was when she was younger and some other stuff I can't remember.
After she hanged up, I kinda felt bad for her. Maybe her husband and children don't listen to her because based on what I saw the other day, her husband was shutting her up pretty often and he tended to yell. So, I did feel bad for her but don't get me wrong, I didn't wanna talk to her again. I mean, first of all, it is so wrong in many levels and second of all, she was so boring.

But guess what, she calls again the very next day just to chitchat again. It went on and on until I told her that I need to go to bed. Then I added, "I will be traveling tomorrow with my family to Dubai so you won't be able to get me. Bubye!" and hanged up.
She didn't call since and I am happy that she didn't. I mean come on, the only decent thing that she could have done was at least introduce me to her daughter whom I helped, right?

Anyway, that was my weird story. There are a couple of thing that I learned from it myself:
1) Cheating is a very common thing here in high school exams especially with female students since they are all covered up and could easily wear an ear piece without getting caught.
2) Many parents here don't bother about the values that they teach their kids as long as they graduate and pass their tests. I am saying this not only based on this incident, I heard about things like this happening a lot before but never had it happen to me until now.
3) This is a bad indicator of what's to come in the near future. We need people who are qualified academically and with good values. If cheating is the way to success then can you imagine how things would get in a work place?
4) Never get in a car with woman who looks 40-ish!!

8 comments:

Amjad June 27, 2008 10:21 PM  

4) Never get in a car with woman who looks 40-ish!!

Rather .. never get in a car with ANYONE. Whether an 18 years old girl, or a 60+ years old woman!

I think the whole idea of going with her was wrong in the first place, since she is a stranger. If she was someone I know or someone I know knows her, that's a different story. But from the beginning, she was not asking you personally for the help/favor. She just asked the group, and I think the whole group should have just ignored her. It's not like you'll meet her again so she says "oh, this guy is mean, he didn't agree to get in the car with me the other day and help me".

BTW .. what if she's reading this post ?! :P hahahhaha

You're supposed to be in Dubai, aren't you? :P

Al-Maawali June 27, 2008 10:55 PM  

Well, ya but IT'S ME! Curious Abdullah, gotta know everything. I can't help it.

One of the guys was judging the husband and saying, "what kind of husband would let his wife go at schools looking for boys to bring home?!" and another guy replied, "would YOU or anyone els for that matter get in a car if a guy asks you to do so?". I know I wouldn't have!

I doubt she knows anything about Blogs or anything like that. Hell, I doubt she could even read English.

Abdullah Bader June 28, 2008 1:57 AM  

Man, curiosity killed the cat, you knw this. right! Iam surprised really. wasn't there anykind of second thoughts in you. you knew it was wrong but the curiosity level with you was too high that you continued and didn't apologize offering the favor from first time.

anyways, liked the post, in my days cheating was not this obvious. and yeah, nice post :)

Al-Maawali June 28, 2008 6:50 AM  

Abdullah: Well, I kinda did second think it but then again, like I said earlier, its me.
If you knew me in person, you wouldn't have been as surprised as you are right now. I am all about the experience and that's how I always have stories to tell :p

Kishor Cariappa June 28, 2008 4:39 PM  

Reading this post, the Ministry of Education will soon install mobile jammers around examination halls.

Al-Maawali June 28, 2008 4:54 PM  

I wouldn't be surprised if they do so.

Undercover Dragon June 29, 2008 10:05 AM  

Hey welcome back. Hope you're exams all turn out OK.

Great story. I hope she's not going to end up studying medicine or engineering... Something less critical, like marketing!

Al-Maawali June 29, 2008 10:18 AM  

Ow, I forgot to mention, the mother said that her daughter is not interested to attend college. So, that's a relief.

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