Uncommon common sense!

Theirs' was a class of intelligent, selected boys. The school's admission tests ensured so. The school has a reputation built partly on that.

The Sanskrit teacher, in one of the weekly unit tests, asked them to translate an unknown Sanskrit verse into Hindi. It was a verse describing the great country of India. One of the guys, who never studied for exams, was in problem. Sanskrit wasn't one of his favorite subjects then. He couldn't get the meaning just by reading the words.

For those who know a bit of Sanskrit, a part of the verse said, 'हिमालयस्य दक्षिणतः'  Our poor hero was trumped by the Sanskrit text, couldn't make out the meaning but used his common sense and translated it as he thought appropriate.

The D-day came. The teacher distributed the answer sheets. this poor guy was trying to see where he had scored a few marks and lost many. Suddenly someone who liked to pick on him snatched his paper and pushed him towards the teacher. Saying that now it was his turn to get his marks reduced. This guy was terrified. His score wasn't much to write home about in the first place. A further reduction would be disastrous. He had no option though. The teacher got his paper and read the translation he had written. A miracle happened. 'He's got it right!', she exclaimed and sent him back to his place.

She then asked our poor hero to read out his answer to the entire class and everybody was asked to take it down. To his utter surprise, everybody else, including the Sanskrit scholars in the class had written statements to the effect that the 'Himalayas are to the south of India.'