The teacher, the machine, and 3.7 billion answer sheets

I was in Grade 7 when a Sanskrit teacher asked me to help mark examination papers. It was 1996. I was at a government school in Patna under the state education board. Each grade had eight sections, and each section had at least 150 students. Mine had about 160.

I don’t recall why a friend and I were at the teacher’s house that afternoon, but when we arrived, he was marking term papers. The answer sheets were stacked in bundles on his desk, one per section, close to 30 in all. He handed us a bundle each and asked us to check the multiple-choice questions against his answer key. Mark right or wrong. Hand them back.