When your professor’s ego > his syllabus

Being a second-year engineering student, I’ve got my system figured out. I’m carrying a solid ≈9 CGPA, and my approach to studying is simple why stress all semester when I can just power through the syllabus two weeks before exams? It’s never failed me. During regular classes, I pay attention if the lecture’s worth it, maybe note down a few things. If not, I read about things that actually interest me tech, coding, or a quick raid in Clash of Clans if the professor is... well, you know the type (word nhi aa rha dimag me).

But then there’s him the Applied Linear Algebra (ALA) professor. The man is an absolute asshole. He’s young, maybe 27 or 28, always in the same faded blue shirt and jeans, messed-up hair, and completely incapable of making the subject engaging. No one in class likes him. Last semester, he taught Probability and Statistics, and thanks to my decent performance, he remembered my name. The guy had this habit of blatantly favoring students who paid attention, giving them extra marks in front of everyone just to make the rest of the class feel inferior. I also got extra marks and attendance last semester but i never liked this partiality.

This semester, his teaching style failed to hold my interest. Four classes a week, each two hours long, with only a three-minute break if he felt generous. Two hours of nonstop, monotonous droning (pure torture arghh). I decided to attend just enough to meet the 75% attendance requirement. Quizzes? I cheated. Assignments? Copied. I didn’t feel guilty I knew I’d catch up before exams in no time. I had bugger things to do, I am a full stack developer.

And then last Thursday this happened.

At the end of class, he started taking attendance. When he reached my name, he marked me present for only one session instead of both saying i was not paying attention in class (1 hour + 1 hour class continuously = 2 attendances). After he was done, I pointed it out.

“Sir, but I attended both classes,” I said, confused.

Now, this wasn’t even the first time something like this had happened. Just the class before Thursday, I wasn’t present, but a whole different mess went down. While teaching, he was solving a problem on the board when a girl accidentally mentioned that the question was part of the homework. He overheard, turned around, and asked, "Who all have done the homework?"

Guess what? Not a single hand went up.

This guy had been giving homework all semester and never checking it. Now, realizing no one had done it, he was fuming. And as a punishment? He announced that no one would get attendance for the day except for two or three students he liked (who, by the way, also didn’t do the homework). That right there tolds everything you need to know about his character.

Now, back to Thursday.

My simple request for fair attendance hit his fragile ego like a truck. “So?” he snapped.

I kept my cool. “Sir, I need both attendances. I was here the whole time.”

Now he was pissed. His voice rose. “NAHI DUNGA, KYA KAR LOGE?”

I don’t know what got into me, but my mouth slipped before I could stop it, "NAHI AAUNG—" I started, but cut myself off.

He didn’t quite catch what I said, but he was already fuming. “CLASS KYU AATE HO?!” he shouted.

I answered honestly. “Attendance ke liye.”

That set him off. “Attendance ke liye aate ho? TOH MAT AANA AB MERI CLASS MEIN!” His voice echoed across the room. “Agar mere class me ghusna hai toh faculty advisor se likhwa kar aaoge!”

I nodded, unfazed. “No problem...”

This calm response only made him angrier. He slammed his stylus on the desk and called me to the board. “Solve this.”

I glanced at the question. Yeah, hell nah, I hadn’t paid attention to a single lecture. “Sir, I didn’t attend a few classes, so I don’t know how to solve this.”

He had nothing to counter that, so he tried a different attack. “Kyun aate ho class?”

I had already lost patience. “Attendance ke liye aata hoon, bataya toh. Minimum criteria hai exam me baithne ka.”

Frustrated, he wrote 40% on the board. “Exam me baithne ke liye itna attendance chahiye hota hai. Mai de dunga. Mat aao ab meri class!”

I shrugged. “75% pe 5 marks bhi toh milte hain.”

“Oh, fine. Mai de dunga 75 bhi.” He was practically fuming. “But if you want to come to my class, you’ll need a signed document from the faculty advisor every single time.”

And with that, he stormed out.

This all happened in front of the entire class. My legs were shaking, and yes gand to bohot fatt rhi thi, but I still stood my ground because i knew i am not the one wrong here. Pdhna nhi pdhna student ka choice hai wo class aaya hai kuch important chorr kar chahe wo sleep hi kyu na ho use attendance milna chahiye. And I wasn’t the only one; many others didn’t get attendance either, but no one said anything. But I’m not the kind of guy who sits silently when something wrong happens. So I had to speak up.

Now, I’m thinking of getting him to sign a written document in the next class confirming that he will give me attendance even if I don’t attend. I’m also planning to meet the faculty advisor and have a chat about this whole situation. The faculty advisor seems like a reasonable guy, so hopefully, he’ll support me in this.

I know he’ll fuck with my internals, but let it be, I don’t care about that. I’ll submit my assignments on time and study for quizzes, not giving him any excuse to mark me poorly. Plus, I’ll have proof of my assignments, so if needed, I can fight back.

If any of my classmates are reading this, please don’t dox me, don’t be a cunt, thanks.