Whether it’s participating in dumb, dangerous challenges that leave them injured, or getting suspended from their jobs over viral videos of them lip-syncing to the tune of some sad Bollywood song, people do a lot of stupid shit on TikTok that comes back to bite them in the ass. But one 16-year-old student’s glorious goof-up shows just how far people are willing to go to get their hands on some unconventional content. This teenager from the city of Malda in West Bengal decided to take pictures of his Grade 10 final exam question paper (the holy grail of exams if you ask Indian parents) the minute he got his hands on it, and put it up on TikTok. These papers are treated on the level of an FBI secret, arriving to teachers in sealed envelopes.
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The TikTok teen in question took three photos of the question paper, jazzed it up with those cringey effects, and even some good old Bollywood music to turn his question paper into content—basically orchestrating a leak that could be accessed by all students taking this exam.Now, he’s left everyone, from school authorities to parents, in a befuddled state. Everyone’s pretty pissed off about how a student was allowed to sneak in a phone during this super secret state-run test, even though every student in the Indian education system knows how easy it actually is (waddup, deep jacket pockets). The student has now not only been expelled from his school but also been booked by the police for his fuck-up, with the West Bengal Board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly vowing that there would be a meeting "to discuss attempts to create confusion during the exams and discredit the board and the state government.” And like the average Indian leader trying to control a situation from spinning out, authorities have even suspended the internet in the areas around these schools.
Still, at least what the poor chap did was better than an Uttar Pradesh school principal encouraging students to put Rs 100 in their answer papers so teachers could give them marks even if their answers were wrong. And if you think about it, it’s actually pretty commendable that this kid managed to not only take pictures but also edit them elaborately and post it online without getting caught till the deed was done. If there’s a lesson that school syllabus won’t teach you, it’s that if you’re going to break the rules, and especially if you’re going to share them on social media, just create anonymous, untraceable accounts maybe.Follow Shamani Joshi on Instagram.